CVE-2018-5461
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 Inadequate Encryption Strength issue was discovered in Belden Hirschmann RS, RSR, RSB, MACH100, MACH1000, MACH4000, MS, and OCTOPUS Classic Platform Switches. An inadequate encryption strength vulnerability in the web interface has been identified, which may allow an attacker to obtain sensitive information through a successful man-in-the-middle attack.
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 confidenceBelden Hirschmann industrial switches (RS, RSR, RSB, MACH100, MACH1000, MACH4000, MS, and OCTOPUS Classic Platform) contain inadequate encryption in their web interface, allowing a man-in-the-middle attacker to intercept and decrypt sensitive traffic to gain unauthorized access to credentials or session data.
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
- High
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:N
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 model and firmware versionAccess the device web interface or CLI and retrieve the hardware model number and current firmware version. Check the model against the list of affected products (RS20 series variants, RSR, RSB, MACH100, MACH1000, MACH4000, MS, OCTOPUS Classic Platform).Affected if The device model matches any of the affected Hirschmann switch models listed in the CVE and is running any firmware version.
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Determine if web interface is enabledCheck the device configuration via CLI or management interface to see if the HTTP or HTTPS web interface service is enabled.Affected if The web interface (HTTP or HTTPS) is enabled on the device.
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Verify encryption protocol in useAttempt to access the device web interface via HTTP (port 80) and HTTPS (port 443). Observe which protocol responds and check the SSL/TLS version and cipher suites if HTTPS is available.Affected if The web interface is accessible over unencrypted HTTP, or HTTPS uses weak/obsolete SSL/TLS protocols (SSLv2, SSLv3, TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1) or weak cipher suites.
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Assess network exposureReview network configuration to determine if the web management interface is reachable from untrusted networks, VLANs, or the internet.Affected if The web interface is accessible from networks outside the trusted management network.
A user is affected if they are running any of the listed Hirschmann switch models with the web interface enabled and accessible over unencrypted HTTP or weak SSL/TLS configuration, especially if exposed 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 dataApply vendor firmware updates to address weak encryption algorithms. If no update is available, restrict web interface access to trusted networks or disable HTTP access in favor of out-of-band management.
- 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-2018-5461 — 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-2018-5461 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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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- 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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