Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:NSummary
CVE-2024-28995 is a high-severity Path Traversal (CWE-22) vulnerability in Solarwinds Serv-U. Its CVSS base score is 8.6 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked in the top 0.1% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
SolarWinds Serv-U is affected by a directory traversal vulnerability tracked as CVE-2024-28995 and assigned CWE-22. The flaw allows an attacker to read sensitive files on the underlying host machine and carries a CVSS 3.1 score of 8.6 reflecting network attack vector, low complexity, no required privileges or user interaction, and changed scope with high confidentiality impact.
Unauthenticated remote attackers can exploit the weakness over the network to retrieve arbitrary files without authentication, potentially exposing credentials, configuration data, or other sensitive information stored on the Serv-U host.
SolarWinds has published mitigation guidance in its security advisory at https://www.solarwinds.com/trust-center/security-advisories/CVE-2024-28995. The vulnerability is also listed in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
The associated EPSS score currently stands at 0.9440 with a recorded peak of 0.9647, indicating a high likelihood of exploitation in the wild.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2024-26057
Vulnerability Data
SolarWinds Serv-U was susceptible to a directory transversal vulnerability that would allow access to read sensitive files on the host machine.
- CWE(s)
- KEV Date Added
- 17 July 2024
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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V5.3.2
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Enforces the intended directory access authorizations that path traversal would otherwise bypass.
Input validation directly neutralizes special path elements before pathname construction occurs.
Least privilege reduces the impact of any unauthorized file access obtained via traversal.
Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Patching/maintenance can remediate known path-traversal flaws in deployed software (partial prevention of exploitability) but does nothing to stop the coding defect from being introduced in the first place.
PR.AA-05 defines and reviews access policies but does not address code-level pathname neutralization, so neither direction prevents CWE-22.
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Security testing in development catches path traversal via static/dynamic analysis.
Secure SDLC mandates input validation and path sanitization that directly prevent path traversal.
Application security requirements include rules for safe file handling and canonicalization.
Secure architecture principles require least-privilege file access and directory isolation.
Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe path construction and mandate safe APIs.
Information access restriction limits which files an application may read or write.