CVE-2026-102490: Zammad GmbH Zammad Improper Privilege Management Vulnerability

Should you act?

Exploited: patch now if you run it

CISA has confirmed exploitation in the wild. This signal is computed from CISA KEV, EPSS and CVSS data; it is not an editorial verdict.

• Yes, if you run Zammad GmbH Zammad. CISA added this CVE to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2026-10-02, which means there is reliable evidence of exploitation in the wild. US federal agencies must remediate by 2026-10-05; treat that as the outer limit, not the target.
• EPSS 0.5%, percentile 45: FIRST’s model estimates a 0.5% chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days, higher than 45% of all scored CVEs (low). EPSS is a probability, not a verdict.
• Needs local access needed. Lower urgency for most teams unless an attacker could already run code on the machine.
• Editorial verdict: Act now. Zammad CVE-2026-102489/102490: Exploited RCE-to-Root Chain — Self-hosted Zammad on 6.x is remotely exploitable and was used in a real breach: upgrade to 7.2.2 today (6.5.5 only as a stopgap), and patch DEB/RPM installs of any version to close the root escalation.

What it is

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.

CISA’s summary

Zammad GmbH Zammad contains an improper privilege management vulnerability that can allow the local zammad user to escalate privileges to root. This vulnerability can be chained with CVE-2026-102489.

Weakness type: CWE-269.

Product: Zammad GmbH Zammad · Assigned by: DIVD · Published: 2026-09-30

Affected and fixed versions

Severity scores

• Attack vector: local access needed
• Attack complexity: low
• Attack requirements: none
• Privileges required: low (any account)
• User interaction: none

CVSS measures how bad a flaw is if exploited, not how likely exploitation is. Read it next to the exploitation data below.

Exploitation and urgency

• CISA KEV: added 2026-10-02; federal due date 2026-10-05. Known ransomware use: Unknown.
• CISA required action: Apply mitigations in accordance with vendor instructions, ensuring compliance with CISA’s BOD 26-04 Prioritizing Security Updates Based on Risk (see URL in Notes) guidance and CISA’s “Forensics Triage Requirements” (see URL in Notes). Follow applicable BOD 26-04 guidance for cloud services or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable. Stakeholders are responsible for evaluating each asset's internet exposure and ensuring adherence to BOD 26-04 patching guidelines.
• CISA SSVC assessment: exploitation active, automatable no, technical impact total.
• FIRST EPSS (model of 2026-10-21): 0.55% probability of exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 45.

Timeline

• 2026-09-30 — CVE record published by DIVD
• 2026-09-30 — erroneo.us brief: Zammad CVE-2026-102489/102490: Exploited RCE-to-Root Chain
• 2026-10-02 — Added to CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog
• 2026-10-05 — CISA remediation deadline for US federal agencies
• 2026-10-08 — CVE record last updated

Sources and references

Original sources first. Version and fix details should always be confirmed against the vendor or project advisory.

Vendor and project advisories, patches

1. zammad.com zammad.com
2. github.com github.com
3. Listed in CISA KEV notes (zammad.com) zammad.com
4. Listed in CISA KEV notes (community.zammad.org) community.zammad.org

Vulnerability records

1. CVE.org record CVE-2026-102490 cve.org
2. NVD entry CVE-2026-102490 nvd.nist.gov

Government

1. CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog entry cisa.gov
2. Listed in CISA KEV notes (cisa.gov) cisa.gov
3. Listed in CISA KEV notes (cisa.gov) cisa.gov

Other references from the CVE record and advisory

1. csirt.divd.nl csirt.divd.nl
2. csirt.divd.nl csirt.divd.nl

All exploited Zammad GmbH vulnerabilities · Today’s Security Digest