High Severity Flaws Found in iniNet ICS Software

Swiss-based visualization and automation solutions provider iniNet Solutions GmbH has released updates to address several vulnerabilities identified by Positive Technologies researchers in some of the company’s products.

One of the vulnerabilities, related to the storage of passwords in clear text (CVE-2015-1005), impacts iniNet’s eWebServer web-based server software, which is primarily used in Europe in building automation and other sectors. The flaw can be exploited by a local attacker to compromise the confidentiality of the affected system, ICS-CERT said in an advisory.

The security bug affects eWebServer for Windows CE versions prior to 2.02, and it has been addressed by the vendor with the release of version 2.02.

iniNet’s eWebServer is used in some Box PC bmaXX PCC products from Baumüller and Embedded PC products from Beckhoff. Organizations using vulnerable versions of eWebServer should contact their service providers to obtain patches or information on how to mitigate the potential risk.

Positive Technologies researchers have also identified three high severity flaws in a different iniNet web-based server software mainly deployed in Europe, namely SCADA Web Server.

A separate advisory published by ICS-CERT this week reveals that the product is plagued by a stack-based buffer overflow (CVE-2015-1001), a security feature bypass issue (CVE-2015-1002), and a directory traversal vulnerability (CVE-2015-1003). The weaknesses can be exploited remotely by an attacker with low skill.

“Successful exploitation of the vulnerabilities in SCADA Web Server could allow an attacker to manipulate and delete files, execute arbitrary code, and initiate a denial of service condition,” ICS-CERT said.

iniNet’s SCADA Web Server is also used in some embedded PC products from Beckhoff, which pointed out that it’s not involved in the development of the vulnerable iniNet software.

iniNet representatives told SecurityWeek that the vulnerabilities discovered by researchers should not pose a risk to operators since control equipment such as programmable logic controllers (PLCs) should never be exposed to the Internet. “This is widely accepted as common sense,” the company said.

For organizations that believe their equipment could be in danger due to these security bugs, iniNet offers free updates that address the reported issues.

ICS-CERT has also published advisories to detail a couple of null pointer exception vulnerabilities affecting Codesys products from Germany-based 3S-Smart Software Solutions. The bugs, which can be exploited to cause a denial-of-service (DoS) condition, have been patched by the vendor.

*Updated with information from iniNet

Related: Learn more at the ICS Cyber Security Conference