In the second article of this series, SySS IT security expert Matthias Deeg presents security vulnerabilities found in another crypto USB flash drive with AES hardware encryption.

Introduction

In the second part of this blog series, the research results concerning the secure USB flash drive Verbatim Executive Fingerprint Secure SSD shown in the following Figures are presented.

Front view of the secure USB flash drive Verbatim Executive Fingerprint Secure

The Verbatim Executive Fingerprint Secure SSD is a USB drive with AES 256-bit hardware encryption and a built-in fingerprint sensor for unlocking the device with previously registered fingerprints.

The manufacturer describes the product as follows:

The AES 256-bit Hardware Encryption seamlessly encrypts all data on the drive in real-time. The drive is compliant with GDPR requirements as 100% of the drive is securely encrypted. The built-in fingerprint recognition system allows access for up to eight authorised users and one administrator who can access the device via a password. The SSD does not store passwords in the computer or system’s volatile memory making it far more secure than software encryption.

The used test methodology regarding this research project, the considered attack surface and attack scenarios, and the desired security properties expected in a secure USB flash drive were already described in the first part of this article series.

Hardware Analysis

When analyzing a hardware device like a secure USB flash drive, the first thing to do is taking a closer look at the hardware design. By opening the case of the Verbatim Executive Fingerprint Secure SSD, its printed circuit board (PCB) can be removed. The following figure shows the front side of the PCB and the used SSD with an M.2 form factor.

PCB front side of Verbatim Executive Fingerprint Secure SSD

Here, we can already see the first three main components of this device:

1. NAND flash memory chips
2. a memory controller (Maxio MAS0902A-B2C)
3. a SPI flash memory chip (XT25F01D)

On the back side of the PCB, the following further three main components can be found:

4. a USB-to-SATA bridge controller (INIC-3637EN)
5. a fingerprint sensor controller (INIC-3782N)
6. a fingerprint sensor

PCB back side of Verbatim Executive Fingerprint Secure SSD

The Maxio memory controller and the NAND flash memory chips are part of an SSD in M.2 form factor. This SSD can be read and written using another SSD enclosure supporting this form factor which was very useful for different security tests.

Encryption

Just like the Verbatim Keypad Secure covered in the first part of this article series, the Verbatim Executive Fingerprint Secure SSD contains a SATA SSD with an M.2 form factor which can be used in another compatible SSD enclosure. Thus, analyzing the actually stored data of this secure USB flash drive was also rather easy.

By having a closer look at the encrypted data, obvious patters could be seen, as the following hexdump illustrates:

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# hexdump -C /dev/sda
00000000  7c a1 eb 7d 4e 39 1e b1  9b c8 c6 86 7d f3 dd 70  ||..}N9......}..p|
*
000001b0  99 e8 74 12 35 1f 1b 3b  77 12 37 6b 82 36 87 cf  |..t.5..;w.7k.6..|
000001c0  fa bf 99 9e 98 f7 ba 96  ba c6 46 3a e5 bc 15 55  |..........F:...U|
000001d0  7c a1 eb 7d 4e 39 1e b1  9b c8 c6 86 7d f3 dd 70  ||..}N9......}..p|
*
000001f0  92 78 15 87 cd 83 76 30  56 dd 00 1e f2 b3 32 84  |.x....v0V.....2.|
00000200  7c a1 eb 7d 4e 39 1e b1  9b c8 c6 86 7d f3 dd 70  ||..}N9......}..p|
*
00100000  1e c0 fa 24 17 d9 4b 72  89 44 20 3b e4 56 99 32  |...$..Kr.D ;.V.2|
00100010  d8 65 93 7c 37 aa 8f 59  5e ec f1 e7 e6 9b de 9e  |.e.|7..Y^.......|
[...]

The * in this hexdump output means that the previous line (here 16 bytes of data) is repeated one or more times. The first column showing the address indicates how many consecutive lines are the same. For example, the first 16 bytes 7c a1 eb 7d 4e 39 1e b1 9b c8 c6 86 7d f3 dd 70 are repeated 432 (0x1b0) times starting at the address 0x00000000, and the same pattern of 16 bytes is repeated 32 times starting at the address 0x000001d0.

Seeing such repeating byte sequences in encrypted data is not a good sign, as we already know from part one of this series.

By writing known byte patterns to an unlocked device, it could be confirmed that the same 16 bytes of plaintext always result in the same 16 bytes of ciphertext. This looks like a block cipher encryption with 16 byte long blocks using Electronic Codebook (ECB) mode was used, for example AES-256-ECB.

For some data, the lack of the cryptographic property called diffusion, which this operation mode has, can leak sensitive information even in encrypted data. A famous example for illustrating this issue is a bitmap image of Tux, the Linux penguin, and its ECB encrypted data shown in the following Figure.

Image of Tux (left) and its ECB encrypted image data (right) illustrating ECB mode of operation on Wikipedia

This found security issue was reported in the course of our responsible disclosure program via the security advisory SYSS-2022-010 and was assigned the CVE ID CVE-2022-28382.

Firmware Analysis

The SPI flash memory chip (XT25F01D) of the Verbatim Executive Fingerprint Secure SSD contains the firmware for the USB-to-SATA bridge controller Initio INIC-3637EN. The content of this SPI flash memory chip could be extracted using the universal programmer XGecu T56.

When analyzing the firmware, it could be found out that the firmware validation only consists of a simple CRC-16 check using XMODEM CRC-16. Thus, an attacker is able to store malicious firmware code for the INIC-3637EN with a correct checksum on the used SPI flash memory chip.

For updating modified firmware images, a simple Python tool was developed that fixes the required CRC-16, as the following output exemplarily shows.

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$ python update-firmaware.py firmware_hacked.bin
Verbatim Executive Fingerprint Secure SSD Firmware Updater v0.1 - Matthias Deeg, SySS GmbH (c) 2022
[*] Computed CRC-16 (0x7087) does not match stored CRC-16 (0x48EE).
[*] Successfully updated firmware file

Thus, an attacker is able to store malicious firmware code for the INIC-3637EN with a correct checksum on the used SPI flash memory chip (XT25F01D), which then gets successfully executed by the USB-to-SATA bridge controller. For instance, this security vulnerability could be exploited in a so-called supply chain attack when the device is still on its way to its legitimate user.

An attacker with temporary physical access during the supply could program a modified firmware on the Verbatim Executive Fingerprint Secure SSD, which always uses an attacker-controlled AES key for the data encryption, for example. If the attacker later on gains access to the used USB drive, he can simply decrypt all contained user data.

This found security issue concerning the insufficient firmware validation, which allows an attacker to store malicious firmware code for the USB-to-SATA bridge controller on the USB drive, was reported in the course of our responsible disclosure program via the security advisory SYSS-2022-011 and was assigned the CVE ID CVE-2022-28383.

Protocol Analysis

The hardware design of the Verbatim Executive Fingerprint Secure SSD allowed for sniffing the serial communication between the fingerprint sensor controller (INIC-3782N) and the USB-to-SATA bridge controller (INIC-3637EN).

The following Figure exemplarily shows exchanged data when unlocking the device with a correct fingerprint. The actual communication is bidirectional and different data packets are exchanged during an unlocking process.

Sniffed serial communication when unlocking with a correct fingerprint shown in logic analyzer

In the course of this research project, no further time was spent to analyze the used proprietary protocol between the fingerprint sensor controller and the USB-to-SATA bridge controller, as a simpler way could be found to attack this device, which is described in the next section.

User Authentication

The Verbatim Executive Fingerprint Secure SSD supports the following two user authentication methods:

1. Biometric authentication via fingerprint
2. Password-based authentication

For the biometric authentication, a fingerprint sensor and a specific microcontroller (INIC-3782N) are used. Unfortunately, no public information about the INIC-3782N could be found, like data sheets or programming manuals.

For the registration of fingerprints, a client software (available for Windows or macOS) is used. The client software also supports a password-based authentication for accessing the administrative features and unlocking the secure disk partition containing the user data. The following Figure shows the login dialog of the provided client software for Windows.

Password-based authentication for administrator (VerbatimSecure.exe)

Software Analysis

The client software for Windows and macOS is provided on an emulated CD-ROM drive of the Verbatim Executive Fingerprint Secure SSD, as the following Figure exemplarily illustrates.

Emulated CD-ROM drive with client software

During this research project, only the Windows software in form of the executable VerbatimSecure.exe was analyzed. This Windows client software communicates with the USB storage device via IOCTL_SCSI_PASS_THROUGH (0x4D004) commands using the Windows API function DeviceIoControl. However, simply analyzing the USB communication by setting a breakpoint on this API function in a software debugger like [x64dbg][x64db] was not possible, because the USB communication is AES-encrypted as the following Figure exemplarily illustrates.

Encrypted USB communication via DeviceIoControl

Fortunately, the Windows client software is very analysis-friendly, as meaningful symbol names are present in the executable, for example concerning the used AES encryption for protecting the USB communication.

The following Figure shows the AES (Rijndael) functions found in the Windows executable VerbatimSecure.exe.

AES functions of the Windows client software

Here, especially the two functions named CRijndael::Encrypt and CRijndael::Decrypt were of greater interest.

Furthermore, runtime analyses of the Windows client software using a software debugger like x64dbg could be performed without any issues. And in doing so, it was possible to analyze the AES-encrypted USB communication in cleartext, as the following Figure with a decrypted response from the USB flash drive illustrates.

Decrypted USB communication (response from device)

For securing the USB communication, AES with a hard-coded cryptographic key is used.

When analyzing the USB communication between the client software and the USB storage device, a very interesting and concerning observation was made. That is, before the login dialog with the password-based authentication is shown, there was already some USB device communication with sensitive data. And this sensitive data was nothing less than the currently set password for the administrative access.

The following Figure shows the corresponding decrypted USB device response with the current administrator password S3cretP4ssw0rd in this example.

Decrypted USB device response containing the current administrator password

Thus, by accessing the decrypted USB communication of this specific IOCTL command, for instance using a software debugger as illustrated in the previous Figure, an attacker can instantly retrieve the correct plaintext password and thus unlock the device in order to gain unauthorized access to its stored user data.

In order to simplify the password retrieval process, a software tool named Verbatim Fingerprint Secure Password Retriever was developed that can extract the currently set password of a Verbatim Executive Fingerprint Secure SSD. The following Figure exemplarily shows the successful retrieval of the password S3cretP4ssw0rd that was previously set on this test device.

Successful attacking using the developed Verbatim Fingerprint Secure Password Retriever

This found security vulnerability was reported in the course of our responsible disclosure program via the security advisory SYSS-2022-009 with the assigned CVE ID CVE-2022-28387.

You can also find a demonstration of this attack in our SySS PoC video Hacking Yet Another Secure USB Flash Drive.

Data Authenticity

As described previously, the client software for administrative purposes is provided on an emulated CD-ROM drive. As my analysis showed, the content of this emulated CD-ROM drive is stored as an ISO-9660 image in the hidden sectors of the USB drive, that can only be accessed using special IOCTL commands, or when installing the drive in an external enclosure.

The following fdisk output shows disk information using the Verbatim enclosure with a total of 1000179711 sectors.

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# fdisk -l /dev/sda
Disk /dev/sda: 476.92 GiB, 512092012032 bytes, 1000179711 sectors
Disk model: Portable Drive
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xbfc4b04e

Device     Boot Start        End    Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sda1        2048 1000171517 1000169470 476.9G  c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

The next fdisk output shows the information for the same disk when using an external enclosure where a total of 1000215216 sectors is available.

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# fdisk -l /dev/sda
Disk /dev/sda: 476.94 GiB, 512110190592 bytes, 1000215216 sectors
Disk model: RTL9210B NVME
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

And in those 35505 hidden sectors concerning the tested 512 GB version of the Verbatim Executive Fingerprint Secure SSD, the ISO-9660 image with the content of the emulated CD-ROM drive is stored, as the following output illustrates.

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# dd if=/dev/sda bs=512 skip=1000179711 of=cdrom.iso
35505+0 records in
35505+0 records out
18178560 bytes (18 MB, 17 MiB) copied, 0.269529 s, 67.4 MB/s

# file cdrom.iso
cdrom.iso: ISO 9660 CD-ROM filesystem data 'VERBATIMSECURE'

By manipulating this ISO-9660 image or replacing it with another one, an attacker is able to store malicious software on the emulated CD-ROM drive. This malicious software may get executed by an unsuspecting victim when using the device at a later point in time.

The following Figure exemplarily shows what an emulated CD-ROM drive manipulated by an attacker containing malware my look like.

Emulated CD-ROM drive with attacker-controlled content

The following output exemplarily shows how a hacked ISO-9660 was generated for testing this attack vector.

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# mkisofs -o hacked.iso -J -R -V "VerbatimSecure" ./content

# dd if=hacked.iso of=/dev/sda bs=512 seek=1000179711
25980+0 records in
25980+0 records out
13301760 bytes (13 MB, 13 MiB) copied, 1.3561 s, 9.8 MB/s

As a thought experiment, this security issue concerning the data authenticity of the ISO-9660 image for the emulated CD-ROM partition could be exploited in an attack scenario one could call The Poor Hacker’s Not Targeted Supply Chain Attack which consists of the following steps:

1. Buy vulnerable devices in online shops
2. Modify bought devices by adding malware
3. Return modified devices to vendors
4. Hope that returned devices are resold and not destroyed
5. Wait for potential victims to buy and use the modified devices
6. Profit?!

This found security issue was reported in the course of our responsible disclosure program via the security advisory SYSS-2022-013 with the assigned CVE ID CVE-2022-28385.

Summary

In this article, the research results leading to four different security vulnerabilities concerning the Verbatim Executive Fingerprint Secure SSD listed in the following Table were presented.

Again, these results show, that new portable storage devices with old security issues are still produced and sold today.