ICS Advisory

WECON Technology Co., Ltd. LeviStudio HMI Editor and PI Studio HMI Project Programmer

Last Revised
Alert Code
ICSA-18-116-02

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

  • CVSS v3 5.9
  • ATTENTION: Low skill level to exploit.
  • Vendor: WECON Technology Co., Ltd. (WECON)
  • Equipment: LeviStudio HMI Editor, and PI Studio HMI Project Programmer
  • Vulnerabilities: Stack-based Buffer Overflow

2. RISK EVALUATION

Successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution.

3. TECHNICAL DETAILS

3.1 AFFECTED PRODUCTS

The following versions of LEVI Studio HMI Editor and PI Studio HMI Project Programmer, HMI programming software products, are affected:

  • WECON LeviStudioU Version 1.10 part of Wecon LeviStudioU 1.8.29 and prior, and
  • PI Studio HMI Project Programmer Build: November 11, 2017 and prior.

3.2 VULNERABILITY OVERVIEW

3.2.1 STACK-BASED BUFFER OVERFLOW CWE-121

A buffer overflow can be triggered by opening a specially crafted file.

CVE-2018-7527 has been assigned to these vulnerabilities. A CVSS v3 base score of 5.9 has been calculated; the CVSS vector string is (AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L).

3.3 BACKGROUND

  • Critical Infrastructure Sectors: Critical Manufacturing, Energy, Water and Wastewater Systems
  • Countries/Areas Deployed: Worldwide
  • Company Headquarters Location: China

3.4 RESEARCHER

Sergey Zelenyuk of RVRT and Michael DePlante of Leahy Center for Digital Investigation at Champlain College, both working with Trend Micro’s Zero Day Initiative, reported these vulnerabilities to NCCIC.

4. MITIGATIONS

WECON recommends that users update to the latest version, which can be found at the following location (download):

http://wecon-disk.oss-ap-southeast-1.aliyuncs.com/LeviStudioU20180420%20TEST.exe

NCCIC recommends that users take defensive measures to minimize the risk of exploitation of these vulnerabilities. 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.

NCCIC reminds organizations to perform proper impact analysis and risk assessment prior to deploying defensive measures.

NCCIC 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.

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 website.

Organizations observing any suspected malicious activity should follow their established internal procedures and report their findings to NCCIC for tracking and correlation against other incidents.

No known public exploits specifically target these vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities is not exploitable remotely.

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

Vendor

WECON