Executive brief
Rockwell Automation Studio 5000 Logix Designer, a software suite used to program industrial controllers, contains a vulnerability in how it handles external tool paths. Because certain file paths are not properly secured with quotes, a local attacker could place a malicious file on the system that the software mistakenly runs instead of the intended tool. If successful, this allows the attacker to execute unauthorized commands with the same permissions as the legitimate user, potentially compromising the engineering workstation and the industrial systems it manages.
Technical details
A vulnerability classified as CWE-428 (Unquoted Search Path or Element) exists in Studio 5000 Logix Designer's External Tools configuration. The application fails to properly quote executable paths that contain spaces, allowing the Windows operating system to potentially resolve and execute unintended files located earlier in the search order. To exploit this, an attacker must have the ability to plant a malicious executable in a specific location on the local file system. Successful exploitation results in arbitrary code execution with the permissions of the user running the application. Rockwell Automation has released patches in versions V36.00, 35.01, 34.03, 33.03, and 32.05 to address this issue.
Affected products
- Rockwell Automation Studio 5000 Logix Designer V35.00, 34.00-34.02, 33.00-33.02, 32.00-32.04 and older
Timeline
- 2026-07-14: advisory: Initial release of Rockwell Automation advisory SD1783
- 2026-07-14: disclosed