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Under Active Attack

Executive Summary

In early 2024, cybersecurity researcher Gjoko Krstic uncovered hundreds of zero-day vulnerabilities within legacy building automation systems still widely deployed in hospitals, schools, and commercial facilities globally. The investigation, codenamed "Project Brainfog," revealed that outdated codebases, some as old as 18 years, exposed critical physical infrastructure to remote compromise by unauthenticated attackers. Exploitable weaknesses in authentication, encryption, and access controls allowed for the manipulation of HVAC, security, and energy systems, putting sensitive environments such as medical and educational facilities at operational risk, and making them potential targets for ransomware and espionage.

This incident highlights the growing threat of unpatched operational technology in critical sectors, as attackers increasingly target IoT and building control systems for both sabotage and lateral movement. As digital-physical convergence accelerates, organizations must rapidly modernize and secure these legacy environments to mitigate cascading risks.

Why This Matters Now

A surge of cyberattacks against critical infrastructure and smart buildings has exposed long-standing vulnerabilities in operational technology systems. With many organizations still relying on outdated building automation, the threat of disruption, safety risks, and regulatory non-compliance is urgent—particularly as threat actors pivot towards targeting physical processes.

Attack Path Analysis

Related CVEs

MITRE ATT&CK® Techniques

Potential Compliance Exposure

Sector Implications

Sources

Frequently Asked Questions

Lapses were identified in data encryption, segmentation, access control, and real-time anomaly detection—violating requirements of frameworks including HIPAA, PCI DSS, and NIST.

Cloud Native Security Fabric Mitigations and ControlsCNSF

Enforcing zero trust segmentation, encrypted traffic, granular visibility, and strict egress controls in the smart building networks would have contained the attacker, detected abnormal activity, and prevented both lateral movement and data exfiltration.

Initial Compromise

Control: Encrypted Traffic (HPE)

Mitigation: Encrypted interfaces and packet-level encryption would prevent credential theft and network snooping.

Privilege Escalation

Control: Zero Trust Segmentation

Mitigation: Strict least-privilege segmentation would block privilege escalation across unrelated assets.

Lateral Movement

Control: East-West Traffic Security

Mitigation: Lateral movement attempts are blocked or alerted based on east-west traffic policy.

Command & Control

Control: Threat Detection & Anomaly Response

Mitigation: Anomalous connection attempts and remote access tool usage are detected and alerted immediately.

Exfiltration

Control: Egress Security & Policy Enforcement

Mitigation: Outbound data exfiltration attempts are blocked by strict FQDN and application egress policy.

Impact (Mitigations)

Centralized visibility and policy orchestration enable a rapid, automated response to operational threats.

Impact at a Glance

Affected Business Functions

  • Building Security
  • HVAC Control
  • Lighting Management
  • Energy Management
Operational Disruption

Estimated downtime: 5 days

Financial Impact

Estimated loss: $500,000

Data Exposure

Potential exposure of sensitive building schematics, access credentials, and operational data, leading to unauthorized access and control over building systems.

Recommended Actions

  • • Enforce encrypted traffic (MACsec/IPsec) for all building systems to eliminate unencrypted attack vectors.
  • • Deploy zero trust segmentation and workload isolation to prevent lateral movement and restrict unauthorized privilege escalation.
  • • Implement strict egress controls and FQDN filtering to block data exfiltration and unauthorized C2 channels.
  • • Continuously monitor for anomalies and threats across east-west and outbound traffic with advanced detection and incident response capabilities.
  • • Centralize control and visibility across on-prem and cloud environments for consistent enforcement and rapid isolation of suspicious activity.

Secure the Paths Between Cloud Workloads

A cloud-native security fabric that enforces Zero Trust across workload communication—reducing attack paths, compliance risk, and operational complexity.

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