CVE-2022-1159
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 · uneditedRockwell Automation Studio 5000 Logix Designer (all versions) are vulnerable when an attacker who achieves administrator access on a workstation running Studio 5000 Logix Designer could inject controller code undetectable to a user.
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 confidenceThis is a privilege escalation/post-exploitation vulnerability in Rockwell Automation Studio 5000 Logix Designer. An attacker who already has administrator-level access to a workstation running Studio 5000 can inject malicious controller code that appears legitimate to operators, bypassing detection. The vulnerability stems from insufficient integrity verification of controller code when imported from an compromised workstation.
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 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
- Low
- Privileges
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/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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Identify Studio 5000 Logix Designer installationCheck for Studio 5000 Logix Designer in installed programs via Windows Control Panel > Programs and Features, or query the registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall for entries containing 'Studio 5000' or 'Logix Designer'Affected if Studio 5000 Logix Designer is installed on the workstation and the user has administrator-level access to that workstation
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Verify administrator access controls on the engineering workstationReview local administrator group membership and check for unauthorized accounts via 'net localgroup Administrators' command or Active Directory group membership if domain-joinedAffected if There are untrusted or unauthorized user accounts granted administrator-level privileges on the workstation running Studio 5000
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Review controller code import activityExamine Studio 5000 project files (.acd files) recently imported or opened. Check file modification timestamps and source of imported L5X or ACD files, particularly those from external or untrusted sourcesAffected if Controller code files (L5X, ACD) have been imported from untrusted or compromised sources, or project files show unexpected modifications
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Check controller firmware versionsConnect to the controller via RSLogix 5000/Studio 5000 and verify the firmware version displayed in the controller properties, or query the controller via RSLinx Classic using Who Active Go To to view firmware revisionsAffected if Controllers are running any firmware version of the listed affected product families (Controllogix 5580, Guardlogix 5580, Compactlogix 5380, Compactlogix 5480, Compact Guardlogix 5380) and were programmed using a workstation with potentially compromised Studio 5000 software
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Inspect for code signing or integrity verification settingsWithin Studio 5000 Logix Designer, navigate to Controller Properties > Security (if available) to inspect whether digital signatures or code integrity verification is enabled for imported controller projectsAffected if Code integrity verification or digital signature validation is disabled or not configured for controller projects
A user is affected if they have Studio 5000 Logix Designer installed on a workstation where administrator access is not properly restricted, and they import controller code from potentially compromised sources to program any of the affected controller families.
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 dataRestrict administrator privileges on engineering workstations running Studio 5000 to trusted personnel only; implement application whitelisting and workstation hardening; consider network segmentation of engineering workstations from the operational technology network.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-1159 — 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-2022-1159 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
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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