Airlink Connection Manager security advisor
26 July 2023
News
Sierra Wireless recently received reports of malicious actors attempting to compromise Airlink Connection Manager (ACM) instances that are deployed insecurely with exposed SSH and using the default administrative credentials. Sierra Wireless security guidance for the configuration of ACM instances strongly recommends changing the administrative credentials prior to operational deployment, and limiting the exposure of SSH to secure management networks only.
As the frequency of compromise or compromise attempts appears to be increasing, Sierra Wireless strongly recommends that all customers review their ACM configuration and logs.
All versions of ACM may be vulnerable if they are deployed with SSH accessible from an insecure network such as the public Internet, and are using insecure credentials, including default, weak, or publicly known credentials. If an attacker can connect to an ACM instance and authenticate, they will gain full administrative control of the instance, allowing them to modify the configuration or access any secrets stored on the device.
Sierra Wireless recommends the following actions to secure your ACM instances:
• Ensure the administrative password, along with all other passwords, are changed from the defaults. All passwords should comply with accepted recommendations for strong passwords, such as those provided by Microsoft.
• Set external firewall rules to prevent access to SSH from insecure or untrusted networks such as the public Internet, preventing untrusted connections.
• Monitor ACM and firewall logs for unauthorised access attempts from unknown sources, and implement appropriate rules to block such attempts.
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