Case Study: Leading Healthcare Provider reduces medical device security risk and enhances patient safety with Synopsys fuzz testing

Using fuzz testing to mitigate risk inherited by medical device manufacturers

A leading healthcare provider faced the growing challenge of securing an expanding fleet of networked medical devices and establishing meaningful security metrics for procurement and a baseline for devices already in use. They needed a low-impact testing approach that would reveal risks inherited from device manufacturers without compromising patient safety or protected health information.

The hospital deployed Synopsys Defensics, a black-box fuzz testing tool that requires minimal monitoring and delivers actionable, low false‑rate findings. Testing identified numerous vulnerabilities—many with denial-of-service potential—and produced CWE-tagged, payload-specific reports that streamlined manufacturer remediation and helped the provider prioritize efforts. As a result, the organization improved procurement decisions, reduced testing effort, minimized impact to patient care, and enhanced overall device safety while making informed risk choices given lengthy vendor patch timelines.