SecDSM Presentation – Your Biggest Vulnerability Isn’t Yours: Lessons from a Vendor Backdoor in Critical Infrastructure
What happens when a routine pen test uncovers a zero-day affecting not one environment, but hundreds?
That is exactly what happened when LMG’s Tom Pohl identified an internet-facing SCADA/HMI system during an external engagement, traced it to a widely deployed vendor product, and found an unauthenticated interface capable of issuing commands directly to backend control systems.
Tom walks through the entire technical path live — from initial discovery and vendor attribution to software analysis and exploitation of the flaw. And then the part that matters just as much as the vulnerability itself: what the vendor actually did about it. Spoiler — partial remediation, inconsistent patching, and systems that stayed exposed.
He also digs into what this kind of finding looks like in a world where AI tools are beginning to find vulnerabilities and generate working exploits at scale. The pressure on vendors to respond quickly and completely is about to increase significantly.
Speakers
Director of Penetration Testing
LMG Security
Tom is the Director of Penetration Testing for LMG Security, a seasoned hacker, and the winner of many hacking competitions, including Wild West Hackin’ Fest, Circle City Con, THOTCON, BSidesLV, and DEFCON. Tom is a seasoned presenter at major security conferences such as DEFCON, BSidesLV, CornCon, and SecDSM, and he has led technical training classes for many organizations. In addition, Tom also discovered several vulnerabilities that have been covered in a number of major industry publications. Prior to working for LMG, Tom was the head of software architecture at Businessolver for nearly 20 years.
