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Russia-aligned threat actors are exploiting a flaw in MDaemon mail server software to run code on the server. Victims don’t have to open or click anything.

ESET’s APT Activity Report for Q2–Q3 2026 describes an active campaign in Ukraine. ESET could not attribute it to a known Russia-aligned group.

According to technical research published by ESET, MDaemon relies on ClamAV to scan incoming email attachments. Old ClamAV versions are vulnerable to CVE-2025-8088, a WinRAR path traversal flaw that ESET uncovered last year.

ClamAV fixed the flaw on July 27, 2025. MDaemon kept shipping an outdated libclamunrar.dll library.

The attack chain is simple: attackers craft a malicious RAR archive that exploits CVE-2025-8088, email the archive to any address on a vulnerable MDaemon server, MDaemon invokes ClamAV to scan the attachment which triggers the exploit, and the exploit writes a malicious DLL to the mail server’s file system.

Attack Execution Flow Diagram (Image Source: eset)

The attackers used no lure because no one needs to open the message. The mail server’s own scanning process runs the exploit.

This tactic fits a wider pattern. Russian groups continue to abuse the same bug through Russia-aligned WinRAR attacks against Ukraine.

CERT-UA tracks the two malware families used in the campaign as HELLAGE and HELLTAG.

PrincessSpy Mobile Download Site (Image Source: eset)

Mail servers hold sensitive communications. That makes them valuable targets for espionage groups. Earlier campaigns by Russian actors used webmail flaws to steal credentials and 2FA secrets.

MDaemon fixed the flaw on August 25, 2026, in version 26.0.4. Releases before 26.0.4 that ship the old ClamAV library remain exposed. Fixed ClamAV builds are 1.4.6 and 1.5.4.

Defenders must protect environments by upgrading MDaemon to version 26.0.4 or later immediately and confirming that the bundled ClamAV libraries, including libclamunrar.dll, are updated.

Security teams should also review the mail server file system for unexpected DLLs dropped outside normal directories, hunt for outbound connections to unknown C&C servers and for Telegram bot API traffic from the mail server, audit mailboxes for unauthorized access or bulk message exfiltration, and restrict outbound internet access from mail servers.

Organizations in Ukraine and across Europe should treat unpatched MDaemon servers as potentially compromised.