CVE-2024-13974

High

Published: 21 July 2025

Published

21 July 2025

Modified

17 November 2025

KEV Added

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Patch

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CVSS Score 8.1 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS Score 0.0048 65.1th percentile

Risk Priority 16 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2024-13974 is a high-severity Reliance on Untrusted Inputs in a Security Decision (CWE-807) vulnerability in Sophos Firewall Firmware. Its CVSS base score is 8.1 (High).

Operationally, ranked in the top 34.9% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 RA-5 (Vulnerability Monitoring and Scanning) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation).

Threat & Defense at a Glance

What defenders deploy: see the NIST 800-53 controls recommended below.

Threat & Defense Details

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI

SI-2 Flaw Remediation good match

prevent

Directly remediates the business logic vulnerability in the Sophos Firewall Up2Date component by requiring timely patching to version 21.0 MR1 or later as recommended by the vendor advisory.

RA-5 Vulnerability Monitoring and Scanning good match

detect

Enables proactive identification of Sophos Firewall instances vulnerable to CVE-2024-13974 through continuous vulnerability scanning, facilitating patch deployment before exploitation.

SI-10 Information Input Validation partial match

prevent

Mitigates the business logic flaw (CWE-807) by validating inputs to the Up2Date component, preventing attackers from manipulating the firewall's DNS environment.

NVD Description

A business logic vulnerability in the Up2Date component of Sophos Firewall older than version 21.0 MR1 (20.0.1) can lead to attackers controlling the firewall’s DNS environment to achieve remote code execution.

Deeper analysisAI

CVE-2024-13974 is a business logic vulnerability (CWE-807) in the Up2Date component of Sophos Firewall versions older than 21.0 MR1 (v20.0.1). This flaw allows attackers to manipulate the firewall's DNS environment, potentially leading to remote code execution (RCE). The vulnerability has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.1 (AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H), indicating high severity due to its network accessibility and significant impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Remote attackers without privileges can exploit this vulnerability over the network, though it requires high attack complexity and no user interaction. Successful exploitation enables control over the firewall's DNS settings, culminating in arbitrary code execution on the affected device, which could compromise the entire firewall and connected networks.

The Sophos security advisory (https://www.sophos.com/en-us/security-advisories/sophos-sa-20250721-sfos-rce) recommends updating to Sophos Firewall version 21.0 MR1 (v20.0.1) or later to mitigate the issue, as this release addresses the business logic flaw in the Up2Date component.