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800xa Information ManagementApplication · Abb

CVE-2020-8489

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-04-29
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
Insufficient protection of the inter-process communication functions in ABB System 800xA Information Management (all published versions) enables an attacker authenticated on the local system to inject data, affecting the runtime values to be stored in the archive, or making Information Management history services unavailable.

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

ABB System 800xA Information Management has insufficient protection of inter-process communication (IPC) functions, allowing an authenticated local attacker to inject manipulated data into archive runtime values or cause denial of service against history services.

MitigationApply vendor-supplied patches for ABB System 800xA Information Management and review IPC authentication controls; consider network segmentation to limit local attack surface.

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
800xa Information ManagementApplication
Affected:all versions

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. Verify ABB System 800xA Information Management installation
    Check for the presence of ABB 800xA Information Management software on the system. Look in program directories or check Windows Add/Remove Programs for 'ABB 800xA Information Management' or related components.
    Affected if The software is installed on the system.
  2. Identify installed version
    Locate the version information for ABB 800xA Information Management. Check the software's About dialog, installation directory for version files, or use the Windows registry under the ABB product keys if accessible.
    Affected if Any version of ABB 800xA Information Management is installed (all versions are affected per CVE-2020-8489).
  3. Confirm History Services are active
    Check if ABB history or archiving services are running on the system. Look for processes related to 'History', 'Archive', or 'InfoManager' in Windows Services or Task Manager, or check the ABB 800xA system configuration.
    Affected if History services are running, as these are the targeted component for data injection or denial of service.
  4. Check IPC communication channels
    Verify that inter-process communication functionality is enabled for ABB Information Management. Review the system configuration for IPC settings or communication pathways between ABB components.
    Affected if IPC functions are enabled and accessible between ABB components.
  5. Assess local authentication controls
    Review the system's local user account configuration and verify whether low-privilege authenticated users have access to the ABB Information Management IPC interfaces. Check if the server runs with any local authentication bypass.
    Affected if Local authenticated users can interact with IPC functions without sufficient controls, which is the attack vector described in the CVE.

If ABB System 800xA Information Management is installed with history services and IPC functions enabled, the environment is affected by CVE-2020-8489.

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

Apply vendor-supplied patches for ABB System 800xA Information Management and review IPC authentication controls; consider network segmentation to limit local attack surface.

Fix this in 800xa Information Management Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation16.0 h
  • Testing12.0 h
  • Review / QA8.0 h
44.0 hours of engineering $7,720
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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-2020-8489 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
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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