CVE-2018-13806
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 SIEMENS TD Keypad Designer (All versions). A DLL hijacking vulnerability exists in all versions of SIEMENS TD Keypad Designer which could allow an attacker to execute code with the permission of the user running TD Designer. The attacker must have write access to the directory containing the TD project file in order to exploit the vulnerability. A legitimate user with higher privileges than the attacker must open the TD project in order for this vulnerability to be exploited. 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 · high confidenceDLL hijacking vulnerability in SIEMENS TD Keypad Designer allows an attacker with write access to a project directory to place a malicious DLL that gets loaded when a legitimate user opens the TD project file, enabling code execution with the user's 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 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
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/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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Verify TD Keypad Designer installationCheck for presence of TD Keypad Designer in Program Files (typically C:\Program Files\Siemens\TD Keypad Designer) or look for .tdp project files on the systemAffected if TD Keypad Designer is installed on the system
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Locate TD project filesSearch for .tdp files on the system - these are the project files that trigger DLL loading when opened. Check common locations like Documents folder or custom project directoriesAffected if User has .tdp project files stored in directories with weak permissions
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Inspect project directory permissionsRight-click on project directories containing .tdp files, go to Properties > Security, and examine which users/groups have Write permission. Use 'icacls <directory>' command to list permissionsAffected if Any untrusted user or group (especially Everyone, Users, or domain users without need) has Write permission to directories containing .tdp files
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Check for unexpected DLLs in project foldersList all .dll files in directories containing .tdp project files. Look for DLLs that are not part of the legitimate TD Keypad Designer installationAffected if Unexpected DLL files exist alongside .tdp project files in the same directory
User is affected if TD Keypad Designer is installed and project directories containing .tdp files allow write access to untrusted users, enabling DLL hijacking.
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 dataRestrict write access to project directories to prevent attacker placement of malicious DLLs; implement secure DLL loading with explicit path validation and digital signature verification before loading any DLL.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation12.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $6,720.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-13806 — 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-2018-13806 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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