CVE-2024-5434 Campbell Scientific CVE debrief

Who should care

Organizations operating Campbell Scientific environmental monitoring, meteorological, or industrial data acquisition systems using CSI Web Server or RTMC Pro for remote data visualization and system management.

Technical summary

The Campbell Scientific CSI Web Server stores web authentication credentials in a file with a specific, predictable filename. Passwords within this file are encoded using a weak reversible scheme rather than modern cryptographic hashing. CISA's advisory ICSA-24-149-01 confirms there is no known remote exploitation vector; the file cannot be accessed remotely unless manually renamed. However, if an attacker gains local access, filesystem access, or obtains the file through other means, the weak encoding allows straightforward password recovery. Recovered credentials can then be reused to authenticate to the web interface. The vulnerability affects CSI Web Server versions 1.6 and earlier, and RTMC Pro versions 5.0 and earlier.

Defensive priority

medium

Recommended defensive actions

• Apply vendor patches: update CSI Web Server to the most recent 1.x patch version
• Apply vendor patches: update RTMC Pro 5 to the most recent 5.x patch version
• Apply vendor patches: update RTMC Pro 4 to the most recent 4.x patch version
• Restrict physical and logical access to the host system to prevent unauthorized file access
• Review file permissions on the credential storage file to ensure least privilege
• Monitor for unauthorized file access attempts or credential file exfiltration
• Contact Campbell Scientific for additional guidance if running unsupported versions

Evidence notes

CISA CSAF advisory ICSA-24-149-01 published 2024-05-28 identifies affected products: CSI Web Server ≤1.6 and RTMC Pro ≤5.0. The advisory confirms passwords are stored in weakly encoded format within a file having a specific filename, with no known remote access path. CVSS 3.1 score of 5.7 (MEDIUM) reflects AV:A (adjacent network), AC:L (low attack complexity), PR:L (low privileges required), and C:H (high confidentiality impact).

Sources and references

Methodology and review provenance

AI-assisted synthesis based on stored public vulnerability evidence. System validation, approval state, and publication status do not by themselves establish human review of this revision. PatchSiren helps prioritize defensive review and does not prove exposure or remediation on any system.