Oxford Nanopore MinKNOW before 24.06 relies on a client's source IP address for authentication.

Oxford Nanopore MinKNOW before 24.06 relies on a client's source IP address for authentication.

A vulnerability exists in which remote access is enabled by default, and authentication relies on the IP address of the host computer. Unauthorized users on the same network can discover the IP address (e.g., via port scanning) and gain access to the sequencer by registering a legitimate or temporary Oxford Nanopore account. Once connected through the MinKNOW application, attackers can observe sequencing activity, pause or stop data collection, and redirect output data to an alternate location. Oxford Nanopore Technologies' MinKNOW software at or prior to version 24.11 stores authentication tokens in a file located in the system's temporary directory (/tmp) on the host machine. This directory is typically world-readable, allowing any local user or application to access the token. If the token is leaked (e.g., via malware infection or other local exploit), and remote access is enabled, it can be used to establish unauthorized remote connections to the sequencer. Remote access must be enabled for remote exploitation to succeed. This may occur either because the user has enabled remote access for legitimate operational reasons or because malware with elevated privileges (e.g., sudo access) enables it without user consent. This vulnerability can be chained with remote access capabilities to generate a developer token from a remote device. Developer tokens can be created with arbitrary expiration dates, enabling persistent access to the sequencer and bypassing standard authentica…