CVE-2017-9863
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 · uneditedAn issue was discovered in SMA Solar Technology products. If a user simultaneously has Sunny Explorer running and visits a malicious host, cross-site request forgery can be used to change settings in the inverters (for example, issuing a POST request to change the user password). All Sunny Explorer settings available to the authenticated user are also available to the attacker. (In some cases, this also includes changing settings that the user has no access to.) This may result in complete compromise of the device. NOTE: the vendor reports that exploitation is unlikely because Sunny Explorer is used only rarely. Also, only Sunny Boy TLST-21 and TL-21 and Sunny Tripower TL-10 and TL-30 could potentially be affected
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 confidenceCross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in SMA Solar Technology's Sunny Explorer software. When a user has Sunny Explorer running and visits a malicious website, attackers can forge authenticated POST requests to change inverter settings (including user passwords), potentially achieving full device compromise.
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 dataall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsCVSS 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
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
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 Sunny Explorer usageCheck if SMA Sunny Explorer software is installed or running on any system in the environment. Look for processes named 'Sunny Explorer' or check installed programs for SMA Sunny Explorer.Affected if Sunny Explorer software is installed and actively used to manage the inverters.
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Verify inverter firmware modelAccess the inverter web interface or check the device documentation to identify the exact model and firmware version. Common access methods include the inverter's built-in web server or Sunny Explorer connection details.Affected if The inverter model matches any of these: Sunny Boy 3600, Sunny Boy 5000, Sunny Tripower Core1, Sunny Tripower 15000tl, Sunny Tripower 20000tl, Sunny Tripower 25000tl, Sunny Tripower 5000tl, or Sunny Tripower 12000tl.
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Check for anti-CSRF token presenceUse a web proxy or browser developer tools to intercept a state-changing POST request (such as changing settings or password) from Sunny Explorer to the inverter. Inspect the request body and form parameters for a unique token value that changes with each session.Affected if The POST request does not contain an anti-CSRF token or unique session token in the request parameters.
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Inspect Origin and Referer header handlingSend a crafted request from a different origin (simulating an attacker site) and observe how the inverter web interface responds. Check if the server validates the Origin or Referer headers and rejects requests from untrusted origins.Affected if The inverter accepts requests without validating Origin or Referer headers, or returns success for cross-origin requests.
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Check session cookie SameSite attributeUsing browser developer tools or a network inspector, examine the session cookie set by the inverter web interface. Look for the SameSite attribute in the Set-Cookie header.Affected if The session cookie lacks a SameSite attribute or has SameSite=None, allowing cross-origin cookie transmission.
If Sunny Explorer is used with any of the listed inverter models and the web interface lacks anti-CSRF tokens, header validation, or proper SameSite cookie settings, the environment is vulnerable to CVE-2017-9863.
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 dataImplement anti-CSRF tokens for all state-changing requests, validate Origin/Referer headers, and use SameSite cookie attributes. Consider adding SameSite=Strict or Lax to session cookies to prevent cross-origin cookie leakage.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2017-9863 — 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-2017-9863 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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