Description
Pathological inputs could cause DoS through consumePhrase when parsing an email address according to RFC 5322.
Published: 2026-05-07
Score: 7.5 High
EPSS: < 1% Very Low
KEV: No
Impact: n/a
Action: n/a
AI Analysis

Impact

The vulnerability in the Go standard library's net/mail package allows an attacker to craft specially formed email addresses that trigger a quadratic time complexity path in the consumePhrase function. When such inputs are parsed, the function performs repeated string concatenations that can consume excessive CPU resources, potentially exhausting system capacity and causing a denial of service. The flaw does not provide privilege escalation or code execution and is limited to disrupting service availability.

Affected Systems

The Go standard library's net/mail package is the affected component. No specific Go versions are listed in the data, so all releases containing net/mail could be vulnerable until a patch is released.

Risk and Exploitability

The exploitability of this flaw requires the target to process an email address that includes the pathological input. Based on the description, it is inferred that the email address can be supplied remotely through network traffic, allowing an attacker to trigger the DoS from outside the host. The EPSS score is < 1%, and the flaw is not listed in CISA's KEV catalog. The CVSS score of 7.5 indicates a high severity, reinforcing the risk of significant resource exhaustion. The threat is significant in environments that handle a large volume of emails or allow unauthenticated input.

Generated by OpenCVE AI on August 14, 2026 at 05:23 UTC.

Remediation

No vendor fix or workaround currently provided.

OpenCVE Recommended Actions

  • Upgrade to the latest Go release that contains the net/mail patch; vendors typically fix such issues in subsequent releases.
  • Validate or enforce a strict length or pattern check on email addresses before they are passed to consumePhrase to prevent quadratic growth from occurring.
  • If upgrading is delayed, run the mail parsing code in a sandboxed or throttled environment that limits CPU usage and implements request timeouts to contain the DoS impact.

Generated by OpenCVE AI on August 14, 2026 at 05:23 UTC.

Tracking

Sign in to view the affected projects.

Advisories

No advisories yet.

References
Link Providers
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:17713 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:17714 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:33120 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:33123 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:33142 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:33150 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:33574 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:34364 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:36319 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:36625 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:36754 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:36797 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:40262 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:41031 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:41066 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:41928 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:42146 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:42644 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:42796 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:43038 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:43052 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:43692 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:47952 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:50300 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:50843 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:51033 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:54274 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:54283 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:54284 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:54285 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:54286 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:54287 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:54531 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:54583 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:54602 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:56340 cve-icon
https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-42499 cve-icon
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2467809 cve-icon
https://go.dev/cl/771520 cve-icon cve-icon
https://go.dev/issue/78987 cve-icon cve-icon
https://groups.google.com/g/golang-announce/c/qcCIEXso47M cve-icon cve-icon
https://pkg.go.dev/vuln/GO-2026-4977 cve-icon cve-icon
https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-42499.json cve-icon
History

Wed, 19 Aug 2026 12:30:00 +0000


Fri, 14 Aug 2026 13:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
References

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 04:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Weaknesses CWE-229
CWE-730

Thu, 13 Aug 2026 13:30:00 +0000


Wed, 12 Aug 2026 12:30:00 +0000


Wed, 13 May 2026 21:00:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Weaknesses CWE-229
CWE-730

Wed, 13 May 2026 19:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Weaknesses CWE-674
CWE-729

Wed, 13 May 2026 17:00:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Golang
Golang go
Weaknesses NVD-CWE-noinfo
CPEs cpe:2.3:a:golang:go:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Golang
Golang go

Fri, 08 May 2026 22:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 7.5, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H'}

ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'yes', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}


Thu, 07 May 2026 22:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Weaknesses CWE-674
CWE-729

Thu, 07 May 2026 22:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Go Standard Library
Go Standard Library net\/mail
Vendors & Products Go Standard Library
Go Standard Library net\/mail

Thu, 07 May 2026 20:00:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description Pathological inputs could cause DoS through consumePhrase when parsing an email address according to RFC 5322.
Title Quadratic string concatenation in consumePhrase in net/mail
References

Subscriptions

Go Standard Library Net\/mail
Golang Go
cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: Go

Published:

Updated: 2026-08-19T12:05:03.823Z

Reserved: 2026-04-28T00:21:12.791Z

Link: CVE-2026-42499

cve-icon Vulnrichment

Updated: 2026-08-19T12:05:03.823Z

cve-icon NVD

Status : Modified

Published: 2026-05-07T20:16:44.540

Modified: 2026-08-19T12:18:16.200

Link: CVE-2026-42499

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

Updated: 2026-08-14T05:30:16Z

Weaknesses