Firmware security audit: 6 CVEs patched, 200+ devices hardened.
IoT Security — Industrial Automation
Firmware Audit · CVE Analysis · Secure Boot · OTA · NIS2
Initial situation: 200+ vulnerable devices
An automation company operated 200+ IoT control devices in field deployment. Manufacturer no longer provided firmware updates. Known vulnerabilities: hardcoded credentials, unencrypted connections, no Secure Boot. NIS2 deadline: 6 months.
Step 1: Firmware Extraction & Static Analysis
We extracted the firmware via JTAG and analyzed it with Ghidra. Findings within 48 hours:
"admin:admin123" ← Hardcoded credentials (CVSS 9.8)
"RC4" ← Broken encryption
"debug=1" ← Debug interface active in production
No Secure Boot ← Unsigned firmware accepted
Step 2: New Firmware — Security by Design
✓ Secure Boot
RSA-2048 signing. Only signed images accepted.
✓ AES-256-GCM
All network connections encrypted. TLS 1.3.
✓ Certificate Auth
X.509 certificates replace hardcoded passwords.
✓ Input Validation
All network endpoints with explicit length checks.
✓ OTA Infrastructure
Signed updates. Wave rollout. Automatic rollback.
✓ Audit Logging
All connections and commands logged. Forensically usable.
Step 3: OTA Rollout — 200+ Devices
Pilot group (10%)
48h monitoring on controlled test devices. No anomalies → proceed.
Second wave (30%)
Extended group. Full telemetry monitoring. Auto-rollback if >1% error rate.
Final rollout (100%)
All remaining devices. Update time: <90 seconds. Production unaffected.
NIS2 Documentation
CVE report, pentest results, compliance documentation delivered.