H-ISAC Vulnerability Bulletins — Aug 02, 2021, 10:13 AM
Armis researchers have identified nine critical vulnerabilities in one of the leading providers for pneumatic tube systems (PTS) in North America, the Translogic PTS system developed by Swisslog Healthcare.
This Translogic PTS system is used in over 80% of hospitals in North America and has been installed in over 3,000 hospitals worldwide. PTS systems play a crucial role in patient care and are utilized nearly constantly. Dubbed PwnedPiper by Armis researchers, the vulnerabilities allow for complete takeover of the Translogic NexusControl Panel, which powers all current models of Translogic PTS stations that are actively supported by Swisslog Healthcare. Older models that are not currently supported by Swisslog Healthcare are impacted as well.
The Swisslog PTS system is vital to hospital operations as it automates logistics and the transport of materials throughout the hospital via a network of pneumatic tubes. The system is designed so that hospitals can provide better patient care with automated material transport that includes highly-sensitive materials like lab specimens, blood products, pathology lab tests, medications, and more. Prior to the use of PTS systems, hospitals were required to manually transfer the various items, and today, due to their wide adoption, these systems are vital for proper workflow of hospital operations.
These vulnerabilities can enable an unauthenticated attacker to take over Translogic PTS stations and essentially gain complete control over the PTS network of a target hospital. This type of control could enable sophisticated and worrisome ransomware attacks, as well as allow attackers to leak sensitive hospital information. A high-level description of the discovered vulnerabilities is listed below. All of the vulnerabilities can be triggered by sending unauthenticated network packets, without any user-interaction.