CVE-2024-1709 is a critical-severity (CVSS 10) CWE-288 vulnerability in connectwise screenconnect. It is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2024-02-22) and has been used in ransomware campaigns — treat it as actively exploited and patch now. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.
ConnectWise ScreenConnect 23.9.7 and prior are affected by an Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel vulnerability, which may allow an attacker direct access to…
Exploitation Status
Actively exploited in the wild
- Confirmed by CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2024-02-22 — including use in ransomware campaigns. Federal agencies were required to remediate by 2024-02-29.
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA (KEV catalog and SSVC triage) for CVE-2024-1709.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2024-1709 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). In the shaded patch-first corner (EPSS 50%+, CVSS 7.0+).
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 395,249 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the ≥ 90% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Description
ConnectWise ScreenConnect 23.9.7 and prior are affected by an Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel
vulnerability, which may allow an attacker direct access to confidential information or
critical systems.
Affected Products
screenconnectconnectwiseResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
ConnectWise ScreenConnect 23.9.7 and prior are affected by an Authentica…
ConnectWise ScreenConnect 23.9.7 and prior are affected by an Authentica…
ConnectWise ScreenConnect 23.9.7 and prior are affected by an Authentica…
ConnectWise ScreenConnect 23.9.7 and prior are affected by an Authentica…
ConnectWise ScreenConnect 23.9.7 and prior are affected by an Authentica…
ConnectWise ScreenConnect 23.9.7 and prior are affected by an Authentica…
ConnectWise ScreenConnect 23.9.7 and prior are affected by an Authentica…
ConnectWise ScreenConnect 23.9.7 and prior are affected by an Authentica…
Detection & mitigation playbook
Vendor / applianceDetect
Inventory every connectwise screenconnect deployment and check each version against the affected-products list above.
Remediation status
No patch has shipped for CVE-2024-1709 yet — track the connectwise screenconnect advisory for a fixed release and apply the workarounds below in the meantime.
Mitigate without a patch
Put an independent control in front of the weakness: restrict the affected endpoint or interface to trusted networks, require an additional authentication factor or proxy-level check, and invalidate existing sessions and credentials in case the flaw has already been used. Alongside that, restrict the management interface to trusted networks and apply the vendor's recommended configuration mitigations.
How to detect CVE-2024-1709
A community-maintained Nuclei template exists for this CVE. You can scan for it directly:
nuclei -id cve-2024-1709 -u https://target- Template
- ConnectWise ScreenConnect 23.9.7 - Authentication Bypass
- Severity
- critical
- Impact
- Unauthenticated attackers can bypass authentication to access confidential information or critical systems, potentially leading to complete system compromise.
- Remediation
- Update ConnectWise ScreenConnect to version 23.9.8 or later.
Template by ProjectDiscovery nuclei-templates (johnk3r), MIT licensed. View the full template. Scan only systems you are authorised to test.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2024-1709 being exploited in your environment?
Detect and block the exploit chain at execution, on systems you cannot patch yet.