Security Experts:

Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

ICS/OT

Vulnerability in NI Controller Can Allow Hackers to Remotely Disrupt Production

A potentially serious vulnerability affecting CompactRIO controllers made by NI (National Instruments) could allow hackers to remotely disrupt production processes in an organization, according to researchers.

A potentially serious vulnerability affecting CompactRIO controllers made by NI (National Instruments) could allow hackers to remotely disrupt production processes in an organization, according to researchers.

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) last week published an ICS-CERT advisory to inform organizations about a high-severity vulnerability affecting NI’s CompactRIO product, a rugged, real-time controller used in industrial environments in sectors such as heavy equipment, industrial manufacturing, transportation, power generation, and oil and gas.CompactRIO controller vulnerability

According to CISA, the vulnerability, identified by researchers at Spain-based industrial cybersecurity company Titanium Industrial Security, is related to “incorrect permissions set by default for an API entry-point of a specific service.” A remote and unauthenticated attacker can leverage the flaw to trigger a function that can cause the device to reboot.

The security hole, tracked as CVE-2020-25191, has been patched by NI and the CISA advisory contains instructions on how to deploy the patch, but it’s worth noting that part of the patching process needs to be repeated for each of the affected CompactRIO controllers.

“We are aware of the issue and have taken immediate action to address the vulnerability in recent versions of NI’s CompactRio driver,” an NI spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “We are not aware of any incidents where this potential vulnerability has been exploited but have provided recommended steps for mitigation as part of the disclosure filed with CISA. Maintaining the safety and security of all NI products remains our top priority.”

Learn More About Vulnerabilities in Industrial Products at SecurityWeek’s ICS Cyber Security Conference and SecurityWeek’s Security Summits Virtual Event Series

Borja Lanseros, CEO of Titanium Industrial Security, told SecurityWeek that the vulnerability was reported to the vendor in May 2019, but it was only patched in September 2020.

Lanseros explained that an attacker could exploit the vulnerability to repeatedly reboot the device, causing a prolonged denial-of-service (DoS) condition and potentially disrupting associated industrial processes.

“[An attack can cause] a sudden stop of the production process for some period of time. This could lead to economic losses for the affected company,” Lanseros said.

The security hole can be exploited remotely from the internet and Titanium Industrial Security said it had identified nearly 150 internet-exposed devices using the Shodan search engine.

Related: Iranian Hackers Access Unprotected ICS at Israeli Water Facility

Related: Vulnerability in Mitsubishi Controllers Can Allow Hackers to Disrupt Production

Related: Industrial Controllers Still Vulnerable to Stuxnet-Style Attacks

Written By

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.

Click to comment

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.

Join this webinar to learn best practices that organizations can use to improve both their resilience to new threats and their response times to incidents.

Register

Join this live webinar as we explore the potential security threats that can arise when third parties are granted access to a sensitive data or systems.

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...

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...

Vulnerabilities

Apple has released updates for macOS, iOS and Safari and they all include a WebKit patch for a zero-day vulnerability tracked as CVE-2023-23529.

Application Security

Drupal released updates that resolve four vulnerabilities in Drupal core and three plugins.

Cloud Security

VMware vRealize Log Insight vulnerability allows an unauthenticated attacker to take full control of a target system.

Application Security

A CSRF vulnerability in the source control management (SCM) service Kudu could be exploited to achieve remote code execution in multiple Azure services.

IoT Security

Lexmark warns of a remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability impacting over 120 printer models, for which PoC code has been published.

CISO Strategy

Cybersecurity-related risk is a top concern, so boards need to know they have the proper oversight in place. Even as first-timers, successful CISOs make...