CVE-2021-40519
📋 TL;DR
Airangel HSMX Gateway devices through version 5.2.04 contain hard-coded database credentials, allowing attackers to gain unauthorized access to the device's database. This affects all deployments using vulnerable firmware versions, potentially exposing sensitive configuration data and system control.
💻 Affected Systems
- Airangel HSMX Gateway
📦 What is this software?
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete system compromise allowing attackers to extract all database contents, modify device configurations, disable security controls, and potentially pivot to other network systems.
Likely Case
Unauthorized database access leading to exposure of sensitive configuration data, user information, and potential manipulation of device settings.
If Mitigated
Limited impact if database is isolated from external networks and access controls prevent credential usage from unauthorized sources.
🎯 Exploit Status
Hard-coded credentials are publicly documented, making exploitation trivial for anyone with network access to the device.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Unknown
Vendor Advisory: https://airangel.com/hsmx-gateway/
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
Contact Airangel support for firmware updates beyond version 5.2.04. No official patch information is publicly available.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Network Segmentation
linuxIsolate HSMX Gateway devices from untrusted networks and restrict database port access
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport [database_port] -j DROP
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-rich-rule='rule family="ipv4" source address="[trusted_network]" port protocol="tcp" port="[database_port]" accept'
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict network access controls to prevent unauthorized connections to the database port
- Monitor database access logs for unauthorized connection attempts using hard-coded credentials
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check firmware version via device web interface or SSH if available. Versions 5.2.04 and earlier are vulnerable.Check Version:
ssh admin@[device_ip] 'cat /version' or check web admin interfaceVerify Fix Applied:
Verify firmware version is above 5.2.04 and test database authentication with documented hard-coded credentials.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Failed authentication attempts with known hard-coded usernames
- Unexpected database connections from unauthorized sources
Network Indicators:
- Connection attempts to database port (default 3306 for MySQL) from untrusted sources
- SQL queries from unexpected IP addresses
SIEM Query:
source="hsmx_gateway" AND (event_type="database_auth" AND (username="hardcoded_user" OR source_ip NOT IN [allowed_ips]))