1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

• CVSS v3 5.3
• Vendor: Medtronic
• Equipment: MiniMed 508 Insulin Pump
• Vulnerabilities: Cleartext Transmission of Sensitive Information, Authentication Bypass by Capture-replay

2. RISK EVALUATION

Successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities may allow an attacker to replay captured wireless communications and cause an insulin (bolus) delivery. This is only possible when non-default options are configured. Additionally, the pump will annunciate this by providing a physical alert, and the user has the capability to suspend the bolus delivery.

3. TECHNICAL DETAILS

3.1 AFFECTED PRODUCTS

The following supported Medtronic products are affected:

• MMT - 508 MiniMed insulin pump,
• MMT - 522 / MMT - 722 Paradigm REAL-TIME,
• MMT - 523 / MMT - 723 Paradigm Revel,
• MMT - 523K / MMT - 723K Paradigm Revel, and
• MMT - 551 / MMT - 751 MiniMed 530G

3.2 VULNERABILITY OVERVIEW

3.2.1    CLEARTEXT TRANSMISSION OF SENSITIVE INFORMATION CWE-319

Communications between the pump and wireless accessories are transmitted in cleartext. A sufficiently skilled attacker could capture these transmissions and extract sensitive information, such as device serial numbers.

CVE-2018-10634 has been assigned to this vulnerability. A CVSS v3 base score of 4.8 has been assigned; the CVSS vector string is (AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N).

3.2.2    AUTHENTICATION BYPASS BY CAPTURE-REPLAY CWE-294

The models identified above, when paired with a remote controller and having the “easy bolus” and “remote bolus” options enabled (non-default), are vulnerable to a capture-replay attack. An attacker can capture the wireless transmissions between the remote controller and the pump and replay them to cause an insulin (bolus) delivery.

CVE-2018-14781 has been assigned to this vulnerability. A CVSS v3 base score of 5.3 has been assigned; the CVSS vector string is (AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N).

3.3 BACKGROUND

• CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE SECTORS: Healthcare and Public Health
• COUNTRIES/AREAS DEPLOYED: Worldwide
• COMPANY HEADQUARTERS LOCATION: Ireland

3.4 RESEARCHER

Billy Rios, Jesse Young, and Jonathan Butts of Whitescope LLC reported these vulnerabilities to NCCIC.

4. MITIGATIONS

Medtronic will not be developing a product update to address these vulnerabilities. If a user has never programmed or used a remote controller, they are not susceptible to this attack. Additionally, if the user disables the remote option or turns off the easy bolus option in their pump, they are not susceptible to this attack.

The easy bolus and remote options are turned off in the pump by default. In cases where users want to continue to use the convenience of the remote controller, as a precaution to this attack, Medtronic recommends the easy bolus is turned off when they are not intending to use remote bolus option; and when the easy bolus option is turned on, be attentive to pump alerts.

Medtronic has released additional patient focused information, at the following location:

https://www.medtronic.com/security

Additionally, Medtronic will be sending a letter to all the patients who have acquired these remote controllers over the past four years to inform them about the security risks and compensating controls.

NCCIC recommends that users take defensive measures to minimize the risk of exploitation of these vulnerabilities. Specifically, users should:

• Minimize network exposure for all control system devices and/or systems, and ensure that they are not accessible from the Internet.
• Locate control system networks and remote devices behind firewalls, and isolate them from the business network.

NCCIC reminds organizations to perform proper impact analysis and risk assessment prior to deploying defensive measures.

NCCIC also provides a section for control systems security recommended practices on the ICS-CERT web page. Several recommended practices are available for reading and download, including Improving Industrial Control Systems Cybersecurity with Defense-in-Depth Strategies.

Additional mitigation guidance and recommended practices are publicly available on the ICS-CERT website in the Technical Information Paper, ICS-TIP-12-146-01B--Targeted Cyber Intrusion Detection and Mitigation Strategies.

Organizations observing any suspected malicious activity should follow their established internal procedures and report their findings to NCCIC for tracking and correlation against other incidents.

No known public exploits specifically target these vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities are not exploitable remotely. High skill level is needed to exploit.