CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2026-27855 — Dovecot OTP authentication is vulnerable to replay attack under specific conditions

Medium CVSS 6.8

Dovecot OTP authentication is vulnerable to replay attack under specific conditions. If auth cache is enabled, and username is altered in passdb, then OTP credentials can be cached so that same OTP reply is valid. An attacker able to observe an OTP exchange is able to log in as the user. If authentication happens over unsecure connection, switch to SCRAM protocol. Alternatively ensure the communcations are secured, and if possible switch to OAUTH2 or SCRAM. No publicly available exploits are known.

Severity
Medium
CVSS
6.8 (3.1)
Published
2026-03-27
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-294

Affected products

  • dovecot / dovecot
  • open-xchange / dovecot

Matched remediation archetype

Authentication bypass and missing authentication

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Map every affected endpoint and protocol path, including alternate ports, legacy routes, recovery flows, service accounts, and machine-to-machine access.
  • Confirm which deployments enable the affected authentication mode and whether the interface is reachable from untrusted networks.
  • Review session, token, credential, and proxy trust configuration without attempting account takeover.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the supported fix and centralize fail-closed authentication before protected request handling.
  • Remove default or embedded credentials, rotate affected secrets and sessions, and bind authentication decisions to the intended audience and channel.
  • Add negative tests for alternate routes, malformed or absent credentials, recovery flows, and proxy-derived identity.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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