Back in May of this year, I discovered a few vulnerabilities in the SatLink 2000 VSAT modem, which affected other models as well. This VSAT modem was vulnerable to reflected cross-site scripting, and it only supported insecure protocols for management. For those who are unfamiliar with VSAT modems, these are hardware devices typically found in offshore environments or remote areas where satellite communications are necessary for Internet access. We can now discuss these findings since SatLink has recently released firmware updates based on issues we responsibly disclosed to them.
The first finding is a reflected Cross-site Scripting vulnerability that affects SatLink 2000, SatLink 2900, and SatLink 2910 running the VMU software version prior to 18.1.0. The web interface didn't properly sanitize input for error messages, which allowed the ability to inject arbitrary client-side code. This vulnerability has been assigned CVE-2019-15652.
The second issue I discovered was that the device only supported insecure protocols such as HTTP and Telnet. These cleartext protocols would allow an attacker to sniff for credentials or other sensitive information over the wire, insert unintended data, or hijack entire management sessions. In the latest 18.1.0 build, SatLink added SSHv2 and HTTPS support for both SatLink 2900 and SatLink 2910.
SatLink was very communicative with us during the responsible disclosure process, which is rare in my experience. While they were unable to produce a fix within the 90-day deadline outlined by our policy, just by being responsive with regular updates allowed us to provide the flexibility necessary for a patch to be released. When your end goal is to make things more secure, publicly releasing vulnerability details when no patch is available (aka “full disclosure”) should be a last-ditch effort.
For more information about these findings, the advisory is available here: https://levelblue.com/security-resources/security-advisories/?fid=26455
