Synacor Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS): cross-site scripting flaw under attack

What is affected

Synacor Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) 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.

Synacor Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) contains a cross-site scripting vulnerability that exists in the Classic Web Client due to insufficient sanitization of HTML content in ICS files. When a user views an e-mail message containing a malicious ICS entry, its embedded JavaScript executes via an ontoggle event inside a tag. This allows an attacker to run arbitrary JavaScript within the victim's session, potentially leading to unauthorized actions such as setting e-mail filters to redirect messages to an attacker-controlled address. As a result, an attacker can perform unauthorized actions on the victim's account, including e-mail redirection and data exfiltration.

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

A basic user account

Does the victim have to do something?

Yes, the victim must open or click something

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 Synacor Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) 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

• wiki.zimbra.comwiki.zimbra.com/wiki/Security_Center

How urgent is it

CISA added this vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue on October 7, 2025, which means there is reliable evidence of attacks in the wild. US federal agencies must fix it by October 28, 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 4.1% probability that this flaw will be exploited somewhere in the next 30 days. That is higher than 90% of all scored vulnerabilities.

Its CVSS severity score is 5.4 out of 10 (medium), as recorded in the US National Vulnerability Database.

Technical description

An issue was discovered in Zimbra Collaboration (ZCS) 9.0 and 10.0 and 10.1. A stored cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability exists in the Classic Web Client due to insufficient sanitization of HTML content in ICS files. When a user views an e-mail message containing a malicious ICS entry, its embedded JavaScript executes via an ontoggle event inside a <details> tag. This allows an attacker to run arbitrary JavaScript within the victim's session, potentially leading to unauthorized actions such as setting e-mail filters to redirect messages to an attacker-controlled address. As a result, an attacker can perform unauthorized actions on the victim's account, including e-mail redirection and data exfiltration.