CVE-2018-13815
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 SIMATIC S7-1200 (All versions), SIMATIC S7-1500 (All Versions < V2.6). An attacker could exhaust the available connection pool of an affected device by opening a sufficient number of connections to the device. Successful exploitation requires an attacker to be able to send packets to port 102/tcp of the affected device. No user interaction and no user privileges are required to exploit the vulnerability. The vulnerability, if exploited, could cause a Denial-of-Service condition impacting the availability of the system. At the time of advisory publication no public exploitation of this 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 confidenceThe vulnerability allows remote attackers to exhaust the available connection pool on affected SIMATIC S7-1200 and S7-1500 devices by opening numerous connections to port 102/tcp (S7comm protocol), causing a denial-of-service condition that renders the device unavailable.
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 versions< 2.6CVSS 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
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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 the device modelQuery the device via S7comm protocol or check device documentation/management interface to confirm whether it is a Simatic S7-1200 or S7-1500 PLCAffected if Device is a Simatic S7-1200 (all versions affected) or S7-1500 with firmware below 2.6
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Check S7-1500 firmware versionAccess the device web interface, TIA Portal project, or use S7comm GetSZL request (SZL ID 0x0011, 0x001C) to read the firmware versionAffected if Firmware version is below 2.6 on S7-1500 devices (S7-1200 has no patch so all versions are affected)
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Verify port 102/tcp exposureScan network perimeter or use netstat/ss commands on adjacent devices to confirm whether port 102/tcp is reachable from untrusted networks or the internetAffected if Port 102/tcp is exposed to untrusted or external networks without firewall filtering
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Check for connection pool exhaustionMonitor device response time, attempt S7comm connection, or check device logs for connection refused errors; look for symptoms of resource exhaustionAffected if Device becomes unresponsive to new S7comm connections or shows connection timeout errors
You are affected if the device is an S7-1200 (any firmware) or S7-1500 with firmware below 2.6, and port 102/tcp is accessible to untrusted networks.
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 data2.6
Update SIMATIC S7-1500 to firmware version 2.6 or later; for S7-1200 (no patch available per advisory) or as additional defense, implement network segmentation and firewall rules to restrict access to port 102/tcp to authorized systems only.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-13815 — 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-2018-13815 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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