CVE-2024-13090 is a high-severity privilege escalation vulnerability affecting Nozomi Networks Guardian, a cybersecurity product designed for operational technology (OT) and industrial control system (ICS) environments. The vulnerability arises from excessively permissive sudo rules configured for a local service account. Specifically, the sudo configuration allows this service account to execute commands with elevated privileges beyond what is necessary for its function. If an attacker gains the ability to execute arbitrary commands as this service account, they could leverage the overly broad sudo permissions to escalate privileges to administrative levels on the affected system. This escalation could enable the attacker to execute arbitrary code with high privileges, potentially compromising the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the system. Notably, the vulnerability does not require user interaction and does not have a known exploitation vector identified in the wild at this time. The CVSS 4.0 base score of 7.3 reflects the high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability, combined with the requirement for local access and high attack complexity. The vulnerability is categorized under CWE-250, which relates to execution with unnecessary privileges, indicating a failure to follow the principle of least privilege in the sudo configuration. No patch links are currently provided, suggesting that mitigation may require configuration changes or vendor updates once available.

For European organizations, especially those operating critical infrastructure or industrial environments where Nozomi Networks Guardian is deployed, this vulnerability poses a significant risk. Successful exploitation could allow attackers to gain administrative control over OT/ICS monitoring systems, potentially leading to disruption of industrial processes, data manipulation, or espionage. Given the critical role of OT security in sectors such as energy, manufacturing, transportation, and utilities, exploitation could have cascading effects on operational continuity and safety. The vulnerability's requirement for local access limits remote exploitation but increases risk from insider threats or attackers who have already compromised lower-privileged accounts. The high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability means that sensitive operational data could be exposed or altered, and system availability could be compromised, affecting service delivery and regulatory compliance. European organizations subject to strict cybersecurity regulations (e.g., NIS2 Directive) must consider this vulnerability seriously to avoid potential legal and reputational consequences.

Immediate mitigation should focus on auditing and tightening sudo rules for the local service account used by Nozomi Networks Guardian. Organizations should: 1) Review and restrict sudo permissions to the minimum necessary commands, eliminating any overly broad or wildcard permissions. 2) Implement strict access controls to limit which users or processes can execute commands as the service account. 3) Monitor and log all sudo command executions related to this account to detect suspicious activity promptly. 4) Employ host-based intrusion detection systems (HIDS) to identify anomalous privilege escalations. 5) Isolate the Guardian system within segmented network zones to reduce the risk of lateral movement if compromised. 6) Stay in close contact with Nozomi Networks for official patches or configuration guidance and apply updates promptly once available. 7) Conduct regular security training for administrators to recognize and prevent misuse of privileged accounts. These steps go beyond generic advice by focusing on sudo configuration hardening, monitoring, and network segmentation tailored to the specific vulnerability context.