Seagate ST500LT015 hard disk drives, when operating in eDrive mode on Lenovo ThinkPad W541 laptops with BIOS 2.21, allow physically proximate attackers to bypass self-encrypting drive (SED) protection by attaching a second SATA connector to exposed pins, maintaining an alternate power source, and attaching the data cable to another machine, aka a "Hot Unplug Attack."
Conclusion & alert: CVE-2015-7269 is rated Low Risk (25.9/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.07%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.
Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.
EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).
| # | Date | Old EPSS score | New EPSS score | Delta (New - Old) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2023-03-07 | 0.89% | 0.07% | -0.82% |
| 2 | 2022-02-04 | — | 0.89% | — |
Full EPSS history (2 records total)
CVSS metrics for this CVE.
| Base score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability | Impact | Score source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.2 | 3.0 | MEDIUM |
|
0.5 | 3.6 | [email protected] |
| 1.9 | 2.0 | LOW |
|
3.4 | 2.9 | [email protected] |
| Vendor | Product | Version | Raw CPE |
|---|---|---|---|
| seagate | st500lt015_firmware | — | cpe:2.3:o:seagate:st500lt015_firmware:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| URL | Tags |
|---|---|
| https://www.blackhat.com/docs/eu-15/materials/eu-15-Boteanu-Bypassing-Self-Encrypting-Drives-SED-In-Enterprise-Environments-wp.pdf | Technical Description Third Party Advisory |
| https://www.infoworld.com/article/3004913/encryption/self-encrypting-drives-are-hardly-any-better-than-software-based-encryption.html | Technical Description Third Party Advisory |