Radio-frequency (RF) remote controllers are widely used in multiple industrial applications like manufacturing, construction and transportation. Cranes, drillers and diggers, among others, are commonly equipped with RF controllers, which have become the weakest link in safety-critical IIoT applications.
Our security assessment revealed a lack of important security features at different levels, with vendors using obscure proprietary protocols instead of standards. As a consequence, this technology appeared to be vulnerable to attacks like replay, command injection, e-stop abuse, malicious repairing and reprogramming. Together with ZDI, we ran into a 6-months responsible disclosure process and then released 10 security advisories.
In this presentation, we share the findings of our research and make use of demos to discuss the problems in detail. We conclude providing recommendations for all parties involved in the life-cycle of these devices, from vendors to users and system integrators.
