• - A Cisco Talos researcher worked around the limitations of hardware-level Code Read-out Protection (RDP) on the Socomec DIRIS M-70 gateway by pivoting from physical debugging to a “good enough” emulation approach. • - By focusing on emulating only the single thread responsible for Modbus protocol handling rather than the entire system, the author demonstrates how a streamlined emulation strategy can effectively surface vulnerabilities in complex industrial Internet of Things (IoT) devices. • - The post highlights the integration of the Unicorn Engine and AFL for coverage-guided fuzzing, as well as the use of the Qiling framework to visualize code coverage and perform root cause analysis on crashes. • - This research led to the discovery of six CVEs related to denial-of-service vulnerabilities, all of which have been patched by the manufacturer through Cisco’s Coordinated Disclosure Policy. • This blog describes efforts at emulating functionality of the Socomec DIRIS M-70 gateway to discover vulnerabilities. • In vulnerability research, knowing which tool to use for the job at hand is crucial.
Article Summaries:
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- A Cisco Talos researcher worked around the limitations of hardware-level Code Read-out Protection (RDP) on the Socomec DIRIS M-70 gateway by pivoting from physical debugging to a “good enough” emulation approach. - By focusing on emulating only the single thread responsible for Modbus protocol handling rather than the entire system, the author demonstrates how a streamlined emulation strategy can effectively surface vulnerabilities in complex industrial Internet of Things (IoT) devices. - The post highlights the integration of the Unicorn Engine and AFL for coverage-guided fuzzing, as well a
Sources:
- https://blog.talosintelligence.com/good-enough-emulation/ (Latest source article published: 2026-02-18 11:00 UTC)