CVE-2022-38042: ondeso SR
overcomes Obstacles in Domain Join

A domain join hardening measure from Microsoft, which had been scheduled to be rolled out via an upcoming patch, presented the automation technology team of an automotive manufacturer with a challenge. The installation of this patch, which closes the vulnerability CVE-2022-38042, would have the consequence that, for example, after a client replacement, a new domain join of the OT clients to the Active Directory would be blocked and thus central administration would no longer be possible.

With the knowledge of the consequences, the team proactively searched for a solution to carry out an automatic configuration adjustment on the approximately 3,000 OT clients in the plant. The solution came with ondeso SR. The operations engineers were familiar with our software, as it had already been in use within the global group since 2018. The use of ondeso SR not only enabled the automated implementation of the necessary configuration adjustments, but also allowed manual execution at critical points.

After an initial project meeting, ondeso’s professional services team was given the task of creating an automated workflow, a so-called “operation” in ondeso SR. The advantage of an operation is that the car manufacturer’s team has maximum flexibility in its execution so as not to disrupt ongoing production operations. The central control via the ondeso SR AdminGUI allows simultaneous starting on several OT clients. If a suitable maintenance window should arise spontaneously, it is also possible for the operation to be started directly on the machine by the production staff via the ondeso SR Start Center.

The operation was carried out as follows: Once the operation was started, all of the OT client’s information was first determined from the domain. The OT client was then removed from the existing domain and temporarily deleted from the Active Directory. The last step was the domain join. The OT client was re-added to the domain under a new user, also known as the creator, and with all the previously determined information. Client information that was no longer required was automatically deleted.

Andreas Decker, OT consultant at ondeso, echoes the words of the automotive manufacturer’s operations engineer: “Manual implementation would have taken over 9 months, but with ondeso SR this project was completed in just 2 months.”

In addition to time savings of over 80 %, he emphasizes the error-free implementation thanks to automation. Particularly noteworthy is the fact that execution is possible without technical know-how or privileged user rights, which makes ondeso SR an extremely user-friendly and highly efficient solution for the car manufacturer.

Sounds Interesting?

Here you can download a summary of this Success Story as a PDF file.