VulnerabilityPublished 8 Oct 2026Updated 2 Nov 2026

CVE-2026-106454: Twisted · IMAP wildcardToRegexp() ReDoS

Affects alotSource GCVE Database

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Not known to be exploited · CVSS 4.3 Medium : upgrade to 0.12_4 when convenient.

Data as of 3 Nov 2026, 04:33 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

4.3Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

Patch: Available – fixed in 0.12_4

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

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: None
Availability: Low

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: Low: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide basic user capabilities that could normally affect only settings and files owned by a user. Alternatively, an attacker with Low privileges may have the ability to cause an impact only to non-sensitive resources.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: Low: Performance is reduced or there are interruptions in resource availability. Even if repeated exploitation of the vulnerability is possible, the attacker does not have the ability to completely deny service to legitimate users. The resources in the impacted component are either partially available all of the time, or fully available only some of the time, but overall there is no direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 8 Oct 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponized: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 2 Nov 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponized: A Metasploit exploit module or Exploit-DB entry exists (Metasploit scanner modules do not count), or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade alot to 0.12_4.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Homebrewalot`pkg:brew/alot`Other threats	Affected >=0.3.7 <0.12_4	Fixed in 0.12_4

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

A fix is available in version 0.12_4 of the affected product. The patch properly escapes all non-wildcard characters before compiling the regex, preventing malicious regex patterns from causing catastrophic backtracking. Users should upgrade to version 0.12_4 or later to remediate this vulnerability.

Description

CVE-2026-106454 is a Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) vulnerability in the Twisted framework's IMAP implementation. The function wildcardToRegexp() improperly compiles user-supplied IMAP wildcard patterns into regular expressions without escaping non-wildcard characters, allowing crafted patterns to cause catastrophic backtracking. This leads to blocking of the single-threaded Twisted reactor, freezing all server I/O during regex evaluation. An authenticated IMAP client can exploit this by creating a mailbox with a specially crafted name and issuing a LIST command with a malicious pattern, causing significant server delays and potential denial of service. A fix is available that properly escapes non-wildcard characters before compiling the regex.

Impact

An authenticated IMAP client can cause the Twisted server to become unresponsive by sending specially crafted wildcard patterns that trigger catastrophic regex backtracking. Because Twisted uses a single-threaded reactor, this blocks all I/O operations, effectively causing a denial of service. The attack requires only valid IMAP credentials and can stall the server for tens of seconds per request, allowing repeated requests to maintain prolonged unavailability.

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Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 3 Nov 2026, 04:33 UTC

Technical details

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