BD Alaris 8015 Insufficiently Protected Credentials Vulnerabilities (Update A)

OVERVIEW

This updated advisory is a follow-up to the original advisory titled ICSMA-17-017-02 BD Alaris 8015 Insufficiently Protected Credentials Vulnerabilities that was published February 7, 2017, on the NCCIC/ICS-CERT web site.

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Researchers at Zingbox were able to expand the impact of the vulnerability identified in Becton, Dickinson and Company’s (BD) Alaris 8015 Point of Care (PC) unit Version 9.5. The Alaris 8015 PC provides a common user interface for programming intravenous infusions.

BD has not developed a product fix to address the identified vulnerabilities, but has issued compensating controls to help reduce the risk associated with these vulnerabilities.

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AFFECTED PRODUCTS

The following Alaris PC unit versions are affected:

• Alaris 8015 PC unit, Version 9.5 and prior versions, and
• Alaris 8015 PC unit, Version 9.7.

IMPACT

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Successful exploitation of the vulnerability in the Alaris 8015 PC unit, Version 9.7, may allow an unauthorized user with physical access to an affected device to access the host facility’s wireless network authentication credentials and other sensitive technical data.

Successful exploitation of the vulnerability in the Alaris 8015 PC unit, Version 9.5, may allow an unauthorized user with physical access to compromise the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the device.

The differences in impacts for Version 9.7 and Version 9.5 are due to the removable flash memory in Version 9.5 that can be reprogrammed, and the dissimilarities in the architected memory components.

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Impact to individual organizations depends on many factors that are unique to each organization. ICS-CERT recommends that organizations evaluate the impact of these vulnerabilities based on their operational environment and specific clinical usage.

BACKGROUND

BD is a US-based company that maintains offices in multiple countries around the world.

The affected product, the Alaris 8015 PC unit, is the core of the Alaris System that provides a common user interface for programming intravenous infusions. According to BD, the Alaris 8015 PC unit is deployed across the Healthcare and Public Health sector. BD estimates that the Alaris 8015 PC unit is used worldwide.

VULNERABILITY CHARACTERIZATION

VULNERABILITY OVERVIEW

INSUFFICIENTLY PROTECTED CREDENTIALSa

An unauthorized user with physical access to an Alaris 8015 PC unit may be able to obtain unencrypted wireless network authentication credentials and other sensitive technical data by disassembling an Alaris 8015 PC unit and accessing the device’s flash memory. The Alaris 8015 PC unit, Version 9.7 stores wireless network authentication credentials and other sensitive technical data on internal flash memory. Accessing the internal flash memory of the affected device would require special tools to extract data and carrying out this attack at a healthcare facility would increase the likelihood of detection.

CVE-2016-8375b has been assigned to this vulnerability. A CVSS v3 base score of 4.9 has been assigned; the CVSS vector string is (AV:P/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N).c

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SECURITY FEATURESd

An unauthorized user with physical access to an Alaris 8015 PC unit may be able to disassemble the device to access the removable flash memory, allowing read and write access to device memory. Older software versions of the Alaris 8015 PC unit, Version 9.5 and prior versions, store wireless network authentication credentials and other sensitive technical data on the affected device’s removable flash memory.

CVE-2016-9355e has been assigned to this vulnerability. A CVSS v3 base score of 6.8 has been assigned; the CVSS vector string is (AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H).f

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VULNERABILITY DETAILS

EXPLOITABILITY

These vulnerabilities could not be exploited remotely.

EXISTENCE OF EXPLOIT

No known public exploits specifically target these vulnerabilities.

DIFFICULTY

An attacker with low skill would be able to exploit these vulnerabilities.

MITIGATION

BD has not developed a product fix to address these vulnerabilities, but has issued compensating controls to reduce the risk of exploitation. BD recommends that users apply the following compensating controls:

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• Users of the Alaris PC unit model 8015 should upgrade to the latest Alaris PC unit software in order to reduce the associated risks.
• Users are advised to follow procedures for clearing wireless network authentication credentials on the Alaris PCU if the device is to be removed from service or it will not be in control of institutional staff. These procedures are outlined in the Alaris System Maintenance Software User Manual (page 13). Properly clearing wireless network authentication credentials is recommended when emergency patient transport is imminent, or when a device may be out of staff control.
• Users are advised to change their wireless network authentication credentials regularly, and immediately if there is evidence of unauthorized physical access to an Alaris device at their facility. Additionally, all wireless credentials should be cleared prior to transferring an Alaris device to another facility. Where feasible, users are encouraged to utilize enterprise-grade authentication methods, (e.g., EAP-TLS).
• Users are strongly encouraged to consider security policy in which wireless credentials are not configured for the Alaris PCU if wireless networking functionality is not being utilized for operation. This will remediate the vulnerability for non-wireless users.
• Users are advised to implement a policy of using tamper-evident seals on the rear access panel and on the grooves of both sides of the Alaris PCU.
• Users may choose to implement Access Control Lists (ACLs) that restrict device access to specific media access control (MAC) and IP addresses, ports, protocols, and services.

BD has released a security bulletin for the Alaris PC unit model 8015, which is available at the following location:

<http://www.bd.com/en-us/support/product-security-and-privacy/product-security-bulletin-for-alaris-pc-unit-model-8015-update&gt;

For additional information about the identified vulnerabilities or BD’s compensating controls, please contact BD’s Customer Support, which is available at the following location:

<http://www.bd.com/en-us/support/product-security-and-privacy&gt;

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ICS-CERT also provides a section for security recommended practices on the ICS-CERT web page at http://ics-cert.us-cert.gov/content/recommended-practices. 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.

• aCWE-522: Insufficiently Protected Credentials, http://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/522.html, web site last accessed February 07, 2017.
• bNVD, http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2016-8375, NIST uses this advisory to create the CVE web site report. This web site will be active sometime after publication of this advisory.
• cCVSS Calculator, https://www.first.org/cvss/calculator/3.0#CVSS:3.0/AV:P/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N, web site last accessed February 07, 2017.
• dCWE-254: Security Features, http://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/254.html, web site last accessed October 19, 2017.
• eNVD, http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2016-9355, web site last accessed October 19, 2017.
• fCVSS Calculator, https://www.first.org/cvss/calculator/3.0#CVSS:3.0/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H, web site last accessed October 19, 2017.

Contact Information

For any questions related to this report, please contact the CISA at:

Email: [email protected]
Toll Free: 1-888-282-0870

For industrial control systems cybersecurity information: https://us-cert.cisa.gov/ics
or incident reporting: https://us-cert.cisa.gov/report

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