Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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ReconFetch CSRF token from any GET response
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DeliverySend unauthenticated POST to /api/v1/import/otrs/import_check
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ExploitAction skips missing setup_done guard, enters OTRS retry loop
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InstallWorker blocks ~115s (30s+45s sleeps)
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C2Repeat at few req/s
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ExecuteSaturate Puma worker pool
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ImpactSustained denial of service
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A07:2025 - Authentication Failures
ASVS 5.0
V6 - Authentication Authentication required for critical functions
MITRE ATT&CK
1 technique across 1 tactic: Initial Access The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Exploitation Conditions | No special conditions - remote unauthenticated exploitation against default configurations of a fully set-up production Zammad instance prior to 7.0.2. The vulnerable actions import_check and import_status lack the setup_done_response guard that other actions in the same controller carry, so they execute even after setup is complete; no account, valid OTRS import configuration, or target knowledge beyond the hostname is required, and the CSRF token is trivially obtained from any prior GET response. The only limiting factors are that the instance must be network-reachable and running a version below 7.0.2; effective denial requires sustaining a modest request rate (a few per second) for as long as the outage is desired. |
| Impact | This is a genuine, easily-triggered availability risk despite being 'only' a DoS. The CVSS 4.0 vector (AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N) and the description agree fully: an unauthenticated remote attacker can trigger it against default production configurations with no special access. Impact is confined to availability (VC:N/VI:N/VA:H) - there is no confidentiality or integrity exposure. The asymmetry is the notable signal: each cheap request forces ~115 seconds of server-side blocking, so a few requests per second exhaust the Puma worker pool and keep the instance down for as long as traffic continues. No EPSS score, CISA KEV listing, or public PoC is provided in the input, so exploitation is 'no public exploit identified at time of analysis'; however, the vulnerability is so trivial (a single documented POST, CSRF token freely obtainable from any GET) that low exploitation friction offsets the absence of an EPSS/PoC signal. Net: a real patching priority for exposed Zammad instances, but tempered by the DoS-only impact and the product's niche footprint - not a critical data-breach event. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker who only knows a Zammad instance's hostname sends repeated unauthenticated POST requests to /api/v1/import/otrs/import_check (grabbing a CSRF token from any prior GET). Each request enters a retry loop against a blank OTRS endpoint, sleeping 30s+45s and tying up a Puma worker for ~115 seconds; a few requests per second saturate the whole worker pool and deny service for the duration of the traffic. No public exploit code is identified, but the attack requires no account, no valid import configuration, and no tooling beyond an HTTP client. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Sep 25, 2026
Unauthenticated denial of service in Zammad prior to 7.0.2 allows any remote attacker who can reach the host to tie up a Puma request worker for roughly 115 seconds per request by POSTing to /api/v1/import/otrs/import_check. The import_check and import_status actions are missing the setup_done_response guard that other actions in the same controller enforce, so they run against fully set-up production instances, where the code enters a retry loop against a blank OTRS endpoint and sleeps 30 s then 45 s between attempts. Each request costs the attacker almost nothing, so a sustained rate of just a few requests per second saturates the worker pool and keeps the instance unavailable as long as the traffic continues; no account, valid import configuration, or target knowledge beyond the hostname is required, and the CSRF token is trivially harvested from any prior GET response. This is a genuine availability risk that is trivial to trigger, but no public exploit code or confirmed active exploitation has been identified at time of analysis.
RemediationAI
Upgrade to Zammad 7.0.2, the vendor-released patch that restores the setup_done_response guard on the import controller actions (release notes: https://github.com/zammad/zammad/releases/tag/7.0.2; advisory: https://github.com/zammad/zammad/security/advisories/GHSA-45cx-9mrq-mmcj; fix commit: https://github.com/zammad/zammad/commit/a04a95b69496306af4c1fbd369a54981122e67c0); note that released patched version 7.0.2 is the authoritative fix and no interim vendor patch below that version is identified. If immediate upgrade is not possible, the most effective compensating control is to block or return 404 for the migration API path at the edge - deny POST and GET requests matching /api/v1/import/otrs/ (in particular import_check, import_status, and import_start) using your reverse proxy, WAF, or ingress rules; the trade-off is that this also disables the OTRS migration wizard for any instance still legitimately importing, so lift the rule after migrating. Rate limiting alone is weak because even one request per worker cycle consumes ~115 seconds of thread time, but a low per-IP connection and request cap on /api/v1/import/ raises the attacker's cost and blunts burst saturation at the risk of throttling legitimate admin traffic. Do not rely on CSRF protections as a mitigation: the token is obtainable from any prior GET response and the endpoint is reachable without authentication. Monitor and alert on repeated POSTs to /api/v1/import/otrs/import_check and on Puma request-queue or thread-exhaustion metrics to detect attempted abuse, and restrict network exposure of the Zammad web interface to trusted networks where feasible.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 1 package in euvd
Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
Zammad is a Ruby on Rails helpdesk and customer-support platform that ships an OTRS migration wizard. The vulnerability class is CWE-306 (Missing Authentication for Critical Function): the ImportOtrsController defines a setup_done_response check used by several actions to refuse requests once the instance has completed setup, but the import_check and import_status actions were omitted from that guard. As a result, POST /api/v1/import/otrs/import_check is reachable on a hardened, fully configured production deployment. When executed, the handler invokes Import::OTRS::Requester#list/#load against an unconfigured (blank) OTRS endpoint, fails, and then enters a retry loop with fixed sleeps of 30 s and 45 s, holding the Puma thread for approximately 115 seconds before returning. Because Zammad's web tier is served by Puma's thread/worker pool, repeated concurrent requests exhaust the pool and stall all other HTTP traffic. The upstream fix (commit a04a95b69496306af4c1fbd369a54981122e67c0) adds the setup_done_response guard to import_start, short-circuits import_check with an early 'not running' render, and hardens the CoffeeScript frontend to null-check result and issues fields, with request specs asserting that a set-up instance returns setup_done true and that Requester.list/load are never called. The CVSS:4.0 vector (AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N) and the independent CVSS:3.1 assessment (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H) agree: confidentiality and integrity are unaffected and the sole impact is high availability loss.
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Severity by source
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Unauthenticated remote request with no user interaction reliably blocks workers for ~115s each; impact is availability-only, no scope change, so C:N/I:N/A:H.
Primary rating from Vendor (GitHub_M).
CVSS VectorVendor: GitHub_M
Lifecycle Timeline
2DescriptionCVE.org
Zammad is a web based open source helpdesk/customer support system. Prior to 7.0.2, summary An unauthenticated request to POST /api/v1/import/otrs/import_check blocks a Zammad request worker for roughly two minutes. The import_check and import_status actions are missing the setup_done_response guard that other actions in the same controller carry, so they execute on fully set-up production instances. The action enters a retry loop against a blank OTRS endpoint, sleeping for 30 s + 45 s between attempts. Impact An unauthenticated remote attacker denies service to a production Zammad instance. Each request costs almost nothing and forces ~115 seconds of server-side blocking. A few requests per second saturate the Puma worker pool. The condition persists as long as the traffic continues. No account, valid import configuration, or target knowledge beyond the hostname is needed. CSRF token is trivially obtained from any prior GET response. This issue is fixed in version 7.0.2.
Technical POC Analysis
CWE-306 (Missing Authentication for Critical Function), with CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption) as the secondary weakness the advisory also assigns.
Full technical POC analysis - root cause, step-by-step exploitation and patch breakdown - is part of the Pro and Business plans.
Executive ViewAI
Zammad, the helpdesk and ticketing platform, carries a high-severity availability flaw that lets anyone able to reach the server consume processing capacity and render the service unusable at very low attacker cost. The affected import endpoints operate without the safeguard that normally prevents them from running on fully configured production instances, so a thin, sustained stream of requests can keep the platform down and cut off staff and customers from ticketing and support workflows. Leadership should treat this as a service-continuity risk to customer-facing support operations; no public exploit identified at time of analysis, but the barrier to triggering it is low enough that exposure should be reduced proactively.
No vendor-released patch identified at time of analysis. Interim mitigations: block or rate-limit POST requests to /api/v1/import/otrs/import_check and /api/v1/import/otrs/import_status at the WAF or reverse proxy; restrict network reachability of the Zammad host to trusted users/VPN; disable the OTRS import feature in production if not required; monitor Puma worker exhaustion and request rates to those endpoints; and add Puma workers only as a short-term stopgap while a vendor fix is delivered.
Threat Intelligence Overview
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Session hijacking in self-hosted Zammad 6.3.0 through 6.5.4 allows remote, unauthenticated attackers to take over a legi
Local privilege escalation in Zammad lets an attacker who already controls the unprivileged 'zammad' service account ele
An issue was discovered in Zammad before 1.0.4, 1.1.x before 1.1.3, and 1.2.x before 1.2.1. Rated critical severity (CVS
An issue was discovered in Zammad before 1.0.4, 1.1.x before 1.1.3, and 1.2.x before 1.2.1, caused by lack of a protecti
Zammad 5.2.0 is vulnerable to privilege escalation. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely e
An issue was discovered in Zammad before 4.1.1. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely explo
An issue was discovered in Zammad before 4.1.1. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely explo
An issue was discovered in Zammad before 3.4.1. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely explo
An issue was discovered in Zammad before 6.3.0. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.1), this vulnerability is remotely explo
Zammad's SSO auto-linking logic can be abused to take over any existing local account, including agent and administrator
An access control issue in Zammad v5.0.3 allows attackers to write entries to the CTI caller log without authentication.
An issue was discovered in Zammad before 4.1.1. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.1), this vulnerability is remotely explo
EUVD-2026-87220
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
GitHub
Exploit-DB