VulnerabilityPublished 3 Jul 2025

CVE-2025-27460: Endress+Hauser MEAC300-FNADE4 · Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information

Affects Endress+Hauser MEAC300-FNADE4Source CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.6 High.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 14:05 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

7.6High

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 2% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attack Vector: Physical
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Scope: Changed
Confidentiality: High
Integrity: High
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Physical: The attack requires the attacker to physically touch or manipulate the vulnerable component. Physical interaction may be brief or persistent.
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Changed: An exploited vulnerability can affect resources beyond the security scope managed by the security authority of the vulnerable component. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are different and managed by different security authorities.
Confidentiality: High: There is total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all resources within the impacted component being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact.
Integrity: High: There is a total loss of integrity, or a complete loss of protection. For example, the attacker is able to modify any/all files protected by the impacted component. Alternatively, only some files can be modified, but malicious modification would present a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 3 Jul 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

AI-suggested

Mitigation should focus on both immediate and long-term controls. First, organizations should implement strict physical security controls to prevent unauthorized physical access to devices, including locked cabinets, surveillance, and access logging. Second, where possible, enable full disk encryption on the MEAC300-FNADE4 devices; if the vendor does not currently support this, request or push for firmware updates or security patches that add encryption capabilities. Third, implement tamper-evident seals or intrusion detection mechanisms on device enclosures to detect physical breaches. Fourth, maintain rigorous inventory and asset management to quickly identify affected devices and prioritize remediation. Fifth, deploy network segmentation and monitoring to detect anomalous device behavior that might indicate tampering. Finally, establish incident response plans that consider physical compromise scenarios and include forensic readiness to analyze devices if physical tampering is suspected. Organizations should also engage with Endress+Hauser for any forthcoming patches or security advisories and apply updates promptly once available.

Description

The hard drives of the device are not encrypted using a full volume encryption feature such as BitLocker. This allows an attacker with physical access to the device to use an alternative operating system to interact with the hard drives, completely circumventing the Windows login. The attacker can read from and write to all files on the hard drives.

Impact

For European organizations, especially those in industrial sectors such as manufacturing, utilities, oil and gas, and chemical processing, this vulnerability could have severe consequences. The MEAC300-FNADE4 is likely deployed in critical process control environments where data integrity and confidentiality are paramount. An attacker exploiting this vulnerability could manipulate device configurations or extract sensitive operational data, leading to process disruptions, safety incidents, or intellectual property theft. The physical access requirement limits remote exploitation but insider threats or attackers with physical proximity could leverage this vulnerability. Given the interconnected nature of industrial control systems in Europe and the increasing focus on securing critical infrastructure under regulations like NIS2, this vulnerability could undermine compliance efforts and risk management strategies. Additionally, since the vulnerability allows full read/write access, attackers could implant malicious firmware or tamper with logs, complicating incident detection and response.

CWE-312Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessOWASP Top 10 A06:2025: Insecure Design (opens in a new tab)
The product stores sensitive information in cleartext within a resource that might be accessible to another control sphere.
Implementation · System Configuration · Operation
When storing data in the cloud (e.g., S3 buckets, Azure blobs, Google Cloud Storage, etc.), use the provider's controls to encrypt the data at rest.
Implementation · System Configuration · Operation
In some systems/environments such as cloud, the use of "double encryption" (at both the software and hardware layer) might be required, and the developer might be solely responsible for both layers, instead of shared responsibility with the administrator of the broader system/environment.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Secure Design Principles (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V8.1.6 (opens in a new tab)
V8.2.3 (opens in a new tab)
V8.2.2 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Retrieve Embedded Sensitive Data (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 3 Jul 2025, 11:55 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-312

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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