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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.3

CVE-2026-0394 json

When dovecot has been configured to use per-domain passwd files, and they are placed one path component above /etc, or slash has been added…

published 2026-03-27 7 mo ago modified 2026-10-26 13 d ago also EUVD-2026-16559

cvss
5.3
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.4%
EPSS 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 38%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

When dovecot has been configured to use per-domain passwd files, and they are placed one path component above /etc, or slash has been added to allowed characters, path traversal can happen if the domain component is directory partial. This allows inadvertently reading /etc/passwd (or some other path which ends with passwd). If this file contains passwords, it can be used to authenticate wrongly, or if this is userdb, it can unexpectly make system users appear valid users. Upgrade to fixed version, or use different authentication scheme that does not rely on paths. Alternatively you can also ensure that the per-domain passwd files are in some other location, such as /etc/dovecot/auth/%d. No publicly available exploits are known.

Patch / fix

  • dovecot dovecot 2.4.0, 3.1.0
  • open-xchange dovecot 2.4.0, 3.1.0
  • dovecot Debian 12 1:2.3.19.1+dfsg1-2.1+deb12u2
  • dovecot Debian 14, Debian 13 1:2.4.1+dfsg1-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-0394

  • dovecot Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 1:2.3.16+dfsg1-3ubuntu2.7
  • dovecot Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 1:2.3.21+dfsg1-2ubuntu6.3

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-0394

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

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-2026-0394 updated cvss 5.3

dovecot: Dovecot: Information disclosure and authentication bypass via path traversal

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 dovecot, dovecot-mysql, dovecot-pgsql, dovecot-pigeonhole
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 dovecot, dovecot-mysql, dovecot-pgsql, dovecot-pigeonhole
    affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 dovecot, dovecot-mysql, dovecot-pgsql, dovecot-pigeonhole Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 dovecot, dovecot-mysql, dovecot-pgsql, dovecot-pigeonhole Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 dovecot
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

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

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
yes
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
7 mo ago

Exploit prediction

0.43% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 38% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 5.3 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N

Affected products

  • Open-Xchange GmbH OX Dovecot Pro

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-22 Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory

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.

CPEs and fixed versions use Anchore's correction of NVD's data: Added CPE configurations because not yet analyzed by NVD.