Hackers Exploiting Unpatched RCE Flaw in Zimbra Collaboration Suite

RARLAB's UnRAR command-line decompression tool on Linux and UNIX, in versions before 6.12, contains a directory traversal flaw (CWE-22, with symlink-based path confusion per CWE-59) that lets a crafted RAR archive write files to arbitrary filesystem locations during an extract/unpack operation. It is triggered whenever an application passes an attacker-supplied archive to unrar, most prominently Zimbra Collaboration Suite, which unpacked RAR attachments from incoming email, enabling pre-authentication attacks against webmail tracked separately as CVE-2022-41352. By planting files at chosen paths — for example writing an SSH key to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys or dropping a web shell under a web root — an attacker can escalate an arbitrary file write into code execution on the server, requiring no privileges or user interaction per the CVSS vector. Only the Linux/UNIX UnRAR utility is affected; WinRAR and RAR for Android are not. The flaw is under active exploitation: CISA added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2022-08-09 with known ransomware use, public PoCs exist, and EPSS estimates a ~99% probability of exploitation within 30 days.

Do: Upgrade UnRAR to 6.12 or later on all Linux and UNIX systems and apply Debian's patched unrar package; Zimbra administrators should apply Zimbra's released security patches, which ship the fixed UnRAR. As an interim mitigation, restrict or monitor services that automatically extract RAR archives from untrusted sources, and hunt for indicators such as unexpected ~/.ssh/authorized_keys entries, planted symlinks, or web shells under web roots. Because the flaw is on CISA's KEV list with known ransomware use, treat patching as time-critical.

CVE-2022-41352 is an unauthenticated arbitrary file upload flaw in Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) 8.8.15 and 9.0, rooted in a path traversal weakness (CWE-22) in how the amavis mail scanner hands archives to the cpio utility. An attacker sends a specially crafted archive via email; cpio follows traversal entries and extracts attacker-controlled files into the web root at /opt/zimbra/jetty/webapps/zimbra/public. Uploaded files in that web-accessible directory can lead to remote code execution and incorrect access to other users' accounts, giving network-level attackers high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability (CVSS 9.8). Any ZCS 8.8.15 or 9.0 deployment that processes mail with cpio is affected, particularly on Red Hat/CentOS 7 and later where the pax utility (which Zimbra recommends as the safe alternative) is not installed by default. The flaw is actively exploited in the wild: it was added to CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog on 2022-10-20 with known ransomware use, carries a 95.5% EPSS score, and public reporting ties Zimbra exploitation to campaigns including Russia-linked Sandworm/Seashell Blizzard access operations.

Do: Apply updates per vendor instructions, and as an immediate mitigation install the pax package on the Zimbra host (amavis automatically prefers pax over cpio once it is present; note pax is not in default Red Hat installations after RHEL/CentOS 6, while it is a prerequisite on Ubuntu). Also inspect /opt/zimbra/jetty/webapps/zimbra/public for unexpected uploaded files and review mail flow logs for suspicious archive attachments, given confirmed in-the-wild and ransomware-related exploitation.