Analysis Summary

On Tuesday, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) noted indications of ongoing exploitation and added a high-severity vulnerability affecting Microsoft SharePoint to its list of Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV).

The vulnerability, identified as CVE-2024-38094 (CVSS score: 7.2), affects SharePoint and is a deserialization flaw that may allow remote code execution. The vulnerability allows an authorized attacker with Site Owner access to insert and run arbitrary code within the SharePoint Server environment. The company announced patches for the security flaw as part of its July 2024 Patch Tuesday upgrades.

The availability of proof-of-concept (PoC) exploits for the vulnerability in the public domain adds to the exploitation risk. To exploit the vulnerability in the SharePoint client API, the PoC script generates a particular folder and file, uses NTLM to automate authentication to a target SharePoint site, and transmits a specially constructed XML payload.

As of right now, no reports exist about the exploit of CVE-2024-38094 in the wild. Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies must implement the most recent remedies by November 12, 2024, to secure their networks due to in-the-wild exploitation.

Impact

• Code Execution

Indicators of Compromise

CVE

• CVE-2024-38094

Affected Vendors

Remediation

• Use Microsoft Automatic Update to apply the appropriate patch for your system, or the Microsoft Security Update Guide to search for available patches.
• 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.