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TI-2026-44241 Aliases CVE-2026-61816GHSA-f6v3-2qmr-vfjx

zbateson/mail-mime-parser has uncontrolled resource consumption (CPU/memory DoS) parsing untrusted MIME

Priority HIGH 72CWE-400Published · Updated

Key facts

Attack vector
Network
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Attack complexity
Low
Impact type
Denial of service
Confidentiality · integrity · availability
None · None · High
Fix status
Fixed

Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and GitHub. Impact type from CWE-400.

Summary

zbateson/mail-mime-parser is a mail mime parser alternative to PHP's imap* functions and Pear libraries for reading messages in Internet Message Format RFC 822. Starting in version 2.0.0 and prior to version 3.0.6 and 4.0.2, an uncontrolled resource consumption / algorithmic complexity vulnerability (CWE-400) affects any application that parses untrusted email with this library. Three independent parsing paths are super-linear in cost, so a byte-size cap on the caller side does **not** bound the work done. A crafted message under 2 MB can consume seconds of CPU or hundreds of megabytes to multiple gigabytes of memory (leading to an out-of-memory kill), enabling denial of service. The parse is lazy, but the cost is paid on the first `getAllParts()` or content read. This is fxed in 4.0.2 and 3.0.6. The fixes add configurable limits on multipart nesting depth and on header count / total header size (recording a parse error past the threshold rather than throwing), and change sibling append to O(n). Users should upgrade to one of these (or later) versions. Versions 2.x are also affected but are end-of-life and will not receive patches; users on those lines should upgrade to a fixed release. (Versions prior to 2.0 used a different parser and are not affected by all three paths.) These costs are super-linear, so an input byte-size cap alone does not bound them. Until upgrading, restrict exposure of the parser to untrusted input, and run parsing under a constrained memory_limit and execution time limit so a malicious message fails its own request rather than exhausting the host.

Why it matters now

Exploitation Proof of concept CISA SSVC · not in CISA KEV
EPSS 0.00393 33rd percentileScored 2026-11-07
Fix Fixed mail-mime-parser (zbateson): 3.0.6, 4.0.2zbateson/mail-mime-parser (Packagist): 3.0.6, 4.0.2

SSVC decision points

CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3

Exploitation
Poc
Automatable
Yes
Technical impact
Partial

The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.

Affected products

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed inStatusSource
zbatesonmail-mime-parser2.0.0 to before 3.0.6; 4.0.0 to before 4.0.23.0.6, 4.0.2Patch availableCNA
—zbateson/mail-mime-parser (Packagist)2.0.0 to before 3.0.63.0.6Patch availableGHSA-f6v3-2qmr-vfjx
—zbateson/mail-mime-parser (Packagist)4.0.0 to before 4.0.24.0.2Patch availableGHSA-f6v3-2qmr-vfjx
  • mail-mime-parser Vendorzbateson Affected 2.0.0 to before 3.0.6; 4.0.0 to before 4.0.2 Fixed in 3.0.6, 4.0.2 Patch available CNA
  • zbateson/mail-mime-parser (Packagist) Vendor— Affected 2.0.0 to before 3.0.6 Fixed in 3.0.6 Patch available GHSA-f6v3-2qmr-vfjx
  • zbateson/mail-mime-parser (Packagist) Vendor— Affected 4.0.0 to before 4.0.2 Fixed in 4.0.2 Patch available GHSA-f6v3-2qmr-vfjx

Remediation

  • Fix · CNA mail-mime-parser (zbateson) Fixed in 3.0.6, 4.0.2
  • Fix · GHSA-f6v3-2qmr-vfjx zbateson/mail-mime-parser (Packagist) Fixed in 3.0.6 Advisory →
  • Fix · GHSA-f6v3-2qmr-vfjx zbateson/mail-mime-parser (Packagist) Fixed in 4.0.2 Advisory →

Timeline

  1. 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-61816
  2. 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-f6v3-2qmr-vfjx

References

  • TI-2026-85057 CRLF header injection in zbateson mail-mime-parser message builders CVSS 4.0MEDIUM 6.9
  • TI-2026-44240 zbateson/mail-mime-parser has CRLF header injection via attachment filename CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.2

Sources