How PLC gets hacked ???

Hello secfolks in previous post we discussed about Industrial Control Systems. In this post I’m discussing about the ways in which a PLC can be hacked.

PLCs are used to carry out some of the important/crucial tasks in industries ranging from moving a conveyor belt to controlling temperature in a nuclear power plant and PLCs getting hacked is nothing more than nightmare.

PLCs can be hacked by either of the below mention process :

-Malware Infection
-Hardware hacking

Malware Infection :

Malwares can be made and deployed that will infect the PLC networks causing the it to malfunction .Affects of such attack depends upon the severity of the process handled by the PLC. Best example for such malware would be “STUXNET”. It was a complex malware that infected the centrifuges of the Iranian Nuclear Power Plant. It’s origin is still a matter of debate, but it was extensively designed to attack the centrifuges. If you don’t know centrifuges are used in nuclear power plant to control maintain the core temperature and if a malware is able to sabotage them then it will a crucial situation. Stuxnet was a combination of rootkit (which allowed to camouflage) and RAT (Remote Administration Tool ,which provided a reverse connection to the attacker after it is deployed.

Hardware Hacking :

Hardware Hacking methods can be used to hack a PLC. It can be physically rigged to malfunction at the time of carrying out a process. Malicious firmware updates can be used to achieve this.

In my next post I will be discussing about some of the vulnerablities that exist in PLCs.