SolarWinds Web Help Desk up to 12.8.3 Hotfix 2 AjaxProxy deserialization

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in SolarWinds Web Help Desk up to 12.8.3 Hotfix 2. It has been rated as critical. Impacted is an unknown function of the component AjaxProxy. This manipulation causes deserialization. This vulnerability appears as CVE-2024-28988. The attack may be initiated remotely. There is no available exploit. Upgrading the affected component is advised.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as very critical was found in SolarWinds Web Help Desk up to 12.8.3 Hotfix 2. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown function of the component AjaxProxy. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a deserialization vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-502. The product deserializes untrusted data without sufficiently verifying that the resulting data will be valid. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

SolarWinds Web Help Desk was found to be susceptible to a Java Deserialization Remote Code Execution vulnerability that, if exploited, would allow an attacker to run commands on the host machine. This vulnerability was found by the ZDI team after researching a previous vulnerability and providing this report. The ZDI team was able to discover an unauthenticated attack during their research.  We recommend all Web Help Desk customers apply the patch, which is now available.  We thank Trend Micro Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) for its ongoing partnership in coordinating with SolarWinds on responsible disclosure of this and other potential vulnerabilities.

It is possible to read the advisory at zerodayinitiative.com. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2024-28988 since 03/13/2024. The exploitation appears to be easy. The attack can be launched remotely. The exploitation doesn't need any form of authentication. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not publicly available. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 09/27/2025).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 265951 (SolarWinds Web Help Desk < 12.8.7 Hotfix 1 Unsafe Deserialization), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 12.8.3 Hotfix 3 eliminates this vulnerability. The upgrade is hosted for download at documentation.solarwinds.com.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at Tenable (265951). Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Vendor

• SolarWinds

Name

• Web Help Desk

Version

• 12.8.3 Hotfix 2

License

• commercial

Website

• Vendor: https://www.solarwinds.com/

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Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

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