Highly exploitable, CVE-2024-42018 poses a critical security risk that could lead to severe breaches.
Status: Deferred
Last updated: 🕧 15 Apr 2026, 00:35 UTC
Originally published on: 🕔 11 Oct 2024, 17:15 UTC
Time between publication and last update: 550 days
CVSS Release: version 3
134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
Secondary
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N
CVE-2024-42018: An issue was discovered in Atos Eviden SMC xScale before 1.6.6. During initialization of nodes, some configuration parameters are retrieved from management nodes. These parameters embed credentials whose integrity and confidentiality may be important to the security of the HPC configuration. Because these parameters are needed for initialization, there is no available mechanism to ensure access control on the management node, and a mitigation measure is normally put in place to prevent access to unprivileged users. It was discovered that this mitigation measure does not survive a reboot of diskful nodes. (Diskless nodes are not at risk.) The mistake lies in the cloudinit configuration: the iptables configuration should have been in the bootcmd instead of the runcmd section.
The exploitability of CVE-2024-42018 depends on two key factors: attack complexity (the level of effort required to execute an exploit) and privileges required (the access level an attacker needs).
CVE-2024-42018 presents an accessible attack vector with minimal effort required. Restricting access controls and implementing security updates are critical to reducing exploitation risks.
A lower complexity and fewer privilege requirements make exploitation easier. Security teams should evaluate these aspects to determine the urgency of mitigation strategies, such as patch management and access control policies.
Attack Complexity (AC) measures the difficulty in executing an exploit. A high AC means that specific conditions must be met, making an attack more challenging, while a low AC means the vulnerability can be exploited with minimal effort.
Privileges Required (PR) determine the level of system access necessary for an attack. Vulnerabilities requiring no privileges are more accessible to attackers, whereas high privilege requirements limit exploitation to authorized users with elevated access.
Above is the CVSS Sub-score Breakdown for CVE-2024-42018, illustrating how Base, Impact, and Exploitability factors combine to form the overall severity rating. A higher sub-score typically indicates a more severe or easier-to-exploit vulnerability.
Below is the Impact Analysis for CVE-2024-42018, showing how Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability might be affected if the vulnerability is exploited. Higher values usually signal greater potential damage.
The EPSS score estimates the probability that this vulnerability will be exploited in the near future.
EPSS Score: 0.043% (probability of exploit)
EPSS Percentile: 12.0%
(lower percentile = lower relative risk)
This vulnerability is less risky than approximately 88.0% of others.
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