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

Severity: high (CVSS 7.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 1.5% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2020-04-29 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-20

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.

Affected products

ABB 800Xa System: 5.1, 5.1-feature_pack_4, 5.1-feature_pack_4_revision_d, 5.1-revision_a, 5.1-revision_b, 5.1-revision_c (+8)
ABB Compact HMI: 5.1, 5.1-feature_pack_4_revision_d, 5.1-revision_b, 5.1-revision_d, 6.0.1-1, 6.0.3-2
ABB Control Builder Safe: 1.0, 1.1, 2.0

References

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