Skip to content
Fencer Vulns
high 7.7

CVE-2019-3814 json

It was discovered that Dovecot before versions 2.2.36.1 and 2.3.4.1 incorrectly handled client certificates.

published 2019-03-27 7 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2019-13437

cvss
7.7
version 3.0, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
2.4%
EPSS 2.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 84%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

It was discovered that Dovecot before versions 2.2.36.1 and 2.3.4.1 incorrectly handled client certificates. A remote attacker in possession of a valid certificate with an empty username field could possibly use this issue to impersonate other users.

Patch / fix

  • dovecot dovecot 2.2.36.1, 2.3.4.1
  • dovecot Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 1:2.3.4.1-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2019-3814

  • dovecot Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 1:2.2.9-1ubuntu2.5
  • dovecot Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 1:2.2.22-1ubuntu2.9
  • dovecot Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 1:2.2.33.2-1ubuntu4.2

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2019-3814

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • dovecot RHEL 7 1:2.2.36-6.el7
  • dovecot-mysql RHEL 7 1:2.2.36-6.el7
  • dovecot-pgsql RHEL 7 1:2.2.36-6.el7
  • dovecot-pigeonhole RHEL 7 1:2.2.36-6.el7
  • dovecot RHEL 8 1:2.2.36-10.el8
  • dovecot-mysql RHEL 8 1:2.2.36-10.el8
  • dovecot-pgsql RHEL 8 1:2.2.36-10.el8
  • dovecot-pigeonhole RHEL 8 1:2.2.36-10.el8

red hat advisories RHSA-2020:1062RHSA-2019:3467

  • dovecot22 SLES for SAP 12 SP4, SLES for SAP 12 SP3, SLES for SAP 12 SP2 +11 more 2.2.31-19.14.2
  • dovecot23 SLE Module for Server Applications 15 2.3.3-4.7.4

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2019:0900-1SUSE-SU-2019:0414-1

  • dovecot24 openSUSE Tumbleweed 2.4.0-1.1
  • dovecot23 openSUSE Tumbleweed 2.3.16-1.6

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2025:14715-1openSUSE-SU-2024:10726-1

  • dovecot Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +14 more 2.3.4.1-r0
  • dovecot Alpine 3.7, Alpine 3.6 2.2.36.1-r0

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2019-3814

Alpine secdb © Alpine Linux, from https://secdb.alpinelinux.org via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • dovecot Arch Linux 2.3.4.1-1

arch linux advisories AVG-872

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2019-3814 updated cvss 7.7

dovecot: Improper certificate validation

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 dovecot Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 dovecot, dovecot-mysql, dovecot-pgsql, dovecot-pigeonhole
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 8) dovecot 2.2.36-10.el8 Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) dovecot 2.2.36-10.el8, dovecot-mysql 2.2.36-10.el8, dovecot-pgsql 2.2.36-10.el8, dovecot-pigeonhole 2.2.36-10.el8
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:3467
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) dovecot 2.2.36-6.el7, dovecot-mysql 2.2.36-6.el7, dovecot-pgsql 2.2.36-6.el7, dovecot-pigeonhole 2.2.36-6.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) dovecot-devel 2.2.36-6.el7, dovecot-debuginfo 2.2.36-6.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) dovecot 2.2.36-6.el7, dovecot-mysql 2.2.36-6.el7, dovecot-pgsql 2.2.36-6.el7, dovecot-pigeonhole 2.2.36-6.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) dovecot-devel 2.2.36-6.el7, dovecot-debuginfo 2.2.36-6.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:1062

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

2.42% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 84% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • dovecot.org https://www.dovecot.org/list/dovecot/2019-February/114575.html referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.0 7.7 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N
NVD 3.0 6.8 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
NVD 2.0 4.9 AV:N/AC:M/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:N

Affected products

  • dovecot dovecot

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-295 Improper Certificate Validation

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.