IoT and the Risk of Third party Components
Third-party software components are essential part of every IoT device. There’s no IoT device without third-party components. Common third-party components are:
Communication libraries (Bluetooth, Wi-Fi)
Encryption libraries (i.e., wolfcrypt)
Operating System
Open source tools
Different communication protocols (zigbee, mqtt)
Chip/module manufacturer components – the software within the communication modules, i.e. Broadcom, Qualcomm, Sierra etc.
Despite best efforts, even a well designed IoT device is likely to have a 3rd party vulnerability inherent in it’s design. The vulnerability might exist in the device’s operating system or – as crazy as it sounds – within the encryption library itself. In such cases, your device is completely exposed to cyber-attacks, regardless of the best practices that have been used.
On one hand, vulnerability in a third-party component is very dangerous. In many IoT devices, there is no separation and segmentation between processes and/or tasks, which means that a vulnerability in one third-party library leads to compromising the entire device. When no user-kernel architecture exists, this could lead to lethal results. Even if such architecture does exist, attackers can still leverage the third-party vulnerability, take control over the device and cause damage.
How to mitigate against device vulnerabilities.
it’s hard to eradicate vulnerabilities when it comes to third party components in IoT devices but there are some best practice guidelines to follow.
-Keeping your device up to date is extremely important. Organisations that have patched the vulnerability on time did not suffer from the consequences of the attack.
-New version releases for each of your components, in order to update them as quickly as possible.
-New security issues (CVEs) to make sure your components aren’t exposed to hacking.