CVE-2026-40014

Name	CVE-2026-40014
Description	An attacker that can send mail to a user can craft a message header that makes the IMAP THREAD command consume CPU disproportionate to the size of the message. When a mail client issues a THREAD command on the affected mailbox, this can cause degradation or denial of service for IMAP. Monitor system for abnormal CPU usage, kill the offending process and remove the offending message from the affected mailbox. Update to non-vulnerable version. No publicly available exploits are known.
Source	CVE (at NVD; CERT, ENISA, LWN, oss-sec, fulldisc, Debian ELTS, Red Hat, Ubuntu, Gentoo, SUSE bugzilla/CVE, GitHub advisories/code/issues, web search, more)
Debian Bugs	1146018

Vulnerable and fixed packages

The table below lists information on source packages.

Source Package	Release	Version	Status
dovecot (PTS)	bookworm, bookworm (security)	1:2.3.19.1+dfsg1-2.1+deb12u6	vulnerable
	trixie (security), trixie	1:2.4.1+dfsg1-6+deb13u6	vulnerable
	forky, sid	1:2.4.5+dfsg1-2	fixed

The information below is based on the following data on fixed versions.

Package	Type	Release	Fixed Version	Urgency	Origin	Debian Bugs
dovecot	source	(unstable)	1:2.4.5+dfsg1-1			1146018

Notes

https://documentation.open-xchange.com/dovecot/security/advisories/html/2026/oxdc-adv-2026-0003.html#cve-2026-40014-imap-thread-references-o-n2-cpu-dos-via-crafted-references-header-index-thread-links-c