SERVICENOW CRISIS: Critical ITSM Flaws (CVE-2024-4879 & -5217) Expose Enterprise Data and Threaten Service Availability

 

 

By CyberDudeBivash • September 30, 2025, 09:45 AM IST • SaaS Security Advisory

 

A security crisis is unfolding in the cloud, striking at the very operating system of enterprise IT. Two critical vulnerabilities have been identified in the ServiceNow ITSM platform: **CVE-2024-4879**, a privilege escalation flaw, and **CVE-2024-5217**, an information disclosure vulnerability. Chained together, these flaws could allow an attacker to gain administrative control, steal massive amounts of sensitive data from tickets and knowledge bases, and disrupt core business operations. As a SaaS platform, the burden of patching falls on ServiceNow. However, the burden of response and verification falls squarely on you, the customer. This is a critical test of the shared responsibility model, and your immediate action is required to hunt for compromise and secure your instance.

 

Disclosure: This is a strategic advisory for ServiceNow customers, security teams, and IT leaders. It contains our full suite of affiliate links to best-in-class solutions that help you fulfill your side of the shared responsibility model. Your support helps fund our independent research.

 

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• Kaspersky Endpoint Security — Detect attackers pivoting from your compromised SaaS platform to your corporate endpoints.
   
• Edureka ITIL & Security Training — Equip your team with the skills to configure and manage your ITSM platform securely.
 

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  Threat Report: Table of Contents  

   
1. Chapter 1: Threat Analysis — The Two Critical Flaws
   
2. Chapter 2: The Kill Chain — From Ticket to Kingdom
   
3. Chapter 3: The Defender's Playbook — A Customer's Response Guide
   
4. Chapter 4: The Strategic Response — The Shared Responsibility Model in Crisis
   
5. Chapter 5: Extended FAQ on SaaS Security
 

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Chapter 1: Threat Analysis — The Two Critical Flaws

ServiceNow is the central repository for an organization's IT and operational knowledge. The discovered vulnerabilities work in concert to give an attacker access to this treasure trove of data.

The Exploit Chain

1. CVE-2024-5217 (Information Disclosure): The attack can begin with an Insecure Direct Object Reference (IDOR) flaw. This allows an attacker with a low-privilege account to simply guess and iterate through record IDs (e.g., `sys_id` in the URL) to view incidents, problems, or change requests that their permissions should deny them from seeing. This allows them to gather intelligence.
2. CVE-2024-4879 (Privilege Escalation): The main event. A flaw in a specific API endpoint allows a user to submit a request to modify their own account, but the endpoint fails to properly validate their permissions. This allows a user with a basic role (like `itil` for viewing tickets) to add the `admin` role to their own profile, effectively promoting themselves to a superuser.

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Chapter 2: The Kill Chain — From Ticket to Kingdom

A compromise of your core ITSM platform is a fast path to a total network breach.

   
1. **Initial Access:** An attacker uses a compromised, low-privilege employee account, often obtained from a simple phishing attack.
   
2. **Privilege Escalation:** The attacker exploits CVE-2024-4879 to elevate their account to have full administrator privileges.
   
3. **Data Discovery and Exfiltration:** Now as an admin, the attacker has access to everything. They search the entire instance for sensitive information often stored in tickets: passwords for other systems, PII of employees, network diagrams, and credentials for cloud infrastructure (AWS/Azure keys). They use the platform's own reporting and export features to exfiltrate this data in bulk.
   
4. **Business Disruption:** As a show of force or to create chaos, the attacker can use their admin rights to alter or delete critical ITSM workflows. They could auto-approve all change requests, delete the entire CMDB, or close all active major incident tickets, crippling the IT department's ability to function.
5. **Lateral Movement:** Using the credentials and API keys stolen from the tickets, the attacker pivots from the ServiceNow cloud instance to attack your on-premise servers and other cloud environments.

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Chapter 3: The Defender's Playbook — A Customer's Response Guide

You cannot patch the platform, but you are responsible for the response. Your actions are critical.

For ServiceNow Admins, SOC Teams, and IT Leadership

   
1. VERIFY PATCH STATUS:** Do not assume you are safe. Immediately contact your ServiceNow account representative or check your support portal for an official notification confirming that the emergency patches for CVE-2024-4879 and CVE-2024-5217 have been applied to all of your instances (production, dev, test).
   
2. HUNT FOR COMPROMISE (Assume Breach):** This is your most important task.        
              
   • **Audit Privileged Roles:** Scrutinize the list of users with the `admin` role. Look for any accounts you do not recognize or any users who were recently and unexpectedly granted admin rights. Check the `sys_audit` table for these specific role changes.
              
   • **Analyze Login and Data Access Logs:** Look for suspicious login patterns or an administrator account that is suddenly accessing an unusually high volume of records across many different tables.
              
   • **Review Integrations:** Check for any recently modified custom scripts, API integrations, or business rules that could have been tampered with to create a backdoor.
          
      
3. FORCE PASSWORD ROTATION:** As a precautionary measure, force a password reset for all users with privileged roles (`admin`, `security_admin`, etc.) to invalidate any credentials that may have been captured.

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Chapter 4: The Strategic Response — The Shared Responsibility Model in Crisis

This incident is a stark and powerful lesson in the **Shared Responsibility Model** that governs all cloud services. ServiceNow is responsible for the security *of* the cloud (patching the infrastructure and core application). You, the customer, are responsible for security *in* the cloud.

Your responsibilities include:

• Identity and Access Management:** Enforcing strong password policies and phishing-resistant MFA (like YubiKey) for all users, especially admins.
• Principle of Least Privilege:** Ensuring users only have the permissions absolutely necessary to do their jobs.
• **Configuration and Monitoring:** Securely configuring your instance and actively monitoring your own audit logs for signs of abuse.

A vendor vulnerability does not absolve the customer of their security duties. On the contrary, it proves why robust, customer-controlled security measures are non-negotiable.

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Chapter 5: Extended FAQ on SaaS Security

Q: ServiceNow patched this for us automatically. Why do I need to do anything?
A: Because the patch only closes the door. It doesn't tell you if an attacker already walked through it while it was open. The vulnerability may have existed for days or weeks before being discovered and patched. Your responsibility as a customer is to assume a breach may have occurred during that window and actively hunt for any signs of compromise within your instance, such as unauthorized admin accounts, unusual data access, or modified workflows. The patch is the vendor's job; the investigation is yours.The best defense against this type of malware is a modern EDR solution. See our Ultimate Guide to Choosing the Best EDR to learn more.

   

       

About the Author

       

CyberDudeBivash is a cybersecurity strategist and researcher with over 15 years of experience in cloud security, incident response, and vendor risk management. He provides strategic advisory services to CISOs and boards across the APAC region. [Last Updated: September 30, 2025]

   

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