Vulnerability

Canon Medical holds off on Meltdown and Spectre patches for its diagnostic imaging equipment

MedDevice Cyber Staff · Jan 15 · 2 min read · Via Canon Medical Meltdown and Spectre advisory

Canon Medical Systems Corporation released the second version of its Meltdown and Spectre advisory on January 15, 2018. It lists all diagnostic imaging equipment as possibly affected by CVE-2017-5715, CVE-2017-5753 and CVE-2017-5754 and says it is investigating.

Canon judges the side effects of the patches more problematic than the information leakage risk, given existing controls that deter malicious code execution, and continues to monitor. Meltdown and Spectre need code already running on the CPU, so that trade is defensible on a closed modality, as long as the code execution controls really hold.

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Remediation Desk

For ProvidersOperators, hospitals, and clinical engineering

Canon Medical is not patching Meltdown and Spectre on diagnostic imaging equipment because it judges patch side effects worse than the leakage risk. Keep the controls that stop untrusted code from running on the modalities, which is what that judgment depends on.

Block untrusted code. Keep application allowlisting and removable media controls in place on imaging systems.
Do not self-patch. Avoid installing CPU microcode or OS mitigations Canon has not approved.
Watch for Canon updates. Check the advisory for changes in Canon's position.

For Device ManufacturersFix the class in the product

The flaw is in the OS inside the controller, or a system past end of service still in the field. As the maker, own the embedded OS and server lifecycle as a safety obligation, design controllers to update in the field, and make every fault degrade to a defined safe state.

Own the OS lifecycle. Patch the OS and server components on a schedule with a tested delivery path.
Design for field update. And for planned replacement, so an unpatchable unit has a path off the network.
Degrade to safe. A fault drives a defined safe state, never an unexpected stop on a life-sustaining device.

Mapped EMB3D mitigations

Products potentially also affected

Products whose own public documentation shares this advisory's attributes. A shared attribute is a lead, not a finding. The status column shows only what each manufacturer has said.

Product	Manufacturer	Shared with this advisory	Manufacturer status
Assert-IQ Insertable Cardiac Monitor	Abbott	Same property (MITRE EMB3D)PID-23	No feedback feed from manufacturer
FreeStyle Libre 3 Continuous Glucose Monitoring System	Abbott	Same property (MITRE EMB3D)PID-23	No feedback feed from manufacturer
SafeOp 2: Neural Informatix System	Alphatec Spine	Same property (MITRE EMB3D)PID-11	No feedback feed from manufacturer
Baxter SIGMA Spectrum Infusion Pump with Master Drug Library	Baxter	Same property (MITRE EMB3D)PID-11	No feedback feed from manufacturer
BD Alaris System with Guardrails Suite MX v12.1.2	BD	Same property (MITRE EMB3D)PID-11	No feedback feed from manufacturer
LabPro Data Management System	Beckman Coulter	Same property (MITRE EMB3D)PID-23	No feedback feed from manufacturer
iLab Polaris Multi-Modality Guidance System	Boston Scientific	Same property (MITRE EMB3D)PID-23	No feedback feed from manufacturer
DRX - Compass	Carestream Health	Same property (MITRE EMB3D)PID-23	No feedback feed from manufacturer
Xpert C. difficile/Epi	Cepheid	Same property (MITRE EMB3D)PID-23	No feedback feed from manufacturer
Stelo Glucose Biosensor System	DexCom	Same property (MITRE EMB3D)PID-23	No feedback feed from manufacturer
Infinity Gateway Suite	Dräger	Same property (MITRE EMB3D)PID-23	No feedback feed from manufacturer
Monaco RTP System	Elekta	Same property (MITRE EMB3D)PID-23	No feedback feed from manufacturer
AutoSeg	Fujifilm Healthcare	Same property (MITRE EMB3D)PID-23	No feedback feed from manufacturer
Carescape B850	GE HealthCare	Same property (MITRE EMB3D)PID-11	No feedback feed from manufacturer
Portrait Central Viewer Application (Portrait CV A01)	GE HealthCare	Same property (MITRE EMB3D)PID-23	No feedback feed from manufacturer

23 more products match. Each manufacturer page lists its products and the advisories they share attributes with.

Questions & Answers

Are Canon Medical imaging systems affected by Meltdown and Spectre?

Canon Medical Systems lists all diagnostic imaging equipment as possibly affected by Meltdown and Spectre, CVE-2017-5715, CVE-2017-5753 and CVE-2017-5754, in its January 15, 2018 advisory.

Why did Canon Medical not patch Meltdown and Spectre on imaging equipment?

Canon Medical judged the side effects of the Meltdown and Spectre patches more problematic than the information leakage risk, given controls that deter malicious code execution, and said it would continue to monitor.

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