When working to secure critical infrastructure, cybersecurity vulnerabilities are one of the main areas of concern. Every device, hardware component, and application that exists will usually have one or more vulnerabilities in the code at some point.
Conducting a cycle of vulnerability assessment and management is one of the cornerstones of a responsible cybersecurity strategy. Ongoing monitoring helps reduce the risk of an unchecked weakness being exploited by a bad actor to gain entry to a network.
An important part of this lifecycle is the prioritization of vulnerabilities so that the most severe can be addressed first. It’s also necessary to have the right tools that can detect the many different types of vulnerabilities.
Some may be present in firmware, others in web applications, and still others in the operating systems of mobile devices. There are multiple moving parts and endpoints to contend with, so automating the vulnerability cycle is the most effective way to manage it.
According to the 2022 Thales Data Threat Report, Critical Infrastructure Edition, 44% of surveyed organizations reported increases in the volume, scope, and/or severity of cyberattacks within the last 12 months.
At the same time as attacks are going up, so are the costs. IBM Security’s latest Cost of a Data Breach 2022 Report found that critical infrastructure organizations saw a $1.17 million increase in breach costs last year. The average data breach in this sector now costs $5.4 million. The report also found that nearly 80% of these organizations haven’t adopted zero trust strategies.
Vulnerability Types That Can Negatively Impact Critical Infrastructure
To inform your cybersecurity and vulnerability management strategy, we’re reviewing the main types of vulnerabilities that can leave critical infrastructure open to a cyberattack and breach.
1. Remote Code Execution
When you review the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) score for found vulnerabilities on sites like Microsoft and others, one is commonly scored high. This high-severity vulnerability is the remote code execution.
This vulnerability can allow hackers to not only gain access to a device or process but to take it over by sending commands via code. This leaves a mission-critical organization vulnerable to remote injection of any type of code, including ransomware and spyware.
You’ll often see this vulnerability used along with one that enables a hacker to elevate their privileges in a system to an administrator level.
2. Privilege Escalation
This class of vulnerability allows attackers to gain the right permissions in a system they’ve been able to breach. The goal is to gain a privilege that allows them to gain access to data, execute code remotely, and disable security controls (just to name a few).
If a hacker gains access to a web application, they may have a permission level that doesn’t allow them to do much in the system. The privilege escalation vulnerability changes that dynamic by elevating them to a higher level. This is often exploited as a “helper” vulnerability to others that give hackers more power to do damage once they have the right permissions.
3. Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS)
It’s not unusual to hear of DDoS attacks causing websites to go down for hours. Vulnerabilities that enable these attacks allow the attackers to send so many requests to an application or online service that it gets overwhelmed and can no longer respond as intended.
This type of attack can cripple a network, keeping legitimate users from accessing a system. The volume of malicious requests can come from multiple IP addresses, making it more difficult to stop. This attack often results in expensive downtime for a facility.
4. Memory Corruption
Many applications use memory on a temporary basis to handle data processes. When a vulnerability exists in the memory process it can leave systems vulnerable to being crashed, having data in the memory stolen, or other dangerous problems.
Contents of memory could also be altered, which could allow the execution of malicious code.
5. SQL Injection
An SQL injection vulnerability impacts databases that are used by software and systems to manage data behind the scenes. Whether you process payment cards on a site or keep track of employee access permissions, there is a database holding that information so it can be served up when requested.
This type of vulnerability gives attackers access to SQL commands that control how the database behaves. It can lead to all the contents inside the database being stolen, data being deleted, thus crippling applications that depend on it, or prevent access to the database contents.
Improve the Efficiency of Your Vulnerability Management Program
Vulnerability management is a cornerstone of cybersecurity for mission-critical facilities. CyberWizPro gives you an easy way to automate the process of detecting and removing these network weaknesses.