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Vulnerability record · CVE-2017-16718 · published 27 June 2018

CVE-2017-16718: Beckhoff twincat insufficiently protected credentials vulnerability

Beckhoff · Twincat

Beckhoff TwinCAT 3 supports communication over ADS. ADS is a protocol for industrial automation in protected environments. This protocol uses user configured routes, that can be edited remotely via ADS. This special command supports encrypted authentication with username/password. The encryption uses a fixed key, that could be extracted by an attacker. Precondition of the exploitation of this weakness is network access at the moment a route is added.

5.9 CVSS 3.0 Medium EPSS 0.42% · top 65.8% CWE-522 · Insufficiently protected credentialsCWE-327 · Broken cryptographic algorithm
5.9CVSS 3.0 base score, v2 4.3
0.42%EPSS exploitation probability, 30 days
NoNot in CISA KEV
1Affected product versions listed by NVD
2References
17 Jun 2026Last modified by NVD

Description

Beckhoff TwinCAT 3 supports communication over ADS. ADS is a protocol for industrial automation in protected environments. This protocol uses user configured routes, that can be edited remotely via ADS. This special command supports encrypted authentication with username/password. The encryption uses a fixed key, that could be extracted by an attacker. Precondition of the exploitation of this weakness is network access at the moment a route is added.

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

Affected products

1 vulnerable configurations from NVD's CPE data, grouped by vendor and product.

References

LinkTags
https://download.beckhoff.com/download/Document/product-security/Advisories/advisory-2017-002.pdf MitigationVendor Advisory
https://download.beckhoff.com/download/Document/product-security/Advisories/advisory-2017-002.pdf MitigationVendor Advisory

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Related vulnerabilities

Same products first, then exploited flaws of the same weakness class.

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Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database (record CVE-2017-16718), CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS (scores of 2026-09-27). This page is refreshed as NVD updates the record.