CriticalCVE-2024-6670

    WhatsUp Gold HasErrors SQL Injection Authentication Bypass Vulnerability (CVE-2024-6670)

    Published In CISA KEV since Sources: SingCERT, pwn.watch, CVE.org

    What is affected, what to do

    In WhatsUp Gold versions released before 2024.0.0, a SQL Injection vulnerability allows an unauthenticated attacker to retrieve the users encrypted password.

    The vulnerability is being actively exploited; treat it as a priority. CISA lists it as used in ransomware campaigns. Update Progress Software WhatsUp Gold to version 2024.0.0. Immediate actions, mitigation and detection rules are in the runbook below.

    Affected
    • Progress Software WhatsUp Gold lt 2023.1.0..2024.0.0
    Fixed in
    • Progress Software WhatsUp Gold 2024.0.0

    Not sure whether and how you are affected? Ask a question about this vulnerability

    Metrics

    9.8

    Priority

    XIEM Effective CVSS: highest available CVSS rating from NVD and vendor data.

    Source: NVD, CVSS v3

    9.8

    CVSS v3

    Severity Critical on the scale from 0 to 10.

    Source: SingCERT, pwn.watch, CVE.org

    92.9 %

    EPSS score

    High — model estimates ≥ 50% chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days.

    Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 99.83

    Show all metrics
    Severity
    Critical
    Priority (0–325)

    The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first?

    Read in glossary
    259.84 Methodology
    Exploit maturity

    An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack.

    Read in glossary
    actively exploitedSource: VulnCheck KEV (opens in a new tab) How we classify
    XIEM Effective CVSS

    XIEM® is the tiered managed-security operating model from NEOSEC and a registered trademark of NEOSEC GmbH. It extends classic SIEM — the central collection, normalisation and correlation of security-relevant events — with endpoint forensics, network visibility and deception technology, and consolidates them into three building tiers: Sentry, Orchestrate and Command.

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    9.8 Methodology
    CVSS v3

    CVSS is the globally established, open standard for assessing the technical severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10. It describes how easily a flaw can be exploited and what damage it can cause — but not how likely its actual exploitation is. CVSS and the complementary EPSS deliberately answer different questions.

    Read in glossary
    9.8
    EPSS score

    The EPSS score is the absolute model output for an individual vulnerability: the estimated probability of real-world exploitation within the next 30 days, expressed as a value between 0 and 1 (i.e. 0 % to 100 %). A score of 0.42 means „the model estimates a 42 % chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days“.

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    92.9 %
    High — model estimates ≥ 50% chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days.
    EPSS percentile

    The EPSS percentile is the relative position of a vulnerability within all EPSS-scored CVEs, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. A percentile of 0.90 means „this CVE has a higher EPSS score than 90 % of all other scored CVEs“. Unlike the EPSS score, it is not a probability — but a positioning within a ranking.

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    99.83
    Critical — this CVE ranks in the top fifth of all CVEs scored today (rank ≥ 80%).
    KEV status

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    Actively exploited
    Published
    In CISA KEV since

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

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    CISA assessment (SSVC)
    Exploitation: active · not automatable · Technical impact: total
    Source: CISA Vulnrichment, as of 27 January 2025
    CWE

    CWE is a catalogue of typical weakness types in software and hardware — such as flawed input validation, unsafe memory handling or poor authentication. Where a CVE names a concrete vulnerability in a concrete product, a CWE describes the underlying class of defect.

    Read in glossary
    CWE-89

    Response and mitigation

    Why act now?

    Prioritisation rationale

    This CVE sits on KEV for sound reasons: network-reachable without authentication, trivially automatable, and it hands the attacker credentials for a monitoring platform that is designed to reach broadly across the estate. CISA flags confirmed ransomware use, and exploitation likelihood ranks among the highest across the entire CVE corpus. For NIS2-regulated organisations, any WhatsUp Gold instance exposed externally — or even broadly internally — should be treated as a P1 incident precursor and patched or isolated within 24 hours regardless of normal change windows. Single-user deployments warrant the sharpest focus, since that is precisely the configuration the CISA advisory names as the viable attack path.

    1. Runbook step 1

      Immediate response (0-24 h)

      • Schedule an emergency upgrade to WhatsUp Gold 2024.0.0 or later — this is the vendor-confirmed fix release. Open a fast-tracked change ticket for every instance still on build 24.0 or earlier.
      • Until patched, pull the WhatsUp Gold web console (default TCP/9643 HTTPS, TCP/9642 HTTP, TCP/9644) off the internet via perimeter firewall or reverse-proxy block on the vulnerable paths, notably /NmAPI/ and /NmConsole/.
      • Rotate every local WhatsUp Gold account, especially where the deployment uses a single admin user (the exact scenario CISA calls out). Rotate again after patching, since the encrypted password hash may already have been exfiltrated.
      • If WhatsUp Gold runs under a privileged AD service account, rotate that credential as well and invalidate active Kerberos tickets.
      • Capture a forensic snapshot (VM snapshot plus IIS and Progress logs back to July 2024) before applying patches — successful post-exploitation activity would otherwise be overwritten.

    2. Runbook step 2

      Mitigation layers

      • Network segmentation: management tooling such as WhatsUp Gold belongs in a dedicated OOB/admin VLAN, reachable only through a jump host or ZTNA broker. Block lateral and outbound internet traffic from that VLAN by default.
      • WAF or reverse-proxy rule in front of the console: SQL-injection signatures on POST/GET parameters of /NmAPI/ endpoints, blocking UNION SELECT, WAITFOR DELAY, 0x-hex blobs and boolean payloads such as ' AND 1=.
      • IAM hardening: avoid single-user installs — provision at least a second admin account so the extraction path described in the CISA advisory does not deterministically target one hash. Enforce local passwords of 20+ characters to slow offline cracking of any leaked hash.
      • Enable vendor IPS signatures for CVE-2024-6670 and the companion CVE-2024-6671 (Snort/Suricata, Trellix, Palo Alto Threat Prevention) and set them to block rather than alert.
      • Database layer: enable SQL Server auditing on the WhatsUp Gold database, run the service account with least privilege (no sysadmin membership) so a successful injection cannot pivot to OS command execution via xp_cmdshell.
      • Egress control: restrict outbound traffic from the WhatsUp Gold host to an allowlist of monitoring destinations; observed post-exploitation C2 rides on 80/443 to otherwise unknown hosts.

    3. Runbook step 3

      Detection rules

      • IIS and Progress access logs for suspicious parameters hitting /NmAPI/RecurringReport and neighbouring endpoints; Sigma shape: selection: cs-uri-stem endswith '/NmAPI/' AND cs-uri-query contains any ('UNION','SELECT','0x','WAITFOR').
      • Sysmon EID 1 on the WhatsUp Gold host: unusual child processes of NmConsole.exe or w3wp.exe such as powershell.exe, cmd.exe, certutil.exe, or msiexec.exe with a URL argument — observed intrusion sets have chained CVE-2024-6670 with CVE-2024-6671 to drop remote-access tooling (Atera, Splashtop, ScreenConnect) via msiexec /i http....
      • EDR process ancestry: msiexec.exe or powershell.exe descending from the WhatsUp Gold IIS worker is a high-fidelity exploitation indicator.
      • SQL Server auditing (Event ID 33205 / Extended Events): unexpected SELECTs against the WhatsUp credential/user tables from the application session outside normal reporting windows.
      • Network telemetry (Zeek/Suricata): new outbound HTTP/S connections from the WhatsUp host to remote-monitoring domains (atera.com, splashtop.com, screenconnect.com) or to freshly issued LetsEncrypt hosts with no reputation; KQL sketch: DeviceNetworkEvents | where DeviceName has "whatsup" | where RemoteUrl !in (allowlist).

    Detection rules

    No NEOSEC detection rule is available for this vulnerability yet.

    Classification under NIS2 and CRA

    Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.

    NIS2

    NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management.

    Read in glossary
    Actively exploited: treat the vulnerability as a priority in vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2. If it is exploited in your environment, check the reporting obligation under Art. 23 (early warning within 24 hours).
    CRA

    The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates.

    Read in glossary
    Since 11.09.2026, manufacturers of affected products with digital elements must report actively exploited vulnerabilities under Art. 14 CRA, with an early warning within 24 hours via ENISA's single reporting platform.
    ISO/IEC 27001

    ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security.

    Read in glossary
    Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.

    Description

    In WhatsUp Gold versions released before 2024.0.0, a SQL Injection vulnerability allows an unauthenticated attacker to retrieve the users encrypted password.

    Source: CSA/SingCERT, pwn.watch, NVD (NIST), cvelistv5, CISA KEV Catalog, CVE.org (MITRE)

    Affected products

    The following versions are affected. Older releases of the same product line are also vulnerable unless stated otherwise.

    Affected products
    Affected versionsFixed in
    Progress Software CorporationWhatsUp Gold
    • 2023.1.0 – < 2024.0.0
    • 2024.0.0
    progresswhatsup_gold
    • < 24.0
    • 24.0

    Vendors and products

    Weakness classes (CWE)

    • CWE-89Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection')

      Base

      The product constructs all or part of an SQL command using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify the intended SQL command when it is sent to a downstream component. Without sufficient removal or quoting of SQL syntax in user-controllable inputs, the generated SQL query can cause those inputs to be interpreted as SQL instead of ordinary user data.

      Entry at MITRE CWE-89

    Public exploit references

    Publicly reported proof-of-concepts, exploit modules and detection templates for this vulnerability. NEOSEC links to the original sources only and does not provide any exploit code.

    Public exploit references
    CISA KEV CatalogCISA Known Exploited Vulnerability (opens in a new tab)cisa.govactively exploited

    References & sources

    • progress.comnetwork-monitoringProduct, Product
    • community.progress.comProgress advisory: CVE-2024-6670Vendor advisory, Vendor advisory, pwn-watch
    • cisa.govknown-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2024-6670government-resource, US government resource
    • pwn.watchpwn.watch: Progress WhatsUp Gold SQL Injectionpwn-watch
    • NVD (NIST)NVD: CVE-2024-6670pwn-watch
    • cisa.govCISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalogpwn-watch
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