CVE-2024-28987
The SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD) software is affected by a hardcoded credential vulnerability, allowing remote unauthenticated user to access internal functionality and modify data.
do firstApply mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.
Can a WAF block it? No. The vulnerability involves hardcoded credentials allowing unauthenticated remote access via the web interface. The malicious requests appear as normal login attempts, so a WAF cannot reliably distinguish them from legitimate users.
Also consider: patch · rotate
Based on an AI reading of the CVE description, and no vendor rule found yet. We check Cloudflare, AWS, Google Cloud Armor and Azure; for Akamai, Imperva, Fastly, F5, ask your vendor.
Is CVE-2024-28987 being exploited?
Yes. CVE-2024-28987 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-2024-28987?
CVE-2024-28987 is rated Critical with a CVSS score of 9.1. 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-2024-28987?
Yes. A fix has been recorded for CVE-2024-28987. The vendor advisory is the authority on the exact fixed version — apply it from there rather than from a summary.
What does CVE-2024-28987 affect?
CVE-2024-28987 affects solarwinds:web_help_desk. 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.
- affected12.8.3 Hotfix 1 and previous versions
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
Unvetted proof-of-concept code on GitHub: 1 Metasploit module · 4 GitHub proofs of concept · 1 Nuclei template
- auxiliary/gather/solarwinds_webhelpdesk_backdoor · auxiliary · normal
- SolarWinds Web Help Desk - Hardcoded Credential · detection template · critical
- gh-ost00/CVE-2024-28987-POC · 12 ★
- horizon3ai/CVE-2024-28987 · 8 ★
- alecclyde/CVE-2024-28987 · 1 ★
- Darabium/CVE-2024-28987 · 1 ★
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 16 Oct 2024 (SSVC 2.0.3).
timeline
- 21 Aug 2024Published
- 5 Sept 2024First proof-of-concept repository on GitHub (unvetted) · 14 days later
- 15 Oct 2024Added to CISA KEV (exploited in the wild) · 40 days later
- 16 Oct 2024CISA SSVC assessment: exploitation active · 2 days later
- 5 Nov 2024CISA remediation due date (US federal agencies) · 19 days later
- 21 Oct 2025CVE record last updated · 351 days (about 12 months) later
- 2 Nov 2026Analysed by vulneraibility.com · 377 days (about 1 year) later
- Linksolarwinds.com /trust-center/security-advisories/cve-2024-28987
- Linksupport.solarwinds.com /SuccessCenter/s/article/SolarWinds-Web-Help-Desk-12-8-3-Hotfix-2
- Linkcisa.gov /known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2024-28987
- Linktheregister.com /2024/08/22/hardcoded_credentials_bug_solarwinds_whd/
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
- Metasploit Framework: exploit and scanner modules
- Nuclei templates: detection templates
- PoC-in-GitHub: GitHub repositories that claim a proof of concept
- Summary, impact and triage tags: written by our AI analysis pipeline from the sources above. Check them against the sources.