Tollgrade Smart Grid EMS LightHouse Vulnerabilities

OVERVIEW

Ashish Kamble of Qualys, Inc. has identified vulnerabilities in Tollgrade Communications, Inc.’s Smart Grid LightHouse Sensor Management System (SMS) Software EMS. Tollgrade has produced a new version to mitigate these vulnerabilities. Ashish Kamble has tested the new version to validate that it resolves these vulnerabilities.

These vulnerabilities could be exploited remotely.

AFFECTED PRODUCTS

Tollgrade Communications, Inc. reports that the vulnerabilities affect the following versions of LightHouse SMS Software:

• LightHouse SMS, versions prior to Version 5.1, Patch 3

IMPACT

An attacker who exploits these vulnerabilities may be able to restart the system, brute force a login, or change privileged parameters.

Impact to individual organizations depends on many factors that are unique to each organization. NCCIC/ICS-CERT recommends that organizations evaluate the impact of these vulnerabilities based on their operational environment, architecture, and product implementation.

BACKGROUND

Tollgrade Communications, Inc. is a United States-based company that maintains offices in the United Kingdom and Germany.

The affected product, LightHouse SMS Software, is a web-based distribution monitoring system. According to Tollgrade Communications Inc., LightHouse SMS Software is deployed across the Energy sector. Tollgrade estimates that this product is used primarily in North America, Europe, and South America.

VULNERABILITY CHARACTERIZATION

VULNERABILITY OVERVIEW

An attacker can restart the LightHouse SMS Software without authentication.

CVE-2016-5790NVD, http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2016-5790, NIST uses this advisory to create the CVE web site report. This web site will be active sometime after publication of this advisory. has been assigned to this vulnerability. A CVSS v3 base score of 7.5 has been calculated; the CVSS vector string is (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H).CVSS Calculator, https://www.first.org/cvss/calculator/3.0#CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H, web site last accessed July 12, 2016.

The content of error messages facilitates a brute force authentication attack.

CVE-2016-5797NVD, http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2016-5797, NIST uses this advisory to create the CVE web site report. This web site will be active sometime after publication of this advisory. has been assigned to this vulnerability. A CVSS v3 base score of 5.3 has been calculated; the CVSS vector string is (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N).CVSS Calculator, https://www.first.org/cvss/calculator/3.0#CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N, web site last accessed July 12, 2016.

A low privileged user can access and modify parameters that only an administrator should be able to access.

CVE-2016-5807NVD, http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2016-5807, NIST uses this advisory to create the CVE web site report. This web site will be active sometime after publication of this advisory. has been assigned to this vulnerability. A CVSS v3 base score of 8.1 has been calculated; the CVSS vector string is (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N).CVSS Calculator, https://www.first.org/cvss/calculator/3.0#CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N, web site last accessed July 12, 2016.

VULNERABILITY DETAILS

EXPLOITABILITY

These vulnerabilities could be exploited remotely.

EXISTENCE OF EXPLOIT

No known public exploits specifically target these vulnerabilities.

DIFFICULTY

An attacker with a low skill would be able to exploit these vulnerabilities.

MITIGATION

Tollgrade Communications Inc. released updated software, Version 5.1, Patch 3, which resolves these vulnerabilities. Users should contact Tollgrade Communications Inc. for support at the numbers below.

Tollgrade Communications, Inc.
Toll Free: 1 800-777-5405
Phone: 1 724-720-1480

Updated software may be found on its support site at:

http://customersupport.tollgrade.com

ICS-CERT recommends that asset owners follow the vendor’s recommendations on patching the impacted products. Internet accessible control system devices should be isolated and located within protected areas of the asset owners control system network to prevent exploitation from these vulnerabilities.

ICS-CERT recommends that users take defensive measures to minimize the risk of exploitation of these vulnerabilities. Specifically, users should:

• Minimize network exposure for all control system devices and/or systems, and ensure that they are not accessible from the Internet.
• Locate control system networks and remote devices behind firewalls, and isolate them from the business network.
• When remote access is required, use secure methods, such as Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), recognizing that VPNs may have vulnerabilities and should be updated to the most current version available. Also recognize that VPN is only as secure as the connected devices.

ICS-CERT reminds organizations to perform proper impact analysis and risk assessment prior to deploying defensive measures.

ICS-CERT also provides a section for control systems security recommended practices on the ICS-CERT web page at: http://ics-cert.us-cert.gov/content/recommended-practices. Several recommended practices are available for reading and download, including Improving Industrial Control Systems Cybersecurity with Defense-in-Depth Strategies.

Additional mitigation guidance and recommended practices are publicly available in the ICS‑CERT Technical Information Paper, ICS-TIP-12-146-01B--Targeted Cyber Intrusion Detection and Mitigation Strategies, that is available for download from the ICS-CERT web site (http://ics-cert.us-cert.gov/).

Organizations observing any suspected malicious activity should follow their established internal procedures and report their findings to ICS-CERT for tracking and correlation against other incidents.