Performing Scada Hmi Security Assessment

Performing Scada Hmi Security Assessment

Overview

Cybersecurity skill for performing scada hmi security assessment. Follows industry best practices and security standards.

When to Use

Trigger phrases:

• "performing scada hmi security assessment"

• "Perform security assessments of SCADA Human-Machine Interface (HMI) systems to i"

• When assessing the security posture of HMI systems in SCADA/DCS environments

• When evaluating web-based HMI interfaces for common web vulnerabilities

• When auditing HMI authentication, authorization, and session management

• When testing communication security between HMIs and PLCs/RTUs

• When preparing for IEC 62443 or NERC CIP compliance assessments

Do not use for testing HMIs in active production without a maintenance window and rollback plan, for PLC-level protocol analysis (see performing-s7comm-protocol-security-analysis), or for general web application testing on non-OT systems.

When NOT to Use

• When you lack proper authorization for testing
• For production systems without change management
• When the task requires legal or compliance expertise beyond technical scope

Prerequisites

• HMI system inventory with vendor, version, and network configuration details
• Lab or test environment mirroring production HMI setup (preferred for active testing)
• Authorization from plant operations for testing during maintenance windows
• NIST SP 800-82 and IEC 62443 security requirements documentation
• Network capture capability on HMI-to-PLC communication segment

Workflow

# Example: IOC detection
import re

IOC_PATTERNS = {
    "ip": r"\b(?:\d{1,3}\.){3}\d{1,3}\b",
    "domain": r"\b[a-z0-9-]+\.[a-z]{2,}\b",
    "hash_md5": r"\b[a-f0-9]{32}\b",
    "hash_sha256": r"\b[a-f0-9]{64}\b",
}

def extract_iocs(text: str) -> dict:
    return {k: re.findall(v, text) for k, v in IOC_PATTERNS.items()}

1. Plan Operations — Define objectives, scope, and success criteria for scada hmi security assessment operations.
2. Prepare Environment — Set up tools, access, and data sources required for scada hmi security assessment.
3. Execute Core Workflow — Perform the scada hmi security assessment operations following established procedures.
4. Validate Results — Verify that results meet quality standards and objectives.
5. Report Findings — Document results, observations, and recommendations.
6. Follow Up — Track remediation actions and verify fixes where applicable.

Tools

• Analysis Platform — Data processing and visualization
• Collaboration Tools — Team coordination and knowledge sharing

Process

1. Reconnaissance — Gather target information, identify attack surface, enumerate services
2. Analysis/Exploitation — Execute the technique, analyze results, document findings
3. Reporting — Document IOCs, write findings, provide remediation recommendations

Verification

• All scada hmi security assessment procedures executed completely and documented
• Findings validated against multiple data sources
• False positives identified and filtered
• Results documented with evidence and timestamps
• Recommendations provided with risk-based prioritization

Anti-Rationalization Table