CVE-2023-29444 — An uncontrolled search path element vulnerability (DLL hijacking) has been disco

An uncontrolled search path element vulnerability (DLL hijacking) has been discovered that could allow a locally authenticated adversary to escalate privileges to SYSTEM. Alternatively, they could host a trojanized version of the software and trick victims into downloading and in

01What is this vulnerability?

An uncontrolled search path element vulnerability (DLL hijacking) has been discovered that could allow a locally authenticated adversary to escalate privileges to SYSTEM. Alternatively, they could host a trojanized version of the software and trick victims into downloading and installing their malicious version to gain initial access and code execution.

02Affected products

Vendor	Product	Versions
PTC	Kepware KEPServerEX	0
PTC	ThingWorx Kepware Server	0
PTC	ThingWorx Industrial Connectivity	8.0

03Active exploitation status

Not currently listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. EPSS is the best forward-looking signal — see the EPSS row above.

04Recommended remediation

• Patch to a fixed version listed in the vendor advisory (see references below).
• Mitigate with WAF rules, network egress filters, or feature flags where the patch is not yet available.
• Hunt historical logs for exploitation indicators — see Detection signatures below.

05Technical details

For the full vendor write-up, exploit chains, and reference implementations, see the references list in section 09.

06Detection signatures

Ask SARA in chat to draft a starting detection for this CVE in your stack of choice.

07Related CVEs

No directly-cited follow-up CVEs in the KB record for this advisory. The references list in section 09 carries the vendor cross-references.

08Timeline

• Published: 2024-01-10T17:06:35.965Z
• Last modified: 2025-05-14T20:14:19.414Z

09References

• www.cisa.gov — https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/ics-advisories/icsa-23-243-03
• www.ptc.com — https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/cs399528