Symphony \+ HistorianApplication · Abb

CVE-2020-24676

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-12-22
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
80/100
Remediation priority · High
Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
In Symphony Plus Operations and Symphony Plus Historian, some services can be vulnerable to privilege escalation attacks. An unprivileged (but authenticated) user could execute arbitrary code and result in privilege escalation, depending on the user that the service runs as.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · moderate confidence

In Symphony Plus Operations and Symphony Plus Historian, certain services contain flaws that allow an authenticated but unprivileged user to execute arbitrary code. This code runs with the privileges of the service account, enabling privilege escalation to potentially SYSTEM or other high-privilege users.

MitigationRestrict service permissions to minimum necessary, review and harden service configurations, implement least-privilege service accounts, and apply vendor patches when available.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Symphony \+ HistorianApplication
Affected:= 3.0= 3.1
Symphony \+ OperationsApplication
Affected:= 1.1= 2.0= 2.1= 3.0= 3.1= 3.2= 3.3

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify installed Symphony Plus products
    Check the system for installed ABB Symphony Plus applications. Look for 'Symphony Plus Historian' or 'Symphony Plus Operations' in Program Files, Program Files (x86), or the Windows Registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall
    Affected if Either Symphony Plus Historian or Symphony Plus Operations is installed and the version matches 3.0 or 3.1 for Historian, or 1.1, 2.0, 2.1, 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, or 3.3 for Operations
  2. Determine the exact installed version
    Open Windows Control Panel > Programs and Features, or run 'Get-WmiObject Win32_Product' (PowerShell) to list installed software and their version numbers. Look for the Version column entry matching the affected products
    Affected if The installed version number exactly matches 3.0 or 3.1 for Historian, or 1.1, 2.0, 2.1, 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, or 3.3 for Operations
  3. Check service account privileges
    Open Services console (services.msc), locate the Symphony Plus Historian or Operations service, right-click and select Properties, then check the 'Log On' tab. Note the account under which the service runs
    Affected if The service runs under a high-privilege account such as LocalSystem, a domain administrator account, or any account with elevated permissions beyond what the authenticated user role requires
  4. Verify accessible service endpoints
    Check if the Symphony Plus service ports or endpoints are accessible to authenticated but non-administrative users on the network. Use netstat -an | findstr 'LISTENING' to identify listening ports associated with the product, then confirm which user groups can reach those endpoints
    Affected if Service endpoints are accessible to authenticated users who do not have administrative or elevated privileges on the system

A defender is affected if Symphony Plus Historian version 3.0 or 3.1, or Symphony Plus Operations version 1.1 through 3.3, is installed and the service runs with elevated privileges accessible to low-privilege authenticated users.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Restrict service permissions to minimum necessary, review and harden service configurations, implement least-privilege service accounts, and apply vendor patches when available.

Fix this in Symphony \+ Historian Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation16.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
36.0 hours of engineering $6,400
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Scan for this in your stack

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dbcve dependency scanner

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-24676 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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