Finally, we get to nuts and bolts of the attack; with the aid of the diagram below I will explain how Stuxnet achieved its goal. As already mentioned earlier in the document the Natanz nuclear facility operated an “air-gap” security perimeter making it safe from external internet based attacks. However, in the case of Stuxnet it is generally understood that the worm entered the system via the use of a USB stick. Once on the system the next step was getting the trust of the LAN within the facility, this was achieved through the use of a digital certificate contained in the worm (believed to be stolen from a company called “JMicron” based in Taiwan). Engineered into the worm and proving again how complex and complete the design was when this …show more content…
It is called a "zero-day" because the programmer has had zero days to fix the flaw (in other words, a patch is not available)”. [7]
Stuxnet exploited a printer spooler vulnerability, a .LNK vulnerability along with vulnerabilities in the Task Scheduler files and Windows Keyboard file to elevate its privileges to fully control the system. Finally, the worm also took advantage of the static password that Siemens had hard coded into the Step7 software to gain access to the database server.
Once this information was discovered it was immediately believed that Stuxnet was the work of a nation-state or nation-states as experts said no hacker would expend such valuable information in his manner. “Zero Day” vulnerabilities are extremely rare and valuable entities. Four “Zero Days” in one worm would be considered reckless wastage in the hacker