Adcon Telemetry A840 Vulnerabilities

OVERVIEW

Independent researcher Aditya K. Sood has identified vulnerabilities in Adcon Telemetry’s A840 Telemetry Gateway Base Station. Adcon Telemetry has stated that the A840 is an obsolete product and is no longer supported. No patches or updates will be created for this product. Adcon Telemetry sent a message to all known customers to offer to upgrade to a more secure and stable version.

These vulnerabilities could be exploited remotely.

AFFECTED PRODUCTS

The following Adcon Telemetry product is affected:

• A840 Telemetry Gateway Base Station, all versions.

IMPACT

An attacker can gain administrative access to the target by exploiting these vulnerabilities.

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

Adcon Telemetry is an Austria-based company that maintains offices in several countries around the world, including the US, Germany, and Austria.

The affected product, A840 Telemetry Gateway Base Station, is a wireless telemetry system. According to Adcon Telemetry, A840 Telemetry Gateway Base Stations are deployed across several sectors including Commercial Facilities, Critical Manufacturing, Water and Wastewater Systems, and others. Adcon Telemetry estimates that this product is used primarily in the United States and Europe.

VULNERABILITY CHARACTERIZATION

VULNERABILITY OVERVIEW

An attacker can log into the device using the hard-coded credentials that grant administrative access. Administrative credentials allow users to change device settings and read and write to the file system. This could result in a loss of confidentiality, integrity, or availability.

CVE-2015-7930NVD, http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2015-7930, 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 v3 base score of 10.0 has been assigned; the CVSS vector string is (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N).CVSS Calculator, https://www.first.org/cvss/calculator/3.0#CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N, web site last accessed December 15, 2015.

System does not support SSL for encrypting network level communication. Because the support is not available in the Java client, the network communication is plaintext, and all data are transmitted in plaintext.

CVE-2015-7931NVD, http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2015-7931, 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 v3 base score of 10.0 has been assigned; the CVSS vector string is (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N).CVSS Calculator, https://www.first.org/cvss/calculator/3.0#CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N, web site last accessed December 15, 2015.

Because there is no SSL support, all the communication is unencrypted making it easily readable over the network.

CVE-2015-7932NVD, http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2015-7932, 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 v3 base score of 8.6 has been assigned; the CVSS vector string is (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N).CVSS Calculator, https://www.first.org/cvss/calculator/3.0#CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N, web site last accessed December 15, 2015.

The Java client used in A840 gateway systems reveals the full path of log files on the server.

CVE-2015-7934NVD, http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2015-7934, 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 v3 base score of 8.6 has been assigned; the CVSS vector string is (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N).CVSS Calculator, https://www.first.org/cvss/calculator/3.0#CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N, web site last accessed December 15, 2015.

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 low skill would be able to exploit these vulnerabilities.

MITIGATION

Adcon Telemetry has stated that the A840 is an obsolete product and is no longer supported. No patches or updates will be created for this product. Adcon Telemetry sent a message to all known customers to offer to upgrade to a more secure and stable version.

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

• Install equipment behind a firewall that requires VPN access.
• 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 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 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.

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.

In addition, ICS-CERT recommends that users take the following measures to protect themselves from social engineering attacks:

1. Do not click web links or open unsolicited attachments in email messages.
2. Refer to Recognizing and Avoiding Email ScamsRecognizing and Avoiding Email Scams, http://www.us-cert.gov/reading_room/emailscams_0905.pdf, web site last accessed December 15, 2015. for more information on avoiding email scams.
3. Refer to Avoiding Social Engineering and Phishing AttacksNational Cyber Alert System Cyber Security Tip ST04-014, http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/tips/ST04-014.html, web site last accessed December 15, 2015. for more information on social engineering attacks.