Unlocking the Gates Hacking a secure Industrial Remote Access Solution
Moritz Abrell
DEF CON 32 Main Stage · Day 1 · Main Stage
In a compelling presentation at DEF CON 32, Moritz Abrell, a senior IT security consultant and penetration tester at the German company Sys, unveiled critical vulnerabilities within the Ewon Cosy Plus Industrial Remote Access Gateway by HMS. Titled "Unlocking the Gates," Abrell's research meticulously details how a combination of seemingly minor flaws can escalate into a severe security breach, granting attackers root access to devices and, more alarmingly, enabling a scalable attack capable of disconnecting and redirecting users from over half a million critical infrastructure assets worldwide.
AI review
Abrell's research on the Ewon Cosy Plus is a masterclass in dismantling vendor security theater. He meticulously chains seemingly minor vulnerabilities – from basic command injection and persistent XSS to insecure cookie handling – to achieve full root compromise. The true punch comes with the reverse engineering of the firmware update process, demonstrating how an attacker can leverage a single rooted device to leak firmware-specific encryption keys, enabling a scalable attack capable of disconnecting and redirecting users from over half a million critical infrastructure assets. This isn't…