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Missing AuthenticationWeakness · CWE-306

CVE-2024-50589

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-11-08
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
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
An unauthenticated attacker with access to the local network of the medical office can query an unprotected Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) API to get access to sensitive electronic health records (EHR).

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

The medical office's FHIR API lacks authentication and authorization controls, allowing any unauthenticated attacker on the local network to query the API and access sensitive electronic health records. This is a direct exposure of protected health information (PHI) due to missing access controls on a healthcare data interface.

MitigationImplement FHIR-compliant authentication (such as SMART on FHIR with OAuth 2.0) and role-based access controls to ensure only authorized users and systems can access patient data. Restrict network access to the API and enable audit logging for HIPAA compliance.

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

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
High
Integrity
None
Availability
None

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

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 if a FHIR API is exposed
    Scan your network for endpoints responding to FHIR resource paths such as /Patient, /Observation, /MedicationRequest, or other standard FHIR resources. Review your web server and API gateway logs for requests to FHIR-named paths.
    Affected if A FHIR API endpoint is publicly or locally accessible without prior authentication.
  2. Test for authentication requirement
    Send an HTTP GET request to a known FHIR endpoint (e.g., /Patient) without including any authorization headers, Bearer tokens, or API keys. Observe the HTTP response code and body.
    Affected if The API returns a 200 OK with patient data or a 401/403 response that still reveals sensitive endpoint structure, indicating authentication is not enforced.
  3. Verify authorization controls on FHIR resources
    If unauthenticated access returns a 401, attempt to access different patient records by modifying the resource ID in the URL (e.g., /Patient/{id}) without credentials. Check if different resource IDs return different patient data without proper session or token validation.
    Affected if Different patient records are accessible without any authentication token, indicating missing authorization checks.
  4. Check network exposure of the FHIR service
    Review firewall rules, network ACLs, and API gateway configurations to determine if the FHIR API is accessible from the local network only or if it is exposed to wider networks. Use tools like netstat or review load balancer configurations to identify listening interfaces.
    Affected if The FHIR API listens on 0.0.0.0 or is accessible from network segments beyond the trusted medical office internal network.
  5. Inspect API configuration for authentication settings
    Review the FHIR server or API gateway configuration files (e.g., for HAPI FHIR, Azure API for FHIR, IBM FHIR Server) for security settings. Look for flags such as 'auth.enabled', 'oauth.enabled', or similar authentication-related parameters and verify they are set to require authentication.
    Affected if Authentication is disabled in the configuration or set to optional, allowing anonymous access.

Your environment is affected if the FHIR API accepts requests without requiring valid authentication credentials and returns protected health information to any requesting client on the network.

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

Implement FHIR-compliant authentication (such as SMART on FHIR with OAuth 2.0) and role-based access controls to ensure only authorized users and systems can access patient data. Restrict network access to the API and enable audit logging for HIPAA compliance.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation6.0 h
  • Implementation12.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA6.0 h
32.0 hours of engineering $5,640
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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-2024-50589 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
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