N-able Takes N-central Offline After Discovery of 33 Flaws

N-able is navigating a hectic crisis-management situation after the discovery of more than 30 alleged zero-day flaws in its N-central remote monitoring and management (RMM) platform, as well as the disclosure of exploits allowing attackers to execute commands, create administrator accounts, and escalate privileges to root. Realizing the critical security nature of the situation, N-able took its hosted N-central environments offline earlier this week across the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific after offensive security researcher Sean Bales on Sunday publicly revealed the flaws, collectively called Able2Shell, and subsequently published a series of exploits for them on the GitHub account "Oracle-Security." N-able also advised customers operating on-premises servers to shut them down until further notice. "N-able sincerely appreciates the patience, flexibility, and partnership our customers have demonstrated throughout this critical security event," the company wrote in a security update Wednesday. The extraordinary scenario has major repercussions for the entire endpoint management industry, including managed service providers (MSPs) and IT managers who broadly use N-central to monitor, manage, and secure customer devices and networks remotely. The risk for users of vulnerable platforms is significant because of the "extraordinary privileges" these RMM platforms have "because they need them to do their jobs," observes Gene Moody, field chief technology officer (CTO) for auton...