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Actively exploited in the wild. This CVE is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list — treat remediation as urgent. Federal remediation due by 10 Nov 2022.
Zimbra Collaboration SuiteApplication · Synacor

CVE-2022-41352

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-09-26
Patch available
A vendor patch is available. No clean upgrade release — apply the published patch.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
In the wild High EPSS Public exploit Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click Patch available

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
An issue was discovered in Zimbra Collaboration (ZCS) 8.8.15 and 9.0. An attacker can upload arbitrary files through amavis via a cpio loophole (extraction to /opt/zimbra/jetty/webapps/zimbra/public) that can lead to incorrect access to any other user accounts. Zimbra recommends pax over cpio. Also, pax is in the prerequisites of Zimbra on Ubuntu; however, pax is no longer part of a default Red Hat installation after RHEL 6 (or CentOS 6). Once pax is installed, amavis automatically prefers it over cpio.

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 · high confidence

In Zimbra Collaboration 8.8.15 and 9.0, the amavis mail filtering service uses cpio for extracting archived attachments. An attacker can exploit a path traversal flaw in cpio extraction to write arbitrary files to the webroot (/opt/zimbra/jetty/webapps/zimbra/public), potentially achieving remote code execution or accessing other user accounts.

MitigationInstall the pax utility on the Zimbra server so amavis automatically prefers pax over cpio for archive extraction, eliminating the arbitrary file upload vulnerability.

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
Zimbra Collaboration SuiteApplication
Affected:= 9.0.0= 8.8.15

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. Check Zimbra version
    Run 'zmcontrol -v' or check '/opt/zimbra/.version' to obtain the installed ZCS version
    Affected if The installed version equals 8.8.15 or 9.0.0 exactly
  2. Verify amavis service status
    Run 'zmamavisctl status' or check if the amavis service is running with 'zmlocalconfig -s amavis'
    Affected if The amavis service is enabled and running on the system
  3. Check for pax utility presence
    Run 'which pax' or 'rpm -q pax' to determine if the pax utility is installed
    Affected if The pax utility is NOT installed; the system relies on cpio for archive extraction, which is the vulnerable code path
  4. Inspect public web directory for suspicious files
    List files in '/opt/zimbra/jetty/webapps/zimbra/public' and check for unexpected executable or script files that were not intentionally deployed
    Affected if Unexpected files exist in this directory, especially executable scripts, JSP files, or archives that were not placed there by administrators

A system is affected if it runs ZCS version 8.8.15 or 9.0.0 with amavis enabled and without the pax utility installed, or if unauthorized files are present in the public web directory.

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
Patch available Apply the vendor patch
Vendor patch wiki.zimbra.com →
Interim mitigation

Install the pax utility on the Zimbra server so amavis automatically prefers pax over cpio for archive extraction, eliminating the arbitrary file upload vulnerability.

Recommended fix High confidence

ZCS 8.8.15 Patch 24 or later / ZCS 9.0.0 Patch 17 or later (or latest available patch for respective branches)

  1. Install pax package on the Zimbra server: On RHEL/CentOS run 'yum install pax' or 'dnf install pax'; On Ubuntu run 'apt-get install pax'
  2. Verify pax is installed correctly by running 'which pax' and 'pax --version'
  3. Restart the amavis service to ensure it picks up pax: 'zmmamctl restart' or 'systemctl restart amavis'
  4. Confirm amavis is using pax instead of cpio by checking the amavis logs or running 'ps aux | grep amavis' to verify the process is running
  5. If the server was previously exploited, audit /opt/zimbra/jetty/webapps/zimbra/public for any unexpected files and remove them
  6. Ensure the Zimbra firewall is properly configured to restrict access to administrative interfaces

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

Fix this in Zimbra Collaboration Suite Exploited in the wild — priority engagement
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
7.0 hours of engineering $1,240
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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-2022-41352 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
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data