Rockwell Automation Studio 5000 Logix Designer External Tools Configuration external tools configuration file unquoted search path

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical has been found in Rockwell Automation Studio 5000 Logix Designer. The impacted element is an unknown function of the file external tools configuration file of the component External Tools Configuration. Performing a manipulation results in unquoted search path. This vulnerability was named CVE-2026-9128. The attack needs to be approached locally. There is no available exploit.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, was found in Rockwell Automation Studio 5000 Logix Designer (version now known). This affects some unknown processing of the file external tools configuration file of the component External Tools Configuration. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a unquoted search path vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-428. The product uses a search path that contains an unquoted element, in which the element contains whitespace or other separators. This can cause the product to access resources in a parent path. This is going to have an impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

A code execution security issue exists within Studio 5000 Logix Designer® due to an unquoted search path in the External Tools configuration. The executable paths specified in the external tools configuration file are not properly quoted, and because these paths contain spaces, the operating system may resolve them to unintended executables placed earlier in the search order. If exploited, an attacker could plant a malicious executable in a location within the search path, resulting in arbitrary code execution with the same permissions of the user running the application.

It is possible to read the advisory at rockwellautomation.com. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2026-9128 since 05/20/2026. The exploitability is told to be difficult. Attacking locally is a requirement. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 07/14/2026). The attack technique deployed by this issue is T1574.009 according to MITRE ATT&CK.

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

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Productinfo

Type

• Automation Software

Vendor

• Rockwell Automation

Name

• Studio 5000 Logix Designer

License

• commercial

CPE 2.3info

• 🔒

CPE 2.2info

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