April 16, 2018 — Philips Healthcare last week issued a proactive advisory warning to its iSite and IntelliSpace picture archiving and communication system (PACS) customers of potential security vulnerabilities in the products. The company cautioned that while it has received no reports of patient harm, the vulnerabilities in question could impact or potentially compromise patient confidentiality, system integrity and/or system availability.
Philips identified the cybersecurity vulnerabilities, predominantly in third-party components, that if fully exploited may allow low-skill attackers remote entry to the applications. Once inside, any attackers could potentially:
- Provide unexpected input into the applications;
- Execute arbitrary code;
- Alter the intended control flow of the system;
- Access sensitive information; or
- Potentially cause a system crash.
The company said its own analysis does not suggest the vulnerabilities would impact clinical use. This is largely due to the fact that IntelliSpace PACS is operated in a managed service environment that adheres to the latest recommendations of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT). The company also noted that it uses an automated antivirus solution and offers a monthly recurring patch program for IntelliSpace customers.
ICS-CERT released its own advisory that describes the vulnerabilities in further detail. Read the full ICS-CERT advisory here.
Philips is offering customers three potential pathways to address the security vulnerabilities:
- Enrolling in the recurring patch program, which Philips said will remediate 86 percent of all known vulnerabilities;
- Option 1 plus updating system firmware, which will remediate 87 percent of all known vulnerabilities, including all known critical vulnerabilities;
- Option 2 plus upgrading to IntelliSpace PACS 4.4.5x with Windows operating system 2012, which addresses product hardening. Philips said this option will remediate 99.9 percent of all the known vulnerabilities, including all critical vulnerabilities.
Remediation options are provided at no charge for Philips customers on full service delivery model contracts.
For more information: www.usa.philips.com/healthcare
May 21, 2025 
