Threats / Rockwell / CVE-2021-22681
CVE-2021-22681
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-08-04
Rockwell Multiple Products vulnerability
Multiple Rockwell Automation products contain insufficient credential protection allowing discovery of verification keys used by Logix controllers. Exploitation enables unauthorized applications to connect to controllers with network access
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
An attacker with network access to a Logix controller can discover insufficiently protected credentials to impersonate legitimate design software and establish unauthorized connections, potentially compromising industrial control system integrity.
CISA KEV Yes · 2026-03-055EPSS 0.60993 (verify live)6CVSS 9.8 (CISA)4CISA SSVC Exploitation: active · Automatable: yes · Impact: total4
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreReported exploitation
4 independent public reports of in-the-wild exploitation are cataloged.Distinct reporting sources (vendor, incident response, government); open them for the underlying claims.
Exploited in the wild
Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2026-03-05).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.60993 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
CVSS 9.8 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) · Affected: Rockwell, Multiple Products. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.CVSS — CISA-assigned via the ADP container (CVE.org), version 3.1; the CNA left no metrics, so CISA's own score is used ahead of NVD.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-522 Insufficiently Protected Credentials — weakness family: Authentication.CWE — CNA-assigned (CVE.org); the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
CISA SSVC (triage disposition)
Exploitation: active · Automatable: yes · Technical Impact: totalCISA's own stakeholder-specific triage inputs, published in the CVE record (CISA Coordinator role). NOTE: this is CISA's three decision points; the final Act/Attend/Track decision also requires a Mission & Well-being input not published here, so no overall decision is asserted.
Currency of the record
CISA added this to its KEV catalog 1828 days after the CVE record was published.KEV lag = CISA-KEV dateAdded − CVE.org datePublished; a floor on how long the known-exploited flaw sat in the public record before the federal catalog listed it. Severity/weakness here is CNA- or CISA-assigned (current at disclosure), independent of NVD's analysis backlog.
02
Who’s exploiting it?
— attribution turns risk into urgencyAttribution not established
No confirmed (advisory-backed) threat-actor attribution is established for this record. Absence of a named actor is not absence of compromise — see Coverage & confidence.
03
Why it matters
— the attack path, told twice: adversary, then board1
Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1
Attacker
I discover the verification key used by Logix controllers through insufficient protection mechanisms in Studio 5000 Logix Designer.
Business
Attackers gain the ability to forge legitimate communications with critical industrial control infrastructure.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I use the discovered key to create an unauthorized application that mimics legitimate Rockwell design software.
Business
The organization loses the ability to distinguish between authorized and malicious controller communications.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
I connect my unauthorized application to Logix controllers on the network, establishing a foothold for further compromise.
Business
Operational technology systems face direct compromise risk, potentially enabling manipulation of industrial processes.
04
What to do
— defensible action- Remediate per the vendor advisory — confirm the fixed build for your version and verify exposure.1
Say it to the boardA vulnerability with this evidence profile is a defensible budget line, not a backlog ticket — fund the change against the proof above.
05