Vulnerability · Published Aug 28, 2026 · Assigned by OX
CVE-2026-73208
High 7.4
In plain English
A high-severity improper authentication in OX Dovecot CE from Open-Xchange GmbH. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.3% (higher than 24% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.
Official description
An attacker that holds a token intended for a different purpose can authenticate, because when an OAuth2 token response does not contain a scope claim, the audience claim is used in its place and checked against the configured required scopes. These are different concepts, and the audience claim does not describe what a token is allowed to do. A token that grants no relevant permissions can be accepted because its intended recipient value happens to match a configured scope name, granting access that should have been denied. It also hides an identity provider misconfiguration where scopes are not being issued at all. Ensure the identity provider issues a scope claim for all tokens used with Dovecot, and that configured scope names do not match audience values. Update to non-vulnerable version. No publicly available exploits are known.
Affected packages & fixed versions
| Ecosystem | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| AlmaLinux:10 | dovecot | 1:2.3.21-19.el10_2.8 | ALSA-2026:79371 |
| AlmaLinux:8 | dovecot | 1:2.3.16-16.el8_10 | ALSA-2026:76763 |
| AlmaLinux:9 | dovecot | 1:2.3.16-18.el9_8.8 | ALSA-2026:80825 |
| AlmaLinux:10 | dovecot-devel | 1:2.3.21-19.el10_2.8 | ALSA-2026:79371 |
| AlmaLinux:8 | dovecot-devel | 1:2.3.16-16.el8_10 | ALSA-2026:76763 |
| AlmaLinux:9 | dovecot-devel | 1:2.3.16-18.el9_8.8 | ALSA-2026:80825 |
| AlmaLinux:10 | dovecot-mysql | 1:2.3.21-19.el10_2.8 | ALSA-2026:79371 |
| AlmaLinux:8 | dovecot-mysql | 1:2.3.16-16.el8_10 | ALSA-2026:76763 |
| AlmaLinux:9 | dovecot-mysql | 1:2.3.16-18.el9_8.8 | ALSA-2026:80825 |
| AlmaLinux:10 | dovecot-pgsql | 1:2.3.21-19.el10_2.8 | ALSA-2026:79371 |
| AlmaLinux:8 | dovecot-pgsql | 1:2.3.16-16.el8_10 | ALSA-2026:76763 |
| AlmaLinux:9 | dovecot-pgsql | 1:2.3.16-18.el9_8.8 | ALSA-2026:80825 |
| AlmaLinux:10 | dovecot-pigeonhole | 1:2.3.21-19.el10_2.8 | ALSA-2026:79371 |
| AlmaLinux:8 | dovecot-pigeonhole | 1:2.3.16-16.el8_10 | ALSA-2026:76763 |
| AlmaLinux:9 | dovecot-pigeonhole | 1:2.3.16-18.el9_8.8 | ALSA-2026:80825 |
| Alpine:v3.23 | dovecot | 2.4.5-r0 | ALPINE-CVE-2026-73208 |
| Alpine:v3.24 | dovecot | 2.4.5-r0 | ALPINE-CVE-2026-73208 |
| Debian:12 | dovecot | 1:2.3.19.1+dfsg1-2.1+deb12u7 | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-73208 |
| Debian:13 | dovecot | 1:2.4.1+dfsg1-6+deb13u7 | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-73208 |
| Debian:14 | dovecot | 1:2.4.5+dfsg1-1 | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-73208 |
| Rocky Linux:10 | dovecot | 1:2.3.21-19.el10_2.8 | RLSA-2026:79371 |
| Rocky Linux:8 | dovecot | 1:2.3.16-16.el8_10 | RLSA-2026:76763 |
| Rocky Linux:9 | dovecot | 1:2.3.16-18.el9_8.8 | RLSA-2026:80825 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | dovecot | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-73208 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | dovecot | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-73208 |
| Ubuntu:26.04:LTS | dovecot | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-73208 |
Affected products (as reported)
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| Open-Xchange GmbH | OX Dovecot Pro | 2.3.13 – before 2.3.22.23.0.0 – before 3.0.73.1.0 – before 3.1.6 |
| Open-Xchange GmbH | OX Dovecot CE | 2.3.13 – before 2.4.5 |
Weakness: CWE-287 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N