postal-mime < 4.2.1 Algorithmic Complexity DoS via processLine
Summary
| CVE | CVE-2026-124016 |
|---|---|
| State | PUBLISHED |
| Assigner | VulnCheck |
| Source Priority | CVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback |
| Published | 2026-11-10 20:19:04 UTC |
| Updated | 2026-11-12 21:36:06 UTC |
| Description | postal-mime before 4.2.1 contains an algorithmic complexity denial of service vulnerability that allows unauthenticated remote attackers to cause excessive CPU consumption in the PostalMime.processLine() function by crafting deeply nested multipart email messages with boundary lines sharing long prefixes with open boundaries. Attackers can deliver a malicious email with nesting up to the default maxNestingDepth of 256, causing per-line parsing cost to scale as O(depth x shared prefix length) and blocking the Node.js event loop for seconds per message. |
Risk And Classification
Primary CVSS: v4.0 6.9 MEDIUM from [email protected]
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
EPSS: 0.006090000 probability, percentile 0.496700000 (date 2026-11-12)
Problem Types: CWE-407 | CWE-407 Inefficient Algorithmic Complexity
| Version | Source | Type | Score | Severity | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.0 | [email protected] | Secondary | 6.9 | MEDIUM | CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/C... |
| 4.0 | CNA | CVSS | 6.9 | MEDIUM | CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N |
| 3.1 | [email protected] | Secondary | 5.3 | MEDIUM | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L |
| 3.1 | CNA | CVSS | 5.3 | MEDIUM | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L |
CVSS v4.0 Breakdown
Attack Vector
NetworkAttack Complexity
LowAttack Requirements
NonePrivileges Required
NoneUser Interaction
NoneConfidentiality
NoneIntegrity
NoneAvailability
LowSub Conf.
NoneSub Integrity
NoneSub Availability
NoneCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
CVSS v3.1 Breakdown
Attack Vector
NetworkAttack Complexity
LowPrivileges Required
NoneUser Interaction
NoneScope
UnchangedConfidentiality
NoneIntegrity
NoneAvailability
LowCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
Vendor Declared Affected Products
| Source | Vendor | Product | Version | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CNA | Postalsys | Postal-mime | affected 4.2.1 semver | Not specified |
References
| Reference | Source | Link | Tags |
|---|---|---|---|
| github.com/postalsys/postal-mime/releases/tag/v4.2.1 | [email protected] | github.com | |
| github.com/postalsys/postal-mime/security/advisories/GHSA-q8wm-54mj-r36p | 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0 | github.com | |
| www.vulncheck.com/advisories/postal-mime-algorithmic-complexity-dos-via-process... | [email protected] | www.vulncheck.com | |
| CVE Program record | CVE.ORG | www.cve.org | canonical |
| NVD vulnerability detail | NVD | nvd.nist.gov | canonical, analysis |
Vendor Comments And Credit
Discovery Credit
CNA: Arjun Jain (en)
There are currently no legacy QID mappings associated with this CVE.