CVE-2023-3463
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 · uneditedAll versions of GE Digital CIMPLICITY that are not adhering to SDG guidance and accepting documents from untrusted sources are vulnerable to memory corruption issues due to insufficient input validation, including issues such as out-of-bounds reads and writes, use-after-free, stack-based buffer overflows, uninitialized pointers, and a heap-based buffer overflow. Successful exploitation could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code.
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 confidenceGE Digital CIMPLICITY HMI software contains multiple memory corruption vulnerabilities stemming from insufficient input validation when processing documents from untrusted sources. The flaws include out-of-bounds read/write operations, use-after-free conditions, stack-based and heap-based buffer overflows, and uninitialized pointers. An attacker can exploit these to achieve arbitrary code execution on affected systems.
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
- 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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Verify CIMPLICITY installation existsCheck for CIMPLICITY installation directory at C:\Program Files\GE Digital\CIMPLICITY or C:\Program Files (x86)\GE Digital\CIMPLICITY, or search for 'GE Digital' folder in Program Files. Also check Windows Services for a Cimplicity-related service using 'services.msc' or 'sc query' command.Affected if CIMPLICITY software is found installed on the system
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Confirm CIMPLICITY process is runningOpen Task Manager or use command 'tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq *.exe"' and look for CIMPLICITY-related processes such as CimServer.exe, CimSVC.exe, or other GE Digital executables.Affected if A CIMPLICITY process is actively running
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Check for document import functionalityReview CIMPLICITY project configuration files (typically .cdc, .cim, or project configuration files in the project directory) for settings related to document import, external document loading, or untrusted source handling. Look for parameters like 'EnableDocumentImport', 'LoadExternalDocuments', or similar.Affected if Document import from external or untrusted sources is enabled in the configuration
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Assess network exposure of CIMPLICITY servicesUse 'netstat -an' or PowerShell 'Get-NetTCPConnection' to identify listening ports associated with CIMPLICITY. Check if ports are bound to 0.0.0.0 (all interfaces) rather than localhost or specific trusted IPs.Affected if CIMPLICITY services are listening on accessible network interfaces and can receive documents from external sources
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Review trusted source configurationExamine CIMPLICITY security settings, project access controls, or DDE/OPC settings to determine if document sources are restricted to specific trusted systems or if any source can submit documents to the HMI.Affected if No trusted source restrictions are configured for document or data input to CIMPLICITY
If CIMPLICITY is installed and running, and it processes or can process documents from untrusted sources without restriction, the environment is vulnerable to CVE-2023-3463.
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 dataOrganizations should implement network segmentation to isolate CIMPLICITY systems, block untrusted document sources, and apply vendor-provided patches when available. Until patches are released, consider compensating controls such as restricting communication to trusted endpoints and monitoring for indicators of compromise.
- Consultation8.0 h
- Implementation16.0 h
- Testing24.0 h
- Review / QA8.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-3463 — 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-2023-3463 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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