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Fencer Intel
medium 4.3

CVE-2026-33263 json

When mail_max_userip_connections is set (default 10) and reached, submission-login can crash with epoll() panic caused by file descriptor h…

published 2mo ago modified 2mo ago also EUVD-2026-67658

cvss
4.3
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.6%
EPSS 0.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 46%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

When mail_max_userip_connections is set (default 10) and reached, submission-login can crash with epoll() panic caused by file descriptor handling issues. If running in high-security mode (default for community releases), only the new submission connection gets terminated. If running in high-performance mode (default for Pro releases), all connections handled by the submission-login process will be terminated. The crashes can cause failure for user to send a message, or it can cause duplicate messages to be sent. If TLS is not used (in the backend server processing the submission), duplicate deliveries cannot happen, because the crash can only happen at AUTH stage. Limit the number of connections handled by single submission-login process. This has a performance impact though. Update to non-vulnerable version. No publicly available exploits are known.

Patch / fix

  • Open-Xchange GmbH OX Dovecot Pro 2.3.22.2, 3.0.7, 3.1.6
  • Open-Xchange GmbH OX Dovecot CE 2.4.5
  • dovecot Debian 12 1:2.3.19.1+dfsg1-2.1+deb12u7
  • dovecot Debian 13 1:2.4.1+dfsg1-6+deb13u7
  • dovecot Debian 14 1:2.4.5+dfsg1-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-33263

  • dovecot RHEL 9 1:2.3.16-18.el9_8.8
  • dovecot-mysql RHEL 9 1:2.3.16-18.el9_8.8
  • dovecot-pgsql RHEL 9 1:2.3.16-18.el9_8.8
  • dovecot-pigeonhole RHEL 9 1:2.3.16-18.el9_8.8
  • dovecot RHEL 10.2 1:2.3.21-19.el10_2.8
  • dovecot-mysql RHEL 10.2 1:2.3.21-19.el10_2.8
  • dovecot-pgsql RHEL 10.2 1:2.3.21-19.el10_2.8
  • dovecot-pigeonhole RHEL 10.2 1:2.3.21-19.el10_2.8

red hat advisories RHSA-2026:80825RHSA-2026:79371RHSA-2026:76763

  • dovecot23 SLES for SAP 15 SP6, SLES for SAP 15 SP5, SLES for SAP 15 SP4 +8 more 2.3.21.1-150200.76.1
  • dovecot24 SLES for SAP applications 16.0, SLES 16.0 2.4.4-160000.2.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:4139-1SUSE-SU-2026:23595-1

  • dovecot24 openSUSE Leap 16.0 2.4.4-160000.2.1
  • dovecot24 openSUSE Tumbleweed 2.4.5-1.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:21720-1openSUSE-SU-2026:11629-1

  • dovecot AlmaLinux 9 1:2.3.16-18.el9_8.8
  • dovecot-mysql AlmaLinux 9 1:2.3.16-18.el9_8.8
  • dovecot-pgsql AlmaLinux 9 1:2.3.16-18.el9_8.8
  • dovecot-pigeonhole AlmaLinux 9 1:2.3.16-18.el9_8.8
  • dovecot AlmaLinux 10 1:2.3.21-19.el10_2.8
  • dovecot-mysql AlmaLinux 10 1:2.3.21-19.el10_2.8
  • dovecot-pgsql AlmaLinux 10 1:2.3.21-19.el10_2.8
  • dovecot-pigeonhole AlmaLinux 10 1:2.3.21-19.el10_2.8

almalinux advisories ALSA-2026:80825ALSA-2026:79371ALSA-2026:76763

  • dovecot Rocky Linux 9 1:2.3.16-18.el9_8.8
  • dovecot Rocky Linux 10 1:2.3.21-19.el10_2.8
  • dovecot Rocky Linux 8 1:2.3.16-16.el8_10

rocky linux advisories RLSA-2026:80825RLSA-2026:79371RLSA-2026:76763

  • dovecot Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23 2.4.5-r0

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2026-33263

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

Is CVE-2026-33263 in your stack? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

Check with Fencer

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-2026-33263 updated cvss 7.1

dovecot: Dovecot: Denial of Service and potential message duplication via connection limit exhaustion

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 dovecot, dovecot-mysql, dovecot-pgsql, dovecot-pigeonhole
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 dovecot, dovecot-mysql, dovecot-pgsql, dovecot-pigeonhole
    affected: workaround, no fix available
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) dovecot 2.3.16-16.el8_10, dovecot-mysql 2.3.16-16.el8_10, dovecot-pgsql 2.3.16-16.el8_10, dovecot-pigeonhole 2.3.16-16.el8_10
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2026:76763
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) dovecot 2.3.16-18.el9_8.8, dovecot-mysql 2.3.16-18.el9_8.8, dovecot-pgsql 2.3.16-18.el9_8.8, dovecot-pigeonhole 2.3.16-18.el9_8.8
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2026:80825
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 10) dovecot 2.3.21-19.el10_2.8, dovecot-mysql 2.3.21-19.el10_2.8, dovecot-pgsql 2.3.21-19.el10_2.8, dovecot-pigeonhole 2.3.21-19.el10_2.8
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2026:79371
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 9) dovecot 2.3.16-18.el9_8.8
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2026:80825
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 10) dovecot-devel 2.3.21-19.el10_2.8, dovecot-debuginfo 2.3.21-19.el10_2.8, dovecot-debugsource 2.3.21-19.el10_2.8, dovecot-mysql-debuginfo 2.3.21-19.el10_2.8, dovecot-pgsql-debuginfo 2.3.21-19.el10_2.8, dovecot-pigeonhole-debuginfo 2.3.21-19.el10_2.8
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2026:79371
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux CRB (v. 8) dovecot 2.3.16-16.el8_10
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2026:76763

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
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
2mo ago

Exploit prediction

0.55% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 46% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 4.3 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

Affected products

  • Open-Xchange GmbH OX Dovecot Pro
  • Open-Xchange GmbH OX Dovecot CE

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-403 Exposure of File Descriptor to Unintended Control Sphere

References

Sources

Fencer Intel 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.