C0039: Versa Director Zero Day Exploitation
Versa Director Zero Day Exploitation was conducted by Volt Typhoon from early June through August 2024 as zero-day exploitation of Versa Director servers controlling software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) applications. Since tracked as CVE-2024-39717, exploitation focused on credential capture from compromised Versa Director servers at managed service providers (MSPs) and internet service providers (ISPs) to enable follow-on access to service provider clients. Versa Director Zero Day Exploitation was followed by the delivery of the VersaMem web shell for both credential theft and follow-on code execution.[1]
Security context for executives and security teams
C0039: Versa Director Zero Day Exploitation describes [Versa Director Zero Day Exploitation](https://attack.mitre.org/campaigns/C0039) was conducted by [Volt Typhoon](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G1017) from early June through August 2024 as zero-day exploitation of Versa Director servers controlling software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) applications. Since tracked as CVE-2024-39717, exploitation focused on credential capture from compromised Versa Director servers at managed service providers (MSPs) and internet service providers (ISPs) to enable follow-on a...
Executive priority
C0039: Versa Director Zero Day Exploitation is an official MITRE ATT&CK campaign. Glexia treats it as defensive behavior context for prioritizing monitoring, control validation, and response planning without using the object by itself as an attribution claim.
Technical view
Security teams should validate C0039: Versa Director Zero Day Exploitation by reviewing the official ATT&CK relationships, mapped tactics (the mapped ATT&CK tactic context), supported platforms (the platforms named in the official object), and available local telemetry before making detection or mitigation decisions.
Likely telemetry
- Official ATT&CK relationships and object metadata
Detection direction
- Validate whether C0039: Versa Director Zero Day Exploitation appears in your detection coverage and tabletop scenarios.
- Use the object to align executive risk language with SOC, incident response, and detection engineering work.
- Do not treat ATT&CK relationship context as attribution without corroborating evidence.
Mitigation priorities
- Map the object to existing controls and identify missing telemetry or response ownership.
- Prioritize mitigations that reduce exposure on the listed platforms and tactics.
- Review adjacent ATT&CK relationships before changing policy, detections, or reporting language.
Additional notes and limits
Baseline Glexia take generated from the official MITRE ATT&CK STIX object, source hash, tactics, platforms, and detection fields. It is safe to replace with a richer model-generated take for the same source hash later.
This baseline take is source-grounded and schema-validated, but it does not include environment-specific telemetry, incident evidence, or threat-intelligence corroboration.
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Versa Director Zero Day Exploitation
Versa Director Zero Day Exploitation was conducted by Volt Typhoon from early June through August 2024 as zero-day exploitation of Versa Director servers controlling software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) applications. Since tracked as CVE-2024-39717, exploitation focused on credential capture from compromised Versa Director servers at managed service providers (MSPs) and internet service providers (ISPs) to enable follow-on access to service provider clients. Versa Director Zero Day Exploitation was followed by the delivery of the VersaMem web shell for both credential theft and follow-on code execution.[1]
How security teams should use this page
Treat this object as behavior context, not an attribution claim. Validate the related groups, software, data sources, and mitigations against official ATT&CK relationships and your own telemetry before making control-coverage decisions.
Techniques used
This mirrors the MITRE pattern of making group, software, campaign, and technique relationships scannable. Relationship notes come from mirrored ATT&CK relationship text when available.
| Domain | ID | Name | Relationship / procedure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enterprise | T1190 | Exploit Public-Facing Application | Versa Director Zero Day Exploitation involved exploitation of a vulnerability in Versa Director servers, since identified as CVE-2024-39717, for initial access and code execution.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1573.002 | Asymmetric CryptographySub-technique | Versa Director Zero Day Exploitation used HTTPS for command and control of compromised Versa Director servers.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1584.008 | Network DevicesSub-technique | Versa Director Zero Day Exploitation used compromised small office/home office (SOHO) devices to interact with vulnerable Versa Director servers.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1056 | Input Capture | Versa Director Zero Day Exploitation intercepted and harvested credentials from user logins to compromised devices.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1071.001 | Web ProtocolsSub-technique | Versa Director Zero Day Exploitation established HTTPS communications from adversary-controlled SOHO devices over port 443 with compromised Versa Director servers.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1587.001 | MalwareSub-technique | Versa Director Zero Day Exploitation involved the development of a new web shell variant, VersaMem.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1095 | Non-Application Layer Protocol | Versa Director Zero Day Exploitation used a non-standard TCP session to initialize communication prior to establishing HTTPS command and control.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1505.003 | Web ShellSub-technique | Versa Director Zero Day Exploitation resulted in the deployment of the VersaMem web shell for follow-on activity.[1] |
Groups, software, and campaigns
G1017: Volt Typhoon
Volt Typhoon is a People's Republic of China (PRC) state-sponsored actor that has been active since at least 2021, primarily targeting critical infrastructure organizations in the US and its territories including Guam. Volt Typhoon's targeting and pattern of behavior have been assessed as pre-positioning to enable lateral movement to operational technology (OT) assets for potential destructive or disruptive attacks. Volt Typhoon has emphasized stealth in operations using web shells, living-off-the-land (LOTL) binaries, hands on keyboard activities, and stolen credentials.[1][2][3][4]. The group has leveraged compromised SOHO routers to proxy command and control traffic and obscure its infrastructure, activity associated with the KV botnet.[5].
Reporting indicates a separate initial access cluster, SYLVANITE, has been observed exploiting internet-facing edge devices and transferring access to Volt Typhoon, also tracked as VOLTZITE, for follow-on operations. [6]
S1154: VersaMem
VersaMem is a web shell designed for deployment to Versa Director servers following exploitation. Discovered in August 2024, VersaMem was used during Versa Director Zero Day Exploitation by Volt Typhoon to target ISPs and MSPs. VersaMem is deployed as a Java Archive (JAR) and allows for credential capture for Versa Director logon activity as well as follow-on execution of arbitrary Java payloads.[1]
All related ATT&CK context
Object version and sync metadata
The fields below describe the current mirrored snapshot. When Glexia retains multiple ATT&CK source imports, you can open the table to compare the same object across releases (hashes and MITRE timestamps). For MITRE’s own release notes and roadmap, see ATT&CK resources — Updates.
Imported snapshots across ATT&CK releases(3)
| Release | Bundle imported | Object version | Modified | Status | Raw hash |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20.0 | 1.0 | Current bundle | 4455f7817a5b… | ||
| 19.2 | 1.0 | Older bundle | 4455f7817a5b… | ||
| 19.1 | 1.0 | Older bundle | 162b67489638… |
Mirrored ATT&CK source object
The raw object is retained through the mirrored ATT&CK source bundle and object hash. The raw endpoint returns the exact object from the mirrored bundle when available.
External references and citations
MITRE external references are preserved separately from Glexia analysis so citations remain traceable to their original source records.
- [1]Lumen Versa 2024
Black Lotus Labs. (2024, August 27). Taking The Crossroads: The Versa Director Zero-Day Exploitaiton. Retrieved August 27, 2024.
Open source URL - [2]mitre-attackC0039Open source URL
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