CVE-2024-13951 is a medium-severity vulnerability identified in ABB's ASPECT-Enterprise, NEXUS Series, and MATRIX Series products, all affected through version 3.*. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-760, which involves the use of a one-way hash function with a predictable salt. In cryptographic terms, salts are random values added to data before hashing to ensure that identical inputs produce different hash outputs, thereby protecting against precomputed hash attacks such as rainbow tables. However, if the salt is predictable, attackers can precompute hashes or otherwise reverse-engineer the hashed data, potentially exposing sensitive information. This vulnerability indicates that the affected ABB products use a hashing mechanism where the salt is either static, sequential, or otherwise guessable, undermining the cryptographic strength of the hash. The CVSS 4.0 base score of 6.1 reflects a medium severity, with an attack vector of network (AV:N), low attack complexity (AC:L), requiring low privileges (PR:L), and no user interaction (UI:N). The vulnerability impacts confidentiality significantly (VC:H), with limited impact on integrity and availability. The scope is limited (SI:L), meaning the vulnerability affects components within the same security scope. No known exploits are currently in the wild, and no patches are listed yet, indicating that mitigation may rely on vendor updates or configuration changes. The vulnerability could allow an attacker with some network access and low privileges to extract sensitive information by exploiting the predictable salt in hashing operations, potentially leading to credential compromise or data leakage in industrial control or enterprise environments managed by ABB's software.

For European organizations using ABB's ASPECT-Enterprise, NEXUS, or MATRIX Series products, this vulnerability poses a risk of sensitive data exposure. ABB's products are often deployed in industrial automation, energy management, and critical infrastructure sectors, which are prevalent across Europe. Exploitation could lead to unauthorized disclosure of credentials or configuration data, potentially enabling further attacks such as unauthorized access or manipulation of industrial processes. Given the critical nature of these sectors, even a medium-severity vulnerability can have significant operational and safety implications. The confidentiality impact is high, which could affect compliance with European data protection regulations such as GDPR if personal or sensitive data is involved. The limited integrity and availability impact reduce the risk of direct operational disruption, but the potential for information leakage could facilitate more severe attacks. The requirement for low privileges and network access suggests that internal threat actors or attackers who have gained initial footholds could exploit this vulnerability. The absence of known exploits reduces immediate risk but does not eliminate the threat, especially as attackers may develop exploits once the vulnerability is publicly known.

European organizations should prioritize the following mitigations: 1) Engage with ABB to obtain and apply patches or updates once available, as no patches are currently listed. 2) Review and harden access controls to limit network and privilege access to ABB ASPECT-Enterprise and related systems, minimizing the attack surface. 3) Conduct an internal audit to identify where predictable salts are used and consider implementing compensating controls such as additional encryption layers or monitoring for anomalous access patterns. 4) Employ network segmentation to isolate industrial control systems from general IT networks, reducing exposure. 5) Monitor logs and network traffic for suspicious activities that could indicate attempts to exploit hashing weaknesses. 6) Educate internal teams about the risks of predictable salts and the importance of cryptographic best practices. 7) Prepare incident response plans specific to industrial control system compromises, including scenarios involving credential theft or data leakage. These steps go beyond generic advice by focusing on vendor engagement, access control tightening, cryptographic review, and targeted monitoring within the industrial context.