As Synology explains in security advisories published two days after the flaws were demoed at Pwn2Own Ireland 2024 to hijack a Synology BeeStation BST150-4T device, the security flaws enable remote attackers to gain remote code execution as root on vulnerable NAS appliances exposed online.
“The vulnerability was initially discovered, within just a few hours, as a replacement for another Pwn2Own submission. The issue was disclosed to Synology immediately after demonstration, and within 48 hours a patch was made available which resolves the vulnerability,” Midnight Blue said.
From a different source:
Synology proactively sponsors and works with security researchers as part of product security initiatives. At this year’s Pwn2Own Ireland 2024 event, which took place in late October, we successfully discovered and resolved multiple security vulnerabilities.
While these vulnerabilities are not being exploited, we recommend all Synology device administrators immediately take action to secure their systems by updating due to the scope and severity of specific issues.
FYI, in case anyone is running 7.2.1, just be aware that you have to MANUALLY update because you need to agree to new terms that removes local hardware processing of some media types.
https://www.synology.com/en-global/releaseNote/DSM
7.2.2-72806 Update 1 is the update with the new patches.
If you’re running Plex locally (i.e. - not in docker) you’ll need to manually install the updated 7.2.2 patch. You need to download it locally, then push it back up to your NAS bypassing the normal process. You can’t use the plex client to prompt the update, and you can’t use the synology package manager to update.
The package links on Reddit and some other sites are older versions that may not install
https://www.plex.tv/media-server-downloads/?cat=nas&plat=synology-dsm72&signUp=0September 27th, 2024 release is currently the latest non-beta version - v.1.41.1.9057-af5eaea7a
AMD/Intel
https://downloads.plex.tv/plex-media-server-new/1.41.1.9057-af5eaea7a/synology-dsm72/PlexMediaServer-1.41.1.9057-af5eaea7a-x86_64_DSM72.spkSo they’ve just decided that all devices now support HEVC (H.265) and they’ll just disable transcoding? My media centre is on a Pi 3B and that can’t play h265 smoothly. If I had a Synology I’d be pretty annoyed!
I updated to 7.2.2 this morning and it prompted me to update Plex and then gave a message about what to do if Plex couldn’t see my library. It seems to be ok.
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Was it that the talk was a last minute change (replacing another scheduled talk) so the responsible disclosure was made in a rush without giving synology more time to provide the patch before the talk was presented?
If so, who decided it was a good idea to present something regarding a vulnerability without the fix being available yet?
To be somewhat fair, if you’re exposing these devices directly to the internet without even basic auth in front of them, you’re a damn fool.
Synology devices all have authentication enabled by default.
Basic auth keeps the actual login page from being accessed. Even having a login page accessible can lead to plenty of issues depending on your web framework. If you’re doing this, you should be worried. If you don’t even know what basic auth is, you should be really worried.
There’s a give-and-take here, where disclosing the vulnerability should be done soon enough to be responsible to affected users, but not so late that it’s seen as pandering to the vendor.
We’ve already seen how much vendors drag their feet when they are given time to fix a vuln before the disclosure, and almost all the major vendors have tried to pull this move where they keep delaying fix unless it becomes public.
Synology hasn’t been very reactive to fixing CVEs unless they’re very public. One nasty vulnerability in the old DSM 6 was found at a hackathon by a researcher (I’ll edit and post the number later), but the fix wasn’t included in the main update stream, you had to go get the patch manually and apply it.
Vendors must have their feet held to the fire on vulns, or they don’t bother doing anything.
I hear you, but how much time was Synology given? If it was no time at all (which it seems is what happened here??), that does not even give Synology a chance and that’s what I’m concerned with. If they get a month (give or take), then sure, disclose it and too bad for them if they don’t have a fix, they should have taken it more seriously, but I’m wondering about how much time they were even given in this case.
Was that the file transfer allowed for remote code execution one? That’d be the one that sticks out to me. 3 or 4 years ago iirc?
Edit: CVE-2021-27649 is the one that came to mind, not sure if that’s the one you’re referring to.
If you are using any Synology products with your setup, you should go ahead and apply the recommended updates
2/2 otters agree with this course of action.
Voice of reason
Ugh but it’s acting as the SAN so I have to shut down like all my servers to run updates on it. What a PITA.
You could move to a high availability model but that is a pain and has lots of tradeoffs.
The device will go offline at some point. It is good to have some sort of plan of how to efficiently power it down without causing major problems. Maybe some automation to push stuff to a second NAS or something.
This was one of the rare times I installed a firmware update without waiting. They even sent an email telling me how urgent it was to get my NAS patched.
I definitely did not get that email. WTH?
And this was how I learned that Video Station is no longer supported by Synology. If you want the updates, you’ll have to uninstall it.
There are scripts on github to reverse the change once you have done the update.
Synology supports docker containers. Just run jellyfin.
Jellyfin is also available as a native DSM package through SynoCommunity, FWIW.
To that note, anyone have any idea how to get Hyper Backup to stop telling me that my backups are “partial” because Video Station is no longer found? It’s not even on the list of apps, but tells me that it’s been disabled as an option to back up because it’s not available. Annoying!
Open hb, edit the affected backup plan, change nothing, okay/save. Happens when you set up a service to be backed up and then uninstall the service.
Brilliant! That worked!
If someone knows how to apply security updates to ancient NAS from the brand I’m interested. Sadly mine is out of the loop, I guess I’ll have to harden it like hell then
The solution is to not use EOL software
Don’t make it available from internet. This will solve the issue.
If it is not possible, once the cve is published and properly described, perhaps there is another way to secure it via an external proxy or even a waf.
If you have unsupported Sw, it is always a pain in the ass to keep them secure so try to figure out always the first point
Don’t make it available from internet. This will solve the issue.
Thanks, I’ve read this countless times but that’s basically half of the use I make from my NAS so no.
I’ll try to secure it and still use it from outside / Internet then.
Tailscale is available as an official DSM package, so if it’s only you accessing it you could still block it from the Internet.
You will get compromised if you haven’t already. (Your device becomes part of a botnet)
If you don’t want new hardware use something actively supported like TrueNAS or regular Linux. You are asking for trouble. No hardening will protect you from out of date software with serious security holes.
(Your device becomes part of a botnet)
Out of curiosity, how can I know if it’s already the case?
No hardening will protect you from out of date software with serious security holes
Connecting to the NAS only via VPN won’t be enough?
Yes, it will be enough if your services are not exposed via port forwarding , tailscale / zerotier are super convenient for this.
Honestly, if I were you I would start thinking in having a small computer just to act like a proxy / firewall of you synology, or even better, just run the applications on that computer and let the nas only serve files and data.
It is much easier to support, maintain and hardening a debain with a minimal intallation than nay synology box just because the amount of resources available to do so. In this easy way you could extent the life of your nas far beyond the end of life of the Sw
