CVE-2013-0669 in Wincc Tia Portal
Summary
by MITRE
The HMI web application in Siemens WinCC (TIA Portal) 11 allows remote authenticated users to cause a denial of service (daemon crash) via a crafted HTTP request.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/01/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2013-0669 affects Siemens WinCC (TIA Portal) version 11, specifically within its Human Machine Interface web application component. This represents a significant security weakness that enables remote authenticated attackers to trigger a denial of service condition by sending specially crafted HTTP requests to the affected system. The issue resides in the web application's handling of incoming HTTP requests, where insufficient input validation and error handling mechanisms allow maliciously formatted requests to cause the underlying daemon process to crash and terminate unexpectedly.
The technical flaw manifests in the web application's insufficient sanitization and validation of HTTP request parameters, particularly affecting the HMI web interface component that serves as the user-facing portal for monitoring and controlling industrial processes. When an authenticated user submits a crafted HTTP request containing malformed data or specially constructed parameters, the web application fails to properly handle these inputs, leading to a cascade of errors that ultimately results in the daemon process crashing. This vulnerability operates at the application layer and requires authentication to exploit, meaning that an attacker must first establish valid credentials before being able to execute the attack.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption, as it can severely compromise industrial control systems that rely on WinCC for process monitoring and management. The daemon crash can result in complete loss of HMI functionality, forcing operators to lose visibility into critical industrial processes and potentially disrupting production workflows. In industrial environments where continuous operation is essential, such a denial of service condition can lead to significant financial losses and operational downtime. The vulnerability affects the availability aspect of the CIA triad, specifically targeting the system's ability to maintain consistent service delivery to authorized users.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2013-0669 should include immediate implementation of firmware updates and patches provided by Siemens to address the specific input validation flaws in the web application. Organizations should also implement network segmentation to limit access to the affected HMI web application, ensuring that only authorized personnel with legitimate business requirements can reach the vulnerable component. Additionally, deploying web application firewalls and implementing strict input validation rules can help detect and prevent malformed HTTP requests from reaching the vulnerable daemon processes. According to CWE classification, this vulnerability maps to CWE-121, which deals with stack-based buffer overflow conditions, and aligns with ATT&CK technique T1499.004 for network denial of service attacks. Regular security assessments and monitoring of system logs for unusual HTTP request patterns can help detect potential exploitation attempts, while maintaining updated threat intelligence feeds ensures organizations can respond quickly to emerging attack vectors targeting industrial control systems.