Cyber Resilience

CVE-2024-51544

Abb Aspect-Ent-12 Firmware ≤ 3.08.03

Published
05 December 2024
Modified
10 April 2025
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v4 8.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:H/SC:L/SI:L/SA:L/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
EPSS Score 0.14 96th percentile
Risk Priority 55 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2024-51544 is a high-severity External Control of System or Configuration Setting (CWE-15) vulnerability in Abb Aspect-Ent-12 Firmware. Its CVSS base score is 8.8 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Path Interception by PATH Environment Variable (T1574.007); ranked in the top 4% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and AC-6 (Least Privilege) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A02:2025 Security Misconfiguration

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Service Control vulnerabilities allow access to service restart requests and vm configuration settings.  Affected products: ABB ASPECT - Enterprise v3.08.02; NEXUS Series v3.08.02; MATRIX Series v3.08.02

CWE(s)
CWE-15NVD-CWE-Other

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1574.007 Path Interception by PATH Environment Variable Stealth
Adversaries may execute their own malicious payloads by hijacking environment variables used to load libraries.
attack.mitre.org →
T1547.004 Winlogon Helper DLL Persistence
Adversaries may abuse features of Winlogon to execute DLLs and/or executables when a user logs in.
attack.mitre.org →
T1547.014 Active Setup Persistence
Adversaries may achieve persistence by adding a Registry key to the Active Setup of the local machine.
attack.mitre.org →
T1574 Hijack Execution Flow Stealth
Adversaries may execute their own malicious payloads by hijacking the way operating systems run programs.
attack.mitre.org →
T1574.006 Dynamic Linker Hijacking Stealth
Adversaries may execute their own malicious payloads by hijacking environment variables the dynamic linker uses to load shared libraries.
attack.mitre.org →
T1574.012 COR_PROFILER Stealth
Adversaries may leverage the COR_PROFILER environment variable to hijack the execution flow of programs that load the .
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2024-51543Same product: Abb Aspect-Ent-12
CVE-2024-51554Same product: Abb Aspect-Ent-12
CVE-2024-51545Same product: Abb Aspect-Ent-12
CVE-2024-48839Same product: Abb Aspect-Ent-12
CVE-2024-48846Same product: Abb Aspect-Ent-12
CVE-2024-48845Same product: Abb Aspect-Ent-12
CVE-2023-0636Same product: Abb Aspect-Ent-12
CVE-2024-6209Same product: Abb Aspect-Ent-12
CVE-2024-48847Same product: Abb Aspect-Ent-12
CVE-2024-51549Same product: Abb Aspect-Ent-12

Affected Assets

abb
aspect-ent-12 firmware
≤ 3.08.03
abb
aspect-ent-2 firmware
≤ 3.08.03
abb
aspect-ent-256 firmware
≤ 3.08.03
abb
aspect-ent-96 firmware
≤ 3.08.03
abb
nexus-2128 firmware
≤ 3.08.03
abb
nexus-2128-a firmware
≤ 3.08.03
abb
nexus-2128-f firmware
≤ 3.08.03
abb
nexus-2128-g firmware
≤ 3.08.03
abb
nexus-264 firmware
≤ 3.08.03
abb
nexus-264-a firmware
≤ 3.08.03
+9 more product configuration(s) — see NVD for full list

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 4 hardening rules · 2 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

—

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

AC-3 Access Enforcement good match

Enforces approved authorizations for logical access to configuration resources so external parties cannot alter them.

CM-5 Access Restrictions for Change good match

Enforces documented access restrictions on all changes to system configuration, directly blocking unauthorized external control of settings.

AC-6 Least Privilege good match

Limits privileges to the minimum needed, reducing the set of users who can externally modify configuration.

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-01 mostly match
prevents

Hardened configuration baselines and change controls directly limit external manipulation of settings.

ID.RA-07 partial match
prevents

Formal change and exception management catches externally driven configuration alterations.

PR.AA-05 partial match
prevents

Least-privilege access policies reduce unauthorized external modification of configuration values.

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.

A.8.9 Configuration management full match
degrades

Configuration management directly prevents external tampering with system settings.

A.5.18 Access rights mostly match
prevents

Access rights assignment determines who may change system settings.

A.8.2 Privileged access rights mostly match
prevents

Privileged access rights reduce the number of users who can alter configuration.

A.8.3 Information access restriction mostly match
prevents

Information access restriction limits who can view or modify configuration data.

A.8.32 Change management mostly match
prevents

Change management enforces controlled, authorized modifications to settings.

A.5.15 Access control partial match
prevents

Access control policies underpin the technical restrictions on configuration changes.

References