IoT vulnerability disclosures grew 57% from mid-year 2021 to Q1 of 2022

NEW YORK – August 24, 2022 – Vulnerability disclosures impacting IoT devices increased by 57% in the first half (1H) of 2022 compared to the previous six months, according to new research released today by Claroty, the cyber-physical systems protection company. The State of XIoT Security Report: 1H 2022 also found that over the same time period, vendor self-disclosures increased by 69%, becoming more prolific reporters than independent research outfits for the first time, and fully or partially remediated firmware vulnerabilities increased by 79%, a notable improvement given the relative challenges in patching firmware versus software vulnerabilities.

“After decades of connecting things to the internet, cyber-physical systems are having a direct impact on our experiences in the real world, including the food we eat, the water we drink, the elevators we ride, and the medical care we receive,” said Amir Preminger, vice president of research at Claroty. “We conducted this research to give decision makers within these critical sectors a complete snapshot of the XIoT vulnerability landscape, empowering them to properly assess, prioritize, and address risks to the mission-critical systems underpinning public safety, patient health, smart grids and utilities, and more.”

Key Findings

• IoT Devices: 15% of vulnerabilities were found in IoT devices, a significant increase from 9% in Team82’s last report covering the second half (2H) of 2021. Additionally, for the first time, the combination of IoT and IoMT vulnerabilities (18.2%) exceeded IT vulnerabilities (16.5%). This indicates enhanced understanding on the part of vendors and researchers to secure these connected devices as they can be a gateway to deeper network penetration.
• Vendor Self-Disclosures: For the first time, vendor self-disclosures (29%) have surpassed independent research outfits (19%) as the second most prolific vulnerability reporters, after third-party security companies (45%). The 214 published CVEs almost doubles the total in Team82’s 2H 2021 report of 127. This indicates that more OT, IoT, and IoMT vendors are establishing vulnerability disclosure programs and dedicating more resources to examining the security and safety of their products than ever before.
• Firmware: Published firmware vulnerabilities were nearly on par with software vulnerabilities (46% and 48% respectively), a huge jump from the 2H 2021 report when there was almost a 2:1 disparity between software (62%) and firmware (37%). The report also revealed a significant increase in fully or partially remediated firmware vulnerabilities (40% in 1H 2022, up from 21% in 2H 2021), which is notable given the relative challenges in patching firmware due to longer update cycles and infrequent maintenance windows. This indicates researchers’ growing interest in safeguarding devices at lower levels of the Purdue Model, which are more directly connected to the process itself and thus a more attractive target for attackers.
• Volume and Criticality: On average, XIoT vulnerabilities are being published and addressed at a rate of 125 per month, reaching a total of 747 in 1H 2022. The vast majority have CVSS scores of either critical (19%) or high severity (46%).
• Impacts: Nearly three-quarters (71%) have a high impact on system and device availability, the impact metric most applicable to XIoT devices. The leading potential impact is unauthorized remote code or command execution (prevalent in 54% of vulnerabilities), followed by denial-of-service conditions (crash, exit, or restart) at 43%.
• Mitigations: The top mitigation step is network segmentation (recommended in 45% of vulnerability disclosures), followed by secure remote access (38%) and ransomware, phishing, and spam protection (15%).
• Team82 Contributions: Team82 continues to lead the way in OT vulnerability research, having disclosed 44 vulnerabilities in 1H 2022 and a total of 335 vulnerabilities to date.

To access Team82’s complete set of findings, in-depth analysis, and recommended security measures in response to vulnerability trends, download the State of XIoT Security Report: 1H 2022.

The Team82 Slack channel is available as well for additional discussion and insight into the report.

Acknowledgments

The primary authors of this report are Bar Ofner, security researcher at Claroty, and Chen Fradkin, data scientist. Contributors include: Rotem Mesika, threat and risk group lead, Nadav Erez, director of innovation, Sharon Brizinov, director of research, and Amir Preminger, vice president of research. Special thanks to the entirety of Team82 for providing exceptional support to various aspects of this report and research efforts that fueled it.

About Claroty

Claroty empowers organizations to secure their Extended Internet of Things (XIoT), a vast network of cyber-physical systems across industrial, healthcare, and commercial environments. The company’s cyber-physical systems protection platform integrates with customers’ existing infrastructure to provide a full range of controls for visibility, risk and vulnerability management, network segmentation, threat detection, and secure remote access. Backed by the world’s largest investment firms and industrial automation vendors, Claroty is deployed by hundreds of organizations at thousands of sites globally. The company is headquartered in New York City and has a presence in Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America.

To find out more about Claroty, visit claroty.com.