CVE-2017-2669
Dovecot before version 2.2.29 is vulnerable to a denial of service.
Does this matter?
High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (4.46%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit.
Description
Dovecot before version 2.2.29 is vulnerable to a denial of service. When 'dict' passdb and userdb were used for user authentication, the username sent by the IMAP/POP3 client was sent through var_expand() to perform %variable expansion. Sending specially crafted %variable fields could result in excessive memory usage causing the process to crash (and restart), or excessive CPU usage causing all authentications to hang.
- CVSS 3.0
- 7.5 HIGHCVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- EPSS
- 4.46% probability · 91th percentile
- Public exploits
- None in Exploit-DB
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-20
- Affected
- dovecot/dovecot · debian/debian linux
- Source
- secalert@redhat.com
EPSS 4.5% since 27 October 2026; no change recorded yet. Points are recorded when the score first appears and whenever it moves by a percentage point or more.
References
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2017/04/11/1Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/97536Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2017-2669Issue Tracking, Third Party Advisory
- https://dovecot.org/pipermail/dovecot-news/2017-April/000341.htmlVendor Advisory
- https://github.com/dovecot/core/commit/000030feb7a30f193197f1aab8a7b04a26b42735.patchThird Party Advisory
- https://www.debian.org/security/2017/dsa-3828Third Party Advisory
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2017/04/11/1Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/97536Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2017-2669Issue Tracking, Third Party Advisory
- https://dovecot.org/pipermail/dovecot-news/2017-April/000341.htmlVendor Advisory
- https://github.com/dovecot/core/commit/000030feb7a30f193197f1aab8a7b04a26b42735.patchThird Party Advisory
- https://www.debian.org/security/2017/dsa-3828Third Party Advisory
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA, exploits from Exploit-DB. Refreshed daily. Download this record as JSON.