NDLI: XCS based hidden firmware modification on embedded devices

Content Provider	IEEE Xplore Digital Library
Author	Bencsath, B. Buttyan, L. Paulik, T.
Copyright Year	2011
Description	Author affiliation: Laboratory of Cryptography and Systems Security (CrySyS), Department of Telecommunications, Budapest University of Technology and Economics (Bencsath, B.; Buttyan, L.; Paulik, T.)
Abstract	Most contemporary embedded devices, such as wireless routers, digital cameras, and digital photo frames, have Web based management interfaces that allow an administrator to perform management tasks on the device from a Web browser connecting to the device's Web server. It has been shown earlier that many of these devices are vulnerable to Cross Site Scripting type attacks whereby some malicious JavaScript code can be injected in the Web pages stored on the device. When such infected pages are opened by the administrator, the malicious script is executed with admin privileges, and it can potentially fully compromise the embedded device. In this paper, we demonstrate that such full compromise of embedded devices is indeed possible in practice by showing how the injected malicious script can install an arbitrarily modified firmware on the device. We present the general framework of this kind of hidden firmware modification attacks, and report on our proof-of-concept implementation that targets Planex MZK-W04NU wireless routers. In addition, we also show how this vulnerability can be exploited to install botnet clients on embedded devices, and by doing so, to create embedded botnets. Our work proves that the risk of this type of attacks on embedded systems is considerable, and it will further increase in the future.
Starting Page	1
Ending Page	5
File Size	304133
Page Count	5
File Format	PDF
ISBN	9781457714399
e-ISBN	9789532900262
Language	English
Publisher	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Publisher Date	2011-09-15
Publisher Place	Croatia
Access Restriction	Subscribed
Rights Holder	University of Split
Subject Keyword	Performance evaluation malicious code malware Browsers Security Servers Communication system security Object recognition hidden firmware modification Wireless communication Embedded systems security Cross Site Scripting Cross Channel Scripting botnets
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article

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1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
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