Schneider Electric StruxureWare Building Expert Plaintext Credentials Vulnerability

OVERVIEW

Independent researcher Artyom Kurbatov has identified a cleartext transmission vulnerability in Schneider Electric’s StruxureWare Building Expert product. Schneider Electric has produced a new firmware version that mitigates this vulnerability. Artyom Kurbatov has tested the new firmware version to validate that it resolves the vulnerability.

This vulnerability could be exploited remotely.

AFFECTED PRODUCTS

The following StruxureWare Building Expert versions are affected:

• StruxureWare Building Expert, MPM versions prior to 2.15.

IMPACT

An attacker may exploit this vulnerability to obtain user logon credentials.

Impact to individual organizations depends on many factors that are unique to each organization. NCCIC/ICS-CERT recommends that organizations evaluate the impact of this vulnerability based on their operational environment, architecture, and product implementation.

BACKGROUND

Schneider Electric’s corporate headquarters is located in Paris, France, and it maintains offices in more than 100 countries worldwide.

The affected product, StruxureWare Building Expert, is a building automation system for small and medium-sized buildings. According to Schneider Electric, StruxureWare Building Expert is deployed in the Commercial Facilities sector. Schneider Electric estimates that these products are used worldwide.

VULNERABILITY CHARACTERIZATION

VULNERABILITY OVERVIEW

CLEARTEXT TRANSMISSION OF SENSITIVE INFORMATION CWE-319: Cleartext Transmission of Sensitive Information, http://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/319.html, web site last accessed June 16, 2015.

User logon credentials are not encrypted in transmission between server and client machines.

CVE-2015-3962NVD, http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2015-3962, NIST uses this advisory to create the CVE web site report. This web site will be active sometime after publication of this advisory. has been assigned to this vulnerability. A CVSS v2 base score of 10.0 has been assigned; the CVSS vector string is (AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C).CVSS Calculator, http://nvd.nist.gov/cvss.cfm?version=2&vector=AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C, web site last accessed June 16, 2015.

VULNERABILITY DETAILS

EXPLOITABILITY

This vulnerability could be exploited remotely.

EXISTENCE OF EXPLOIT

No known public exploits specifically target this vulnerability.

DIFFICULTY

An attacker with a medium skill would be able to exploit this vulnerability.

MITIGATION

Schneider Electric encourages all customers to upgrade their MPMs to the new Release 2.15 or higher to mitigate the risks associated with this vulnerability. It is important to plan and execute the upgrade procedures to avoid unnecessary downtime and re-engineering. If unsure about the risks associated with upgrading MPMs to the new firmware, please contact your account manager or technical support.

Please see the MPM installation guide for more details about how to obtain and install firmware Version 2.15. It can be found at the following location (login required):

<https://buildingsdownloads.schneider-electric.com/documents/10807/250220/MPM+Series+-+Installation+Sheet/6b83cb2c-6d93-4e41-9902-2d8e13936727&gt;

ICS-CERT encourages asset owners to take additional defensive measures to protect against this and other cybersecurity risks.

• Whenever possible, configure devices to use encryption for communication, which may include SSL or other secure protocols.
• Minimize network exposure for all control system devices and/or systems, and ensure that they are not accessible from the Internet.
• Locate control system networks and remote devices behind firewalls, and isolate them from the business network.
• When remote access is required, use secure methods, such as Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), recognizing that VPNs may have vulnerabilities and should be updated to the most current version available. Also recognize that VPN is only as secure as the connected devices.

ICS-CERT also provides a section for control systems security recommended practices on the ICS-CERT web page at: http://ics-cert.us-cert.gov/content/recommended-practices. Several recommended practices are available for reading and download, including Improving Industrial Control Systems Cybersecurity with Defense-in-Depth Strategies. ICS-CERT reminds organizations to perform proper impact analysis and risk assessment prior to deploying defensive measures.

Additional mitigation guidance and recommended practices are publicly available in the ICS‑CERT Technical Information Paper, ICS-TIP-12-146-01B–Targeted Cyber Intrusion Detection and Mitigation Strategies, that is available for download from the ICS-CERT web site (http://ics-cert.us-cert.gov/).

Organizations observing any suspected malicious activity should follow their established internal procedures and report their findings to ICS-CERT for tracking and correlation against other incidents.