Cyber Resilience

CVE-2024-38164

Critical

Published: 23 July 2024

Published
23 July 2024
Modified
21 November 2024
KEV Added
Patch
CVSS Score v3.1 9.6 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0392 88.6th percentile
Risk Priority 22 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2024-38164 is a critical-severity Improper Access Control (CWE-284) vulnerability in Microsoft Groupme. Its CVSS base score is 9.6 (Critical).

Operationally, ranked in the top 11.4% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

Deeper analysis

An improper access control vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-38164 and assigned CWE-284, affects the GroupMe application. The flaw carries a CVSS 3.1 score of 9.6 and permits unauthorized elevation of privileges when an unauthenticated attacker interacts with the service over a network.

An unauthenticated remote attacker can exploit the issue by convincing a target user to click a malicious link, resulting in privilege escalation with high impact to confidentiality, integrity, and availability under changed scope conditions.

Microsoft’s Security Response Center advisory at https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2024-38164 supplies official guidance and any available patches or workarounds for affected GroupMe deployments.

EPSS for the CVE rose from lower values to a recorded peak of 0.0538 on 2025-12-18 before receding to the current 0.0392, indicating a measurable increase in exploitation interest after public disclosure.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability details

An improper access control vulnerability in GroupMe allows an a unauthenticated attacker to elevate privileges over a network by convincing a user to click on a malicious link.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.

Affected Assets

microsoft
groupme
all versions

Mitigating Controls

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

addresses: CWE-284

The access control policy and procedures directly mandate and enforce proper access control mechanisms across the organization.

addresses: CWE-284

Device lock enforces restricted access until re-authentication, directly reducing unauthorized use of active sessions.

addresses: CWE-284

Supervision and review of access control activities directly detects and remediates improper access configurations or usages.

addresses: CWE-284

Explicitly identifying and documenting actions permitted without identification or authentication enforces proper access control boundaries by defining justified exceptions.

addresses: CWE-284

By automatically labeling outputs with security attributes, the control supports attribute-based enforcement and reduces exploitability of improper access control weaknesses.

addresses: CWE-284

Associating and retaining security attributes with data directly supports enforcement of access control decisions across storage, processing, and transmission.

addresses: CWE-284

Requiring prior authorization for each remote access type prevents improper access control over remote connections.

addresses: CWE-284

Requiring authorization of wireless access before allowing connections enforces proper access control for this access method.

References