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Fencer Intel
medium 5.3

CVE-2020-8476 json

ABB Central Licensing System - Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

published 6y ago modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2020-29342

cvss
5.3
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.5%
EPSS 1.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 75%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

For the Central Licensing Server component used in ABB products ABB Ability™ System 800xA and related system extensions versions 5.1, 6.0 and 6.1, Compact HMI versions 5.1 and 6.0, Control Builder Safe 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0, Symphony Plus -S+ Operations 3.0 to 3.2 Symphony Plus -S+ Engineering 1.1 to 2.2, Composer Harmony 5.1, 6.0 and 6.1, Melody Composer 5.3, 6.1/6.2 and SPE for Melody 1.0SPx (Composer 6.3), Harmony OPC Server (HAOPC) Standalone 6.0, 6.1 and 7.0, ABB Ability™ System 800xA/ Advant® OCS Control Builder A 1.3 and 1.4, Advant® OCS AC100 OPC Server 5.1, 6.0 and 6.1, Composer CTK 6.1 and 6.2, AdvaBuild 3.7 SP1 and SP2, OPCServer for MOD 300 (non-800xA) 1.4, OPC Data Link 2.1 and 2.2, Knowledge Manager 8.0, 9.0 and 9.1, Manufacturing Operations Management 1812 and 1909, ABB AbilityTM SCADAvantage versions 5.1 to 5.6.5, a weakness in validation of input exists that allows an attacker to alter licenses assigned to the system nodes by sending specially crafted messages to the CLS web service.

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Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

cisa ICSA-20-154-04 updated cvss 5.3

ABB Central Licensing System

  • ABB Ability Knowledge Manager 8.0, 9.0, 9.1 ABB Ability Manufacturing Operations Management 1812, 1909 ABB Ability Symphony Plus - S+ Engineering >= 1.1, <= 2.2 ABB Ability Symphony Plus - S+ Operations >= 3.0, <= 3.2 ABB Ability System 800xA / Advant OCS Control Builder A 1.3, 1.4 ABB Ability System 800xA and related system extensions 5.1, 6.0, 6.1
    +10 more products
    ABB AdvaBuild 3.7 SP1, 3.7 SP2 ABB Advant OCS AC 100 OPC Server 5.1, 6.0, 6.1 ABB Compact HMI 5.1, 6.0 ABB Composer CTK 6.1, 6.2 ABB Composer Harmony 5.1, 6.0, 6.1 ABB Composer Melody (incl. SPE for Melody 1.0 SPx) 5.3, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3 ABB Control Builder Safe 1.0, 1.1, 2.0 ABB Harmony OPC Server (HAOPC) 6.0, 6.1, 7.0 ABB OPC Data Link 2.1, 2.2 ABB OPC Server MOD 300 (non-800xA) 1.4
    affected: mitigation “Upgrade ABB CLS to the following version: 5.1 Rev A (5.1.0.38)” search-ext.abb.com

From CISA ICS and IT advisories (CSAF, https://github.com/cisagov/CSAF), a U.S. Government work; changed: reduced to products, statuses and remediations. CISA notification · csaf

Exploit prediction

1.55% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 75% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 5.3 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
NVD 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
NVD 2.0 5.0 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N

Affected products

  • ABB Central Licensing System
  • ABB ABB Ability System 800xA
  • ABB Compact HMI
  • ABB Control Builder Safe
  • ABB Symphony Plus S+ Operations
  • ABB Symphony Plus S+ Engineering
  • ABB Composer Harmony
  • ABB Composer Melody
  • ABB Harmony OPC Server Standalone
  • ABB Advant OCS Control Builder A
  • ABB Composer CTK
  • ABB AdvaBuild
  • ABB OPC Server for Mod 300 (non-800xA)
  • ABB OPC Data Link
  • ABB Knowledge Manager
  • ABB Manufacturing Operations Management
  • ABB Advant OCS AC 100 OPS Server
  • ABB ABB Ability™ SCADAvantage

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-20 Improper Input Validation

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.