The message parsing feature in Dovecot 1.1.4 and 1.1.5, when using the FETCH ENVELOPE command in the IMAP client, allows remote attackers t…

published 2008-11-04 18 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also EUVD-2008-4886

cvss: 4.3; version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 6.2%; EPSS 6.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 93%
public exploits: 1; Exploit-DB

The message parsing feature in Dovecot 1.1.4 and 1.1.5, when using the FETCH ENVELOPE command in the IMAP client, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (persistent crash) via an email with a malformed From address, which triggers an assertion error, aka "invalid message address parsing bug."

Patch / fix

distros 1 links 2

dovecot Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 1:1.1.7-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2008-4907

securityfocus.com/bid/31997 patch
secunia.com/advisories/32479 advisory

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-2008-4907 updated 2025-11-21

dovecot: per-user DoS via message with malformed headers

Red Hat All currently supported Red Hat products
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

Timeline

2008-10-30 First public exploit (EDB-32551)
2008-11-04 Published

Exploit prediction

6.20% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 93% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

EDB-32551 Dovecot 1.1.x - Invalid Message Address Parsing Denial of Service dos, 2008-10-30

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
NVD	2.0	4.3	AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

Classification

Weakness

CWE-20 Improper Input Validation

References

securityfocus.com /bid/31997
vdb-entry, patch
secunia.com /advisories/32479
third-party-advisory, patch, vendor-advisory
ubuntu.com /usn/usn-666-1
vendor-advisory
security.gentoo.org /glsa/glsa-200812-16.xml
vendor-advisory
dovecot.org /list/dovecot-news/2008-October/000089.html
mailing-list
secunia.com /advisories/33149
third-party-advisory
exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com /vulnerabilities/46227
vdb-entry
secunia.com /advisories/32677
third-party-advisory

Sources

CVE List CVE-2008-4907
NVD CVE-2008-4907

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.

Summary