Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 Improper Restriction of XML External Entity Reference (CVE-2013-0340)

critical Tenable OT Security Plugin ID 504171

Synopsis

The remote OT asset is affected by a vulnerability.

Description

expat 2.1.0 and earlier does not properly handle entities expansion unless an application developer uses the XML_SetEntityDeclHandler function, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (resource consumption), send HTTP requests to intranet servers, or read arbitrary files via a crafted XML document, aka an XML External Entity (XXE) issue. NOTE: it could be argued that because expat already provides the ability to disable external entity expansion, the responsibility for resolving this issue lies with application developers; according to this argument, this entry should be REJECTed, and each affected application would need its own CVE.

This plugin only works with Tenable.ot.
Please visit https://www.tenable.com/products/tenable-ot for more information.

Solution

Refer to the vendor advisory.

Plugin Details

Severity: Critical

ID: 504171

Version: 1.1

Type: remote

Family: Tenable.ot

Published: 11/13/2025

Updated: 11/13/2025

Supported Sensors: Tenable OT Security

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 4.4

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Critical

Base Score: 9.1

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

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:siemens:simatic_s7-1500_cpu_firmware:3.1.5, cpe:/o:siemens:siplus_s7-1500_cpu_firmware:3.1.5

Required KB Items: Tenable.ot/Siemens

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 12/12/2023

Vulnerability Publication Date: 12/12/2023

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2013-0340

CWE: 611

Detections

Analytics