CriticalCVE-2014-0780

    InduSoft Web Studio Path Traversal (CVE-2014-0780)

    Published In CISA KEV since Sources: CVE.org

    What is affected, what to do

    Directory traversal vulnerability in NTWebServer in InduSoft Web Studio 7.1 before SP2 Patch 4 allows remote attackers to read administrative passwords in APP files, and consequently execute arbitrary code, via unspecified web requests.

    The vulnerability is being actively exploited; treat it as a priority. The available sources name no fixed version. Check the vendor guidance in the references below. Immediate actions, mitigation and detection rules are in the runbook below.

    Affected
    • InduSoft Web Studio eq 7.1..7.1

    Not sure whether and how you are affected? Ask a question about this vulnerability

    Metrics

    9.8

    Priority

    XIEM Effective CVSS: highest available CVSS rating from NVD and vendor data.

    Source: NVD, CVSS v3

    9.8

    CVSS v3

    Severity Critical on the scale from 0 to 10.

    Source: CVE.org

    74.7 %

    EPSS score

    High — model estimates ≥ 50% chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days.

    Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 99.50

    Show all metrics
    Severity
    Critical
    Priority (0–325)

    The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first?

    Read in glossary
    228.20 Methodology
    Exploit maturity

    An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack.

    Read in glossary
    actively exploited
    XIEM Effective CVSS

    XIEM® is the tiered managed-security operating model from NEOSEC and a registered trademark of NEOSEC GmbH. It extends classic SIEM — the central collection, normalisation and correlation of security-relevant events — with endpoint forensics, network visibility and deception technology, and consolidates them into three building tiers: Sentry, Orchestrate and Command.

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    9.8 Methodology
    CVSS v3

    CVSS is the globally established, open standard for assessing the technical severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10. It describes how easily a flaw can be exploited and what damage it can cause — but not how likely its actual exploitation is. CVSS and the complementary EPSS deliberately answer different questions.

    Read in glossary
    9.8
    EPSS score

    The EPSS score is the absolute model output for an individual vulnerability: the estimated probability of real-world exploitation within the next 30 days, expressed as a value between 0 and 1 (i.e. 0 % to 100 %). A score of 0.42 means „the model estimates a 42 % chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days“.

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    74.7 %
    High — model estimates ≥ 50% chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days.
    EPSS percentile

    The EPSS percentile is the relative position of a vulnerability within all EPSS-scored CVEs, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. A percentile of 0.90 means „this CVE has a higher EPSS score than 90 % of all other scored CVEs“. Unlike the EPSS score, it is not a probability — but a positioning within a ranking.

    Read in glossary
    99.50
    Critical — this CVE ranks in the top fifth of all CVEs scored today (rank ≥ 80%).
    KEV status

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    Actively exploited
    Published
    In CISA KEV since

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    CISA assessment (SSVC)
    Exploitation: active · automatable · Technical impact: total
    Source: CISA Vulnrichment, as of 7 February 2025
    CWE

    CWE is a catalogue of typical weakness types in software and hardware — such as flawed input validation, unsafe memory handling or poor authentication. Where a CVE names a concrete vulnerability in a concrete product, a CWE describes the underlying class of defect.

    Read in glossary
    CWE-22

    Response and mitigation

    Why act now?

    Prioritisation rationale

    This flaw is unauthenticated, network-reachable and chains cleanly from directory traversal to credential disclosure to remote code execution on an OT-adjacent system — among the most serious attack classes for manufacturing and KRITIS operators. The CISA KEV listing together with a very high exploitation likelihood indicates that public exploits are reliable and are being used opportunistically against exposed industrial web servers; no ransomware campaign is officially attributed, but the RCE path is a plausible initial-access vector. Treat as P1 for any environment running Web Studio 7.1, particularly where NTWebServer is reachable from office networks or remote-maintenance VPNs; fully segmented installations without network exposure may be downgraded to P2 once credential rotation and log review are documented.

    1. Runbook step 1

      Immediate response (0-24 h)

      • Patch InduSoft Web Studio 7.1 to SP2 Patch 4 or later immediately; for installations still on 7.1, plan migration to a currently supported release since 7.1 is near end-of-life.
      • Disable the NTWebServer component wherever the web interface is not strictly required for project delivery or HMI remote access — stop the service and remove its autostart entry.
      • Rotate every administrative and project password stored in Web Studio APP files; treat them as already compromised, and extend rotation to any credentials reused across the SCADA/HMI estate.
      • Block NTWebServer reachability (default TCP/80, in some deployments TCP/4322 or a custom port) at the perimeter and the IT/OT boundary; permit access only through a hardened jump host over VPN.
      • Inventory affected engineering workstations and runtime servers (search for the NTWebServer.exe process and the \InduSoft Web Studio v7.1\ install path) to confirm patch coverage.
      • Forensically preserve APP files, project directories and web-server logs covering the last 24 months before applying updates — evidence of prior read access disappears once files are overwritten.

    2. Runbook step 2

      Mitigation layers

      • Network segmentation per IEC 62443: place the Web Studio runtime in its own cell, allow inbound HTTP only from the OT DMZ, and remove any direct reachability from office LAN or internet.
      • WAF or reverse-proxy rule in front of NTWebServer: drop HTTP requests containing path-traversal patterns (../, ..\, %2e%2e%2f, %2e%2e%5c, double-encoded %252e%252e) and any request targeting .app, .ini or .lst extensions.
      • Enable IPS coverage: Snort/Suricata community rulesets ship signatures for CVE-2014-0780 and "InduSoft NTWebServer directory traversal" — switch them from alert to block.
      • Endpoint hardening: tighten NTFS ACLs on the Web Studio project directory so the NTWebServer service account can only read files needed at runtime; add an additional encryption or external credential vault layer for APP-stored secrets.
      • IAM least-privilege: run NTWebServer under a dedicated service account rather than LOCAL SYSTEM, strip local admin rights, and deny interactive logon via GPO.
      • Apply application whitelisting (AppLocker/WDAC) on the runtime host to prevent arbitrary payload execution if the traversal is successfully chained to RCE.

    3. Runbook step 3

      Detection rules

      • Web-server / reverse-proxy logs: Sigma shape selection: cs-uri-stem|contains: ['../', '..%2f', '..%5c', '.app', '.ini'] — escalate any hit against a known NTWebServer instance as high-priority.
      • Suricata/Zeek: HTTP requests toward Web Studio hosts with URI length > 200 characters or status 200 on non-public paths; compare against a baseline of normal HMI traffic.
      • Sysmon EID 1 on the runtime server: NTWebServer.exe should not spawn child processes in normal operation — any cmd.exe, powershell.exe or rundll32.exe child is a strong IoC. KQL example: DeviceProcessEvents | where InitiatingProcessFileName =~ "NTWebServer.exe" and FileName in~ ("cmd.exe","powershell.exe","wscript.exe").
      • File-access auditing (Windows EID 4663) on *.app files in the project directory, flagged whenever the NTWebServer service account reads them outside known project-load windows.
      • EDR network telemetry: outbound connections from the runtime server cell to internet or office destinations are atypical — alert on any new destination, especially common C2 ports.

    Detection rules

    No NEOSEC detection rule is available for this vulnerability yet.

    Classification under NIS2 and CRA

    Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.

    NIS2

    NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management.

    Read in glossary
    Actively exploited: treat the vulnerability as a priority in vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2. If it is exploited in your environment, check the reporting obligation under Art. 23 (early warning within 24 hours).
    CRA

    The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates.

    Read in glossary
    Since 11.09.2026, manufacturers of affected products with digital elements must report actively exploited vulnerabilities under Art. 14 CRA, with an early warning within 24 hours via ENISA's single reporting platform.
    ISO/IEC 27001

    ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security.

    Read in glossary
    Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.

    Description

    Directory traversal vulnerability in NTWebServer in InduSoft Web Studio 7.1 before SP2 Patch 4 allows remote attackers to read administrative passwords in APP files, and consequently execute arbitrary code, via unspecified web requests.

    Source: NVD (NIST), cvelistv5, CISA KEV Catalog, CVE.org (MITRE)

    Affected products

    The following versions are affected. Older releases of the same product line are also vulnerable unless stated otherwise.

    Affected products
    Affected versionsFixed in
    InduSoftWeb Studio
    • 7.1
    • —
    indusoftweb_studio
    • 7.1
    • —

    Vendors and products

    Weakness classes (CWE)

    • CWE-22Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')

      Base

      The product uses external input to construct a pathname that is intended to identify a file or directory that is located underneath a restricted parent directory, but the product does not properly neutralize special elements within the pathname that can cause the pathname to resolve to a location that is outside of the restricted directory.

      Entry at MITRE CWE-22

    Public exploit references

    Publicly reported proof-of-concepts, exploit modules and detection templates for this vulnerability. NEOSEC links to the original sources only and does not provide any exploit code.

    Public exploit references
    CISA KEV CatalogCISA Known Exploited Vulnerability (opens in a new tab)cisa.govactively exploited
    Exploit-DBEDB-ID 42699 (opens in a new tab)exploit-db.comPoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified—

    References & sources

    • exploit-db.com42699Exploit, x_refsource_EXPLOIT-DB, Exploit, Third-party advisory, Vulnerability database
    • cisa.govnews-events/ics-advisories/icsa-14-107-02US government resource
    • securityfocus.com67056Vulnerability database, x_refsource_BID, Broken link, Third-party advisory, Vulnerability database
    • download.indusoft.com71.2.4/IWS71.2.4.zipBroken link
    • ics-cert.us-cert.govadvisories/ICSA-14-107-02x_refsource_MISC, x_transferred, Patch, Third-party advisory, US government resource
    • cisa.govknown-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2014-0780government-resource, US government resource
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