CVE-2024-20439
A vulnerability in Cisco Smart Licensing Utility (CSLU) could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to log into an affected system by using a static administrative credential. This vulnerability is due to an undocumented static user credential for an administrative account. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by using the static credentials to login to the affected system. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to login to the affected system with administrative rights over the CSLU application API.
do firstApply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.
Can a WAF block it? No. Hard-coded credentials let attackers log in normally. A WAF cannot tell their logins from real ones.
Also consider: patch · rotate
Based on the weakness type only; no CVE-specific evidence yet. We check Cloudflare, AWS, Google Cloud Armor and Azure; for Akamai, Imperva, Fastly, F5, ask your vendor.
Is CVE-2024-20439 being exploited?
Yes. CVE-2024-20439 appears in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, which means exploitation in the wild has been confirmed and reported. Treat it as active rather than theoretical, and patch it ahead of higher-scoring vulnerabilities that carry no exploitation evidence.
How severe is CVE-2024-20439?
CVE-2024-20439 is rated Critical with a CVSS score of 9.8. Severity describes how bad exploitation would be, not how likely it is: pair it with exploitation evidence before deciding what to patch first.
Is there a patch for CVE-2024-20439?
Yes. A fix has been recorded for CVE-2024-20439. The vendor advisory is the authority on the exact fixed version — apply it from there rather than from a summary.
What does CVE-2024-20439 affect?
CVE-2024-20439 affects cisco:smart_license_utility. Confirm the exact affected versions against the vendor advisory before deciding you are exposed.
Exploitation status reflects CISA's KEV catalog as we last synced it. Check the catalog directly.
- affected2.1.0
- affected2.0.0
- affected2.2.0
As published in the CVE Program record. A version outside these ranges is not a statement that it is unaffected — vendors sometimes understate a range, and distribution-backported builds carry upstream numbers that do not reflect what was patched into them.
public exploits
Detection templates only, no public exploit found: 1 Nuclei template
- Hardcoded Admin Credentials For Cisco Smart Licensing Utility API · detection template · critical
Listed so you can judge urgency, not as a recommendation to run anything. GitHub “proofs of concept” are unvetted: some are fake or carry malware. Exploit-DB marks the entries its staff verified.
cisa ssvc
- exploitation
- active
- automatable
- yes
- technical impact
- total
Assessed by CISA 31 Mar 2025 (SSVC 2.0.3).
timeline
- 4 Sept 2024Published
- 31 Mar 2025Added to CISA KEV (exploited in the wild) · 207 days (about 7 months) later
- 31 Mar 2025CISA SSVC assessment: exploitation active · 1 day later
- 21 Apr 2025CISA remediation due date (US federal agencies) · 20 days later
- 21 Oct 2025CVE record last updated · 184 days (about 6 months) later
- 2 Nov 2026Analysed by vulneraibility.com · 377 days (about 1 year) later
- Linksec.cloudapps.cisco.com /security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-cslu-7gHMzWmw
- Linkcisa.gov /known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2024-20439
sources
- CVE List (CVE.org): description, affected versions, references; CVE Terms of Use
- NVD: CVSS and CPE data
- CISA KEV catalog: exploitation, date added, due date
- CISA Vulnrichment (ADP): SSVC decision points
- FIRST EPSS: exploit probability and percentile
- Nuclei templates: detection templates
- Summary, impact and triage tags: written by our AI analysis pipeline from the sources above. Check them against the sources.