MDaemon Email Server: cross-site scripting flaw under attack

What is affected

MDaemon Email Server is mostly run by companies, schools and public bodies, not on home computers. You are unlikely to have it yourself, but organisations that hold your data may. Breaches that start with flaws like this one are how personal data ends up leaked.

MDaemon Email Server contains a cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability that allows a remote attacker to load arbitrary JavaScript code via an HTML e-mail message.

What an attacker can do

This is a cross-site scripting flaw. It lets an attacker plant a script that runs in the browser of anyone who opens the affected page, which lets them steal that person's session or act on their behalf.

How it is reached

Over the internet or network

Access the attacker needs

No account needed

Does the victim have to do something?

Yes, ordinary use is enough

What to do

1. At home: nothing to install. Keep your own devices updated and use a different password for every service, so that a breach at one organisation does not open your other accounts.
2. If you administer MDaemon Email Server at work: apply the vendor's fix or mitigation now and review logs for signs of compromise, because the flaw was being exploited before it was listed.
3. If the product is past its support date and no fix exists, take it off the internet or retire it.

Apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.

Vendor advisories and fixes

• files.mdaemon.comfiles.mdaemon.com/mdaemon/beta/RelNotes_en.html
• mdaemon.commdaemon.com/pages/downloads-critical-updates

How urgent is it

CISA added this vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue on May 19, 2025, which means there is reliable evidence of attacks in the wild. US federal agencies must fix it by June 9, 2025, a deadline that has already passed. That deadline does not bind anyone else, but it shows how seriously the agency rates it.

The EPSS model estimates a 18% probability that this flaw will be exploited somewhere in the next 30 days. That is higher than 97% of all scored vulnerabilities.

Its CVSS severity score is 5.3 out of 10 (medium), as recorded in the US National Vulnerability Database.

Technical description

An XSS issue was discovered in MDaemon Email Server before version 24.5.1c. An attacker can send an HTML e-mail message with JavaScript in an img tag. This could allow a remote attacker to load arbitrary JavaScript code in the context of a webmail user's browser window.