Serial-to-Ethernet Converters Riddled with Vulnerabilities
β Forescout's BRIDGE:BREAK study finds serial-to-Ethernet adapters widely shipped with outdated kernels and insecure open-source components, exposing industrial, healthcare, and retail equipment to attack. Researchers report firmware images averaged roughly 80 OSS components and nearly 2,500 known vulnerabilities with public exploits present. Manual analysis uncovered 22 new flaws in Lantronix and Silex devices enabling RCE, authentication bypass, firmware tampering, and device takeover. Vendors released patches; operators should patch, remove internet exposure, enforce strong credentials, segment networks, and monitor for misuse.