IT Security STUXNet
IT Security STUXNet
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Siemens is distributing a tool to help customers deal with a
malware threat targeting its SCADA, or supervisory control
and data acquisition, software.
Sysclean, developed by Trend Micro, detects Stuxnet and
cleans it from infected machines. First reported by security
vendor VirusBlokAda, based in Minsk, Belarus, Stuxnet
targets Siemens' Simatic WinCC and PCS 7 software, and
has been spreading via infected USB devices by exploiting
an unpatched vulnerability in Microsoft Windows.
Once the malware is installed it scans for the Siemens
software. From there, the malware attempts to steal process
or production data and send it out via the Internet.
In addition to pushing the Stuxnet cleanup tool, Siemens has
advised organizations to avoid using USB sticks and setting
up online connections with automation devices from an
infected engineering computer even after the malware has
been removed.
"Currently, there is only one known case in Germany of
infection [of Siemens customers], which did not result in
any damage," Siemens spokesperson Michael Krampe told
eWEEK in an e-mail. "We do not have any indication that
WinCC users in other countries have been affected."
Stuxnet has garnered a high amount of interest, both because
it is associated with a Windows zero-day vulnerability and
because it targets software used to control systems at
manufacturing and utility companies.
"The zero-day vulnerability, rootkit, main binaries, stolen
digital certificates and in-depth knowledge of SCADA
software are all high-quality attack assets," Symantec
researcher Patrick Fitzgerald and Senior Manager Eric
Chien blogged jointly. "The combination of these factors
makes this threat extremely rare, if not completely novel."
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Security researchers revealed today the Stuxnet worm has
been exploiting four zero-day vulnerabilities in Windows in an
attempt to infect industrial control systems.
In the months since Stuxnet was first publicized in July, much
of the attention focused on a now-patched Microsoft
Windows bug tied to the way shortcut files are parsed on
vulnerable machines. Researchers reported today however that
the malware has actually been seen exploiting multiple zero-
day bugs, including two that Microsoft said remain unpatched.
"If I have to single something out [as the most interesting]—
which is hard in this case—then I'd go for the fact that Stuxnet
exploits four previously unknown vulnerabilities," said Roel
Schouwenberg, senior antivirus researcher at Kaspersky Lab.
"But overall, the thought which has been put into Stuxnet is
just amazing. Four zero-days, two stolen [digital] certificates,
knowing SCADA systems inside and out—it's all been very
carefully orchestrated."
In addition to the Windows shortcut bug, the worm also used a
vulnerability in Windows' Print Spooler service that was
patched today by Microsoft. Still left open, however, are two
privilege escalation vulnerabilities the malware tries to use to
gain control of infected systems.
"One of these EoP [escalation of privilege] vulnerabilities
affects Windows XP and the other affects Windows Vista,
Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008
R2," blogged Jerry Bryant, group manager of Response
Communications at Microsoft. "These are local EoP issues,
which means that an attacker, in this case Stuxnet, already has
permission to run code on the system or has compromised the
system through some other means.
"We are currently working to address both issues in a future
bulletin," Bryant added.
First reported by security vendor VirusBlokAda, the worm
targeted Siemens' Simatic WinCC and PCS 7 software, which
run on industrial control systems.
In the months since the worm became publicly known, the
number of infected machines in India has continued to grow,
Schouwenberg said. The amount of infected machines in Iran
and Indonesia is significantly lower than earlier in the year, he
added.
According to Siemens spokesperson Michael Krampe,
Siemens has identified 15 customers that found Stuxnet on
their systems, and "each was able to detect and remove the
virus without any impact to their operations."
"Luckily, most control system operators separate their control
network from their business and public networks," noted Mike
Sconzo, senior security analyst at NetWitness. "That has been
a limiting factor in keeping the number of viable infections
down. Even though the initial infection vector was discovered
to be based on USB drives, newer information points to
Stuxnet being able to replicate via the network. Because of the
limited network connectivity and the restrictions imposed on
employees to not plug USB drives into controls systems, this
threat has not been as serious as it could have been.
"While being regarded as the first targeted attack against
industrial systems in the wild, it will likely not be the last," he
added. "Being a first effort in the target space and only going
after a limited number of system types, it has accomplished an
amazing amount."
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Siemens is distributing a tool to help customers deal with a
malware threat targeting its SCADA, or supervisory control
and data acquisition, software.
Sysclean, developed by Trend Micro, detects Stuxnet and
cleans it from infected machines. First reported by security
vendor VirusBlokAda, based in Minsk, Belarus, Stuxnet
targets Siemens' Simatic WinCC and PCS 7 software, and has
been spreading via infected USB devices by exploiting an
unpatched vulnerability in Microsoft Windows.
Once the malware is installed it scans for the Siemens
software. From there, the malware attempts to steal process or
production data and send it out via the Internet.
In addition to pushing the Stuxnet cleanup tool, Siemens has
advised organizations to avoid using USB sticks and setting up
online connections with automation devices from an infected
engineering computer even after the malware has been
removed.
"Currently, there is only one known case in Germany of
infection [of Siemens customers], which did not result in any
damage," Siemens spokesperson Michael Krampe told
eWEEK in an e-mail. "We do not have any indication that
WinCC users in other countries have been affected."
Stuxnet has garnered a high amount of interest, both because it
is associated with a Windows zero-day vulnerability and
because it targets software used to control systems at
manufacturing and utility companies.
"The zero-day vulnerability, rootkit, main binaries, stolen
digital certificates and in-depth knowledge of SCADA
software are all high-quality attack assets," Symantec
researcher Patrick Fitzgerald and Senior Manager Eric Chien
blogged jointly. "The combination of these factors makes this
threat extremely rare, if not completely novel."
Scapegoats? Anyone?
Iranian authorities have already detained several individuals
presumably connected to the Stuxnet attacks. Being a peaceful
tech person, I am absolutely not intrigued by the opportunity
to see heads on sticks. Instead, I would rather take a closer
look at the technical aspect of the story.
Siemens
By no means I am an expert in Siemens SCADA software, but
to me it looks like WinCC database hard-coded password is
the only serious security hole provided by Siemens in the
Stuxnet case. Yes, using a hard-coded password that has been
available on the Internet for several years cannot be
considered a secure practice. But, after all, this vulnerability
was used by Stuxnet only as one of the replication vehicles.
Without this exploit, infection would spread out at slower rate,
and that's it. As for the fact that a whole piece of Step 7
(Siemens PLC programming software) was replaced by the
virus and executed to perform some malicious actions like
tweaking PLC programs... Well, there is not too much
Siemens developers can do if a virus gets privileged access to
the system and can patch executable files in the memory and
on hard and removable drives. This takes us to the next
candidate.
Microsoft
These charges are harder to beat. According to the report,
Stuxnet "exploits a total of four unpatched Microsoft
vulnerabilities, two of which are previously mentioned
vulnerabilities for self-replication and the other two are
escalation of privilege vulnerabilities that have yet to be
disclosed." This is big. These two unreported exploits gave the
virus carte blanche to perform any memory and file
modifications on all versions of Windows. Being a long-time
Microsoft camper, I was happy to see the patch coming out on
September 15, 2010.
IT infrastructure
While googling Stuxnet, I have come across this posting.
Although the whole article is definitely worth attention, I
would like to quote a couple of excerpts.
In the three months since Stuxnet appeared for the first time, a
total of 19 Siemens customers worldwide from an industrial
environment have reported an infection with the Trojan (as of
October 21, 2010).
Important note:
ZIP files have to be stored as backup in advance.
A) Embedded systems:
These systems must be scanned from a second computer (not
an embedded system) via approved drives.
B) Other computers:
Recommended procedure
Please find the updated, recommended procedure on top of
this entry.
Recommendation
If your computer has been infected, please make sure that you
inform your Siemens Customer Support contact.
SIMATIC_Security_Update_V1_0_0_11.exe ( 2258 KB )
checksum ( 756 bytes )
Has the virus already caused any damage? There is only one
known case of infection in Germany. We are, at present, trying
to find out whether the virus caused any damage.
Where does the virus come from? This is currently being
investigated.
Why is the virus attacking only Siemens applications or are
the software products of other suppliers also affected? As far
as we know, only Siemens is affected. The Trojan is activated
whenever WinCC or PCS 7 software is installed.
How is Siemens helping the affected customers? Microsoft
will be offering an update (patch) as soon as possible that will
close the security breach at the USB interface.
Suppliers of virus scanners have prepared up-to-date virus
signatures that are being tested by Siemens and should be
approved for use by Thursday, July 21, 2010 at the latest. The
virus scanners will be able to help to detect and eliminate the
virus.
Siemens will also be providing a software tool during this
week that customers can use to check a Windows PC to see, if
it has been infected by the virus. The tool will be distributed
through the Siemens Advisory:
English:
.../en/43876783
German:
.../de/43876783
Siemens will also be providing a SIMATIC Security Update
with all the necessary functions.
Specific Questions
Which mechanism for authentication is used by WinCC? The
user login and the password for WinCC are freely definable
and have nothing to do with access to the internal database.
The internal system authentication from WinCC to the
Microsoft SQL database is based on pre-defined access data.
This data is not visible for the customer and is used as an
internal system mechanism for communication between the
WinCC system components and the database. Changing the
access data would impede communication between WinCC
and the database and is therefore not recommended.
Tightening up authentication procedures is being examined.
.../en/38616083/133300
Whitepaper:
Security Concept PCS 7 and WinCC Basic Document, Section
6.3. This helps the customer to set up a secure environment via
virus scanners, firewalls and other measures recommended by
us.
Do you know who built the malware, how long it has been out
there? This is being investigated and will be pursued to full
extent of the law
Have there been any previous incidents like this, where
malware was built that actually targeted your systems and
infected your customers? Or is this the first time? To our
knowledge it is the first incident of a Trojan attending a
Siemens Scada system.
Product Information July 19, 2010:
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A cyber security expert familiar with the matter has told us
Stuxnet likely originated from ongoing tensions between India
and China.
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Along with Indonesia and Iran, India has had the most number
of infections from Stuxnet. India and Iran had about 60,000
and 13,000 Stuxnet infections respectively until late
September. Indonesia was at the third position with over 6,000
infections
"It is known the two countries are at a cyber war with each
other and the fact that India was hit the most suggests China
could have been behind this."
Stuxnet is beyond imagination. Bloggers claim its targets are beyond process, power and nuclear pla
systems are also being used in Space as well as Traffic control systems like railways. If you have seen D
can have your imagination rolling! Now its clear why hackers targeted Siemens systems. But still I ha
One of the blogs claim it could have even attacked India’s INSAT-4B satellite. Jeffery Carr on his blog s
2010, a power glitch in the solar panels of India’s INSAT-4B satellite resulted in 12 of its 24 transpon
down. As a result, an estimated 70% of India’s Direct-To-Home (DTH) companies’ customers were wi
India’s DTH operators include Sun TV and state-run Doordarshan and data services of Tata V
What does this have to do with the Stuxnet worm that’s infected thousands of systems, mostly in In
India’s Space Research Organization is a Siemens customer. According to the resumes of two former
worked at the ISRO’s Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre, the Siemens software in use is Siemens S7-
SIMATIC WinCC, both of which will activate the Stuxnet worm.”
The blogger has indicated that the PLC’s were used in Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre. Might be that t
used as safety systems for gas handling. Whether these PLC’s were used to control satellites is a re
And there has been lot of talk about SIL. SIL only represents reliability of the system and not s
What is a SIL? (ref: http://www.dyadem.com/services/additional-engineering-services/s
A SIL is a statistical representation of the reliability of the SIS when a process demand occurs. It is
ANSI/ISA-S84.01 and IEC 61508 to measure the reliability of SIS. Both ISA and IEC have agreed that
categories: SILs 1, 2 and 3. IEC also includes an additional level, SIL 4, that ISA does not. The higher
more reliable or effective the system is.
SILs are correlated to the probability of failure of demand (PFD), which is equivalent to the unavailabilit
the time of a process demand.
There has also a lot of SIL4 discussed on these blogs.
What is SIL 4? (ref: http://www.gmigasandflame.com/sil_faqs.html#SIL4)
SIL 4 is the highest level of risk reduction that can be obtained through a Safety Instrumented System.
process industry this is not a realistic level and currently there are few, if any, products / systems tha
safety integrity level.
SIL 4 systems are typically so complex and costly that they are not economically beneficial to implemen
a process includes so much risk that a SIL 4 system is required to bring it to a safe state, then fundame
problem in the process design which needs to be addressed by a process change or other non-instrum
Quotes a Safety Systems professional “To attain SIL 4 the system has to be non micro processor based
secure. It is true that it is more secure as there is no software involved. However practically SIL4 a
currently”
This discussion on Siemens website supports it
(http://www.automation.siemens.com/WW/forum/guests/PostShow.aspx?PageIndex=1&PostID=181715
However there has been some work on SIL using Linux (Ref: SIL4LINUX). And some claims on Software
4 (www.firmafrance.com/Documents_Produits/Produit3396.pdf)
To conclude the SIL standards really do not ensure how secure the system should be from hacking
One more question! How come Windows in Iran. Noted this on Microsoft’s Website
(http://www.microsoft.com/exporting/faq.htm)
Are there certain countries you cannot ship Microsoft products to?
Yes. In general, Microsoft products may not be exported to Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, o
For automation professionals who would like to know more on the infection process read Symantec’s Ex
PLC Infection Process
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DCS , SIS , SECURİTY ANSI , AUTOMATİON , BLOGGERS , BLOGS , BOTH , CARR , CATEGORİE
COLLEAGUES , CUBA , CUSTOMER , CUSTOMERS , DATA , DİRECT , DİSCUSSİON , DOCUMENTS_PRODUİTS , D
DOUBTS , FAİLURE , FORUM , GLİTCH , GUESTS , HARD , HOME , İMAGİNATİON , İMAGİNATİONS , INDİA ,
İNFECTİON , INSAT , INSAT-4B , IRAN , ISRO , JEFFERY , KOREA , LANGUAGE , LİNUX , LİQUİD , METHOD , MİCR
NORTH , OPERATORS , ORGANİZATİON , PAGEINDEX , PANELS , PLANTS , POSTID , PROCESSOR , PRODUCTS
QUOTES , REDUCTİON , REPRESENTATİON , RESEARCH , RESULT , SATELLİTE , SERVİCES , SİEMENS , SIL4 ,
SOFTWARE , SOME , SPACE , STUNXNET , STUXNET , SUDAN , SUPPORTS , SYMANTEC , SYRİA , SYSTEM , SY
TRAFFİC , VSNL , WEBSİTE , WHETHER , WİNCC , WORM
« What is HART?
Stuxnet – The New Generation Control Systems C
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« What is HART?
Stuxnet – The Stuxnet – The New Generation Control Sys
Computer Worm
ON OCTOBER 6TH, 2010
Stuxnet is a Windows-specific computer worm first discovered in June 2010 by VirusBlokAda, a securi
Belarus. It is the first discovered worm that spies on and reprograms industrial systems. It was specifi
attack Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems used to control and monitor i
processes.Stuxnet includes the capability to reprogram the programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and h
(Ref: Wikipedia)
It is the first-ever computer worm to include a PLC rootkit.It is also believed to be the first worm to
industrial infrastructure. Furthermore the worm’s probable target has been said to have been high value
in Iran using Siemens control systems. It has also been said that the infestation by this worm might ha
start up of Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant. (Ref: Wikipedia)
As of end September 2010 the virus has widely affected Iran, Indonesia and India (Source: Stuxne
Microscope)
(Image Source: Stuxnet Under the Microscope)
A high volume of detections in a single region may mean that it is the major target of attackers. How
targets may exist, and the promiscuous nature of the infective mechanism is likely to targeting
With its ability to attack industrial control systems, Stuxnet is the first computer virus that causes re
This also calls for nations to strengthen their Cyber Security. And soon cyber security will become a mu
industry, multiple times its current volume. I feel the control systems should move back to proprieta
systems. Gone are the days when these systems were designed and considered to be more secure. Wit
getting more open day by day with insecure implementation of Microsoft dominated OPC (OLE for Proce
integration with upper level solutions like ERP the probability of risk is even higher. The strength of t
strong as the weakest link. With new versions of Windows coming up there has been no increased sec
solution may be to design Windows operating systems catering to automation platforms.
While it is being claimed that there is remedy for Stuxnet, we really need to wait and see if it is yet to u
worm has been discovered for Siemens systems and if it is true that it is a nation state sponsored pro
many to come targeting all platforms taking a nation’s defense and economy to its contro
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DCS , SIS , SECURİTY ACQUİSİTİON , ATTACKERS , AUTOMATİON , BELARUS , BHOPAL , BULLİO
COMPUTER , CONTROL , CONTROLLERS , CYBER , DATA , DCS , DEFENSE , DESTRUCTİON , DİSASTER , DOLLAR
ERP , EXAMPLE , GAMES , GENERATİON , GOOGLE , HARD , HOLLYWOOD , İMAGE , İMAGİNATİON , INDİA ,
İNDUSTRY , İNFESTATİON , İNFRASTRUCTURE , IPS , IRAN , JUNE , LİFE , LOGİC , MASS , MECHANİSM , Mİ
MİCROSOFT , NATİON , NATİONS , NATURE , NUCLEAR , OLE , OOPS , OPC , PİECE , PLANT , PLATFORMS , PLC ,
REGİON , SCADA , SEPTEMBER , SİEMENS , SIS , SOLUTİON , SOURCE , STATE , STRENGTH , STUXNET , SU
SYSTEMS , THEMES , THREAT , TRAGEDY , UNDER , VERSİONS , VİRUS , VİRUSBLOKADA , WEAPON , WİKİPEDİ
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