CVE-2020-6083: TALOS-2020-1005 || Cisco Talos Intelligence Group

Summary

An exploitable denial of service vulnerability exists in the ENIP Request Path Port Segment functionality of Allen-Bradley Flex IO 1794-AENT/B. A specially crafted network request can cause a loss of communications with the device resulting in denial-of-service. An attacker can send a malicious packet to trigger this vulnerability.

Tested Versions

Allen-Bradley Flex IO 1794-AENT/B 4.003

Product URLs

http://ab.rockwellautomation.com/IO/In-Cabinet-Modular/1794-FLEX-IO-Modules

CVSSv3 Score

7.5 - CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CWE

CWE-120 - Buffer Copy without Checking Size of Input (Classic Buffer Overflow)

Details

The 1794-AENT FLEX I/O is a modular I/O platform produced by Allen-Bradley. It is designed to provide a wide range of I/O operations while keeping a smaller form factor. Communication with the device is primarily possible via EtherNet/IP (ENIP) and HTTP.

When using ENIP to communicate with the device, the SendRRData command can be used to send an encapsulated unconnected message. One field necessary for unconnected packets is the Request Path, also referred to as the EPATH or IOI. This value contains pairs of bytes, referred to as segments, that reference different parts of a CIP entity. Through use of a combination of segments, a description of the device can be represented.

Segments are structured as a bitfield, using the high three bits to indicate the segment type and the remaining to indicate the segment format. This can be seen in the table below:

+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+
|  7  |  6  |  5  |  4  |  3  |  2  |  1  |  0  |
+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+
|  Segment Type   |       Segment Format        |
+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+

Of the eight possible Segment Types, seven are defined and one is reserved for future use. The breakdown for this field can be seen in the table below:

                          +===+===+===+
                          | 7 | 6 | 5 |
+-------------------------+===+===+===+
| Port Segment            | 0 | 0 | 0 |
+-------------------------+---+---+---+
| Logical Segment         | 0 | 0 | 1 |
+-------------------------+---+---+---+
| Network Segment         | 0 | 1 | 0 |
+-------------------------+---+---+---+
| Symbolic Segment        | 0 | 1 | 1 |
+-------------------------+---+---+---+
| Data Segment            | 1 | 0 | 0 |
+-------------------------+---+---+---+
| Data Type (constructed) | 1 | 0 | 1 |
+-------------------------+---+---+---+
| Data Type (elementary)  | 1 | 1 | 0 |
+-------------------------+---+---+---+
| Reserved                | 1 | 1 | 1 |
+-------------------------+---+---+---+

Each of the Segment Types then implements its own fields for the remaining bits in the field.

When a Port Segment is chosen, the remaining bits get further broken up as shown below:

+============================+=====+=====+=====+=====+
|             4              |  3  |  2  |  1  |  0  |
+============================+=====+=====+=====+=====+
| Extended Link Address Size |    Port Identifier    |
+----------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+

The Extended Link Address Size bit is used to determine the number of Link Addresses to process. If it is not set, the byte immediately following the Port Identifier is interpreted as the Link Address. When the bit is set, the byte immediately following the Port Identifier is interpreted as the number of Link Addresses to process.

By setting the Extended Link Address Size bit, and providing a large value as the number of Link Addresses to process, it is possible to make the device enter a fault state. In this state, all remote communications with the device are stopped and a physical power cycle is required to regain functionality.

Timeline

2020-02-11 - Vendor Disclosure
2020-04-15 - Disclosure extension provided
2020-06-30 - Vendor follow up
2020-07-24 - Talos provided 2nd disclosure extension per vendor request
2020-09-10 - Vendor request additional time; Talos provided final disclosure deadline of 2020-10-12
2020-10-12 - Public Release

Discovered by Jared Rittle of Cisco Talos.