Security researchers have discovered 20 serious vulnerabilities in Advantech EKI industrial wireless access points, prompting an urgent call for organizations to update their firmware immediately.
The flaws, uncovered by Nozomi Networks and disclosed on Wednesday, include six critical vulnerabilities that could allow attackers to execute malicious code, install backdoors, and completely compromise affected devices without authentication.
Among the most severe issues are five vulnerabilities related to operating system command injection (CVE-2024-50370 through CVE-2024-50374) and one authentication bypass flaw (CVE-2024-50375), all carrying the highest severity rating of 9.8 out of 10.
Researchers also identified a concerning attack chain combining two vulnerabilities - a cross-site scripting flaw (CVE-2024-50376) and an authenticated command injection bug (CVE-2024-50359). This chain could allow attackers within physical range to compromise devices by broadcasting malicious Wi-Fi networks.
The attack works when an administrator views the "Wi-Fi Analyzer" section of the device's web interface, which automatically processes information from nearby Wi-Fi networks without proper security checks. Attackers can embed malicious code in the network name (SSID) to trigger the vulnerability.
If successful, attackers could gain full remote control of the device with root privileges, potentially using it as a stepping stone to penetrate deeper into industrial networks.
Advantech has released patched firmware versions to address these vulnerabilities:
- Version 1.6.5 for EKI-6333AC-2G and EKI-6333AC-2GD models
- Version 1.2.2 for EKI-6333AC-1GPO model
Organizations using affected Advantech devices are strongly advised to install these updates promptly to protect their industrial networks from potential exploitation.