Siemens SIMATIC S7 Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CVE-2018-13815)

high Tenable OT Security Plugin ID 500166

Synopsis

The remote OT asset is affected by a vulnerability.

Description

A vulnerability has been identified in SIMATIC S7-1200 (All versions), SIMATIC S7-1500 (All Versions < V2.6). An attacker could exhaust the available connection pool of an affected device by opening a sufficient number of connections to the device. Successful exploitation requires an attacker to be able to send packets to port 102/tcp of the affected device. No user interaction and no user privileges are required to exploit the vulnerability. The vulnerability, if exploited, could cause a Denial-of-Service condition impacting the availability of the system. At the time of advisory publication no public exploitation of this vulnerability was known.

This plugin only works with Tenable.ot. Please visit https://www.tenable.com/products/tenable-ot for more information.

Solution

The following text was originally created by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). The original can be found at CISA.gov.

Siemens recommends users of SIMATIC S7-1500 update to Version 2.6, which can be downloaded at the following location:

https://support.industry.siemens.com/cs/de/en/view/109478459

- SIMATIC S7-1200 update to Version 4.3, which can be downloaded at the following location:

https://support.industry.siemens.com/cs/us/en/view/109763919

Siemens has identified the following specific workarounds and mitigations users can apply to reduce the risk:

- Protect network access to Port 102/TCP of affected devices
- Apply cell-protection concept
- Apply defense-in-depth

As a general security measure, Siemens strongly recommends protecting network access to devices with appropriate mechanisms. In order to operate the devices in a protected IT environment, Siemens recommends configuring the environment according to Siemens’ operational guidelines for industrial security (https://www.siemens.com/cert/operational-guidelines-industrial-security), and following the recommendations in the product manuals.

Additional information on Industrial Security by Siemens can be found at:

https://www.siemens.com/industrialsecurity

For more information on this vulnerability and associated software updates, please see Siemens security advisory SSA-584286 on their website:

https://www.siemens.com/cert/advisories

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 500166

Version: 1.8

Type: remote

Family: Tenable.ot

Published: 2/7/2022

Updated: 3/4/2024

Supported Sensors: Tenable OT Security

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Low

Score: 3.6

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5

Temporal Score: 3.7

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2018-13815

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.5

Temporal Score: 6.5

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:siemens:simatic_s7-1200_firmware:-, cpe:/o:siemens:simatic_s7-1500_firmware

Required KB Items: Tenable.ot/Siemens

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 12/13/2018

Vulnerability Publication Date: 12/13/2018

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2018-13815

CWE: 400

Detections

Analytics