CriticalCVE-2024-39717

    Versa Director Dangerous File Type Upload Vulnerability (CVE-2024-39717)

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

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    What is affected, what to do

    The Versa Director GUI provides an option to customize the look and feel of the user interface. This option is only available for a user logged with Provider-Data-Center-Admin or Provider-Data-Center-System-Admin.

    The vulnerability is being actively exploited; treat it as a priority. The available sources name no fixed version. Check the vendor guidance in the references below. Immediate actions, mitigation and detection rules are in the runbook below.

    Affected
    • Versa Director lte 21.2.2..21.2.2
    • Versa Director gte 21.2.3 before 2024-06-21..*
    • Versa Director lte 22.1.1..22.1.1
    • Versa Director gte 22.1.2 before 2024-06-21..*
    • Versa Director gte 22.1.3 before 2024-06-21..*

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

    Metrics

    7.2

    Priority

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

    Source: NVD, CVSS v3

    6.6

    CVSS v3

    Severity Medium on the scale from 0 to 10.

    Source: pwn.watch, CVE.org

    4.0 %

    EPSS score

    Moderate — model estimates 1-10% exploitation likelihood.

    Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 90.5

    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
    204.55 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 exploited
    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.

    Read in glossary
    7.2 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
    6.6
    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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    4.0 %
    Moderate — model estimates 1-10% exploitation likelihood.
    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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    90.5
    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.

    Read in glossary
    CISA assessment (SSVC)
    Exploitation: active · not automatable · Technical impact: total
    Source: CISA Vulnrichment, as of 4 September 2024
    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-434

    Response and mitigation

    Why act now?

    Prioritisation rationale

    Exploitation requires high-privileged authentication, but attackers have deliberately targeted Versa Director. It is a central control plane that ISPs, MSPs and large SD-WAN operators use to manage entire customer networks, which makes it a force multiplier for supply-chain attacks. In observed cases, attackers combined exposed management ports and stolen admin access with the favicon upload to plant a web shell and harvest further credentials. Exploitation likelihood is elevated, and CISA reports no known ransomware use. If your Director is internet-exposed or you operate as a service provider (an NIS2-relevant supply-chain position), treat this as top priority, with patching and a compromise assessment within 24 hours. If the management network is strictly segmented and MFA is enforced, high priority within your regular emergency patch window is appropriate.

    1. Runbook step 1

      Immediate response (0-24 h)

      • Inventory and patch: Identify every Versa Director instance on 21.2.2, 21.2.3, 22.1.1, 22.1.2 or 22.1.3. Builds without the 2024-06-21 hotfix are affected. Apply the hotfix or a later release; look up the exact target version in the Versa vendor advisory. If you consume managed SD-WAN, get written confirmation of the patch level from your provider.
      • Lock down management exposure now: The Director GUI/REST API and the HA/cluster ports (per Versa hardening guidance, including 4566/4570) must not be reachable from the internet. Restrict them via firewall ACL to a dedicated admin network or a jump-host allowlist.
      • Rotate privileged credentials: Reset passwords and API tokens for every account holding the Provider-Data-Center-Admin or Provider-Data-Center-System-Admin role. Exploitation requires this role, so compromised admin credentials are the most likely entry vector. Disable unknown or orphaned admin accounts.
      • Check the favicon upload for compromise: Inspect the storage location for uploaded favicon and UI customisation files. Treat any .png whose magic bytes are not 89 50 4E 47 as an IoC. Preserve the evidence (hash, timestamps), isolate the host and investigate before cleaning up.
      • Capture memory before rebooting: If compromise is suspected, take a memory image or heap dump of the Tomcat/Java process. In-memory web shells do not survive a restart. A premature reboot destroys evidence and does nothing about the underlying credential compromise.
      • Assess downstream credentials: A compromised Director can expose credentials for SD-WAN appliances and customer tenants. Rotate centrally managed device and tenant credentials as a precaution.

    2. Runbook step 2

      Mitigation layers

      • Network segmentation: Place the Director in its own management zone. Allow inbound only from PAWs/jump hosts. Allow outbound only to defined destinations such as SD-WAN controllers, NTP, syslog and update servers, with default-deny for everything else. This blocks C2 traffic and data exfiltration.
      • IAM / least privilege: Keep the Provider-Data-Center-Admin and Provider-Data-Center-System-Admin roles to a minimal set of named accounts. Enforce MFA or external authentication (RADIUS/TACACS+ with MFA). Do not allow shared admin accounts.
      • WAF / reverse proxy: Block uploads to the UI customisation endpoint, or allow them only from the admin network. Optionally add content inspection: reject the upload if the body does not start with the PNG signature or contains strings such as PK\x03\x04, <%, javax. or java.lang.instrument.
      • Endpoint hardening: On the Director host, enable file integrity monitoring (AIDE/auditd) on the web root, the Tomcat directories and /tmp. Mount /tmp with noexec where operations allow.
      • Configuration change: Make "Change Favicon" and UI customisation change-controlled actions. Any use outside an approved change should be handled as a security incident.

    3. Runbook step 3

      Detection rules

      • Web access log / reverse proxy: POST requests to favicon or UI customisation endpoints from source IPs outside the admin network. SPL example: index=proxy dest=<director> method=POST uri="*favicon*" NOT src_ip IN (<admin_cidr>).
      • Filesystem (auditd): Rule -w <favicon_upload_dir> -p wa -k versa_favicon. Alert on writes and verify the file type automatically. A .png that file identifies as "Java archive", "Zip" or "ASCII text" is critical.
      • Process ancestry (EDR/auditd execve): A Java/Tomcat process spawning sh, bash, curl, wget, nc or python. Sigma shape: ParentImage|endswith: '/java' AND Image|endswith: ['/sh','/bash','/curl','/wget']. Also watch for Java agent attach activity (-javaagent, VirtualMachine.attach) and new .jar files in /tmp.
      • Authentication logs: Provider-Data-Center-Admin logins from unusual sources or at unusual times, especially when a UI customisation action follows immediately. Also look for brute-force patterns against the GUI or the HA ports.
      • Network telemetry (Zeek/Suricata): Outbound connections from the Director to unknown external IPs, for example TLS without a known SNI. Inbound internet connections to 4566/4570 or the GUI ports. Zeek example: conn.log id.orig_h==<director> AND NOT id.resp_h 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

    The Versa Director GUI provides an option to customize the look and feel of the user interface. This option is only available for a user logged with Provider-Data-Center-Admin or Provider-Data-Center-System-Admin. (Tenant level users do not have this privilege). The “Change Favicon” (Favorite Icon) option can be mis-used to upload a malicious file ending with .png extension to masquerade as image file. This is possible only after a user with Provider-Data-Center-Admin or Provider-Data-Center-System-Admin has successfully authenticated and logged in.

    Source: 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
    VersaDirector
    • ≥ 22.1.2 before 2024-06-21
    • ≤ 21.2.2
    • ≥ 21.2.3 before 2024-06-21
    • ≤ 22.1.1
    • ≥ 22.1.3 before 2024-06-21
    • —
    • —
    • —
    • —
    • —
    versa-networksversa_director
    • 22.1.3
    • 21.2.2
    • 21.2.3
    • 22.1.1
    • 22.1.2
    • —
    • —
    • —
    • —
    • —

    Vendors and products

    Weakness classes (CWE)

    • CWE-434Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type

      Base

      The product allows the upload or transfer of dangerous file types that are automatically processed within its environment.

      Entry at MITRE CWE-434

    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

    • versa-networks.comVersa advisory: CVE-2024-39717Vendor advisory, pwn-watch
    • cisa.govknown-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2024-39717government-resource, US government resource
    • pwn.watchpwn.watch: Versa Director Dangerous File Type Uploadpwn-watch
    • NVD (NIST)NVD: CVE-2024-39717pwn-watch
    • cisa.govCISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalogpwn-watch
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