CriticalCVE-2024-57728

    SimpleHelp Path Traversal Vulnerability (CVE-2024-57728)

    Published In CISA KEV since Sources: CVE.org

    What is affected, what to do

    SimpleHelp remote support software v5.5.7 and before allows admin users to upload arbitrary files anywhere on the file system by uploading a crafted zip file (i.e. zip slip). This can be exploited to execute arbitrary code on the host in the context of the SimpleHelp server user.

    The vulnerability is being actively exploited; treat it as a priority. CISA lists it as used in ransomware campaigns. Update Simplehelp to version 5.5.8. Immediate actions, mitigation and detection rules are in the runbook below.

    Affected
    • Simplehelp lt *..5.5.8
    Fixed in
    • Simplehelp 5.5.8

    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

    7.2

    CVSS v3

    Severity High on the scale from 0 to 10.

    Source: CVE.org

    64.5 %

    EPSS score

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

    Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 99.23

    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
    247.29 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.

    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
    7.2
    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“.

    Read in glossary
    64.5 %
    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.

    Read in glossary
    99.23
    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 24 April 2026
    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-22

    Response and mitigation

    Why act now?

    Prioritisation rationale

    Although the flaw formally requires admin privileges, attackers chain it with credential theft and related SimpleHelp vulnerabilities. In practice this gives them a pre-auth path to code execution on the remote-support server. CISA flags known use in ransomware campaigns, and exploitation likelihood is very high, placing it among the CVEs most likely to be exploited. Typical targets are MSPs, IT service providers and organisations running self-hosted remote support, because one compromised server unlocks every managed endpoint — a supply-chain risk squarely in NIS2 territory. Treat internet-exposed instances as critical with a 24-hour remediation target. Actively demand proof of patching from any provider that reaches your estate via SimpleHelp.

    1. Runbook step 1

      Immediate response (0-24 h)

      • Inventory: Identify every SimpleHelp server, including instances run by MSPs or third-party providers with access to your endpoints. Check the version in the admin UI or server banner. All versions up to and including v5.5.7 are affected.
      • Patch: Upgrade to a release above 5.5.7. The patch is available from the vendor — look up the exact fixed version and any backport branches in the vendor advisory. If you cannot upgrade right away, take the admin web interface off the internet until you can.
      • Reset credentials: Reset the passwords of all SimpleHelp admin and technician accounts and enforce MFA. Exploitation requires admin rights. In practice, attackers obtain these through stolen credentials or chained SimpleHelp flaws (e.g. CVE-2024-57727, unauthenticated file read including configuration).
      • Hunt before patching: Look for files recently written by the SimpleHelp service account outside its working directory, such as scripts, JSP/JAR files, cron jobs or autorun entries. Take a snapshot or forensic image first.
      • Assess downstream endpoints: If the server is compromised, treat every connected client as potentially compromised. SimpleHelp is a remote-access tool with direct reach into those endpoints. Review session logs for unknown sessions and remote commands.

    2. Runbook step 2

      Mitigation layers

      • Network segmentation: Restrict the admin and technician web interface to a management VLAN or to VPN access with an IP allowlist. Expose only the client connection path externally, and only if operationally unavoidable.
      • WAF/reverse proxy: Allow uploads to administrative endpoints only from approved source IPs. If the WAF can inspect archives, block or alert on ZIP uploads containing ../, ..\ or absolute paths. Also block traversal patterns (..%2f, %2e%2e/) in URIs.
      • Endpoint hardening: Run the SimpleHelp service as a dedicated unprivileged account, never as SYSTEM or root. Limit that account's write permissions to the install and data directories (NTFS ACLs or Linux file permissions plus an AppArmor/SELinux profile).
      • Application control: Use a WDAC/AppLocker or EDR policy to stop the SimpleHelp server process (Java runtime) from spawning cmd.exe, powershell.exe, sh, bash, curl or wget.
      • IAM/least privilege: Keep admin accounts to a minimum and separate technician roles from admin roles. Enforce MFA on all accounts. Disable dormant and third-party accounts.
      • Egress filtering: Restrict outbound traffic from the SimpleHelp server to required destinations. This makes reverse shells, tool staging and exfiltration harder.

    3. Runbook step 3

      Detection rules

      • Sysmon EID 11 / EDR file-create: Alert when the SimpleHelp server process (java.exe/java under the SimpleHelp directory) writes outside its install path, especially to autorun locations, System32, /etc/cron*, /etc/systemd/ or web roots. Sigma shape: Image|contains: 'SimpleHelp' AND NOT TargetFilename|startswith: '<install path>'.
      • Process ancestry (Sysmon EID 1 / Windows 4688 / auditd execve): Alert on shell or LOLBin children of the SimpleHelp server. KQL: DeviceProcessEvents | where InitiatingProcessFolderPath has "SimpleHelp" and FileName in~ ("cmd.exe","powershell.exe","rundll32.exe","certutil.exe","bash","sh").
      • Web and application logs: Watch for admin logins from unfamiliar IPs or at unusual hours, followed shortly by file or archive uploads. Also watch for URIs containing ../ or encoded variants, which suggest prior exploitation of CVE-2024-57727.
      • Network telemetry (Zeek/Suricata): Flag new outbound connections from the SimpleHelp host to unknown destinations shortly after admin activity. Also flag bursts of sessions to many clients, which can indicate ransomware being pushed through the remote-support channel.
      • Endpoints: On clients, look for unexpected processes launched by the SimpleHelp remote-access service. Examples include reconnaissance (net, nltest, whoami), tampering with security tooling, and shadow copy deletion (vssadmin delete shadows).

    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

    SimpleHelp remote support software v5.5.7 and before allows admin users to upload arbitrary files anywhere on the file system by uploading a crafted zip file (i.e. zip slip). This can be exploited to execute arbitrary code on the host in the context of the SimpleHelp server user.

    Source: NVD (NIST), CISA KEV Catalog, CVE.org (MITRE), cvelistv5

    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
    simple-helpsimplehelp
    • < 5.5.8
    • 5.5.8

    Vendors and products

    Weakness classes (CWE)

    • CWE-22Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')

      Base

      The product uses external input to construct a pathname that is intended to identify a file or directory that is located underneath a restricted parent directory, but the product does not properly neutralize special elements within the pathname that can cause the pathname to resolve to a location that is outside of the restricted directory.

      Entry at MITRE CWE-22

    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

    • horizon3.aiattack-research/disclosures/critical-vulnerabilities-in-simpleh…Third-party advisory
    • simple-help.comkb---security-vulnerabilities-01-2025Vendor advisory
    • trendmicro.comvinfo/us/security/news/ransomware-spotlight/ransomware-spotligh…Third-party advisory, Third-party advisory
    • microsoft.comen-us/security/blog/2026/04/06/storm-1175-focuses-gaze-on-vulne…Third-party advisory, Technical description
    • cisa.govknown-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2024-57728government-resource, US government resource

    Linked advisories

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    Badge preview for CVE-2024-57728
    <a href="https://intel.neosec.eu/en/cve/CVE-2024-57728"><img src="https://intel.neosec.eu/badge/cve/CVE-2024-57728.svg?lang=en" alt="CVE-2024-57728 – NEOSEC Intel" height="20"></a>