Exploited. On CISA's list since 2024-08-15.

SolarWinds Web Help Desk Deserialization of Untrusted Data Vulnerability

CVE-2024-28986 · SolarWinds Web Help Desk · Published 2024-08-13

How bad would it be?

9.8 out of 10

CVSS rates it critical: about as damaging as flaws get.

How likely is it to be used?

85%

Estimated chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, among the top 1% of all scored flaws (EPSS, 2026-10-29).

Is it already being used?

Yes

CISA has seen it exploited in real attacks. For US government agencies the fix is deadline passed 785 days ago (2024-09-05).

What CISA says to do

Apply mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.

SolarWinds Web Help Desk contains a deserialization of untrusted data vulnerability that could allow for remote code execution.

What the flaw is

SolarWinds Web Help Desk was found to be susceptible to a Java Deserialization Remote Code Execution vulnerability that, if exploited, would allow an attacker to run commands on the host machine. While it was reported as an unauthenticated vulnerability, SolarWinds has been unable to reproduce it without authentication after thorough testing. However, out of an abundance of caution, we recommend all Web Help Desk customers apply the patch, which is now available.

From the NVD.

Fixes and advisories

support.solarwinds.comVendor Advisory
www.solarwinds.comVendor Advisory

Learn this

Explore this week’s weaknesses and all learning topics

Understand the kind of weakness behind this flaw. These resources teach the weakness, rather than reproduce this specific CVE. Follow the vendor's advice above to fix the affected product.

Insecure deserialization

Rebuilding objects from untrusted saved data can trigger unintended behaviour.

CWE-502 · CISA KEV; NVD record: psirt@solarwinds.com

Reading and practice labs · Free account for labs. Basic HTTP knowledge; some labs use Burp Suite.

Explore the labs at PortSwigger Web Security Academy How it is prevented

CWE is a catalogue of weakness types. Labels come from the sources shown and can differ or change. Resource matches reviewed 16 October 2026.

On SentryFeed

No story in the last 14 days has mentioned it.

Exploited flaws from CISA's KEV catalogue. Chance of exploitation from EPSS by FIRST. Descriptions and scores from the NVD. This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.