• Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
MUST READ

UK NCA arrested four people over M&S, Co-op cyberattacks

 | 

PerfektBlue Bluetooth attack allows hacking infotainment systems of Mercedes, Volkswagen, and Skoda

 | 

Qantas data breach impacted 5.7 million individuals

 | 

DoNot APT is expanding scope targeting European foreign ministries

 | 

Nippon Steel Solutions suffered a data breach following a zero-day attack

 | 

Iranian group Pay2Key.I2P ramps Up ransomware attacks against Israel and US with incentives for affiliates

 | 

Hackers weaponize Shellter red teaming tool to spread infostealers

 | 

Microsoft Patch Tuesday security updates for July 2025 fixed a zero-day

 | 

Italian police arrested a Chinese national suspected of cyberespionage on a U.S. warrant

 | 

U.S. CISA adds MRLG, PHPMailer, Rails Ruby on Rails, and Synacor Zimbra Collaboration Suite flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

IT Worker arrested for selling access in $100M PIX cyber heist

 | 

New Batavia spyware targets Russian industrial enterprises

 | 

Taiwan flags security risks in popular Chinese apps after official probe

 | 

U.S. CISA adds Google Chromium V8 flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

Hunters International ransomware gang shuts down and offers free decryption keys to all victims

 | 

SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 52

 | 

Security Affairs newsletter Round 531 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION

 | 

North Korea-linked threat actors spread macOS NimDoor malware via fake Zoom updates

 | 

Critical Sudo bugs expose major Linux distros to local Root exploits

 | 

Google fined $314M for misusing idle Android users' data

 | 
  • Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
  • Home
  • Breaking News
  • Hacking
  • WS_FTP flaw CVE-2023-40044 actively exploited in the wild

WS_FTP flaw CVE-2023-40044 actively exploited in the wild

Pierluigi Paganini October 02, 2023

Experts warn of threat actors actively exploiting CVE-2023-40044 flaw in recently disclosed flaw in Progress Software’s WS_FTP products.

Progress Software recently warned customers to address a critical severity vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023-40044 (CVSS score 10), in its WS_FTP Server software which is used by thousands of IT teams worldwide. The vulnerability was discovered by researchers at the cybersecurity firm Assetnote.

“The WS_FTP team recently discovered vulnerabilities in the WS_FTP Server Ad hoc Transfer Module and in the WS_FTP Server manager interface. All versions of WS_FTP Server are affected by these vulnerabilities.” reads the advisory from the vendor

A pre-authenticated, remote attacker could leverage a .NET deserialization issue in the Ad Hoc Transfer module to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying WS_FTP Server operating system.  

“Ultimately, we discovered that the vulnerability could be triggered without any authentication, and it affected the entire Ad Hoc Transfer component of WS_FTP. It was a bit shocking that we were able to reach the deserialization sink without any authentication.” reads the advisory published by Assetnote.

The issue affects WS_FTP Server versions prior to 8.7.4 and 8.8.2.

Assetnote researchers discovered about 2.9k hosts exposed on the internet that are running WS_FTP, they also published a PoC exploit for this vulnerability.

“This vulnerability turned out to be relatively straight forward and represented a typical .NET deserialization issue that led to RCE. It’s surprising that this bug has stayed alive for so long, with the vendor stating that most versions of WS_FTP are vulnerable.” continues Assetnote. “From our analysis of WS_FTP, we found that there are about 2.9k hosts on the internet that are running WS_FTP (and also have their webserver exposed, which is necessary for exploitation). Most of these online assets belong to large enterprises, governments and educational institutions.”

Cybersecurity firm Rapid7 reported that threat actors started exploiting the CVE-2023-40044 flaw shortly after the release of the PoC code by Assetnote.

“As of September 30, Rapid7 has observed multiple instances of WS_FTP exploitation in the wild.” reads the report published by Rapid7. “In the evening hours of September 30, 2023, Rapid7 observed what appears to be exploitation of one or more recently disclosed WS_FTP vulnerabilities in multiple customer environments. Individual alerts our team responded to occurred within minutes of one another between 2023-10-01 01:38:43 UTC and 01:41:38 UTC. The process execution chain looks the same across all observed instances, indicating possible mass exploitation of vulnerable WS_FTP servers.”

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Progress Software)


facebook linkedin twitter

CVE-2023-40044 Hacking hacking news information security news IT Information Security Pierluigi Paganini Progress Software Security Affairs Security News WS_FTP

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini July 10, 2025
UK NCA arrested four people over M&S, Co-op cyberattacks
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini July 10, 2025
PerfektBlue Bluetooth attack allows hacking infotainment systems of Mercedes, Volkswagen, and Skoda
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

Subscribe to my email list and stay
up-to-date!

    recent articles

    UK NCA arrested four people over M&S, Co-op cyberattacks

    Cyber Crime / July 10, 2025

    PerfektBlue Bluetooth attack allows hacking infotainment systems of Mercedes, Volkswagen, and Skoda

    Hacking / July 10, 2025

    Qantas data breach impacted 5.7 million individuals

    Data Breach / July 10, 2025

    DoNot APT is expanding scope targeting European foreign ministries

    APT / July 10, 2025

    Nippon Steel Solutions suffered a data breach following a zero-day attack

    Data Breach / July 09, 2025

    To contact me write an email to:

    Pierluigi Paganini :
    pierluigi.paganini@securityaffairs.co

    LEARN MORE

    QUICK LINKS

    • Home
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber warfare
    • APT
    • Data Breach
    • Deep Web
    • Digital ID
    • Hacking
    • Hacktivism
    • Intelligence
    • Internet of Things
    • Laws and regulations
    • Malware
    • Mobile
    • Reports
    • Security
    • Social Networks
    • Terrorism
    • ICS-SCADA
    • POLICIES
    • Contact me

    Copyright@securityaffairs 2024

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT