Cyber Resilience

CVE-2023-27857

Memory Safety in Rockwellautomation Thinmanager 11.0.0 – 11.0.5

Published
22 March 2023
Modified
21 November 2024
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.18 97th percentile
Risk Priority 72 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2023-27857 is a high-severity Out-of-bounds Read (CWE-125) vulnerability in Rockwellautomation Thinmanager. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked in the top 3% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

CVE-2023-27857 is a heap-based buffer over-read vulnerability in Rockwell Automation ThinManager ThinServer. The flaw is triggered when a message field declares a length greater than the actual data present in the message, leading to an out-of-bounds read (CWE-125) that produces a read access violation and terminates the ThinServer.exe process.

An unauthenticated remote attacker can send a crafted message over the network to exploit the condition. Successful exploitation requires no user interaction or credentials and results in a denial-of-service crash of the ThinServer component, consistent with the CVSS 7.5 rating that reflects high availability impact with no confidentiality or integrity loss.

Vendor guidance is published in the Rockwell Automation knowledge-base articles referenced at the supplied URLs; these advisories describe the affected ThinManager versions and any available remediation steps. The associated EPSS score rose from lower values to a peak of 0.2795 before receding to the current 0.1737, indicating a period of increased exploitation interest after disclosure.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

In affected versions, a heap-based buffer over-read condition occurs when the message field indicates more data than is present in the message field in Rockwell Automation's ThinManager ThinServer. An unauthenticated remote attacker can exploit this vulnerability to crash ThinServer.exe due…

more

to a read access violation.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.
T1211 Exploitation for Stealth Stealth
Adversaries may exploit vulnerabilities to evade detection by hiding activity, suppressing logging, or operating within trusted or unmonitored components.
T1212 Exploitation for Credential Access Credential Access
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to collect credentials.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2024-10387Same product: Rockwellautomation Thinmanager
CVE-2025-3618Same product: Rockwellautomation Thinmanager
CVE-2023-27856Same product: Rockwellautomation Thinmanager
CVE-2023-27855Same product: Rockwellautomation Thinmanager
CVE-2024-10386Same product: Rockwellautomation Thinmanager
CVE-2023-2913Same product: Rockwellautomation Thinmanager
CVE-2024-45826Same product: Rockwellautomation Thinmanager
CVE-2025-9065Same product: Rockwellautomation Thinmanager
CVE-2023-27854Same vendor: Rockwellautomation
CVE-2024-12130Same vendor: Rockwellautomation

Affected Assets

rockwellautomation
thinmanager
13.0.0 · 11.0.0 — 11.0.5 · 11.1.0 — 11.1.5 · 11.2.0 — 11.2.6

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure-development practices such as bounds checking and memory-safe languages directly prevent out-of-bounds reads.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability scanning and recording can discover instances of out-of-bounds reads after code is deployed.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Routine patching replaces vulnerable code containing out-of-bounds read flaws.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

finds

Security testing in development and acceptance includes fuzzing and static analysis that detect out-of-bounds read defects before release.

A.8.15 Logging partial match
finds

Logging can record evidence of an out-of-bounds read but does not prevent the weakness itself.

prevents

Secure development life cycle mandates input validation and bounds checking that directly prevent out-of-bounds reads.

prevents

Application security requirements include explicit bounds and memory-safety specifications that mitigate buffer over-reads.

prevents

Secure system architecture and engineering principles require memory-safe design patterns and runtime protections against out-of-bounds access.

prevents

Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe pointer arithmetic and mandate bounds-checked reads, eliminating CWE-125.

References