Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HSummary
CVE-2024-5016 is a high-severity Deserialization of Untrusted Data (CWE-502) vulnerability in Progress Whatsup Gold. Its CVSS base score is 7.2 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked in the top 3% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) 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.
CVE-2024-5016 is a deserialization vulnerability (CWE-502) affecting WhatsUp Gold installations prior to version 2023.1.3 in the Distributed Edition. The flaw resides in the primary message-handling routines NmDistributed.DistributedServiceBehavior.OnMessage on servers and NmDistributed.DistributedClient.OnMessage on clients, allowing an attacker-supplied serialized payload to trigger remote code execution with SYSTEM privileges.
An authenticated attacker with high privileges and network access can supply a crafted message to either the server or client component, resulting in arbitrary code execution as SYSTEM on the affected host. The CVSS 7.2 score reflects the need for high privileges but otherwise low attack complexity over the network without user interaction.
The Progress security bulletin for June 2024 directs administrators to upgrade Distributed Edition deployments to WhatsUp Gold 2023.1.3 or later to eliminate the vulnerable message-processing paths. The associated EPSS score has remained flat at 0.0619 with no material increase since disclosure.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2024-46288
Vulnerability Data
In WhatsUp Gold versions released before 2023.1.3, Distributed Edition installations can be exploited by using a deserialization tool to achieve a Remote Code Execution as SYSTEM. The vulnerability exists in the main message processing routines NmDistributed.DistributedServiceBehavior.OnMessage for server and NmDistributed.DistributedClient.OnMessage…
more
for clients.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and evaluation can uncover deserialization flaws before deployment.
Input validation directly stops deserialization of untrusted data by ensuring inputs are valid before processing.
Engineering principles such as safe deserialization and input sanitization structurally prevent the weakness from being introduced.
Integrity verification tools can detect malformed or tampered serialized data after the fact.
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.
PR.PS-02 addresses only post-deployment updates/patching and cannot prevent introduction of unsafe deserialization code, yet it can remediate some instances when the flaw exists in outdated libraries or components.
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 includes validation of deserialization routines and the use of untrusted data, reducing the likelihood that unsafe object reconstruction will be deployed.
Requiring vetted libraries, regular updates and SAST before release reduces the likelihood that deserialization logic will accept and act on attacker-controlled serialized objects.
Regular scanning of third-party libraries and timely patching reduce the likelihood that unsafe deserialization vulnerabilities remain active.
Mandatory malware scanning of data received over networks or storage media intercepts malicious serialized payloads before they are deserialized by the target application.