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RobotRisk / ABB / 2017-05

Researchers demonstrate remote hack of ABB IRB140 industrial robot causing unsafe physical movement

S2 · 05/2017 · ABB

Record

CompanyABB
Categorymachinery oem
Typecyber
Date05/2017
Time of daynot documented
Locationno physical site (recall / fleet-wide / aggregate record)
SeverityS2 (minor injury or single-unit damage)
Scale1 robot (research demonstration)
Confidencehigh
VerificationCited source on file; not independently re-verified
SourceHelp Net Security

What happened

Politecnico di Milano and Trend Micro researchers demonstrated exploiting vulnerabilities in an ABB IRB140 robot (IRC5 controller, Windows CE FlexPendant) to alter control parameters and cause unexpected/inaccurate movements, showing the attack could damage the robot, degrade manufactured parts, or injure nearby workers; a lab demonstration, not an in-the-wild exploit. ABB developed a mitigation plan in response.

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