Alienware UpdateApplication · Dell

CVE-2024-28962

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-08-06
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 5.4 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges 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
Dell Command | Update, Dell Update, and Alienware Update UWP, versions prior to 5.4, contain an Exposed Dangerous Method or Function vulnerability. An unauthenticated attacker with remote access could potentially exploit this vulnerability, leading to denial of service.

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

Dell Command | Update, Dell Update, and Alienware Update UWP applications contain an exposed dangerous method or function that can be invoked by an unauthenticated attacker with remote access, leading to denial of service.

MitigationUpdate Dell Command | Update, Dell Update, and Alienware Update to version 5.4 or later to remediate the vulnerability.

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
Alienware UpdateApplication
Affected:< 5.4
Command UpdateApplication
Affected:< 5.4
UpdateApplication
Affected:< 5.4

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

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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. Check if affected Dell UWP applications are installed
    Open PowerShell and run: Get-AppxPackage | Where-Object {$_.Name -match 'AlienwareUpdate|DellUpdate|DellCommandUpdate' -or $_.Publisher -match 'Dell'}
    Affected if Any of the three applications (Alienware Update, Dell Command Update, Dell Update) appear in the list
  2. Get installed version of Dell UWP apps
    For each identified app, run: (Get-AppxPackage -Name <AppName>).Version
    Affected if Version cannot be retrieved or app is not found - may indicate partial installation or removal
  3. Compare version against vulnerable threshold
    Compare the installed version number to 5.4 (e.g., 5.3.1, 5.2.0, etc.)
    Affected if Installed version is less than 5.4 (e.g., 5.3.x, 5.2.x, 5.1.x, etc.)
  4. Verify UWP app package exists in Program Files
    Check for the app in C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\ or run: (Get-AppxPackage -Name <AppName>).InstallLocation
    Affected if Application package is present on the system, indicating the vulnerable executable is installed and the exposed method could be invoked

The system is affected if any of the three Dell UWP applications (Alienware Update, Dell Command Update, or Dell Update) are installed with a version lower than 5.4, as the vulnerable exposed dangerous method exists in those versions.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 5.4 or later
Fixed in 5.4
Interim mitigation

Update Dell Command | Update, Dell Update, and Alienware Update to version 5.4 or later to remediate the vulnerability.

Recommended fix High confidence

5.4

  1. Verify the current installed version of the Dell software (Alienware Update, Dell Command Update, or Dell Update)
  2. Download Dell Command | Update version 5.4 or later from the Dell support website
  3. Close any running instances of the affected application
  4. Run the installer for version 5.4 and follow the on-screen prompts to complete the upgrade
  5. Restart the system if prompted
  6. Verify the installation was successful by checking the application's version number

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Alienware Update Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
7.0 hours of engineering $1,240
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,984.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-28962 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

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-2024-28962 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
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data