CVE-2020-12033
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 · uneditedIn Rockwell Automation FactoryTalk Services Platform, all versions, the redundancy host service (RdcyHost.exe) does not validate supplied identifiers, which could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to execute remote COM objects with elevated privileges.
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 redundancy host service (RdcyHost.exe) in Rockwell Automation FactoryTalk Services Platform lacks proper validation of supplied identifiers, allowing an unauthenticated adjacent network attacker to execute remote COM objects with elevated privileges. This is a code-level vulnerability in a critical industrial automation redundancy service.
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
- Adjacent
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:A/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Verify FactoryTalk Services Platform installationCheck Windows Programs and Features for 'Rockwell Automation FactoryTalk Services Platform' or search for FactoryTalk installation directories (typically under C:\Program Files\Rockwell Software\ or C:\Program Files (x86)\Rockwell Software\)Affected if FactoryTalk Services Platform is installed on the system
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Identify redundancy host serviceOpen Windows Services console (services.msc) and look for a service named 'FactoryTalk Redundancy' or similar, or check Task Manager for running process RdcyHost.exeAffected if The RdcyHost.exe process is running as a service on the system
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Confirm service is running with elevated privilegesRight-click the identified service in Services console, select Properties, and check the 'Log On' account. Also right-click the process in Task Manager, go to Properties, and examine the user account listed under the Security sectionAffected if The service runs under a privileged account (such as LocalSystem, a domain admin, or other elevated Windows account)
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Assess network exposureOpen Windows Firewall with Advanced Security, review inbound rules for ports associated with FactoryTalk Services (check for rules containing 'FactoryTalk', 'Redundancy', or 'RdcyHost'), or use netstat -ano to list listening ports and correlate with FactoryTalk servicesAffected if The service has open inbound ports accessible from adjacent network segments (non-localhost listeners)
If FactoryTalk Services Platform is installed with the RdcyHost.exe redundancy service running under elevated privileges and exposed to adjacent network segments, the system is vulnerable to CVE-2020-12033.
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 patches when available, implement network segmentation to restrict adjacent network access to the service, and verify the redundancy host service runs with minimal required privileges.
- Consultation8.0 h
- Implementation16.0 h
- Testing12.0 h
- Review / QA8.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $12,352.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-12033 — 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-2020-12033 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
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data