CVE-2023-22584
📋 TL;DR
The Danfoss AK-EM100 energy meter stores login credentials in cleartext, allowing attackers with physical or logical access to read sensitive authentication data. This affects all organizations using vulnerable AK-EM100 devices for energy monitoring and management.
💻 Affected Systems
- Danfoss AK-EM100
📦 What is this software?
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Attackers gain administrative access to energy management systems, potentially manipulating energy data, disrupting operations, or using the device as an initial foothold into industrial networks.
Likely Case
Unauthorized users read stored credentials and gain access to the device's web interface, compromising energy monitoring data and basic device controls.
If Mitigated
With proper network segmentation and access controls, impact is limited to credential exposure without lateral movement opportunities.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires access to stored credential files, which can be obtained through physical access or network access to the device's file system.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Contact Danfoss for updated firmware
Vendor Advisory: https://csirt.divd.nl/CVE-2023-22584/
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Contact Danfoss support for updated firmware. 2. Backup device configuration. 3. Apply firmware update via web interface or local connection. 4. Verify credentials are now encrypted. 5. Change all passwords after update.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Network Segmentation
allIsolate AK-EM100 devices on separate VLANs with strict firewall rules to limit access.
Access Control Hardening
allImplement strict physical and logical access controls to prevent unauthorized access to devices.
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement network segmentation to isolate vulnerable devices from critical systems
- Enable logging and monitoring for unauthorized access attempts to AK-EM100 devices
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check if login credentials are stored in cleartext in device configuration files or memory. Requires access to device file system.Check Version:
Check firmware version via web interface at http://[device-ip]/ or via serial connectionVerify Fix Applied:
After patching, verify that credentials are no longer visible in cleartext in configuration files or memory dumps.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Multiple failed login attempts followed by successful login from unusual IP
- Unauthorized configuration file access attempts
Network Indicators:
- Unusual network traffic to/from AK-EM100 devices
- Credential harvesting attempts targeting device IPs
SIEM Query:
source="ak-em100" AND (event_type="auth_failure" OR event_type="config_access")