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EPSS 0.4%top 65%

CVE-2026-48824: CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling in axllent mailpit

0
Medium
Published: 07/20/2026 (07/20/2026, 15:02:52 UTC)
Source: CVE Database V5
Vendor/Project: axllent
Product: mailpit

Description

### Summary The fix for GHSA-fpxj-m5q8-fphw (CVE-2026-45710, "Mailpit: Set a default 50MB p/m limit to prevent DoS via unlimited SMTP DATA and /api/v1/send body sizes") wrapped only `POST /api/v1/send` with `http.MaxBytesReader`. The four other Mailpit JSON-body API endpoints `PUT /api/v1/messages` (SetReadStatus), `DELETE /api/v1/messages` (DeleteMessages), `PUT /api/v1/tags` (SetMessageTags), and `POST /api/v1/message/{id}/release` (ReleaseMessage) still call `json.NewDecoder(r.Body)` directly with no body-size cap and remain reachable unauthenticated in the default `docker run axllent/mailpit:latest` deploy. An unauthenticated remote attacker can post a multi-million-element `IDs` slice and drive RSS from ~25 MiB baseline to ~450 MiB per 16 MB request body. Repeating across multiple connections accumulates the same per-request amplification per process. ### Affected versions - Mailpit at HEAD `67a7ca83ff759082d2b86dda07eb5bb3dad404e0` (v1.30.0, 2026-05-14). - All versions `<= v1.30.0` (the release that shipped the GHSA-fpxj fix). Versions `< v1.30.0` are vulnerable to the original GHSA-fpxj on `/api/v1/send`; version `v1.30.0` carries the sibling-endpoint gap described here. ### Privilege required None in default deploy (no `--ui-auth`, no `--smtp-auth`). The four endpoints share the same `middleWareFunc` wrapper as the original GHSA-fpxj target, so the same default-no-auth threat model applies. With `--ui-auth=user:pass` configured, the same primitive is post-auth — still useful since UI-auth Mailpit deployments commonly run on internal ops subnets where one stolen UI credential pivots into an RSS-exhaustion vector against the same host. ### The incomplete fix Commit `136bdde` ("Security: Set a default 50MB p/m limit to prevent DoS via unlimited SMTP DATA and /api/v1/send body sizes (GHSA-fpxj-m5q8-fphw)", 2026-05-12) added the `MaxBytesReader` wrap in exactly one place: ```go // server/apiv1/send.go:45-48 if config.MaxMessageSize > 0 { r.Body = http.MaxBytesReader(w, r.Body, int64(config.MaxMessageSize)*1024*1024) } decoder := json.NewDecoder(r.Body) ``` The sibling JSON-body handlers were not updated. Side-by-side at HEAD `67a7ca8`: | File | Function | `MaxBytesReader`? | Unauth in default deploy? | |---|---|---|---| | `server/apiv1/send.go:45-48` (`SendMessageHandler`) | POST `/api/v1/send` | YES (50 MB) | YES (via `sendAPIAuthMiddleware` falling back to `middleWareFunc`) | | `server/apiv1/messages.go:107` (`SetReadStatus`) | PUT `/api/v1/messages` | NO | YES | | `server/apiv1/messages.go:187` (`DeleteMessages`) | DELETE `/api/v1/messages` | NO | YES | | `server/apiv1/tags.go:54` (`SetMessageTags`) | PUT `/api/v1/tags` | NO | YES | | `server/apiv1/release.go:55` (`ReleaseMessage`) | POST `/api/v1/message/{id}/release` | NO | YES | The four sibling handlers all share the shape: ```go // server/apiv1/messages.go:107-115 (SetReadStatus) decoder := json.NewDecoder(r.Body) var data struct { Read bool IDs []string Search string } err := decoder.Decode(&data) ``` No `MaxBytesReader`, no body-size cap, no `r.Header.Get("Content-Length")` check. The `json.NewDecoder` streams the body but each `"x"` element materialises as a separate Go `string` plus slice-header overhead, so the unmarshalled `[]string` slice for `IDs` grows roughly linearly with attacker payload size. ### Vulnerable code `server/apiv1/messages.go:107`: ```go func SetReadStatus(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) { decoder := json.NewDecoder(r.Body) var data struct { Read bool IDs []string Search string } err := decoder.Decode(&data) if err != nil { httpError(w, err.Error()) return } // ... ``` Three other handlers (`DeleteMessages`, `SetMessageTags`, `ReleaseMessage`) match the same shape. ### Reachability chain (default deploy) ``` Listen() # config/config.go HTTPListen = "[::]:8025" ↓ HTTP server # server/server.go:177-186 ↓ middleWareFunc(apiv1.SetReadStatus) # server/server.go:178 — auth bypassed when UICredentials == nil ↓ SetReadStatus # server/apiv1/messages.go:87 ↓ json.NewDecoder(r.Body).Decode(&data) # no MaxBytesReader; allocates 4M Go strings + slice for {"IDs":["x",...]} ↓ RSS grows ~28x relative to payload size ``` `config/config.go`'s `MaxMessageSize` field (added by 136bdde) exists and is parsed from `--max-message-size` (default 50 MB), but it is checked only in `server/apiv1/send.go`. The four sibling handlers never consult it. ### Reproduction (E2E against `axllent/mailpit:latest` v1.30.0) ```bash # 1) start mailpit with defaults (no --ui-auth, no --smtp-auth) docker run --name mailpit-test -d -p 18025:8025 axllent/mailpit:latest # 2) baseline RSS docker stats mailpit-test --no-stream --format '{{.MemUsage}}' # → 8.473MiB / 5.772GiB # 3) trigger python3 - <<'PY' import socket N = 4_00

CVSS v3.1

Score 5.3medium

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

Affected software

GitHub Actionsmore threats →ai
axllent/mailpit
pkg:github/axllent/mailpit
Affected versions
<1.30.1

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AI-Powered Analysis

Machine-generated threat intelligence

AILast updated: 07/20/2026, 15:42:28 UTC

Technical Analysis

Mailpit versions before 1.30.1 contain a resource exhaustion vulnerability (CWE-770) in four unauthenticated JSON-body API endpoints: PUT /api/v1/messages, DELETE /api/v1/messages, PUT /api/v1/tags, and POST /api/v1/message/{id}/release. Unlike the previously fixed POST /api/v1/send endpoint, these endpoints do not limit the size of the request body, allowing an attacker to send very large JSON payloads (multi-million-element ID slices). This causes the process's resident set size (RSS) memory usage to increase significantly (from ~25 MiB baseline to ~450 MiB per 16 MB request), enabling denial of service via memory exhaustion. Version 1.30.1 contains a patch that addresses this issue.

Potential Impact

An unauthenticated remote attacker can exploit this vulnerability to cause excessive memory consumption on the Mailpit server by sending large JSON payloads to specific API endpoints. This can lead to denial of service conditions due to resource exhaustion, impacting availability. There is no impact on confidentiality or integrity according to the CVSS vector.

Mitigation Recommendations

A patch is available in Mailpit version 1.30.1 that fixes this vulnerability by adding request body size limits to the affected endpoints. Users should upgrade to version 1.30.1 or later to remediate this issue. No other mitigation guidance is provided or necessary as the vulnerability is fixed in the stated version.

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Technical Details

Data Version
5.2
Assigner Short Name
GitHub_M
Date Reserved
2026-05-22T20:57:10.977Z
Cvss Version
3.1
State
PUBLISHED
Remediation Level
null

Threat ID: 6a5e3e5e2a4a8d5989464e3e

Added to database: 07/20/2026, 15:27:26 UTC

Last enriched: 07/20/2026, 15:42:28 UTC

Last updated: 09/03/2026, 22:52:12 UTC

Views: 78

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