ICS Advisory

Schneider Electric InduSoft Web Studio and InTouch Machine Edition 2014 Password Storage Vulnerability

Last Revised
Alert Code
ICSA-15-211-01

OVERVIEW

Gleb Gritsai, Alisa Esage Shevchenko, Ilya Karpov, and the team from Positive Technologies Security have found sensitive information stored in clear text in the Schneider Electric InduSoft Web Studio and InTouch Machine Edition 2014 products. Schneider Electric has released new patches to mitigate this vulnerability.

AFFECTED PRODUCTS

The following Schneider Electric products are affected:

  • InduSoft Web Studio, Version 7.1.3.4 and all previous versions.
  • InTouch Machine Edition 2014, Version 7.1 Service Pack 3, Patch 4 and all previous versions.

IMPACT

An attacker who exploits this vulnerability may be able to execute arbitrary code.

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

Schneider Electric’s corporate headquarters is located in Paris, France, and maintains offices in more than 100 countries worldwide.

The affected products, Schneider Electric Wonderware InTouch Machine Edition and Schneider Electric InduSoft Web Studio, are embedded HMI software packages. According to Schneider Electric, these products are used in energy management operations in the Commercial Facilities, Energy, Food and Agriculture, and Information Technology sectors globally.

VULNERABILITY CHARACTERIZATION

VULNERABILITY OVERVIEW

CLEARTEXT STORAGE OF SENSITIVE INFORMATIONCWE-312: Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information, http://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/312.html, web site last accessed July 30, 2015.

Passwords for project windows are stored in a configuration file in clear text.

CVE-2015-1009NVD, http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2015-1009, 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. Positive Technologies Security has assigned a CVSS v2 base score of 6.4; the CVSS vector string is (AV:L/AC:L/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:P).CVSS Calculator, http://nvd.nist.gov/cvss.cfm?version=2&vector=AV:L/AC:L/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:P, web site last accessed July 30, 2015. 

VULNERABILITY DETAILS

EXPLOITABILITY

This vulnerability is not exploitable remotely.

EXISTENCE OF EXPLOIT

No known public exploits specifically target this vulnerability.

DIFFICULTY

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

MITIGATION

Schneider Electric has two divisions supporting this product under separate organizations. Patch availability and technical information are available at these separate divisional support units. Schneider Electric has issued separate security notices for each specific division/product support center.

SEVD-2015-100-01 - InduSoft Web Studio

Schneider Electric has released patches, available for download, to remediate the noted vulnerabilities.

The patch for InduSoft Web Studio, Version 7.1.3.5, Patch 5, is available for download using this URL:

http://www.indusoft.com/dev/INDUSOFT/Release/IWS71.3.5/IWS71.3.5.zip

Additional information on vulnerabilities in Schneider Electric’s products may be found at its cybersecurity web page at:

http://www2.schneider-electric.com/sites/corporate/en/support/cybersecurity/cybersecurity.page

Wonderware Security Bulletin LFSEC00000110 - InTouch Machine Edition Security Vulnerability

This document is intended to provide an overview of the identified vulnerability and the actions required to mitigate it. To obtain full details on the issues and assistance on how to protect your installation, please contact your Wonderware Global Custom Support representative. This organization will be fully aware of this situation and can provide support through the process.

The Global Customer Support’s Security Central web can be accessed at:

https://softwaresupportsp.invensys.com/Pages/securitycentral.aspx

The Wonderware Security Bulletin can be accessed at:

https://gcsresource.invensys.com/support/docs/_securitybulletins/Security_bulletin_LFSEC00000110.pdf

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

  • Minimize physical and personnel access to these systems, to reduce the potential of insiders extracting sensitive information.
  • 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

Schneider Electric