Medical monitoring machines spotted stealing patient data, users warned to pull the plug ASAP

The United States Food and Drug Administration has told medical facilities and caregivers that monitor patients using Contec equipment to disconnect the devices from the internet ASAP. The Contec CMS8000, also sold as the Epsimed MN-120, contains a trio of vulnerabilities (CVE-2024-12248, CVSS 9.3; CVE-2025-0626, CVSS 7.5; and …

[david 12]

most alarmingly, exfiltrate information

If all this backdoor allowed was for the device to send my name, heartrate and CO2 levels to an AI training company in China, I wouldn't be "most alarmed"..

However, the actual FDA warning is that the open backdoor allows the ability to alter its configuration, introducing risk to patient safety ... an improper response to patient vital signs..

That justifies alarm.

[John Smith 19]

They are *not* a "Medical equipment" supplier anymore

They are a software house that supports some unusual peripherals.

And like most (all) of the businesses that now find themselves in this position they are pretty bad at it.

I expect that like the rest they will get better one lawsuit at a time.

[harrys]

they are now.....

disabling public access by default

getting rid of the ability for customers to create unencrypted clusters

enforcing secure connections by default.

way way too surreal for a monday, even with everything else gooin on :)

[heyrick]

Given the prices hospitals over there charge...

...you'd have expected, at the very least, they would have competent people doing the IT instead of plugging medical equipment into the public internet because...because what, exactly? Convenience? Incompetence?

[Wang Cores]

Re: Given the prices hospitals over there charge...

If you think the idea is to actually provide a product that works instead of developing a money printer that might pass as a product...

[An_Old_Dog]

MGM Payout

... victims who can prove financial losses can claim payments of up to $15,000.

Good luck "proving" your financial losses are due to MGM's cockup. And if you could prove losses due to MGM's cockup, if those losses are in excess of $15K, you still will be boned.

Once again, the House wins.

[Groo The Wanderer - A Canuck]

Yep, but Canada is clearly the greater threat than China, deserving 25% tariffs instead of 10%. Because in the end, Musk and a host of tech bros that were in the front row of the inauguration rely on Chinese parts, not Canadian, and they'd be livid if they had to pass on a 25% premium on pricing to their end users. It might even mean they'd have to settle for a 35% profit margin on those products instead of 85%.

[Mr Dogshit]

Disappointingly, the IP address in question has been redacted

Although it is said to belong to a university. Probably not Oxford or Cambridge.

https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/2025-01/fact-sheet-contec-cms8000-contains-a-backdoor-508c.pdf

Can't we make this kind of equipment in Europe?

[Erik Beall]

Not an actual backdoor just usual bad practices

Nice writeup of the CMS8000 patient monitors here, the most likely cause they assesed as usual bad practices (which of course could lead to hijack)

http://claroty.com/team82/research/are-contec-cms8000-patient-monitors-infected-with-a-chinese-backdoor-the-reality-is-more-complicated