CVE-2019-10997
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 on Phoenix Contact AXC F 2152 (No.2404267) before 2019.0 LTS and AXC F 2152 STARTERKIT (No.1046568) before 2019.0 LTS devices. Protocol Fuzzing on PC WORX Engineer by a man in the middle attacker stops the PLC service. The device must be rebooted, or the PLC service must be restarted manually via a Linux shell.
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 confidenceA man-in-the-middle attacker can perform protocol fuzzing against the PC WORX Engineer communication with Phoenix Contact AXC F 2152 PLC devices, causing the PLC service to stop. The affected devices run firmware versions before 2019.0 LTS, and the service does not automatically restart, requiring either a device reboot or manual Linux shell intervention to restore operation.
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 data< 2019.0_lts< 2019.0_ltsCVSS 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
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/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 device modelAccess the PLC web interface or console and confirm the device model is Phoenix Contact AXC F 2152 or AXC F 2152 StarterkitAffected if Device is not an AXC F 2152 model
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Check firmware versionLog into the device web interface, console, or use the device info page to retrieve the installed firmware version numberAffected if Firmware version is lower than 2019.0_lts or cannot be determined to be 2019.0_lts or higher
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Verify PC WORX Engineer communication statusCheck the device configuration or network settings to determine if PC WORX Engineer remote communication is enabled or has been usedAffected if PC WORX Engineer communication is enabled or was recently active
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Check PLC service statusAccess the Linux shell on the device and verify the PLC runtime service status using systemctl status or similar service check commandAffected if PLC service is stopped and requires manual restart or reboot
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Assess network exposureReview network configuration to determine if the PLC is on a network segment where man-in-the-middle attacks are plausible (shared switch ports, untrusted networks, lack of network segmentation)Affected if Device is on an unsegmented or untrusted network where MITM traffic is possible
User is affected if the device is an AXC F 2152 with firmware below 2019.0_lts and the PLC service is stopped or inaccessible due to a fuzzing attack.
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 data2019.0_lts
Segment the network to prevent MITM attacks on PLC communications and upgrade affected devices to firmware version 2019.0 LTS or later. Until upgrade is complete, implement network monitoring to detect anomalous protocol traffic.
- Consultation6.0 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-2019-10997 — 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-2019-10997 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
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