| Siemens SIMATIC S7-1200 CPU 1214C (6ES7214-1AG40-0XB0)
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Security Grade
Calculator v1
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Siemens SIMATIC S7-1200 CPU 1214C DC/DC/DC (6ES7214-1AG40-0XB0)
Release Date: 2014-03-18 • Status: In sale
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Security Evaluation
1. Device Security
| Criterion
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Value
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Proof
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Comment
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| Known hardware tampering
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Rare
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🔗 Proof
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The manual describes accessible service connections, a removable memory card and the need for physical protection. Partial resistance is a qualitative physical-access judgment, not an incident-count statistic. Evidence boundary: Not described as tamper-proof; cabinet installation does not itself authenticate service access.
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| Known vulnerabilities
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Very common
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🔗 Proof
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The legacy family has independently disclosed native-code execution and shared-key protection failures (CVE-2020-15782 and CVE-2022-38465). This is a qualitative high-risk legacy-history category, not measured incident frequency. Evidence boundary: The rubric has no quantitative frequency threshold. These historical vulnerabilities must not be attributed to a properly updated and migrated configuration. Additional primary evidence: source 2.
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| Prior attacks
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Rare
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🔗 Proof
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Siemens identifies the S7-1200 family as a target in an ongoing 2026 threat campaign. CISA also reports observed targeting of Siemens PLCs. Rare is a qualitative family-history mapping, not an incident-rate measurement; successful compromise of this exact CPU order number and V4.4 deployment is not confirmed by these sources. Evidence boundary: The cited original 2022 no-known-related-incidents statement is historical and cannot establish None in a 2026 knowledge assessment. Additional primary evidence: source 2; source 3.
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| Updatability
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Very common
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🔗 Proof
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The family has multiple documented firmware generations and a vendor-provided remediation path beyond V4.4. Under the declared qualitative maintenance convention, this is continuing update support, not a measured releases-per-month claim. Evidence boundary: The assessed deployment has not migrated. Leaving the shared-key design requires both suitable CPU firmware and the TIA project update. Additional primary evidence: source 2.
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| Category Score
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Score: 2 / 3
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2. System Security
| Criterion
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Value
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Proof
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Comment
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| Authentication with other systems
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No
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🔗 Proof
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V4.4 defaults to unrestricted engineering access without a password. Evidence boundary: Optional service authentication is not universal protection. Additional primary evidence: source 2.
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| Communications
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No encryption
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🔗 Proof
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The exact V4.4 manual warns that signed legacy messages are exchanged in clear text (p739). This enabled payload path determines the mixed-communications rating; protected blocks do not encrypt all traffic. Evidence boundary: The signature supplies integrity, not confidentiality. Optional secure OUC/HTTPS and newer migrated TLS paths do not remove the legacy cleartext path in this historical profile.
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| Storage
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Encrypted with obselete encryption
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🔗 Proof
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The vendor confirms confidential configuration resides on the PLC/memory card and is protected by a recoverable family key. Score2 rates this obsolete key-protection design, rather than calling AES obsolete. Evidence boundary: Confidential resident configuration is the object evaluated; no claim that all firmware bytes or storage sectors are encrypted.
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| Category Score
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Score: 3 / 3
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3. User Authentication
| Criterion
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Value
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Proof
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Comment
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| Account management
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Basic
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🔗 Proof
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The V4.4 platform supports protection levels and separately defined web users; this is basic administration rather than comprehensive per-user engineering roles. The selected engineering path remains unrestricted. Evidence boundary: Account capability is distinguished from the effective no-password engineering access in this profile.
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| Authentication
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Absent
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🔗 Proof
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The default engineering path lacks a user-authentication barrier. Evidence boundary: A positively documented default. Additional primary evidence: source 2.
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| Brute-force protection
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Absent
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🔗 Proof
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Unrestricted engineering access requires no guessing; Absent is closest. Evidence boundary: No claim about optional web-login throttling. Additional primary evidence: source 2.
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| Event logging
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Access event logged
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🔗 Proof
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The V4.4 diagnostics buffer records authentication/access and configuration events and retains the latest50 events through power loss (p107). Score1 credits event coverage, not unlimited retention. Evidence boundary: Small local retention and service-specific coverage must remain visible.
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| Passwords
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Default/Common/Easy to guess
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🔗 Proof
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The documented V4.4 engineering default has no password barrier (section7.6.1, p192). Score3 represents this unprotected access; no common vendor password is invented. Evidence boundary: Optional configured access passwords are outside this default historical profile.
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| Category Score
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Score: 3 / 3
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Technical Specifications
| Property
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Details
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| Operating System & App
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SIMATIC S7-1200 CPU firmware V4.4 (assessed historical baseline). (Companion App: SIMATIC STEP 7 in TIA Portal for engineering; integrated CPU web server. No phone companion app is assessed.)
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| Hardware (CPU / GPU)
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CPU: SIMATIC CPU 1214C DC/DC/DC; internal processor chip model and clock not publicly specified in the cited manual. • GPU: No graphics function specified for this PLC; GPU silicon details not publicly disclosed in the cited manual.
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| Memory & Storage
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Memory: V4.4: 100 KB work memory; 10 KB retentive memory. • Storage: 4 MB internal load memory; optional SIMATIC memory-card expansion, not assumed installed.
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| Power, Battery & Charging
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Battery: RTC backup uses a maintenance-free supercapacitor; optional BB 1297 with CR1025 battery is not assumed installed. • Power: External 24 V DC nominal (20.4-28.8 V DC); 12 W listed power dissipation. • Charging: Not applicable to normal operation: external DC supply; no user battery-charging workflow.
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| Display & Camera
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Display: Onboard status/I-O LEDs; no integrated graphical screen. External HMI is optional. • Camera: Not applicable: no camera function specified for the base PLC.
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| Sound & Connectivity
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Sound: Not applicable: no audio capture/playback function specified for the base PLC. • Connectivity: One 10/100 Mb/s RJ45 PROFINET/Ethernet port; onboard 14 digital inputs, 10 digital outputs and 2 analog inputs.
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| Physical (Dimensions & Mass)
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Dimensions: 110 x 100 x 75 mm (W x H x D). • Mass: 415 g listed shipping weight in the V4.4 manual; historical configuration net mass not established.
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Assessment scope
Documentation-based historical deployment of Siemens CPU 1214C DC/DC/DC (6ES7214-1AG40-0XB0), firmware V4.4, with its documented unrestricted engineering access and legacy PG/PC-HMI communications. This is a device/configuration case study, not a claim about current migrated firmware or an inspected installation. Incident knowledge is reviewed through 24 October 2026; family targeting is distinguished from a confirmed victim of this exact order number.
Method and evidence boundaries
This is a documentary case-study assessment of the exact hardware, firmware and explicitly stated configuration, reviewed on 24 October 2026. No physical installation, penetration test or traffic capture by the author is claimed. Historical flaws do not establish current unpatched exposure. The website supplies qualitative categories rather than statistical thresholds: repeated real maintenance supports Updatability 1; isolated/uncertain maintenance supports2; a documented no-update condition supports3. Vulnerability/attack frequency labels are reasoned judgments, and a laboratory demonstration is not an observed campaign. None for prior attacks means no exact-model field campaign established in the reviewed sources, not proof of lifetime absence. Communications follows the least-protected enabled path carrying control, credentials or application payloads; a DNS/discovery packet alone is not used to label an entire device unencrypted. Storage evaluates confidential device-resident flash contents, not merely cloud security or whether executable firmware is readable. For Passwords, the methodology discusses first-setup credentials and expressly allows unique initial passwords. Where mandatory first-use creation or explicitly configured unique credentials do not match a shared-default-change label literally, option2 is a disclosed functional mapping, not a claim of forced periodic rotation. Option1 additionally requires enforced complexity; option3 requires positive evidence of common, predictable or unprotected access. Dates preserve the identified manufacturer announcement/availability or clearly identified primary regional catalog basis. No arbitrary first-of-month date is inserted. The calculated IDRS device grade is not a manufacturer certification or a student assignment mark.
Calculated IDRS: 2 + 3 + 3 = 8 (D).
Date basis: Siemens sales/delivery-release announcement, SIOS Entry 86567043 dated 18 March 2014, states immediate availability and lists this exact CPU order number. This is an official announcement/availability date; the19 March print footer is not the release date.
Date source: https://www.ad.siemens.com.cn/club/bbs/upload/635308321547590223.pdf
Patch/support context: Siemens recommends CPU firmware V4.5.0 or later together with TIA Portal V17-or-later project migration to leave the legacy global-key protection. Updating firmware alone is insufficient. This historical grade does not claim those remediations are unavailable.
Product-specific boundaries: The grade applies to an explicitly documented legacy V4.4 configuration; it is not the security grade of a properly updated/migrated installation. The communications score follows an actual documented cleartext payload path; secure capabilities on other paths are not ignored or called absent. Rare/Very common are qualitative source-based assessment labels because the website supplies no numerical thresholds. The2026 evidence names the S7-1200 family as a target; it does not identify a successful compromise of this exact CPU and firmware. Release date is the exact-model manufacturer sales/delivery-release announcement date, not the print date or an observed retail transaction.
Hardware and general-information supplement
Supplement reviewed on 25 October 2026. Manufacturer model specifications and explicitly identified historical manuals support the added fields. Hardware capabilities do not imply that optional services, accessories or every capacity variant are enabled in the assessed case. Unpublished or unverified parameters are identified rather than guessed. Current sale/support status is separate from the original historical firmware/configuration assessment; the twelve security selections and original evidence have not been changed.
Specification evidence
- Generation, Dimensions, Mass, Operating system, Companion App, CPU, GPU, Memory, Storage, Battery, Power, Charging, Display, Camera, Sound, Connectivity: source 1.
- Status: source 1.
Specification qualifications
- Memory and communication values follow the V4.4 manual; newer firmware memory and user-role specifications are not substituted.
- The 415 g figure is explicitly shipping weight in the primary manual, not established net mass.
- Current Active Product catalogue status is distinct from the historical V4.4 firmware assessment.
