Israeli cybersecurity firm OTORIO presented findings at the Black Hat Asia 2023 conference, revealing security vulnerabilities in cloud management platforms used by three industrial cellular router vendors.
These vulnerabilities could potentially expose operational technology (OT) networks to external attacks, allowing attackers to gain remote code execution and full control over hundreds of thousands of devices and OT networks. The affected vendors include Sierra Wireless, Teltonika Networks, and InHand Networks, with weaknesses found in their respective cloud-based management solutions.
Exploitation of these vulnerabilities could lead to the bypassing of security layers, exfiltration of sensitive information, and the ability to execute code remotely on internal networks.
The vulnerabilities stem from three different attack vectors associated with the cloud-based management platforms. For Sierra Wireless, weak asset registration mechanisms allow attackers to identify unregistered devices, obtain their serial numbers, register them to their own account, and execute arbitrary commands.
In the case of InHand Networks, flaws in security configurations permit unauthorized users to achieve remote code execution with root privileges, issue reboot commands, and push firmware updates.
Teltonika Networks’ external API and interfaces have multiple issues that enable exposure of sensitive device information and credentials, remote code execution, exposure of connected devices, and impersonation of legitimate devices.
OTORIO emphasized the significant supply-chain risk posed by cloud-managed devices, highlighting that a compromise of a single vendor’s platform could serve as a backdoor to accessing multiple OT networks simultaneously. This disclosure follows OTORIO’s previous disclosure of 38 security flaws in wireless industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) devices, which also posed risks to internal OT networks.
As the deployment of IIoT devices continues to grow, it is crucial to recognize the potential targeting of their cloud management platforms by threat actors. A successful exploit of an IIoT vendor platform could act as a pivot point for attackers, allowing them to access numerous environments simultaneously.
