A new research project has uncovered 56 vulnerabilities in operational technology (OT) devices from 10 different vendors, all of which stem from insecurely designed or implemented functionality rather than programming errors. This highlights that despite the increased attention this type of critical devices have received over the past decade from both security researchers and malicious attackers, the industry is still not following fundamental secure-by-design principles.
“Exploiting these vulnerabilities, attackers with network access to a target device could remotely execute code, change the logic, files or firmware of OT devices, bypass authentication, compromise credentials, cause denials of service or have a variety of operational impacts,” researchers from security firm Forescout said in their new report.