AUTO-004 Automation · Security

6 critical vulnerabilities in IoT firmware — fully patched, NIS2-ready, downtime −45%.

200+

field devices patched

vulnerabilities fixed

−45%

unplanned downtime

NIS2

compliance achieved

Baseline

An automation vendor used third‑party IoT control modules. After a security incident at another customer of the same manufacturer, it was clear the proprietary firmware—no longer receiving updates—had to be audited. 200+ modules in the field. Enterprise customers required a NIS2 evidence package.

Vulnerabilities found

SEC-01 Hardcoded admin credentials CVSS 9.8 Critical

SEC-02 Stack overflow in HTTP parser (RCE) CVSS 9.1 Critical

SEC-03 Weak transport encryption (incl. RC4) CVSS 7.5 High

SEC-04 Missing input validation CVSS 7.2 High

SEC-05 Debug services enabled in production CVSS 5.3 Medium

SEC-06 No firmware signature verification (unsigned OTA) CVSS 6.1 Medium

Solution: a fully improved firmware rewrite

Credentials

Removed hardcoded passwords → X.509 certificate authentication + BLE provisioning

Encryption

RC4 → AES‑256‑GCM for all connections. MQTT over TLS 1.3.

HTTP parser

Rewritten from scratch. Length validation, bounds checking, hardened C++ with static analysis.

Secure boot

RSA‑2048 firmware signing. Only signed OTA images are accepted. Rollback protection.

Debug services

Fully disabled in production mode. Hardware jumper instead of a software flag.

Audit logging

Full log: connections, config changes, alarms with timestamp.

Rollout: 200+ modules without downtime

OTA update in waves (20% → 50% → 100%) with continuous monitoring. Firmware update time per module: < 90 seconds. All modules patched within 3 weeks.

All 6 vulnerabilities fixed (including CVSS 9.8)

Post-hardening penetration test: 0 new findings

NIS2 compliance fully documented and proven

Uptime after hardening: 99.96% (before: 98.7%)

Downtime from buffer-overflow crashes: eliminated

2 new enterprise contracts enabled by the security evidence

IoT devices in the field — how secure is your firmware?

Firmware security audit: we analyze, find vulnerabilities, and deliver hardened firmware.

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