AWS FreeRTOS vulnerabilities could crash IoT devices, warn cyber security researchers

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Flaws in IoT operating system could allow hackers to compromise devices and leak data

A city skyline connected by networks to represent IoT
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Security researchers have discovered vulnerabilities in a popular operating system aimed at IoT devices that could enable attackers to crash connected devices in critical infrastructure systems and smart homes.

Researchers at IT security firm Zimperium discovered there are around 13 flaws in the FreeRTOS operating system that could let hackers crash devices, leak data or remotely execute code on them, allowing the devices to be compromised.

The flaws impact FreeRTOS V10.0.1 and below (with FreeRTOS+TCP), and AWS FreeRTOS V1.3.1 and below.

FreeRTOS has been ported to over 40 hardware platforms over the last 14 years, according to Zimperium researcher Ori Karliner. In November 2017, Amazon Web Services (AWS) took stewardship for the FreeRTOS kernel and its components.

How safe is the IoT?

He said that AWS FreeRTOS aims to provide a fully-enabled IoT platform for microcontrollers, by bundling the FreeRTOS kernel together with the FreeRTOS TCP/IP stack, modules for secure connectivity, over the air updates, code signing, AWS cloud support, and more.

"During our research, we discovered multiple vulnerabilities within FreeRTOS's TCP/IP stack and in the AWS secure connectivity modules. The same vulnerabilities are present in WHIS Connect TCP/IP component for OpenRTOS\SafeRTOS," explained Karliner.

"These vulnerabilities allow an attacker to crash the device, leak information from the device's memory, and remotely execute code on it, thus completely compromising it."

The bugs include four remote code execution bugs (CVE-2018-16522, CVE-2018-16525, CVE-2018-16526, and CVE-2018-16528); seven information leak vulnerabilities (CVE-2018-16524, CVE-2018-16527, CVE-2018-16599, CVE-2018-16600, CVE-2018-16601, CVE-2018-16602, CVE-2018-16603) one denial of service flaw (CVE-2018-16523) and an unspecified flaw (CVE-2018-16598).

Karliner said the bugs were disclosed to Amazon who collaborated with them to create patches for the bugs. These patches were deployed for AWS FreeRTOS versions 1.3.2 and onwards.

Rene Millman
Rene Millman

Rene Millman is a freelance writer and broadcaster who covers cybersecurity, AI, IoT, and the cloud. He also works as a contributing analyst at GigaOm and has previously worked as an analyst for Gartner covering the infrastructure market. He has made numerous television appearances to give his views and expertise on technology trends and companies that affect and shape our lives. You can follow Rene Millman on Twitter.