GENESIS: Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password
CVE-2026-16437 is a high-severity weak password recovery mechanism for forgotten password vulnerability in GENESIS from Mitsubishi Electric, with a CVSS 4.0 base score of 7.1 out of 10. It can be exploited with local access to the system by an attacker with administrator privileges, without any action from a user. Affected GENESIS versions: versions 11.03 and prior. The record does not name a fixed version, so check the vendor advisory. There is no confirmed exploitation so far. EPSS estimates a 0.11% chance of exploitation within 30 days, which is low compared with other CVEs.
High severity with no evidence of exploitation so far.
What to do
- Check which version of GENESIS you run against the affected versions below, and install the vendor's latest release.
- Read the advisory on mitsubishielectric.com for workarounds and exact fixed builds.
Affected products and versions
Version data comes from the organisation that assigned the CVE. Confirm against the vendor advisory before deciding you are unaffected.
How the severity score breaks down
- Attack vector
- LocalThe attacker needs local access or must trick a user into running something.
- Attack complexity
- HighSuccess depends on conditions outside the attacker's control.
- Attack requirements
- NoneThe attack does not depend on a particular deployment or configuration.
- Privileges required
- HighAdministrator-level access is required first.
- User interaction
- NoneNo action by a victim is required.
- Confidentiality (vulnerable system)
- HighSerious loss of confidentiality on the vulnerable system.
- Integrity (vulnerable system)
- HighSerious loss of integrity on the vulnerable system.
- Availability (vulnerable system)
- HighSerious loss of availability on the vulnerable system.
- Confidentiality (other systems)
- NoneNo loss of confidentiality on systems beyond the vulnerable one.
- Integrity (other systems)
- NoneNo loss of integrity on systems beyond the vulnerable one.
- Availability (other systems)
- NoneNo loss of availability on systems beyond the vulnerable one.
Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:N/PR:H/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X. Scored by CNA (yd.MitsubishiElectric.co.jp).
Official description
Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password vulnerability in Mitsubishi Electric GENESIS versions 11.03 and prior, GENESIS64 versions 10.97.3 and prior, ICONICS Suite versions 10.97.3 and prior, Hyper Historian versions 10.97.3 and prior, AnalytiX versions 10.97.3 and prior, MobileHMI 10.97.3 and prior, IoTWorX 10.97.3 and prior, MC Works64 all versions, GENESIS32 all versions, BizViz all versions, Mitsubishi Electric Iconics Digital Solutions GENESIS versions 11.03 and prior, GENESIS64 versions 10.97.3 and prior, ICONICS Suite versions 10.97.3 and prior, Hyper Historian versions 10.97.3 and prior, AnalytiX versions 10.97.3 and prior, MobileHMI 10.97.3 and prior, IoTWorX 10.97.3 and prior, GENESIS32 all versions, and BizViz all versions allows an authenticated local user with administrative privileges to unlock the system by tampering with the management file that stores the challenge response. Administrators are able to read and write the management file. But the management file is protected by Windows. As a result, the attacker may disclose, tamper with, destroy, or delete internal information, or cause the affected system to enter a denial-of-service (DoS) condition.
Source: the CVE record as published by its numbering authority, via NVD and CVE.org.
The underlying weakness: Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password
The product contains a mechanism for users to recover or change their passwords without knowing the original password, but the mechanism is weak.
How developers prevent this class of flaw
- Make sure that all input supplied by the user to the password recovery mechanism is thoroughly filtered and validated.
- Do not use standard weak security questions and use several security questions.
- Make sure that there is throttling on the number of incorrect answers to a security question. Disable the password recovery functionality after a certain (small) number of incorrect guesses.
More Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password vulnerabilities (CWE-640)
Timeline
- CVE record published.
- CISA published its SSVC assessment (exploitation: none, automatable: no, technical impact: total).
- Record last changed materially (score, affected products, status or references).
References
Other vulnerabilities in GENESIS
- 9.2 Critical severity
- 9.3 Critical severity
- 9.3 Critical severity
Recent Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password vulnerabilities
- 7.4 High severity
- 9.1 Critical severity
- 7.4 High severity
- 9.1 Critical severity
- 9.1 Critical severity
- 9.8 Critical severity
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