Industrial Control Systems (ICS) Vulnerabilities and Mitigations

Industrial Control Systems (ICS) Vulnerabilities and Mitigations

ICSs are typically composed of embedded system components and some general purpose servers or clients running control software. The general purpose components share vulnerability and mitigation types with clientand server-based systems.

The following list of vulnerabilities is targeted at the embedded system components.

• Limited functionality: Standard OS functions and protections may not be available.
• Limited protections: General purpose host protections are not feasible.
• Long lifespan (become outdated): Typically in operation for 10+ years.
• Susceptible to misuse/error: Complicated, specialty systems, difficult to validate correct code and configuration.
• Highly susceptible to denial of service (DoS) attacks: Typically contain minimal communication protections and are very sensitive to improper input.
• Attacks can produce physical effects: Unlike most computing systems, attacks can cause impacts to the physical world.
• Often unattended in remote locations: Physical security may be limited or unmonitored allowing attackers to gain and maintain physical access with limited effort.

These mitigations should be applied to minimize the vulnerabilities.

• Isolated network infrastructure:

The most effective mitigation is to ensure

limited functionality components are not connected or exposed to general purpose networks and are only connected to highly controlled networks.

• Robust network connection restrictions and monitoring: Any connections allowed on or off control system networks must be carefully monitored
• Highly segmented network: Networks segmented by process or by devices that must directly communicate to function. This generates some very small network segments but is highly desirable.
• Protect communication channels: All communication channels must be heavily protected from outside access.
• Robust configuration control: Configuration and code on devices must be robustly managed.

If vulnerabilities are not mitigated, ICSs could become targets and the damage could be widespread such as power outages, water supply,medical instrumentation failure, etc.