Inefficient Algorithmic Complexity in hMailServer

Inefficient algorithmic complexity in the SPF macro expansion of Progressive Robot hMailServer 6.3.4 and 6.3.5 allows a remote unauthenticated attacker to consume worker-thread time by publishing a crafted SPF record. RFC 7208 section 7.1 requires a name too long to look up to lose whole labels from the left; the server did this by removing one label at a time and copying the rest of the name each time, so the work grew with the square of the expansion. An attacker who publishes an SPF record for a domain they control, with a mechanism whose domain-spec expands through macros to a name far longer than 253 characters, makes the SPF check of a message from that domain take several seconds. The expansion is bounded by SPF's own per-term and per-macro limits, so the loss of availability is partial.

Source published

8 Oct 2026 11:46:46 UTC

Source modified

8 Oct 2026 14:17:04 UTC

Observed here

23 Oct 2026 15:48:27 UTC

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CVSS 3.1 · 5.3 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L