French supermarket refrigeration attacks spoiled food and disrupted stores
France’s CERT-FR reported that attackers compromised refrigeration controls at supermarkets on October 11–12, disrupting operations across multiple retailers. The agency identified Danfoss AK-SM and AK-SC controllers, plus Copeland and Dixell XWEB systems, among those involved.
Attackers remotely changed refrigeration settings and triggered defrost cycles; some units reached 50°C, spoiling food. They used normal control functions to make equipment warm instead of preserve food, without necessarily destroying the controllers. Separately, Claroty Team82 identified vulnerabilities in Danfoss and Copeland products, but reporting does not establish that attackers used those flaws.
Where retailers depend on remotely managed refrigeration, a controller compromise can become a site-level inventory and trading loss. The reported attacks also leave the intrusion route unresolved, so the listed vulnerabilities alone do not explain which systems or sites were exposed.
CVSS 8.6 HIGH: a vulnerability exists in Copeland XWEB Pro version 1.12.1 and prior, in
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