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Attackers Exploit Zimbra SNMP Flaw for Unauthenticated Remote Code Execution

highExploit / PoC exploited in the wildimportance 75CVE-2026-73570CVE-2025-66376
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CERT Polska and CISA report active exploitation of Zimbra RCE CVE-2026-73570, with 267 instances compromised per Shadowserver.

CVE-2026-73570 (CVSS 8.9) enables unauthenticated command injection and remote code execution in Zimbra Collaboration before 10.1.20 when the optional zimbra-snmp package is installed and SNMP notifications are enabled, via crafted SMTP requests. CISA added the flaw to its KEV catalog on August 21, 2026, with a federal patch deadline of August 24. The Shadowserver Foundation counted 267 compromised instances as of August 24, 2026, led by the US (46), Sweden (21), France (20) and Germany (17). Separately, Russia-linked Laundry Bear has weaponized Zimbra stored XSS CVE-2025-66376 against Western government and commercial mail servers since at least July 2025, delivering the ZimReaper payload.

  • Exploit requires zimbra-snnp package installed and SNMP notifications enabled; patched in ZCS 10.1.20.
  • CERT Polska urges checking zimbra.log for service restarts and webapps/tmp directories for recent files.
  • Shadowserver counts dropped from 274 to 267 compromised instances in one week.
  • CISA KEV deadline for Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies was August 24, 2026.

Vulnerabilities mentionedAll →

CVEVulnerabilityCVSSEPSSFlagsAffectedExposurePublished
CVE-2025-66376
Stored Cross-Site Scripting in Synacor Zimbra Collaboration Suite Classic UI

Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) 10 before 10.0.18 and 10.1 before 10.1.13 is vulnerable to stored cross-site scripting through its Classic webmail interface. An attacker sends an HTML e-mail containing a Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) @import directive, and when a recipient opens that message in Classic UI, the injected content executes as script in the victim's browser session. Successful exploitation lets an attacker run arbitrary JavaScript in the Zimbra webmail context, potentially hijacking the session, reading mail, or acting as the user, consistent with the cross-scope impact reflected in the 6.1 CVSS score. Only deployments running the affected ZCS 10/10.1 versions with the Classic UI enabled are exposed; organizations on patched releases or not using Classic UI are not impacted. CISA added the flaw to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2026-03-18, confirming exploitation in the wild, and recent reporting describes Zimbra flaws being used by Russian-aligned espionage actors against Western and Ukrainian targets.

Do: Upgrade ZCS to 10.0.18 or 10.1.13 (or later) following vendor instructions, as required by CISA's BOD 22-01 KEV guidance; federal agencies and critical infrastructure should prioritize this by the catalog deadline. Until patched, filter or sanitize HTML mail containing CSS @import directives and consider restricting or disabling the Classic UI. Check mailboxes and webmail access logs for suspicious HTML messages and unexplained session activity, which may indicate exploitation.

6.120% KEV
  • Synacor Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) 10 10.x before 10.0.18
  • Synacor Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) 10.1 10.1.x before 10.1.13
largetens of thousands of internet-exposed Zimbra servers (public internet scans typically surface on the order of 50,000+ Zimbra instances), affecting an estimated…
CVE-2026-73570
Unauthenticated OS Command Injection RCE in Synacor Zimbra Collaboration Suite

CVE-2026-73570 is an OS command injection vulnerability (CWE-78) in Synacor Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) before 10.1.20, caused by improper sanitization of untrusted input during SNMP notification processing. It is triggered when the optional zimbra-snmp package is installed and SNMP notifications are enabled: an unauthenticated attacker sends specially crafted SMTP requests that the flawed notification path turns into execution of arbitrary operating system commands. Successful exploitation runs commands as the Zimbra user, giving attackers control of the mail server's service account with high confidentiality and integrity impact across the host. Only ZCS deployments running the optional SNMP component with notifications enabled are vulnerable; other Zimbra installs are not exposed to this specific flaw. The flaw is under active exploitation: CISA added it to the KEV catalog on 2026-08-21, Poland's CERT has warned of in-the-wild attacks, unpatched Zimbra servers are reported compromised, and two public proof-of-concept exploits exist.

Do: Upgrade to Zimbra Collaboration Suite 10.1.20 or later per vendor instructions; as an interim mitigation, disable SNMP notifications or remove the zimbra-snmp package on hosts that do not need it. Federal operators must satisfy the CISA KEV/BOD 26-04 requirement, and all administrators of internet-facing Zimbra servers should hunt for signs of compromise (unexpected processes or persistence under the zimbra user) since unpatched systems are already being exploited.

8.932% KEV PoC ×4
  • Synacor Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) before 10.1.20 (when the optional zimbra-snmp package is installed and SNMP notifications are enabled)
large≈10,000-50,000 internet-exposed ZCS servers, with only the subset running zimbra-snmp with notifications enabled actually vulnerable
Full article412 words · extracted from thehackernews.com · click to collapse

Ravie LakshmananAug 20, 2026Vulnerability / Email Security

A now-patched security flaw impacting Zimbra Collaboration (ZCS) has come under active exploitation in the wild, according to the Polish Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT Polska).

The vulnerability in question is CVE-2026-73570 (CVSS score: 8.9), which refers to a case of command injection that can lead to remote code execution.

"A remote code execution vulnerability exists in Zimbra Collaboration (ZCS) before 10.1.20 when the optional zimbra-snmp package is installed, and SNMP notifications are enabled," according to a description of the flaw in the NIST National Vulnerability Database (NVD).

"Due to improper sanitization of untrusted input during SNMP notification processing, an unauthenticated attacker can send specially crafted SMTP requests that may result in execution of arbitrary operating system commands as the Zimbra user."

The security issue was patched by Zimbra last month with the release of version 10.1.20.

In a bulletin issued earlier this week, CERT Polska alerted of active exploitation efforts targeting the flaw, urging users to check the "/var/log/zimbra.log" file for suspicious Zimbra service restarts, as well as for files created in the below directories within the last 30 days -

  • /opt/zimbra/jetty/webapps/
  • /opt/zimbra/jetty_base/webapps/
  • /tmp/

Vulnerabilities in Zimbra have been frequently targeted by threat actors. Last month, the U.S. government disclosed details of a phishing campaign orchestrated by a Russia-linked adversary called Laundry Bear (aka CL-STA-1114, TA488, UNK_PitStop, and Void Blizzard) that involved targeting Zimbra mail servers belonging to Western government and commercial organizations since at least July 2025.

The campaign was found to have weaponized CVE-2025-66376, a stored cross-site scripting vulnerability in Zimbra's Classic UI, to deliver a malicious JavaScript payload dubbed ZimReaper to harvest email communications and other sensitive data.

Update

On August 21, 2026, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added CVE-2026-73570 to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, requiring Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies to apply the fixes for the flaw by August 24, 2026.

The Shadowserver Foundation has since revealed that 267 Zimbra instances have been compromised as of August 24, 2026, down from a high of 274 last week. The U.S. leads with 46 infected instances, followed by Sweden (21), France (20), and Germany (17).

(The story was updated after publication on August 22, 2026, to include details of the CVE identifiers and their addition to CISA's KEV catalog.)

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