IoT Manufacturers Missed More than 100 Vulnerabilities in Devices Evaluated, According to New Research from Independent Security Evaluators

BALTIMORE–September 17, 2019–In a new, follow-up cybersecurity study of network attached storage (NAS) systems and routers since 2013, consulting and research firm Independent Security Evaluators (ISE)found 125 vulnerabilities in 13 IoT devices, reaffirming an industrywide problem of a lack of basic security diligence. The vulnerabilities discovered in the SOHOpelessly Broken 2.0research likely affect millions of IoT devices. Click here for a link to the study.

“Our results show that businesses and homes are still vulnerable to exploits that can result in significant damage,” says lead ISE researcher Rick Ramgattie. “These issues are completely unacceptable in any current web application. Today, security professionals and developers have the tools to detect and fix most of these types of issues which we found, exploited, and disclosed six years ago. Our research shows that they are still regularly found in IoT devices.”

An attacker can obtain a foothold within a network in businesses and homes to exploit and compromise additional network devices, snoop information that passes through the devices, reroute traffic, disable the network, and perform additional outbound attacks on other targets from the victims’ networks.

In the 2013 study, SOHOpelessly Broken 1.0, ISE uncovered and disclosed 52 vulnerabilities across 13 devices.  In this follow-up study, evaluating a group of both routers and NAS systems, ISE discovered more than twice the previous count, resulting in 125 CVEs(Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures, which are unique identifiers assigned to vulnerabilities in software products).

ISE selected devices from a range of manufacturers. Products ranged from devices designed for homes and small offices to high-end devices designed for enterprise use. In addition to new devices, ISE included some devices from earlier research to determine whether manufacturers have improved their security approach or practices over the years.

Key Findings

In nearly all the devices (12 of the 13), ISE achieved its goal of obtaining remote root-level access. The table below shows the types of vulnerabilities that ISE identified in the targets.

Note: The issues we reported to Synology (Session Fixation and the ability to Query Existence of Arbitrary Files) were not included in this table.

*These devices were previously featured in research by ISE.

**Though the Drobo 5N2 does not include a web application by default, we include vulnerabilities that appear in its optional web application here.

All 13 of the devices evaluated by ISE had at least one web application vulnerability such as cross-site scripting (XSS), operating system command injection (OS CMDi), or SQL injection (SQLi) that could be leveraged by an attacker to get remote access to the device’s shell or gain access to the device’s administrative panel. ISE obtained root shells on 12 of the devices, allowing complete control over the device. Six of them can be remotely exploited without authentication: the Asustor AS-602T, Buffalo TeraStation TS5600D1206, TerraMaster F2-420, Drobo 5N2, Netgear Nighthawk R9000, and TOTOLINK A3002RU.

Scant IoT Security Improvements Since Previous ISE Research

“We found that many of these issues were trivial to exploit and should have been discovered even in a rudimentary vulnerability assessment,” says ISE founder Stephen Bono. “This indicates that these manufacturers likely undergo no such assessment whatsoever, that the bug bounty programs they employ are ineffective, that vulnerability disclosures sent to them are not addressed, or more likely, all of the above.”

It is the opinion of the researchers that very little has improved since the previous iteration of this research. In fact, it could even be argued that things are now worse, as attacker techniques and skill have improved significantly during this time while very little has improved on the defense.  Nevertheless, attempts to move in the right direction have been noted.

For example, manufacturers have attempted to simplify issue reporting through vulnerability disclosure forms, providing better contact information, and use of bug bounty programs. Even though this was an improvement over the state of the industry from six years prior --that disclosure is now easier-- it did not appear that disclosure was effective nor that it aided in the reduction of trivially exploited vulnerabilities.

Failures in Vulnerability Disclosure Processes

Despite the clearer path for vulnerability disclosure compared to the prior research, some bug bounty programs have complicated and prolonged the coordinated disclosure process, sometimes taking over 6 months to complete. For example, Netgear did not honor the terms of their own bug bounty program and at times refused to answer ISE despite multiple inquiries. It took ISE sending out of band emails to Netgear employees directly for the issues to receive proper attention. Netgear’s managed bug bounty program failed to provide the research team with timely updates.

Of the thirteen companies ISE contacted, only three worked with ISE to ensure the vulnerabilities were mitigated. Several of the companies contacted never responded to ISE’s emails regarding the vulnerabilities found in their devices.

IoT Security Recommendations

ISE offers some recommendations for manufacturers and users on improving IoT security for both current and future devices:

Device Manufacturers

IoT vendors have increased their presence in the security community, albeit without any substantial increases to device security.

• Manufacturers should train their developers on security best practices and use either internal or external security teams to assess the software running on their devices.

• Software must be developed with security in mind from the initial planning stages in the software lifecycle and considered at all other stages.

• Manufacturers should rely on qualified rigorous testing, not just hacking events or bug bounty programs for security assessments.

• Prepare and release firmware upgrades that address these issues and other known vulnerabilities.

 Enterprise Users

• When purchasing devices, consider howa manufacturer has handled patching issues and the length of time that devices are supported.

• After devices have been purchased and installed, harden them by disabling unused features, enabling security controls if available, and implementing a patching strategy to regularly apply firmware updates.

• Avoid remote access and administration features whenever possible as they expose the device to adversaries on the Internet.

• Conduct security assessments or vet devices before deploying them in networks.

“There are billions of IoT devices in use today, and an all too significant percentage are being sold without proper security assessments or an effective process to fix subsequent fundamental issues as they arise.,” says Bono. “Manufacturers need to be proactive at fixing issues rather than relying on bug bounty programs, and other post-production initiatives.”

About Independent Security Evaluators (ISE)

Independent Security Evaluators (ISE) is a security consulting firm specializing in vulnerability assessments for applications and networks, as well as providing trainings and delivering secure software development for companies protecting high-value assets who may be frequently targeted. Our adversary-centric approach to security has proven highly effective for bolstering our clients’ defensive security postures. ISE analysts are also active in the security research community, speaking at conferences about relevant security issues and providing the public with cutting edge threat-based advisories. ISE is headquartered in Baltimore, with offices in San Diego.