CVE-2012-3015
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedUntrusted search path vulnerability in Siemens SIMATIC STEP7 before 5.5 SP1, as used in SIMATIC PCS7 7.1 SP3 and earlier and other products, allows local users to gain privileges via a Trojan horse DLL in a STEP7 project folder.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceSiemens SIMATIC STEP7 before 5.5 SP1 suffers from an untrusted search path vulnerability where the application loads DLLs from the current working directory (the STEP7 project folder) before checking system paths, allowing local attackers to place a malicious Trojan horse DLL that gets loaded with elevated privileges.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data<= 7.1<= 5.5CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- M
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Complete
- Integrity
- Complete
- Availability
- Complete
AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify installed STEP7 versionLocate the STEP7 installation directory and check the version information of the main executable (typically s7ewfx.exe or simatic manager executable) by right-clicking and selecting Properties, or use the program's About/Help menu to display version detailsAffected if The version shown is 5.5 or earlier, or shows 5.5 without Service Pack 1 installed
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Identify installed PCS7 versionLocate the PCS7 installation and check version information through the program's About dialog or executable properties, similar to STEP7Affected if The version is 7.1 or earlier
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Verify Service Pack level for STEP7 5.5If STEP7 version displays as 5.5, confirm whether Service Pack 1 is installed by checking the program's version details or About dialog for 'SP1' designationAffected if STEP7 shows version 5.5 without SP1 (no Service Pack 1 indicator)
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Determine if project folders exist in accessible locationsCheck where STEP7/PCS7 project files are stored - look for project folders that may be in user-accessible locations such as desktop, documents, or shared network drivesAffected if Projects are stored in directories where untrusted users could place malicious DLL files
You are affected if SIMATIC STEP7 is version 5.5 without Service Pack 1, or PCS7 is version 7.1 or earlier, especially if project folders are stored in locations with weak access controls.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpdate to SIMATIC STEP7 5.5 SP1 or later. Additionally, ensure STEP7 project folders are stored in secure locations with restricted write permissions and avoid opening projects from untrusted or shared network locations.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2012-3015 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2012-3015 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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