Embedded systems security and IoT

Introduction

Some weeks ago DAVE Embedded Systems Technical support service was addressed by a customer reporting a problem he was experiencing on old ARM7-based product running Linux kernel 2.4. Even the machine configuration was not changed, it suddenly became very slow when performing ordinary tasks.

A specific support ticket was created and a failure analysis was conducted in order to determine the root cause of this behavior, apparently unexplainable. It was found out that a virus - in the form of an ELF executable - was uploaded by an attacker [1]. Two instances of this executable were running when the machine when it was analyzed. These processes overloaded the processor, causing the overall slowing down of the machine, as reported by the customer. Likely this virus has been used to perform illegitimate actions on the Internet such as [DDoS].

The machine was initially installed in a severely controlled private LAN with no access to the Internet. Then it was configured with a public static IP address and was moved to public network connected to the Internet. However, it was not verified that the original configuration is suited for such a use. From the security perspective, the system was affected by clear vulnerabilities such as the use of telnet service, combined with a weak root password. Thus it was trivial for the attacker to get access to the machine with root privileges. The protection level was so low, that maybe the attack was even carried out by an automatic hacking tool.

This anecdote proves one again that, when it comes to security in Internet-based applications, embedded systems are very similar to traditional IT equipments. However, embedded systems

This document aims to raise system integrators awareness of these issues and to provide some practical suggestions

This article is not a

In the last eighteen months IoT

[1] See also https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/1917f27f64fe8770e43a8087ad4529593dfb3cc4d9317ababb91e3bfea60a179/analysis/.

Security is a process, not a feature

holistic approach

analisi static del codice