Cyber Posture

CVE-2024-54121

Medium

Published: 08 January 2025

Published
08 January 2025
Modified
13 January 2025
KEV Added
Patch
CVSS Score 6.2 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0015 35.0th percentile
Risk Priority 12 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2024-54121 is a medium-severity Improper Input Validation (CWE-20) vulnerability in Huawei Harmonyos. Its CVSS base score is 6.2 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Application or System Exploitation (T1499.004); ranked at the 35.0th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 SI-10 (Information Input Validation) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation).

Threat & Defense at a Glance

What attackers do: exploitation maps to Application or System Exploitation (T1499.004). What defenders deploy: see the NIST 800-53 controls recommended below.
Threat & Defense Details

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI

prevent

Directly mandates validation of all inputs to the ability module during startup, addressing the core CWE-20 improper input validation vulnerability.

prevent

Requires timely flaw remediation including application of Huawei patches for CVE-2024-54121 to eliminate the startup control vulnerability.

prevent

Provides denial-of-service protection mechanisms to mitigate high availability impacts from local exploitation disrupting feature operation.

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1499.004 Application or System Exploitation Impact
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities that can cause an application or system to crash and deny availability to users.
Why these techniques?

Local improper input validation in startup/ability module directly enables application/system exploitation leading to availability DoS (high A impact, no C/I).

Confidence: MEDIUM · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v18.1

NVD Description

Startup control vulnerability in the ability module Impact: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability may cause features to perform abnormally.

Deeper analysisAI

CVE-2024-54121 is a startup control vulnerability in the ability module, published on 2025-01-08 with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 6.2 (Medium). The vulnerability is associated with CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation) and is detailed in a Huawei consumer support bulletin. Successful exploitation may cause features to perform abnormally, primarily impacting availability.

The attack vector is local (AV:L) with low attack complexity (AC:L), requiring no privileges (PR:N) or user interaction (UI:N), and resulting in unchanged scope (S:U). A local attacker can exploit this to achieve high availability impact (C:N/I:N/A:H), disrupting normal feature operation without compromising confidentiality or integrity.

Mitigation details are provided in the Huawei advisory at https://consumer.huawei.com/en/support/bulletin/2025/1/. Security practitioners should consult this bulletin for patch information and recommended actions specific to affected Huawei devices.

Details

CWE(s)

Affected Products

huawei
harmonyos
5.0.0

CVEs Like This One

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References