Security News > 2021 > August > PwnedPiper threatens thousands of hospitals worldwide, patch your systems now
The software used to control pneumatic tubes in over 3,000 hospitals around the world has nine critical vulnerabilities that could halt hospital operations if exploited by a savvy attacker.
Tube systems in hospitals are commonly used to deliver medicine, transport blood and other essential medical supplies, and send lab samples across buildings that would take considerable time to deliver on foot.
According to Swisslog Healthcare, their automated transport systems are used in over 2,300 hospitals in North America and over 3,000 worldwide.
PTS are often internet connected, Armis said, but "Despite the prevalence of these systems, and the reliance of hospitals on their availability to deliver care, the security of these systems has never been thoroughly analyzed or researched."
Five of the vulnerabilities in PwnedPiper involve remote code execution, which an attacker could use to access a hospital network and then take over Nexus stations.
Armis' Ben Seri and Barak Hadad, the researchers behind the report, will be presenting their discoveries at Black Hat USA, and Armis has published information for hospitals on how to fight PwnedPiper.