CVE-2025-43857
MediumCVSS 6.5Summary
Net::IMAP implements Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) client functionality in Ruby. Prior to versions 0.5.7, 0.4.20, 0.3.9, and 0.2.5, there is a possibility for denial of service by memory exhaustion when net-imap reads server responses. A malicious server can send a "literal" byte count, which is automatically read by the client's receiver thread, causing immediate memory allocation.
Risk Assessment
This can lead to memory exhaustion and service unavailability, especially when connecting to untrusted IMAP servers.
Recommendation
Update the net-imap library to version 0.5.7, 0.4.20, 0.3.9, or 0.2.5 (or later) and avoid connecting to untrusted IMAP servers.
Other vulnerabilities in Net::IMAP
See all- CVE-2026-42257Critical
Net::IMAP implements Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) client functionality in Ruby. Prior to versions 0.4.24, 0.5.14, and 0.6.4, several Net::IMAP commands accept a raw string argument that is sent to the server without validation or escaping. If this string is derived from user-controlled input, it may contain CRLF sequences, which an attacker can use to inject arbitrary IMAP commands.
- CVE-2026-47242Medium
The Net::IMAP library in Ruby has a vulnerability that allows arbitrary IMAP command injection due to improper validation of arguments in the #id and #enable methods. This issue affects versions prior to 0.6.5 and 0.5.15.
- CVE-2026-47241Low
Net::IMAP in Ruby prior to versions 0.6.5 and 0.5.15 has a vulnerability that allows an attacker to inject additional commands. By exploiting improperly validated arguments, an attacker can force the first command to wait for another command to finish.
- CVE-2026-47240Medium
The Net::IMAP library in Ruby has a vulnerability that allows arbitrary IMAP command injection if the server does not support non-synchronizing literals. Versions prior to 0.6.5 and 0.5.15 are susceptible to an attack that may lead to unauthorized command execution.
- CVE-2026-42258Medium
The Net::IMAP library in Ruby before versions 0.4.24, 0.5.14, and 0.6.4 is vulnerable to CRLF injection / IMAP command injection via symbol arguments passed to IMAP commands.
- CVE-2026-42256Medium
In Net::IMAP for Ruby (versions 0.4.0 to before 0.4.24, 0.5.0 to before 0.5.14, 0.6.0 to before 0.6.4), when authenticating with SCRAM-SHA1 or SCRAM-SHA256, a hostile server can perform a computational denial-of-service attack by sending a large iteration count value.
- CVE-2026-42246High
In the Net::IMAP library for Ruby prior to versions 0.3.10, 0.4.24, 0.5.14, and 0.6.4, a man-in-the-middle attacker can cause the starttls method to return 'successfully' without actually starting TLS.
- CVE-2026-42245High
Net::IMAP in Ruby has quadratic time complexity when reading large responses containing many string literals. A hostile server can send crafted responses to exhaust the client's CPU, leading to a denial of service (DoS) attack.
Original NVD description (English source)
Net::IMAP implements Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) client functionality in Ruby. Prior to versions 0.5.7, 0.4.20, 0.3.9, and 0.2.5, there is a possibility for denial of service by memory exhaustion when net-imap reads server responses. At any time while the client is connected, a malicious server can send can send a "literal" byte count, which is automatically read by the client's receiver thread. The response reader immediately allocates memory for the number of bytes indicated by the server response. This should not be an issue when securely connecting to trusted IMAP servers that are well-behaved. It can affect insecure connections and buggy, untrusted, or compromised servers (for example, connecting to a user supplied hostname). This issue has been patched in versions 0.5.7, 0.4.20, 0.3.9, and 0.2.5.
Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS