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ArenaApplication · Rockwellautomation

CVE-2025-11918

HIGH · 7.3 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-11-14
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 16.20.11 or later.
See remediation →
73/100
Remediation priority · Elevated

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
Rockwell Automation Arena® suffers from a stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability. The specific flaw exists within the parsing of DOE files. Local attackers are able to exploit this issue to potentially execute arbitrary code on affected installations of Arena®. Exploiting the vulnerability requires opening a malicious DOE file.

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

Rockwell Automation Arena® contains a stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability in its DOE file parsing functionality. Attackers can craft malicious DOE files that, when opened by a user, cause a buffer overflow on the stack, potentially allowing arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the running application.

MitigationUsers should avoid opening DOE files from untrusted or unknown sources until an official patch is available from Rockwell Automation. Organizations should implement file origin policies and consider network segmentation for systems running Arena®.

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
ArenaApplication
Affected:< 16.20.11

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
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/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. Check if Rockwell Automation Arena is installed
    Look for Arena installation in typical program directories or check system registry for installed software named 'Arena' or 'Rockwell Automation Arena'
    Affected if Arena software is present on the system
  2. Determine the installed Arena version
    Open Arena and navigate to Help > About, or check the program's executable file properties for version information
    Affected if The installed version is lower than 16.20.11 (e.g., 16.20.00, 16.00.00, etc.)
  3. Identify DOE file usage in your environment
    Search for .doe files in user directories, network shares, or common project folders associated with Arena simulations
    Affected if DOE files are stored or processed in the environment and could be opened by Arena users
  4. Verify DOE file parsing would be triggered
    Confirm that users have the ability to open or import external files through Arena's file menu (File > Open or File > Import options)
    Affected if Users can open external files including DOE format within Arena

The environment is affected if Rockwell Automation Arena version 16.20.11 or higher is NOT installed and users can open DOE files within the application.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 16.20.11 or later
Fixed in 16.20.11
Interim mitigation

Users should avoid opening DOE files from untrusted or unknown sources until an official patch is available from Rockwell Automation. Organizations should implement file origin policies and consider network segmentation for systems running Arena®.

Recommended fix High confidence

Arena version 16.20.11 or later

  1. Check current Arena version by opening the application and navigating to Help > About Arena
  2. Download Arena version 16.20.11 or later from the official Rockwell Automation website at www.rockwellautomation.com
  3. Close all instances of the Arena application
  4. Install the downloaded update by running the installer and following the on-screen prompts
  5. Verify the installation was successful by checking Help > About Arena shows version 16.20.11 or later
Caveat Users should review release notes for any changes to workflow or compatibility with existing DOE files

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Arena Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation16.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
32.0 hours of engineering $5,600
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $8,960.

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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-2025-11918 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