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Plant ConnectApplication · Abb

CVE-2019-18250

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2019-11-26
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
In all versions of ABB Power Generation Information Manager (PGIM) and Plant Connect, the affected product is vulnerable to authentication bypass, which may allow an attacker to remotely bypass authentication and extract credentials from the affected device.

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 confidence

ABB Power Generation Information Manager (PGIM) and Plant Connect contain an authentication bypass vulnerability in all versions. The flaw allows remote attackers to bypass the authentication mechanism entirely and extract stored credentials from the affected device, potentially granting full access to the industrial system.

MitigationIsolate affected systems on dedicated network segments with strict access controls, implement compensating controls such as VPN access and IP whitelisting, and contact ABB for available patches or mitigations.

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
Plant ConnectApplication
Affected:all versions
Power Generation Information ManagerApplication
Affected:all versions

CVSS 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
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify if ABB PGIM or Plant Connect is installed
    Check installed programs or running services for 'ABB Power Generation Information Manager', 'ABB Plant Connect', 'PGIM', or 'Plant Connect' using system inventory tools, installed programs list, or running services (services.msc on Windows, ps or systemctl on Linux)
    Affected if The software is present on the system - all versions are affected by this authentication bypass vulnerability
  2. Locate the web management interface
    Check for listening ports typically used by ABB industrial web interfaces (common ports: 80, 443, 8080, 8443). Use 'netstat -an' or 'ss -tuln' to list listening ports, or check IIS/Apache/nginx configurations for ABB-related virtual directories
    Affected if The management web interface is exposed and listening on any network port
  3. Verify authentication is enforced on the interface
    Attempt to access the web interface directly (without credentials) to determine if authentication can be bypassed. Check if unauthenticated endpoints return sensitive data or allow access to credential storage functions
    Affected if Unauthenticated access is possible or authentication can be bypassed entirely, allowing extraction of stored credentials
  4. Check network exposure of the management interface
    Determine if the ABB management ports are bound to all interfaces (0.0.0.0) versus localhost only. Review firewall rules to check if the interface is accessible from untrusted networks. Use 'netsh advfirewall firewall show rule name=all' on Windows or 'iptables -L' on Linux
    Affected if The interface is accessible from network segments outside the trusted OT/IT network, increasing exploitability
  5. Inspect credential storage mechanisms
    Examine configuration files, XML files, or database files used by the ABB software for storing credentials. Check common installation directories (typically under C:\Program Files\ABB\ or /opt/abb/) for files containing plaintext or weakly encrypted credentials
    Affected if Credentials are stored in easily accessible files without strong encryption, which can be extracted after bypassing authentication
  6. Review authentication configuration files
    Look for configuration files named auth, security, credentials, users.xml, web.config, or similar in the ABB installation directory. Check if authentication is disabled or set to 'None' in any configuration
    Affected if Authentication is configured as disabled, optional, or can be bypassed through configuration manipulation

If ABB Power Generation Information Manager or ABB Plant Connect is installed and its management interface is network-accessible, the system is affected by this authentication bypass vulnerability that allows credential extraction.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Isolate affected systems on dedicated network segments with strict access controls, implement compensating controls such as VPN access and IP whitelisting, and contact ABB for available patches or mitigations.

Fix this in Plant Connect Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation16.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
36.0 hours of engineering $6,400
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2019-18250 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data