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posted by Fnord666 on Friday June 12 2020, @01:12PM   Printer-friendly
from the the-S-in-IoT-stands-for-Security dept.

CallStranger vulnerability lets attacks bypass security systems and scan LANs:

A severe vulnerability resides in a core protocol found in almost all internet of things (IoT) devices.

The vulnerability, named CallStranger, allows attackers to hijack smart devices for distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, but also for attacks that bypass security solutions to reach and conduct scans on a victim's internal network -- effectively granting attackers access to areas where they normally wouldn't be able to reach.

According to a website dedicated to the CallStranger vulnerability published today, the bug impacts UPnP, which stands for Universal Plug and Play, a collection of protocols that ship on most smart devices.

Also at Ars Technica.

[...] Çadirci says that an attacker can send TCP packets to a remote device that contains a malformed callback header value in UPnP's SUBSCRIBE function.

This malformed header can be abused to take advantage of any smart device that was left connected on the internet, and which supports the UPnP protocols -- such as security cameras, DVRs, printers, routers, and others.

In a CallStranger attack, the hacker effectively targets the device's internet-facing interface, but executes the code on the device's UPnP function, which usually runs on the internally-facing ports only (inside the LAN).

[...] In addition, Çadirci also published proof-of-concept scripts that companies can use to determine if their smart equipment is vulnerable to any of the CallStranger attacks.

The CallStranger security flaw is also tracked as CVE-2020-12695. There are currently around 5.45 million UPnP-capable devices connected to the internet, making this an ideal attack surface for IoT botnets and APTs.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2020, @03:33PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2020, @03:33PM (#1006909)

    not the OP, but ill answer:

    yes, and as long as they only use button WPS profile or whatever its called, and rate limit pin submissions and double the delay after unsuccesful attempt, then yes, WPS can be used securely.

    But then theres the rest of the wireless soc.

    It really doesnt matter, as there are so many bugs in the hardware... like there's a castle with two hundred paper screen doors in the perimeter walls, thats a wireless SoC.

    Choice of particular paper screen door matters less and less.

    If the devices wifi chip has power on its power pins, it can be owned, theoretically.
    Why, yes, i cut those on all devices i intend to use for somewhat sensitive stuff.

    Practically, probably depends on many things, hard to generalise :)