CVE-2023-53776 is a session fixation vulnerability categorized under CWE-384, discovered in version 1.9.3 of the Screen SFT DAB Series compact radio DAB transmitter developed by DB Elettronica Telecomunicazioni SpA. The vulnerability arises from weak session management where session identifiers are bound to IP addresses but can be reused by attackers to bypass authentication. Specifically, the device's management API relies on session tokens that do not adequately prevent reuse or fixation, allowing an attacker to hijack or fixate a session and issue unauthorized commands to the transmitter. This can lead to unauthorized control over critical transmitter functions, potentially disrupting broadcast operations or enabling malicious configuration changes. The vulnerability is remotely exploitable without requiring user interaction, privileges, or authentication, increasing its risk profile. The CVSS 4.0 vector (AV:A/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N) indicates that the attack can be performed over an adjacent network with low complexity and no privileges or user interaction, with high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. No patches or known exploits are currently documented, but the vulnerability's nature suggests it could be leveraged in targeted attacks against broadcast infrastructure.

For European organizations, particularly broadcasters and communication service providers using the Screen SFT DAB Series transmitters, this vulnerability poses a significant risk. Exploitation could allow attackers to gain unauthorized control over DAB transmitters, potentially disrupting digital radio broadcasts, manipulating transmitted content, or causing denial of service. This could impact public information dissemination, emergency broadcast capabilities, and commercial broadcasting operations. The confidentiality of management operations is compromised, as attackers can issue commands without authentication. Integrity and availability of the broadcast service are at high risk, which could lead to reputational damage, regulatory penalties, and operational downtime. Given the critical role of digital radio in many European countries, the threat could affect national communication resilience and public safety messaging.

Organizations should immediately audit their deployment of Screen SFT DAB Series transmitters to identify affected versions (1.9.3). Until vendor patches are released, network-level mitigations should be enforced, including isolating management interfaces from untrusted networks and restricting access via firewall rules to trusted IP addresses only. Implement network segmentation to separate transmitter management traffic from general network traffic. Monitor network traffic for unusual API requests or session reuse patterns indicative of session fixation attempts. Where possible, deploy additional authentication layers such as VPNs or multifactor authentication for management access. Vendors and integrators should be engaged to prioritize patch development and deployment. Post-patch, verify that session management mechanisms enforce unique, non-reusable session tokens and invalidate sessions upon logout or timeout to prevent fixation. Regular security assessments and penetration testing focused on session management controls are recommended to detect similar weaknesses.