CVE-2018-11449
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 · uneditedA vulnerability has been identified in SCALANCE M875 (All versions). An attacker with access to the local file system might obtain passwords for administrative users. Successful exploitation requires read access to files on the local file system. A successful attack could allow an attacker to obtain administrative passwords. At the time of advisory publication no public exploitation of this security vulnerability was known.
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 · moderate confidenceThe SCALANCE M875 device stores administrative user passwords in a way that allows an attacker with local file system read access to obtain them. This is a local privilege escalation/confidentiality vulnerability where password files are either plaintext or use weak reversible encryption.
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 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
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/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 device modelCheck the device label, web interface, or console output to confirm the device is a Siemens Scalance M875Affected if Device model is Scalance M875 and firmware version is any version (all versions affected)
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Verify administrative access existsDetermine if you have local file system read access to the device (via SSH, serial console, SD card slot, or physical access)Affected if Local file system access is available and device is Scalance M875
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Locate password storage filesBrowse the device file system for configuration or user database files (commonly stored in /etc, /config, or similar directories on embedded devices)Affected if Password configuration files are present on the device file system
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Examine password storage formatOpen the password storage files and check if passwords appear in plaintext or use reversible encoding (Base64, simple XOR, or similar weak methods)Affected if Passwords are stored in plaintext or use weak reversible encryption rather than salted hashes
If the device is a Scalance M875 and you can read its local file system where password files are stored, you are affected if those passwords are in plaintext or use weak reversible encryption.
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 dataApply compensating controls such as network segmentation to limit physical/logical access to the device, and monitor for unauthorized access. Contact Siemens for firmware updates that address this vulnerability. Restrict local access to the device file system.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-11449 — 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-2018-11449 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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