Major vulnerabilities in popular wireless presentation system

Barco’s ClickShare wireless presentation system is a collaboration tool that helps groups of people present content from different devices. ClickShare is a market-leading wireless presentation system with a market share of 29% according to FutureSource Consulting’s ‘Global wireless presentation solutions 2019’ report.

F-Secure Consulting’s Dmitry Janushkevich, a senior consultant that specialises in hardware security, said that the popularity of these user-friendly tools make them logical targets for attack, which is what compelled his team to investigate. 

“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,” explained Janushkevich. “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 F-Secure Consulting colleagues researched the ClickShare system on an on-and-off basis for several months after noticing its popularity during red team assessments. They discovered multiple exploitable flaws, ten of which have CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) identifiers. The different issues facilitate a 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. 

While exploiting some of the vulnerabilities requires physical access, others can be done remotely if the system uses its default settings. Furthermore, Janushkevich says the execution of the exploits 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.

“Our tests’ primary objectives were to backdoor the system so we could compromise presenters, and steal information as it’s presented. Although cracking the perimeter was tough, we were able to find multiple issues after we gained access, and exploiting them was easy once we knew more about the system,” added Janushkevich. “For an attacker, this is a fast, practical way to compromise a company, and organisations need to inform themselves about the associated risks.” 

F-Secure Consulting shared their research with Barco on October 9th, 2019, and the two companies worked together in a coordinated disclosure effort. Today, Barco published a firmware release on their website to mitigate the most critical vulnerabilities. However, several of the issues involve hardware components that require physical maintenance to address, and are unlikely to get fixed. 

“This case highlights how hard it is to secure ‘smart devices’. Bugs in silicon, in the design, and in the embedded software can have long-lasting negative effects on both the vendor and users, undermining the trust we put in these devices,” finished Janushkevich.