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Siemens has resolved several vulnerabilities affecting the company’s SCALANCE industrial switches and Ruggedcom WIN base stations. According to an advisory published by ICS-CERT, the SCALANCE X-200IRT (Isochronous Realtime Ethernet) switch family is affected by a remotely exploitable user impersonation vulnerability (CVE- 2015-1049). The switches are used to connect programmable logic controllers (PLCs), human-machine interfaces (HMIs) and other industrial components. The devices are deployed in various sectors worldwide. “The device’s web server could allow unauthenticated attackers to impersonate legitimate users of the web interface (Port 80/TCP and Port 443/TCP) if an active web session of an authenticated user exists at the time of attack,” ICS-CERT said in its advisory. The vulnerability affects SCALANCE X-200IRT switches running versions of the firmware prior to V5.2.0. The company addressed the issue with the release of version 5.2.0. There are no known public exploits for the vulnerability and Siemens has pointed out that an attacker needs network access to the device and a legitimate user must be logged in to the targeted switch’s Web interface for the attack to work. Siemens has also released a firmware update to fix a total of three vulnerabilities affecting Ruggedcom WIN, high-power, broadband wireless base stations used in various sectors across the world. The issues were discovered and reported to the company by IOActive researchers. One of the security holes found in Ruggedcom WIN solutions is an improper authentication issue (CVE- 2015-1448) that can be leveraged by an unauthenticated attacker to perform administrative operations on the network. A critical buffer overflow vulnerability (CVE- 2015-1449) that could be exploited for remote code execution affects the device’s integrated Web server, ICS-CERT said. Another flaw impacting Ruggedcom WIN devices can be leveraged by a malicious actor to obtain passwords from security logs or local files (CVE- 2015-1357). The flaws have not been exploited in the wild and they can only be leveraged by an attacker with network access to the devices, and access to security log files (in the case of CVE- 2015-1357), Siemens noted in its advisory. The vulnerabilities affect Ruggedcom WIN51xx and Win52xx versions prior to SS4.4.4624.35, and WIN70xx and WIN72xx versions prior to BS4.4.4621.32. Siemens advises industrial control system (ICS) operators to install the latest firmware versions and protect network access to these products by using appropriate mechanisms. In January, the Germany-based electronics and industrial conglomerate released firmware updates to address security holes in SCALANCE industrial switches and SIMATIC controllers. Source: securityweek.com

Another security advisory covering Siemens industrial kit has reached the public, this time covering wireless industrial networking hardware. ICS-CERT advises that the Ruggedcom range of 802.16e (Wimax, for those with long memories) switches from the company carries a range of vulnerabilities that let attackers scam admin privileges for themselves. The vulnerabilities are: CVE- 2015-1448 – attackers can get administrative access to the kit over the network, without authentication; CVE- 2015-1449 – a buffer overflow in the integrated Web server means an attacker over port 443 might get remote code execution access; and CVE- 2015-1357 – a real treat: password hashes and other sensitive information “might” be stored in an insecure format and accessible from local files or security logs. Products impacted are in the company's WIN 51xx, WIN 52xx, WIN 70xx and WIN 72xx series. These are Wimax base stations designed for harsh environment deployments. The ICS-CERT note puts the kit in a wide range of industries worldwide, including chemical, communications, critical manufacturing, dams, defence, energy, food and agriculture, government facilities, transportation systems, and water and wastewater systems. Siemens is asking customers to get in touch (online support request to get a firmware update. And in a separate advisory, the company also updated the firmware for its Scalance-X switches (which connect things like programmable logic controllers to the control interfaces) to block yet a separate authentication failure in the Web interface. Details here. Source