ICS Advisory

Innominate mGuard Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

Last Revised
Alert Code
ICSA-14-352-02

OVERVIEW

Innominate Security Technologies has identified a privilege escalation vulnerability affecting all mGuard devices. Innominate has produced a firmware patch that mitigates this vulnerability.

This vulnerability could be exploited remotely.

AFFECTED PRODUCTS

The following Innominate mGuard firmware versions are affected:

  • Innominate mGuard firmware, Version 8.1.3 and prior.

IMPACT

Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an authorized administrator to escalate privileges to execute arbitrary commands with root privileges. If the administrator and root privileged user’s roles are performed by the same individual, this limits the impact of this vulnerability.

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

BACKGROUND

Innominate is a German-based company that sells products worldwide through its international partners.

The affected products, the mGuard family of products, are industrial security routers. They can be found in many critical infrastructure sectors, including Communications, Critical Manufacturing, and Healthcare and Public Health.

VULNERABILITY CHARACTERIZATION

VULNERABILITY OVERVIEW

IMPROPER PRIVILEGE MANAGEMENTCWE-269: Improper Privilege Management, http://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/269.html, web site last accessed December 18, 2014.

An authorized administrator of mGuard products has limited rights to configure the system. This vulnerability could allow an administrator, with restricted privileges, the ability to escalate privileges and execute arbitrary commands with root privileges by specifically configuring Point-to-Point Protocol settings.

CVE-2014-9193NVD, http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2014-9193, 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 8.5 has been assigned; the CVSS vector string is (AV:N/AC:M/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C).CVSS Calculator, http://nvd.nist.gov/cvss.cfm?version=2&vector=AV:N/AC:M/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C, web site last accessed December 18, 2014.

VULNERABILITY DETAILS

EXPLOITABILITY

This vulnerability could be exploited remotely.

EXISTENCE OF EXPLOIT

No known public exploits specifically target this vulnerability.

DIFFICULTY

An attacker with moderate skill would be able to exploit this vulnerability.

MITIGATION

Innominate has released firmware patches Version 7.6.6 and Version 8.1.4 that mitigates the vulnerability in the mGuard firmware Version 7 and Version 8, respectively. Innominate recommends that customers using firmware versions older than Version 7, which are no longer being maintained, should upgrade to mGuard firmware Version 7.6.6 or Version 8.1.4. Innominate also recommends that customers limit access to the administrative interfaces to a minimum via firewall rules.

For additional information on the vulnerability, Innominate’s security advisory is available on its web site at:

http://www.innominate.com/en/downloads/security-advisories.

Innominate’s firmware updates are available on its web site at:

http://www.innominate.com/en/downloads/updates.

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 VPNs may have vulnerabilities and should be updated to the most current version available. Also recognize that VPN is only as secure as the connected devices.

ICS-CERT also provides a section for control systems security recommended practices on the 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. 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 ICS‑CERT Technical Information Paper, ICS-TIP-12-146-01B--Targeted Cyber Intrusion Detection and Mitigation Strategies, that is available for download from the 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 ICS-CERT for tracking and correlation against other incidents.

This product is provided subject to this Notification and this Privacy & Use policy.

Vendor

Innominate