CVE-2024-48971
📋 TL;DR
This vulnerability involves hard-coded clinician passwords in ventilators, allowing attackers to extract credentials and gain unauthorized clinician-level access to medical devices. This affects healthcare organizations using vulnerable ventilator models, potentially compromising patient safety and device integrity.
💻 Affected Systems
- Specific ventilator models (exact models not specified in advisory)
⚠️ Manual Verification Required
This CVE does not have specific version information in our database, so automatic vulnerability detection cannot determine if your system is affected.
Why? The CVE database entry doesn't specify which versions are vulnerable (no version ranges provided by the vendor/NVD).
🔒 Custom verification scripts are available for registered users. Sign up free to download automated test scripts.
- Review the CVE details at NVD
- Check vendor security advisories for your specific version
- Test if the vulnerability is exploitable in your environment
- Consider updating to the latest version as a precaution
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Attacker gains clinician privileges, modifies ventilator settings, disables alarms, or disrupts life-sustaining therapy, potentially causing patient harm or death.
Likely Case
Unauthorized access to ventilator configuration, viewing/modifying patient data, or disrupting normal operation without immediate patient harm.
If Mitigated
Limited to unauthorized access attempts that are detected and blocked by network segmentation and monitoring controls.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires physical access or network access to the device. Credentials are static and embedded in device firmware.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Not available
Vendor Advisory: https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/ics-medical-advisories/icsma-24-319-01
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
Contact ventilator manufacturer for firmware updates or replacement options. No user-applicable patch exists.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Network Segmentation
allIsolate ventilators on dedicated medical device networks with strict access controls
Physical Security Controls
allRestrict physical access to ventilators and their network connections
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict network segmentation and firewall rules to limit ventilator network access
- Deploy network monitoring and intrusion detection specifically for medical device traffic
- Establish physical security controls around medical device locations
- Implement compensating authentication controls at network perimeter
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check device documentation or contact manufacturer to confirm if clinician passwords are hard-coded and unchangeableCheck Version:
Check device firmware version through manufacturer-provided interface or documentationVerify Fix Applied:
Verify with manufacturer that firmware update removes hard-coded credentials or implements proper authentication📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unauthorized authentication attempts to ventilator interfaces
- Multiple failed login attempts followed by successful clinician-level access
- Configuration changes from unexpected sources
Network Indicators:
- Network traffic to ventilator management interfaces from unauthorized sources
- Authentication attempts using known hard-coded credentials
SIEM Query:
source_ip NOT IN (authorized_ips) AND destination_port IN (ventilator_ports) AND (authentication_success OR configuration_change)