Siemens SIMATIC Industrial PCs, SINUMERIK Panel Control Unit, and SIMOTION P320 (Update A)

CVSS v3 9.8

**ATTENTION:**Remotely exploitable/low skill level to exploit.

Vendor: Siemens

Equipment: SIMATIC Industrial PCs, SINUMERIK Panel Control Unit (PCU), SIMOTION P320

Vulnerability: Permissions, Privileges, and Access Controls

UPDATED INFORMATION

This updated advisory is a follow-up to the original advisory titled ICSA-17-180-01 Siemens Industrial Products using Intel Processors that was published June 29, 2017, on the NCCIC/ICS-CERT web site.

AFFECTED PRODUCTS

Siemens reports that the vulnerability affects Siemens Industrial products which use Intel processors (Intel Core i5, Intel Core i7 and Intel XEON):

• SIMATIC Industrial PCs
• SINUMERIK Panel Control Unit (PCU)
• SIMOTION P320

Please see Siemens Security Advisory SSA-874235 for the full list of affected versions.

IMPACT

A remote attacker can gain system privileges by exploiting this vulnerability.

MITIGATION

--------- Begin Update A Part 1 of 1 --------

Siemens has provided firmware updates for the affected industrial PCs to address this vulnerability. These updates can be found on their web site at the following location:

<https://support.industry.siemens.com/cs/ww/en/view/109747626&gt;

--------- End Update A Part 1 of 1 ----------

Siemens strongly recommends users protect network access to the non-perimeter industrial products with appropriate mechanisms. Siemens also advises that users configure the operational environment according to Siemens’ Operational Guidelines for Industrial Security:

<https://www.siemens.com/cert/operational-guidelines-industrial-security&gt;

For more a specific list of affected products and more detailed mitigation instructions, please see Siemens Security Advisory SSA-874235 at the following location:

<http://www.siemens.com/cert/advisories&gt;

For more information about this vulnerability, please see Intel Security Advisory – INTEL-SA-00075 at the following location:

<https://security-center.intel.com/advisory.aspx?intelid=INTEL-SA-&gt;00075&amp;languageid=en-fr

NCCIC/ICS-CERT recommends that users take defensive measures to minimize the risk of exploitation of this vulnerability. Specifically, users should:

• 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 reminds organizations to perform proper impact analysis and risk assessment prior to deploying defensive measures.

ICS-CERT also provides a section for control systems security recommended practices on the ICS-CERT web page. Several recommended practices are available for reading and download, including Improving Industrial Control Systems Cybersecurity with Defense-in-Depth Strategies.

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.

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.

No known public exploits specifically target this vulnerability.

VULNERABILITY OVERVIEW

PERMISSIONS, PRIVILEGES, AND ACCESS CONTROLS CWE-264

Unprivileged local or remote attackers can gain system privileges to provisioned Intel manageability SKUs: Intel Active Management Technology (AMT), Intel Standard Manageability (ISM) and Intel Small Business Technology (SBT).

CVE-2017-5689 has been assigned to this vulnerability. A CVSS v3 base score of 9.8 has been calculated; the CVSS vector string is (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H).

RESEARCHER

Maksim Malyutin from Embedi reported this issue to Intel.

BACKGROUND

Critical Infrastructure Sectors: Chemical, Commercial Facilities, Critical Manufacturing, Energy, Food and Agriculture, Water and Wastewater Systems

Countries/Areas Deployed: Worldwide

Company Headquarters Location: Germany