ICS Advisory (ICSA-13-116-01)

Galil RIO-47100 Improper Input Validation

Original release date: April 26, 2013 | Last revised: April 29, 2013

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Overview

This advisory provides mitigation details for a vulnerability affecting the Galil RIO-47100 “Pocket PLC.”

Researcher Jon Christmas of Solera Networks has identified an improper validation vulnerability in the Galil RIO-47100 PLC, which can result in a loss of availability. Galil has produced an update that mitigates this vulnerability. The researcher has tested this update and validates that it resolves the vulnerability. This vulnerability could be exploited remotely.

Affected Products

The following Galil product is affected:

  • RIO-47100 PLC.

Impact

Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an attacker to affect the availability for the Galil RIO-47100 PLC. This vulnerability can affect products deployed in the energy, defense industrial base, and agriculture and food sectors.

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

Galil is a US-based company that maintains offices in Rocklin, California. Galil produces motion control products that are distributed globally.

The affected product, RIO-47100 PLC, is a compact PLC system that includes I/O. According to Galil, RIO-47100 PLC is deployed across several sectors including energy, defense industrial base, and agriculture and food. Galil estimates that these products are used primarily in the United States and Europe with a small percentage in Asia.

Vulnerability Characterization

Vulnerability Overview

Improper Input Validation1

The Galil RIO-47100 PLC allows repeated requests to be sent in a single session. By using these repeated requests sent in a single session, an attacker can cause a denial of service of the system.

CVE-2013-06992 has been assigned to this vulnerability. A CVSS v2 base score of 7.1 has been
assigned; the CVSS vector string is (AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C).3

Vulnerability Details

Exploitability

This vulnerability could be exploited remotely.

Existence of Exploit

No known public exploits specifically target this vulnerability.

Difficulty

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

Mitigation

Galil has developed an update to the RIO-47100 PLC that mitigates this vulnerability. Instructions and a link to the update are found on the Galil download page located at: http://www.galilmc.com/support/firmware-downloads.php.

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

  • Minimize network exposure for all control system devices. Critical devices should not directly face 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 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. 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 taking 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.

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.

  • 1. CWE-20 Improper Input Validation, http://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/20.html, Web site last accessed April 26, 2013.
  • 2. NVD, http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2013-0699, NIST uses this advisory to create the CVE Web site report. This Web site will be active sometime after publication of this advisory.
  • 3. CVSS Calculator, http://nvd.nist.gov/cvss.cfm?version=2&vector=%28AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C%29, Web site last visited April 26, 2013.


Contact Information

For any questions related to this report, please contact the CISA at:

Email: CISAservicedesk@cisa.dhs.gov
Toll Free: 1-888-282-0870

For industrial control systems cybersecurity information:  https://us-cert.cisa.gov/ics 
or incident reporting:  https://us-cert.cisa.gov/report

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