Hitachi Energy Retail Operations and CSB Software

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

• CVSS v3 7.2
• ATTENTION: High attack complexity
• Vendor: Hitachi Energy
• Equipment: Retail Operations and Counterparty Settlement and Billing (CSB) Product
• Vulnerability: Improper Access Control

2. RISK EVALUATION

Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow unauthorized access to data and modification of data inside the affected product.

3. TECHNICAL DETAILS

3.1 AFFECTED PRODUCTS

Hitachi Energy reports the following versions of Retail Operations and CSB software systems are affected:

• Retail Operations: Version 5.7.3 and prior
• Counterparty Settlement and Billing (CSB): Version 5.7.3 and prior 

3.2 VULNERABILITY OVERVIEW

3.2.1    IMPROPER ACCESS CONTROL CWE-284

A flaw in the application authentication and authorization mechanism that depends on local validation of the session identifier allows an unauthorized, signed Java Applet JAR file to be executed.

CVE-2021-35528 has been assigned to this vulnerability. A CVSS v3 base score of 7.2 has been calculated; the CVSS vector string is (AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N).

3.3 BACKGROUND

• CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE SECTORS: Energy
• COUNTRIES/AREAS DEPLOYED: Worldwide
• COMPANY HEADQUARTERS LOCATION: Switzerland

3.4 RESEARCHER

Hitachi Energy reported this vulnerability to CISA.

4. MITIGATIONS

Hitachi Energy recommends the following actions to mitigate this issue:

• Retail Operations v5.7.3 and prior: Upgrade to v5.7.3.1
• Counterparty Settlement and Billing (CSB) v5.7.3: Upgrade to v5.7.3.1

Hitachi Energy recommends the following security practices and firewall configurations in order to help protect a user’s computer from attack:

• Harden the operating system.
• Routinely monitor the application process log for unrecognized user sessions originating outside of the Retail Operations application.

Please see the Hitachi Energy Retail Operations and CSB advisories for additional mitigation and update information.

For additional information and support, users should contact the product provider or Hitachi Energy service organization.

CISA also recommends users take the following measures to protect themselves from social engineering attacks:

• Do not click web links or open unsolicited attachments in email messages.
• Refer to Recognizing and Avoiding Email Scams for more information on avoiding email scams.
• Refer to Avoiding Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks for more information on social engineering attacks.

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



CISA also provides a section for control systems security recommended practices on the ICS webpage on us-cert.cisa.gov. 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 on the ICS webpage on us-cert.cisa.gov in the 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 CISA for tracking and correlation against other incidents.

No known public exploits specifically target this vulnerability. This vulnerability is not exploitable remotely.