Presented at
Black Hat USA 2021,
Aug. 5, 2021, 1:30 p.m.
(40 minutes)
Security in robotics is nothing really new if one considers modern OT and IT approaches, and most security practices translate directly to robots. However, there's almost no security culture amongst robot makers.
Building a robot requires careful selection of components that interact across networks while meeting timing deadlines. It isn't uncommon for robot components to be compromised or fail over time, leading to complete system malfunction. Given the expensive prices of these machines (we focus on robots in the 25K-70K USD range), it's only reasonable to consider the need for securing and repairing robots.
We introduce and promote systematic "robot teardown" as an approach to repair robots by understanding their internals (still obscure). Needless to say, robot teardown is an essential practice in robot security. We show several "tricks from the trade" and the legal implications learned by porting reverse-engineering practices into the less-explored field of robotics. We explain how we a) discovered more than 90 security vulnerabilities in robots from Teradyne (MiR and UR) over a period of two years (never discussed publicly before), b) gained repairing capabilities on these robots, c) show evidence of planned obsolescence by comparing two sequentially released robot controllers, and d) demonstrate how robot hacking leads us to repurpose an older controller (previous version) from Universal Robots with their newer robots (arms) maintaining full capabilities and demonstrating that there's no need to re-spend thousands of dollars again.
Similar to Ford in the 1920s with cars, most robot manufacturers nowadays employ planned obsolescence practices and organize dealers and system integrators into "private networks", providing repair parts only to "certified" companies to make repairs more difficult and evade competition. We wrap up by advocating for a "Right to Repair'' in robotics to reduce robot e-waste and promote systematic teardowns for the benefit of security research.
Presenters:
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Víctor Mayoral-Vilches
- Robotics Security Researcher, Alias Robotics
Victor Mayoral-Vilches is a robotics architect with a strong technical background in embedded systems. Victor has wide experience as an invited speaker in robotics forums and experience in cybersecurity and functional safety. Victor authored Akerbeltz ransomware for collaborative robots, aztarna robot footprinting tool, and the Robot Vulnerability Scoring System (RVSS) or the Robot Vulnerability Database (RVD), amongst other robot cybersecurity research products while working at Alias Robotics, a robot cybersecurity specialized firm. Victor has more than 25 scientific publications and 10 patents filed, mostly in the fields of secure and reconfigurable hardware and software for robots. Victor spent the last 10 years building robots and interacting with manufacturers and built, funded and led -- end-to-end -- 3 robotics startups designing robotic hardware and software architectures through adaptable FPGA-based System on Modules (SoMs), while in cooperation with top silicon vendors. Victor built partnerships with leading communication and robotic firms in security and robotics and served clients worldwide through projects from the US DARPA to the Japanese Mitsubishi, going through ABB. Victor was selected as one of the ten most innovative individuals under 35 in Spain by the MIT Technology Review in 2017 and held multiple national expert positions representing Spain in ISO and IEC committees for new standards in working groups for robotics and cybersecurity. Victor led a security team that uncovered hundreds of vulnerabilities in robots (with their corresponding CVE IDs) and sometimes writes @ https://cybersecurityrobotics.net/.
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Federico Maggi
- Senior Threat Researcher, Trend Micro Research
Federico Maggi, with more than a decade of research experience in the cybersecurity field, has done offensive and defensive research on web applications, network protocols and devices, embedded systems, radio-frequency control systems, industrial robots, cars, and mobile devices. Some of his research work has been featured on mainstream and media outlets such as Wired, Reuters, Forbes, Hackread, ZDNet, and MIT Technology Review. Currently employed as a Senior Researcher with security giant Trend Micro (https://trendmicro.com), Federico was an Assistant Professor at Politecnico di Milano, one of the leading engineering technical universities in Italy. Aside from his teaching activities, Federico co-directed the security group and has managed hundreds of graduate students. Federico has given several lectures and talks as an invited speaker at international venues and research schools, and also serves in the review or organizing committees of well-known conferences. More information about Federico and his work is available online at https://maggi.cc
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