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At least in 2.5.2, there appear to be only two places in the standard 
library where an arbitrary and unchecked size is passed directly to 
_socketobject.recv. _fileobject.read is one such place and the other 
is in logging/config.py. In both cases, the pattern is something like
while len(data) < size:
 data = data + sock.recv(size - len(data))
Of course, the same pattern may exist in any number of instances of 
user code that performs a socket.recv, and all of these would be 
subject to the same memory thrashing problem that originally beset 
imaplib.
As such, I now agree with Ralf that the fix ultimately belongs in 
_socketobject. However, deploying a fix for 2.5.2 is probably easier 
if it's in socket.py than if it requires a recompile.