dbcve.org
ZammadApplication

CVE-2022-35490

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-08-08
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Zammad 5.2.0 is vulnerable to privilege escalation. Zammad has a prevention against brute-force attacks trying to guess login credentials. After a configurable amount of attempts, users are invalidated and logins prevented. An attacker might work around this prevention, enabling them to send more than the configured amount of requests before the user invalidation takes place.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · moderate confidence

Zammad 5.2.0 contains a flaw in its brute-force protection mechanism that allows attackers to bypass the account lockout feature. The authentication system fails to properly enforce the configurable failed login attempt limit, enabling unlimited login attempts against user accounts without triggering invalidation.

MitigationUpgrade Zammad to the latest version containing the security patch. Until then, consider implementing additional authentication controls such as rate limiting at the network/firewall level or using CAPTCHA to supplement the flawed application-level protection.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
ZammadApplication
Affected:= 5.2.0

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify installed Zammad version
    Access the Zammad admin interface, go to System > Information, or run the command: zammad run rails r "puts Rails.configuration.x.version" to display the running version
    Affected if The installed version is exactly 5.2.0
  2. Locate configuration file for authentication settings
    Check the Zammad configuration file typically located at /etc/zammad.yml or inspect the database settings table for authentication_policy configurations
    Affected if The failed_login_attempt configuration is present but the lockout mechanism is not being enforced during authentication attempts
  3. Verify account lockout feature status
    In the admin panel, navigate to Settings > Security > Account Lockout and confirm whether the lockout feature is enabled and a maximum failed attempts value is set
    Affected if Account lockout is enabled but still allows unlimited failed login attempts without triggering lockout

You are affected if you are running Zammad version 5.2.0 and the account lockout feature fails to block authentication attempts after the configured number of failed logins.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Upgrade Zammad to the latest version containing the security patch. Until then, consider implementing additional authentication controls such as rate limiting at the network/firewall level or using CAPTCHA to supplement the flawed application-level protection.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

Zammad 5.3.0 or later stable release

  1. 1. Back up your current Zammad installation and database before making any changes.
  2. 2. Identify your current Zammad version using the admin interface or command line.
  3. 3. Access the Zammad package repository or downloads page at zammad.com.
  4. 4. Download and install the latest stable Zammad release (version 5.3.0 or later).
  5. 5. Run the Zammad database migration script if required during the upgrade process.
  6. 6. Verify the upgrade was successful by checking the version in the admin interface.
  7. 7. Test login functionality to confirm the brute-force protection is working correctly.
  8. 8. Review admin logs to ensure the authentication prevention mechanism is functioning as expected.
Caveat Review Zammad 5.3.0 release notes for any breaking changes or deprecated features before upgrading

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Zammad Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation6.0 h
  • Implementation12.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
30.0 hours of engineering $5,280
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2022-35490 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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