Dr. Wesley McGrew of Mississippi State University has identified an authentication bypass vulnerability leading to privilege escalation in the ICONICS GENESIS32 and BizViz applications, specifically in the Security Configurator component.
This vulnerability allows an attacker to bypass normal authentication methods, granting full administrative control over the system. Exploits that target this vulnerability are known to be publicly available.
ICONICS has produced a hot fix that mitigates this vulnerability.
Iconics reports that the zero-day vulnerability affects the following versions of Genesis32:
• Genesis32 V9.22 and previous
• BizViz V9.22 and previous
IMPACT
Successful exploit of this vulnerability could grant an attacker administrator privileges in the Security Configurator. This could allow the attacker to change settings in the system, including changing the rights/privileges of other users.
Impact to individual organizations depends on many factors that are unique to each organization. ICS-CERT recommends that organizations evaluate the impact of this vulnerability based on their operational environment, architecture, and product implementation.
BACKGROUND
ICONICS is a US-based company that maintains offices in several countries around the world, including the US, UK, Netherlands, Italy, India, Germany, France, Czech Republic, China, and Australia.
The affected products, GENESIS32 and BizViz, are Web-deployable human-machine interface (HMI) supervisory controlled and data acquisition (SCADA) systems. According to ICONICS, GENESIS32 is used primarily in the United States and Europe, with a small percentage in Asia.
This product is deployed across several industries including manufacturing, building automation, oil and gas, water and wastewater, electric utilities, and others.
VULNERABILITY OVERVIEW
AUTHENTICATION BYPASS: An attacker posing as a locked-out ICONICS GENESIS32 or BizViz user can generate an authentication code without contacting ICONICS technical support. The attacker can then login to the Security Configurator with administrative privileges and change system settings and privileges for other users. CVE-2012-3018 has been assigned to this vulnerability. A CVSS v2 base score of 6.0 has been assigned; the CVSS vector string is (AV:L/AC:H/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C).
EXPLOITABILITY: An attacker needs local access to exploit this vulnerability.
EXISTENCE OF EXPLOIT: Exploits that target this vulnerability are publicly available.
DIFFICULTY: An attacker with moderate skill level and knowledge of the encryption algorithm used to secure the challenge response could obtain administrator privileges in the system.
MITIGATION
ICONICS is releasing a patch for the GENESIS32 and BizViz security files for Versions 8.05, 9.01, 9.13, and 9.22 that disable the backdoor security login. In the future, this feature will be re-implemented with a more secure encryption algorithm.
ICONICS provides information and links related to its security updates for this and other patches, at its website at http://www.iconics.com/certs.
The full ICS-CERT advisory can be found here:
Source: http://www.us-cert.gov/control_systems/pdf/ICSA-12-212-01.pdf