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No exploitation reported

CVE-2020-8479

No exploitation reported by the sources we read.

  • Published2020-04-29
  • WeaknessCWE-91

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

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. an XML External Entity Injection vulnerability exists that allows an attacker to read or call arbitrary files from the license server and/or from the network and also block the license handling.

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2020-04-2902:15CVE publishedNVD

Observed activity

isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-10-23 18:48 UTC
Indicators tagged with this CVE, per day0 indicators over 7 days
Block these indicators
  • Firewall list (EDL, text): https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2020-8479?format=txt
  • CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2020-8479?format=csv
  • TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
  • The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.

Versions per branch

NVD
Abb 800xa system
BranchAffectedFixed in
5.1= 5.1no fix published
6.0= 6.0no fix published
6.0= 6.0.1no fix published
6.0= 6.0.3no fix published
6.1= 6.1no fix published
Abb compact hmi
BranchAffectedFixed in
5.1= 5.1no fix published
6.0= 6.0.1-1no fix published
6.0= 6.0.3-2no fix published
Abb control builder safe
BranchAffectedFixed in
1.0= 1.0no fix published
1.1= 1.1no fix published
2.0= 2.0no fix published

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Distribution builds and vendor advisories

Packages from OSV.dev and products from the vendors' CSAF advisories.

version not verifiedVersions not verified: read as OSV.dev and the vendors publish them, not checked against each vendor's release list.

Vendor advisories

  • ICSA-20-154-04 CISA16 known affected

    ABB Central Licensing System

    AdvaBuild: Versions 3.7 SP1 3.7 SP2 · ABB Ability System 800xA / Advant OCS Control Builder A: Versions 1.3 1.4 · ABB Ability System 800xA and related system extensions: Versions 5.1 6.0 6.1 · +13 more

Full record on NVD

Fix

  1. Mitigation from the vendor CISA ICSA-20-154-04 · 16 productsUpgrade ABB CLS to the following version: 5.1 Rev A (5.1.0.38)
  2. Mitigation from the vendor CISA ICSA-20-154-04 · 16 productsUpgrade ABB CLS to the following version: 5.1 Rev E (5.1.0.99)
  3. Mitigation from the vendor CISA ICSA-20-154-04 · 16 productsUpgrade ABB CLS to the following version: 6.0 (6.0.0.26)
  4. Mitigation from the vendor CISA ICSA-20-154-04 · 16 productsUpgrade ABB CLS to the following version: 6.0.3.3 (6.0.03000.192)
  5. Mitigation from the vendor CISA ICSA-20-154-04 · 16 productsUpgrade ABB CLS to the following version: 6.1 RU1 (6.1.00100.417)
  6. Mitigation from the vendor CISA ICSA-20-154-04 · 16 productsIf ABB Central Licensing Server 5.1 (5.1.0.14) or earlier has been used on the currently used hardware, please contact ABB for further assistance.

Advisories and patches

Detection

Nuclei template
none so far
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
no entry
Exploit-DB
Proof-of-concept repositories
none listed
PoC-in-GitHub

Sources

  • CNACVSS 3.19.4read 2026-10-23
  • NVDCVSS 3.19.8read 2026-10-23
  • NVDCVSS 2.07.5read 2026-10-23
  • CNAweakness (CWE)CWE-91read 2026-10-23
  • NVDweakness (CWE)CWE-91read 2026-10-23
  • FIRST EPSSEPSS score2.3 %2026-10-22

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Published
2020-04-29
Last Modified
2026-06-17
NVD status
Modified

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2020-8479?

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. an XML External Entity Injection vulnerability exists that allows an attacker to read or call arbitrary files from the license server and/or from the network and also block the license handling.

Is CVE-2020-8479 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2020-8479 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 2.3% on 2026-10-22, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2020-8479?

CVE-2020-8479 has a CVSS v3 base score of 9.8 (CRITICAL severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

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