CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2024-28986 — SolarWinds Web Help Desk Deserialization of Untrusted Data Vulnerability

Critical CVSS 9.8 CISA KEV

SolarWinds Web Help Desk was found to be susceptible to a Java Deserialization Remote Code Execution vulnerability that, if exploited, would allow an attacker to run commands on the host machine. While it was reported as an unauthenticated vulnerability, SolarWinds has been unable to reproduce it without authentication after thorough testing. However, out of an abundance of caution, we recommend all Web Help Desk customers apply the patch, which is now available.

Severity
Critical
CVSS
9.8 (3.1)
Published
2024-08-13
CISA KEV
Known exploited
Ecosystem
java/maven
Weaknesses
CWE-502

Affected products

  • solarwinds / web_help_desk
  • solarwinds / web_help_desk / 12.8.3

Matched remediation archetype

Unsafe deserialization and object reconstruction

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Check exposure

  • Inventory serialization formats accepted from requests, queues, caches, files, cookies, and cross-service messages.
  • Trace whether untrusted input can select classes, types, callbacks, constructors, or object hooks during decoding.
  • Identify signing, schema validation, trust-boundary, and compatibility settings for each decoder.

Remediate safely

  • Replace native object deserialization with a data-only format and explicit schema validation.
  • If replacement is not immediate, use a safe decoder with a minimal type allowlist and disable polymorphic or executable hooks.
  • Update the affected library and add inert tests for unknown types, extra fields, malformed nesting, and unsigned data.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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