Vulnerability report

Exploited in the wild Confirmed confidence In CISA KEV

CVE-2026-102490

Zammad Privilege Escalation

Zammad · affected before 7.2.2

Watch CVE-2026-102490 Browse KEV feed
Severity
CVSS 8.5 · High
Confidence
Confirmed
Exploit status
Exploited in the wild
EPSS
0.5%
First observed
—
Last observed
—

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2026-102490 is a vulnerability affecting Zammad. Zammad packages built with packager.io (DEB and RPM) could have allowed a local attacker who already had file system write privileges as the unprivileged zammad...

Is it exploited?

Yes. Previdian tracks this CVE as a known exploited vulnerability. Confidence is confirmed. Listed in CISA KEV. Also confirmed by third-party sources.

Who is affected?

Zammad affected before 7.2.2.

What should we do?

Prioritize remediation. Validate affected assets and apply vendor fixes on an accelerated timeline.

Overview

Zammad Privilege Escalation

Zammad packages built with packager.io (DEB and RPM) could have allowed a local attacker who already had file system write privileges as the unprivileged zammad service account to escalate to full root privileges on the host. Service processes began running as root and executed files that were owned and writable by the zammad account before dropping their identity to that account. An attacker holding that foothold could have escalated within seconds, because the affected services were restarted automatically whenever they stopped; no administrator interaction was required.

Only installations from the DEB and RPM packages were affected — installations from source or the official container images were not. All released packaged versions were affected.

Zammad GmbH Affected
Zammad
Before 7.2.2
Zammad GmbH Unaffected
Zammad
Before *
View vendor advisory (opens in new tab)
Published
30 Sep 2026
Exploitation Reported
30 Sep 2026
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None

Tags

cisa

CVE References

Exploitation evidence

Why Previdian marks this CVE as exploited

Third-party attestation and first-party sensor observation are shown separately so teams can judge the evidence chain.

Exploited in the wild

NCSC Security Advisories

Recorded 30 Sep 2026

A trusted third party reported exploitation.

Known exploited vulnerability sources

Per-source evidence links for KEV attestations are available through the Previdian Pro API.

Learn about Pro API access
Source Added
NCSC Security Advisories First 2026-09-30 18:53 UTC
CISA 2026-10-02 15:50 UTC
CVE 2026-10-07 14:10 UTC

Detection

Operational artifacts and observed signals

Make the evidence actionable in scanner, SOC, and edge-control workflows.

Observed signals

Request targets
User-Agents
Callback hosts
0
0
0

Request targets and User-Agents available in Pro. Callback host details available in Enterprise.

Scanner coverage

No scanner integrations recorded yet.

Virtual patch status

No Previdian virtual patch is currently available. Future rules ship for ModSecurity, Cloudflare, and AWS WAF.

Learn about virtual patches →

No detection artifacts or sensor request patterns are available for this CVE yet.

Check back as sensor telemetry and scanner integrations are updated.

Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v4.0

8.5 High

Potential damage if exploited. Separate from whether attackers are using it.

CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:A/AU:Y/V:D

EPSS

0.5%

Estimated chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Previdian's warning comes from evidence, not this score.

Weaknesses

Improper Privilege Management CWE-269

Recent mention · TheRegister

AI agents hacked the hackers, stealing email addresses from security research org

Chained Zammad flaws enabled session hijacking, code execution, and root escalation in seconds

Read full advisory

All CVSS Scores

CVSS v4.0 8.5 High

CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:A/AU:Y/V:D

CVSS v3.1 9.8 Critical

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

All Mentions

Recent mention · TheRegister

AI agents hacked the hackers, stealing email addresses from security research org

TheRegister · 01 Oct 2026

Chained Zammad flaws enabled session hijacking, code execution, and root escalation in seconds

Recent mention · The Hacker News

ThreatsDay: AI-Powered Zero-Day Chain, 543K Live Secrets, Model Inspection RCE and 13 More Stories

The Hacker News · 01 Oct 2026

This week, the useful words are boring ones: inspect, cache, compile, store, trust. Each sounds harmless. Each can become an attack path when a system does a little more than people expect. A model check can run code. A cache can mix up requests. A public secret can stay useful for years. That is the lesson running through the list. Attackers do not always need a brilliant new trick. They can

Recent mention · Security Affairs

AI Agent Chains Zammad Zero-Days To Take Over DIVD Systems in Seconds

Security Affairs · 01 Oct 2026

DIVD was breached through two Zammad zero-days that let an AI agent reach root in seconds, steal data and pivot to other services before being stopped. The Dutch Institute for Vulnerability Disclosure, a nonprofit organization of volunteer security researchers whose whole job is finding and responsibly disclosing vulnerabilities in other people’s software, just disclosed that […]

Recent mention · NCSC Security Advisories

NCSC-2026-0396 [1.00] [H/H] Kwetsbaarheden aangetroffen in Zammad

NCSC Security Advisories · 30 Sep 2026

Er zijn twee zeroday-kwetsbaarheden aangetroffen in Zammad. De eerste kwetsbaarheid heeft het kenmerk CVE-2026-102489 toegekend gekregen. De kwetsbaarheid stelt een ongeauthenticeerde kwaadwillende op afstand in staat om willekeurige code uit te voeren. De kwetsbaarheid is aanwezig in Zammad versies 6.3.0 tot en met 6.5.4. De tweede kwetsbaarheid heeft het kenmerk CVE-2026-102490 toegekend gekregen. Deze kwetsbaarheid stelt een kwaadwillende die over lage rechten beschikt in staat om rootrechten te verkrijgen op het kwetsbare systeem. Deze kwetsbaarheid is aanwezig in alle gangbare versies...

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation

  1. 14:10 UTC

    KEV confirmed by CVE

    Exploitation attested by an external source

  2. 15:50 UTC

    Added to CISA KEV

    Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

  3. 18:53 UTC

    Added to Previdian KEV Feed

    High-confidence, third-party attested exploitation

  4. 16:21 UTC

    CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  5. 09:46 UTC

    CVE ID reserved

    Identifier reserved by the CNA

Pro API

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Confidence, exploit status, sensor telemetry, PoCs, scanner integrations, mentions, and tags are available programmatically for VM, SOC, and CTI workflows.

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  • Evidence confidence and provenance
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  • Automation-ready JSON delivery

GET /api/v2/pro/kevs/CVE-2026-102490

Free JSON includes basic KEV fields 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2026-102490",
  "confidence": "Confirmed",
  "cvss_score": 8.5,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.0055,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": false
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}