CVE-2024-37358 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.6) CWE-770 vulnerability in org.apache.james.protocols:protocols-imap. A fix is available for org.apache.james.protocols:protocols-imap — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Apache James: denial of service through the use of IMAP literals
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2024-37358.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
org.apache.james.protocols:protocols-imap☕org.apache.james.protocols:protocols-imapReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Maven packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Similarly to CVE-2024-34055, Apache James is vulnerable to denial of service through the abuse of IMAP literals from both authenticated and unauthenticated users, which could be used to cause unbounded memory allocation and very long computations
Version 3.7.6 and 3.8.2 restrict such illegitimate use of IMAP literals.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.apache.james.protocols:protocols-imap | all versions | 3.7.6org.apache.james.protocols:protocols-imap:3.7.6 |
| ☕Maven | org.apache.james.protocols:protocols-imap | ≥ 3.8.0&&< 3.8.2 | 3.8.2org.apache.james.protocols:protocols-imap:3.8.2 |
Affected Products
james serverapacheDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.apache.james.protocols:protocols-imap, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update org.apache.james.protocols:protocols-imap to 3.7.6 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-37358 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Cap what an attacker can consume: apply request size, rate and timeout limits in front of the affected component, and run it with memory and CPU limits so exhaustion degrades one worker rather than the whole service.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2024-37358 in your dependencies?
Find it across Maven, including transitive dependencies.