Resource exhaustion in Dovecot

CVE-2026-27857

Sending "NOOP (((...)))" command with 4000 parenthesis open+close results in ~1MB extra memory usage. Longer commands will result in client disconnection. This 1 MB can be left allocated for longer time periods by not sending the command ending LF. So attacker could connect possibly from even a single IP and create 1000 connections to allocate 1 GB of memory, which would likely result in reaching VSZ limit and killing the process and its other proxied connections. Attacker could connect possibly from even a single IP and create 1000 connections to allocate 1 GB of memory, which would likely result in reaching VSZ limit and killing the process and its other proxied connections. Install fixed version, there is no other remediation. No publicly available exploits are known.

Vulnerability class: DoS (Denial of Service)

EPSS: 0.007 (49.5th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 4.3 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L.

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-27857?
CVE-2026-27857 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Dovecot, classified under Uncontrolled Resource Consumption. CVSS score: 4.3/10. Published 2026-03-27.
How severe is CVE-2026-27857?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 4.3 out of 10.