IoT Security Assessment

Without security, the Internet of Things will cease to exist. Security by Design – embedding security from the beginning – can minimize the risk of destroyed reputations and costly remediation. IoT companies will need to take action now to shield their solutions from cyberattacks and safeguard customer data, if they are to protect their reputation as a provider of secure devices and services.

SCS IoT Security Assessment provides a flexible framework that addresses the diversity of the IoT market, enabling companies to build secure IoT devices and solutions as laid out in the SCS IoT Security Guidelines, a comprehensive set of best practices promoting the secure end-to-end design, development and deployment of IoT solutions.

Building on the extensive expertise of the mobile industry, gained from decades of providing secure, trusted and reliable products and services, the SCS IoT Security Assessment scheme ensures Security by Design and enables companies to identify and mitigate any potential security gaps in their services, allowing the market to scale to its full potential.

The Key Attack Surface:

Attack SurfaceVulnerability
Ecosystem (general)
  • Interoperability standards
  • Data governance
  • System wide failure
  • Individual stakeholder risks
  • Implicit trust between components
  • Enrollment security
  • Decommissioning system
  • Lost access procedures
Device Memory
  • Sensitive data
  • Cleartext usernames
  • Cleartext passwords
  • Third-party credentials
  • Encryption keys
Device Physical Interfaces
  • Firmware extraction
  • User CLI
  • Admin CLI
  • Privilege escalation
  • Reset to insecure state
  • Removal of storage media
  • Tamper resistance
  • Debug port
  • UART (Serial)
  • JTAG / SWD
  • Device ID/Serial number exposure
Device Web InterfaceStandard set of web application vulnerabilities, see:

Device FirmwareSensitive data exposure (See OWASP Top 10 – A6 Sensitive data exposure):

  • Backdoor accounts
  • Hardcoded credentials
  • Encryption keys
  • Encryption (Symmetric, Asymmetric)
  • Sensitive information
  • Sensitive URL disclosure
  • Firmware version display and/or last update date
  • Vulnerable services (web, ssh, tftp, etc.)
  • Verify for old sw versions and possible attacks (Heartbleed, Shellshock, old PHP versions etc)
  • Security related function API exposure
  • Firmware downgrade possibility
Device Network Services
  • Information disclosure
  • User CLI
  • Administrative CLI
  • Injection
  • Denial of Service
  • Unencrypted Services
  • Poorly implemented encryption
  • Test/Development Services
  • Buffer Overflow
  • UPnP
  • Vulnerable UDP Services
  • DoS
  • Device Firmware OTA update block
  • Firmware loaded over insecure channel (no TLS)
  • Replay attack
  • Lack of payload verification
  • Lack of message integrity check
  • Credential management vulnerabilities:
  • Username enumeration
  • Weak passwords
  • Account lockout
  • Known default credentials
  • Insecure password recovery mechanism
Administrative InterfaceStandard set of web application vulnerabilities, see:

  • OWASP Web Top 10
  • OWASP ASVS
  • OWASP Testing guide
  • Credential management vulnerabilities:
  • Username enumeration
  • Weak passwords
  • Account lockout
  • Known default credentials
  • Insecure password recovery mechanism
  • Security/encryption options
  • Logging options
  • Two-factor authentication
  • Check for insecure direct object references
  • Inability to wipe device
Local Data Storage
  • Unencrypted data
  • Data encrypted with discovered keys
  • Lack of data integrity checks
  • Use of static same enc/dec key
Cloud Web InterfaceStandard set of web application vulnerabilities, see:

  • OWASP Web Top 10
  • OWASP ASVS
  • OWASP Testing guide
  • Credential management vulnerabilities:
  • Username enumeration
  • Weak passwords
  • Account lockout
  • Known default credentials
  • Insecure password recovery mechanism
  • Transport encryption
  • Two-factor authentication
Third-party Backend APIs
  • Unencrypted PII sent
  • Encrypted PII sent
  • Device information leaked
  • Location leaked
Update Mechanism
  • Update sent without encryption
  • Updates not signed
  • Update location writable
  • Update verification
  • Update authentication
  • Malicious update
  • Missing update mechanism
  • No manual update mechanism
Mobile Application
  • Implicitly trusted by device or cloud
  • Username enumeration
  • Account lockout
  • Known default credentials
  • Weak passwords
  • Insecure data storage
  • Transport encryption
  • Insecure password recovery mechanism
  • Two-factor authentication
Vendor Backend APIs
  • Inherent trust of cloud or mobile application
  • Weak authentication
  • Weak access controls
  • Injection attacks
  • Hidden services
Ecosystem Communication
  • Health checks
  • Heartbeats
  • Ecosystem commands
  • Deprovisioning
  • Pushing updates
Network Traffic
  • LAN
  • LAN to Internet
  • Short range
  • Non-standard
  • Wireless (WiFi, Z-wave, XBee, Zigbee, Bluetooth, LoRA)
  • Protocol fuzzing
Authentication/Authorization
  • Authentication/Authorization related values (session key, token, cookie, etc.) disclosure
  • Reusing of session key, token, etc.
  • Device to device authentication
  • Device to mobile Application authentication
  • Device to cloud system authentication
  • Mobile application to cloud system authentication
  • Web application to cloud system authentication
  • Lack of dynamic authentication
Privacy
  • User data disclosure
  • User/device location disclosure
  • Differential privacy
Hardware (Sensors)
  • Sensing Environment Manipulation
  • Tampering (Physically)
  • Damage (Physical)

 

 

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