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Industrial Control Systems Vulnerabilities Soar: Over One-Third Unpatched in 2023

Industrial Control Systems Vulnerabilities Soar: Over One-Third Unpatched in 2023

Aug 02, 2023 ICS/SCADA Security
About 34% of security vulnerabilities impacting industrial control systems (ICSs) that were reported in the first half of 2023 have no patch or remediation, registering a significant increase from 13% the previous year. According to data compiled by SynSaber, a total of 670 ICS product flaws were reported via the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in the first half of 2023, down from  681 reported  during the first half of 2022. Of the 670 CVEs, 88 are rated Critical, 349 are rated High, 215 are rated Medium, and 18 are rated Low in Severity. 227 of the flaws have no fixes in comparison to 88 in H1 2022. "Critical manufacturing (37.3% of total reported CVEs) and Energy (24.3% of the total reported) sectors are the most likely to be affected," the OT cybersecurity and asset monitoring company said in a report shared with The Hacker News. Other prominent industry verticals include water and wastewater systems, commercial facilities, communication
CISA Issues Advisory on Critical RCE Affecting ME RTU Remote Terminal Units

CISA Issues Advisory on Critical RCE Affecting ME RTU Remote Terminal Units

May 03, 2023 ICS/SCADA Security
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Tuesday  released  an Industrial Control Systems (ICS) advisory about a critical flaw affecting ME RTU remote terminal units. The security vulnerability, tracked as  CVE-2023-2131 , has received the highest severity rating of 10.0 on the CVSS scoring system for its low attack complexity. "Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow remote code execution," CISA  said , describing it as a case of command injection affecting versions of INEA ME RTU firmware prior to  version 3.36 . Security researcher Floris Hendriks of Radboud University has been credited with reporting the issue to CISA. Also published by CISA is an  alert  related to multiple known security holes in Intel(R) processors impacting Factory Automation (FA) products from Mitsubishi Electric that could result in privilege escalation and a denial-of-service (DoS) condition. The development comes as the agency  recommended  criti
Making Sense of Operational Technology Attacks: The Past, Present, and Future

Making Sense of Operational Technology Attacks: The Past, Present, and Future

Mar 21, 2024Operational Technology / SCADA Security
When you read reports about cyber-attacks affecting operational technology (OT), it's easy to get caught up in the hype and assume every single one is sophisticated. But are OT environments all over the world really besieged by a constant barrage of complex cyber-attacks? Answering that would require breaking down the different types of OT cyber-attacks and then looking back on all the historical attacks to see how those types compare.  The Types of OT Cyber-Attacks Over the past few decades, there has been a growing awareness of the need for improved cybersecurity practices in IT's lesser-known counterpart, OT. In fact, the lines of what constitutes a cyber-attack on OT have never been well defined, and if anything, they have further blurred over time. Therefore, we'd like to begin this post with a discussion around the ways in which cyber-attacks can either target or just simply impact OT, and why it might be important for us to make the distinction going forward. Figure 1 The Pu
CISA Warns of Critical ICS Flaws in Hitachi, mySCADA, ICL, and Nexx Products

CISA Warns of Critical ICS Flaws in Hitachi, mySCADA, ICL, and Nexx Products

Apr 07, 2023 Industrial Control System
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has  published   eight  Industrial Control Systems (ICS) advisories warning of critical flaws affecting products from Hitachi Energy, mySCADA Technologies, Industrial Control Links, and Nexx. Topping the list is  CVE-2022-3682  (CVSS score: 9.9), impacting Hitachi Energy's MicroSCADA System Data Manager SDM600 that could allow an attacker to take remote control of the product. The flaw stems from an issue with file permission validation, thereby permitting an adversary to upload a specially crafted message to the system, leading to arbitrary code execution. Hitachi Energy has released SDM600 1.3.0.1339 to  mitigate  the issue for SDM600 versions prior to version 1.2 FP3 HF4 (Build Nr. 1.2.23000.291). Another set of five critical vulnerabilities –  CVE-2023-28400 ,  CVE-2023-28716 ,  CVE-2023-28384 ,  CVE-2023-29169 , and  CVE-2023-29150  (CVSS scores: 9.9) – relate to command injection bugs present in mySCADA my
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CISA Alerts on Critical Security Vulnerabilities in Industrial Control Systems

CISA Alerts on Critical Security Vulnerabilities in Industrial Control Systems

Mar 22, 2023 ICS/SCADA Security
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has released eight Industrial Control Systems (ICS)  advisories  on Tuesday, warning of critical flaws affecting equipment from Delta Electronics and Rockwell Automation. This includes 13 security vulnerabilities in Delta Electronics' InfraSuite Device Master, a real-time device monitoring software. All versions prior to 1.0.5 are affected by the issues. "Successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities could allow an unauthenticated attacker to obtain access to files and credentials, escalate privileges, and remotely execute arbitrary code," CISA  said . At the top of the list is  CVE-2023-1133  (CVSS score: 9.8), a critical flaw that arises from the fact that InfraSuite Device Master accepts unverified UDP packets and  deserializes the content , thereby allowing an unauthenticated remote attacker to execute arbitrary code. Two other deserialization flaws,  CVE-2023-1139  (CVSS score: 8.8) and  CVE-20
Honeypot-Factory: The Use of Deception in ICS/OT Environments

Honeypot-Factory: The Use of Deception in ICS/OT Environments

Feb 13, 2023 OT and ICS Security
The recently published Security Navigator report of Orange Cyberdefense shows there has been a  rapid increase of attacks on industrial control systems (ICS) in the past few years. Looking a bit closer, most of the attacks seem to have spilt over from traditional IT. That's to be expected, as production systems are commonly connected to ordinary corporate networks at this point.  Though the data does not indicate at this point that a lot of threat actors specifically target industrial systems – in fact, most evidence points to purely opportunistic behaviour – the tide could turn any time, once the added complexity of compromising OT environments promises to pay off. Criminals will take any chance they get to blackmail victims into extortion schemes, and halting production can cause immense damage. It is likely only a matter of time. So cybersecurity for operational technology (OT) is vitally important.  Deception is an effective option to improve threat detection and response ca
CISA Warns of Flaws in Siemens, GE Digital, and Contec Industrial Control Systems

CISA Warns of Flaws in Siemens, GE Digital, and Contec Industrial Control Systems

Jan 18, 2023 ICS/SCADA Security
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has  published  four Industrial Control Systems (ICS) advisories, calling out several security flaws affecting products from Siemens, GE Digital, and Contec. The most critical of the issues have been identified in Siemens SINEC INS that could lead to remote code execution via a path traversal flaw ( CVE-2022-45092 , CVSS score: 9.9) and command injection ( CVE-2022-2068 , CVSS score: 9.8). Also patched by Siemens is an authentication bypass vulnerability in llhttp parser ( CVE-2022-35256 , CVSS score: 9.8) as well as an out-of-bounds write bug in the OpenSSL library ( CVE-2022-2274 , CVSS score: 9.8) that could be exploited to trigger remote code execution. The German automation company, in December 2022,  released  Service Pack 2 Update 1 software to mitigate the flaws. Separately, a critical flaw has also been revealed in GE Digital's Proficy Historian solution that could result in code execution regardless of
CISA Warns of Flaws Affecting Industrial Control Systems from Major Manufacturers

CISA Warns of Flaws Affecting Industrial Control Systems from Major Manufacturers

Jan 16, 2023 Industrial Control Systems
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has released several Industrial Control Systems (ICS)  advisories  warning of critical security flaws affecting products from Sewio, InHand Networks, Sauter Controls, and Siemens. The most severe of the flaws relate to Sewio's RTLS Studio, which could be exploited by an attacker to "obtain unauthorized access to the server, alter information, create a denial-of-service condition, gain escalated privileges, and execute arbitrary code,"  according to CISA . This includes CVE-2022-45444 (CVSS score: 10.0), a case of hard-coded passwords for select users in the application's database that potentially grant remote adversaries unrestricted access. Also notable are two command injection flaws (CVE-2022-47911 and CVE-2022-43483, CVSS scores: 9.1) and an out-of-bounds write vulnerability (CVE-2022-41989, CVSS score: 9.1) that could result in denial-of-service condition or code execution. The vulnerabilities
Critical Bug in Siemens SIMATIC PLCs Could Let Attackers Steal Cryptographic Keys

Critical Bug in Siemens SIMATIC PLCs Could Let Attackers Steal Cryptographic Keys

Oct 12, 2022
A vulnerability in Siemens Simatic programmable logic controller (PLC) can be exploited to retrieve the hard-coded, global private cryptographic keys and seize control of the devices. "An attacker can use these keys to perform multiple advanced attacks against Siemens SIMATIC devices and the related  TIA Portal , while bypassing all four of its  access level protections ," industrial cybersecurity company Claroty  said  in a new report. "A malicious actor could use this secret information to compromise the entire SIMATIC S7-1200/1500 product line in an irreparable way." The critical vulnerability, assigned the identifier  CVE-2022-38465 , is rated 9.3 on the CVSS scoring scale and has been addressed by Siemens as part of security updates issued on October 11, 2022. The list of impacted products and versions is below - SIMATIC Drive Controller family (all versions before 2.9.2) SIMATIC ET 200SP Open Controller CPU 1515SP PC2, including SIPLUS variants (all
Critical Remote Hack Flaws Found in Dataprobe's Power Distribution Units

Critical Remote Hack Flaws Found in Dataprobe's Power Distribution Units

Sep 21, 2022
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Tuesday released an industrial control systems (ICS) advisory warning of seven security flaws in Dataprobe's iBoot-PDU power distribution unit product, mostly used in industrial environments and data centers. "Successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities could lead to unauthenticated remote code execution on the Dataprobe iBoot-PDU device," the agency  said  in a notice. Credited with disclosing the flaws is industrial cybersecurity firm Claroty, which  said  the weaknesses could be remotely triggered "either through a direct web connection to the device or via the cloud." iBoot-PDU  is a power distribution unit (PDU) that provides users with real-time monitoring capabilities and sophisticated alerting mechanisms via a web interface so as to control the power supply to devices and other equipment in an OT environment. The vulnerabilities assume new significance when taking into consid
Researchers Warn of Critical Flaw Affecting Industrial Automation Systems

Researchers Warn of Critical Flaw Affecting Industrial Automation Systems

Nov 19, 2020
A critical vulnerability uncovered in Real-Time Automation's (RTA) 499ES EtherNet/IP ( ENIP ) stack could open up the industrial control systems to remote attacks by adversaries. RTA's ENIP stack is one of the widely used industrial automation devices and is billed as the "standard for factory floor I/O applications in North America." "Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could cause a denial-of-service condition, and a buffer overflow may allow remote code execution," the US cybersecurity and infrastructure agency (CISA) said in an  advisory . As of yet, no known public exploits have been found to target this vulnerability. However, "according to public search engines for Internet-connected devices (e.g. shodan.io) there are more than 8,000 ENIP-compatible internet-facing devices." Tracked as CVE-2020-25159 , the flaw is rated 9.8 out of 10 in severity by the industry-standard Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) and impacts a
Critical Flaws Discovered in Popular Industrial Remote Access Systems

Critical Flaws Discovered in Popular Industrial Remote Access Systems

Oct 01, 2020
Cybersecurity researchers have found critical security flaws in two popular industrial remote access systems that can be exploited to ban access to industrial production floors, hack into company networks, tamper with data, and even steal sensitive business secrets. The flaws,  discovered  by Tel Aviv-based OTORIO, were identified in B&R Automation's SiteManager and GateManager, and MB Connect Line's mbCONNECT24, two of the popular remote maintenance tools used in automotive, energy, oil & gas, metal, and packaging sectors to connect to industrial assets from anywhere across the world. Six Flaws in B&R Automation's SiteManager and GateManager According to an  advisory published by the US Cybersecurity and infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Wednesday, successful exploitation of the B&R Automation vulnerabilities could allow for "arbitrary information disclosure, manipulation, and a denial-of-service condition." The flaws, ranging from p
Industrial VPN Flaws Could Let Attackers Target Critical Infrastructures

Industrial VPN Flaws Could Let Attackers Target Critical Infrastructures

Jul 29, 2020
Cybersecurity researchers have discovered critical vulnerabilities in industrial VPN implementations primarily used to provide remote access to operational technology (OT) networks that could allow hackers to overwrite data, execute malicious code, and compromise industrial control systems (ICS). A new report published by industrial cybersecurity company Claroty demonstrates multiple severe vulnerabilities in enterprise-grade VPN installations, including Secomea GateManager M2M Server, Moxa EDR-G902, and EDR-G903, and HMS Networks eWon's eCatcher VPN client. These vulnerable products are widely used in field-based industries such as oil and gas, water utilities, and electric utilities to remotely access, maintain and monitor ICS and field devices, including programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and input/output devices. According to Claroty researchers, successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities can give an unauthenticated attacker direct access to the ICS devices an
FireEye: Russian Research Lab Aided the Development of TRITON Industrial Malware

FireEye: Russian Research Lab Aided the Development of TRITON Industrial Malware

Oct 24, 2018
Cybersecurity firm FireEye claims to have discovered evidence that proves the involvement of a Russian-owned research institute in the development of the TRITON malware that caused some industrial systems to unexpectedly shut down last year, including a petrochemical plant in Saudi Arabia. TRITON , also known as Trisis, is a piece of ICS malware designed to target the Triconex Safety Instrumented System (SIS) controllers made by Schneider Electric which are often used in oil and gas facilities. Triconex Safety Instrumented System is an autonomous control system that independently monitors the performance of critical systems and takes immediate actions automatically if a dangerous state is detected. Since malware of such capabilities can't be created by a computer hacker without possessing necessary knowledge of Industrial Control Systems (ICS), researchers believe with "high confidence" that Moscow-based lab Central Scientific Research Institute of Chemistry and
Dangerous Malware Discovered that Can Take Down Electric Power Grids

Dangerous Malware Discovered that Can Take Down Electric Power Grids

Jun 12, 2017
Last December, a cyber attack on Ukrainian Electric power grid caused the power outage in the northern part of Kiev — the country's capital — and surrounding areas, causing a blackout for tens of thousands of citizens for an hour and fifteen minutes around midnight. Now, security researchers have discovered the culprit behind those cyber attacks on the Ukrainian industrial control systems. Slovakia-based security software maker ESET and US critical infrastructure security firm Dragos Inc. say they have discovered a new dangerous piece of malware in the wild that targets critical industrial control systems and is capable of causing blackouts. Dubbed " Industroyer " or " CrashOverRide ," the grid-sabotaging malware was likely to be used in the December 2016 cyber attack against Ukrainian electric utility Ukrenergo , which the security firms say represents a dangerous advancement in critical infrastructure hacking. According to the researchers, CrashO
KasperskyOS — Secure Operating System released for IoT and Embedded Systems

KasperskyOS — Secure Operating System released for IoT and Embedded Systems

Feb 21, 2017
Russian cyber security and antivirus vendor Kaspersky Lab has made available the much awaited KasperskyOS , a secure-by-design operating system based on Microkernel architecture which is specially designed for network devices, industrial control systems and the Internet of Things. The operating system is not made for your average home PC; instead, it is meant to protect industrial systems and embedded devices from cyber attacks by preventing any third-party or malicious code from executing. Kaspersky Lab CEO Eugene Kaspersky confirmed the rumors of a new operating system on his official blog published on Monday, saying this project under the codename 11-11 has been in the works for 14 years and has been designed from scratch. The reason behind developing KasperskyOS is simple: Growing Internet-of-Things and embedded devices in industrial control systems (ICS) to power critical infrastructure. It's quite easy for most companies to get rid of the virus-infected computer,
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