Skip to content
OpenAdvisories
High VDE-2022-058 2 CVEs

PHOENIX CONTACT: Profinet SDK libexpat vulnerabilities

Published Dec 13, 2022 · Updated May 14, 2025 · Revision 2

Vendor: Phoenix Contact Product: PROFINET SDK

Summary

Two vulnerabilities have been discovered in the Expat XML parser library (aka libexpat). This open-source component is widely used in a lot of products worldwide. An attacker could cause a program to crash, use unexpected values or execute code by exploiting these use-after-free vulnerabilities.
Profinet SDK is using XML parser library Expat as reference solution for loading the XML based Profinet network configuration files (IPPNIO or TIC).

Details

Impact
Availability, integrity, or confidentiality of a device using the PROFINET Controller Stack mightbe compromised by attacks exploit these vulnerabilities.
Depending on the instantiation and timing of the defect, using previously freed memory might result in a variety of negative effects, from the corruption of valid data to the execution of arbitrary code. In the default installation a vulnerable libexpat is present, but it may have been replaced in the toolchain itself.

Mitigation
We strongly recommend customers to ensure that only data from reliable sources is used. Affected customers should also check if vulnerable libexpat library versions are used in the specific configuration tool chain.
For detailed information on our recommendations for measures to protect network-capable devices, please refer to our application note:
Measures to protect network-capable devices with Ethernet connection

Remediation
Update configuration tool chains to libexpat library version 2.4.9.
Upgrade to PROFINET SDK 6.7 .

Vulnerabilities 2

Revision history

  1. #2

    Fix: added distribution

  2. #1

    Initial revision.

References