Cyber Resilience

CVE-2023-48363

Memory Safety in Siemens Simatic Wincc 7.4 … 8.0

Memory Safety
Published
13 February 2024
Modified
21 November 2024
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v4 7.1
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:A/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
EPSS Score 0.0027 19th percentile
Risk Priority 35 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2023-48363 is a high-severity NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476) vulnerability in Siemens Simatic Wincc. Its CVSS base score is 7.1 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Endpoint Denial of Service (T1499); ranked at the 19th 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 SA-15 (Development Process, Standards, and Tools) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A10:2025 Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

A vulnerability has been identified in OpenPCS 7 V9.1 (All versions < V9.1 SP2 UC05), SIMATIC BATCH V9.1 (All versions < V9.1 SP2 UC05), SIMATIC PCS 7 V9.1 (All versions < V9.1 SP2 UC05), SIMATIC Route Control V9.1 (All versions…

more

< V9.1 SP2 UC05), SIMATIC WinCC Runtime Professional V18 (All versions < V18 Update 4), SIMATIC WinCC Runtime Professional V19 (All versions < V19 Update 2), SIMATIC WinCC V7.4 (All versions), SIMATIC WinCC V7.5 (All versions < V7.5 SP2 Update 15), SIMATIC WinCC V8.0 (All versions < V8.0 Update 4). The implementation of the RPC (Remote Procedure call) communication protocol in the affected products do not properly handle certain unorganized RPC messages. An attacker could use this vulnerability to cause a denial of service condition in the RPC server.

CWE(s)
CWE-476

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1499 Endpoint Denial of Service Impact
Adversaries may perform Endpoint Denial of Service (DoS) attacks to degrade or block the availability of services to users.
attack.mitre.org →
T1499.004 Application or System Exploitation Impact
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities that can cause an application or system to crash and deny availability to users.
attack.mitre.org →
T1489 Service Stop Impact
Adversaries may stop or disable services on a system to render those services unavailable to legitimate users.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-48364Same product: Siemens Openpcs 7
CVE-2023-33121Same vendor: Siemens
CVE-2024-45476Same vendor: Siemens
CVE-2023-38524Same vendor: Siemens
CVE-2024-23799Same vendor: Siemens
CVE-2023-28766Same vendor: Siemens
CVE-2025-40576Same vendor: Siemens
CVE-2024-23800Same vendor: Siemens
CVE-2023-51744Same vendor: Siemens
CVE-2024-22043Same vendor: Siemens

Affected Assets

siemens
openpcs 7
≤ 9.1
siemens
simatic batch
≤ 9.1
siemens
simatic pcs 7
≤ 9.1
siemens
simatic route control
≤ 9.1
siemens
simatic wincc
7.4, 7.5, 8.0
siemens
simatic wincc runtime professional
19 · ≤ 18

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SA-11 Developer Testing and Evaluation good match

Developer testing and evaluation (including static analysis) directly finds null-dereference bugs before deployment.

SA-15 Development Process, Standards, and Tools partial match

Documented development standards and tools can enforce null-safety rules and safe pointer usage.

SA-8 Security and Privacy Engineering Principles partial match

Engineering principles can mandate defensive coding such as explicit null checks before dereference.

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 SDLC practices (static analysis, code review, safe coding standards) directly prevent NULL dereference bugs during development.

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.

A.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
finds

Security testing can detect NULL dereference defects before release.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure SDLC mandates defensive coding practices that can prevent NULL dereferences.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
prevents

Application security requirements can specify input validation and pointer-safety rules.

A.8.27 Secure system architecture and engineering principles partial match
prevents

Secure architecture principles encourage defensive design that avoids unsafe pointer use.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding standards directly require NULL-pointer checks and safe dereference patterns.

References