November 14, 2023 at 02:41PM
Researchers have discovered 21 vulnerabilities in a popular brand of industrial router commonly used in the medical and manufacturing sectors. These vulnerabilities range from design flaws like hardcoded credentials to how the device handles potentially malicious inputs. Attackers who exploit these vulnerabilities can bypass security measures and target critical devices in a plant. Over 86,000 vulnerable instances of these routers have been identified on the open web, with less than 10% hardened against known vulnerabilities. Many of these devices are also running on end-of-life software, making patching impossible. Upgrading these devices is crucial to improving security in the operational technology (OT) sector.
Key takeaways from the meeting notes:
1. Researchers have discovered 21 vulnerabilities in a popular brand of industrial router, with one being of “Critical” severity on the CVSS scale and nine being of “High” severity.
2. These vulnerabilities affect a brand of operational technology (OT)/Internet of Things (IoT) routers commonly used in the medical and manufacturing sectors.
3. OT/IoT routers are found in critical sectors such as transportation, government, and water treatment, and compromising these devices can lead to various security risks such as malware deployment, espionage, and disruption of services.
4. The vulnerabilities include cross-site scripting (XSS), denial of service (DoS), remote code execution (RCE), unauthorized access, and authentication bypass.
5. The vulnerabilities stem from both design flaws and how the device handles malicious or malformed inputs.
6. Attackers can exploit these vulnerabilities to bypass traditional industrial security measures and target critical devices in a plant.
7. Over 86,000 vulnerable instances of these OT/IoT devices were identified through regular scans, with a significant number of them located in the US.
8. Approximately 22,000 of these devices use default SSL certificates, making them susceptible to man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks.
9. Less than 10% of the identified vulnerable devices have been hardened against already known vulnerabilities.
10. 80% of the devices with management interfaces are at the end of their life cycle and cannot receive patches.
11. Unpatched legacy equipment is common in industrial settings, but even devices that are not considered “legacy” should be upgraded to improve OT perimeter security.
These takeaways highlight the critical nature of the vulnerabilities in the industrial routers and the need for immediate action to strengthen the security of these devices.