Full Report
The know-how protection feature in Totally Integrated Automation Portal (TIA Portal) does not properly update the encryption of existing program blocks when a project file is updated. This could allow attackers with access to the project file to recover previous - yet unprotected - versions of the project without the knowledge of the know-how protection password. Siemens recommends specific countermeasures for products where fixes are not, or not yet available.
Analysis Summary
# Vulnerability: Know-How Protection Mechanism Failure in TIA Portal
## CVE Details
- **CVE ID:** CVE-2023-30757
- **CVSS Score:** 6.2 (Medium)
- **CVSS Vector:** CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
- **CWE:** CWE-693: Protection Mechanism Failure
## Affected Systems
- **Products:** Siemens Totally Integrated Automation Portal (TIA Portal)
- **Versions:**
- TIA Portal V14
- TIA Portal V15 & V15.1
- TIA Portal V16
- TIA Portal V17
- TIA Portal V18
- TIA Portal V19
- TIA Portal V20
- **Configurations:** Systems utilizing the "Know-How Protection" feature for program blocks.
## Vulnerability Description
The "Know-How Protection" mechanism in TIA Portal fails to properly update or sync the encryption of existing program blocks when a project file is modified or updated. Essentially, older, unencrypted, or poorly protected versions of the project data may persist within the project file metadata or structure.
## Exploitation
- **Status:** PoC available (Proof of Concept)
- **Complexity:** Low
- **Attack Vector:** Local (Requires access to the project file)
An attacker with access to the TIA Portal project file can bypass the Know-How protection password by extracting these legacy, unprotected versions of the program blocks from the file's internal history/structure.
## Impact
- **Confidentiality:** High (Recovery of proprietary logic and protected code)
- **Integrity:** None
- **Availability:** None
## Remediation
### Patches
As of December 2024, **no fixes are planned** for any of the affected versions (V14 through V20).
### Workarounds
Siemens recommends the following manual mitigation:
- **Project Archiving:** Use the "Archive" function within TIA Portal. This process optimizes project data and removes older, potentially unprotected content from the file structure.
- **Access Control:** Restrict local and network access to project files to authorized personnel only.
## Detection
- **Indicators of Compromise:** There are no active logs generated when an attacker extracts data from a static project file.
- **Detection methods:** Detection relies on monitoring file integrity and auditing access to the directories where TIA Portal project files (`.ap14` through `.ap20`) are stored.
## References
- **Vendor Advisory:** hxxps://cert-portal.siemens[.]com/productcert/html/ssa-042050.html
- **Technical Documentation:** hxxps://support.industry.siemens[.]com/cs/ww/en/view/109826862/
- **Industrial Security Guidelines:** hxxps://www.siemens[.]com/cert/operational-guidelines-industrial-security