Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:NCVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.
Summary
CVE-2023-5390 is a medium-severity Absolute Path Traversal (CWE-36) vulnerability in Honeywell Controledge Unit Operations Controller Firmware. Its CVSS base score is 5.3 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 45th 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 AC-3 (Access Enforcement) 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-2023-57705
Vulnerability Data
An attacker could potentially exploit this vulnerability, leading to files being read from the Honeywell Experion ControlEdge VirtualUOC and ControlEdge UOC. This exploit could be used to read files from the controller that may expose limited information from the device.…
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Honeywell recommends updating to the most recent version of the product. See Honeywell Security Notification for recommendations on upgrading and versioning.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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V5.3.2
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Enforces the intended directory access authorizations that path traversal would otherwise bypass.
Input validation directly stops construction of absolute paths from untrusted data before they reach file operations.
Least privilege reduces the impact of any unauthorized file access obtained via traversal.
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 require input validation and path sanitization that prevent absolute path traversal.
Patching/maintenance can remediate known path-traversal flaws in deployed software (partial prevention of exploitability) but does nothing to stop the coding defect from being introduced in the first place.
PR.AA-05 defines and reviews access policies but does not address code-level pathname neutralization, so neither direction prevents CWE-22.
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 in development can detect absolute path traversal via static analysis and fuzzing.
Secure development lifecycle includes input validation and path-handling requirements that reduce absolute path traversal risk.
Application security requirements typically mandate controls against path traversal in file-access functions.
Secure architecture principles call for canonicalization and sandboxing that limit absolute path traversal.
Secure coding standards directly require neutralization of absolute path sequences in pathname construction.
Information access restriction limits which files can be reached but does not address the path-construction flaw itself.