CVE-2024-28024 Hitachi Energy CVE debrief

Who should care

OT/ICS administrators, system owners, and security teams responsible for Hitachi Energy UNEM deployments, especially where control-sphere separation is relied on to protect sensitive data.

Technical summary

The advisory describes cleartext storage of sensitive information in a resource that could be accessible across control spheres. The supplied CVSS vector is CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N, indicating a local, privileged, high-complexity confidentiality issue only.

Defensive priority

Low, but confirm segregation and remediate during routine OT maintenance because the issue can expose sensitive data if shared resources cross control-sphere boundaries.

Recommended defensive actions

• Review affected UNEM instances for any sensitive data stored in cleartext and remove or relocate it to protected storage.
• Apply the vendor's general mitigation factors for affected non-EOL releases.
• Plan upgrades for end-of-life versions to the vendor-recommended target releases: UNEM R16B PC4 or R15B PC5, where applicable.
• Limit access to affected resources and validate control-sphere boundaries so shared resources are not reachable from unintended zones.
• Follow CISA ICS recommended practices and defense-in-depth guidance while applying vendor updates or mitigations.

Evidence notes

The debrief is based only on the supplied CISA CSAF advisory data and the listed official references. The advisory text states: 'A vulnerability exists in the UNEM in which sensitive information is stored in cleartext within a resource that might be accessible to another control sphere.' The affected products provided in the source are UNEM R16B, R15B, R16A, R15A, and older than R15A. The source also states that EOL versions have no remediation available and recommends updating to UNEM R16B PC4 or R15B PC5 with general mitigation factors.

Official resources