Due to an issue with incorrect sudo permissions, Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) suffers from a local privilege escalation issue in versio…

published 2022-10-17 4 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2022-42933

cvss: 7.8; version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 0.8%; EPSS 0.8% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 55%
public exploits: 1; Metasploit

Due to an issue with incorrect sudo permissions, Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) suffers from a local privilege escalation issue in versions 9.0.0 and prior, where the 'zimbra' user can effectively coerce postfix into running arbitrary commands as 'root'.

Patch / fix

links 1

github.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework#17141 pull request

Timeline

2022-10-13 First public exploit (Metasploit exploit/linux/local/zimbra_postfix_priv_esc)
2022-10-17 Published

CISA SSVC

Exploitation: Proof of concept is public
Automatable: no
Technical impact: total
Assessed: 17 mo ago (2025-05-13)

Exploit prediction

0.77% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 55% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

Metasploit exploit/linux/local/zimbra_postfix_priv_esc Zimbra sudo + postfix privilege escalation metasploit exploit, excellent rank, 2022-10-13
github.com https://github.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/pull/17141 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
packetstormsecurity.com http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/169430/Zimbra-Privilege-Escalation.html referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
CISA ADP	3.1	7.8	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD	3.1	7.8	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CNA	3.1	7.8	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected products

Synacor Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS)

Classification

Weakness

CWE-271 Privilege Dropping / Lowering Errors

References

github.com /rapid7/metasploit-framework/pull/17141
exploit, issue-tracking, patch, third-party-advisory
packetstormsecurity.com /files/169430/Zimbra-Privilege-Escalation.html
exploit, third-party-advisory, vdb-entry
twitter.com /ldsopreload/status/1580539318879547392
third-party-advisory

Sources

CVE List CVE-2022-3569
NVD CVE-2022-3569

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

Summary