Firmware update files may reveal password hashes for system accounts, which a remote attacker could reverse engineer to obtain valid credentials for the device. This vulnerability allows an unauthorised user to gain access to the device, potentially compromising its confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The flaw is a credentials disclosure weakness as reflected by the associated CWE identifiers.

The affected product is the SICK AG TDC‑X401GL industrial controller. The firmware update process is the source of the vulnerability; any device running a firmware that has not applied the fix is susceptible.

With a CVSS score of 5.3 the vulnerability is of moderate severity. The EPSS score indicates a very low likelihood of exploitation, and there is no record of it being in the CISA KEV catalog. The exploit would require remote access to the device or its update mechanism, after which an attacker could read the exposed password hashes to discover user credentials and then authenticate to the device.