As of January 10, 2023, CISA will no longer be updating ICS security advisories for Siemens product vulnerabilities beyond the initial advisory. For the most up-to-date information on vulnerabilities in this advisory, please see Siemens' ProductCERT Security Advisories (CERT Services | Services | Siemens Global).
Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could remove password protection from the system configuration files, also affecting backup data sets that were created after the update to V2024 R1.
Siemens reports that the following products are affected:
Milestone Systems has discovered a security vulnerability in Milestone XProtect installer that resets system configuration password after the upgrading from older versions using specific installers. The system configuration password is an additional, optional protection that is enabled on the Management Server. To mitigate the issue, we highly recommend updating system configuration password via GUI with a standard procedure. Any system upgraded with 2024 R1 or 2024 R2 release installer is vulnerable to this issue. Systems upgraded from 2023 R3 or older with version 2025 R1 and newer are not affected.
CVE-2025-1688 has been assigned to this vulnerability. A CVSS v3.1 base score of 5.5 has been calculated; the CVSS vector string is (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:L).
A CVSS v4 score has also been calculated for CVE-2025-1688. A base score of 5.5 has been calculated; the CVSS vector string is (CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:H/UI:N/VC:L/VI:L/VA:L/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H).
Milestone PSIRT reported this vulnerability to Siemens.
Siemens has identified the following specific workarounds and mitigations that users can apply to reduce risk:
As a general security measure, Siemens recommends protecting network access to devices with appropriate mechanisms. To operate the devices in a protected IT environment, Siemens recommends configuring the environment according to Siemens' operational guidelines for industrial security and following recommendations in the product manuals.
Additional information on industrial security by Siemens can be found on the Siemens industrial security webpage
For more information, see the associated Siemens security advisory SSA-552330 in HTML and CSAF.
CISA recommends users take defensive measures to minimize the risk of exploitation of this vulnerability, such as:
CISA reminds organizations to perform proper impact analysis and risk assessment prior to deploying defensive measures.
CISA also provides a section for control systems security recommended practices on the ICS webpage on cisa.gov. Several CISA products detailing cyber defense best practices are available for reading and download, including Improving Industrial Control Systems Cybersecurity with Defense-in-Depth Strategies.
CISA encourages organizations to implement recommended cybersecurity strategies for proactive defense of ICS assets.
Additional mitigation guidance and recommended practices are publicly available on the ICS webpage at cisa.gov in the technical information paper, ICS-TIP-12-146-01B--Targeted Cyber Intrusion Detection and Mitigation Strategies.
Organizations observing suspected malicious activity should follow established internal procedures and report findings to CISA for tracking and correlation against other incidents.
CISA also recommends users take the following measures to protect themselves from social engineering attacks:
No known public exploitation specifically targeting this vulnerability has been reported to CISA at this time. This vulnerability has a high attack complexity.