Symphony \+ HistorianApplication · Abb

CVE-2020-24680

HIGH · 7.0 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 →
72/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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 S+ Operations and S+ Historian, the passwords of internal users (not Windows Users) are encrypted but improperly stored in a database.

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 S+ Operations and S+ Historian, internal user credentials are encrypted but stored insecurely in the database. This improper storage likely involves weak or reversible encryption rather than proper password hashing, potentially allowing attackers with database access to recover plaintext passwords.

MitigationReplace encryption-based password storage with salted cryptographic hashing (e.g., bcrypt, Argon2) and ensure database access controls are properly configured to prevent unauthorized credential extraction.

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
High
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/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 product and version
    Locate the installed Symphony+ Operations or Historian application and determine its exact version number from the application UI, installation directory, or system information
    Affected if The version is 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. Verify internal user accounts exist
    Check the application database or user management interface for the presence of internal (local) user accounts used for authentication
    Affected if Internal user accounts are configured in the system
  3. Inspect credential storage format in database
    Access the application database and examine the table(s) storing user credentials. Look at the password field structure - check if values appear as fixed-length strings (suggesting hashed passwords) or variable-length encrypted strings
    Affected if Password fields contain encrypted (reversible) values rather than irreversibly hashed values, or if the same encryption key appears to be used across multiple accounts
  4. Check database access controls
    Review database permissions and access logs to determine if unauthorized users or processes could read credential storage tables
    Affected if Database tables containing user credentials are readable by accounts other than designated administrators

A user is affected if they are running one of the listed versions (Historian 3.0/3.1 or Operations 1.1 through 3.3) and have internal user accounts with credentials stored using reversible encryption rather than cryptographic hashing.

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

Replace encryption-based password storage with salted cryptographic hashing (e.g., bcrypt, Argon2) and ensure database access controls are properly configured to prevent unauthorized credential extraction.

Fix this in Symphony \+ Historian Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation12.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
25.0 hours of engineering $4,400
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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-2020-24680 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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