ICS Advisory

Siemens SICAM PAS Information Disclosure Vulnerabilities (Update B)

Last Revised
Alert Code
ICSA-16-182-02B

OVERVIEW

This updated advisory is a follow-up to the original advisory titled ICSA-16-182-02A Siemens SICAM PAS Vulnerabilities that was published November 29, 2016, on the NCCIC/ICS-CERT web site.

Positive Technologies’ Ilya Karpov and Dmitry Sklyarov have identified two vulnerabilities in the Siemens SICAM PAS (Power Automation System). Siemens has produced a new version and mitigation instructions to address these vulnerabilities.

AFFECTED PRODUCTS

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The following SICAM PAS versions are affected:

  • SICAM PAS, versions older than Version 8.08

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IMPACT

An authenticated local user utilizing these vulnerabilities could obtain sensitive information under certain conditions.

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

Siemens is a multinational company headquartered in Munich, Germany.

The Siemens SICAM PAS is energy automation software for operating electrical substations. According to Siemens, SICAM PAS products are deployed across the Energy sector. Siemens estimates that these products are used worldwide.

VULNERABILITY CHARACTERIZATION

VULNERABILITY OVERVIEW

INSUFFICIENTLY PROTECTED CREDENTIALSCWE-522: Insufficiently Protected Credentials, http://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/522.html, web site last accessed June 30, 2016.

An authenticated local attacker with certain privileges to the SICAM PAS database could possibly reconstruct passwords.

CVE-2016-5848NVD, http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2016-5848, web site last accessed November 29, 2016. has been assigned to this vulnerability. A CVSSv3 base score of 2.3 has been assigned; the CVSS vector string is: (AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N).CVSS Calculator, https://www.first.org/cvss/calculator/3.0#CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N , web site last accessed June 30, 2016.

INFORMATION EXPOSURECWE- 200: Information Exposure: http://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/200.html, web site last accessed June 30, 2016.

An authenticated local attacker could possibly access sensitive configuration information from the SICAM PAS database file if the database is in a stopped state.

CVE-2016-5849NVD, http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2016-5849, web site last accessed November 29, 2016. has been assigned to this vulnerability. A CVSSv3 base score of 2.5 has been assigned; the CVSS vector string is: (AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N).CVSS Calculator, https://www.first.org/cvss/calculator/3.0#CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N, web site last accessed June 30, 2016.

VULNERABILITY DETAILS

EXPLOITABILITY

These vulnerabilities cannot be exploited remotely.

EXISTENCE OF EXPLOIT

No known public exploits specifically target these vulnerabilities.

DIFFICULTY

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

MITIGATION

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Siemens has released SICAM PAS Version 8.08 to fix these vulnerabilities. Siemens recommends that users update to this version. To obtain Version 8.08 users should contact their regional Siemens representative or the Siemens Energy Customer Support Center at support.energy@siemens.com.

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For more information on this vulnerability and detailed instructions, please see Siemens Security Advisory SSA-444217 at the following location:

http://www.siemens.com/cert/advisories

ICS-CERT recommends that users take defensive measures to minimize the risk of exploitation of these vulnerabilities. Specifically, users should:

  • Ensure that least privilege policy is in effect at your organization.
  • Employ physical access controls.

ICS-CERT reminds organizations to perform proper impact analysis and risk assessment prior to deploying defensive measures.

ICS-CERT also provides a section for control systems security recommended practices on the ICS-CERT web page. Several recommended practices are available for reading and download, including Improving Industrial Control Systems Cybersecurity with Defense-in-Depth Strategies.

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.

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

Siemens