Welcome to the January 2025 ransomware update, where we highlight the latest trends, threat actors, and developments in the ransomware ecosystem to keep CISOs and third-party risk managers informed and prepared.
The Black Kite Research & Intelligence Team (BRITE) tracked 546 ransomware incidents in January 2025, marking a sharp increase compared to January 2024, which saw approximately 300 cases. This significant rise indicates that ransomware activity is escalating at an alarming pace. Among these incidents, 274 were recorded in the United States, 32 in Canada, 23 in the United Kingdom, and 18 in France.
Manufacturing was the most targeted sector, followed by technical services. Closing out December with 535 cases, ransomware groups have historically shown a tendency to slow down at the beginning of the year. However, this year is proving to be an exception.
Top Threat Actors in January 2025
The Clop ransomware group took the lead in January 2025 by a significant margin with 115 publicly disclosed victims. As usual, RansomHub remained among the top-ranking groups with 42 victims. One of the most notable groups this month was Lynx, which saw a major surge with 42 victims in January. They were followed by the Akira group, which recorded 38 victims.
Clop Is No Joke, But It’s Not What It Used to Be
Nearly all of the 115 Clop attacks were linked to the CLEO vulnerability, continuing the momentum from Clop’s December disclosures. Initially, only 50 victims were expected, but as the group continues to release names in alphabetical order, the final number could reach 500.
Among these 115 victims, the United States was the most affected, with 79 cases, followed by Canada with 12 and the Netherlands with 4.
In terms of industry impact among these attacks, the manufacturing sector suffered the highest number of attacks, with 34 victims. It was followed by the transportation sector with 18 victims, the information technology sector with 17, and the technical services sector with 14.
Two years ago, during the MoveIT disclosures, Clop was at the center of global media attention. Now, despite its high ransomware activity, the group seems to be struggling to capture the same level of interest. They kept postponing victim disclosures, which was unusual for them, and then starting sharing victims in a different way to seek attention. Whether this signals Clop’s waning influence or a shift in public perception remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: the group appears increasingly frustrated by the lack of attention.
Screenshot from the site where Clop now publishes stolen data.
FunkSec: From Ransomware to Full-Fledged Cybercrime Group
FunkSec continued its aggressive expansion in January, making headlines with its unconventional tactics:
Launched FunkBID, a data leak auction platform.
Announced a partnership with Fsociety for joint ransomware operations.
Gave media interviews, shedding light on their internal workings.
Released FunkSec V1.2, their own Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) for $100.
Threatened a cybersecurity researcher who had written about them.
Established their own forum to further expand their operations.
Screenshot of the site where Funksec announced Funksec V1.2
Key takeaways from their recent interview:
They claim to be entirely self-taught with no external affiliations.
AI plays a role in their operations, but they state it accounts for only 20%.
They have developed their own GPT model for internal use.
Their primary goal is financial gain, but they explicitly state hostility toward Israel and the U.S.
The group consists of four members.
While hacking remains their focus, they employ specialized ransomware developers.
They use tools like Shodan Premium and Burp Pro, alongside advanced custom brute force tools.
Rust is their programming language of choice.
FunkSec’s erratic yet calculated moves make them one of the most unpredictable actors in the ransomware ecosystem. Their expansion beyond traditional ransomware operations suggests a broader ambition that could redefine the threat landscape.
Is Babuk Back? Or Just an Imposter?
A new leak site emerged in January claiming to be affiliated with Babuk, publishing 60 alleged victims. While this sparked speculation that the notorious ransomware group had returned, our analysis revealed that most of the disclosed victims had already been published by FunkSec, RansomHub, and LockBit.
Shortly after the site gained traction, access was restricted, leaving its authenticity in question. Whether this marks the actual return of Babuk or merely an opportunistic attempt to capitalize on the name remains unclear.
Screenshot of the new Babuk Ransomware Leaks Site.
New Groups Keep Emerging, but Originality Is Fading
Ransomware groups continue to surface at an increasing rate, and the rise of Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) is undoubtedly fueling this trend. However, despite this growth, these groups seem to do little more than mimic each other. Many simply replicate existing leak sites, making it increasingly difficult to track them as they blur into one another.
In previous years, such copycat behavior was less common, but now it’s becoming the norm. This shift strongly suggests that experienced cybercriminals are being replaced by younger, less-skilled actors. As a result, while the number of ransomware groups grows, innovation within the ecosystem seems to be stagnating.
A new group appears to imitate the RansomHub group.
Attacks Are Increasing, but Ransom Payments Are Decreasing
While ransomware attacks surged in 2024, total ransom payments dropped by 35%, amounting to $813.55 million. Companies are increasingly adopting robust cybersecurity measures, improving backup strategies, and benefiting from law enforcement crackdowns on cybercriminals.
Notably, the international operation “Operation Cronos” disrupted LockBit’s infrastructure, demonstrating the growing impact of coordinated cybercrime enforcement. However, despite these advancements, ransomware groups are evolving their tactics, becoming more aggressive in their extortion methods.
In response, the UK government is considering stricter regulations, including:
Banning public institutions and critical infrastructure providers from making ransom payments.
Mandating all victims to report ransomware incidents to authorities.
Authorities believe these measures will curb ransomware groups’ financial streams and act as a deterrent. If enacted, these regulations could reshape how organizations respond to ransomware threats.
Key Takeaways
January 2025 set a record-breaking pace for ransomware incidents.
Clop led the charge but may be struggling to maintain its past level of influence.
FunkSec is rapidly expanding its operations beyond ransomware, building a cybercrime ecosystem.
The alleged return of Babuk remains uncertain, raising questions about its legitimacy.
While ransom payments are declining, attack volume is increasing, prompting tighter regulations.
For cybersecurity teams, 2025 is already shaping up to be one of the most challenging years yet. Black Kite’s Ransomware Susceptibility Index® (RSITM) offers a proactive approach by assessing the likelihood of a ransomware attack throughout the third-party ecosystem. By leveraging RSI, risk managers can identify high-risk vendors before an attack strikes, prioritize remediation efforts, and ultimately safeguard their organizations against the escalating threat.
Dig into our full 2025 Third Party Breach Report: The Silent Breach: How Third Parties Became the Biggest Cyber Threat in 2024 – accessible instantly, no download required.
In this week’s Focus Friday, we examine high-impact vulnerabilities affecting Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS, Ivanti Connect Secure, Zimbra Collaboration, and Cacti, all of which pose significant third-party risk concerns. These vulnerabilities range from remote code execution (RCE) flaws to SQL injection attacks that could lead to data breaches, system takeovers, and supply chain risks.
Organizations relying on network security appliances, email collaboration tools, and monitoring frameworks must take proactive measures to assess their exposure and secure their vendor ecosystem against these threats. In this blog, we provide an in-depth Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) perspective, detailing how these vulnerabilities could impact vendor security postures and what questions security teams should ask to mitigate risks.
Additionally, we highlight how Black Kite’s FocusTags™ provide real-time insights into vendor exposure, helping organizations prioritize remediation efforts and streamline their risk management processes.
Filtered view of companies with PAN-OS – Feb2025 FocusTag™ on the Black Kite platform.
CVE-2025-0108, CVE-2025-0110: Authentication Bypass & Command Injection in PAN-OS
What are the PAN-OS Authentication Bypass and Command Injection Vulnerabilities?
Two high-severity vulnerabilities have been identified in Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS, affecting network security devices:
CVE-2025-0108 (Authentication Bypass – CVSS: 8.8): This vulnerability affects the management web interface of PAN-OS. An unauthenticated attacker with network access can bypass authentication and invoke specific PHP scripts. While it does not allow remote code execution, it compromises system integrity and confidentiality.
CVE-2025-0110 (Command Injection – CVSS: 8.6): Found in the OpenConfig plugin, this vulnerability enables an authenticated administrator with gNMI request privileges to inject and execute arbitrary commands. The commands run as the _openconfig user, which has Device Administrator privileges, potentially leading to full system compromise.
Both vulnerabilities were published on February 12, 2025. One proof-of-concept exploit is available on github.com. There is no evidence of active exploitation or inclusion in CISA’s KEV catalog at this time. However, PAN-OS vulnerabilities have been targeted in the past, making proactive mitigation crucial.
Why Should TPRM Professionals Be Concerned About These Vulnerabilities?
Third-party risk management (TPRM) professionals should be concerned due to the critical role of PAN-OS in enterprise cybersecurity.
Authentication Bypass (CVE-2025-0108): Attackers could exploit this flaw to gain unauthorized access to PAN-OS management functions, leading to potential misconfigurations, unauthorized changes, or exposure of sensitive network settings.
Command Injection (CVE-2025-0110): If the OpenConfig plugin is enabled, an attacker with administrator access could execute arbitrary system commands, escalating privileges or deploying persistent malware on PAN-OS devices.
For vendors relying on PAN-OS for perimeter security, exploitation of these vulnerabilities could lead to network-wide security breaches, data exposure, and compromised firewall configurations.
What Questions Should TPRM Professionals Ask Vendors?
To assess vendor exposure, TPRM professionals should ask:
Have you identified any PAN-OS devices in your environment that are running vulnerable versions (before PAN-OS 11.2.4-h4, 11.1.6-h1, 10.2.13-h3, 10.1.14-h9)?
Do you use the OpenConfig plugin in PAN-OS? If so, have you verified that it is updated to version 2.1.2 or later?
What access controls are in place to restrict exposure of the PAN-OS management web interface to untrusted networks?
Have you applied Palo Alto Networks’ recommended mitigations, such as disabling unused plugins and restricting management access?
Remediation Recommendations for Vendors Subject to this Risk
To mitigate the risk associated with these vulnerabilities, vendors should:
✔ Upgrade PAN-OS to patched versions:
PAN-OS 11.2 → Upgrade to 11.2.4-h4 or later
PAN-OS 11.1 → Upgrade to 11.1.6-h1 or later
PAN-OS 10.2 → Upgrade to 10.2.13-h3 or later
PAN-OS 10.1 → Upgrade to 10.1.14-h9 or later
If running PAN-OS 11.0 (EoL), upgrade to a supported version.
✔ Update OpenConfig plugin to version 2.1.2 or later (if enabled). ✔ Restrict management interface access to trusted internal IPs only. ✔ Disable the OpenConfig plugin if not in use to reduce the attack surface. ✔ Monitor system logs for unusual access or command execution activity. ✔ Apply Palo Alto Networks’ Threat Prevention rules to block potential exploits (Threat IDs 510000, 510001).
How TPRM Professionals Can Leverage Black Kite for These Vulnerabilities
Black Kite has tagged this issue as “PAN-OS – Feb2025” with a VERY HIGH confidence level.
The FocusTag™ identifies vendors potentially affected by CVE-2025-0108 and CVE-2025-0110.
Black Kite provides asset intelligence, including IP addresses and subdomains hosting vulnerable PAN-OS instances.
The FocusTag™ was published on February 13, 2025, allowing TPRM teams to take proactive measures before potential exploitation.
Black Kite’s PAN-OS – Feb2025 FocusTagTM details critical insights on the event for TPRM professionals.
CVE-2025-22467, CVE-2024-38657, CVE-2024-10644: Critical Vulnerabilities in Ivanti Connect Secure and Policy Secure
What Are the Critical Vulnerabilities in Ivanti Connect Secure and Policy Secure?
Multiple critical vulnerabilities have been identified in Ivanti Connect Secure (ICS) and Ivanti Policy Secure (IPS) products:
CVE-2025-22467 (CVSS: 9.9): A stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability in ICS versions prior to 22.7R2.6. This flaw allows a remote authenticated attacker with low privileges to execute arbitrary code, potentially leading to full system compromise.
CVE-2024-38657 (CVSS: 9.1): An external control of file name or path vulnerability affecting ICS (before 22.7R2.4) and IPS (before 22.7R1.3). A remote authenticated attacker with administrative privileges can write arbitrary files on the system, which may lead to unauthorized file manipulation or system compromise.
CVE-2024-10644 (CVSS: 9.1): A code injection vulnerability in ICS (before 22.7R2.4) and IPS (before 22.7R1.3). This allows a remote authenticated attacker with administrative privileges to execute arbitrary commands on the system, potentially resulting in complete system control.
These vulnerabilities were publicly disclosed on February 11, 2025. As of now, there is no evidence of active exploitation in the wild, and they have not been added to CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. Other vulnerabilities to be mindful of include CVE-2024-12058 (arbitrary file read), CVE-2024-13842 (sensitive data exposure), and CVE-2024-13843 (cleartext storage of sensitive information), which, despite their lower CVSS scores, should still be carefully considered.
Why Should TPRM Professionals Be Concerned About These Vulnerabilities?
Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) professionals should be concerned due to the following reasons:
Remote Code Execution Risks: Exploitation of these vulnerabilities could allow attackers to execute arbitrary code or commands, leading to unauthorized access, data breaches, and potential lateral movement within the network.
Privilege Escalation: Attackers with low-level access could exploit these flaws to escalate privileges, gaining administrative control over critical systems.
Supply Chain Impact: Vendors utilizing vulnerable versions of ICS and IPS may inadvertently expose connected organizations to security risks, emphasizing the importance of assessing third-party security postures.
What Questions Should TPRM Professionals Ask Vendors About These Vulnerabilities?
To assess vendor exposure, TPRM professionals should inquire:
Which versions of Ivanti Connect Secure and Ivanti Policy Secure are currently deployed within your environment?
Have the identified vulnerabilities (CVE-2025-22467, CVE-2024-38657, CVE-2024-10644) been remediated by updating to the latest recommended versions?
What measures are in place to monitor and detect potential exploitation attempts related to these vulnerabilities?
Is multi-factor authentication (MFA) enabled for all administrative access to these systems?
Remediation Recommendations for Vendors Subject to This Risk
To mitigate the risks associated with these vulnerabilities, vendors should:
✔ Update to Patched Versions:
For Ivanti Connect Secure, upgrade to version 22.7R2.6 or later.
For Ivanti Policy Secure, upgrade to version 22.7R1.3 or later.
✔ Restrict Administrative Privileges:
Limit administrative access to essential personnel.
Enforce principle of least privilege to reduce risk.
✔ Implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA):
Ensure MFA is enabled for all administrative and remote access.
✔ Monitor System Logs:
Regularly review logs for unusual activities or signs of attempted exploitation.
✔ Apply Security Best Practices:
Follow Ivanti’s security guidelines to mitigate risks associated with authenticated users.
How TPRM Professionals Can Leverage Black Kite for These Vulnerabilities
Black Kite has tagged these vulnerabilities under “Ivanti Connect Secure – Feb2025” with a HIGH confidence level.
The FocusTag™ provides detailed information on vendors potentially affected by these vulnerabilities.
Black Kite’s asset intelligence helps identify IP addresses and subdomains hosting vulnerable instances.
This enables TPRM teams to proactively assess and address risks associated with these vulnerabilities.
Black Kite’s Ivanti Connect Secure – Feb2025 FocusTagTM details critical insights on the event for TPRM professionals.
Zimbra Collaboration (formerly known as Zimbra Collaboration Suite or ZCS) is an open-source and commercial groupware email platform. It includes features such as email, calendaring, contacts, task management, instant messaging, and file sharing, designed for enterprises, government institutions, and service providers.
What is CVE-2025-25064?
CVE-2025-25064 is a critical SQL injection vulnerability affecting Zimbra Collaboration versions 10.0.x prior to 10.0.12 and 10.1.x prior to 10.1.4. This flaw arises from insufficient sanitization of user-supplied parameters in the ZimbraSync Service SOAP endpoint. Authenticated attackers can exploit this vulnerability by manipulating specific request parameters to inject arbitrary SQL queries, potentially allowing unauthorized retrieval of email metadata and other sensitive information. The vulnerability has a CVSS score of 9.8, indicating its critical severity, and an EPSS score of 0.05%. It was publicly disclosed on February 9, 2025. As of now, there is no evidence of active exploitation in the wild, and it has not been added to CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
Why Should TPRM Professionals Be Concerned About CVE-2025-25064?
Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) professionals should be concerned about CVE-2025-25064 due to its potential impact on email security. Zimbra Collaboration is widely used by organizations for email and collaboration services. Exploitation of this vulnerability could allow attackers to access sensitive email metadata, leading to unauthorized disclosure of confidential information. If a vendor utilizes vulnerable Zimbra Collaboration products, their compromised systems could serve as entry points for attackers, resulting in data breaches and disruptions that may affect connected organizations.
What Questions Should TPRM Professionals Ask Vendors Regarding CVE-2025-25064?
To assess and mitigate risks associated with this vulnerability, TPRM professionals should inquire:
Have you updated all instances of Zimbra Collaboration to versions 10.0.12 or 10.1.4, where CVE-2025-25064 has been patched?
Can you confirm if you have implemented access restrictions to the ZimbraSync Service SOAP endpoint to trusted networks and users as recommended?
Have you deployed Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) to detect and block SQL injection attempts targeting Zimbra Collaboration?
Do you regularly monitor server and application logs for unusual or unauthorized activities, particularly related to the ZimbraSync Service?
Remediation Recommendations for Vendors
Vendors using affected Zimbra Collaboration products should:
Update Software: Upgrade to Zimbra Collaboration versions 10.0.12 or 10.1.4, where this vulnerability has been addressed.
Restrict Access: Limit access to the ZimbraSync Service SOAP endpoint to trusted networks and users to minimize potential exploitation vectors.
Implement Web Application Firewalls (WAF): Deploy WAFs to detect and block SQL injection attempts and other malicious activities targeting web applications.
Monitor Logs: Regularly review server and application logs for unusual or unauthorized activities, particularly related to the ZimbraSync Service.
How Can TPRM Professionals Leverage Black Kite for This Vulnerability?
Black Kite has proactively addressed this issue by publishing the “Zimbra – Feb2025” FocusTag™ on February 11, 2025. This tag enables TPRM professionals to identify vendors potentially affected by CVE-2025-25064. By providing detailed asset information, including IP addresses and subdomains associated with the compromised devices, Black Kite empowers organizations to assess and mitigate risks efficiently. This actionable intelligence allows for targeted inquiries and remediation efforts, ensuring a robust third-party risk management strategy.
Black Kite’s Zimbra – Feb2025 FocusTagTM details critical insights on the event for TPRM professionals.
CVE-2025-22604: Critical Remote Code Execution Vulnerability in Cacti
Cacti is an open-source network monitoring and graphing tool designed to collect, store, and visualize performance data for IT infrastructure. It is widely used by network administrators and IT professionals to monitor network devices, servers, and applications in real time.
What is the Cacti Remote Code Execution Vulnerability?
CVE-2025-22604 is a critical security flaw in Cacti, an open-source network monitoring and fault management framework. This vulnerability allows authenticated users with device management permissions to execute arbitrary commands on the server by injecting malformed Object Identifiers (OIDs) into SNMP responses. When processed by functions like ss_net_snmp_disk_io() or ss_net_snmp_disk_bytes(), parts of these OIDs are used as keys in an array that becomes part of a system command, leading to remote code execution (RCE). The vulnerability has a CVSS score of 9.1. It was publicly disclosed on January 26, 2025. There is no evidence of proof of exploitation at the moment.
Why Should TPRM Professionals Be Concerned About This Vulnerability?
Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) professionals should be concerned about CVE-2025-22604 because Cacti is widely used by organizations to monitor network performance and availability. A successful exploit of this vulnerability could allow attackers to execute arbitrary commands on the server, potentially compromising system integrity and data security. This could lead to unauthorized access to sensitive information, disruption of network monitoring capabilities, and further exploitation within the organization’s network. Given the critical nature of this vulnerability and the availability of proof-of-concept exploit code, it is imperative for organizations to assess their exposure and ensure that their vendors have addressed this issue.
What Questions Should TPRM Professionals Ask Vendors About CVE-2025-22604?
To assess the risk associated with this vulnerability, TPRM professionals should consider asking vendors the following questions:
Have you identified any instances of Cacti within your infrastructure that are affected by CVE-2025-22604?
If so, have you updated all affected Cacti installations to version 1.2.29 or later to mitigate this vulnerability?
What measures have you implemented to restrict SNMP access to trusted users and networks?
Do you regularly monitor system logs and SNMP activity for unusual or unauthorized actions?
Remediation Recommendations for Vendors Subject to This Risk
Vendors should take the following actions to remediate the risk associated with CVE-2025-22604:
Upgrade Cacti: Update all Cacti installations to version 1.2.29 or later, as this version addresses the vulnerability.
Restrict SNMP Access: Limit SNMP access to trusted users and networks to reduce potential attack vectors.
Monitor Systems: Regularly review system logs and SNMP activity for any unusual or unauthorized actions.
Review Permissions: Ensure that only necessary personnel have device management permissions within Cacti.
How TPRM Professionals Can Leverage Black Kite for This Vulnerability
Black Kite has published a FocusTag™ titled “Cacti – Feb2025” to help organizations identify potential exposure to CVE-2025-22604. TPRM professionals can utilize this tag to assess their vendors’ risk related to this vulnerability. By leveraging Black Kite’s platform, professionals can identify vendors using vulnerable versions of Cacti and take proactive steps to mitigate potential risks. This includes obtaining asset information such as IP addresses and subdomains associated with the vendors’ systems, which is crucial for effective risk assessment and management.
Black Kite’s Cacti – Feb2025 FocusTagTM details critical insights on the event for TPRM professionals.
Maximizing TPRM Effectiveness with Black Kite’s FocusTags™
With high-profile vulnerabilities such as PAN-OS authentication bypass (CVE-2025-0108), Ivanti Connect Secure RCE (CVE-2025-22467), Zimbra SQL injection (CVE-2025-25064), and Cacti remote code execution (CVE-2025-22604), organizations must rapidly assess third-party security risks to prevent cascading impacts. Black Kite’s FocusTags™ enable security teams to efficiently identify, analyze, and mitigate these threats by offering:
✅ Real-Time Risk Identification – Instant visibility into which vendors are affected by the latest vulnerabilities, allowing organizations to take immediate action. ✅ Risk Prioritization – Insights into vendor importance and vulnerability severity, helping security teams allocate resources effectively. ✅ Informed Vendor Engagement – Targeted discussions with vendors about their security measures and remediation strategies for identified vulnerabilities. ✅ Comprehensive Security Posture Enhancement – A holistic view of third-party risks, enabling organizations to make data-driven security decisions.
By leveraging Black Kite’s FocusTags™, organizations can stay ahead of evolving cyber threats, ensuring proactive risk mitigation in their third-party ecosystems. These tags provide critical intelligence, transforming complex vulnerability data into actionable insights for better vendor security management.
Want to take a closer look at FocusTags™?
Take our platform for a test drive and request a demo today.
Every week, we delve into the realms of critical vulnerabilities and their implications from a Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) perspective. This series is dedicated to shedding light on pressing cybersecurity threats, offering in-depth analyses, and providing actionable insights.
FocusTagsTM in the Last 30 Days:
PAN-OS – Feb2025: CVE-2025-0108, CVE-2025-0110, Authentication Bypass Vulnerability, OS Command Injection Vulnerability in Palo Alto’s PAN-OS.
Every breach tells a story. In 2024, that story was about third-party vulnerabilities becoming the preferred entry point for attackers. From ransomware attacks that threatened supply chains to credential misuse that compromised entire industries, third-party breaches surged in both scale and sophistication.
Black Kite’s 2025 Third-Party Breach Report takes a deep dive into these incidents, analyzing the most significant third-party breaches of 2024 to identify the key trends shaping the future of cybersecurity. This year’s findings highlight critical shifts in the third-party risk landscape: ransomware affiliates are becoming more aggressive, unauthorized network access remains the most exploited attack vector, and regulatory frameworks are driving improvements — but not evenly across industries.
5 Takeaways from the 2025 Third-Party Breach Report
For cybersecurity leaders looking to adapt their strategies for the year ahead, here are a few notable findings from this year’s report — and what they mean for your approach to third-party risk management.
Read Black Kite’s 2025 Third-Party Breach Report, no download required.
1. A shift to continuous risk monitoring
In 2024, the Cleo File Transfer ransomware attack was a wake-up call that exposed the shortcomings of traditional third-party risk management. Attackers exploited unpatched vulnerabilities in widely used file transfer software, impacting dozens of organizations across industries. Traditional security assessments failed to catch these risks, but proactive monitoring tools could have flagged these vulnerabilities before attackers did.
For example, for too long, third-party risk management (TPRM) has relied on security questionnaires. Organizations track response rates, completion metrics, and compliance checklists — but breaches keep happening. The problem? These assessments measure vendor effort, not actual security posture, and for one point in time at that..
Meanwhile, ransomware groups aren’t wasting time with paperwork. They’re studying supply chains, buying marketing intelligence, and doing everything they can to learn more about their victims and their supply chains. Questionnaires are no defense against this kind of sophisticated, intentional approach.
Organizations need to move beyond static assessments and embrace real-time risk intelligence to detect vulnerabilities before they’re exploited. Instead of relying solely on vendors’ self-reported security measures, organizations should implement continuous monitoring tools that provide real-time visibility into third-party risks. During the Cleo File Transfer ransomware campaign, for example, Black Kite’s FocusTags™ helped organizations identify at-risk vendors and implement rapid mitigation strategies to prevent further breaches.
2. Affiliates are changing the rules of ransomware
Ransomware operations underwent a major shift in 2024, driven by changes in the underground cybercrime economy. The February attack on Change Healthcare didn’t just impact pharmacies, doctors, and hospitals — it reshaped the entire ransomware market. A payment dispute between an affiliate and a major ransomware group led to a structural change, where affiliates gained greater control and financial incentives.
This affiliate-led model has fueled a spike in ransomware activity. Now, instead of centralized ransomware groups leading the charge, affiliates are operating with more autonomy, deploying multiple types of ransomware and significantly increasing the frequency of attacks.
Healthcare bore the brunt of these attacks in 2024, accounting for over 40% of all third-party breaches. And unlike ransomware groups that historically followed an informal “twisted code of conduct” — where healthcare organizations were considered off-limits — modern affiliates have no such boundaries. They prioritize financial gain over all else, choosing targets based on likelihood to pay. The Cencora ransomware attack, for instance, allegedly resulted in a $75 million ransom payment, exposing sensitive patient data and revealing the cascading impact of third-party breaches.
This shift in ransomware tactics means organizations can no longer rely on past attack patterns to predict future threats. With financially motivated affiliates now driving attacks, businesses must invest in tools designed to proactively monitor and manage third-party risks to ensure a rapid response to disruptive events.
3. Regulations are driving cybersecurity improvements
Regulatory frameworks like DORA, HIPAA, and GDPR have been catalysts for critical risk management improvements, particularly in industries with strict compliance mandates. According to our findings, among vendors that experienced a breach and subsequently improved their cyber rating by at least 3 points, 72% serve the healthcare industry — an indication that regulatory enforcement is driving significant improvements in incident response and vendor risk management practices.
However, not all industries are keeping pace. Only 14% of vendors with improved scores following a breach support the financial services sector. Similarly, only 14% of vendors in the manufacturing sector showed progress in enhancing their cyber ratings.
The progress observed in sectors like healthcare, where regulations drove notable improvements, serves as a model for other industries to follow. But regulations aren’t enough on their own either. While regulatory frameworks establish baseline security standards, they must be backed by proactive risk management strategies. Organizations that implement continuous third-party risk monitoring, leverage real-time threat intelligence tools, and enforce vendor accountability through contractual security requirements are significantly better positioned to identify and mitigate emerging threats.
4. Defining unauthorized network access
Unauthorized network access accounted for over 50% of publicly disclosed third-party breaches in 2024. But what does that really mean? Too often, “unauthorized access” is used as a vague, catch-all explanation when organizations lack clarity on the root cause of an attack or choose not to disclose specific details. This makes it difficult to determine whether breaches were caused by stolen credentials, misconfigurations, or unpatched vulnerabilities.
The lack of transparency in incident reporting presents a serious challenge for CISOs. Without a clear picture of how attackers infiltrated a system, security teams struggle to remediate vulnerabilities and prevent future breaches. Instead of driving meaningful improvements, these incidents often fuel blame games and reactive security postures.
Given the sheer volume of breaches attributed to unauthorized access, security leaders must push for deeper analysis and clearer reporting. Creating a culture of transparency in incident reporting can help security teams better understand the root causes of unauthorized network access breaches, enabling more effective prevention strategies.
5. Building a resilient third-party risk management strategy
While we can’t predict exactly what’s next, there’s a lot we can learn from last year’s third-party breaches. By analyzing the trends, cybersecurity leaders can fine-tune their strategies to stay ahead of emerging threats. What’s clear from this year’s 2025 Third-Party Breach Report is that a proactive, collaborative approach to third-party risk management is now essential.
As we move into 2025, relying on reactive measures is no longer enough. Organizations must embrace real-time risk assessments, improve vendor communication using tools like Black Kite Bridge™, and invest in actionable remediation intelligence. Cyber threats are evolving fast, and so must the tools and strategies used to combat them. By adapting to these changes in the third-party risk landscape, companies can build a stronger, more resilient security posture and better protect themselves against the next wave of cyber threats.
Dig into our full 2025 Third Party Breach Report: The Silent Breach: How Third Parties Became the Biggest Cyber Threat in 2024 – accessible instantly, no download required.
Welcome to the December 2024 ransomware update, where we highlight the latest trends, threat actors, and developments in the ransomware ecosystem to keep CISOs and third-party risk managers informed and prepared.
The Black Kite Research & Intelligence Team (BRITE) tracked 535 ransomware incidents in December 2024. While it didn’t surpass the record-breaking 595 victims in November, December still proved to be a significant month. Of these incidents, an overwhelming 244 were in the United States and 27 in Canada, highlighting North America’s ongoing struggle as a primary target for ransomware attacks.
Top Threat Actors in December 2024
1. FunkSec Emerges as a Major Player with 87 Victims
December marked a turning point in the ransomware landscape as FunkSec dethroned RansomHub to become the leading threat actor with 87 victims. What makes FunkSec’s rise particularly remarkable is that it is a relatively new group in the ecosystem. Their operations have not been limited to ransomware; the group has been actively selling admin access and super access for various companies, offering a troubling range of services to their buyers. FunkSec primarily targeted the information sector and public administration industries this month, demonstrating a calculated focus on critical and data-heavy sectors. Their rapid ascent highlights their aggressive strategies and growing influence in the ransomware ecosystem.
FunkSec Ransom Note
2. RansomHub Maintains Stability with 57 Victims
After dominating the leaderboard since July, RansomHub dropped to the second spot with 57 victims in December. Despite losing its leadership position, RansomHub maintained its reputation as a consistent player in the ransomware space, continuing to target high-value organizations globally.
Akira Surges with 46 Victims
The Akira group surged to the third position this month with 46 victims, showcasing one of its most active and aggressive months of the year. Akira’s operations this month highlighted their ability to capitalize on vulnerabilities and expand their victim pool, signaling their intent to climb higher in the ransomware hierarchy.
They Hate Being Forgotten: Clop (Cl0p) Is Back Again
The Clop group added a chaotic twist to the month. Exploiting the CLEO vulnerability in December, they initially promised to release victim data “within 48 hours.” Then they postponed to December 30, only to announce they were “taking a holiday break” and would publish data after their return.
Clop’s statement about CLEO victims
In total, Clop announced 66 victims, but BRITE believes the actual number is higher. Their erratic behavior has left many wondering if the group is losing its grip or simply playing for attention. Regardless, Clop’s actions remind us of the unpredictable nature of threat actors and the challenges of staying ahead of them.
One thing is clear: Clop, despite its chaotic actions, refuses to be forgotten and remains a noteworthy player in the ransomware ecosystem.
LockBit 4.0 Introduces RaaS Pricing Model for Just $777
LockBit, once the industry leader, seems to be struggling to reclaim its former prominence. December saw the launch of LockBit 4.0, a move that many interpreted as an attempt to stay relevant. Along with this update, the group introduced a Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) pricing model for just $777, making their tools accessible to smaller players in the ecosystem.
Payment page for access to the LockBit panel
This shift has raised eyebrows across the cybersecurity world. Is it a sign of innovation or desperation? Many believe this move reflects LockBit’s declining influence after facing increased law enforcement pressure and internal challenges.
What stands out most is that LockBit’s struggles highlight a harsh reality: nothing in the ransomware world is unbreakable. Even the strongest groups can fall, showing how unpredictable and tough this space can be.
At the same time, their collapse shows how much it affects the whole ecosystem. It’s also a reminder of how hard it is to keep a group running steadily and stay on top in such a challenging environment.
RaaS Revolutionized Cybercrime in December 2024
The rise of Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) has been one of the defining trends of December.
LockBit’s pricing model set off a ripple effect, inspiring other groups like FunkSec to adopt similar strategies.
Smaller threat actors are now able to access sophisticated ransomware tools at lower costs, democratizing cybercrime and complicating defense efforts.
Example RaaS sharing
RaaS not only increases the number of attacks but also lowers the barrier for entry, making it easier for less experienced actors to enter the game. This trend, if it continues, could make 2025 an even more challenging year for cybersecurity professionals.
2024: A Record-Breaking Year for Ransomware
2024 was a record-breaking year for ransomware. As groups continue to grow, tactics evolve, and victims are added to the lists, we can expect more records to be set in the coming months.
At Black Kite, the BRITE team remains committed to tracking threat actors in real time, analyzing their movements, and staying aware of emerging threats. As we enter 2025, staying one step ahead has never been more critical.For weekly updates on emerging cyber threats, please follow our Focus Friday blog series and LinkedIn account.
Learn more about the rising ransomware attacks in the full 2025 Healthcare Ransomware Report — accessible instantly, no download required.
The healthcare sector is under attack, and the numbers paint a stark picture of the growing ransomware crisis. Our latest infographic, drawn from the 2025 Healthcare Ransomware Report, uncovers the alarming rise in ransomware incidents targeting healthcare organizations and the reasons behind this surge.
Key insights from the infographic:
Healthcare is now the 3rd most targeted industry for ransomware.
Rising from 7th place in just one year, the sector now accounts for 8% of all ransomware attacks—up from 5% in 2023. Overall, ransomware incidents in healthcare surged by 32.16% in the last year.
High-stakes operations make healthcare a lucrative ransomware target.
Ransomware groups are drawn to healthcare’s sensitive patient data and the urgency to restore disrupted services. Ransom demands in the sector can reach as high as $20 million, with both large hospitals and small practices feeling the impact.
Ransomware groups have evolved to target healthcare.
Disruptions in the ransomware ecosystem, including the takedown of groups like LockBit and AlphV (BlackCat), and the growth in affiliates’ power, have led to the emergence of aggressive new players who don’t consider healthcare off-limits. For example, RansomHub offered affiliates a 90% payout with greater control over targets.
Patient safety is at risk from ransomware attacks.
These attacks are not just financial concerns—they jeopardize patient care and trust. Delayed surgeries, blocked medical records, and spillover effects on supply chains are just a few of the devastating consequences.
An early ransomware warning system is critical.
Black Kite’s Ransomware Susceptibility Index® (RSI™) offers healthcare organizations vital insights into ransomware risks, enabling them to prioritize and address vulnerabilities before attackers strike.
This infographic provides a detailed look at how ransomware attackers are zeroing in on the healthcare sector, from the tactics they use to the far-reaching impacts of their attacks. Whether you’re part of a major hospital system or a small clinic, the stakes are too high to ignore.
In today’s interconnected digital landscape, the rapid emergence of critical vulnerabilities demands an agile and informed approach to Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM). This week’s Focus Friday blog highlights high-profile incidents involving vulnerabilities in FortiGate firewalls, QNAP NAS systems, Mongoose, and the W3 Total Cache WordPress plugin. Each of these vulnerabilities poses unique challenges, from authentication bypasses enabling unauthorized access to database manipulation and SSRF attacks.
Leveraging Black Kite’s FocusTags™, we delve into the impact of these vulnerabilities from a TPRM perspective. This article offers detailed insights into the risks, remediation strategies, and questions TPRM professionals should be asking vendors to protect their ecosystems against potential breaches.
Filtered view of companies with FortiGate Leakage FocusTag™ on the Black Kite platform.
CVE-2022-40684 is a critical authentication bypass vulnerability affecting Fortinet’s FortiOS, FortiProxy, and FortiSwitchManager products. This flaw allows unauthenticated attackers to perform administrative operations via specially crafted HTTP or HTTPS requests. The vulnerability has a CVSS score of 9.8, indicating its critical severity, and an EPSS score of 97.26%, reflecting the significant likelihood of exploitation. First identified in October 2022, this vulnerability has been actively exploited in the wild, with reports of threat actors leveraging it to download device configurations and add unauthorized super_admin accounts. Notably, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added CVE-2022-40684 to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on October 11, 2022.
As part of Black Kite Research & Intelligence Team (BRITE), we have proactively addressed the exposure of configuration files, IP addresses, and VPN credentials belonging to over 15,000 FortiGate devices identified and analyzed on the dark web.
Why Should TPRM Professionals Be Concerned About CVE-2022-40684?
Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) professionals should be particularly vigilant regarding CVE-2022-40684 due to its potential impact on network security. The recent leak of configuration files and VPN credentials for over 15,000 FortiGate devices underscores the risk of unauthorized access to sensitive systems. If a vendor utilizes vulnerable FortiGate products, their compromised systems could serve as entry points for attackers, leading to data breaches and disruptions that may cascade to connected organizations. Given the critical role of firewalls in protecting network perimeters, any compromise can have far-reaching consequences.
What Questions Should TPRM Professionals Ask Vendors Regarding CVE-2022-40684?
To assess and mitigate risks associated with this vulnerability, TPRM professionals should inquire:
Have you updated all instances of FortiOS, FortiProxy, and FortiSwitchManager products to the latest firmware versions where CVE-2022-40684 has been patched?
Can you confirm if you have implemented IP restrictions, enhanced network activity monitoring, and deactivated the HTTP/HTTPS administrative interface as recommended in the advisory to mitigate the risk of CVE-2022-40684?
Have you reset all VPN and administrative credentials, especially those previously configured, and reviewed your firewall rules and configurations to ensure they align with current security best practices following the FortiGate firewall configuration leak?
Have you verified if your FortiGate devices are among the compromised by reviewing the leaked data and taken necessary actions to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive systems.
Remediation Recommendations for Vendors
Vendors using affected Fortinet products should:
Update Firmware: Upgrade to the latest firmware versions that address CVE-2022-40684.
Change Credentials: Reset all VPN and administrative credentials, especially those previously configured.
Review Configurations: Assess and modify firewall rules and configurations to align with current security best practices.
Disable Administrative Interface: Deactivate the HTTP/HTTPS administrative interface to reduce the attack surface.
Implement IP Restrictions: Limit access to the administrative interface by allowing only trusted IP addresses.
Monitor Network Activity: Enhance monitoring to detect any unauthorized access or anomalies.
How Can TPRM Professionals Leverage Black Kite for This Vulnerability?
Black Kite has proactively addressed this issue by publishing the “FortiGate Leakage” FocusTag™ on January 17, 2025. This tag enables TPRM professionals to identify vendors potentially affected by the FortiGate data leak. By providing detailed asset information, including IP addresses and subdomains associated with the compromised devices, Black Kite empowers organizations to assess and mitigate risks efficiently. This actionable intelligence allows for targeted inquiries and remediation efforts, ensuring a robust third-party risk management strategy.
Black Kite’s FortiGate Leakage FocusTagTM details critical insights on the event for TPRM professionals.
CVE-2024-53691 and CVE-2023-39298 in QNAP QTS and QuTS Hero
What are CVE-2024-53691 and CVE-2023-39298?
CVE-2024-53691 is a link following a vulnerability in QNAP’s QTS and QuTS hero operating systems. It allows remote attackers with user access to traverse the file system to unintended locations, potentially leading to unauthorized access to sensitive files and system compromise. This vulnerability has a CVSS score of 8.7.
CVE-2023-39298 is a missing authorization vulnerability affecting several QNAP operating system versions. It permits local authenticated users to access data or perform actions they should not be allowed to via unspecified vectors. This vulnerability has a CVSS score of 7.8. As of January 23, 2025, neither vulnerability has been added to CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
Why Should TPRM Professionals Be Concerned About These Vulnerabilities?
QNAP NAS devices are widely used for storing and managing critical business data. Exploitation of these vulnerabilities could lead to unauthorized access, data breaches, and potential system compromises. For Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) professionals, it’s crucial to assess whether vendors utilize vulnerable QNAP systems, as a compromise could indirectly affect your organization’s data integrity and security.
What Questions Should TPRM Professionals Ask Vendors Regarding These Vulnerabilities?
To evaluate the risk associated with these vulnerabilities, TPRM professionals should inquire:
Can you confirm if you have upgraded all instances of QNAP QTS and QuTS hero to versions QTS 5.2.0.2802 build 20240620 and QuTS hero h5.2.0.2802 build 20240620 or later to mitigate the risk of CVE-2024-53691 and CVE-2023-39298?
Have you implemented the recommended actions such as monitoring system logs, applying security patches promptly, implementing MFA, and restricting network access to mitigate the risk of unauthorized access due to the link following vulnerability in QNAP QTS and QuTS hero operating systems?
Can you confirm if you have taken measures to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive files and potential system compromise due to the link following vulnerability (CVE-2024-53691) in QNAP QTS and QuTS hero operating systems?
Have you taken any additional steps to protect your QNAP devices from data theft, ransomware attacks, or malware deployment that could result from exploiting the vulnerabilities CVE-2024-53691 and CVE-2023-39298?
Remediation Recommendations for Vendors
Vendors utilizing affected QNAP systems should:
Update Firmware: Upgrade to QTS 5.2.0.2802 build 20240620 or QuTS hero h5.2.0.2802 build 20240620 or later.
Restrict Network Access: Configure firewalls and network settings to allow only trusted IP addresses access to NAS devices.
Monitor System Logs: Regularly review logs for unusual activity indicating attempted exploitation.
Apply Security Patches Promptly: Ensure all security patches are applied as soon as they become available.
How Can TPRM Professionals Leverage Black Kite for These Vulnerabilities?
Black Kite released the “QNAP QTS – Jan2025” FocusTag™ on January 23, 2025, to help organizations identify vendors potentially affected by these vulnerabilities. This tag provides detailed information, including the specific assets (IP addresses and subdomains) associated with vulnerable QNAP systems within a vendor’s infrastructure. By utilizing this intelligence, TPRM professionals can prioritize assessments and remediation efforts, ensuring that vendors have addressed these critical vulnerabilities.
Black Kite’s QNAP QTS – Jan2025 FocusTagTM details critical insights on the event for TPRM professionals.
CVE-2025-23061 in Mongoose
Mongoose is specifically an Object Data Modeling (ODM) library designed for Node.js, enabling easy interaction with MongoDB databases. It simplifies the management, validation, and modeling of data in MongoDB, providing developers with a more structured and secure working environment.
What is CVE-2025-23061?
CVE-2025-23061 is a critical code injection vulnerability affecting Mongoose, a MongoDB object modeling tool widely used for Node.js and Deno applications. It has a CVSS score of 9.0, emphasizing its severity, while the EPSS score is 0.05%, suggesting a lower probability of exploitation at present. This vulnerability arises from improper handling of nested $where filters used with the populate() function’s match option, enabling attackers to manipulate search queries and access sensitive data.
This flaw is linked to an incomplete fix for CVE-2024-53900, another critical issue involving the $where operator’s improper handling. The vulnerability impacts Mongoose versions prior to 8.9.5. Although PoC exploit code is unavailable and it has not been added to CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, its potential impact is significant due to Mongoose’s wide adoption, with over 2.7 million weekly downloads.
Why Should TPRM Professionals Be Concerned About CVE-2025-23061?
TPRM professionals should consider this vulnerability a high-priority concern due to Mongoose’s extensive use in applications that store sensitive data. If a vendor utilizes an unpatched version of Mongoose, their database integrity could be compromised, resulting in data manipulation, unauthorized access, or even larger breaches affecting downstream partners and customers. The prevalence of Mongoose as a dependency in critical systems underscores the potential ripple effect of an exploit.
What Questions Should TPRM Professionals Ask Vendors Regarding CVE-2025-23061?
To evaluate vendor risk associated with this vulnerability, consider asking:
Have you upgraded Mongoose to version 8.9.5 or later to mitigate the risk of CVE-2025-23061 and the previously related CVE-2024-53900?
Can you confirm if you have reviewed your application’s use of the populate() function and $where filters to ensure no unintended exposure exists, as recommended in the advisory?
Have you implemented robust input validation and sanitization measures to prevent potential search injection attacks related to the Mongoose vulnerability?
Are you regularly auditing and updating all dependencies to incorporate the latest security patches, specifically those related to Mongoose and MongoDB object modeling tools?
Remediation Recommendations for Vendors
Vendors using Mongoose should:
Update Mongoose: Upgrade to version 8.9.5 or later to address the vulnerability.
Audit Codebase: Review the usage of $where filters and the populate() function to identify and mitigate potential exposure.
Implement Input Validation: Enforce robust validation and sanitization mechanisms for all database queries.
Monitor Dependencies: Regularly review and update dependencies to ensure all security patches are applied promptly.
How Can TPRM Professionals Leverage Black Kite for This Vulnerability?
Black Kite published the “Mongoose” FocusTag™ on January 22, 2025, to help organizations identify vendors potentially affected by this vulnerability. This tag provides high-confidence identification of systems using vulnerable Mongoose versions, offering actionable insights into affected assets, including IP addresses and subdomains. TPRM professionals can leverage this intelligence to prioritize their vendor risk assessments and ensure remediation efforts are effectively targeted.
Black Kite’s Mongoose FocusTagTM details critical insights on the event for TPRM professionals.
CVE-2024-12365 in W3 Total Cache Plugin
W3 Total Cache (W3TC) is a well-known and powerful caching and performance optimization plugin designed for WordPress websites. This plugin enhances website speed, reduces loading times, and improves the overall user experience. It is particularly effective in delivering significant performance improvements for high-traffic websites.
What is CVE-2024-12365?
CVE-2024-12365 is a high-severity missing authorization vulnerability in the W3 Total Cache plugin for WordPress, affecting versions up to and including 2.8.1. With a CVSS score of 8.5 and an EPSS score of 0.09%, this vulnerability allows authenticated users with Subscriber-level access to exploit the is_w3tc_admin_page function to retrieve the plugin’s nonce value. Attackers can leverage this to perform unauthorized actions, potentially leading to information disclosure and server-side request forgery (SSRF).
Exploitation of this flaw could allow attackers to query internal services, including metadata on cloud-based applications, and consume service plan limits. While no PoC exploit code is currently available, more than a million WordPress sites using this plugin are at risk. As of January 22, 2025, this vulnerability has not been added to CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
Why Should TPRM Professionals Be Concerned About CVE-2024-12365?
Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) professionals should be highly attentive to this vulnerability due to its potential to expose sensitive internal data and compromise WordPress-based websites. Many businesses rely on WordPress as their primary web platform, and vulnerabilities in widely-used plugins like W3 Total Cache can create significant risks.
If a vendor’s website is compromised through this flaw, it may lead to:
Data breaches involving sensitive business or customer information.
Unintended exposure of internal application data through SSRF attacks.
Loss of trust and credibility due to website exploitation.
Given the widespread use of WordPress and this specific plugin, the impact of unpatched systems can extend across interconnected organizations and their customers.
What Questions Should TPRM Professionals Ask Vendors Regarding CVE-2024-12365?
To evaluate vendor risk, TPRM professionals can ask the following targeted questions:
Can you confirm if you have updated the W3 Total Cache plugin for WordPress to version 2.8.2 or later, which addresses the CVE-2024-12365 vulnerability?
Have you implemented any additional security measures to monitor for unauthorized access or unusual behavior on your WordPress sites that could indicate exploitation attempts related to the CVE-2024-12365 vulnerability?
Have you conducted an audit of user roles and permissions to ensure that only necessary privileges are granted, minimizing potential exploitation by lower-level users as recommended in the advisory for the CVE-2024-12365 vulnerability?
Can you confirm if you have taken any steps to mitigate the risk of server-side request forgery, such as implementing security best practices or updating the W3 Total Cache plugin, in response to the CVE-2024-12365 vulnerability?
Remediation Recommendations for Vendors
Vendors using the W3 Total Cache plugin should take the following steps:
Update the Plugin: Upgrade to version 2.8.2 or newer, where the vulnerability has been fixed.
Audit User Permissions: Review and minimize privileges for users, ensuring Subscriber-level accounts have limited access.
Monitor Activity: Regularly review website activity logs for unusual or unauthorized behavior.
Enforce Security Best Practices: Maintain strong security protocols for WordPress installations, including strong passwords, regular plugin updates, and security plugins for intrusion detection.
How Can TPRM Professionals Leverage Black Kite for This Vulnerability?
Black Kite released the “W3 Total Cache” FocusTag™ on January 22, 2025, to help organizations identify vendors potentially impacted by this vulnerability. By providing very high-confidence information, such as asset-level details (e.g., IP addresses and subdomains), Black Kite enables TPRM professionals to quickly assess and mitigate risks. This FocusTag™ is instrumental in narrowing down affected vendors and ensuring targeted remediation efforts.
Black Kite’s W3 Total Cache FocusTagTM details critical insights on the event for TPRM professionals.
Enhancing TPRM Strategies with Black Kite’s FocusTags™
Black Kite’s FocusTags™ are transformative tools designed to empower Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) professionals with actionable insights in the face of an ever-evolving threat landscape. With this week’s vulnerabilities spanning multiple platforms and industries, the value of these FocusTags™ becomes especially apparent:
Real-Time Threat Awareness: Instantly pinpoint vendors impacted by vulnerabilities like those in FortiGate firewalls, QNAP NAS systems, Mongoose, and the W3 Total Cache plugin, enabling rapid and targeted action.
Prioritized Risk Management: Evaluate risks based on the criticality of the vulnerabilities and the vendor’s importance, allowing for efficient allocation of resources to mitigate threats.
Tailored Vendor Engagement: Facilitate meaningful conversations with vendors, focusing on their exposure to vulnerabilities and the specific actions they’ve taken to address them.
Enhanced Cybersecurity Posture: Gain a comprehensive view of the threat landscape, supporting the development of robust strategies to defend against future risks.
By translating complex cybersecurity data into practical intelligence, Black Kite’s FocusTags™ help TPRM professionals navigate the complexities of vendor risk management with precision and confidence. These tools are essential for maintaining resilience in today’s fast-paced digital environment, where proactive risk mitigation can mean the difference between security and compromise.
Want to take a closer look at FocusTags™?
Take our platform for a test drive and request a demo today.
Every week, we delve into the realms of critical vulnerabilities and their implications from a Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) perspective. This series is dedicated to shedding light on pressing cybersecurity threats, offering in-depth analyses, and providing actionable insights.
FocusTagsTM in the Last 30 Days:
FortiGate Leakage: CVE-2022-40684, Authentication Bypass Vulnerability, Leaked Configurations and VPN Credentials for 15,000 FortiGate Devices.
QNAP QTS – Jan2025: CVE-2024-53691, CVE-2023-39298, Remote Code Execution Vulnerability, Link Following Vulnerability, Missing Authorization Vulnerability in QNAP QTS.
Mongoose: CVE-2025-23061, Search Injection Vulnerability in Mongoose.
W3 Total Cache: CVE-2024-12365, Missing Authorization Vulnerability in WordPress’ W3 Total Cache Plugin.
Juniper Junos: CVE-2025-21598, Out-of-bounds Read Vulnerability in Juniper’s Junos.
Cybercriminals are becoming increasingly bold — and no industry is safe, even those once considered untouchable. Last year, ransomware attacks in the healthcare industry skyrocketed, propelling it from the 7th most targeted industry to 3rd in just one year with attacks increasing by over 32%. The sector now accounts for 8% of ransomware attacks — up from just 5% a year ago — ranking behind only manufacturing and professional services.
What’s driving this surge? Cybercriminals are exploiting vulnerabilities unique to healthcare — making it one of the most lucrative targets. From sensitive patient data to operational disruptions that could jeopardize lives, the stakes couldn’t be higher. With 303 attacks in a single year on major hospitals to small clinics, no corner of healthcare is immune.
Our latest report, Healthcare Under Ransomware Attack, breaks down what’s behind this alarming trend — and what healthcare organizations can do to shore up their defenses.
Healthcare’s ransomware epidemic: The surge explained
Healthcare’s rise as a prime ransomware target marks a turning point in the tactics of cybercriminals. Once considered “off-limits” under an informal (yet twisted) code of conduct, healthcare now finds itself firmly in the crosshairs. Today’s ransomware groups prioritize ease of access and high ransom potential, and the unique pressures within healthcare — where patient safety and operational continuity are at stake — make the sector especially attractive.
This shift can be traced to two main catalysts: the high-profile attack on Change Healthcare and the dismantling of prominent ransomware groups like LockBit and AlphV (BlackCat).
The February 2024 ransomware attack on Change Healthcare disrupted vital services for healthcare facilities across the U.S. Although the company acted quickly to minimize the impact, the incident exposed vulnerabilities in healthcare operations. It also revealed growing tensions within the ransomware ecosystem. During the attack, a failed payment to an affiliate (an independent attacker partnering with a ransomware operator) sparked disputes, leading to an uprising by affiliates seeking to shift the power away from large ransomware groups.
The exit of AlphV (BlackCat) in December 2023 and the disruption of LockBit in February 2024 further impacted the ransomware landscape. While these events temporarily reduced attack volumes, the lull was quickly followed by an influx of new groups, many of which now lead attacks and work off an affiliate-led model. Emerging groups like RansomHub attracted many affiliates disillusioned with how ransomware groups were previously structured, offering affiliates greater control and payouts as high as 90%.
The shift in how ransomware groups operate also means affiliates are in high demand. Now, they transition freely between groups, spreading their knowledge further and making attacks by new, more aggressive players more likely. They’re also taking a carefully planned approach to which companies they target next.
Why ransomware groups are targeting healthcare
Healthcare’s ethical responsibility to ensure continuity of care for patients sets it apart from other industries and makes it uniquely vulnerable to attacks. When systems are compromised, the consequences can be a matter of life and death — delayed surgeries, inaccessible medical records, and compromised patient safety. This means that when attacked, healthcare companies are often pressured to pay ransoms to avoid disruptions to life-saving care.
Smaller healthcare providers, with less robust cybersecurity defenses, are especially vulnerable. But no organization — large or small — is immune. Attackers aren’t picking targets at random — they are following a deliberate, calculated strategy based on:
Technical vulnerability: Unpatched systems and outdated software are low-hanging fruit.
Industry: Sectors with sensitive, valuable data, like healthcare.
Likelihood to pay: Organizations with a history of paying ransoms are more likely to pay again.
Geographic area: The U.S. remains the top target for ransomware groups.
Revenue profile: Large enterprises (revenues over $100M and small to mid-sized businesses (revenues below $20 million) are commonly targeted.
While legacy ransomware groups tended to favor negotiation, modern groups are more likely to demand fast payments of a one-time ransom, with no room for negotiation. And sensitive patient data combined with high-stakes operations makes it more likely that affected companies will pay. In healthcare, ransom demands have climbed as high as $20M, driven by the urgent need to restore operations and protect patient outcomes.
The impact of these attacks goes far beyond finances. Attacks ripple through the healthcare ecosystem, exacting a human toll on providers, patients, and their families. The effects can also spill over to vendors and suppliers, putting your entire third-party ecosystem at risk. With no subindustry of healthcare safe — and ransomware groups targeting practices both large and small — maintaining the status quo is no longer an option.
Taking control: How to get ahead of the curve
With the chances of an attack becoming increasingly likely, it’s time to take a proactive approach to protect healthcare organizations and third-party ecosystems from attacks. Here’s how to start building a robust line of defense:
Continuously monitor risk factors
Healthcare organizations need to focus on monitoring risk factors that could increase the chance of an attack. Consider what your ecosystem looks like to attackers. Unpatched systems, outdated defenses, and weak links in your third-party ecosystem are common entry points.
By continuously monitoring for changes in risk factors — both within your organization and across your third-party network — it’s easier to take action before vulnerabilities are exploited.
Use an early warning system
An early warning system is one of the best ways to assess your company’s vulnerability to attack. Proactive tools like Black Kite’s Ransomware Susceptibility Index® (RSI™) provide insights into your organization’s risk of a ransomware attack. RSI™ uses machine learning and data analysis to assess vulnerability on a scale from 0 (low risk) to 1 (high risk). Scores above 0.50 indicate a heightened likelihood of attack, allowing organizations to prioritize and remediate vulnerabilities before they become problematic.
What makes RSI™ particularly powerful is that it mirrors the factors ransomware attackers themselves evaluate when choosing targets. By identifying and addressing any vulnerabilities before they’re picked up on by attackers, you can stay off their radar and keep sensitive patient data safe.
Prevention is the best medicine
Healthcare providers preach the power of preventative care — and the same goes for cybersecurity. Taking a proactive approach to ransomware defense, you can assess the risks to your organization and its third-party ecosystem, protecting against the growing risk of attacks before it’s too late.
With attacks on the healthcare industry becoming more frequent and aggressive, the cost of inaction is too great — not just in financial losses but in disruptions to patient care. Protecting your organization from these threats isn’t just a cybersecurity priority — it’s a critical investment in the safety and well-being of the patients and communities you serve.
Learn more about the rising ransomware attacks in the full 2025 Healthcare Ransomware Report — accessible instantly, no download required.
Welcome to this week’s Focus Friday, where we dive into key vulnerabilities impacting widely used technologies. This installment highlights three significant incidents that pose unique challenges to third-party risk management (TPRM) teams. From Juniper Junos OS to Rsync and SimpleHelp, we explore how these vulnerabilities affect the security posture of vendors and their downstream supply chains. By examining these issues, we aim to provide actionable insights and strategies to help organizations mitigate risks and maintain robust third-party relationships.
Filtered view of companies with Juniper Junos FocusTag™ on the Black Kite platform.
Juniper Junos CVE-2025-21598
What is the Juniper Junos BGP Vulnerability (CVE-2025-21598)?
CVE-2025-21598 is an out-of-bounds read vulnerability in the routing protocol daemon (rpd) of Junos OS and Junos OS Evolved. When a device is configured with BGP packet receive trace options, an unauthenticated attacker can send malformed BGP packets that cause the rpd process to crash. This vulnerability has a CVSS score of 8.2, making it a high-severity issue. It was first disclosed on January 14, 2025, and there are currently no reports of active exploitation. CISA’s KEV catalog does not yet list this vulnerability. Proof-of-concept (POC) is not available.
CVE-2025-21599 is a critical vulnerability affecting specific versions of Junos OS Evolved. It requires IPv6 to be enabled and involves attackers sending malformed IPv6 packets persistently to exhaust memory. Exploitation does not require authentication but needs network access to the device. The affected versions are:
From 22.4-EVO: before 22.4R3-S5-EVO
From 23.2-EVO: before 23.2R2-S2-EVO
From 23.4-EVO: before 23.4R2-S2-EVO
From 24.2-EVO: before 24.2R1-S2-EVO, and 24.2R2-EVO.
Versions prior to 22.4R1-EVO are unaffected. This vulnerability was excluded from the FocusTag™ scope due to its limitation to EVO versions and no detection by external clients specific to EVO.
Affected Products for CVE-2025-21598
Why should TPRM professionals care about CVE-2025-21598?
This vulnerability impacts network infrastructure devices, which are critical to business operations. If left unpatched, it could result in significant service interruptions, loss of connectivity, and reduced reliability of the affected network environment. Organizations that rely on these devices could face disruptions in their supply chain communications and business operations, making it essential for TPRM professionals to assess the risk and ensure proper mitigation measures are in place.
What questions should TPRM professionals ask vendors about CVE-2025-21598?
Have you updated all instances of Junos OS and Junos OS Evolved to the fixed versions mentioned in the advisory to mitigate the risk of CVE-2025-21598?
Can you confirm if you have disabled BGP packet receive trace options on your Junos OS and Junos OS Evolved devices to prevent potential exploitation of CVE-2025-21598?
Are you regularly inspecting your system logs for any indications of malformed BGP update messages, which may suggest attempted exploitation of CVE-2025-21598?
For Junos OS Evolved, have you ensured that all versions from 22.4-EVO before 22.4R3-S5-EVO, from 23.2-EVO before 23.2R2-S2-EVO, from 23.4-EVO before 23.4R2-S2-EVO, from 24.2-EVO before 24.2R1-S2-EVO, 24.2R2-EVO have been updated to mitigate the risk of CVE-2025-21599?
Remediation recommendations for vendors subject to this risk
Upgrade all affected Junos OS and Junos OS Evolved devices to the patched versions.
Disable BGP packets receive trace options if updating is not immediately possible.
Implement continuous network monitoring to identify any indications of exploitation attempts.
Maintain up-to-date logging configurations and review logs for signs of malformed BGP packets.
How can TPRM professionals leverage Black Kite for CVE-2025-21598?
Black Kite published this FocusTag™ to help organizations pinpoint the vendors affected by CVE-2025-21598. By providing detailed asset information—including relevant subdomains and vulnerable IPs—Black Kite enables TPRM professionals to rapidly identify which vendors need immediate attention. This targeted approach reduces time spent on outreach and allows more efficient mitigation efforts.
Black Kite’s Juniper Junos FocusTagTM details critical insights on the event for TPRM professionals.
Rsync, a widely-used file synchronization tool, has six significant vulnerabilities in versions 3.3.0 and earlier. These flaws pose risks such as arbitrary code execution, information leakage, and unauthorized system access, particularly for organizations relying on Rsync for backups.
Six vulnerabilities have been identified in Rsync, posing significant security risks. These include a heap-buffer overflow (CVE-2024-12084) in the Rsync daemon that allows attackers to execute code by controlling checksum lengths (s2length) and gaining server access. An information leak vulnerability (CVE-2024-12085) exposes uninitialized memory during file checksum comparisons. Additionally, malicious servers can exploit crafted checksums to extract arbitrary files from clients (CVE-2024-12086). Path traversal is possible due to improper symlink checks with the default –inc-recursive option (CVE-2024-12087), while a –safe-links bypass flaw (CVE-2024-12088) allows arbitrary file writes and further path traversal. Finally, a symbolic-link race condition (CVE-2024-12747) could lead to privilege escalation or data leakage by exploiting timing issues during file transfers. Exploitation of these vulnerabilities requires specific conditions, such as server access or manipulated configurations.
Currently, no publicly available POC exists, and these vulnerabilities are not listed in CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. Affected versions include Rsync ≥3.2.7 and <3.4.0 for CVE-2024-12084, while other CVEs impact Rsync 3.3.0 and earlier. Organizations relying on Rsync for synchronization or backups should apply patches or mitigations promptly to mitigate risks of unauthorized access and data breaches.
Why should TPRM professionals care about Rsync vulnerabilities?
Many organizations rely on Rsync for critical backup operations. Unaddressed vulnerabilities could lead to severe disruptions, including unauthorized data exposure, system compromise, and operational downtime. These risks demand immediate attention from TPRM professionals to ensure that vendors and their supply chain partners have implemented the necessary remediations.
What questions should TPRM professionals ask vendors about the Rsync vulnerabilities?
Have you upgraded all instances of Rsync to version 3.4.0 or later to mitigate the risk of CVE-2024-12084, CVE-2024-12085, CVE-2024-12086, CVE-2024-12087, CVE-2024-12088, and CVE-2024-12747?
Can you confirm if you have implemented the recommended mitigation measures such as restricting Rsync daemon access to trusted networks and authenticated users, and regularly reviewing and applying security best practices for system and network configurations?
Have you reviewed and updated any backup programs utilizing Rsync, such as Rclone, DeltaCopy, and ChronoSync, in response to these vulnerabilities?
Are you monitoring for any unusual activities that may indicate exploitation attempts related to these Rsync vulnerabilities, specifically those related to heap-buffer overflow, information leak, file leak, path traversal, safe-links bypass, and symbolic-link race condition?
Remediation recommendations for vendors subject to this risk
Upgrade Rsync to version 3.4.0 or higher to eliminate known vulnerabilities.
Disable unused options such as –inc-recursive and –safe-links to minimize exposure.
Implement strict access controls, allowing only authenticated and trusted connections.
Conduct regular security audits of your Rsync configuration and logs.
How can TPRM professionals leverage Black Kite for these vulnerabilities?
Black Kite’s FocusTag™ for Rsync, published in January 2025, helps TPRM professionals identify vendors at risk from these vulnerabilities. By providing detailed information on affected versions, associated IPs, and potentially vulnerable assets, Black Kite enables organizations to narrow their outreach to only those vendors requiring immediate action. This targeted approach not only streamlines risk management processes but also helps protect sensitive data and critical systems from emerging threats.
Black Kite’s Rsync FocusTagTM details critical insights on the event for TPRM professionals.
Recent security assessments have uncovered critical vulnerabilities in SimpleHelp, a widely used remote support software.
CVE-2024-57726: A privilege escalation flaw that allows users with technician-level access to elevate their privileges to administrator due to missing backend authorization checks. This vulnerability has a CVSS score of 8.2, making it a high-severity issue. This vulnerability has a CVSS score of 8.8, making it a high-severity issue.
CVE-2024-57727: A path traversal vulnerability allowing unauthenticated attackers to download arbitrary files, including sensitive configuration files. This vulnerability has a CVSS score of 7.5, making it a high-severity issue.
CVE-2024-57728: An arbitrary file upload vulnerability enabling attackers with administrative privileges to upload malicious files anywhere on the server, potentially leading to remote code execution. This vulnerability has a CVSS score of 8.8, making it a high-severity issue.
These vulnerabilities can be chained to compromise the entire server, leading to sensitive information disclosure and potential remote code execution. They affect SimpleHelp versions 5.5.7 and earlier. Currently, there are no reports of these vulnerabilities being exploited in the wild, no available PoC, and no listing in CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
Why should TPRM professionals care about SimpleHelp vulnerabilities?
SimpleHelp is widely used for remote support, making these vulnerabilities particularly concerning. A compromised SimpleHelp server could expose sensitive client information, provide attackers with persistent remote access, and lead to unauthorized actions such as executing malicious scripts. TPRM professionals must ensure that vendors relying on SimpleHelp have patched their systems and implemented necessary security controls to avoid supply chain disruptions and data breaches.
What questions should TPRM professionals ask vendors about SimpleHelp vulnerabilities?
Have you updated all instances of SimpleHelp to versions 5.5.8, 5.4.10, or 5.3.9 to mitigate the risk of CVE-2024-57727, CVE-2024-57728, and CVE-2024-57726?
Can you confirm if you have implemented IP access restrictions on your SimpleHelp server to accept technician and administrator logins only from trusted IP addresses, as recommended in the advisory?
Have you changed the administrator and technician account passwords after updating SimpleHelp to ensure any previously compromised credentials are invalidated?
Are you regularly reviewing your server logs for any unusual or unauthorized activities that may indicate attempted exploitation of these vulnerabilities in SimpleHelp?
Remediation recommendations for vendors subject to this risk
Update SimpleHelp to the latest secure versions (5.5.8, 5.4.10, or 5.3.9) to address these vulnerabilities.
Change Administrator Passwords. After updating, change the administrator password of the SimpleHelp server to ensure any previously compromised credentials are invalidated.
Update Technician Account Passwords. Reset passwords for all technician accounts, especially those not utilizing third-party authentication services.
Restrict IP Access. Configure the SimpleHelp server to accept technician and administrator logins only from trusted IP addresses to reduce unauthorized access risks.
Monitor System Logs. Regularly review server logs for any unusual or unauthorized activities that may indicate attempted exploitation.
How can TPRM professionals leverage Black Kite for these vulnerabilities?
Black Kite provides a detailed FocusTag™ highlighting these vulnerabilities, including a list of affected versions and mitigation steps. By using Black Kite’s asset information—such as associated IP addresses and potentially vulnerable subdomains—TPRM professionals can quickly identify which vendors require immediate attention, streamlining the risk mitigation process.
Black Kite’s SimpleHelp FocusTagTM details critical insights on the event for TPRM professionals.
Enhancing TPRM Strategies with Black Kite’s FocusTags™
As the cyber threat landscape continues to evolve, maintaining a resilient Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) framework is more crucial than ever. Black Kite’s FocusTags™ provide a unique advantage, allowing organizations to identify and respond to high-profile vulnerabilities quickly and effectively. By incorporating FocusTags into their TPRM processes, organizations gain:
Timely Vendor Risk Identification: Quickly determine which vendors are impacted by emerging threats, enabling prompt and strategic action. Prioritized Risk Management: Focus on the most critical vulnerabilities and vendors, ensuring that resources are allocated where they’re needed most. Enhanced Vendor Collaboration: Conduct more informed and productive discussions with vendors, addressing their specific exposure and improving overall security measures. Broader Security Insight: Gain a comprehensive view of the current threat landscape, helping TPRM teams anticipate future risks and strengthen their cybersecurity defenses.
With Black Kite’s FocusTags™, TPRM professionals have the tools they need to transform complex threat data into actionable intelligence. This capability not only improves risk management efficiency but also helps ensure that organizations can confidently manage their third-party ecosystem in an increasingly unpredictable digital environment.
Want to take a closer look at FocusTags™?
Take our platform for a test drive and request a demo today.
Every week, we delve into the realms of critical vulnerabilities and their implications from a Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) perspective. This series is dedicated to shedding light on pressing cybersecurity threats, offering in-depth analyses, and providing actionable insights.
FocusTagsTM in the Last 30 Days:
Juniper Junos: CVE-2025-21598, Out-of-bounds Read vulnerability in Juniper’s Junos.
You wake up one morning to a news alert: A new Zero-Day vulnerability is emerging, and it’s already being exploited in the wild. You race into the office and sit down at your computer to…write and send generic emails to each of your 1,000 vendors. “Have you been breached? If so, to what extent? Is our data exposed? What’s your plan to respond to it?”
Radio silence. At best, you get a trickle of responses, but most of your emails go unanswered because your vendors are busy figuring out what happened and how to mitigate fallout.
Organizations must immediately kick into high gear to mitigate damages or business disruptions when a Zero-Day event or other time-sensitive third-party threat occurs. A key step in this process is contacting vendors to communicate risk intelligence and ensure they take remedial action.
However, this process is easier said than done — especially when vendors are getting inundated by hundreds of frantic and panicked customers.
Most organizations make the mistake of sending vague “hunches” that a vendor is impacted by an incident, followed by a generic security questionnaire. In other words, they’re sharing no new information. In fact, it can come off as hostile policing. This is, obviously, not very motivating for a vendor and typically results in low, delayed, or nonexistent responses. This means risk is not being reduced, either for you or the vendor.
We built the Black Kite Bridge™ with exactly these challenges in mind. It offers the first end-to-end vulnerability response tool for:
risk identification and scoping
intelligence sharing
vendor communications
real-time reporting
Third-party risk management (TPRM) teams can now share trusted, vetted Black Kite intelligence directly with their vendors. This information is far more specific and actionable, leading to proven vendor engagement.
4 Ways Black Kite Revolutionizes Vendor Collaboration
Since its inception, Black Kite has been focused on providing the most accurate, transparent, and timely risk intelligence on the market, empowering customers to take control of their third-party risk.
As a result, customers organically started sharing that intelligence and asking for more ways to give their vendorstm access to it to improve their own cyber risk postures. We heard their feedback, so we built the Black Kite Bridge™ to enable TPRM professionals to:
1. Confidently Narrow the Scope of the Outreach
One of the most significant challenges in responding to an emerging Zero-Day event is knowing which vendors are impacted and what type of data to share with them.
Instead of casting the net wide and contacting vendors that may or may not pose a risk to your company, customers can leverage Black Kite to:
Identify those vendors that have a material impact on your business.
Narrow the scope of outreach into a manageable list based on known exposures or susceptibility to attacks.
We arm you with insights, such as:
Tags highlighting known impacted vendors in your cyber ecosystem through FocusTags™, to give you confidence in your actual exposures.
Real-time risk quantification for all vendors, enabling you to make decisions based on potential financial impact if a threat were to impact a particular vendor.
Actionable, asset-level evidence and recommended remediation steps rooted in a common language, like MITRE and NIST. Rather than asking generic questions, we provide you with targeted evidence to share, so a vendor can take immediate and appropriate action.
When you can share this information directly with a vendor through the Black Kite Bridge™, it gives you both a clear way forward. Instead of saying, “We think you were affected by X event — tell us if you were and what you’re doing to remediate it,” you can approach the vendor with clear evidence of what happened and hard recommendations to fix it.
2. Communicate and Remediate in a Central Location
Vendor communications about risk and the risk intelligence itself should live in the same location.
Why? Organizations already struggle with the sheer volume of vendors they rely on. If they need to communicate with all of them through one-off channels like email and without embedded context, this can easily become too complex and error-prone to scale.
Today, the relevant intelligence often lives in a separate tool from vendor communications (e.g., a GRC or VRM tool). Or worse yet, it lives in long email threads and offline spreadsheets. When TPRM is handled manually like this, progress becomes impossible to track, details slip through the cracks, and, ultimately, risk is not reduced.
A better way:
Black Kite Bridge™ centralizes intelligence sharing and vendor communications in one location.
Now vendors can access and view the same findings our customers see through a self-serve portal.
As the vendor remediates issues, their risk ratings change in real time (versus the weeks it typically takes for traditional SRS solutions to update).
This gives the vendor confidence they are doing the right things.
The process becomes far smoother, and the vendor relationship becomes far more frictionless.
3. Report in Real Time
Since communications and intelligence live in one tool, reporting becomes a breeze. Your CISO wants a status update on that Zero-Day event? No problem.
With out-of-the-box reporting, you can immediately measure an incident’s initial exposure, vendor response rates, remediation progress, mean time to remediate (MTTR), and more across all vendors. Say goodbye to time-consuming, manual tracking in spreadsheets.
4. Achieve Higher Vendor Engagement & Partnership
The Black Kite Bridge™ lets customers share unprecedented, ungated access to the intelligence they trust and rely on with their third-party vendors. Our customers have seen huge improvements in response rates and better relationships as a result of the benefits their vendors receive:
Timely access to incident details, prioritized list of findings, and remediation steps.
Real-time updates to ratings for closing out risks.
Visibility into responses, which means less private messages, questionnaires, or emails to track, and more time back in your day (and your vendors’).
To learn more practical strategies for building stronger vendor partnerships, check out our ebook: Chaos to Collaboration: Transforming Third-Party Risk Response for Zero-Day Events.
Welcome to this week’s Focus Friday blog, where we analyze high-profile vulnerabilities and incidents from a Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) perspective. As organizations grapple with the growing complexities of cybersecurity threats, identifying and addressing vendor-related risks becomes paramount. This week, we had a busy week focusing on vulnerabilities. In this week’s article, we examined critical vulnerabilities in widely used products, including SonicWall SonicOS, Ivanti Connect Secure, Progress WhatsUp Gold, and GoCD. These vulnerabilities underscore the importance of swift action and strategic prioritization in TPRM processes. Read on to explore actionable insights and strategies to mitigate these risks.
Filtered view of companies with SonicWall SonicOS FocusTag™ on the Black Kite platform.
Critical Vulnerabilities in SonicWall SonicOS
What are the vulnerabilities affecting SonicWall SonicOS?
The SonicWall SonicOS platform has been found vulnerable to multiple issues that could severely impact network security. Below are the key vulnerabilities:
CVE-2024-40762: Use of Cryptographically Weak Pseudo-Random Number Generator (PRNG) vulnerability in the SSLVPN authentication token generator. This flaw allows attackers to predict authentication tokens, potentially leading to authentication bypass. (CVSS Score: 7.1)
CVE-2024-53704: Authentication Bypass vulnerability in the SSLVPN mechanism that could enable remote attackers to gain unauthorized system access. (CVSS Score: 8.2)
CVE-2024-53706: Local Privilege Escalation vulnerability in the Gen7 SonicOS Cloud platform NSv (AWS and Azure editions). This allows attackers to escalate privileges to root, potentially leading to arbitrary code execution. (CVSS Score: 7.8)
CVE-2024-53705: Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability in the SSH management interface. Attackers could establish TCP connections to arbitrary IP addresses and ports, enabling further attacks. (CVSS Score: 6.5, EPSS Score: 0.04%)
These vulnerabilities were disclosed in SonicWall’s security advisory on January 7, 2025. While no active exploitation has been reported yet, similar vulnerabilities have been targeted by Chinese threat actors in the past, raising the likelihood of exploitation in future attack campaigns. As of now, these vulnerabilities are not listed in CISA’s KEV catalog.
Why should TPRM professionals care about these vulnerabilities?
The vulnerabilities in SonicWall SonicOS present significant risks for organizations that rely on these devices for network security:
Authentication Bypass (CVE-2024-53704): Attackers gaining unauthorized access could compromise sensitive data, introduce malware, or disrupt critical services.
Local Privilege Escalation (CVE-2024-53706): A successful attack could allow threat actors to execute arbitrary code, potentially leading to full control of the affected systems.
SSRF (CVE-2024-53705): This could facilitate lateral movement or act as a pivot point for launching further attacks.
PRNG Vulnerability (CVE-2024-40762): Weak token generation undermines the reliability of authentication mechanisms, posing a significant threat to systems reliant on SSLVPN.
These vulnerabilities directly affect SonicWall Gen6/6.5, Gen7, and TZ80 devices, often used by organizations as a critical part of their perimeter defense. Exploitation could result in compromised networks, data breaches, or service interruptions, which would affect operational and business continuity.
What questions should TPRM professionals ask vendors about these vulnerabilities?
Have you updated all affected Gen6/6.5, Gen7, and TZ80 series devices to the recommended SonicOS versions (6.5.5.1-6n, 7.1.3-7015, 7.0.1-5165, and 8.0.0-8037 respectively) to mitigate the risk of CVE-2024-40762, CVE-2024-53704, CVE-2024-53705, and CVE-2024-53706?
Can you confirm if you have implemented measures to limit SSLVPN and SSH management access to trusted sources or disabled access from the internet entirely to reduce exposure to the vulnerabilities CVE-2024-40762 and CVE-2024-53704?
Have you enabled Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for all remote access to enhance security against the improper authentication issue in the SSLVPN mechanism (CVE-2024-53704)?
How are you monitoring your system logs and network traffic to detect any unusual activity that may indicate attempted exploitation of the server-side request forgery (SSRF) flaw in the SSH management interface (CVE-2024-53705) and the privilege escalation issue in the Gen7 SonicOS Cloud platform NSv (CVE-2024-53706)?
Remediation Recommendations for Vendors
To mitigate the risks associated with these vulnerabilities, vendors should:
Update Firmware: Ensure all impacted devices are updated to the fixed versions:
Gen6 Firewalls: SonicOS 6.5.5.1-6n or higher
Gen7 Firewalls: SonicOS 7.1.3-7015 or higher
Gen7 NSv: SonicOS 7.0.1-5165 or higher
TZ80 Series: SonicOS 8.0.0-8037 or higher
Restrict Access: Limit SSLVPN and SSH management access to trusted sources or disable access from the internet entirely.
Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Strengthen authentication for all remote access to reduce attack surface.
Monitor and Log: Continuously review system logs and monitor network traffic for anomalies that may indicate exploitation attempts.
How can TPRM professionals leverage Black Kite for these vulnerabilities?
Black Kite published the FocusTag™ SonicWall SonicOS – Jan2025 on January 8, 2025 to help TPRM professionals quickly identify vendors at risk. The tag provides:
A list of vendors using affected SonicWall devices and their associated assets, such as IP addresses or subdomains.
Insight into which vulnerabilities may impact vendors’ systems.
An updated status on exploitation activity or new advisories.
Using this tag, professionals can narrow the scope of their risk assessments, focus efforts on high-priority vendors, and expedite their response to these vulnerabilities.
Black Kite’s SonicWall SonicOS FocusTagTM details critical insights on the event for TPRM professionals.
CVE-2025-0282 and CVE-2025-0283 in Ivanti Connect Secure
What are the vulnerabilities affecting Ivanti Connect Secure?
Ivanti Connect Secure, Policy Secure, and Neurons for ZTA Gateway products are affected by two critical vulnerabilities:
CVE-2025-0282: A Critical Stack-Based Buffer Overflow Vulnerability that permits unauthenticated remote code execution. This vulnerability affects Ivanti Connect Secure versions 22.7R2 through 22.7R2.4, Policy Secure versions 22.7R1 through 22.7R1.2, and Neurons for ZTA Gateways versions 22.7R2 through 22.7R2.3. It has a CVSS score of 9.0, reflecting its high severity, and an EPSS score of 0.83%, indicating a notable likelihood of exploitation.
CVE-2025-0283: A High-Severity Stack-Based Buffer Overflow Vulnerability that enables local authenticated attackers to escalate their privileges. This issue impacts the same product versions as CVE-2025-0282. It has a CVSS score of 7.0 and an EPSS score of 0.04%, suggesting a moderate risk of exploitation.
Both vulnerabilities were disclosed on January 8, 2025. CVE-2025-0282 has been listed in CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog on January 8, 2025, and is being exploited in limited incidents, particularly targeting Connect Secure appliances. Mandiant has attributed these exploitations to UNC5337, a suspected subgroup of the China-based espionage group UNC5221. No exploitation of CVE-2025-0283 has been reported.
Why should TPRM professionals care about these vulnerabilities?
These vulnerabilities present significant risks to organizations using Ivanti products:
CVE-2025-0282: The ability to achieve unauthenticated remote code execution could enable attackers to gain full control of affected systems, compromising network integrity and exposing sensitive data.
CVE-2025-0283: Privilege escalation could allow an attacker with local access to execute actions reserved for administrators, further increasing the risk of insider threats or unauthorized system changes.
The active exploitation of CVE-2025-0282 highlights the urgency of addressing these vulnerabilities, particularly for organizations relying on these products for secure remote access and network security.
What questions should TPRM professionals ask vendors about these vulnerabilities?
Have you identified any systems within your organization running vulnerable versions of Ivanti Connect Secure, Policy Secure, or Neurons for ZTA Gateways?
Have you applied the necessary patches for these vulnerabilities, and if so, when was the patching completed?
Are you actively monitoring systems for signs of exploitation, particularly regarding CVE-2025-0282?
Have you implemented Ivanti’s Integrity Checker Tool (ICT) to detect compromises, and what were the results?
Remediation Recommendations for Vendors
To mitigate the risks associated with these vulnerabilities, vendors should:
Apply Patches Immediately: Upgrade to the latest patched versions:
Ivanti Connect Secure: Version 22.7R2.5 or higher.
Policy Secure: Patched versions available by January 21, 2025.
Neurons for ZTA Gateways: Patched versions available by January 21, 2025.
Perform Integrity Checks: Use Ivanti’s Integrity Checker Tool (ICT) to detect any signs of compromise in both internal and external systems.
Restrict Internet Exposure: Ensure that Policy Secure appliances are not exposed to the internet, reducing the likelihood of exploitation.
Factory Reset Compromised Systems: If signs of compromise are detected, perform a factory reset before redeployment.
Monitor Activity: Continuously review system logs and network traffic for anomalies that may indicate exploitation attempts.
How can TPRM professionals leverage Black Kite for these vulnerabilities?
Black Kite’s FocusTag™ Ivanti Connect Secure – Jan2025 enables TPRM professionals to identify vendors at risk of exposure to these vulnerabilities. This tag provides:
Insight into which vendors utilize affected Ivanti products and their associated assets, such as IP addresses and subdomains.
Actionable intelligence to prioritize assessments and remediation efforts.
Updates on exploitation activity and vendor patching status to guide decision-making.
The tag was published on January 9, 2025. Leveraging this tag can streamline risk management efforts and enhance the security posture of third-party ecosystems.
Black Kite’s Ivanti Connect Secure – Jan2025 FocusTagTM details critical insights on the event for TPRM professionals.
CVE-2024-12108, CVE-2024-12105, and CVE-2024-12106 Vulnerabilities in Progress WhatsUp Gold
What are the vulnerabilities affecting Progress WhatsUp Gold?
The Progress WhatsUp Gold network monitoring software has been identified as vulnerable to the following critical and medium-severity security issues:
The vulnerabilities affecting Progress WhatsUp Gold include the following:
CVE-2024-12108: An Authentication Bypass by Spoofing Vulnerability that allows attackers to gain complete control of the WhatsUp Gold server via the public API. This vulnerability has a CVSS score of 9.6 and an EPSS score of 0.07%, making it critical in severity.
CVE-2024-12106: A Missing Authentication for Critical Function Vulnerability that enables unauthenticated attackers to configure LDAP settings, potentially leading to unauthorized access and data breaches. While this vulnerability is rated Critical with a CVSS score of 9.4 by the CNA, the NIST CVSS score is 7.5. Its EPSS score is 0.05%.
CVE-2024-12105: A Path Traversal Vulnerability that allows authenticated users to extract sensitive information through specially crafted HTTP requests. This vulnerability is rated Medium with a CVSS score of 6.5 and an EPSS score of 0.05%.
These vulnerabilities affect WhatsUp Gold versions prior to 24.0.2. Progress issued a security bulletin on December 12, 2024, urging users to upgrade. While no evidence of active exploitation exists, similar vulnerabilities have historically attracted threat actors targeting network monitoring systems.
Why should TPRM professionals care about these vulnerabilities?
The WhatsUp Gold vulnerabilities present critical risks to network security due to the product’s integral role in monitoring and managing network devices. Exploitation of these vulnerabilities could result in:
Full System Compromise: CVE-2024-12108 could allow attackers to control the WhatsUp Gold server, compromising all monitored devices and exposing sensitive configurations.
Data Breaches: CVE-2024-12106 could enable attackers to tamper with LDAP settings, leading to unauthorized access to sensitive data or services.
Sensitive Information Exposure: CVE-2024-12105 could facilitate information disclosure, which could be leveraged for subsequent attacks.
These risks make these vulnerabilities particularly concerning for third-party risk management (TPRM) professionals monitoring vendor ecosystems. The critical CVSS scores of CVE-2024-12108 and CVE-2024-12106 highlight the need for immediate action.
What questions should TPRM professionals ask vendors about these vulnerabilities?
Have you identified any systems within your organization running vulnerable versions of WhatsUp Gold prior to 24.0.2?
Has your organization implemented the recommended update to version 24.0.2, and when was it completed?
Are access controls in place to restrict unauthorized changes to LDAP configurations and prevent exploitation?
How do you monitor and address unusual activity that could indicate exploitation attempts related to these vulnerabilities?
Remediation Recommendations for Vendors
To address these vulnerabilities, vendors should:
Upgrade Software: Immediately update to WhatsUp Gold version 24.0.2 to patch all identified vulnerabilities.
Restrict Access: Limit server access to authorized personnel only and ensure secure configuration of LDAP settings.
Monitor Logs: Regularly review server and network logs for anomalies indicative of exploitation attempts.
Enhance Security Measures: Implement firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and strong authentication mechanisms to mitigate potential risks.
How can TPRM professionals leverage Black Kite for these vulnerabilities?
Black Kite provides the FocusTag™ Progress WhatsUp Gold, published on January 2, 2025, to help TPRM professionals identify and address potential risks in their vendor ecosystems. This tag allows users to:
Determine which vendors utilize affected versions of WhatsUp Gold and the associated assets.
Access details on vulnerable IP addresses and subdomains to prioritize risk assessments.
Leverage actionable insights to communicate effectively with vendors and ensure timely remediation.
Black Kite’s Progress WhatsUp Gold FocusTagTM details critical insights on the event for TPRM professionals.
CVE-2024-56320 in GoCD
What is the GoCD Admin Privilege Escalation Vulnerability?
CVE-2024-56320 is a Critical Improper Authorization Vulnerability affecting GoCD versions prior to 24.5.0. This flaw enables authenticated users to persistently escalate their privileges to admin level, compromising the system’s integrity and security. The vulnerability arises from insufficient access controls in the admin “Configuration XML” UI feature and its associated API. The vulnerability has a CVSS score of 9.4 and an EPSS score of 0.05%, and it was published in January 2025.
This vulnerability cannot be exploited without prior authentication, requiring an attacker to have a valid GoCD user account. It poses a significant insider threat but does not currently have publicly available exploit code. As of now, it is not listed in CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
Why should TPRM professionals care about this vulnerability?
The critical nature of CVE-2024-56320 makes it a significant concern for TPRM professionals. As GoCD is a continuous delivery server, its exploitation could:
Compromise CI/CD Pipelines: Escalated admin privileges could allow attackers to alter build configurations, inject malicious code, or disrupt deployments.
Sensitive Information Disclosure: Unauthorized access to admin-only data could expose credentials, API keys, and system configurations.
Operational Risks: Persistent admin-level access increases the risk of prolonged exploitation and unauthorized system changes.
This vulnerability highlights the importance of securing insider accounts and CI/CD environments, both critical for maintaining operational and data security.
What questions should TPRM professionals ask vendors about this vulnerability?
Have you upgraded all instances of GoCD to version 24.5.0 or later to mitigate the risk of CVE-2024-56320?
Have you implemented the recommended workarounds such as using a reverse proxy or web application firewall (WAF) to block external access to paths with the /go/rails/ prefix, and limiting GoCD user base to trusted individuals?
Can you confirm if you have taken steps to review network logs regularly for any unusual or unauthorized activities that could indicate exploitation attempts related to CVE-2024-56320?
Have you considered temporarily disabling plugins like the guest-login-plugin that allow limited anonymous access to further secure your GoCD instances from potential exploitation of CVE-2024-56320?
Remediation Recommendations for Vendors
To mitigate the risks of CVE-2024-56320, vendors should:
Upgrade to GoCD Version 24.5.0: This version addresses the improper authorization flaw and prevents privilege escalation.
Restrict Access: Implement a reverse proxy or web application firewall (WAF) to block access to vulnerable paths with the /go/rails/ prefix. This can mitigate the risk without affecting functionality.
Limit User Base: Reduce GoCD access to a smaller group of trusted users. Temporarily disable plugins like the “guest-login-plugin” to prevent anonymous or unauthorized access.
Monitor Logs: Regularly review system and application logs for signs of privilege escalation or unauthorized access.
How can TPRM professionals leverage Black Kite for this vulnerability?
Black Kite’s FocusTag™ GoCD provides actionable intelligence to help TPRM professionals identify vendors potentially impacted by CVE-2024-56320. The tag enables users to:
Pinpoint vendors utilize vulnerable GoCD versions and associated assets such as IP addresses or subdomains.
Access insights into vendors’ patch management and security practices related to CI/CD environments.
Expedite risk assessments by narrowing the scope to the most at-risk vendors.
This FocusTag™ was published on January 8, 2025. Black Kite users can operationalize this tag to prioritize remediation efforts and minimize exposure to insider threats.
Black Kite’s GoCD FocusTagTM details critical insights on the event for TPRM professionals.
Maximizing TPRM Effectiveness with Black Kite’s FocusTags™
Black Kite’s FocusTags™ are indispensable tools for refining TPRM strategies in today’s dynamic cybersecurity landscape. This week’s vulnerabilities in SonicWall SonicOS, Ivanti Connect Secure, Progress WhatsUp Gold, and GoCD highlight the critical role of FocusTags™ in proactive risk management. Here’s how these tags empower TPRM professionals:
Real-Time Risk Identification: FocusTags™ enable immediate identification of vendors exposed to critical vulnerabilities, such as the authentication bypass issues in SonicWall or the privilege escalation risks in GoCD. This rapid insight ensures a timely response to emerging threats.
Strategic Risk Prioritization: By assessing both the severity of vulnerabilities and the importance of affected vendors, FocusTags™ helps allocate resources efficiently, addressing the most pressing risks first.
Enhanced Vendor Engagement: Armed with precise information, TPRM teams can initiate targeted discussions with vendors, emphasizing their exposure to vulnerabilities like the stack-based buffer overflow in Ivanti products or the API flaws in WhatsUp Gold.
Strengthened Cybersecurity Posture: With a comprehensive overview of the evolving threat landscape, FocusTags™ aid in fortifying an organization’s overall security defenses against vulnerabilities impacting critical vendor systems.
Black Kite’s FocusTags™ simplify the complexity of cybersecurity threats by translating intricate technical data into actionable intelligence. This capability is critical for managing third-party risks effectively and proactively, ensuring that organizations remain one step ahead in mitigating potential threats.
Want to take a closer look at FocusTags™?
Take our platform for a test drive and request a demo today.
Every week, we delve into the realms of critical vulnerabilities and their implications from a Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) perspective. This series is dedicated to shedding light on pressing cybersecurity threats, offering in-depth analyses, and providing actionable insights.
FocusTagsTM in the Last 30 Days:
SonicWall SonicOS – Jan2025: CVE-2024-40762, CVE-2024-53704, CVE-2024-53706, CVE-2024-53705, Use of Cryptographically Weak Pseudo-Random Number Generator (PRNG), Authentication Bypass Vulnerability, Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) Vulnerability, and Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability in SonicWall’ SonicOS SSLVPN, SSH Management, and Gen7 Cloud NSv SSH Config Function.
Ivanti Connect Secure – Jan2025: CVE-2025-0282, CVE-2025-0283, Stack-Based Buffer Overflow Vulnerability, Remote Code Execution Vulnerability, Privilege Escalation Vulnerability in Ivanti Connect Secure, Policy Secure, and Ivanti Neurons for ZTA gateways.
Progress WhatsUp Gold: CVE-2024-12108, CVE-2024-12106, CVE-2024-12105, Authentication Bypass by Spoofing Vulnerability, Missing Authentication for Critical Function, and Path Traversal Vulnerability in Progress WhatsUp Gold.
GoCD: CVE-2024-56320, Improper Authorization Vulnerability in GoCD.
The traditional third-party risk management process often treats vendors with suspicion, mistrust, and skepticism, focusing on control rather than collaboration. This one-way “policing” mindset undermines what should be a productive and mutually beneficial partnership, creating an environment of contention and inefficiency.
Instead of working together to manage risks, organizations often overwhelm vendors with scattershot questions about vulnerability management, patching strategies, SOC 2 compliance, and more — usually without providing clear context or guidance. Vendors are left feeling frustrated and disconnected, expected to comply without fully understanding the purpose or value of their efforts. This approach feels more like an interrogation, turning what should be a partnership into more of a power struggle.
To strengthen defenses and improve the overall risk posture of their ecosystems, organizations need to move beyond this outdated approach of managing third-party risk. After all, cyberattackers don’t work in isolation — they share intelligence, coordinate strategies, and collaborate to exploit weaknesses. To combat this, organizations must adopt a similar mindset, shifting from control to collaboration. Lone wolves simply cannot prevail against well-coordinated efforts.
Embracing partnership over policing, organizations can build trust and create a culture of shared responsibility — transforming third-party risk management into a proactive, collaborative strategy that benefits everyone involved. To understand why the current approach falls short, let’s examine the consequences of this policing mindset.
The Problem With Policing Vendors
Policing vendors has long been a common approach in third-party risk management, but it usually creates more problems than it solves. Instead of building a collaborative, trust-based relationship, it positions vendors as adversaries under constant scrutiny. Vendors may feel like they are being targeted — not by cybercriminals, but by the very organizations they’re supposed to support.
This sense of distrust will lead to counterproductive outcomes. Rather than being transparent about potential risks or vulnerabilities, vendors may withhold critical information to avoid blame or punitive consequences, leaving organizations blind to potential risks.
The resulting lack of transparency can lead to delayed responses – or none at all – and missed opportunities for risk mitigation. After all, you can’t address risks you don’t know about. Distrust and resentment are partners in crime, and vendors may feel resentful that their time is being wasted by time-consuming questionnaires. As a result, vendors deprioritize or ignore these tasks and organizations waste valuable time chasing incomplete responses.
Beyond the operational inefficiencies, policing represents a major misstep in risk management. It doesn’t just sour relationships — it’s fundamentally shortsighted. Since it focuses narrowly on identifying and resolving immediate vulnerabilities, it misses the broader opportunity to build a shared, proactive, and long-term defense strategy.
Why Partnering Creates a Better Third-Party Risk Management Process
Cyberattackers don’t work in a vacuum — they operate in networks, share intel and strategies, and collaborate on attack timings. In contrast, many organizations and their vendors remain stuck in reactive, adversarial relationships — pointing fingers, struggling with miscommunication, and ultimately, leaving critical risks untreated.
A partnership-driven approach flips this dynamic, creating an environment where organizations and vendors collaborate, learn from each other, and pool their resources and expertise. Open communication also eliminates data silos and barriers, meaning it’s easier to act quickly during critical moments. When everyone in your supply chain sees the same accurate, actionable data, responses are faster and more effective.
Vendors treated as integral allies rather than external risks are more likely to engage openly, prioritize security initiatives, and align with your goals. This approach strengthens relationships, closes security gaps more efficiently, and creates a continuous improvement cycle that benefits both parties.
How To Build Strong Vendor Partnerships
Modernizing your third-party risk management process starts with rethinking how you work with vendors. These tips will help you shift from a policing mindset to a more collaborative approach, building mutually beneficial partnerships that strengthen security:
1. Build a strong foundation from the outset
Partnerships start with transparency. During vendor onboarding, clearly communicate how you assess security posture and why it matters. This sets expectations and reinforces the mutual benefits of an open, collaborative approach.
For existing vendors, revisit your goals and outline plans to strengthen collaboration. Engage your vendors in these discussions — ask for their input on improving collaboration and listen actively to their feedback.
Using tools like Black Kite’s Ransomware Susceptibility Index® can provide insights into which companies in your ecosystem are most likely to be hit by a ransomware attack, so that you can work with your vendors proactively to reduce that risk.
2. Prioritize communication and engagement
Regular communication is essential for maintaining trust and efficiency. Establish direct, security-to-security communication channels to expedite responses during critical moments. Sharing trustworthy, actionable data also reduces the burden on vendors who may be working with hundreds or even thousands of customers — who are all expecting their attention.
Tools like Black Kite Bridge™ streamline this process by centralizing communication, automating outreach, and sharing real-time intelligence. With a tool that shares asset-level vulnerability intelligence and real-time ratings updates, vendors know exactly what they need to do to address your concerns. Vendors also appreciate such solutions as they help them scale efficiently — remediations to one client’s concerns are immediately visible to other clients, saving time.
3. Develop proactive incident detection and resolution processes
Security incidents are inevitable, making it essential to develop a proactive process for identifying and addressing them. Effective incident response depends on access to precise, actionable information shared transparently with vendors.
The traditional approach of inundating vendors with unstructured data leads to delays and confusion. Without clear guidance, vendors may struggle to prioritize their actions. A better option is to use a tool like Black Kite’s FocusTags™ to offer specific, actionable steps for addressing vulnerabilities. This makes it much easier for vendors to know what exactly needs to be done and why.
4. Collaborate on post-mortem incident reviews
When incidents occur, the response shouldn’t end with mitigation. Collaborating with your vendors to conduct post-mortem reviews is much more constructive than pointing fingers. It also shifts the focus to learning and improvement rather than fault-finding. By honestly evaluating what went wrong, it’s easier to take the necessary steps to improve your, and their, response in the future.
Taking a team-oriented approach to post-incident reviews strengthens your collective defenses. These collaborative discussions show a commitment to mutual success and ongoing improvement, reinforcing your shared responsibility in maintaining a strong security posture.
The Power of Partnership
Vendor partnerships aren’t just about managing risk — they’re about building relationships that deliver mutual value. Collaboration shifts the dynamic from adversarial into one rooted in trust, transparency, and shared objectives. Partnerships accelerate threat responses, streamline third-party risk management processes, and enable both organizations and vendors to strengthen their defenses.
The real power of partnership lies in its ability to create a symbiotic cybersecurity ecosystem, where each party contributes to a stronger collective defense. Vendors become trusted allies, working alongside you to identify vulnerabilities, mitigate risks, and stay ahead of threats. In this unified ecosystem, the sum truly is greater than the parts.
To learn more practical strategies for building stronger vendor partnerships, check out our ebook: Chaos to Collaboration: Transforming Third-Party Risk Response for Zero-Day Events.
Welcome! We’ve come together for the last Focus Friday blog post of 2024. As we close out 2024, I wish everyone a safe, happy, and healthy new year. At the same time, we’ve completed another significant year in cybersecurity. This year, we witnessed important developments in the cybersecurity world and encountered many critical vulnerabilities. Throughout the year, we have explored numerous high-profile vulnerabilities to help organizations manage third-party risks. Today, in this final post of 2024, we will focus on critical security flaws in widely used services like Gogs Server, CrushFTP, and Apache Tomcat. In this post, we will explore what these vulnerabilities mean for Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) professionals and how Black Kite’s FocusTags™ can provide a more effective approach to managing these risks.
Filtered view of companies with Apache Tomcat RCE FocusTag™ on the Black Kite platform.
What are the Apache Tomcat Remote Code Execution (RCE) Vulnerabilities?
Apache Tomcat has been identified with two critical RCE vulnerabilities: CVE-2024-50379 and CVE-2024-56337. These vulnerabilities arise from Time-of-Check to Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) race conditions, allowing attackers to execute unauthorized code on affected systems.
CVE-2024-50379 occurs during JavaServer Pages (JSP) compilation in Apache Tomcat, enabling RCE on case-insensitive file systems when the default servlet is configured with write functionality (non-default configuration). Similarly, CVE-2024-56337 results from the incomplete mitigation of CVE-2024-50379, affecting systems under the same configuration but requiring additional configuration depending on the Java version. Both vulnerabilities have a CVSS score of 9.8, indicating critical severity.
These vulnerabilities were first reported on December 17, 2024. While proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit code is available, no evidence of active exploitation has been reported. They have not been added to CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, and no advisory has been published by CISA.
Why should TPRM professionals care about these vulnerabilities?
Apache Tomcat is widely used to deploy Java-based web applications, making these vulnerabilities highly impactful. The risks associated with these vulnerabilities include:
Unauthorized Access: Attackers exploiting these vulnerabilities could gain unauthorized access to systems and sensitive data.
Service Disruption: Successful exploitation could lead to service disruption and potential data loss.
Reputation Damage: Compromises may damage an organization’s reputation and erode customer trust.
What questions should TPRM professionals ask vendors about these vulnerabilities?
To assess the risk posed by these vulnerabilities, TPRM professionals can ask the following questions:
Have you updated all instances of Apache Tomcat to versions 11.0.2, 10.1.34, or 9.0.98 or later to mitigate the risk of CVE-2024-50379 and CVE-2024-56337?
Can you confirm that the default servlet’s write functionality has been disabled on your Apache Tomcat servers to prevent the occurrence of the TOCTOU race condition associated with CVE-2024-50379 and CVE-2024-56337?
Depending on your Java version, have you adjusted the sun.io.useCanonCaches system property as recommended to fully mitigate the risk of CVE-2024-50379 and CVE-2024-56337?
Are you regularly reviewing your system logs and network activity to detect any signs of exploitation attempts related to these Apache Tomcat vulnerabilities?
Remediation recommendations for vendors subject to this risk
Vendors should take the following actions to mitigate these vulnerabilities:
Upgrade Apache Tomcat: Update to the latest secure versions:
Apache Tomcat 11.0.2 or later
Apache Tomcat 10.1.34 or later
Apache Tomcat 9.0.98 or later
Configure Java System Properties: Depending on the Java version in use:
For Java 8 or Java 11: Explicitly set the sun.io.useCanonCaches system property to false.
For Java 17: Ensure sun.io.useCanonCaches is set to false.
For Java 21 and later: No additional configuration is required as the property and related cache have been removed.
Restrict Write Access: Ensure that the default servlet’s write functionality is disabled unless absolutely necessary.
Regular Monitoring: Continuously review system logs and network activity for signs of exploitation attempts.
How TPRM professionals can leverage Black Kite for this vulnerability
Black Kite offers a FocusTag titled “Apache Tomcat RCE” which provides the following benefits:
Vendor Exposure Assessment: Identifies vendors potentially impacted by these vulnerabilities.
Asset Information: Supplies details on assets (IP addresses and subdomains) that may be at risk, enabling targeted remediation efforts.
Timely Updates: Ensures that TPRM professionals are informed about the latest developments and mitigations related to these vulnerabilities.
This FocusTag™ ensures efficient vendor management and proactive risk mitigation, empowering TPRM professionals to address critical vulnerabilities effectively.
Black Kite’s Apache Tomcat RCE FocusTagTM details critical insights on the event for TPRM professionals.
What is the CrushFTP Account Takeover Vulnerability?
CrushFTP, a widely used file transfer server, has disclosed a critical vulnerability identified as CVE-2024-53552. This flaw affects versions prior to 10.8.3 in the 10.x series and prior to 11.2.3 in the 11.x series. The vulnerability arises from improper handling of password reset functionalities, enabling attackers to craft malicious password reset links. If a user clicks on such a link, their account can be compromised, granting unauthorized access to sensitive data and system controls. The vulnerability has a CVSS score of 9.8, indicating a critical severity level. This issue was first reported on November 11, 2024. While PoC exploit code is not available, there is no evidence of active exploitation in the wild. The vulnerability has not been added to the CISA’s KEV catalog, and no advisory has been published by CISA.
Why should TPRM professionals care about this vulnerability?
CrushFTP is widely used for secure file transfers in enterprise environments. This vulnerability poses significant risks, including:
Unauthorized Access: Exploitation can lead to unauthorized access to sensitive data and systems.
Service Disruption: Successful attacks can disrupt services, leading to downtime and potential data loss.
Reputation Damage: Compromises can damage an organization’s reputation and erode customer trust.
What questions should TPRM professionals ask vendors about this vulnerability?
To assess the risk posed by this vulnerability, consider asking vendors the following questions:
Can you confirm if you have updated all instances of CrushFTP to version 10.8.3 or 11.2.3 to mitigate the risk of CVE-2024-53552?
Have you configured the Allowed Domains for Password Resets as recommended in the advisory to prevent unauthorized access through manipulated password reset links?
Can you confirm if you have taken measures to educate users about the legitimacy of password reset emails and the risks associated with clicking on malicious links?
Have you implemented any additional security measures to monitor and detect unusual activity that could indicate attempted exploitation of the CVE-2024-53552 vulnerability?
Remediation recommendations for vendors subject to this risk
Vendors should take the following actions to mitigate this vulnerability:
Upgrade CrushFTP: Update to the latest secure versions:
CrushFTP 10.8.3 or later
CrushFTP 11.2.3 or later
Configure Allowed Domains for Password Resets:
For version 10.x: Navigate to Preferences > WebInterface > MiniURL, and specify a comma-separated list of allowed domains.
For version 11.x: Go to Preferences > WebInterface > Login Page, and set a domain pattern that is not a wildcard (‘*’), as wildcards are no longer permitted.
User Awareness: Inform users to be cautious with password reset emails and to verify the legitimacy of such requests before clicking on any links.
Regular Monitoring: Regularly review system logs for any unusual activity that could indicate attempted exploitation.
How TPRM professionals can leverage Black Kite for this vulnerability
Black Kite offers a FocusTag titled “CrushFTP Account Takeover,” which provides:
Vendor Exposure Assessment: Identifies vendors potentially impacted by this vulnerability.
Asset Information: Supplies details on assets (IP addresses and subdomains) that may be at risk, enabling targeted remediation efforts.
Timely Updates: Ensures that TPRM professionals are informed about the latest developments and mitigations related to this vulnerability.
Black Kite’s CrushFTP FocusTagTM details critical insights on the event for TPRM professionals.
Gogs Server Path Traversal Vulnerabilities (CVE-2024-55947, CVE-2024-54148)
What Are the Gogs Server Path Traversal Vulnerabilities?
Gogs, an open-source self-hosted Git service, has been identified with two critical path traversal vulnerabilities. CVE-2024-55947 is a vulnerability in the file update API of Gogs that allows authenticated users to write files to arbitrary paths on the server. Exploiting this flaw could enable an attacker to gain unauthorized SSH access, compromising the integrity of the server. Similarly, CVE-2024-54148 affects the file editing UI of Gogs, where authenticated users can commit and edit crafted symbolic link (symlink) files within a repository. This manipulation can lead to unauthorized SSH access to the server, posing significant security risks. Both vulnerabilities have a CVSS score of 8.7, indicating high severity, with an EPSS score of 0.05%, suggesting a low likelihood of exploitation. These vulnerabilities were first reported on December 23, 2024. While PoC exploit code is publicly available, there is no evidence of active exploitation in the wild, and the vulnerabilities have not yet been added to the CISA’s KEV catalog. No advisory has been published by CISA at this time.
Why should TPRM professionals care about these vulnerabilities?
Gogs is widely used for managing Git repositories, making it a critical component in many enterprise environments. These vulnerabilities can expose organizations to significant risks. Exploiting these flaws allows attackers to gain unauthorized SSH access to servers, which can lead to unauthorized access to sensitive data, server compromises, or even the manipulation of critical code repositories. Such breaches could lead to service disruption, data loss, and severe reputational damage. Given the high severity of these vulnerabilities and their potential impact on systems that rely on Gogs for version control and collaboration, TPRM professionals should prioritize assessing the exposure of their vendors.
What questions should TPRM professionals ask vendors about these vulnerabilities?
To assess the risk posed by these vulnerabilities, TPRM professionals should ask the following questions:
Have you upgraded all instances of Gogs to version 0.13.1 or later to mitigate the risk of CVE-2024-55947 and CVE-2024-54148?
Can you confirm if you have inspected your existing repositories for any suspicious symlink files or unauthorized modifications that could indicate exploitation attempts of CVE-2024-54148?
Have you restricted repository access to trusted users until the upgrade to Gogs version 0.13.1 or later was completed to mitigate potential exploitation of CVE-2024-55947?
Have you implemented regular inspections of server logs for unusual activities, particularly those related to file editing and commits, to detect potential intrusion attempts related to CVE-2024-54148 and CVE-2024-55947?
Remediation recommendations for vendors subject to this risk
Vendors should take the following actions to mitigate the risks posed by these vulnerabilities:
Upgrade Gogs: Immediately update to version 0.13.1 or later, where these vulnerabilities have been addressed.
Restrict User Access: Until the upgrade is completed, limit repository access to trusted users only to mitigate potential exploitation.
Review Repository Contents: Examine existing repositories for any suspicious symlink files or unauthorized modifications that could indicate exploitation attempts.
Monitor Server Logs: Regularly inspect server logs for unusual activities, particularly those related to file editing and commits, to detect potential intrusion attempts.
Implement Security Best Practices: Ensure that your Gogs instance follows security best practices, including proper configuration and regular updates, to prevent similar vulnerabilities in the future.
How TPRM professionals can leverage Black Kite for these vulnerabilities
Black Kite offers a FocusTag titled “Gogs Server,” which provides the following benefits:
Vendor Exposure Assessment: Identifies vendors potentially impacted by these vulnerabilities.
Asset Information: Provides details on assets (IP addresses and subdomains) that may be at risk, enabling targeted remediation efforts.
Timely Updates: Ensures that TPRM professionals are informed about the latest developments and mitigations related to these vulnerabilities.
Black Kite’s Gogs Server FocusTagTM details critical insights on the event for TPRM professionals.
Enhancing TPRM Strategies With Black Kite’s FocusTags™
In the face of increasingly sophisticated cyber threats, Black Kite’s FocusTags™ stand as a beacon for proactive Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM). This week’s vulnerabilities highlight the pressing need for targeted, efficient, and informed risk management strategies. Here’s how FocusTags™ enhance TPRM practices:
Real-Time Risk Identification: Instantly pinpoint vendors impacted by the latest vulnerabilities, enabling rapid responses that mitigate potential threats.
Strategic Risk Prioritization: Evaluate risks based on the criticality of vendors and the severity of vulnerabilities, ensuring focused efforts where they matter most.
Informed Vendor Conversations: Provide the intelligence necessary to engage vendors in detailed discussions about their exposure and response strategies, fostering transparency and collaboration.
Strengthened Cybersecurity Ecosystems: Deliver a comprehensive view of the evolving threat landscape, empowering organizations to build resilient and adaptive security frameworks.
By transforming complex cybersecurity data into actionable insights, Black Kite’s FocusTags™ revolutionize TPRM, ensuring businesses can protect their supply chains and partners against even the most sophisticated cyber threats. As vulnerabilities continue to emerge, these tags provide the clarity and precision needed for proactive and effective risk management.
Want to take a closer look at FocusTags™?
Take our platform for a test drive and request a demo today.
Every week, we delve into the realms of critical vulnerabilities and their implications from a Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) perspective. This series is dedicated to shedding light on pressing cybersecurity threats, offering in-depth analyses, and providing actionable insights.
Welcome to this week’s Focus Friday, where we delve into high-profile vulnerabilities and provide actionable insights from a Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) perspective. This edition explores critical vulnerabilities in Cleo File Transfer, BeyondTrust PRA RS, and Ivanti Cloud Services Application. These vulnerabilities, including remote code execution and command injection, could potentially compromise sensitive data and disrupt operations across industries. These vulnerabilities demand immediate attention from TPRM professionals to mitigate risks effectively. Let’s explore the risks, the recommended remediations, and how Black Kite’s FocusTags™ streamline the risk management process for these pressing concerns.
Filtered view of companies with Cleo File Transfer FocusTag™ on the Black Kite platform.
CVE-2024-55956 in Cleo File Transfer Software
What are the critical vulnerabilities in Cleo File Transfer software?
In our Focus Friday blog post last week, we discussed Cleo’s critical vulnerability, CVE-2024-50623. This week, we need to focus on CVE-2024-55956, which affects Cleo File Transfer products, and the systemic risks these vulnerabilities pose.
Two critical vulnerabilities have been identified in Cleo Harmony®, Cleo VLTrader®, and Cleo LexiCom® products:
CVE-2024-55956 is the Remote Code Execution Vulnerability in Cleo Harmony, VLTrader, and LexiCom versions prior to 5.8.0.24, enabling unauthenticated users to execute arbitrary Bash or PowerShell commands by exploiting default settings in the Autorun directory.
Both vulnerabilities have been actively exploited. CVE-2024-50623 was added to CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on December 13, 2024. CISA CVE-2024-55956 was added on December 17, 2024. Cleo has released patches to address these issues, and users are strongly advised to update to the latest versions to mitigate potential risks.
Both vulnerabilities have public PoC exploit codes, and exploitation has been observed targeting industries like logistics and shipping. They enable unauthorized file uploads and remote execution of malicious commands.
Why should TPRM professionals care about these vulnerabilities?
These vulnerabilities represent significant risks for organizations relying on Cleo file transfer solutions:
Critical Operational Risk: Exploitation could lead to compromised file transfers, impacting supply chain and logistics operations.
Sensitive Data Exposure: Malicious actors could access and exfiltrate confidential business data.
Unauthorized Access: Successful exploitation provides attackers with system-level access, enabling further attacks on connected systems.
For organizations utilizing Cleo products, timely mitigation is essential to avoid disruption and ensure data security.
What questions should TPRM professionals ask vendors about these vulnerabilities?
Have you updated all instances of Cleo Harmony, VLTrader, and LexiCom to version 5.8.0.24 or later to mitigate the risk of CVE-2024-50623 and CVE-2024-55956?
Have you reviewed and appropriately configured the Autorun directory’s default settings to prevent unauthorized command execution related to CVE-2024-55956?
Can you confirm if you have blocked the attacker IPs mentioned in the advisory shared last week, including 176[.]123[.]5[.]126, 5[.]149[.]249[.]226, 185[.]181[.]230[.]103, 209[.]127[.]12[.]38, 181[.]214[.]147[.]164, and 192[.]119[.]99[.]42, to prevent further exploitation of CVE-2024-50623 and CVE-2024-55956?
Have you disabled the Autorun functionality in the ‘Configure’ menu of LexiCom, Harmony, or VLTrader to stop processing autorun files and mitigate the risk of CVE-2024-55956?
Remediation recommendations for vendors subject to this risk
To address these vulnerabilities, vendors should:
Immediate Software Update: Upgrade all instances of Cleo Harmony, VLTrader, and LexiCom to version 5.8.0.24 or later to mitigate the vulnerability.
Review Autorun Directory Settings: Ensure that the Autorun directory’s default settings are appropriately configured to prevent unauthorized command execution.
Monitor for Indicators of Compromise (IOCs): Check if suspicious files, such as main.xml or 60282967-dc91-40ef-a34c-38e992509c2c.xml, healthchecktemplate.txt, or healthcheck.txt, contain encoded malicious commands. The attack also utilizes reconnaissance tools like nltest.exe for Active Directory enumeration.
Monitor Updates: Cleo is actively working on a new patch expected soon. Monitor updates from Cleo to ensure you apply the latest mitigations as they are released.
Reconfigure Software Settings: Disable the autorun feature by clearing the ‘Autorun Directory’ field in configuration settings to prevent automatic execution of malicious files.
Place Systems Behind a Firewall: Ensure internet-facing Cleo systems are placed behind a firewall to limit exposure to potential attacks.
Implement Strong Security Practices: Enforce strong, unique passwords and enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) to enhance security.
Disable Autorun Functionality: Access the “Configure” menu in LexiCom, Harmony, or VLTrader. Select “Options” and navigate to the “Other” pane. Delete the contents of the “Autorun Directory” field to stop processing autorun files.
Address Remaining Exposure: Note that this mitigates part of the attack but does not address the root cause of the vulnerability.
How TPRM professionals can leverage Black Kite for this vulnerability
Black Kite published the Cleo File Transfer FocusTag™ on December 13, 2024, providing actionable insights for TPRM professionals. This tag identifies vendors using affected versions and details exposed assets like subdomains and IP addresses.
With Black Kite, TPRM professionals can:
Prioritize vendors requiring urgent remediation based on exposure.
Streamline risk assessments using targeted questions and vendor-specific intelligence.
Enhance oversight by monitoring identified vulnerable assets.
This FocusTag™ ensures efficient vendor management and proactive risk mitigation, empowering TPRM professionals to address critical vulnerabilities effectively.
Black Kite’s Cleo File Transfer FocusTagTM details critical insights on the event for TPRM professionals.
CVE-2024-11639, CVE-2024-11772, and CVE-2024-11773 in Ivanti Cloud Services Application
The Ivanti Cloud Services Appliance (CSA) is an internet-facing device that facilitates secure communication between remote endpoints and the central Ivanti Endpoint Manager core server. It enables organizations to manage devices outside their corporate network, ensuring that endpoints can receive updates, patches, and policies regardless of their location. The key features of the Ivanti Cloud Services Appliance (CSA) include: Secure Remote Management, Certificate-Based Authentication, Support for Multiple Appliances, and Virtual Appliance Option.
What are the critical vulnerabilities in Ivanti Cloud Services Application?
These vulnerabilities impact versions of Ivanti CSA prior to 5.0.3 and include the following:
CVE-2024-11639 is an authentication bypass vulnerability in the admin web console of Ivanti Cloud Services Appliance (CSA) versions before 5.0.3, allowing remote unauthenticated attackers to gain administrative access.
CVE-2024-11772 is a command injection vulnerability in the admin web console of Ivanti CSA before version 5.0.3, enabling remote authenticated attackers with administrative privileges to execute arbitrary code on the server.
CVE-2024-11773 is an SQL injection vulnerability in the admin web console of Ivanti CSA before version 5.0.3, allowing remote authenticated attackers with administrative privileges to execute arbitrary SQL statements.
All three vulnerabilities are critical, with CVE-2024-11639 having a CVSS score of 10.0, and both CVE-2024-11772 and CVE-2024-11773 each having a CVSS score of 9.1.
These vulnerabilities were first disclosed on December 10, 2024, with no current evidence of exploitation in the wild. However, considering the history of rapid exploitation of Ivanti vulnerabilities, immediate action is advised. They are not yet listed in CISA’s KEV catalog.
Why should TPRM professionals care about these vulnerabilities?
For TPRM professionals, these vulnerabilities in Ivanti CSA could lead to severe business risks:
Compromised Administrative Access: Unauthorized access to the admin web console may result in full control of systems managing critical IT infrastructure.
Arbitrary Code Execution: Attackers could deploy malicious software, escalating risks to other connected systems.
SQL Injection Risks: Exploited vulnerabilities could enable attackers to manipulate databases, potentially exposing sensitive organizational data.
Organizations leveraging Ivanti CSA for IT management need to ensure their vendors have addressed these risks to prevent potential disruptions and data breaches.
What questions should TPRM professionals ask vendors about these vulnerabilities?
Have you updated all instances of Ivanti CSA to version 5.0.3 or later to mitigate the risk of CVE-2024-11639, CVE-2024-11772, and CVE-2024-11773?
Can you confirm if you have implemented continuous monitoring for unusual activities in the admin web console to detect potential exploitation of the authentication bypass, command injection, and SQL injection vulnerabilities?
Have you enforced strong, unique passwords and enabled multi-factor authentication for all administrative accounts to prevent unauthorized administrative access related to CVE-2024-11639?
Can you confirm if you have restricted administrative access to the CSA to only authorized personnel to prevent potential exploitation of CVE-2024-11772 and CVE-2024-11773?
Remediation recommendations for vendors subject to this risk
Vendors using Ivanti CSA should implement the following recommendations:
Upgrade to Ivanti CSA version 5.0.3: This update resolves these vulnerabilities and is available via the Ivanti download portal.
Restrict Administrative Access: Limit access to authorized personnel only and enforce MFA.
Monitor for Unusual Activity: Implement continuous monitoring for signs of exploitation in the admin web console.
Review Database Activity: Ensure SQL queries are logged and anomalous activity is flagged.
How TPRM professionals can leverage Black Kite for this vulnerability
Black Kite published the Ivanti Cloud Services Application FocusTag™ on December 13, 2024, providing actionable insights. This tag identifies vendors potentially exposed to these vulnerabilities, detailing the affected assets, including subdomains and IP addresses.
By leveraging these insights, TPRM professionals can:
Narrow the scope to vendors with confirmed exposure to affected Ivanti CSA versions.
Prioritize outreach to these vendors using the specific questions provided.
Address potential risks more efficiently with the detailed intelligence provided.
Black Kite’s FocusTags™ eliminate the guesswork in identifying vulnerable vendors, streamlining the risk assessment process for TPRM professionals.
Black Kite’s Ivanti Cloud Services Application FocusTagTM details critical insights on the event for TPRM professionals.
CVE-2024-12356 in BeyondTrust PRA and RS
What is the BeyondTrust PRA and RS Command Injection Vulnerability?
CVE-2024-12356 is a critical command injection vulnerability affecting BeyondTrust’s Privileged Remote Access (PRA) and Remote Support (RS) solutions. It allows unauthenticated remote attackers to execute operating system commands as the site user by sending malicious client requests. A vulnerability with a CVSS score of 9.8 has been identified, affecting PRA and RS software versions up to and including 24.3.1. Publicly disclosed on December 16, 2024, this vulnerability poses a significant security risk due to the availability of PoC exploit code, making it a high-priority target for attackers despite no reports of active exploitation thus far. The vulnerability’s critical nature has also led to its inclusion in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) Catalog on December 19, 2024. With an EPSS score of 0.05%, organizations using the affected versions are urged to address this issue promptly to mitigate potential risks.
The vulnerability stems from improper neutralization of special elements used in commands, making it exploitable via a low-complexity attack. BeyondTrust has released patches for all supported versions (22.1.x and above).
Why should TPRM professionals care about this vulnerability?
BeyondTrust’s PRA and RS solutions are widely used for privileged remote access and IT support, making them an attractive target for attackers. Exploitation of this vulnerability could:
Compromise Sensitive Systems: Grant unauthorized access to critical infrastructure and systems.
Enable Further Attacks: Attackers could escalate privileges, deploy malware, or steal sensitive information.
Disrupt Operations: Unauthorized access to IT management systems could lead to downtime or operational disruption.
Organizations using BeyondTrust products need to address this vulnerability urgently to protect against potential exploitation.
What questions should TPRM professionals ask vendors about this vulnerability?
Can you confirm if you have upgraded all instances of BeyondTrust’s Privileged Remote Access (PRA) and Remote Support (RS) products to a version higher than 24.3.1 to mitigate the risk of CVE-2024-12356?
If you are operating on a version older than 22.1, have you upgraded to a supported version to access the patches for the command injection vulnerability identified as CVE-2024-12356?
Have you applied the appropriate patch (BT24-10-ONPREM1 or BT24-10-ONPREM2, depending on the version) via the /appliance interface to address the CVE-2024-12356 vulnerability in BeyondTrust’s PRA and RS products?
Have you implemented continuous monitoring systems to detect any unusual activity that may indicate attempted exploitation of the CVE-2024-12356 vulnerability in BeyondTrust’s PRA and RS products?
Remediation recommendations for vendors subject to this risk
To mitigate the risks associated with CVE-2024-12356, vendors should:
Apply the Patch: Install BT24-10-ONPREM1 or BT24-10-ONPREM2 for versions 22.1.x or above.
Upgrade Older Versions: For unsupported versions (older than 22.1), upgrade to a supported version before applying the patch.
Verify Patch Application: Ensure successful deployment of the patch, particularly for on-premise instances.
Monitor for Indicators: Regularly review logs for suspicious activity tied to command injection attempts.
Implement Security Best Practices: Enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) and use strong, unique passwords to secure administrative accounts.
How TPRM professionals can leverage Black Kite for this vulnerability
Black Kite released the BeyondTrust PRA RS FocusTag™ on December 19, 2024, offering detailed insights into vendors potentially impacted by CVE-2024-12356. The tag provides:
Identification of affected vendors with PRA and RS deployments.
Details on exposed assets, including IP addresses and subdomains.
TPRM professionals can use these insights to:
Narrow down their scope to vendors with confirmed exposure.
Prioritize outreach to affected vendors and provide actionable guidance.
Leverage asset data to enhance risk assessments and address vulnerabilities proactively.
Black Kite’s BeyondTrust PRA RS FocusTagTM details critical insights on the event for TPRM professionals.
ENHANCING TPRM STRATEGIES WITH BLACK KITE’S FocusTags™
In the face of increasingly sophisticated cyber threats, Black Kite’s FocusTags™ stand as a beacon for proactive Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM). This week’s vulnerabilities—spanning critical systems like Cleo File Transfer, BeyondTrust PRA RS, and Ivanti Cloud Services Application—highlight the pressing need for targeted, efficient, and informed risk management strategies. Here’s how FocusTags™ enhance TPRM practices:
Real-Time Risk Identification: Instantly pinpoint vendors impacted by the latest vulnerabilities, enabling rapid responses that mitigate potential threats.
Strategic Risk Prioritization: Evaluate risks based on the criticality of vendors and the severity of vulnerabilities, ensuring focused efforts where they matter most.
Informed Vendor Conversations: Provide the intelligence necessary to engage vendors in detailed discussions about their exposure and response strategies, fostering transparency and collaboration.
Strengthened Cybersecurity Ecosystems: Deliver a comprehensive view of the evolving threat landscape, empowering organizations to build resilient and adaptive security frameworks.
By transforming complex cybersecurity data into actionable insights, Black Kite’s FocusTags™ revolutionize TPRM, ensuring businesses can protect their supply chains and partners against even the most sophisticated cyber threats. As vulnerabilities continue to emerge, these tags provide the clarity and precision needed for proactive and effective risk management.
Want to take a closer look at FocusTags™?
Take our platform for a test drive and request a demo today.
Every week, we delve into the realms of critical vulnerabilities and their implications from a Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) perspective. This series is dedicated to shedding light on pressing cybersecurity threats, offering in-depth analyses, and providing actionable insights.
FocusTagsTM in the Last 30 Days:
BeyondTrust PRA RS: CVE-2024-12356, Command Injection Vulnerability in BeyondTrust’s Privileged Remote Access (PRA), Remote Support (RS).
Cl0p is back—and this time, they’ve set their sights on Cleo, a critical tool for supply chain integration. By exploiting vulnerabilities in Cleo’s Managed File Transfer (MFT) solutions, Cl0p has reignited concerns of another large-scale ransomware campaign, echoing the chaos caused by their MOVEit, GoAnywhere, and Accelion attacks. With thousands of companies relying on Cleo for seamless data transfers and partner integrations, the risk isn’t just direct—it’s systemic.
Timeline of Events
October 2024: Discovery of Cleo Vulnerabilities
Cleo released patches addressing a critical vulnerability (CVE-2024-50623) in its Managed File Transfer (MFT) products, including Harmony, VLTrader, and LexiCom. The flaw allowed unrestricted file uploads, enabling unauthenticated remote code execution. Cleo urged customers to upgrade to version 5.8.0.21 to mitigate the risk.
November 2024: Blue Yonder Incident and Termite Ransomware Group
Weeks later, Blue Yonder, a major SaaS provider for supply chain management, fell victim to a ransomware attack. The Termite ransomware group claimed responsibility, leveraging vulnerabilities and credential exposure to compromise systems.
Termite ransomware group’s dark web main page, showing the alleged victims.
While Blue Yonder’s attack and the Termite group initially seemed isolated, Cleo systems emerged as Indicators of Compromise (IoCs) in Termite’s operations. This incident highlighted how supply chain integration tools could be weaponized to cause widespread operational disruption. For more details on Blue Yonder and Termite, refer to our previous analysis here.
December 2024: Cl0p’s Announcement and Growing Exploitation
In early December, signs of active exploitation began surfacing. Sophos X-Ops confirmed that attacks on Cleo products began on December 6, 2024, targeting 50+ unique hosts in North America, primarily in the retail sector. On December 13, the Cl0p ransomware group publicly claimed responsibility for exploiting Cleo’s vulnerabilities. Cl0p, known for its mass exploitation of Managed File Transfer products like MOVEit and GoAnywhere, followed their established playbook: exploit, exfiltrate, and pressure victims with double extortion. Their announcement signaled that victims were already under negotiation, and further disclosures were imminent.
Cl0p’s announcement on December 13.
December 13: CISA Confirms Active Exploitation
Also, on December 13, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) confirmed active exploitation of CVE-2024-50623 and added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) Catalog. CISA mandated that all U.S. federal agencies apply patches by January 3, 2025, highlighting the urgency of remediation.
December 15: Second Cleo Vulnerability Surfaces
A second critical vulnerability (CVE-2024-55956) was identified in Cleo’s MFT solutions, further escalating the threat. This zero-day flaw, combined with CVE-2024-50623, expands the attack surface for threat actors, allowing even broader exploitation. According to new findings, these vulnerabilities remain attractive due to Cleo’s widespread usage in supply chain integration, especially in the retail and logistics industries.
December 17: CISA Adds CVE-2024-55956 to its KEV Catalog.
CISA’s alert on one of the exploited Cleo vulnerabilities.
December 18: First Victims announced
Cl0p ransomware groups announced two new victims on December 18. Based on their initial announcement on the 13th, it is very highly likely that these victims are part of the campaign of mass exploitation of Cleo vulnerabilities.
Current Status: Patches, Advisories, and Present Risks
As of mid-December, reports from Huntress and Arctic Wolf revealed that:
Fully patched Cleo systems may still be misconfigured and vulnerable under certain conditions.
Attackers are deploying ransomware payloads and stealing data using a combination of CVE-2024-50623 and CVE-2024-55956.
The interconnected risks continue to grow. Cleo systems have become central to ransomware groups’ strategies, echoing Cl0p’s MOVEit campaign in scale and complexity. The exploitation of Cleo vulnerabilities as a campaign is ongoing, and the number of victims is expected to rise over the coming weeks.
The ripple effects across the global supply chain—especially in retail, logistics, and other interconnected industries—demonstrate the systemic impact of vulnerabilities in widely adopted tools like Cleo.
Who is Cl0p? Understanding the Group and Their Methods
Cl0p is a ransomware group notorious for large-scale exploitation campaigns targeting Managed File Transfer (MFT) software. Their operations are characterized by a “hit-and-run” mentality, focusing on mass exploitation rather than continuous attacks. Unlike opportunistic ransomware groups, Cl0p carefully identifies vulnerabilities in widely adopted tools, weaponizes them, and exploits them at scale. Their operations combine technical precision with a clear strategy: maximize impact and leverage high-value data for extortion.
Cl0p’s History and Previous Attacks
Cl0p has been linked to several high-profile attacks:
Accellion FTA Attack (2020): In December 2020, Cl0p exploited zero-day vulnerabilities in Accellion’s File Transfer Appliance (FTA), compromising up to 100 companies and stealing sensitive data. Unlike typical ransomware attacks, they did not deploy file-encrypting malware but instead focused on data theft and extortion.
GoAnywhere MFT Attack (2023): In early 2023, Cl0p exploited a zero-day vulnerability in Fortra’s GoAnywhere MFT, claiming to have breached over 130 organizations. They utilized similar tactics of data exfiltration followed by extortion.
MOVEit Exploitation (2023): In June 2023, Cl0p targeted a vulnerability in Progress Software’s MOVEit Transfer, affecting numerous organizations. They exfiltrated data and used double extortion tactics, threatening to publish the stolen information.
These incidents highlight Cl0p’s signature approach: they don’t operate year-round. Instead, they focus on mass exploitation campaigns—finding and exploiting critical vulnerabilities in widely used enterprise tools, launching large-scale attacks, and rapidly monetizing stolen data.
Cl0p’s Modus Operandi (MO): Targeting MFT Solutio
Cl0p’s tactics have a distinct pattern:
Identification of Zero-Day Vulnerabilities: Cl0p specifically targets MFT solutions, which are vital for secure data transfers between organizations and trading partners. These tools often handle sensitive data, making them prime targets for extortion.
Mass Exploitation: Once a vulnerability is identified, Cl0p moves quickly to exploit it. They leverage automated tools to scan for unpatched or exposed systems, often breaching hundreds of organizations simultaneously.
Data Exfiltration and Double Extortion: After gaining access, Cl0p exfiltrates large amounts of sensitive data before deploying ransomware. They then engage in double extortion, threatening to leak stolen data publicly if victims refuse to pay. Their dark web blog serves as the platform to pressure victims by announcing data leaks.
Timing and Scale: Cl0p strategically targets tools used by organizations with significant supply chain interdependencies, amplifying the impact of their campaigns. The MOVEit and GoAnywhere campaigns affected thousands of companies—directly and indirectly—demonstrating how they exploit systemic vulnerabilities in critical software.
Cl0p and Cleo: The Next MOVEit?
The exploitation of Cleo’s vulnerabilities mirrors Cl0p’s previous large-scale campaigns on Managed File Transfer (MFT) solutions like MOVEit and GoAnywhere. These campaigns targeted zero-day vulnerabilities, allowing Cl0p to breach organizations en masse and exfiltrate sensitive data for double extortion. In December 2024, Cl0p publicly claimed responsibility for exploiting Cleo’s MFT products, specifically CVE-2024-50623 and CVE-2024-55956, stating they already had “a lot of companies” under their fingertips. This public declaration strongly suggests that exploitation began weeks earlier, consistent with Cl0p’s strategy of quietly breaching systems, stealing data, and only later announcing their activities to intensify pressure on victims yet to pay.
Screenshot from BleepingComputer article that covers Cl0p’s statements.
Given Cleo’s widespread adoption—particularly in retail and logistics, where it facilitates end-to-end supply chain integration—the scale of potential disruption is significant. Cl0p’s focus on tools that connect organizations across ecosystems amplifies the risk far beyond a single company, creating a ripple effect throughout supply chains.
This pattern is not new. During the MOVEit exploitation campaign in 2023, Black Kite Research and Intelligence Team (BRITE) observed 600 MOVEit assets exposed to the internet at the time of discovery. Given Cl0p’s spray-and-exploit approach, we estimate most of those assets were attacked. In total, Cl0p’s MOVEit campaign impacted hundreds of direct victims and indirectly affected more than 2,700 organizations, including downstream third- and fourth-party dependencies.
Within three months, Cl0p announced 270 victims tied to MOVEit on their leak site. Other victims were listed afterward, though it remains unclear if these were MOVEit-related. Notably, Cl0p claimed to have deleted stolen data for some organizations, such as non-profits and public institutions, likely for reputational reasons.
While Cl0p currently dominates the headlines, it is worth noting that the Termite ransomware group has also been associated with Cleo-related Indicators of Compromise (IoCs). Though there is no confirmed link between Cl0p and Termite, this overlap highlights how critical tools like Cleo become prime targets for multiple ransomware operators seeking high-impact opportunities.
Cl0p’s resurgence with Cleo is yet another example of their ability to disrupt systems at scale. Their hit-and-run mentality—periodically focusing on MFT vulnerabilities for maximum effect—demonstrates their precision and understanding of how interconnected systems amplify ransomware risks. Organizations must respond decisively to such threats, as delayed action could leave critical data and operations exposed in the interconnected web of modern supply chains.
The Technical Breakdown: How Cleo Vulnerabilities Are Being Exploited
CVE-2024-50623: The Initial Vulnerability
The first critical vulnerability identified in Cleo’s MFT solutions—CVE-2024-50623—was disclosed in October 2024. This flaw allows for unauthenticated file uploads, enabling attackers to place malicious files directly onto targeted servers. Under certain conditions, this results in remote code execution (RCE), giving threat actors the ability to execute arbitrary commands.
The vulnerability impacts Cleo Harmony, VLTrader, and LexiCom products widely used for secure file transfers, partner onboarding, and supply chain automation. Organizations with internet-exposed Cleo systems running unpatched versions were immediately placed at risk.
CVE-2024-55956: A Second Critical Flaw
On December 15, 2024, a second vulnerability—CVE-2024-55956—surfaced, further exacerbating the risk. This zero-day flaw allows for unrestricted file downloads, enabling attackers to exfiltrate sensitive data without authentication. In combination with CVE-2024-50623, this creates a powerful attack vector where threat actors can both infiltrate and exfiltrate data, a hallmark of ransomware operations.
Researchers from Huntress have raised concerns that even fully patched systems remain vulnerable under specific misconfigurations or incomplete remediations. This complicates mitigation efforts, as organizations may incorrectly assume they are protected after applying initial patches.
Indicators of Compromise (IoCs)
Security researchers have published several Indicators of Compromise related to Cleo exploitation, including:
File Names and Patterns: Malicious file uploads often mimic legitimate Cleo processes to evade detection. For example:
Randomly named .xml or .log files placed in unexpected directories.
Unusual Network Activity:
Outbound connections to suspicious IP addresses.
Unexpected data transfers involving Cleo MFT servers.
C2 (Command and Control) Servers:
Reported IP addresses identified as part of Cl0p campaigns.
Example: 176[.]123[.]5[.]126 and 5[.]149[.]249[.]226 (placeholder examples).
Organizations are urged to monitor for these IoCs and conduct thorough forensic reviews of Cleo servers to identify unauthorized file uploads or unusual system behavior.
The Compounding Risk of Misconfiguration
While Cleo released patches in October, real-world implementation has revealed challenges. Systems with incomplete configurations or unpatched instances remain vulnerable. Additionally, Huntress researchers have reported that fully updated Cleo environments could still be exploited under specific conditions, raising the risk for organizations that rely on Cleo for critical file transfer operations.
The combined exploitation of CVE-2024-50623 and CVE-2024-55956 highlights the evolving sophistication of ransomware groups like Cl0p. These vulnerabilities create a near-perfect opportunity for attackers to infiltrate systems, steal sensitive data, and leverage supply chain disruptions for maximum impact. Organizations must act decisively to identify exposure, patch systems, and monitor for signs of compromise before attackers escalate their campaigns further.
The Supply Chain Impact: Why This Matters
Cleo’s Role in Supply Chain Integration
Cleo’s Integration Cloud (CIC) and Managed File Transfer (MFT) solutions serve as critical infrastructure for businesses that rely on seamless data exchanges with trading partners, customers, and internal systems. These tools power API and EDI-based transactions, automate file transfers, and integrate with back-office applications, enabling operational efficiency across interconnected supply chains.
An illustration of CIC provided on Cleo’s main website.
Direct vs. Indirect Risks
The exploitation of Cleo vulnerabilities poses direct and indirect risks to organizations, mirroring the cascading effects seen during the MOVEit and GoAnywhere campaigns:
Direct Impact:
Organizations using vulnerable Cleo solutions face immediate risk of data exfiltration and ransomware deployment. Cl0p’s exploitation tactics allow for unauthorized file uploads, system access, and data theft, disrupting operations and potentially leading to downtime or financial losses.
Indirect Impact:
Even companies that do not directly use Cleo can be impacted through their vendors, partners, or customers. If a critical supplier or trading partner is compromised, it can trigger delays, operational bottlenecks, and interruptions to business continuity.
These downstream impacts are especially critical in industries like retail and logistics, where delays during peak seasons—such as the holidays—can translate to significant revenue loss.
Sectors at Greatest Risk
Industries like retail, logistics, manufacturing, and healthcare depend heavily on Cleo to manage their supply chain workflows. From onboarding new partners to securely transferring sensitive business data, Cleo has become a central link in countless global operations. This widespread reliance creates an attractive target for ransomware groups like Cl0p, who aim to amplify the disruption by compromising a tool that connects thousands of organizations.
Retail: Retailers depend on Cleo to integrate with suppliers, track shipments, and ensure inventory visibility. A disruption during peak seasons could delay deliveries, impact sales, and damage customer relationships.
Logistics: Logistics providers rely on Cleo for partner onboarding, shipping automation, and real-time data exchanges. An attack could cause cascading delays across the supply chain.
Manufacturing: Manufacturers using Cleo to exchange data with suppliers and partners could face production halts, delayed fulfillment, and financial loss.
Healthcare: Sensitive healthcare data, often transferred through automated workflows, is particularly valuable to ransomware operators, posing both operational and regulatory risks.
Why This Matters for Supply Chain Resilience
The Cleo exploitation highlights a broader issue: the fragility of interconnected systems. Organizations often underestimate their reliance on third-party tools and partners until an incident like this occurs. A single vulnerability in a widely adopted platform can disrupt hundreds—or thousands—of interconnected businesses, amplifying risks across entire ecosystems.
For organizations prioritizing supply chain resilience, visibility is critical:
Do you know which of your vendors, customers, or partners rely on Cleo?
Can you assess their exposure and verify that mitigation steps are being taken?
Are you prepared for disruptions caused by indirect dependencies?
Understanding these relationships and acting proactively can make the difference between business continuity and cascading failure.
How Black Kite Responded: Two FocusTags for Actionable Intelligence
Proactive Risk Identification and Customer Alerts
As the Cleo vulnerabilities began to surface and exploitation intensified, Black Kite acted swiftly to provide actionable intelligence for our customers. Understanding the layered risks posed by Cleo’s interconnected products, we released two distinct FocusTags:
Cleo File Transfer FocusTag
Cleo Integration – Ransomware Risk FocusTag
Both tags addressed critical aspects of the threat, helping customers identify exposure, prioritize outreach, and take decisive mitigation steps.
Cleo File Transfer FocusTag™: Identifying Vulnerable Systems
The Cleo File Transfer FocusTag™ focuses on the vulnerable software versions and internet-facing systems running Cleo Harmony®, VLTrader®, and LexiCom. This vulnerability-focused tag provides highly actionable intelligence for customers to address immediate technical risks.
Key details include:
Identification of vulnerable Cleo products prior to version 5.8.0.21.
IP addresses and hosted instances of Cleo MFT solutions exposed in the cloud.
Indicators of Compromise (IoCs).
Recommended mitigation actions, including patching, disabling autorun functionality, and isolating systems behind firewalls.
Customers used this tag to quickly identify their own exposure and initiate remediation efforts, including monitoring for signs of exploitation and implementing defensive controls.
Black Kite’s Cleo File Transfer FocusTag™ details.
Black Kite published this first tag on November 27, 2024 for CVE-2024-50623 and updated it since then frequently so that it includes the new developments and vulnerabilities (CVE-2024-55956).
The Cleo Integration – Ransomware Risk FocusTag™ addresses a broader risk beyond the specific vulnerabilities. This tag highlights organizations connected to Cleo’s Integration Cloud (CIC) as application or trading partners, who may face direct or indirect risks of a ransomware attack.
The Cl0p ransomware group is infamous for exploiting Managed File Transfer (MFT) vulnerabilities, and their campaigns often extend beyond initial targets. Cleo’s MFT solutions are deeply integrated with Cleo Integration Cloud (CIC), a platform central to critical business ecosystem integrations.
Trading partners connected to CIC could become part of the attack path, exposing sensitive assets and data to potential compromise.
The Cleo Integration tag is based on a combination of:
Public integration data (95%) published by Cleo.
Certificate analysis for Cleo-related products.
Through discussions with trading partners and confirmation from our customers, we’ve learned that Cleo integrations often touch sensitive data and critical systems, amplifying the potential for cascading impacts across the supply chain.
This tag enables customers to:
Identify at-risk vendors and trading partners connected to Cleo.
Understand and prioritize indirect risks that could impact their operations.
Share actionable intelligence with vendors, raising awareness and driving remediation efforts.
Black Kite published this tag on December 16, 2024, right after Cl0p announced it on their dark web blog. Black Kite has become the first source of intel for many Black Kite customers.
Black Kite’s CLEO Integration – Ransomware Risk FocusTag™ details.
Customers who were identified as trading partners on Cleo’s public website began internal investigations to assess their exposure. IoCs provided with the tag—such as suspicious file patterns and malicious IPs—were shared with SOC teams to ensure no compromise had occurred. Organizations verified where Cleo touched their sensitive assets or critical systems and prepared incident response protocols as a precaution.
Operationalizing Both FocusTags™: From Intelligence to Action
Black Kite customers leveraged these FocusTags to address both immediate risks and cascading vulnerabilities:
For Internal Mitigation (Cleo File Transfer FocusTag):
Patch all Cleo Harmony, VLTrader, and LexiCom systems to version 5.8.0.21 or later.
Place internet-facing systems behind a firewall and disable autorun functionality.
Monitor for Indicators of Compromise (IoCs) such as malicious file uploads and suspicious IPs.
For Vendor and Supply Chain Management (Cleo Integration FocusTag):
Use the Cleo Integration – Ransomware Risk FocusTag to identify trading partners at risk of cascading ransomware impacts.
Prioritize critical vendors and launch targeted outreach campaigns to raise awareness and request feedback.
Collaborate with vendors to confirm mitigations and reduce shared risk.
Leveraging Black Kite BridgeTM:
Customers operationalized these tags further through Black Kite Bridge, streamlining vendor outreach and tracking remediation progress in real time. Instead of sending manual questionnaires, they shared actionable intelligence directly with vendors, allowing for faster, more efficient responses.
A Coordinated Effort to Protect Customers
The swift release of these two FocusTags reflects Black Kite’s commitment to delivering timely and actionable intelligence. The BRITE (Black Kite Research and Intelligence) team worked around the clock to analyze risks, while our Customer Success, Support, and Product teams ensured customers could operationalize this intelligence effectively.
By addressing both technical vulnerabilities and supply chain risks, we enabled organizations to act decisively—protecting their systems, understanding their vendor relationships, and mitigating the cascading impacts of ransomware.
What Organizations Need to Do Now
As the exploitation of Cleo vulnerabilities continues to unfold, organizations must move quickly to mitigate risks, both internally and across their supply chains. Given Cl0p’s history of targeting widely adopted Managed File Transfer (MFT) tools, delaying action could leave organizations exposed to ransomware deployment, data theft, and operational disruptions.
Immediate Steps for Direct Users of Cleo
If your organization uses Cleo Harmony®, VLTrader®, or LexiCom, immediate technical measures must be prioritized:
Patch Vulnerable Systems: Ensure all Cleo MFT products are updated to version 5.8.0.21 or later. This step is critical to addressing CVE-2024-50623 and CVE-2024-55956.
Disable Autorun Functionality:
Access the “Configure” menu, select “Options,” and clear the “Autorun Directory” field to prevent automatic execution of malicious files.
Place Systems Behind a Firewall: Restrict internet-facing access to Cleo servers to minimize exposure. Where possible, disable external access entirely.
Monitor for Indicators of Compromise (IoCs):
Watch for unusual network activity or file uploads, such as main.xml or encoded malicious payloads.
Block malicious IPs associated with Cl0p campaigns:
Strengthen Security Controls: Enforce strong, unique passwords for Cleo systems, and enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) to reduce unauthorized access risks.
Understand and Mitigate Supply Chain Risks
Even if your organization does not use Cleo directly, there is significant indirect risk if your vendors, trading partners, or customers rely on Cleo systems. Cl0p’s attack campaigns historically spread across entire ecosystems, impacting organizations that were never direct targets.
Steps to address cascading risks include:
Identify Affected Vendors:
Use the Cleo Integration – Ransomware Risk FocusTag to identify trading and application partners exposed to potential ransomware threats.
Review vendor dependencies to understand which of your critical suppliers or partners use Cleo’s Integration Cloud (CIC).
Engage Vendors with Actionable Intelligence:
Share specific IoCs and mitigation steps to raise awareness among vendors. Black Kite customers have used Black Kite BridgeTM to streamline outreach, allowing vendors to address vulnerabilities faster and confirm remediations.
Prioritize Based on Criticality:
Focus efforts on vendors and partners critical to your operations. Map out supply chain dependencies to identify where disruptions would cause the most significant impact.
Test Contingency and Response Plans:
Develop or review backup and disaster recovery plans to ensure operational continuity if a critical vendor is compromised.
Identify alternative suppliers or redundancies in workflows to minimize downtime.
Strengthen Long-Term Cyber Resilience
While the immediate priority is mitigating Cleo-related risks, this incident underscores the broader need for improved third-party risk management and supply chain resilience. In an interconnected world, risks like Cleo’s vulnerabilities don’t stay isolated—they ripple across entire ecosystems. Whether you’re a direct user of Cleo systems or part of a broader supply chain, visibility and decisive action are critical to minimizing ransomware risk.
Organizations should take steps to ensure they are prepared for future events:
Enhance Visibility:
Continuously monitor vendor risk exposure, particularly for critical tools like MFT solutions that manage sensitive data and workflows.
Proactively identify vulnerable systems across your supply chain using external intelligence and risk assessments.
Adopt Threat Intelligence Tools:
Leverage risk intelligence platforms to identify vulnerabilities, IoCs, and dark web chatter before incidents escalate. Tools like Black Kite’s FocusTags allow organizations to stay ahead of emerging threats and act decisively.
Collaborate with Vendors:
Build stronger relationships with third-party vendors to ensure faster response times during incidents. Avoid overwhelming vendors with repetitive questionnaires and focus on sharing actionable intelligence they can act on.
Conduct Regular Security Audits:
Evaluate the security posture of both internal systems and vendor environments, ensuring that vulnerabilities are identified and addressed before they can be exploited.
By addressing vulnerabilities internally, working proactively with vendors, and strengthening long-term cyber resilience, organizations can mitigate the cascading impacts of supply chain ransomware attacks.
Final Thoughts
The Cleo exploitation campaign is another stark example of how quickly ransomware groups like Cl0p can exploit critical vulnerabilities to disrupt organizations and their interconnected supply chains. By targeting tools that sit at the heart of business operations, Cl0p has shown once again that the impacts of these attacks are rarely limited to direct victims.
At Black Kite, we believe that speed, visibility, and actionable intelligence are key to minimizing risk in moments like these. The release of the Cleo File Transfer FocusTag™ and the Cleo Integration – Ransomware Risk FocusTag™ allowed our customers to take immediate action—internally patching vulnerabilities, identifying at-risk vendors, and prioritizing outreach campaigns.
These efforts are a testament to the collaborative work of the BRITE team, who identified and tracked this threat, and the Customer Success, Support, and Product and Development teams, who made this intelligence actionable for our customers.
While the Cleo vulnerabilities may dominate headlines today, the lesson for tomorrow is clear: Know your vendors. Know their dependencies. And act decisively when risk emerges.
The next wave of ransomware will come—it always does. Organizations that prioritize visibility, operationalize risk intelligence, and strengthen supply chain resilience will be the ones who weather it best.
Gone are the days of working with a handful of long-time, trusted vendors. Today, 60% of enterprises work with up to 1,000 vendors at a time, with 71% reporting that their third-party network has exponentially increased in just three years. That means more risk to evaluate and therefore more vendor assessments to parse through.
The sheer volume of vendors in play and the length of traditional vendor risk assessments (often hundreds of questions) can make scaling this process feel impossible.
Fortunately, with the right third-party risk tools and strategic vendor risk assessment processes, scaling is very achievable.
4 Steps to Help Organize Vendor Risk Assessments
Here are four practical steps organizations can take to get the data they need to make confident third-party risk decisions — quickly, efficiently, and accurately.
1. Prioritize
Traditionally, many organizations have evaluated all new vendors with the same level of scrutiny. Here’s the issue with this: Not all third-party relationships are the same.
A third-party partner with no access to critical data (such as a catering provider) should not receive the same vendor risk assessment as one with extensive access to critical data (such as a payment processor). Due to the nature of the relationship — and what’s being shared — these two vendors pose a very different level of risk. This is a good thing because it means you don’t have to be equally thorough and meticulous with every vendor.
A Strategic Approach to Vendor Risk Assessments
Prioritize and tier vendors based on the unique risk they each pose to business-critical operations, environments, and data. Third-party risk pros can start by asking the following questions about their network of vendors:
Does this vendor have access to sensitive datasets or internal networks? If so, which ones? What level of access?
If this vendor experienced a breach, what material impact would it have on our business operations?
Is a vendor assessment required by a regulatory body? (e.g., your payment processor must be PCI-DSS certified)
What is the potential financial (and reputational) impact of a third-party breach through this vendor?
Based on those answers, organizations can start more effectively tiering their vendors into the following categories:
Tier 1: Mission Critical
Tier 2: High Risk
Tier 3: Moderate Risk
Tier 4: Low Risk
Think of it this way: If you were a 911 operator who answered two calls, one about a fender-bender and one about a 10-car pileup around the same time, you’d know where to send more resources.
Risk-based tiers are the basis that should dictate all engagement with that vendor — the risk thresholds you’re comfortable with, the compliance levels you require, how often you reassess them, and the level of communication you have with them. With vendors ranked in these risk-based tiers, teams can prioritize their efforts around the third-party partners most critical to their business — and the ones that raise the most red flags regarding potential impact.
That level of prioritization is exactly how organizations can go from treating 10,000 vendors exactly the same (and burning out the team, no matter how large) to using a streamlined team to focus on the riskiest vendors — without incurring unnecessary risk or feeling spread thin.
2. Get Data You Can Trust
In a market where scaling fast is the goal, risk professionals are starting to recognize they need to move away from solely relying on questionnaires. That’s because general questionnaires, which can sometimes have over 300 questions, often result in general (read: unhelpful) responses.
Effective communication with vendors relies instead on obtaining — and sharing — the right data, and only when necessary. Organizations need a source of intelligence they can trust to make better risk decisions, including whether they need to engage the vendor in the first place. For example, if a vendor meets all of your security and compliance requirements and is tiered as a “Moderate Risk” vendor, do you really need to issue them a questionnaire? It depends on your risk appetite, but likely not.
Organizations need a transparent, standards-based cyber ratings platform where they can see for themselves how findings and scores are assembled. That gives teams the reliable, concrete data they need to have meaningful conversations with vendors and collaborate effectively to remediate risk.
Security teams should also consider investing in a third-party risk management (TPRM) tool that provides:
Reports on how to improve risk scores, step-by-step
Identification of specific assets believed to be most at risk
A space for transparent, two-way vendor communication
3. Save Time (and Money) With Automation
Baking in automation is the only way to scale your vendor risk assessment process. Manually sifting through questionnaires is not the solution; it only exhausts resource-constrained risk teams and introduces human error.
Manual vendor risk assessments can take anywhere from two to eight weeks on average. For any other project, that timeframe might be acceptable. But digital threats evolve much faster than that. Within a few weeks, the risk landscape (either yours as an organization or the market’s at large) can undergo a seismic shift that rapidly changes priorities. Whether due to a geopolitical upheaval or a new business expansion strategy, risk doesn’t remain constant.
With the right third-party risk automation tools, teams can reduce assessment cycles from weeks to hours. AI-driven engines can parse complex vendor documents (SOC2 reports, compliance policies, questionnaire responses, and more) and measure compliance with industry-wide frameworks such as NIST 800-53 R5, ISO27001, and more, giving you an immediate view into their risk.
That unlocks the ultimate key to scaling: Finding automated tools your teams can trust to work in the background while they handle more complex risk strategies.
4. Build Relationships with Critical Vendors
Regarding third-party risk, it can be easy for organizations to fall into the trap of only communicating with vendors during procurement and onboarding… and then only if and when an incident occurs. That’s not due to any personal failure but because it can be nearly impossible to effectively communicate with hundreds or thousands of vendors regularly.
With effective prioritization, risk teams can collaborate with vendors rather than having a reactive (and often unnecessarily tense) relationship. They can also minimize the total amount of vendor assessments they need to send — and shorten and focus the ones they do send — all the while better mitigating actual risk.
Double down on the vendors that matter most to your organization’s security, financial health, and business-critical processes. Check in with them on risk and security developments — and identify any shared risks or weaknesses that you might have with each other.
Move Away From the Unscalable
Effective scaling starts with moving away from one-size-fits-all, time-consuming, and manual methods and instead towards:
Upfront risk-based tiering and prioritization of vendors based on their materiality to business operations.
Relying on a trusted data set to inform prioritization and dictate when to engage.
Automation to reduce or eliminate manual questionnaire reviews and unnecessary vendor engagements.
Stronger vendor relationships based on clear, actionable improvement steps.
These pillars make scaling possible and achievable, expanding your team’s reach and allowing you to double down on the value-adding tasks and relationships that matter most. However, all of these vendor risk mitigation strategies rely on one key factor: trustworthy, timely risk data. When organizations have data they can trust, they can prioritize, dial in their risk thresholds, and build out the third-party risk management structure they need to move ahead with confidence.
Scaling vendor risk assessments doesn’t have to feel impossible. With the right tools and processes, organizations can unlock efficiencies, strengthen their vendor relationships, and improve their overall risk posture. Black Kite Bridge™ makes collaboration easier by providing the trusted data and communication capabilities needed to drive faster, more meaningful vendor engagements.
Welcome to this week’s Focus Friday blog! As the cybersecurity landscape evolves, organizations are tasked with managing an ever-growing array of threats, especially within their vendor ecosystems. Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) professionals play a crucial role in safeguarding operations against vulnerabilities that could ripple through the supply chain. This week, we delve into three critical vulnerabilities affecting Qlik Sense Enterprise, Cleo File Transfer software, and SAP NetWeaver JAVA. Each of these incidents highlights the importance of proactive risk management and showcases how Black Kite’s FocusTags™ empower organizations to stay ahead of emerging threats.
Filtered view of companies with Qlik Sense Enterprise FocusTag™ on the Black Kite platform.
CVE-2024-55579 and CVE-2024-55580: Critical Vulnerabilities in Qlik Sense Enterprise
What are the vulnerabilities in Qlik Sense Enterprise?
Qlik Sense Enterprise for Windows has been identified with two critical vulnerabilities:
CVE-2024-55579 vulnerability allows unprivileged users with network access to create connection objects that can trigger the execution of arbitrary executable files on the Qlik Sense server. It has a CVSS score of 8.8, indicating high severity. CVE-2024-55580: This flaw enables unprivileged users with network access to execute remote commands, potentially causing significant impacts on system availability, integrity, and confidentiality. It carries a CVSS score of 7.5.
Both vulnerabilities were publicly disclosed on December 8, 2024. As of now, there is no evidence of active exploitation in the wild, and they have not been added to CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. Qlik has released security patches to address these issues and strongly advises immediate application to mitigate associated risks.
Why should TPRM professionals be concerned about these vulnerabilities?
Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) professionals should be vigilant regarding these vulnerabilities due to the following reasons:
Data Compromise: Exploitation could lead to unauthorized access and manipulation of sensitive data, undermining data integrity and confidentiality.
Operational Disruption: Successful attacks may disrupt business intelligence operations, affecting decision-making processes and overall business performance.
Supply Chain Risk: If vendors or partners utilize Qlik Sense Enterprise, their vulnerabilities could cascade, impacting your organization’s security posture.
What questions should TPRM professionals ask vendors regarding these vulnerabilities?
To assess and mitigate risks associated with these vulnerabilities, consider posing the following questions to your vendors:
Have you updated all instances of Qlik Sense Enterprise for Windows to the latest patched version to mitigate the risk of CVE-2024-55579 and CVE-2024-55580?
Can you confirm if you have implemented the workaround provided in Qlik’s advisory to ensure proper functionality of all extensions and visualizations post-update?
Have you restricted network access to trusted users to minimize unauthorized exploitation of the vulnerabilities CVE-2024-55579 and CVE-2024-55580?
Are you continuously monitoring your network traffic to detect unusual activity and mitigate potential exploitation attempts related to the vulnerabilities CVE-2024-55579 and CVE-2024-55580?
Remediation recommendations for vendors affected by these vulnerabilities
Vendors utilizing Qlik Sense Enterprise should implement the following remediation steps:
Immediate Patching: Apply the latest security patches released by Qlik for Qlik Sense Enterprise for Windows.
Access Control Review: Ensure that only authorized users have network access to Qlik Sense servers, adhering to the principle of least privilege.
Monitoring and Detection: Implement monitoring solutions to detect any anomalous activities indicative of exploitation attempts.
Incident Response Preparedness: Develop and test incident response plans specifically addressing potential exploitation of these vulnerabilities.
How can TPRM professionals leverage Black Kite’s FocusTagsTM regarding these vulnerabilities?
Black Kite has issued a FocusTag™ for Qlik Sense Enterprise, enabling TPRM professionals to:
Identify At-Risk Vendors: Determine which vendors may be affected by these vulnerabilities.
Access Vulnerable Asset Information: Obtain details about specific assets, such as IP addresses and subdomains, that could be compromised.
Prioritize Risk Mitigation: Focus efforts on vendors with the highest risk exposure, streamlining the remediation process.
Black Kite’s Qlik Sense Enterprise FocusTagTM details critical insights on the event for TPRM professionals.
CVE-2024-50623: Remote Code Execution Vulnerability in Cleo File Transfer Software
What is the Remote Code Execution Vulnerability in Cleo File Transfer Software?
CVE-2024-50623 is a high-severity unrestricted file upload and download vulnerability affecting Cleo’s file transfer products: Harmony®, VLTrader®, and LexiCom®, in versions prior to 5.8.0.21. This flaw allows attackers to upload malicious files to the software’s autorun directory, which are then automatically executed, enabling remote code execution. The vulnerability has a CVSS score of 8.8. It was publicly disclosed on December 10, 2024. PoC exploit code is available, and active exploitation has been observed in the wild, notably by the Termite ransomware group targeting sectors such as logistics, shipping, and consumer products. As of now, this vulnerability has not been added to CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
We published an article on December 11, 2024, stating that the Cleo vulnerability (CVE-2024-50623) was actively exploited by ransomware groups. You can find more details in the related blog post.
Why should TPRM professionals be concerned about this vulnerability?
Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) professionals should be attentive to this vulnerability due to its potential impact on data integrity and operational continuity. Exploitation can lead to unauthorized access and control over systems, resulting in data breaches, service disruptions, and propagation of malware across networks. Given the widespread use of Cleo’s file transfer solutions among vendors and partners, this vulnerability poses a significant supply chain risk, potentially affecting interconnected systems and data exchanges.
What questions should TPRM professionals ask vendors regarding this vulnerability?
To assess and mitigate risks associated with CVE-2024-50623, TPRM professionals should inquire:
Have you identified any instances of CVE-2024-50623 within your systems?
Have you applied the security patches provided by Cleo to address this vulnerability?
What measures are in place to detect and prevent exploitation attempts related to this vulnerability?
How do you ensure that your use of Cleo’s file transfer software does not introduce security risks to our organization?
Remediation recommendations for vendors affected by this vulnerability
Vendors utilizing Cleo’s file transfer products should implement the following remediation steps:
Immediate Software Update: Upgrade all instances of Cleo Harmony®, VLTrader®, and LexiCom® to version 5.8.0.21 or later to mitigate the vulnerability.
Disable Autorun Functionality: Access the “Configure” menu in the software, select “Options,” navigate to the “Other” pane, and clear the contents of the “Autorun Directory” field to prevent automatic execution of files.
Place Systems Behind a Firewall: Ensure internet-facing Cleo systems are placed behind a firewall to limit exposure to potential attacks.
Monitor for Indicators of Compromise (IOCs): Check for suspicious IPs and suspicious files, such as main.xml or 60282967-dc91-40ef-a34c-38e992509c2c.xml, which may contain encoded malicious commands.
Implement Strong Security Practices: Enforce strong, unique passwords and enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) to enhance security.
How can TPRM professionals leverage Black Kite’s FocusTagsTM regarding this vulnerability?
Black Kite has issued a FocusTag™ for Cleo File Transfer, enabling TPRM professionals to:
Identify At-Risk Vendors: Determine which vendors may be affected by CVE-2024-50623.
Access Vulnerable Asset Information: Obtain details about specific assets, such as IP addresses and subdomains, that could be compromised.
Prioritize Risk Mitigation: Focus efforts on vendors with the highest risk exposure, streamlining the remediation process.
Black Kite’s Cleo File Transfer FocusTagTM details critical insights on the event for TPRM professionals.
CVE-2024-47578: Server-Side Request Forgery Vulnerability in SAP NetWeaver AS for JAVA
What is the SAP NetWeaver AS for JAVA SSRF Vulnerability?
CVE-2024-47578 is a critical Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability in SAP NetWeaver AS for JAVA, specifically within the Adobe Document Services component. An attacker with administrator privileges can exploit this flaw by sending crafted requests from a vulnerable web application, targeting internal systems behind firewalls that are typically inaccessible from external networks. Successful exploitation enables the attacker to read or modify any file and potentially render the entire system unavailable. It has a CVSS score of 9.1, indicating critical severity. SAP has released a security patch addressing this vulnerability and strongly recommends immediate application to mitigate associated risks.
Why should TPRM professionals be concerned about this vulnerability?
Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) professionals should be concerned about CVE-2024-47578 due to its potential to compromise data confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Exploitation of this vulnerability can lead to unauthorized access to sensitive information and disruption of critical business operations. Given the widespread use of SAP NetWeaver AS for JAVA among vendors, this vulnerability poses a significant risk to the supply chain, potentially affecting interconnected systems and data exchanges.
What questions should TPRM professionals ask vendors regarding this vulnerability?
To assess and mitigate risks associated with CVE-2024-47578, TPRM professionals should inquire:
Have you updated all instances of SAP NetWeaver AS for JAVA (Adobe Document Services) to the latest version as per SAP Security Note 3536965 to mitigate the risk of CVE-2024-47578, CVE-2024-47579, and CVE-2024-47580?
Can you confirm if you have restricted administrative access to essential personnel only and enforced the principle of least privilege to prevent potential exploitation of the Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability in SAP NetWeaver AS for JAVA?
What specific measures have you implemented to monitor network traffic and detect suspicious activities that could indicate an exploitation of the vulnerabilities CVE-2024-47579 and CVE-2024-47580, which allow access to sensitive server files through exposed web services?
Can you confirm if you have reviewed and updated your firewall configurations to ensure that internal systems are appropriately segmented and protected from unauthorized access, specifically in relation to the SSRF vulnerability CVE-2024-47578 in SAP NetWeaver AS for JAVA?
Remediation recommendations for vendors affected by this vulnerability
Vendors utilizing SAP NetWeaver AS for JAVA should implement the following remediation steps:
Immediate Software Update: Apply the security patch provided by SAP as per SAP Security Note 3536965 to address the vulnerability.
Restrict Administrative Access: Limit administrative privileges to essential personnel and enforce the principle of least privilege.
Monitor Network Traffic: Implement monitoring to detect and respond to suspicious activities promptly.
Review Firewall Configurations: Ensure that internal systems are appropriately segmented and protected from unauthorized access.
How can TPRM professionals leverage Black Kite’s FocusTagsTM regarding this vulnerability?
Black Kite has issued a FocusTag™ for SAP NetWeaver, enabling TPRM professionals to:
Identify At-Risk Vendors: Determine which vendors may be affected by CVE-2024-47578.
Access Vulnerable Asset Information: Obtain details about specific assets, such as IP addresses and subdomains, that could be compromised.
Prioritize Risk Mitigation: Focus efforts on vendors with the highest risk exposure, streamlining the remediation process.
Black Kite’s SAP NetWeaver JAVA FocusTagTM details critical insights on the event for TPRM professionals.
Enhancing TPRM Strategies with Black Kite’s FocusTags™
In today’s dynamic cybersecurity environment, managing third-party risks requires precision and timely intelligence. Black Kite’s FocusTags™ are an indispensable tool for organizations navigating critical vulnerabilities like those in Qlik Sense Enterprise, Cleo File Transfer, and SAP NetWeaver JAVA. These tags are designed to provide:
Real-Time Risk Insights: Quickly identify vendors impacted by specific vulnerabilities, enabling immediate action.
Targeted Prioritization: Focus efforts on high-severity vulnerabilities and vendors most critical to your operations.
Tailored Vendor Communication: Facilitate targeted discussions with vendors, addressing their specific security measures and vulnerabilities.
Comprehensive Threat Visibility: Gain a holistic view of the threat landscape, empowering more strategic decision-making.
Black Kite’s FocusTags™ transform complex cybersecurity challenges into actionable intelligence, allowing TPRM professionals to mitigate risks efficiently and strengthen overall security. By leveraging these insights, organizations can proactively address vulnerabilities, ensuring resilience in an ever-evolving threat landscape.
About Focus Friday
Every week, we delve into the realms of critical vulnerabilities and their implications from a Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) perspective. This series is dedicated to shedding light on pressing cybersecurity threats, offering in-depth analyses, and providing actionable insights.
FocusTagsTM in the Last 30 Days:
Qlik Sense Enterprise: CVE-2024-55579, CVE-2024-55580, Arbitrary EXE Execution Vulnerability Remote Code Execution Vulnerability in Qlik Sense Enterprise.
Cleo File Transfer: Remote Code Execution Vulnerability, Unrestricted File Upload and Download Vulnerability in Cleo Harmony, VLTrader, LexiCom.
SAP NetWeaver JAVA: CVE-2024-47578, Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) Vulnerability in SAP NetWeaver AS for JAVA (Adobe Document Services).
PAN-OS: CVE-2024-0012, CVE-2024-9474, Authentication Bypass Vulnerability and Privilege Escalation Vulnerability in Palo Alto’s PAN-OS.
PostgreSQL: CVE-2024-10979, Arbitrary Code Execution Vulnerability in PostgreSQL.
Apache Airflow: CVE-2024-45784, Debug Messages Revealing Unnecessary Information in Apache Airflow.
Atlassian Jira: CVE-2021-26086, Path Traversal Vulnerability in Atlassian Jira Server and Data Center.
Ivanti Connect Secure: CVE-2024-9420, CVE-2024-47906, CVE-2024-38655, CVE-2024-38656, CVE-2024-39710, CVE-2024-11007, CVE-2024-11006, CVE-2024-11005, and CVE-2024-11004, Use-After-Free, Stack-Based Buffer Overflow, Argument Injection, and Reflected XSS Vulnerabilities in Ivanti Connect Secure.
Has your vacation ever been interrupted by a ransomware incident? Mine was.
It was Thanksgiving week, and I had promised myself a break—a chance to recharge, disconnect, and enjoy time with my family in Florida. For once, I left my laptop behind. That plan didn’t last long. One morning, while watching the sunrise, messages started pouring in: Blue Yonder, a key supply chain provider for major retailers like Starbucks and Sainsbury’s, had been hit by a ransomware attack.
Black Kite customers can see where Blue Yonder affects its nth-party vendors in our Supply Chain module.
As a TPRM professional, I knew what this meant—ripples of disruption across countless interconnected businesses. Even on vacation, there’s no “off button” when it comes to managing third-party risks. I immediately reached out to the Black Kite Research and Intelligence Team (BRITE) that I lead. From my phone, I watched our team spring into action. Within hours, we had developed and delivered actionable insights, helping our clients assess their exposure and understand the downstream risks.
This incident drove home a critical truth:
In today’s hyperconnected world, supply chain risk isn’t something you can leave behind—even on vacation. It’s about more managing vendors; it’s about having the tools and intelligence to act quickly when cascading risks emerge.
In this blog, we’ll dive into the Blue Yonder ransomware attack, the rise of groups like Termite, and why new ransomware groups keep appearing. More importantly, we’ll explore how you can stay one step ahead in managing third-party and supply chain risks—so you don’t lose sleep, or your vacation, over the next big breach.
What Happened: The Blue Yonder Ransomware Incident
It started with an attack highlighting the growing risks in supply chain dependencies. On November 21, 2024, Blue Yonder—a key supply chain provider for global brands like Starbucks, Sainsbury’s, and Morrisons—fell victim to a ransomware attack. The impact rippled quickly, disrupting services many businesses relied on to manage employee schedules, warehouse operations, and supply chain logistics. For some, the fallout meant immediate operational delays; for others, it meant grappling with manual workarounds as they scrambled to keep shelves stocked and orders moving.
The group behind the attack, known as Termite, claimed responsibility a few days later, boasting about exfiltrating 680GB of data. Their dark web blog would later confirm the data breach, listing everything from internal emails to sensitive insurance documents. For Blue Yonder’s clients, this wasn’t just a vendor issue—it was a business continuity crisis.
Meanwhile, our team at Black Kite moved quickly, leveraging our intelligence capabilities to identify impacted companies and guide them through their response.
Here’s how the incident unfolded:
November 21, 2024: Blue Yonder detected a ransomware attack targeting its managed services, disrupting key supply chain operations.
November 25, 2024: Media reports surfaced, revealing the widespread impact on businesses dependent on Blue Yonder.
November 27, 2024: Black Kite issued a FocusTag, providing customers with actionable intelligence to assess risks and engage with their vendors.
December 6, 2024: Termite published stolen data on their leak site, confirming the scale of the breach.
December 10, 2024: A vulnerability in Cleo file transfer software (CVE-2024-50623), linked to the attack, was disclosed. Black Kite issued another FocusTag to address this emerging risk.
The incident wasn’t just about Blue Yonder. It exposed how a single breach in the supply chain can snowball, impacting industries, businesses, and consumers alike. For those of us in the third-party risk management (TPRM) community, it’s a stark reminder:
Understanding your vendor relationships isn’t enough. You need to understand how their vulnerabilities can become your vulnerabilities.
This brings us to the bigger question: what does this mean for the TPRM and supply chain risk management community?
Why This Matters for the TPRM Community
The Blue Yonder ransomware attack exposed a crucial challenge for the TPRM community: understanding not just your vendors, but your vendors’ vendors. The ripple effects of this incident weren’t limited to companies directly relying on Blue Yonder’s supply chain solutions. Any organization whose third parties depended on Blue Yonder faced disruptions, even if they didn’t realize the connection beforehand.
This interconnected nature of modern supply chains creates risks that are often hidden until a breach occurs. Many organizations struggle with mapping these dependencies, leaving critical gaps in their risk management strategies. The Blue Yonder incident illustrates why knowing who is at risk is as important as knowing how the risk manifests.
Black Kite Supply Chain Module showing the concentration risk for Blue Yonder for a Black Kite customer.
For the TPRM community, this event highlights a few key lessons:
Supply Chain Depth Matters: Risk doesn’t stop at your direct vendors. Businesses need to look deeper into their supply chains to identify dependencies and assess potential exposure.
Hidden Vulnerabilities Multiply Risks: A vendor may seem low-risk on the surface, but its reliance on another compromised provider can bring unexpected consequences. The cascading nature of the Blue Yonder attack demonstrates how quickly these vulnerabilities can escalate.
Targeting the Supply Chain: Ransomware groups are increasingly focused on supply chains because of the widespread impact they can achieve. The more connected an ecosystem is, the greater the potential for disruption.
Understanding these layers of risk is no longer optional. It’s essential for protecting operations and mitigating the fallout of third-party incidents. While assessing direct vendors is critical, a comprehensive approach to supply chain risk must go further, examining the relationships and dependencies that sit just below the surface.
The question for the TPRM community isn’t whether your organization is prepared to respond—it’s whether you know where to look before the next attack lands.
Understanding the risk is only part of the equation. To truly prepare, we need to understand the attackers themselves—who they are, how they operate, and why new ransomware groups seem to emerge every other week.
The Rise of Termite: A New Player in the Ransomware Ecosystem
Who is the Termite Ransomware Group?
Termite is a relatively new player in the ransomware ecosystem, but their operations suggest a group with significant capability and intent. They’ve already targeted industries spanning logistics, manufacturing, retail, and public services, with victims reported across North America, Europe, and Asia. Their choice of targets reflects a deliberate focus on high-impact sectors, particularly those integral to supply chains.
Termite Ransomware Group’s dark web main page, showing the alleged victims.
Interestingly, Termite has publicly announced only seven victims on their dark web leak site. However, the true number of organizations affected remains unknown. Ransomware groups often withhold some victims from public disclosure, either because negotiations are ongoing or because the victims have paid the ransom. This lack of transparency leaves a significant gap in understanding the full scale of Termite’s impact.
Termite Ransomware Group’s dark web Support Page.
What sets Termite apart is their use of ransomware closely resembling the Babuk family. Babuk, infamous for its efficient encryption and focus on industrial and supply chain sectors, had its source code leaked in mid-2021. Elements of Babuk’s methodology have since surfaced in various ransomware operations, and Termite appears to have adopted and refined these techniques.
By leveraging Babuk’s leaked code, Termite has likely reduced their development overhead, allowing them to scale their operations more efficiently while avoiding significant technical pitfalls.
How They Operate: Insights into Termite’s Tactics
While Termite’s full operational methods remain under investigation, certain tactics have been observed or suggested by researchers:
Critical Vulnerabilities:
Termite has exploited CVE-2024-50623, a vulnerability in Cleo Harmony, VLTrader, and LexiCom. This flaw allows remote code execution through unrestricted file uploads, enabling attackers to place malicious files in the autorun directory for automatic execution. This vulnerability has been observed in attacks targeting industries heavily reliant on file transfer systems.
Indicators of Compromise (IoCs):
IoCs associated with Termite have been published on platforms like VirusTotal, highlighting suspicious files and network activity. These include patterns of encoded malicious payloads and reconnaissance tools used for privilege escalation and lateral movement.
IoC details on VirusTotal for Termite Ransomware.
Additionally, researchers have speculated about inaccessible or outdated Fortinet VPN servers playing a role in Termite’s targeting, but this remains unverified and should be interpreted cautiously.
By focusing on unpatched vulnerabilities in critical systems, Termite has shown a strategic approach to targeting organizations with exploitable weaknesses, amplifying their impact across supply chains and interconnected networks.
Analyzing the Victims: Patterns Behind the Targets
When we examined the organizations impacted by Termite, a clear pattern emerged. These weren’t random attacks—they were calculated, deliberate strikes against companies with visible weaknesses. While we can’t confirm the exact vulnerabilities exploited, the signs of trouble were there well before the ransomware hit.
What did we find? Three factors stood out:
Critical Vulnerabilities: ALL victims had critical vulnerabilities, including some listed in CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. These are the kinds of vulnerabilities that make organizations stand out to attackers—visible, exploitable, and often overlooked.
Leaked Credentials: In almost every case, we found fresh credentials—leaked within the last 90 days—circulating on dark web forums. Attackers don’t need advanced tools when they can simply log in with exposed passwords.
Stealer Logs: Multiple victims were flagged in stealer logs, indicating malware infections that had already siphoned sensitive data like passwords, cookies, or session tokens. It’s like leaving the front door open in a neighborhood known for burglaries.
What this tells us is simple: these companies were sending the wrong signals to attackers. They didn’t just have vulnerabilities—they had vulnerabilities that attackers look for.
The Role of RSI: Turning Risk into Action
This is where the Ransomware Susceptibility Index (RSI) comes in. As one of the co-inventors of the methodology, I take great pride in how it helps organizations see what attackers see. RSI isn’t just a number—it’s a reflection of how attractive a company looks to a ransomware group.
RSI values of Termite Ransomware victims before they experienced the ransomware incident indicate they were “juicy targets.”
Ransomware, in general, is a rare event. Fewer than 10,000 companies worldwide have ever experienced a successful ransomware attack. That’s a tiny fraction when you consider the millions of businesses out there.
But here’s the catch: for certain companies, the odds are much higher. A high-impact company in a highly regulated industry located in a wealthy country and with visible weaknesses—what I like to call a “juicy target”—isn’t operating in the same reality as a well-fortified business. RSI captures this difference.
Power of RSI based on analysis over 4,700 ransomware victims and 250,000 non-victims.
When we talk to our customers, we emphasize that an RSI value of 0.4 is the critical threshold. Above that, the risk isn’t something you can ignore. It’s a warning sign, flashing like a beacon in the dark web where ransomware groups lurk looking for their next victim. In fact, nearly half of companies with an RSI above 0.8 become victims. In a world where ransomware is supposed to be rare, those numbers are staggering. They tell us that the risk isn’t random—it’s predictable. And the companies that don’t heed it? They’re the ones we often end up seeing in headlines.
This isn’t just a lesson for the companies impacted by Termite. It’s a lesson for anyone who thinks their risk ends at their firewalls. Understanding your vulnerabilities—and how they look to attackers—isn’t just smart; it’s necessary.
A Changing Ecosystem: The Proliferation of Ransomware Groups
One striking trend in the ransomware ecosystem is the rapid emergence of new groups. Every few weeks, a new group launches its dark web blog, often debuting with dozens of victims already listed. Termite is part of this wave.
This shift can be attributed to the collapse or rebranding of major groups like AlphV and LockBit. Some affiliates have pivoted to becoming operators themselves, while others may be remnants of older groups operating under new names. This churn creates instability in the ecosystem, but it also signals a growing sophistication among attackers. Groups like Termite are leveraging mature tactics—such as exploiting software vulnerabilities and maximizing supply chain impact—to establish themselves quickly.
Understanding this evolving ecosystem is critical for the TPRM community. It’s not just about tracking known ransomware groups—it’s about anticipating the next wave before it arrives.
How TPRM Professionals Should Respond
Events like the Blue Yonder ransomware attack highlight a key challenge in third-party risk management: the need for timely, actionable insights without overwhelming vendors. While asking questions is necessary, it’s equally important to recognize the burden vendors face when multiple clients demand answers during a crisis. A more proactive process using tools to identify potential risks and ransomware indicators and limit outreach to the most critical vendors help you to prioritize actions that will have the biggest impact.
Balancing the Need for Answers with Vendor Empathy
When incidents occur, vendors often receive identical questionnaires from several clients. This creates frustration, delays, and the potential for incomplete or rushed responses. To minimize this strain, TPRM professionals should focus on targeted, relevant questions and approach vendors with empathy. Acknowledging the challenges they face can lead to better collaboration and more accurate insights.
When reaching out to vendors, consider framing your questions with transparency and understanding:
“We understand you’re receiving inquiries from multiple clients during this challenging time. To help us assess any potential risks, could you share insights specific to your relationship with Blue Yonder?”
Key Questions to Ask
When reaching out to vendors, focus on gathering the most critical information to assess your exposure:
Have you used Blue Yonder’s services recently or currently? If so, which ones?
Have you experienced any disruptions related to Blue Yonder’s recent ransomware incident?
Have you conducted a review of your systems for Indicators of Compromise (IoCs) linked to the Blue Yonder attack?
What contingency measures are in place if Blue Yonder’s services are further disrupted?
Actions to Take When a Vendor Relies on Blue Yonder
If a vendor confirms reliance on Blue Yonder, consider the following steps:
Open Communication: Request regular updates about the vendor’s remediation efforts and the potential impact on your operations.
Collaborate on Mitigation: Work with the vendor to identify practical steps to reduce risks, such as reviewing affected systems or implementing additional controls.
Review Agreements: Examine contracts and SLAs to understand the vendor’s obligations during service disruptions and how they’re addressing them.
Encourage Contingency Planning: If not already in place, suggest backup plans or alternative solutions for services dependent on Blue Yonder.
Can We Be More Proactive?
Proactivity in TPRM is no longer a luxury; it’s a necessity. With tools like digital footprints, supply chain visibility maps, and third-party intelligence, TPRM professionals can identify potential risks before they become immediate threats.
For instance, instead of waiting for a vendor to disclose their relationship with Blue Yonder, professionals can use external intelligence to identify those connections proactively. By analyzing subdomains, IP address allocations, and other open-source data, you can create a clearer picture of your supply chain dependencies without relying solely on vendor responses.
Furthermore, proactive risk monitoring with methodologies like the Ransomware Susceptibility Index (RSI) can identify which vendors in your ecosystem are most at risk of ransomware attacks. This allows you to prioritize preemptive actions, such as targeted security reviews or recommending specific mitigations to vulnerable vendors.
In the end, visibility is key. You can’t secure what you can’t see, and understanding the web of relationships within your supply chain is essential for protecting your organization in a world where third-party incidents are becoming the norm.
Recognizing Questionnaire Fatigue
Proactive intelligence also reduces questionnaire fatigue on the vendor’s side. By knowing who is likely affected, you can limit outreach to only those vendors where risk is most apparent. This helps maintain trust and collaboration, ensuring that vendors don’t feel overwhelmed or undervalued.
The balance between asking questions and showing empathy is critical. Vendors are your partners in the supply chain, and their resilience is tied to yours. By taking a thoughtful, data-driven approach, TPRM professionals can build stronger relationships while protecting their organizations from cascading risks.
Operationalizing Intelligence: FocusTags for Blue Yonder and Cleo Vulnerability
Blue Yonder Client FocusTag™
When the Blue Yonder ransomware incident unfolded, the critical challenge for organizations was determining their exposure. Identifying whether vendors relied on Blue Yonder’s services—or were indirectly impacted—wasn’t always clear. To bridge this gap, we released the Blue Yonder Client FocusTag on November 27, just days after the incident entered the public domain.
Black Kite’s Blue Yonder Client FocusTag™ details.
How We Identified Blue Yonder Clients
To create the Blue Yonder FocusTag™, we relied on a comprehensive methodology rooted in publicly available information and open-source intelligence (OSINT). Our approach included:
Blue Yonder’s Own Website and Customer Testimonials:
We reviewed case studies, customer testimonials, and success stories published by Blue Yonder to identify companies explicitly listed as clients. These firsthand sources provided strong indicators of relationships with Blue Yonder’s services.
Cybersecurity News and Public Reports:
By analyzing industry-specific news and public reports about the Blue Yonder incident, we identified companies that were mentioned as impacted or associated with Blue Yonder’s services. Press releases and investigative journalism often provide critical clues in these scenarios.
Job Postings:
Job descriptions and postings from various companies mentioning Blue Yonder skills or systems were another valuable source. These postings often indicate active or recent use of Blue Yonder’s solutions.
Transparency Through Confidence Levels
We understand that no intelligence process is perfect, which is why transparency is at the heart of every FocusTag™. For the Blue Yonder Client FocusTag™, we provided a confidence level based on the strength and reliability of our sources:
Very High confidence when derived from direct evidence such as Blue Yonder’s own materials or official testimonials.
High confidence for cases where vendor relationships were inferred from multiple direct and indirect sources like news or job postings in high volume.
Medium confidence for cases where vendor relationships were inferred from indirect sources like news or job postings.
This transparency allows our customers to prioritize their actions based on the reliability of the information. By knowing how we reached our conclusions, customers can better align their response strategies.
How Customers Operationalized the Blue Yonder FocusTag™
The FocusTag™ gave our customers a head start in managing risks related to the Blue Yonder incident. Here’s how they operationalized it:
Targeted Vendor Outreach: By filtering monitored vendors tagged with the Blue Yonder FocusTag™, customers could prioritize outreach to those potentially impacted. The confidence level provided clarity, helping them decide where to focus their efforts first.
Initiating Outreach Campaigns with Black Kite Bridge: Many customers used Black Kite Bridge™ to streamline their communication with vendors identified as susceptible to the Blue Yonder incident. Through Bridge, they launched outreach campaigns directly from the platform, requesting information or actions related to risk mitigation. This simplified the process, reducing time and effort while ensuring consistent communication.
SOC Integration: Security Operations Centers (SOCs) used the FocusTag™ to identify potential risks in their networks, cross-referencing IoCs linked to the Blue Yonder attack.
Investigating Concentration Risk with the Supply Chain Module: Customers leveraged the Black Kite Supply Chain module to assess their overall risk exposure, identifying the concentration of dependencies on Blue Yonder across their vendor ecosystem. This added layer of analysis helped them understand the broader implications of the incident and prepare for potential cascading effects.
Risk Mitigation: Armed with evidence from the tag, customers engaged vendors to verify their exposure and implement mitigation measures.
Customer Feedback on the Blue Yonder FocusTag™
The response from customers was overwhelmingly positive. Many noted that the FocusTag™ provided actionable insights faster than the disclosures from Blue Yonder or the impacted vendors. One customer shared how the tag helped their SOC team discover potential risks in their network, while others appreciated the speed and clarity of the intelligence, allowing them to act with precision during a chaotic event.
The addition of tools like Black Kite BridgeTM and the Supply Chain module further enhanced their ability to respond effectively. Bridge streamlined outreach, allowing customers to communicate with vendors quickly and consistently. The Supply Chain module provided critical insights into systemic risks, helping customers not just react but plan for similar incidents in the future.
The feedback reinforced the importance of timely, precise intelligence in third-party risk management, especially during fast-moving incidents like this one.
Cleo File Transfer FocusTag™
Another critical risk emerged after the Blue Yonder incident: the vulnerability in Cleo Harmony, VLTrader, and LexiCom (CVE-2024-50623). Cleo’s prominence in supply chain operations made this flaw a significant threat. Researchers have also suggested that Termite might be actively exploiting this vulnerability, further elevating its risk profile. To address it, we released the Cleo File Transfer FocusTag™ on December 10, providing actionable intelligence to our customers.
Black Kite’s CLEO File Transfer FocusTag™ details.
Identifying Risk from the Cleo Vulnerability
We used open-source intelligence (OSINT) and digital footprint analysis to pinpoint companies potentially exposed to this vulnerability. By analyzing public-facing IT asset details, we identified over 2,000 assets running vulnerable versions of Cleo products. This level of specificity—down to the exact IT asset and version—elevated the confidence level of this FocusTag to Very High.
The intelligence drew parallels to the infamous MOVEit vulnerability exploited by the Cl0p ransomware group in 2023. Like MOVEit, Cleo’s vulnerability allowed unauthorized file uploads and remote code execution, making it an attractive target for sophisticated threat actors.
How Customers Use the Cleo File Transfer FocusTag™
The Cleo FocusTag™ equipped our customers with actionable intelligence, eliminating the need for traditional vendor questionnaires. Instead of asking vendors if they used Cleo products, customers could share detailed risk intelligence, including:
The specific IT assets and versions running Cleo software.
Recommended actions for immediate remediation, such as patching to the latest version or disabling autorun functionality.
This intelligence was appreciated not only by customers but also by their vendors, who now had a clear understanding of the risk and steps to address it.
Tracking Remediations with Black Kite BridgeTM
Black Kite Bridge™ further streamlined the remediation process. Customers used Bridge™ to:
Share Intelligence: Instead of sending questionnaires, customers shared detailed FocusTag™ intelligence with vendors, saving time and reducing vendor fatigue.
Monitor Progress: Bridge allowed customers to track remediation efforts, such as patching and configuration changes, without repeated follow-ups.
By removing the guesswork from vendor communications, Black Kite Bridge™ ensures a more efficient and collaborative approach to managing risks.
Behind the Scenes: Making Critical Intelligence Possible
As I reflect on the Blue Yonder incident and the subsequent Cleo vulnerability, I’m reminded of the incredible teamwork and dedication that went into delivering timely, actionable intelligence to our customers. This level of service—anticipating risks, providing precise insights, and enabling proactive measures—doesn’t happen by chance. It’s the result of a collective effort across multiple teams.
The Black Kite Research and Intelligence Team (BRITE) works tirelessly to analyze data, identify patterns, and craft FocusTags that offer clarity during uncertainty. Their expertise turns chaos into actionable insights.
But BRITE isn’t alone in this effort. Our Customer Success and Customer Support teams ensure that every customer has the guidance they need to operationalize this intelligence. Whether through Black Kite Bridge, the Supply Chain module, or one-on-one support, they help customers turn risk awareness into effective action.
The Black Kite Product and Development teams deserve equal credit. Their work makes tools like FocusTags, Bridge, and our digital footprint capabilities possible, allowing us to deliver intelligence with precision and confidence.
These incidents are a reminder of the complexity and interconnectedness of today’s supply chains. But they’re also a testament to what’s possible when we combine cutting-edge technology with human expertise. As ransomware groups evolve, so must we. And thanks to the efforts of everyone involved, our customers are better equipped to navigate these challenges and protect their businesses.
At Black Kite, we don’t just provide intelligence—we empower action. And in moments like these, I couldn’t be prouder of the team that makes it all possible.
Effective risk reduction cannot and should not be a solo mission. But when vendors get inundated by an avalanche of security requests, that’s exactly what it can feel like.
In an ideal world, handling security requests should be teamwork between companies and vendors. In the real world, it can be an extremely awkward situation where each party does a lot of finger-pointing, and not much constructive collaboration happens.
At Black Kite, we know how frustrating this type of situation can be. After all, we’re on both sides of this equation – both a user of vendors and a vendor ourselves.
That’s (part of) why we’ve established a list of quick-hit security and compliance strategies vendors can implement to have more successful long-term relationships with their customers.
4 key strategies to better manage customer security requests
1. Get involved in early sales conversations
Don’t let security assessments be the last checkbox before a deal closes. Because (as you know) it’s not as simple as checking a box — it is often time-consuming, frustrating, and slows down important decisions. Instead, vendor security teams can collaborate with sales teams to proactively open up security conversations.
To help sales feel equipped for these conversations, vendors can:
Train their sales organization. It’s important that sales feels well-equipped to talk about security, at least at a high level, if they’re going to bring it up with leads. Guide them with educational sessions, info decks, or even a simple lunch and learn so they can speak to security conversations with a foundation of knowledge. They should know what compliance frameworks you follow or have certifications from, where your Trust Center lives (and what’s inside it), and how to answer basic questions about security, like “Do you use MFA?”
Frame security as part of the product. Sales teams are naturally focused on selling your product. Emphasize that security processes and protocols are an essential part of your product, and you may see less friction down the line.
2. Guide security conversations with relevant intelligence
Few things are more frustrating than when security conversations happen in a recursive loop. Often, these circular conversations result from a lack of clear information about your risk status and security posture.
Vendors can get ahead of this by guiding security conversations with evidence of their security postures. Sharing IT security plans, compliance reports, and external security assessments proactively can reduce the number of irrelevant or redundant questions coming your way. At the very least, being prepared this way will help you get through questionnaires quicker.
Vendor teams can lead security conversations best by:
Bringing reliable, useful, and timely security data to the table
Providing context on how you address vulnerabilities and real-world threats
Being transparent about your internal security practices
Ultimately, it’s about sharing information that demonstrates to the prospect or customer that you take security seriously.
3. Establish a source-of-truth status page
Incidents happen, and when they do, it can be very stressful for your team. What makes it even more stressful is combing through hundreds of emails from customers asking you about a situation that you’re already dealing with.
Vendors need a streamlined way to communicate with customers while focusing on incident remediation. Here’s a nimble approach: Build out a status page.
Vendors know that they have an obligation to share information on incidents when they happen. However, the number one goalduring every event is to prevent losses, recover assets, and contain the threat. That means it’s neither productive nor possible to issue post-mortems on incidents while they’re still actively happening.
A well-maintained and updated status page can go a long way. Instead of directly responding to thousands of customers during an incident, vendors can simply redirect customers to the information they need in a centralized, organized place.
That frees up time and resources to tackle the most pressing priorities: Containing and remediating the incident.
4. Share critical insights on a trust center
Ultimately, the more proactive vendors can be about their security and compliance status, the smoother security conversations with prospects and customers will go, leading to fewer unnecessary security requests and better collaboration.
Vendors can be clearly and publicly vocal about their dedication to security by building a digital trust center. This centralized resource ideally hosts critical security and privacy documents, ready to download and view with just a few clicks. It can also be a convenient location for artifacts customers typically ask for during assessments and security requests.
A robust trust center should include:
Materials often requested in assessments (e.g., descriptions of information security processes)
Summaries of pen tests and audit results
Public versions of compliance documents (e.g., SOC 2, ISO 27001)
A display of real-time compliance monitoring for key controls
Proactive answers to common assessment questions
A centralized hub of resources helps vendors build trust with customers and save time and resources. When security requests come in, vendors can refer to trust centers to determine which inquiries require more in-depth conversations and which can be answered with a quick link.
Trust: It’s an ongoing conversation
Ultimately, reducing the burnout and frustration caused by customer and prospect security requests comes down to building two-way trust. With proactive strategies, focused conversations, and mutual access to risk information, vendors can instill confidence in their security posture.
Vendors should approach security as an ongoing dialogue. When that mindset permeates beyond the security team, organizations can position themselves as trusted partners rather than potential risks — and make security requests more manageable while they’re at it.
Keep customer trust a top priority with stronger security practices. Avoid these three mistakes when defending against breaches.
For organizations managing third-party risks, collaboration with vendors is at the heart of effective security practices. Our eBook, Chaos to Collaboration: Transforming Third-Party Risk Response for Zero-Day Events, provides actionable insights into how customers and vendors can work more effectively together during critical events. Check it out now to explore collaborative strategies for navigating today’s cyber risk landscape (no download required).
Check out our interactive ebook, Chaos to Collaboration: Transforming Third-Party Risk Response for Zero-Day Events
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