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CVE-2024-9834NVD status: Deferred

Life2000 Ventilation System: Cleartext Transmission of Sensitive Information

CVE-2024-9834 is a critical-severity cleartext transmission of sensitive information vulnerability in Life2000 Ventilation System from Baxter, with a CVSS 3.1 base score of 9.3 out of 10. It can be exploited with local access to the system by an unauthenticated attacker, without any action from a user. Affected Life2000 Ventilation System versions: 06.08.00.00 and prior. The record does not name a fixed version, so check the vendor advisory. There is no confirmed exploitation so far. EPSS estimates a 0.14% chance of exploitation within 30 days, which is low compared with other CVEs.

Patch this week

Critical severity: a successful attack would have severe impact.

What to do

  1. Check which version of Life2000 Ventilation System you run against the affected versions below, and install the vendor's latest release.

Affected products and versions

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed in
BaxterLife2000 Ventilation System06.08.00.00 and priorNot stated
Baxterlife2000_ventilator_firmware06.08.00.00 and earlierNot stated

Version data comes from the organisation that assigned the CVE. Confirm against the vendor advisory before deciding you are unaffected.

How the severity score breaks down

Attack vector
LocalThe attacker needs local access or must trick a user into running something.
Attack complexity
LowNo special conditions are needed; the attack works reliably.
Privileges required
NoneNo account or login is needed.
User interaction
NoneNo action by a victim is required.
Scope
ChangedThe attack can reach beyond the vulnerable component into other systems.
Confidentiality
HighAll data handled by the component can be read.
Integrity
HighData or code can be modified at will.
Availability
HighThe component can be taken down completely.

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H. Scored by CNA (baxter.com).

Official description

Improper data protection on the ventilator's serial interface could allow an attacker to send and receive messages that result in unauthorized disclosure of information and/or have unintended impacts on device settings and performance.

Source: the CVE record as published by its numbering authority, via NVD and CVE.org.

The underlying weakness: Cleartext Transmission of Sensitive Information

The product transmits sensitive or security-critical data in cleartext in a communication channel that can be sniffed by unauthorized actors.

How developers prevent this class of flaw

  • Before transmitting, encrypt the data using reliable, confidentiality-protecting cryptographic protocols.
  • When using web applications with SSL, use SSL for the entire session from login to logout, not just for the initial login page.
  • When designing hardware platforms, ensure that approved encryption algorithms (such as those recommended by NIST) protect paths from security critical data to trusted user applications.

More Cleartext Transmission of Sensitive Information vulnerabilities (CWE-319)

Timeline

  1. CVE record published.
  2. CISA published its SSVC assessment (exploitation: none, automatable: no, technical impact: total).
  3. Record last changed materially (score, affected products, status or references).

References

Other vulnerabilities in Life2000 Ventilation System

All Life2000 Ventilation System vulnerabilities

Recent Cleartext Transmission of Sensitive Information vulnerabilities

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