A vulnerability has been identified in SIMATIC ET 200SP Open Controller (All versions >= V2.0 and < V2.1.6), SIMATIC S7-1500 Software Controller (All versions >= V2.0 and < V2.5), SIMATIC S7-1500 incl. F (All versions >= V2.0 and < V2.5). An attacker can cause a denial-of-service condition on the network stack by sending a large number of specially crafted packets to the PLC. The PLC will lose its ability to communicate over the network. This vulnerability could be exploited by an attacker with network access to the affected systems. Successful exploitation requires no privileges and no user interaction. An attacker could use this vulnerability to compromise availability of the network connectivity. At the time of advisory publication no public exploitation of this vulnerability was known.
The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.
| Name | Vendor | Start Version | End Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simatic_et_200sp_firmware | Siemens | 2.0 (including) | * |
Mitigation of resource exhaustion attacks requires that the target system either:
The first of these solutions is an issue in itself though, since it may allow attackers to prevent the use of the system by a particular valid user. If the attacker impersonates the valid user, they may be able to prevent the user from accessing the server in question.
The second solution is simply difficult to effectively institute – and even when properly done, it does not provide a full solution. It simply makes the attack require more resources on the part of the attacker.