Software Engineering Institute

CWE-640: Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password

IOActive has reported that Cobham SAILOR 900 VSAT, SAILOR FleetBroadBand 150/250/500, EXPLORER BGAN, and AVIATOR 200/300/350/700D have been identified with a weak password recovery mechanism. It is possible more products than what have been identified are affected. The password reset algorithm used by these products can be reverse engineered so an attacker may be able to generate their own reset codes to change the password of the administrator account.

The vendor Cobham has provided the following statement:
Cobham SATCOM has found that potential exploitation of the vulnerabilities presented requires either physical access to the equipment or connectivity to the maintenance part of the network, which also requires a physical presence at the terminal.

Specifically, in the aeronautical and maritime world, there are very strict requirements for equipment installation and physical access to the equipment is restricted to authorized personnel.

All Cobham network devices are part of a network with a very specific network topology. Equipment and network devices are segregated into clear network segments with different access levels.

Maintenance of Cobham network devices is usually carried out by equipment that is physically connected to the network device itself (maintenance port) or connected to an Ethernet switch within a protected network segment. From a network security perspective, Cobham devices can therefore only be subject to attacks if the attacker has either physical access to the device or segment or the network has been installed incorrectly.

Cobham SATCOM will continue to evaluate any potential vulnerabilities with its equipment and implement increased security measures if required.

A remote unauthenticated attacker with access to the web interface may be able to reset the administrator password and take over the account.

We are currently unaware of a practical solution to this problem. Please consider the following workaround.

Restrict Access

Enable firewall rules to restrict access from untrusted sources to the web interface.