Skip to main content
Meet us at Black Hat USA 2026— Las Vegas, August 1–6Book a Meeting
Mallory
CriticalCISA KEVExploited in the wildPublic exploit

Authentication Bypass in SmarterTools SmarterMail Password Reset API

IdentifiersCVE-2026-23760CWE-288· Authentication Bypass Using an…Also known aswt_2026_0001

SmarterTools SmarterMail versions prior to Build 9511 contain an authentication bypass vulnerability in the password reset API, specifically the /api/v1/auth/force-reset-password endpoint, implemented in SmarterMail.Web.Api.AuthenticationController.ForceResetPassword. The endpoint permits anonymous requests and fails to properly verify the submitted existing password or require a valid reset token when processing password resets for system administrator accounts. An attacker can submit a known administrator username together with a chosen new password and set the request as a system administrator reset action, causing the target administrator password to be changed without authentication. Reporting also notes the vulnerable logic involved the IsSysAdmin flag and insufficient validation of the old password. Because SmarterMail system administrator access exposes built-in management functionality that can execute operating system commands, successful exploitation can be chained directly to host-level remote code execution.

Share:
For your environment

Are you exposed to this one?

Mallory correlates every CVE against your assets, your vendors, and active adversary campaigns. Know which vulnerabilities matter for you, not just which ones are loud.

ANALYST BRIEF

Impact, mitigation & remediation

What it means. What to do now. Patch path, mitigations, and the assume-compromise checklist.

Impact

What an attacker gets, and what they’ve been doing with it.

Successful exploitation results in full compromise of the SmarterMail instance by allowing unauthenticated takeover of a system administrator account. With SmarterMail administrative privileges, an attacker can authenticate as the compromised administrator, modify system settings, create malicious System Events, and abuse built-in administrative functionality such as Volume Mount command execution to run arbitrary operating system commands. This can effectively yield SYSTEM access on Windows or root-equivalent access on Linux hosts, enabling persistence, reconnaissance, lateral movement, data theft, and ransomware deployment.

Mitigation

If you can’t patch tonight, do this now.

If immediate patching is not possible, restrict access to the SmarterMail administrative and password reset API surface, especially /api/v1/auth/force-reset-password, to trusted administrative networks only using reverse proxy, WAF, VPN, IP allowlisting, and network segmentation controls. Isolate SmarterMail servers from the internal network to reduce lateral movement risk, and implement strict egress filtering to limit outbound command-and-control or payload retrieval. Monitor application logs for anonymous POST requests to /api/v1/auth/force-reset-password, subsequent authentication to privileged accounts, creation of System Events, suspicious domain-put/domain-delete activity, and related cleanup actions.

Remediation

Patch, then assume compromise.

Upgrade SmarterTools SmarterMail to Build 9511 or later. The provided content consistently states that versions prior to Build 9511 are vulnerable and that Build 9511, released January 15, 2026, contains the fix. Organizations should also review potentially exposed or outdated SmarterMail instances for signs of compromise, including suspicious requests to /api/v1/auth/force-reset-password, unexpected administrator password changes, malicious System Events, unauthorized domain additions/deletions, and post-compromise artifacts.
PUBLIC EXPLOITS

Exploits

2 valid exploits after Mallory filtered fakes, detection scripts, and README-only repos (1 hidden).

VALID 2 / 3 TOTALView more in app
CVE-2026-0001MaturityPoCVerified exploit

This repository contains a small, focused Python proof-of-concept exploit for an unauthenticated SmarterTools SmarterMail authentication bypass identified as WT-2026-0001 and also referenced in one script as CVE-2026-23760. The repository structure is simple: top-level legal/disclaimer documentation, a detailed exploit-specific subdirectory (WT-2026-0001/) containing a README and the main exploit script, plus a second standalone PoC script at the repository root. The main exploit logic is in WT-2026-0001/exploit.py. It defines a SmarterMailExploit class with three core actions: (1) check_vulnerability(), which sends a POST request to /api/v1/auth/force-reset-password using a crafted JSON body and interprets a successful JSON response as vulnerable; (2) exploit(), which sends a similar POST request but with the operator-supplied replacement password to reset the admin password; and (3) verify_login(), which only prints instructions for manual login verification at /login.aspx. The script uses requests.Session(), disables TLS certificate verification, sets browser-like headers, and supports CLI arguments for target URL, username, replacement password, and a check-only mode. The exploit capability is straightforward and actionable: it resets an administrator password without prior authentication by abusing the force-reset-password API and setting IsSysAdmin to true while supplying an arbitrary OldPassword value. This yields administrative access to the SmarterMail web interface if the target is vulnerable. The exploit itself does not automate remote code execution, persistence, or lateral movement. However, the included documentation explicitly states that admin access can be followed by abuse of SmarterMail's Volume Mount functionality for command execution, making the password reset a stepping stone to full compromise. The secondary script, smartermail_poc.py, is a shorter standalone variant of the same attack. It performs a single POST request to the same endpoint with similar JSON fields and prints the response. It lacks the more structured vulnerability-check workflow of the main exploit but confirms the same core capability. Overall, this is a real exploit repository rather than a detector-only project. It is best classified as OPERATIONAL: it contains working exploit code and an attacker-controlled payload element (new password), but it is not part of a larger exploitation framework and does not include modular post-exploitation automation.

HORKimhabDisclosed May 13, 2026pythonmarkdownnetworkweb
CVE-2026-23760_SmarterMail-Auth-Bypass-and-RCEMaturityPoCVerified exploit

Repository contains a single Python exploit script (exploit.py) plus README and requirements. Purpose: exploit SmarterMail via a two-step chain described as “Auth Bypass & RCE”. Step 1 abuses the API endpoint /api/v1/auth/force-reset-password by sending a JSON body with IsSysAdmin set to "true" to reset an arbitrary user’s password (default target user: admin). Step 2 logs in to /api/v1/auth/authenticate-user using the new password to obtain an accessToken. Step 3 uses that Bearer token to call /api/v1/settings/sysadmin/AddOrUpdateMount with attacker-controlled commandMount (and optional commandUnmount) to execute arbitrary OS commands on the server. Structure: - README.md: explains the chain, usage, and references a watchTowr Labs write-up (WT-2026-0001). - exploit.py: implements reset_password(), login(), and exp() functions; main() parses --url, --newpass, --cmd, --username and runs the chain automatically. - requirements.txt: requests and logfy. Notable implementation details: - Network-only exploit using HTTP POST requests with JSON bodies. - Uses Authorization: Bearer <token> for the RCE step. - The exp() function does not parse/return the response (fire-and-forget), so success is inferred by lack of exception rather than server confirmation. - Hardcodes old_password="old_pass" in reset_password(), implying the endpoint is expected to ignore/override old password validation when IsSysAdmin is true.

hilwa24Disclosed Jan 23, 2026pythonnetwork
EXPOSURE SURFACE

Affected products & vendors

Products and vendors Mallory has correlated with this vulnerability. Open in Mallory to drill down to specific CPE configurations and version ranges.

VendorProductType
SmartertoolsSmartermailapplication

Vendor-confirmed product mapping. Mallory continuously reconciles this list against your asset inventory.

What this page doesn’t show

The version that knows your environment.

This page is what’s public. Mallory adds the parts that aren’t: which of your assets are affected, which adversaries are exploiting it right now, which detections to deploy, and what to do tonight.
Exposure mapping

Query your assets running an affected version, and investigate the blast radius.

Threat actor evidence18

Every observed campaign linking this CVE to a named adversary.

Associated malware24

Malware families riding this exploit, with evidence and IOCs.

Detection signatures3

YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.

Vendor-by-vendor mapping

Cross-references every affected SKU, including bundled OEM variants.

Social activity64

Community discussion across Reddit, Mastodon, and other social sources.