CVE-2024-23184
Dovecot Email Processing Resource Exhaustion Vulnerability
Description
Having a large number of address headers (From, To, Cc, Bcc, etc.) becomes excessively CPU intensive. With 100k header lines CPU usage is already 12 seconds, and in a production environment we observed 500k header lines taking 18 minutes to parse. Since this can be triggered by external actors sending emails to a victim, this is a security issue. An external attacker can send specially crafted messages that consume target system resources and cause outage. One can implement restrictions on address headers on MTA component preceding Dovecot. No publicly available exploits are known.
INFO
Published Date :
Sept. 10, 2024, 3:15 p.m.
Last Modified :
June 17, 2026, 7:12 a.m.
Remotely Exploit :
Yes !
Source :
[email protected]
Affected Products
The following products are affected by CVE-2024-23184
vulnerability.
Even if cvefeed.io is aware of the exact versions of the
products
that
are
affected, the information is not represented in the table below.
No affected product recoded yet
CVSS Scores
| Score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability Score | Impact Score | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVSS | 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0 | |||||
| CVSS 3.1 | MEDIUM | [email protected] |
Solution
- Update the affected packages.
- Upgrade the dovecot and dovecot-auth-lua packages.
Public PoC/Exploit Available at Github
CVE-2024-23184 has a 1 public
PoC/Exploit available at Github.
Go to the Public Exploits tab to see the list.
References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools
Here, you will find a curated list of external links that provide in-depth
information, practical solutions, and valuable tools related to
CVE-2024-23184.
CWE - Common Weakness Enumeration
While CVE identifies
specific instances of vulnerabilities, CWE categorizes the common flaws or
weaknesses that can lead to vulnerabilities. CVE-2024-23184 is
associated with the following CWEs:
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification
(CAPEC)
stores attack patterns, which are descriptions of the common attributes and
approaches employed by adversaries to exploit the CVE-2024-23184
weaknesses.
We scan GitHub repositories to detect new proof-of-concept exploits. Following list is a collection of public exploits and proof-of-concepts, which have been published on GitHub (sorted by the most recently updated).
AI-Powered Intelligent Fuzzing Platform for Email Protocols (IMAP / POP3 / SMTP)
Dockerfile Python Makefile C Shell Batchfile HTML JavaScript Vue CSS
Results are limited to the first 15 repositories due to potential performance issues.
The following list is the news that have been mention
CVE-2024-23184 vulnerability anywhere in the article.
-
seclists.org
CVE-2024-23184: Having a large number of address headers (From, To, Cc, Bcc, etc.) becomes excessively CPU intensive
Full Disclosure mailing list archives From: Aki Tuomi via Fulldisclosure <fulldisclosure () seclists org> Date: Wed, 14 Aug 2024 14:13:42 +0300 (EEST) Affected product: Dovecot IMAP Server Internal re ... Read more
The following table lists the changes that have been made to the
CVE-2024-23184 vulnerability over time.
Vulnerability history details can be useful for understanding the evolution of a vulnerability, and for identifying the most recent changes that may impact the vulnerability's severity, exploitability, or other characteristics.
-
CVE Modified by [email protected]
Jun. 17, 2026
Action Type Old Value New Value Added Affected [{'vendor': 'Open-Xchange GmbH', 'modules': ['core'], 'product': 'OX Dovecot Pro', 'versions': [{'status': 'affected', 'version': '0', 'versionType': 'semver', 'lessThanOrEqual': '2.3.21'}], 'defaultStatus': 'unaffected'}] -
CVE Modified by 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
Jun. 17, 2026
Action Type Old Value New Value Added SSVC {'id': 'CVE-2024-23184', 'role': 'CISA Coordinator', 'options': [{'exploitation': 'none'}, {'automatable': 'no'}, {'technicalImpact': 'partial'}], 'version': '2.0.3', 'timestamp': '2024-09-10T15:33:58.049882Z'} -
CVE Modified by af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108
Nov. 04, 2025
Action Type Old Value New Value Added Reference https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2024/09/msg00002.html -
CVE Modified by af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108
Nov. 21, 2024
Action Type Old Value New Value Added Reference http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2024/Aug/17 Added Reference http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/08/15/3 -
CVE Received by [email protected]
Sep. 10, 2024
Action Type Old Value New Value Added Description Having a large number of address headers (From, To, Cc, Bcc, etc.) becomes excessively CPU intensive. With 100k header lines CPU usage is already 12 seconds, and in a production environment we observed 500k header lines taking 18 minutes to parse. Since this can be triggered by external actors sending emails to a victim, this is a security issue. An external attacker can send specially crafted messages that consume target system resources and cause outage. One can implement restrictions on address headers on MTA component preceding Dovecot. No publicly available exploits are known. Added Reference Open-Xchange https://documentation.open-xchange.com/dovecot/security/advisories/csaf/2024/oxdc-adv-2024-0002.json [No types assigned] Added CWE Open-Xchange CWE-770 Added CVSS V3.1 Open-Xchange AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:N