CVE-2017-7930 in PI Server
Summary
by MITRE
An Improper Authentication issue was discovered in OSIsoft PI Server 2017 PI Data Archive versions prior to 2017. PI Data Archive has protocol flaws with the potential to expose change records in the clear and allow a malicious party to spoof a server within a collective.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/09/2020
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-7930 represents a critical authentication flaw within OSIsoft PI Server 2017 PI Data Archive systems, specifically affecting versions prior to the 2017 release. This weakness stems from improper authentication mechanisms that create significant security risks for industrial control systems and data management environments. The issue manifests through protocol-level vulnerabilities that compromise the integrity of communication channels between components within the OSIsoft PI ecosystem, potentially allowing unauthorized access to sensitive operational data and system controls.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability involves flawed authentication processes that fail to properly validate the identity of communicating parties within the PI Data Archive environment. Attackers can exploit this weakness to intercept and manipulate communication streams, particularly targeting the exposure of change records that are transmitted without adequate encryption or authentication verification. The flaw enables malicious actors to construct spoofing scenarios where they can masquerade as legitimate servers within a collective network configuration, effectively bypassing normal security controls and gaining unauthorized access to system resources and data repositories.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability presents substantial risks to industrial organizations relying on OSIsoft PI Server implementations for critical data management and process control. The exposure of change records in cleartext creates opportunities for attackers to gather intelligence about system modifications, access patterns, and operational configurations that could be leveraged for more sophisticated attacks. The ability to spoof servers within a collective network undermines the fundamental trust model of the PI system architecture, potentially leading to data corruption, unauthorized system modifications, and disruption of critical industrial processes.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including upgrading to PI Data Archive 2017 or later versions that address the authentication flaws, implementing network segmentation to limit exposure of PI Server components, and deploying additional monitoring solutions to detect unauthorized server spoofing attempts. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-287 which addresses improper authentication issues, and represents a significant concern under ATT&CK framework category T1078 for valid accounts and T1566 for credential harvesting. Security teams must also consider implementing network traffic analysis to detect anomalous communication patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts, while ensuring proper access controls and regular security assessments of industrial control system environments to prevent similar authentication weaknesses from persisting in operational technology infrastructure.