ServiceNow Utah, Vancouver, and Washington DC Now Platform: improper access control flaw under attack

What is affected

ServiceNow Utah, Vancouver, and Washington DC Now Platform is mostly run by companies, schools and public bodies, not on home computers. You are unlikely to have it yourself, but organisations that hold your data may. Breaches that start with flaws like this one are how personal data ends up leaked.

ServiceNow Utah, Vancouver, and Washington DC Now Platform releases contain a jelly template injection vulnerability in UI macros. An unauthenticated user could exploit this vulnerability to execute code remotely.

What an attacker can do

This is a improper access control flaw. It lets an attacker perform actions or reach data that should be restricted to authorised users.

How it is reached

Over the internet or network

Access the attacker needs

No account needed

Does the victim have to do something?

No, works without the victim doing anything

What to do

1. At home: nothing to install. Keep your own devices updated and use a different password for every service, so that a breach at one organisation does not open your other accounts.
2. If you administer ServiceNow Utah, Vancouver, and Washington DC Now Platform at work: apply the vendor's fix or mitigation now and review logs for signs of compromise, because the flaw was being exploited before it was listed.
3. If the product is past its support date and no fix exists, take it off the internet or retire it.

Apply mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.

Vendor advisories and fixes

• support.servicenow.comsupport.servicenow.com/kb?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB1645154

How urgent is it

CISA added this vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue on July 29, 2024, which means there is reliable evidence of attacks in the wild. US federal agencies must fix it by August 19, 2024, a deadline that has already passed. That deadline does not bind anyone else, but it shows how seriously the agency rates it.

The EPSS model estimates a 100% probability that this flaw will be exploited somewhere in the next 30 days. That is higher than 100.0% of all scored vulnerabilities.

Its CVSS severity score is 9.3 out of 10 (critical), as recorded in the US National Vulnerability Database.

Technical description

ServiceNow has addressed an input validation vulnerability that was identified in Vancouver and Washington DC Now Platform releases. This vulnerability could enable an unauthenticated user to remotely execute code within the context of the Now Platform. ServiceNow applied an update to hosted instances, and ServiceNow released the update to our partners and self-hosted customers. Listed below are the patches and hot fixes that address the vulnerability. If you have not done so already, we recommend applying security patches relevant to your instance as soon as possible.