Idle connections block hMailServer ACME certificate validation
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- High
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · Low
- Fix status
- No fix listed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA.
Summary
hMailServer 6.0.0 through 6.3.6 is affected. Its ACME HTTP-01 challenge responder on port 80 serves one connection at a time, so idle connections hold the single worker for up to five seconds (CWE-410). A remote unauthenticated attacker can open enough idle connections during validation to make the certificate authority's request fail. Repeated failures across renewals can let the certificate expire, after which clients refuse the server's TLS.
Written with Claude Haiku 5.5 from the sources below · 2026-10-29
Description from the CNA
Insufficient resource pool in the ACME HTTP-01 challenge responder of Progressive Robot hMailServer 6.0.0 through 6.3.6 allows a remote unauthenticated attacker to cause a certificate issuance or renewal to fail. When the server obtains or renews a TLS certificate over ACME it runs an HTTP-01 challenge responder on port 80 for the certificate authority to read the challenge token; the responder served one connection at a time, accepting a socket, waiting up to five seconds to receive a request, answering it, and only then accepting the next. A client that connected and sent nothing held the single worker for the whole timeout, so enough idle connections during a validation keep the certificate authority's own request from being answered in time and the validation fails. Sustained across a certificate's renewals this leads to the certificate expiring, after which clients refuse the server's TLS; the mail service itself continues on its current certificate until then. No authentication is required to connect to the responder. Version 6.3.7 serves up to 64 connections at once and closes a connection past that, so that where a handful of idle connections, one after another, sufficed before, a client must keep 64 idle connections open at once throughout a validation to have the certificate authority's connection closed.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Progressive Robot Ltd | hMailServer | 6.0.0 – 6.3.6 | — | No fix listed | CNA |
- hMailServer VendorProgressive Robot Ltd Affected 6.0.0 – 6.3.6 Fixed in — No fix listed CNA
Remediation
The sources list no fixed version for hMailServer.
Written with Claude Haiku 5.5 from the sources below · 2026-10-29
Timeline
- 2026-10-21 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-114472
- 2026-10-21 Alias added: GHSA-m7x4-4w88-7g5p
- 2026-10-29 CISA SSVC decision points changed
References
More Progressive Robot Ltd vulnerabilities
- TI-2026-64884 Improper Neutralization of Directives in Dynamically Evaluated Code ('Eval Injection') in hMailServer CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2026-76418 Unchecked loop limit in hMailServer lets remote attackers stop mail CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2026-69567 Inefficient processing in hMailServer stalls mail delivery CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2026-69565 Infinite loop in hMailServer MIME handling lets attackers stop mail CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2026-69564 Inefficient DKIM and ARC checks in hMailServer cause denial of service CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2026-69562 Inefficient JSON parsing in hMailServer lets attackers halt mail CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
Sources
- CVE-2026-114472 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-114472 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-m7x4-4w88-7g5p · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
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