Executive Summary
In January 2026, Rockwell Automation disclosed two significant vulnerabilities (CVE-2025-14376, CVE-2025-14377) in its Verve Asset Manager product. These flaws were rooted in insecure and cleartext storage of sensitive data within the legacy ADI server and Ansible playbook components, impacting versions 1.33 through 1.41.3. Exploitation could have allowed attackers with system or network access to retrieve confidential data from environment variables and process files, potentially facilitating lateral movement or further compromises. The issues were addressed in version 1.42, and vulnerable components were made optional in newer releases.
This incident is particularly relevant amid heightened attention to supply chain risk and critical infrastructure cybersecurity. As industrial control vendors face rising regulatory pressure and expansion of zero-trust mandates, unencrypted data storage flaws highlight the urgent need for comprehensive data-in-transit and at-rest protections.
Why This Matters Now
These vulnerabilities expose sensitive operational data within critical infrastructure environments at a time when threat actors increasingly target supply chain and industrial sectors. With evolving compliance requirements and aggressive adversary tactics, reliance on legacy components lacking adequate encryption introduces urgent risk to business continuity and compliance postures.
Attack Path Analysis
The attack began when an adversary exploited insecure storage of sensitive data in environment variables or playbook artifacts within the legacy ADI server or Ansible components. Once inside, the attacker attempted to leverage these credentials to escalate privileges in the system. With elevated access, the attacker attempted lateral movement between internal workloads to locate additional sensitive assets. Command & Control was established to remotely manage payloads or data collection, potentially using covert channels or trusted protocols. Sensitive environment variables and other confidential data were then exfiltrated, potentially over unencrypted channels or unauthorized destinations. Finally, the attacker could have caused further impact such as disruption of operations or data integrity loss, but evidence for destructive actions is limited.
Kill Chain Progression
Initial Compromise
Description
Exploitation of vulnerable ADI server or Ansible playbook components allowed access to unencrypted sensitive environment variables.
Related CVEs
CVE-2025-1449
CVSS 9.1A vulnerability in the administrative web interface of Verve's Legacy Agentless Device Inventory (ADI) component allows users to change a variable with inadequate sanitizing, potentially enabling a threat actor with administrative access to execute arbitrary commands within the service's container.
Affected Products:
Rockwell Automation Verve Asset Manager – <=1.39
Exploit Status:
no public exploit
MITRE ATT&CK® Techniques
Technique mappings are for initial filtering and SEO; full ATT&CK enrichment may be incorporated with STIX/TAXII sources in later releases.
Unsecured Credentials
Data from Local System
Indicator Removal on Host: File Deletion
Account Discovery
User Execution
Credentials from Password Stores
Windows Management Instrumentation
Potential Compliance Exposure
Mapping incident impact across multiple compliance frameworks.
PCI DSS 4.0 – Document and Implement Procedures to Protect Stored Account Data
Control ID: 3.5
NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 – Protection of Information at Rest
Control ID: SC-28
NIS2 Directive – Technical and Operational Measures
Control ID: Article 21(2)(a)
NYDFS 23 NYCRR 500 – Cybersecurity Policy
Control ID: 500.03
DORA (EU Regulation 2022/2554) – Protection and Prevention Measures
Control ID: Article 9(2)
CISA Zero Trust Maturity Model 2.0 – Protect Sensitive Data at Rest
Control ID: Data Pillar - Visibility and Analytics
Sector Implications
Industry-specific impact of the vulnerabilities, including operational, regulatory, and cloud security risks.
Industrial Automation
Rockwell Automation Verve Asset Manager vulnerabilities expose unencrypted sensitive data in ADI servers and Ansible playbooks, critically impacting industrial control systems.
Automotive
Manufacturing automation systems using Rockwell Verve Asset Manager face high risk from cleartext storage vulnerabilities affecting production line security and data integrity.
Oil/Energy/Solar/Greentech
Critical infrastructure vulnerability in asset management systems threatens operational technology networks through insecure storage of sensitive information in energy facilities.
Utilities
Power grid and utility infrastructure using affected Rockwell systems vulnerable to data exposure through unencrypted environment variables and playbook execution flaws.
Sources
- Rockwell Automation Verve Asset Managerhttps://www.cisa.gov/news-events/ics-advisories/icsa-26-020-03Verified
- Admin Shell Access Vulnerability in Verve Asset Managerhttps://www.rockwellautomation.com/en-no/trust-center/security-advisories.htmlVerified
- Rockwell Automation Verve Asset Managerhttps://www.cisa.gov/news-events/ics-advisories/icsa-25-084-02Verified
- CVE-2025-1449 Detailhttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-1449Verified
Frequently Asked Questions
Cloud Native Security Fabric Mitigations and ControlsCNSF
Comprehensive Zero Trust controls such as segmentation, credential isolation, encrypted traffic enforcement, and strict egress policies would have contained the attack and minimized exposure of sensitive environment variables and internal lateral movement paths.
Control: Cloud Native Security Fabric (CNSF)
Mitigation: Inline policy and detection could have blocked or alerted on exploitation attempts.
Control: Zero Trust Segmentation
Mitigation: Access to privileged functions would be limited by least-privilege and segmentation policy.
Control: East-West Traffic Security
Mitigation: Workload-to-workload movement is constrained by east-west controls and visibility.
Control: Multicloud Visibility & Control
Mitigation: Anomalous or covert command traffic is detected by centralized monitoring.
Control: Egress Security & Policy Enforcement
Mitigation: Outbound exfiltration attempts are detected and blocked at egress points.
Anomalous behavior and post-exploitation actions are detected for rapid response.
Impact at a Glance
Affected Business Functions
- Asset Management
- System Administration
Estimated downtime: 3 days
Estimated loss: $50,000
Potential exposure of sensitive configuration data and system credentials due to unauthorized command execution within the service's container.
Recommended Actions
Key Takeaways & Next Steps
- • Update to Verve Asset Manager version 1.42 or later to ensure deprecated, insecure components are removed.
- • Enforce Zero Trust Segmentation across cloud and OT workloads to isolate privileged functions and sensitive data stores.
- • Apply east-west workload controls and continuous intra-cloud visibility to prevent and quickly detect lateral movement.
- • Mandate encrypted traffic for all data in transit and monitor all egress channels for unauthorized exfiltration attempts.
- • Integrate policy-driven threat detection and anomaly response tied to IAM behaviors, privilege use, and suspicious automation across cloud resources.
