Analysis Summary

On Tuesday, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added evidence of active exploitation to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) database, affecting the SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD) software and affecting a critical security issue.

The vulnerability, CVE-2024-28987 (CVSS score: 9.1), is related to a situation where hard-coded credentials may be exploited to obtain unauthorized access and make changes. A remote, unauthorized user may be able to access internal functionality and change data in SolarWinds Web Help Desk due to a hardcoded credential vulnerability.

SolarWinds made public the flaw's details in late August 2024; a month later, a cybersecurity company released more detailed information. Unauthenticated attackers can remotely access and alter all help desk ticket details thanks to this vulnerability, which frequently contains private data like shared service account credentials and passwords from reset requests.

At the moment, it's unclear who is using this flaw and how in real-world attacks. Nevertheless, the development occurred two months after CISA published to the KEV catalog another issue in the same software (CVE-2024-28986, CVSS score: 9.8). Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies must secure their networks by November 5, 2024, by implementing the most recent updates (version 12.8.3 Hotfix 2 or later) in light of ongoing exploitation.

Impact

• Unauthorized Access
• Data Manipulation
• Sensitive Data Theft

Indicators of Compromise

CVE

• CVE-2024-28987

Affected Vendors

Remediation

• Upgrade to the latest version of SolarWinds Web Help Desk, available from the SolarWinds Website.
• Organizations must test their assets for the vulnerability mentioned above and apply the available security patch or mitigation steps as soon as possible.
• Implement multi-factor authentication to add an extra layer of security to login processes.
• Regularly monitor network activity for any unusual behavior, as this may indicate that a cyberattack is underway.
• Organizations must stay vigilant and follow best practices for cybersecurity to protect their systems and data from potential threats. This includes regularly updating software and implementing strong access controls and monitoring tools.
• Develop a comprehensive incident response plan to respond effectively in case of a security breach or data leakage.
• Maintain regular backups of critical data and systems to ensure data recovery in case of a security incident.
• Adhere to security best practices, including the principle of least privilege, and ensure that users and applications have only the necessary permissions.
• Establish a robust patch management process to ensure that security patches are evaluated, tested, and applied promptly.
• Conduct security audits and assessments to evaluate the overall security posture of your systems and networks.
• Implement network segmentation to contain and isolate potential threats to limit their impact on critical systems.