The Overlooked Problem of 'N-Day' Vulnerabilities

guest · Nov 4, 2020

N-Day Vulnerabilities: How They Threaten Your ICS Systems’ Security
November 2, 2020
https://www.tripwire.com/state-of-security/featured/n-day-vulnerabilities-ics-systems-security/

In the last quarter of 2019, researchers at ClearSky uncovered an attack operation that they dubbed the “Fox Kitten Campaign.”
Overall, ClearSky found that their most effective attack vector was the exploitation of “1-day” vulnerabilities in unpatched VPN solutions for the purpose of infiltrating and compromising critical corporate information storages.

You don’t hear about “1-day” vulnerabilities all that much. But these “N-day” weaknesses, as they’re more commonly called, are a security concern that all organizations should have on their radar. Otherwise, they could leave themselves exposed to attack campaigns such as Fox Kitten.

With that possibility in mind, this blog post will begin by providing a definition of what “N-day” vulnerabilities are and by differentiating them from zero-day flaws. It will then discuss how these bugs pose particular security risk for industrial control systems (ICSes) over other environments. Finally, it’ll conclude by providing guidance on how organizations can strengthen their ICSes against n-day vulnerabilities.
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What Are N-day Vulnerabilities?
Dark Reading explains that N-day vulnerabilities are a type of security weakness about which a software developer or hardware manufacturer already knows. These companies might have already issued a patch for these types of flaws, or they could be in the process of creating one or rolling one out.

It’s a plain to see that N-day bugs are not the same as zero-day vulnerabilities. Per Stack Overflow, the latter involves attacks in which malicious actors exploit undisclosed flaws about which software vendors or hardware manufacturers have no knowledge.

This longevity is buoyed by all the possibilities of the dark web. Nefarious individuals can sell and download exploits for N-day flaws off of underground web marketplaces, enabling even inexperienced actors to craft effective attacks.
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Why ICSes in Particular Are So Vulnerable to N-days
Any large network is at risk of an N-day attack. Even so, Dark Reading reported that industrial environments are particularly vulnerable because of four specific circumstances that set them apart from other networks.

Red Balloon Security kept these issues in consideration when it conducted a years-long study of N-day vulnerabilities in ICS devices. Per Energy Central, the researchers uncovered hundreds of N-day flaws in the process. Some of those vulnerabilities were over two years old, while many had a CVSS security score of at least 7/10.
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The Overlooked Problem of 'N-Day' Vulnerabilities

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