INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The cybersecurity firm F-Secure has discovered several exploitable vulnerabilities in a popular wireless presentation system the could allow
an attacker to manipulate information during presentations, steal passwords and other sensitive information and even install backdoors and
other malware.The firm found the vulnerabilities in Barco's ClickShare wireless presentation system which is a collaboration tool that
allows users to present content from a variety of devices.Senior consultant at F-Secure Consulting, Dmitry Janushkevich explained that the
popularity of user-friendly tools makes them the perfect targets for hackers, saying:“The system is so practical and easy to use, people
can’t see any reason to mistrust it
But its deceptive simplicity hides extremely complex inner workings, and this complexity makes security challenging
The everyday objects that people trust without a second thought make the best targets for attackers, and because these systems are so
popular with companies, we decided to poke at it and see what we could learn.” Janushkevich and his colleagues at F-Secure consulting
then began researching the ClickShare system on-an-off for several months after noticing how popular it was during red team assessments
The team discovered multiple exploitable flaws, 10 of which have CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) identifiers.These different
issues facilitated a wide variety of attacks including intercepting information shared through the system, using the system to install
backdoors or other malware on users' computers and stealing information and passwords
Exploiting some of the vulnerabilities requires physical access but F-Secure consulting also found that others can be executed remotely if
the system uses its default settings.According to Janushkevich, the execution of the exploits in Barco ClickShare can be done quickly by a
skilled attacker with physical access (possibly while posing as a cleaner or office worker), allowing them to inconspicuously compromise the
device.F-Secure Consulting shared its research with Barco back in November and the two companies then worked together in a coordinated
Barco has now published a firmware update on their website to mitigate the most critical vulnerabilities though several of the issues
involve hardware components that require physical maintenance to address and are unlikely to get fixed.
