03/20/2024-03/27/2024 Sketchy NuGet Package, Active Exploitation of Flaws in Fortinet, Ivanti, and Nice Products, Over 800 npm Packages Found with Discrepancies And More.

1. Sketchy NuGet Package Likely Linked to Industrial Espionage Targets Developers

Threat hunters have discovered a suspicious package, SqzrFramework480, in the NuGet package manager, likely targeting developers working with tools from a Chinese industrial equipment manufacturer. Uploaded on January 24, 2024, by user “zhaoyushun1999,” the package has been downloaded 2,999 times. ReversingLabs noted no similar packages, theorizing it could facilitate industrial espionage via camera-equipped systems. The DLL file within includes features for screen capture and remote pinging, potentially indicating malicious intent. While individual behaviors may not be overtly malicious, combined they raise concerns. This tactic mirrors previous instances of malicious data communication via sockets. The motive remains unclear, but concealing nefarious code in benign software is a known tactic. Despite ambiguity, users must scrutinize libraries before use due to the rising trend of malicious packages in open-source repositories like NuGet.

2. CISA Alerts on Active Exploitation of Flaws in Fortinet, Ivanti, and Nice Products

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added three security flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, indicating active exploitation. The vulnerabilities are as follows:

• CVE-2023-48788: Fortinet FortiClient EMS SQL Injection (CVSS score: 9.3);
• CVE-2021-44529: Ivanti Endpoint Manager Cloud Service Appliance (EPM CSA) Code Injection (CVSS score: 9.8);
• CVE-2019-7256: Nice Linear eMerge E3-Series OS Command Injection (CVSS score: 10.0).

Fortinet confirmed active exploitation of the FortiClient EMS flaw. Ivanti’s vulnerability allows malicious code execution. Research suggests CVE-2021-44529 might be an intentional backdoor. CVE-2019-7256 has been exploited since February 2020. Federal agencies must apply vendor-provided mitigations by April 15, 2024.CISA and the FBI issued a joint alert urging software makers to address SQL injection flaws, citing the Cl0p ransomware gang’s exploitation of CVE-2023-34362 in Progress Software’s MOVEit Transfer. Despite long-standing awareness and available fixes, manufacturers continue to release vulnerable products, endangering customers.

3. Massive Sign1 Campaign Infects 39,000+ WordPress Sites with Scam Redirects

The Sign1 malware campaign has infiltrated 39,000 WordPress sites in six months, using JavaScript injections to redirect users to scam sites. The latest variant infected at least 2,500 sites in two months. Attackers inject rogue JavaScript into HTML widgets and plugins, allowing malicious code insertion. XOR-encoded JavaScript is decoded to execute a file on a remote server, redirecting to a VexTrio-operated traffic distribution system based on specific criteria. The malware dynamically fetches URLs every 10 minutes to evade blocklists. If visitors don’t come from major websites, the malware doesn’t execute. Suspected to exploit WordPress vulnerabilities, the campaign has used up to 15 domains since July 2023. Attackers may use brute-force attacks or plugin vulnerabilities to compromise sites, often injecting code via the Simple Custom CSS and JS plugin.

4. Over 800 npm Packages Found with Discrepancies, 18 Exploit ‘Manifest Confusion’

New research has discovered over 800 packages in the npm registry which have discrepancies from their registry entries, out of which 18 have been found to exploit a technique called manifest confusion. The problem stems from the fact that the npm registry does not validate whether the manifest file contained in the tarball (package.json) matches the manifest data provided to the npm server during the publishing process via an HTTP PUT request to the package URI endpoint. As a result, a threat actor could take advantage of this lack of cross verification to supply a different manifest containing hidden dependencies that’s processed during package installation to stealthily install malicious dependencies onto the developer’s system.Developers should verify package safety beyond npm’s website. Organizations must ensure all packages are safe, especially regarding manifest confusion, by analyzing for hidden dependencies. Trusting packages solely by appearance on npm’s site may be risky.

5. Ivanti Releases Urgent Fix for Critical Sentry RCE Vulnerability

Ivanti disclosed a critical remote code execution flaw, CVE-2023-41724, in Standalone Sentry, urging immediate patching. The vulnerability affects versions 9.17.0 to 9.19.0. Ivanti credited NATO Cyber Security Centre for collaboration. Another critical flaw, CVE-2023-46808, impacting on-premises Neurons for ITSM, permits authenticated remote attackers to execute arbitrary code. Patched versions are available. Despite no known customer impact, Ivanti advises applying fixes. Mandiant tracked China-linked cyber espionage clusters exploiting Ivanti flaws. SonarSource revealed an mXSS flaw in Mailspring (CVE-2023-47479), allowing code execution when replying to malicious emails. Yaniv Nizry highlighted mXSS’s ability to bypass sandbox and CSP protections.

6. Atlassian Releases Fixes for Over 2 Dozen Flaws, Including Critical Bamboo Bug

Atlassian patched over two dozen security flaws, notably CVE-2024-1597, a critical SQL injection bug in Bamboo Data Center and Server with a CVSS score of 10.0. Despite its severity, Atlassian noted it stems from an org.postgresql dependency, slightly reducing risk. The vulnerability could allow unauthenticated attackers to exploit assets without user interaction. The flaw affects PostgreSQL JDBC Driver versions prior to those listed. Atlassian clarified that Bamboo and other Data Center products aren’t affected as they don’t use the vulnerable query mode. The vulnerability was introduced in specific versions of Bamboo Data Center and Server. SonarSource’s Paul Gerste discovered the flaw. Users should update their instances promptly.

7. GitHub Launches AI-Powered Autofix Tool to Assist Devs in Patching Security Flaws

GitHub introduced code scanning autofix in public beta for Advanced Security customers, utilizing GitHub Copilot and CodeQL to provide targeted recommendations and avoid new security issues. Covering over 90% of alert types in JavaScript, Typescript, Java, and Python, it suggests fixes for two-thirds of vulnerabilities with minimal editing. Leveraging CodeQL, Copilot APIs, and OpenAI GPT-4, it plans to support more languages like C# and Go. Autofix generates potential fixes and provides explanations, extending beyond the current file to include dependencies. Developers must evaluate suggestions to ensure correctness and security, considering potential limitations like syntactic errors, incorrect placements, semantic changes, unresolved root causes, partial fixes, and insecure dependencies. GitHub warns about possible supply chain attacks due to incomplete dependency knowledge.