OPC UA Pwn2Own Resource Exhaustion Exploit
11.05.2022
Edit (23.05.2022): This issue is the same as CVE-2022-30551, which is published at OPC Foundation Security Bulletins.
Prosys OPC UA SDK for Java was selected as one of the targets for Pwn2Own Miami 2022 that was hosted by Zero Day Initiative (ZDI), this April. Security research teams were invited to compete for prizes for finding security exploits in various industrial control system (ICS) products. Other OPC UA SDKs were also among the targets in the OPC UA Server Category.
Several exploits were found from the products and one of them was also in our SDK:
“The Claroty Research (@claroty) team of Noam Moshe, Vera Mens, Amir Preminger, Uri Katz, and Sharon Brizinov used a resource exhaustion bug to execute their DoS on the Prosys OPC UA SDK for Java”.
ZDI and Claroty Research disclosed the details of the exploit to us so that we were able to fix the issue without making it public, yet, and the fix is now available. We recommend all our customers to update their products accordingly as soon as possible and release updated versions of their products to secure the industry from this exploit in future.
We have evaluated the exploit with CVSS Base Score 7.5 and Vector String CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
The exploit enables an unauthorized attacker to block OPC UA server applications so that they will no longer be able to serve client applications.
The vulnerability has been given an identifier ZDI-CAN-16441
Prosys OPC UA products affected
The vulnerability affects directly:
- All OPC UA server products built with Prosys OPC UA SDK for Java 4.7.2 and earlier
- Prosys OPC UA Simulation Server 5.2.0 and earlier
- Prosys OPC UA Modbus Server 1.4.14 and earlier
- Prosys OPC UA Historian 1.1.6 and earlier
Fixed products
The issue has been fixed in Prosys OPC UA SDK for Java 4.8.0, Simulation Server 5.2.2, Modbus Server 1.4.16 and Historian 1.1.8 and we encourage everyone to update to these versions.
Unified Automation products affected
AnsiC, C++ and .NET SDK that are originally made by Unified Automation were target at Pwn2Own as well. Information regarding the discovered exploits is published at the Unified Automation Security Process Summary.
UaGateway is based on the C++ SDK and was affected as well.
More security information
You will find the currently announced security issues in Prosys OPC products from the blog under the #Security tag.
You might also like to read about the OPC UA Security Process of the OPC Foundation.
Jouni Aro
Chief Technology Officer
Email: jouni.aro@prosysopc.com
Expertise and responsibility areas: OPC & OPC UA product development, project work and customer support
About Prosys OPC Ltd
Prosys OPC is a leading provider of professional OPC software and services with over 20 years of experience in the field. OPC and OPC UA (Unified Architecture) are communications standards used especially by industrial and high-tech companies.
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