Hole Found in Protocol Handling Vital National Infrastructure

Researchers on March 21 announced that the systems which control dams, oil refineries, railroads and nuclear power plants have a vulnerability that could be used to cause a denial of service or a system takeover.

The flaw, reported by Neutralbit , is the first remotely exploitable SCADA security vulnerability, according to the security services provider.

Neutralbit identified the vulnerability in NETxAutomation NETxEIB OPC (OLE for Process Control) Server. OPC is a Microsoft Windows standard for easily writing GUI applications for SCADA. It's used for interconnecting process control applications running on Microsoft platforms. OPC servers are often used in control systems to consolidate field and network device information. >> More ..

Those who want more technical details on the vulnerabilities can find them here.