This Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) Advisory is being provided to assist individuals, agencies, and organizations in guarding against the persistent
malicious actions of cybercriminals.

Multiple vulnerabilities have been discovered in SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD), the most severe of which could allow for remote code execution. WHD is a SolarWinds IT help desk solution. Successful exploitation of the most severe of these vulnerabilities could allow for remote code execution in the context of the system. Depending on the privileges associated with the system, an attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data.

Threat Intelligence
CISA reports CVE-2024-28986 is being actively exploited in the wild.

Systems Affected

• Web Help Desk prior to 12.8.3 Hotfix 2

Risk
Government:
– Large and medium government entities: High
– Small government entities: High

Businesses:
– Large and medium business entities: High
– Small business entities: High
Home Users: Low

Recommendations

• Apply appropriate updates provided by SolarWinds to vulnerable systems immediately after appropriate testing.
• Apply the Principle of Least Privilege to all systems and services. Run all software as a non-privileged user (one without administrative privileges) to diminish the effects of a successful attack.
• Vulnerability scanning is used to find potentially exploitable software vulnerabilities to remediate them.
• Architect sections of the network to isolate critical systems, functions, or resources. Use physical and logical segmentation to prevent access to potentially sensitive systems and information. Use a DMZ to contain any internet-facing services that should not be exposed from the internal network. Configure separate virtual private cloud (VPC) instances to isolate critical cloud systems.
• Use capabilities to detect and block conditions that may lead to or be indicative of a software exploit occurring.

Reference
SolarWinds:
https://support.solarwinds.com/SuccessCenter/s/article/SolarWinds-Web-Help-Desk-12-8-3-Hotfix-2

Reporting
The NJCCIC encourages recipients who discover signs of malicious cyber activity to contact the NJCCIC via the cyber incident report form at www.cyber.nj.gov/report.

Please do not hesitate to contact us here at cybercc.org with any questions.
Also, for more background on recent cybersecurity efforts, please visit cyber.nj.gov.