Impact
An attacker with network access to affected SIMATIC HMI panels can perform automated brute-force attacks to guess valid credentials [S1]. Successful exploitation allows the attacker to gain unauthorized access to the HMI interface, which could lead to the manipulation of industrial processes or unauthorized monitoring of sensitive data [S1].
Root Cause
The vulnerability is classified as CWE-307 (Improper Restriction of Excessive Authentication Attempts) [S1]. The affected devices do not implement sufficient rate-limiting or account lockout mechanisms when multiple failed login attempts occur [S1]. This allows an attacker to submit a high volume of password guesses without being blocked or significantly delayed by the system [S1].
Affected Products
The following Siemens products are affected [S1]:
- SIMATIC HMI Basic Panels 2nd Generation (including SIPLUS variants) - All versions < V16 [S1]
- SIMATIC HMI Comfort Panels (including SIPLUS variants) - All versions <= V16 [S1]
- SIMATIC HMI Mobile Panels - All versions <= V16 [S1]
- SIMATIC HMI Unified Comfort Panels - All versions <= V16 [S1]
How FixVibe could detect it
FixVibe can identify this vulnerability by detecting the specific hardware and firmware versions of Siemens SIMATIC HMI panels exposed on the network. The detection logic focuses on identifying firmware versions earlier than V16 that lack the necessary rate-limiting protections for authentication interfaces [S1].
Fix
Users should update affected SIMATIC HMI panels to version V16 or later where available to mitigate this vulnerability [S1]. In environments where updates cannot be immediately applied, network segmentation should be used to ensure that HMI panels are not accessible from untrusted networks or the public internet [S1].