CVE-2023-29446
Ptc Kepware Kepserverex 6.0.2107.0 – 6.14.263.0
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:NSummary
CVE-2023-29446 is a medium-severity Windows UNC Share (CWE-40) vulnerability in Ptc Kepware Kepserverex. Its CVSS base score is 4.7 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Forced Authentication (T1187); ranked at the 12th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-33015
Vulnerability Data
An improper input validation vulnerability has been discovered that could allow an adversary to inject a UNC path via a malicious project file. This allows an adversary to capture NLTMv2 hashes and potentially crack them offline.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
—
—
- 6 hardening rules · 3 OS baselines
—
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and evaluation can discover missing input validation through analysis or test cases.
Input validation directly rejects malformed or malicious UNC paths before they are resolved to unintended locations.
Enforced access authorizations can limit damage from a traversed UNC path even if the path itself is accepted.
Requiring documented development standards and tools can embed input-validation practices into the engineering process.
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.
Secure SDLC practices directly prevent introduction of unsafe path-handling code such as UNC traversal.
Identifying and recording vulnerabilities enables discovery and remediation of path traversal flaws before exploitation.
Least-privilege enforcement limits the damage an attacker can achieve via a malicious UNC path.
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.
Security testing can discover and verify the absence of UNC-based path traversal vulnerabilities.
Network security controls can block or filter UNC paths that traverse outside approved shares.
Secure-coding guidelines and mandatory security testing (including code scans) compel developers to validate and sanitize inputs at design and implementation time, lowering the incidence of malformed or malicious data reaching downstream components.
Application security requirements can mandate input validation to reject malicious UNC paths.
Secure architecture principles include canonicalization and path-handling controls that prevent UNC traversal.
Secure coding standards directly require validation and sanitization of file paths including UNC shares.
Hardening callouts derived
Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).
RHEL 8 (1 rule)
- V-230265 RHEL 8 must prevent the installation of software, patches, service packs, device drivers, or operating system components of local packages without verification they have been digitally signed using a certificate that is issued by a Certificate Authority (CA) that is recognized and approved by the organization. prevents CWE-20