Siemens Software Infected with Stuxnet, Still Packed with Dangerous Flaws

Siemens industrial software targeted by Stuxnet malware is still full of security flaws, according to Russian researcher Sergey Gordeychik. His Defcon security paper was cancelled in July after the electronics and engineering giant filed a request, reports IDG News Service`s Jeremy Kirk.

In the summer, Siemens asked researchers to postpone the presentation so they can fix their WinCC software, a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system (SCADA) they use to manage industrial processes.

“It’s easy to find vulnerability in WinCC,” Positive Technologies CTO Sergey Gordeychik said. “You can just point at it.”

The security bugs are so many that Siemens has worked out a roadmap to patch them all, according to Gordeychik, who has found more than 50 vulnerabilities in WinCC’s latest version. Most of the bugs could allow hackers to remotely take over the system.

The electronics company has been very receptive to the Russian researcher`s findings, according to Gordeychik. “I’m really surprised,” Positive Technologies CTO said. “Other SCADA vendors don’t want to talk about security at all.”

Details from the cancelled Defcon presentation were revealed today in Seoul, where Sergey Gordeychik presented an overview of the paper at the Power of Community security conference with his colleague from the penetration testing team, Gleb Gritsai.

After Stuxnet and Duqu, the massive “Flame” Trojan was isolated in May, in Iran, and can be detected by users with a Bitdefender tool.