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Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2024-23185

🗓️ 30 Aug 2025 00:00:00Reported by TenableType 
nessus
 nessus
🔗 www.tenable.com👁 3 Views

Unpatched Dovecot vulnerability allows memory exhaustion via oversized headers; no public exploit known.

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Refs
Code
#%NASL_MIN_LEVEL 80900
##
# (C) Tenable, Inc.
##

include('compat.inc');

if (description)
{
  script_id(258863);
  script_version("1.1");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_modification_date", value:"2025/08/30");

  script_cve_id("CVE-2024-23185");

  script_name(english:"Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2024-23185");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"synopsis", value:
"The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed with a vulnerability that the vendor indicates will not be
patched.");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"description", value:
"The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied
patch available.

  - Very large headers can cause resource exhaustion when parsing message. The message-parser normally reads
    reasonably sized chunks of the message. However, when it feeds them to message-header-parser, it starts
    building up full_value buffer out of the smaller chunks. The full_value buffer has no size limit, so
    large headers can cause large memory usage. It doesn't matter whether it's a single long header line, or a
    single header split into multiple lines. This bug exists in all Dovecot versions. Incoming mails typically
    have some size limits set by MTA, so even largest possible header size may still fit into Dovecot's
    vsz_limit. So attackers probably can't DoS a victim user this way. A user could APPEND larger mails
    though, allowing them to DoS themselves (although maybe cause some memory issues for the backend in
    general). One can implement restrictions on headers on MTA component preceding Dovecot. No publicly
    available exploits are known. (CVE-2024-23185)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"see_also", value:"https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2024-23185");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"solution", value:
"There is no known solution at this time.");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"agent", value:"unix");
  script_set_cvss_base_vector("CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P");
  script_set_cvss_temporal_vector("CVSS2#E:U/RL:OF/RC:C");
  script_set_cvss3_base_vector("CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H");
  script_set_cvss3_temporal_vector("CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cvss_score_source", value:"CVE-2024-23185");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"exploitability_ease", value:"No known exploits are available");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"exploit_available", value:"false");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"vendor_unpatched", value:"true");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"vuln_publication_date", value:"2024/08/16");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_publication_date", value:"2025/08/30");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_type", value:"local");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:-:lts");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:lts");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:dovecot");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"generated_plugin", value:"current");
  script_end_attributes();

  script_category(ACT_GATHER_INFO);
  script_family(english:"Misc.");

  script_copyright(english:"This script is Copyright (C) 2025 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof.");

  script_dependencies("ssh_get_info2.nasl", "set_linux_os_id.nasl");
  script_require_keys("Host/cpu", "Host/local_checks_enabled", "global_settings/vendor_unpatched", "Host/OS/identifier");
  script_require_ports("Host/OS/Ubuntu Linux-14.04", "Host/OS/Ubuntu Linux-16.04", "Host/OS/Ubuntu Linux-18.04");

  exit(0);
}

if (!get_kb_item("global_settings/vendor_unpatched")) exit(0, "Unpatched Vulnerabilities Detection not active.");
if (!get_kb_item("Host/local_checks_enabled")) audit(AUDIT_LOCAL_CHECKS_NOT_ENABLED);
if (empty_or_null(get_one_kb_item("Host/Debian/dpkg-l"))) audit(AUDIT_PACKAGE_LIST_MISSING);

include('linux_unpatched.inc');

var distro_constraints_array = {
  "Ubuntu Linux-14.04": {
    "package_manager": "dpkg-l",
    "constraints": [
      {
        "release": "14.04",
        "pkgs": [
          {"reference": "dovecot-core"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-dbg"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-dev"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-gssapi"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-imapd"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-ldap"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-lmtpd"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-managesieved"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-mysql"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-pgsql"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-pop3d"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-sieve"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-solr"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-sqlite"},
          {"reference": "mail-stack-delivery"}
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "Ubuntu Linux-16.04": {
    "package_manager": "dpkg-l",
    "constraints": [
      {
        "release": "16.04",
        "pkgs": [
          {"reference": "dovecot-core"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-dbg"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-dev"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-gssapi"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-imapd"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-ldap"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-lmtpd"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-lucene"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-managesieved"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-mysql"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-pgsql"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-pop3d"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-sieve"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-solr"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-sqlite"},
          {"reference": "mail-stack-delivery"}
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "Ubuntu Linux-18.04": {
    "package_manager": "dpkg-l",
    "constraints": [
      {
        "release": "18.04",
        "pkgs": [
          {"reference": "dovecot-core"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-dev"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-gssapi"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-imapd"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-ldap"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-lmtpd"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-managesieved"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-mysql"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-pgsql"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-pop3d"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-sieve"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-solr"},
          {"reference": "dovecot-sqlite"},
          {"reference": "mail-stack-delivery"}
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
};

var distro_constraints_values = linux_unpatched::get_distro_constraints(distro_constraints_arr:distro_constraints_array);
if (empty_or_null(distro_constraints_values)) audit(AUDIT_HOST_NOT, 'affected');
var report = linux_unpatched::check_unpatched_constraints(distro_constraints_values:distro_constraints_values);

if (!empty_or_null(report))
{
  security_report_v4(
      port       : 0,
      severity   : SECURITY_WARNING,
      extra      : report
  );
  exit(0);
}
else
{
  audit(AUDIT_HOST_NOT, 'affected');
}

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30 Aug 2025 00:00Current
7.6High risk
Vulners AI Score7.6
CVSS 3.17.5
EPSS0.00656
SSVC
3