An Overview of OPC UA Security

© Utthunga Technologies Pvt. Ltd. 2020
An Overview of OPC UA Security
Utthunga for OPC

Company Overview
Germany
500+
Professionals
USA
Japan 13
HQ & Development Centre
Bangalore India
SERVICES SOLUTIONSFOCUS
Embedded
Software &
Hardware
Product
Engineering
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Software
Engineering
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Utilities
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Solutions
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Connectivity
& Integration
Solutions
Custom
Solutions
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Industry Associations
 Part of various Special Interest Groups (Technical Specifications, Architecture,
Test & Certification and Marketing)
 Involved in reference Application Architecture, Design and Development
 Technology Outsourcing Partner
 PROFIBUS and PROFINET Competency Center
 FDT Test & Certification Center
 Part of Global Expert/Certified Community
https://opcfoundation.org/about/opc-foundation/experts/
https://www.profibus.com/pi-organization/certified-people/
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Speaker for Today
 Sahan is a cyber-security specialist
 6 years of experience in the industrial and security domain
 Currently working in the R&D division at Utthunga
 His proven areas of expertise are security testing and strategy, endpoint security,
ethical hacking (VAPT), VMware virtualization, FDT/DTM and OPC UA
 Sahan plays a critical role in Secure SDLC (SSDLC) and Secure DevOps
implementation at Utthunga
Sahan M
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IIoT Era
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Source: OPC Foundation
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Machine to machine communication protocol for industrial automation developed by the OPC Foundation.
OPC UA (Open Platform Communications United Architecture)

Communication Requires more than Connectivity
Reliable Secure
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4. OPC UA Secure Data Connectivity
3. OPC UA Security Architecture
2. Security Objectives
1. OPC UA Security Focus
6. OPC UA Security Solutions for Attack Types
5. Secure Policies
7. Effectiveness of OPC UA Security Analysis
8. Recommendations
Agenda
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Data At Rest Data in ProcessData in Motion
OPC UA Security Focus
OPC UA Security - Focus
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Security Objectives
• Data only visible to intended recipients
• Data is not modified
• Data is available to authorized people
when they need it
• Identity of the people or systems is assured.
• Controlled based on permissions
• All requests and receipts of data are
documented
AAA
CIA
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OPC UA Security Architecture
 OPC Unified Architecture uses a public key infrastructure to
achieve secure communication.
 A session in the Application Layer communicates over a Secure
Channel that is created in the Communication Layer and relies
upon it for secure communication.
 The Communication Layer provides security mechanisms to meet
Confidentiality, Integrity and application Authentication as
security objectives.
Source: OPC UA Spec. Security Model 1.04
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OPC UA Secure Data Connectivity
 Supports enterprise wide secure data connectivity
Mechanism Transport Two
way
One
Way
LAN WAN DMZ &
Firewall
E-to E
Security
Client-
server
TCP Y Y Y Y Y
PubSub UDP Y Y Y Y
PubSub MQTT Y Y Y Y
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Secure OPC UA Data Exchange Across Firewalls
 In-bound firewall ports to be closed as this minimizes threats of
external attacks
 NIST and NERC are recommending their members that all in-bound
Firewall ports to be closed
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Security Policies
None No security
Basic256Sha256
(Recommended)
This policy option is enabled by default, acceptable and more likely to be supported by
older applications.
Aes128-Sha256-RsaOaep
(Average)
This policy option is enabled by default. It is faster than the most secure policies and offers
good security. However, older applications will not support it.
Aes256-Sha256-RsaPss
(Recommended - Most Secure)
This policy option is enabled by default. It is the most secure available; however, older
applications will not support it.
Basic256 (Deprecated) This policy has theoretical problems and is not recommended.
Basic 128Rsa15 (Deprecated) This policy has known vulnerabilities and should not be used unless absolutely necessary.
#PubSub-Aes 128-CTR Average security needs.
#PubSub-Aes256-CTR High security needs.
 OPC UA server should identify and support the security policies
 OPC UA client will choose these security policies to connect the server
Note: OPC Foundation deprecates the security policies
and updates the support for policies to maintain the
effective security policy
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OPC UA Security Solutions for Attack Type : Encryption
 OPC UA addresses unauthorized disclosure of any
sensitive information by doing encryption, when
the data is in transit
 OPC UA addresses Eavesdropping, which impacts
Confidentiality directly
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OPC UA Security Solutions for Attack Type : Message Signing
 The signing of messages prevent an unauthorized third
party from changing the contents of a message
 Signing a message helps to ensure the following:
 Data Integrity – The message was not altered from its
original form
 Non-repudiation – The sender cannot deny the
authenticity of the message they sent and signed
 Proof of Origin – The message actually came from the
legitimate sender
 OPC UA addresses Message Spoofing, Message
Alteration Information by signing the messages.
Additionally, the messages will always include a valid
Session ID, Secure Channel ID, Request ID, Timestamp,
and Sequence No
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OPC UA Security Solutions for Attack Type : Application Authentication
 OPC UA encounters Rogue server, session hijacking, and
server profiling attacks by ensuring the application used
is trusted and authorized by the user
 Ensures that the application we are communicating to is
trusted by having application Instance certificate
 Authentication of applications
 Application instance certificates
 Certificate Authority (CA)
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OPC UA Security Solutions for Attack Type : User Authentication and
Authorization
 OPC UA encounters Rogue server and session hijacking by
ensuring only authenticated and authorized user is allowed to
perform an action.
 User Authentication can be done via
 Username / password, WS-Security Token or X.509
certificates
 Implemented into existing IAM infrastructures like Active
Directory
 Authorization will help to control access to the specific
operations and information.
 Authorization (Server Specific)
 Fine-granular information in address space (Read, Write,
Browse)
 Writing of meta data, calling methods
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OPC UA Security Solutions for Attack Type: Availability
 OPC UA encounter threats like Denial of service,
message flooding attack (Bandwidth approach,
Resource approach)
 OPC UA Servers reject the sessions that exceed
their specified maximum number
 Minimize processing of packets before they are
authenticated
 Configure Alarm Incidents
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OPC UA Security Solutions for Attack Type : Auditability
 When multiple systems are communicating to the
server then we can define what is important to us in
terms of debugging and security and log those
information
 Auditability is very important and useful due to the
aggregation feature of OPC servers that helps to
communicate and established connections with
multiple servers and/or establish different sessions for
a channel with different vendors
 Used for post analysis and forensic analysis especially
when something goes wrong
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Certificates
 Ensures a secure communication channel between the OPC
UA server and OPC UA client
 The Public key of Server from its trusted certificate store are
copied to Client trusted certificate store.
 Similarly, The Public key of Client from its trusted certificate
store are copied to Server trusted certificate store.
 The OPC UA Server uses its private key to decrypt the
encoded message
Source: Beckhoff
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Effectiveness of OPC UA Security Analysis
 The OPC UA successfully passed these tests that were run for the German Federal Government (BSI).
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Effectiveness of OPC UA Security Analysis
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© Utthunga Technologies Pvt. Ltd. 2020 Utthunga for OPC
 Define and include the security specific goals for your OPC
product/application
 Choose the right SDK
 Secure SDL (Security Development Lifecycle)
 Third-Party Libraries
 Secure storing of Private keys
 Certificates and user account management work flow
 Get Certified by Foundation Test Lab
 Security specific UpgradingPatching
 Other General Security Aspects
Security Recommendations for OEMS

© Utthunga Technologies Pvt. Ltd. 2020 Utthunga for OPC
 Opt for certified products application that support
required security policies
 Security specific UpgradingPatching
 Certificates and user account management process &
guidelines
 Support
 Other General Security Aspects
Security Recommendations for End Users

Security Recommendations
 Do not leave your secrets lying around
 Never store private keys or the corresponding certificate files (.pfx/p12) on an unencrypted file system
 Do not automatically trust certificates
 Do not accept connections, which do not provide the trusted certificates.
 User Authentication
 Avoid use of anonymous Identifiers
 When this generic identifier is used, it is not possible to trace who has changed
 Security Mode ‘None’ should not be used
 It does not provide any protection
 The Security Mode used should be ‘SignAndEncrypt’ or ‘Sign’
 Instead ‘SignAndEncrypt’ or ‘Sign’ Security Mode should be used
 Selection of cryptographic algorithms
 At a minimum, the Security Policy ‘Basic256Sha256’ should be chosen provided its technically possible
 Weaker security policies use outdated algorithms such as SHA-1 and should not be used
 Managing and maintaining certificates
 Use certificate trust lists and certificate revocation lists to manage valid certificates.
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In a Nutshell
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 OPC UA is Secure By Design
 OPC UA allows different levels of security
 OPC UA Security is standard based and
developed with industry security experts
from multiple company
 Defense in Depth
 Security as a reminder, OPC UA alone will
not secure your systems.

OPC – Upcoming Webinar Calendar
1. An Overview of OPC UA Security – 10th September, 2020
2. FDT/OPC UA – 30th September, 2020
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Utthunga Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
No. 8, 27th Cross, 2nd Stage,
Banashankari, Bangalore – 560 070
Phone: +91-80-68151900
Mail: contact@utthunga.com

An Overview of OPC UA Security

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