ICS Advisory

Moxa SoftCMS SQL Injection Vulnerability

Last Revised
Alert Code
ICSA-16-215-01

OVERVIEW

Zhou Yu of Acorn Network Security has identified a SQL injection vulnerability in Moxa's SoftCMS. ZDI reported this vulnerability to ICS-CERT. Moxa has produced an update to mitigate this vulnerability.

This vulnerability could be exploited remotely.

AFFECTED PRODUCTS

Moxa reports that the vulnerability affects the following products:

  • SoftCMS versions prior to Version 1.5

IMPACT

A successful exploit of this vulnerability could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary commands on the target system.

Impact to individual organizations depends on many factors that are unique to each organization. NCCIC/ICS-CERT recommends that organizations evaluate the impact of this vulnerability based on their operational environment, architecture, and product implementation.

BACKGROUND

Moxa is a Taiwan-based company that maintains offices in several countries around the world, including the US, UK, India, Germany, France, China, Russia, and Brazil.

The affected product, SoftCMS, is a central management software that manages large scale surveillance systems. According to Moxa, SoftCMS is deployed across several sectors including Commercial Facilities, Critical Manufacturing, Energy, Transportation Systems, and others. Moxa estimates that these products are used primarily in the United States and Europe with a small percentage in Asia.

VULNERABILITY CHARACTERIZATION

VULNERABILITY OVERVIEW

SQL INJECTIONCWE-89: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection'), http://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/89.html, web site last accessed August 2, 2016.

SoftCMS does not properly sanitize input fields, allowing an attacker to access the product by specially crafting the input.

CVE-2016-5792NVD, http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2016-5792, 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 9.8 has been calculated; the CVSS vector string is (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H).CVSS Calculator, https://www.first.org/cvss/calculator/3.0#CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H, web site last accessed August 2, 2016.

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 low skill would be able to exploit this vulnerability.

MITIGATION

Moxa’s suggested mitigation is to update the application (SoftCMS v1.5), which is available for download from Moxa’s web site at the following link:

http://www.moxa.com/support/download.aspx?type=support&id=11362

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

  • 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.

This product is provided subject to this Notification and this Privacy & Use policy.

Vendor

Moxa