Actively exploited vulnerability
Progress WhatsUp Gold: file access flaw under attack
CVE-2024-4885 · Progress WhatsUp Gold Path Traversal Vulnerability
What is affected
Progress WhatsUp Gold 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.
Progress WhatsUp Gold contains a path traversal vulnerability that allows an unauthenticated attacker to achieve remote code execution.
What an attacker can do
This is a file access flaw. It lets an attacker read or write files they should never reach, such as configuration files that hold passwords, or upload a malicious file that the system then runs.
- 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
- 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.
- If you administer Progress WhatsUp Gold 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.
- 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, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.
Vendor advisories and fixes
- community.progress.comcommunity.progress.com/s/article/WhatsUp-Gold-Security-Bulletin-June-2024
How urgent is it
CISA added this vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue on March 3, 2025, which means there is reliable evidence of attacks in the wild. US federal agencies must fix it by March 24, 2025, 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 99% probability that this flaw will be exploited somewhere in the next 30 days. That is higher than 99.9% of all scored vulnerabilities.
Its CVSS severity score is 9.8 out of 10 (critical), as recorded in the US National Vulnerability Database.
Technical description
In WhatsUp Gold versions released before 2023.1.3, an unauthenticated Remote Code Execution vulnerability in Progress WhatsUpGold. The WhatsUp.ExportUtilities.Export.GetFileWithoutZip allows execution of commands with iisapppool\nmconsole privileges.