GE Proficy Vulnerabilities

OVERVIEW

Researchers amisto0x07 and Z0mb1E of Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) have identified two vulnerabilities in the General Electric (GE) Proficy human-machine interface/supervisory control and data acquisition (HMI/SCADA) - CIMPLICITY application. GE has released security advisories, GEIP13-05 and GEIP13-06, to inform customers about these vulnerabilities.

These vulnerabilities could be exploited remotely. 

AFFECTED PRODUCTS

The following GE Intelligent Platforms products are affected:

• Proficy HMI/SCADA - CIMPLICITY, Version 4.01 to 8.2, and
• Proficy Process Systems with CIMPLICITY.

IMPACT

CIMPLICITY CimWebServer does not check the location of the shell files that may allow an unauthenticated user to load shell code from a remote location rather than the default local directory.

Impact to individual organizations depends on many factors that are unique to each organization. NCCIC/ICS-CERT recommends that organizations evaluate the impact of these vulnerabilities based on their operational environment, architecture, and product implementation. 

BACKGROUND

GE is a US-based company that maintains offices in several countries around the world.

According to GE, Proficy HMI/SCADA - CIMPLICITY is a Client/Server-based HMI/SCADA application, which is deployed across multiple industries.

VULNERABILITY CHARACTERIZATION

VULNERABILITY OVERVIEW

The gefebt.exe component supplied with CIMPLICITY CimWebServer does not check the location of shell files being loaded into the system. By modifying the source location, an attacker could send shell code to the CimWebServer, which would deploy the nefarious files as a server-side script. This could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code.

CVE-2014-0750NVD, http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2014-0750, NIST uses this advisory to create the CVE Web site report. This Web site will be active sometime after publication of this advisory. has been assigned to this vulnerability. A CVSS v2 base score of 7.5 has been assigned; the CVSS vector string is (AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P).CVSS Calculator, http://nvd.nist.gov/cvss.cfm?version=2&vector=AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P, Web site last accessed January 23, 2014.

The CIMPLICITY Web-based access component, CimWebServer, does not check the location of shell files being loaded into the system. By modifying the source location, an attacker could send shell code to the CimWebServer which would deploy the nefarious files as part of any SCADA project. This could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code.

CVE-2014-0751NVD, http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2014-0751, NIST uses this advisory to create the CVE Web site report. This Web site will be active sometime after publication of this advisory. has been assigned to this vulnerability. A CVSS v2 base score of 6.8 has been assigned; the CVSS vector string is (AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P).CVSS Calculator, http://nvd.nist.gov/cvss.cfm?version=2&vector=AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P, Web site last accessed January 23, 2014.

VULNERABILITY DETAILS

EXPLOITABILITY

These vulnerabilities could be exploited remotely.

EXISTENCE OF EXPLOIT

No known public exploits specifically target these vulnerabilities.

DIFFICULTY

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

MITIGATION

GE has produced an update that mitigates one vulnerability and made configuration changes to mitigate the other. Please reference the following GE Product Security Advisories for specific information on the vulnerabilities.

GEIP13-05

To address this vulnerability, all copies of the gefebt.exe files that are accessible from a Web client must be deleted or moved, so they are inaccessible. If the production Web configuration currently relies on gefebt.exe, changes to the server’s Web pages may also be desirable.

The GE Product Security Advisory, which provides additional guidance, is available here:

http://support.ge-ip.com/support/index?page=kbchannel&id=KB15939

GEIP13-06

Download Proficy HMI/SCADA - CIMPLICITY 8.2 SIM 24 at:

http://support.ge-ip.com/support/index?page=dwchannel&id=DN4128

The GE Product Security Advisory is available here:

http://support.ge-ip.com/support/index?page=kbchannel&id=KB15940

NCCIC/ICS-CERT encourages asset owners to take additional defensive measures to protect against this and other cybersecurity risks.

• Minimize network exposure for all control system devices and/or systems, and ensure that they are not accessible from the Internet.
• Locate control system networks and remote devices behind firewalls, and isolate them from the business network.
• When remote access is required, use secure methods, such as Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), recognizing that VPN is only as secure as the connected devices.

NCCIC/ICS-CERT also provides a section for control systems security recommended practices on the NCCIC/ICS-CERT Web page at: http://ics-cert.us-cert.gov/content/recommended-practices. Several recommended practices are available for reading and download, including Improving Industrial Control Systems Cybersecurity with Defense-in-Depth Strategies. NCCIC/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 NCCIC/ICS-CERT Technical Information Paper, ICS-TIP-12-146-01B—Targeted Cyber Intrusion Mitigation Strategies that is available for download from the NCCIC/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 NCCIC/ICS-CERT for tracking and correlation against other incidents.