CVE-2024-53704: SonicWall SonicOS SSLVPN Improper Authentication Vulnerability

What it is

An Improper Authentication vulnerability in the SSLVPN authentication mechanism allows a remote attacker to bypass authentication.

Exploitation evidence

First exploit evidence seen: 2025-01-22 (earliest date across the sources below).

Exploited in the wild

• CISA KEV: listed since 2025-02-18. Source

Public exploit code

GitHub proof-of-concept repositories

3 public repositories from 3 accounts, first seen 2025-01-22. Most starred: istagmbh/CVE-2024-53704 (2 stars), view repository.

Verify before running: public PoCs can be malicious. Read the code and only run it in an isolated lab. A PoC means exploit code is public, not that this CVE is exploited in the wild.

Sources: CISA KEV · nomi-sec/PoC-in-GitHub.

How to fix it

CISA required action

Apply mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable. (source: CISA KEV)

Fixed versions

• sonicwall sonicos: versions up to and including 7.1.1-7058 are affected; check the vendor advisory for the fixed release.

Derived from the NVD CPE configuration (versionEndExcluding / versionEndIncluding). Always confirm with the vendor advisory.

Vendor advisories and patches

• https://psirt.global.sonicwall.com/vuln-detail/SNWLID-2025-0003 (CISA KEV notes)

MITRE ATT&CK mitigations for this chain

• M1032 Multi-factor Authentication (for T1199, T1078.004, T1021.001) : Require MFA for all delegated administrator accounts.
• M1018 User Account Management (for T1199, T1078.004, T1021.001) : Properly manage accounts and permissions used by parties in trusted relationships to minimize potential abuse by the party and if the party is compromised by an adversary. In Office 365 environments, partner relationships and roles can be viewed under the “Partner Relationships” page.
• M1030 Network Segmentation (for T1199, T1021.001) : Network segmentation can be used to isolate infrastructure components that do not require broad network access.
• M1027 Password Policies (for T1078.004) : Ensure that cloud accounts, particularly privileged accounts, have complex, unique passwords across all systems on the network. Passwords and access keys should be rotated regularly. This limits the amount of time credentials can be used to access resources if a credential is compromised without your knowledge. Cloud s
• M1015 Active Directory Configuration (for T1078.004) : Disable legacy authentication, which does not support MFA, and require the use of modern authentication protocols instead.
• M1026 Privileged Account Management (for T1078.004, T1021.001) : Review privileged cloud account permission levels routinely to look for those that could allow an adversary to gain wide access, such as Global Administrator and Privileged Role Administrator in Azure AD. These reviews should also check if new privileged cloud accounts have been created that were not authorized. For ex
• M1036 Account Use Policies (for T1078.004) : Use conditional access policies to block logins from non-compliant devices or from outside defined organization IP ranges.
• M1017 User Training (for T1078.004) : Applications may send push notifications to verify a login as a form of multi-factor authentication (MFA). Train users to only accept valid push notifications and to report suspicious push notifications.
• M1050 Exploit Protection (for T1212) : Security applications that look for behavior used during exploitation such as Windows Defender Exploit Guard (WDEG) and the Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) can be used to mitigate some exploitation behavior. Control flow integrity checking is another way to potentially identify and stop a software exploit
• M1051 Update Software (for T1212) : Update software regularly by employing patch management for internal enterprise endpoints and servers.

Detection Generic guidance

• Initial Access: Alert on unusual requests to the affected service (odd paths, oversized payloads, exploit strings) in WAF, reverse-proxy and application logs.
• Persistence: Look for new files in web roots, new scheduled tasks/services, and new accounts created after the exposure window.
• Privilege Escalation: Alert on processes gaining SYSTEM/root unexpectedly, and on exploitation crashes of privileged services.
• Credential Access: Monitor for credential dumping, unusual LSASS access and sudden authentication from new sources.
• Discovery: Look for directory listing, file enumeration and reconnaissance commands from service accounts.
• Lateral Movement: Watch for the compromised host authenticating to other internal systems it does not normally talk to.

Response checklist Generic guidance

1. Inventory: find every instance of the affected product and version (include internet-facing and forgotten ones).
2. Patch or mitigate per the vendor advisory; if you cannot patch, remove internet exposure or apply the vendor workaround.
3. Assume compromise if the system was exposed before patching: hunt for the indicators in the advisory and review logs back to the disclosure date.
4. Rotate credentials and secrets stored on or used by the affected system if compromise cannot be ruled out.