Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Vulnerabilities

Critical Vulnerability Found in Diebold ATM Machine

Seattle-based IOActive has issued a critical security advisory detailing a physical and authentication bypass in the Diebold Opteva ATM.

“IOActive has discovered two vulnerabilities in Opteva ATMs with the AFD platform that, when combined,” warns the advisory “may allow an unauthorized user to vend notes from the device.”

Seattle-based IOActive has issued a critical security advisory detailing a physical and authentication bypass in the Diebold Opteva ATM.

“IOActive has discovered two vulnerabilities in Opteva ATMs with the AFD platform that, when combined,” warns the advisory “may allow an unauthorized user to vend notes from the device.”

The combined use of the vulnerabilities is necessary because of ATMs’ practice of separating the safe from the operating system. Diebold’s Opteva line of ATMs with the AFD platform contain an upper cabinet for the operating system and a lower cabinet for the safe, each with its own authentication requirements.

Opteva ATMThe researchers first gained physical access to the internal computer by inserting a metal rod through a speaker hole in the ATM, lifting a metal locking bar and gaining access to the upper cabinet of the ATM containing the computer. With access to the computer, they were able to get a direct line to the AFD controller for the safe. But they still needed a second vulnerability to get to the money.

For this, IOActive reverse engineered the AFD’s protocol and firmware. From here, the team was able to complete the authentication protocol unencrypted and set up communications without properly authenticating. In short, the two vulnerabilities allowed the team to act as an unauthenticated user and gain access to the content of the safe.

Since the process does not require any device specific knowledge, IOActive concludes that “an attacker with access to one device could reverse engineer enough of the controller protocol to effectively bypass authentication and vend notes from any other device that uses an AFD as long as the vulnerability remains unpatched.”

The problem here, and one of the most disturbing aspects of the advisory, is that IOActive doesn’t know whether it has been patched. It first reported the issue to Diebold in February 2016; but it did not get a secure transit from Diebold to allow it to disclose the issue until January 2017.

In February 2017, one year after the first notification to Diebold, Diebold requested and received tracelogs from IOActive. IOActive tried to follow-up, and eventually was told, “[your]… system is very old (2008/2009 vintage) and is unpatched.” Its offer to retest current firmware was ignored, as were further attempts to follow-up with Diebold.

Finally, on July 26, 2017, more than 18 months after initially contacting the vendor, IOActive decided to go public. At this stage, it is unknown whether the devices have been patched, nor whether any newer versions of the firmware are still vulnerable.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

The advisory from IOActive is available here.

Written By

Kevin Townsend is a Senior Contributor at SecurityWeek. He has been writing about high tech issues since before the birth of Microsoft. For the last 15 years he has specialized in information security; and has had many thousands of articles published in dozens of different magazines – from The Times and the Financial Times to current and long-gone computer magazines.

Click to comment

Trending

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

Understand how to go beyond effectively communicating new security strategies and recommendations.

Register

Join us for an in depth exploration of the critical nature of software and vendor supply chain security issues with a focus on understanding how attacks against identity infrastructure come with major cascading effects.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Vulnerabilities

Less than a week after announcing that it would suspended service indefinitely due to a conflict with an (at the time) unnamed security researcher...

Data Breaches

OpenAI has confirmed a ChatGPT data breach on the same day a security firm reported seeing the use of a component affected by an...

IoT Security

A group of seven security researchers have discovered numerous vulnerabilities in vehicles from 16 car makers, including bugs that allowed them to control car...

Vulnerabilities

A researcher at IOActive discovered that home security systems from SimpliSafe are plagued by a vulnerability that allows tech savvy burglars to remotely disable...

Risk Management

The supply chain threat is directly linked to attack surface management, but the supply chain must be known and understood before it can be...

Cybercrime

Patch Tuesday: Microsoft calls attention to a series of zero-day remote code execution attacks hitting its Office productivity suite.

Vulnerabilities

Patch Tuesday: Microsoft warns vulnerability (CVE-2023-23397) could lead to exploitation before an email is viewed in the Preview Pane.

Vulnerabilities

The latest Chrome update brings patches for eight vulnerabilities, including seven reported by external researchers.