Attacker can use the IMAP SETACL command to inject the anyone permission to user's dovecot-acl file even if imap_acl_allow_anyone=no. This causes folders to be spammed to all users. The impact is limited to being able to spam folders to other users, no unexpected access is gained. Install to fixed version. No publicly available exploits are known.

The remote Fedora 43 host has a package installed that is affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the FEDORA-2026-693373747f advisory.

    * CVE-2026-27851: lib-var-expand: Safe filter marks all following pipelines safe.
    * CVE-2026-33603: auth: CRAM-SHA-*-PLUS channel binding could be faked.
      MITM attacker with a certificate trusted by the client could have       bypassed the requirement for channel binding.
    * CVE-2026-40020: IMAP folders can be shared-spammed to everyone.
    * CVE-2026-42006: An attacker can cause uncontrolled memory usage with       excessive bracing over IMAP. The fix in CVE-2026-27857 was incomplete.
    * indexer-worker, quota-status, script-login, program-client-local: Root       privileges are now dropped permanently before serving requests.
    * indexer-worker: Default restart_request_count changed to 1 to work       correctly after permanent root privilege drop.
    * lmtp: Add back service_extra_groups=$SET:default_internal_group that was       incorrectly removed in v2.4.3.
    * master: inet_listener_reuse_port has been replaced by service_reuse_port.
      The new setting properly pre-creates all listener sockets at startup and       assigns one unique socket per process. Using this allows evenly distributing       incoming connections to login processes.


Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Fedora security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The remote Debian 12 / 13 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the dsa-6313 advisory.

    - -------------------------------------------------------------------------     Debian Security Advisory DSA-6313-1                   security@debian.org     https://www.debian.org/security/                       Moritz Muehlenhoff     May 31, 2026                          https://www.debian.org/security/faq
    - -------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Package        : dovecot     CVE ID         : CVE-2026-33603 CVE-2026-40016 CVE-2026-40020                      CVE-2026-42006 CVE-2026-27851

    Multiple vulnerabilities have been discovered in the Dovecot IMAP server     which way result in denial of service, SQL injection or     man-in-the-midddle attacks

    For the oldstable distribution (bookworm), these problems have been fixed     in version 1:2.3.19.1+dfsg1-2.1+deb12u6.

    For the stable distribution (trixie), these problems have been fixed in     version 1:2.4.1+dfsg1-6+deb13u6.

    We recommend that you upgrade your dovecot packages.

    For the detailed security status of dovecot please refer to     its security tracker page at:
    https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/dovecot

    Further information about Debian Security Advisories, how to apply     these updates to your system and frequently asked questions can be     found at: https://www.debian.org/security/

    Mailing list: debian-security-announce@lists.debian.org

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Debian security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The remote Fedora 44 host has a package installed that is affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the FEDORA-2026-96eeb03b88 advisory.

    * CVE-2026-27851: lib-var-expand: Safe filter marks all following pipelines safe.
    * CVE-2026-33603: auth: CRAM-SHA-*-PLUS channel binding could be faked.
      MITM attacker with a certificate trusted by the client could have       bypassed the requirement for channel binding.
    * CVE-2026-40020: IMAP folders can be shared-spammed to everyone.
    * CVE-2026-42006: An attacker can cause uncontrolled memory usage with       excessive bracing over IMAP. The fix in CVE-2026-27857 was incomplete.
    * indexer-worker, quota-status, script-login, program-client-local: Root       privileges are now dropped permanently before serving requests.
    * indexer-worker: Default restart_request_count changed to 1 to work       correctly after permanent root privilege drop.
    * lmtp: Add back service_extra_groups=$SET:default_internal_group that was       incorrectly removed in v2.4.3.
    * master: inet_listener_reuse_port has been replaced by service_reuse_port.
      The new setting properly pre-creates all listener sockets at startup and       assigns one unique socket per process. Using this allows evenly distributing       incoming connections to login processes.


Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Fedora security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

  - Attacker can use the IMAP SETACL command to inject the anyone permission to user's dovecot-acl file even     if imap_acl_allow_anyone=no. This causes folders to be spammed to all users. The impact is limited to     being able to spam folders to other users, no unexpected access is gained. Install to fixed version. No     publicly available exploits are known. (CVE-2026-40020)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
318284	Fedora 43 : dovecot (2026-693373747f)	Nessus	Fedora Local Security Checks	critical
318247	Debian dsa-6313 : dovecot-auth-lua - security update	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	critical
318245	Fedora 44 : dovecot (2026-96eeb03b88)	Nessus	Fedora Local Security Checks	critical
315683	Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-40020	Nessus	Misc.	medium

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2026-40020

medium

Tenable Plugins

critical

critical

critical

medium