FATEK Automation Designer Memory Corruption Vulnerabilities
Monitor7.5ICS-CERT ICSA-16-287-06Jul 17, 2016
Attack VectorNetwork
Auth RequiredNone
ComplexityLow
User InteractionNone needed
Summary
Memory corruption vulnerabilities (buffer overflow and out-of-bounds access) in FATEK Automation PM Designer V3 2.1.2.2 and Automation FV Designer 1.2.8.0 allow remote attackers to crash these applications without authentication. The vulnerabilities are caused by improper input validation in network-facing code paths.
What this means
What could happen
An attacker with network access can trigger a memory corruption error that crashes the Automation PM Designer or FV Designer application, causing loss of engineering workflow and potentially preventing updates to PLC configurations or logic.
Who's at risk
Engineering and automation teams that use FATEK Automation PM Designer V3 or FV Designer for PLC programming and logic configuration should be concerned. This affects any facility running these legacy design tools on workstations that have network connectivity.
How it could be exploited
An attacker sends a specially crafted network request to the Automation Designer application running on an engineering workstation. The application fails to properly validate input bounds, leading to a buffer overflow or out-of-bounds memory access that crashes the application.
Prerequisites
- Network access to the engineering workstation running Automation PM Designer or FV Designer
- Automation Designer application is listening on a network interface (not isolated to localhost)
- No authentication required to send the malicious request
remotely exploitableno authentication requiredlow complexityno patch availabledenial of service impact
Exploitability
Moderate exploit probability (EPSS 1.7%)
Affected products (2)
2 EOL
ProductAffected VersionsFix Status
Automation PM Designer V3: 2.1.2.22.1.2.2No fix (EOL)
Automation FV Designer: 1.2.8.01.2.8.0No fix (EOL)
Remediation & Mitigation
0/4
Do now
0/2HARDENINGIsolate engineering workstations running Automation PM Designer or FV Designer to a separate, air-gapped network or restrict network access to these systems using firewall rules
WORKAROUNDDisable network interfaces on Automation Designer applications if they do not require remote access; configure the application to listen only on localhost (127.0.0.1) if possible
Schedule — requires maintenance window
0/1Patching may require device reboot — plan for process interruption
HARDENINGMonitor engineering workstations for unexpected crashes or restarts of Automation Designer; implement process monitoring and alerting
Mitigations - no patch available
0/1The following products have reached End of Life with no planned fix: Automation PM Designer V3: 2.1.2.2, Automation FV Designer: 1.2.8.0. Apply the following compensating controls:
HARDENINGContact FATEK to inquire about end-of-life support or potential security updates for Automation PM Designer V3 2.1.2.2 and Automation FV Designer 1.2.8.0
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