Advantech has patched a couple of serious vulnerabilities in WebAccess, a web-based software package for human-machine interfaces (HMI) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems.
The flaws, discovered by Tenable Network Security researchers and reported to the vendor via Trend Micro’s Zero Day Initiative (ZDI), allow a remote attacker to gain access to potentially sensitive information.
The vulnerabilities are tracked as CVE-2017-5154 and CVE-2017-5152, and they have been described as SQL injection and authentication bypass issues. ICS-CERT has assigned CVSS scores of 9.8 and 9.1, respectively, which puts them in the critical severity category.
According to an advisory published by ZDI, a remote attacker can exploit an SQL injection flaw in updateTemplate.aspx to obtain passwords for WebAccess admin accounts. The attacker needs to be authenticated in order to exploit the vulnerability, but authentication can be easily bypassed.
The authentication bypass issue found in the product allows an attacker to access webpages simply by going to their specific URLs.
SAVE THE DATE: ICS Cyber Security Conference | Singapore – April 25-27, 2017
ICS-CERT said it was not aware of any public exploit specifically targeting these vulnerabilities, but pointed out that the flaws can be exploited remotely even by an attacker with low skill.
The security holes affect WebAccess 8.1 and they have been patched by Advantech with the release of version 8.2.
Numerous vulnerabilities affecting Advantech products were disclosed last year. While ICS-CERT published only a few advisories, ZDI reported that the vendor had the second largest number of advisories (112) published on its website in 2016.
New format for ICS-CERT advisories
ICS-CERT has changed the format of its advisories. The title no longer names the affected product and the type of vulnerability, and instead shows the CVSS v3 score of the most severe issue. The first part of the advisory provides information on the CVSS score, exploitability, the affected vendor, the affected product, and vulnerability type.
Details about the vulnerabilities and the name of the researcher who found the flaws are listed at the end, after information on impact and mitigations.
Related: Advantech Failed to Patch Serious Flaws in SCADA Product
Related: Advantech Patches Flaws in WebAccess SCADA Software
Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a contributing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.
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