11/08/2023-11/15/2023 BlazeStealer Malware in Python Packages on PyPI, Intel CPU Vulnerability, Unpatched Critical Cloud Director Vulnerability And More.

1. Reptar: New Intel CPU Vulnerability Impacts Multi-Tenant Virtualized Environments

Intel has issued fixes for a high-severity vulnerability named Reptar affecting desktop, mobile, and server CPUs. Tracked as CVE-2023-23583 with a CVSS score of 8.8, the flaw poses risks of privilege escalation, information disclosure, and denial of service through local access. Successful exploitation could breach CPU security boundaries, leading to a host machine crash in virtualized environments, affecting other guest machines. Google Cloud highlights the vulnerability’s potential for information disclosure and privilege escalation. Intel released updated microcode for affected processors in November 2023, emphasizing no current evidence of active exploits. Simultaneously, AMD addressed the CacheWarp flaw (CVE-2023-20592) in their processors, enabling unauthorized access to SEV-protected VMs.

2. Alert: Microsoft Releases Patch Updates for 5 New Zero-Day Vulnerabilities

Microsoft has addressed 63 security vulnerabilities in its November 2023 updates, with three actively exploited flaws. Among the 63, three are Critical, 56 Important, and four Moderate. Notably, five zero-days include Windows SmartScreen and DWM Core Library vulnerabilities. CVE-2023-36025 allows SmartScreen bypass through a specially crafted Internet Shortcut, while CVE-2023-36033 and CVE-2023-36036 can grant SYSTEM privileges. CISA added these to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, advising fixes by December 5, 2023. Microsoft also patched critical remote code execution flaws (CVE-2023-36028, CVE-2023-36397), a heap-based buffer overflow in curl library (CVE-2023-38545), and an Azure CLI information disclosure bug (CVE-2023-36052). The latter could expose plaintext passwords and usernames in log files, with Microsoft addressing the issue in Azure CLI version 2.54 to enhance security against inadvertent usage.

3. Urgent: VMware Warns of Unpatched Critical Cloud Director Vulnerability

VMware is warning about a critical, unpatched security flaw (CVE-2023-34060, CVSS score: 9.8) in Cloud Director affecting instances upgraded to version 10.5. A malicious actor with network access can bypass authentication restrictions on ports 22 and 5480. Notably, this bypass is absent on port 443. VMware acknowledges the vulnerability’s impact is due to the use of an affected version of sssd from the underlying Photon OS. While a fix is pending, VMware provides a workaround via a shell script (“WA_CVE-2023-34060.sh”). The company assures implementing the temporary mitigation will not require downtime or affect Cloud Director functionality. This follows VMware’s recent patch for a critical flaw (CVE-2023-34048) in vCenter Server allowing remote code execution.

4. Zero-Day Alert: Lace Tempest Exploits SysAid IT Support Software Vulnerability

The threat actor Lace Tempest, associated with Cl0p ransomware, exploited a zero-day flaw (CVE-2023-47246) in SysAid IT support software in targeted attacks. SysAid has patched the path traversal vulnerability in version 23.3.36. Lace Tempest executed commands through SysAid to deliver a Gracewire malware loader, enabling human-operated activities such as lateral movement, data theft, and ransomware deployment. The attacker uploaded a WAR archive containing a web shell to the SysAid Tomcat web service, providing backdoor access. A PowerShell script executed a loader for Gracewire, and another script erased evidence post-exploitation. The attack involved MeshCentral Agent and PowerShell to download and run Cobalt Strike. Organizations using SysAid are urged to promptly apply patches and scan for signs of exploitation.

5. CISA Alerts: High-Severity SLP Vulnerability Now Under Active Exploitation

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has added a high-severity flaw in the Service Location Protocol (SLP) to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (CVE-2023-29552, CVSS score: 7.5). The vulnerability, disclosed by Bitsight and Curesec, is a denial-of-service (DoS) issue enabling significant amplification attacks through spoofed UDP traffic. SLP facilitates system discovery and communication on local area networks (LANs). Though specific details of exploitation are unknown, it poses a risk for DoS attacks with a substantial amplification factor. CISA mandates federal agencies to implement mitigations, including disabling SLP on systems in untrusted networks, by November 29, 2023, to safeguard against potential threats.

6. Beware, Developers: BlazeStealer Malware Discovered in Python Packages on PyPI

Malicious Python packages on the Python Package Index (PyPI) are targeting developers to steal sensitive information. Disguised as obfuscation tools, the packages contain BlazeStealer malware. The eight packages, including Pyobftoexe and Pyobfadvance, were active since January 2023 and downloaded 2,438 times globally before removal. BlazeStealer, run as a Discord bot, grants attackers control over victims’ systems, harvesting data, executing commands, encrypting files, and even causing system shutdown. The malware was distributed via setup.py and init.py files, retrieving a Python script from transfer[.]sh. The majority of downloads originated from the U.S., emphasizing the need for developer vigilance in verifying packages before use. This incident follows Phylum’s discovery of crypto-themed npm modules delivering next-stage malware.

11/01/2023-11/08/2023 Critical Flaws Discovered in Veeam ONE IT Monitoring Software, 48 Malicious npm Packages, Atlassian and Apache Flaws And More.

1. Critical Flaws Discovered in Veeam ONE IT Monitoring Software – Patch Now

Veeam has released security updates to address four flaws in its ONE IT monitoring and analytics platform, two of which are rated critical in severity.
The list of vulnerabilities is as follows –

• CVE-2023-38547 (CVSS score: 9.9) – An unspecified flaw that can be leveraged by an unauthenticated user to gain information about the SQL server connection Veeam ONE uses to access its configuration database, resulting in remote code execution on the SQL server.
• CVE-2023-38548 (CVSS score: 9.8) – A flaw in Veeam ONE that allows an unprivileged user with access to the Veeam ONE Web Client to obtain the NTLM hash of the account used by the Veeam ONE Reporting Service.
• CVE-2023-38549 (CVSS score: 4.5) – A cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability that allows a user with the Veeam ONE Power User role to obtain the access token of a user with the Veeam ONE Administrator role.
• CVE-2023-41723 (CVSS score: 4.3) – A vulnerability in Veeam ONE that permits a user with the Veeam ONE Read-Only User role to view the Dashboard Schedule.
  Users running the affected versions are recommended to stop the Veeam ONE Monitoring and Reporting services, replace the existing files with the files provided in the hotfix, and restart the two services.

2. 48 Malicious npm Packages Found Deploying Reverse Shells on Developer Systems

A new set of 48 malicious npm packages have been discovered in the npm repository with capabilities to deploy a reverse shell on compromised systems. These packages, deceptively named to appear legitimate, contained obfuscated JavaScript designed to initiate a reverse shell on package install. All the counterfeit packages have been published by an npm user named hktalent (GitHub, X). As of writing, 39 of the packages uploaded by the author are still available for download. The attack chain is triggered post the installation of the package via an install hook in the package.json that calls a JavaScript code to establish a reverse shell to rsh.51pwn[.]com. The findings arrive close on the heels of revelations that two packages published to the Python Package Index (PyPI) under the garb of simplifying internationalization incorporated malicious code designed to siphon sensitive Telegram Desktop application data and system information. The packages, named localization-utils and locute, were found to retrieve the final payload from a dynamically generated Pastebin URL and exfiltrate the information to an actor-controlled Telegram channel.

3. Experts Warn of Ransomware Hackers Exploiting Atlassian and Apache Flaws

Multiple ransomware groups have begun to actively exploit recently disclosed flaws in Atlassian Confluence and Apache ActiveMQ. Both vulnerabilities (CVE-2023-22518 and CVE-2023-22515) are critical, allowing threat actors to create unauthorized Confluence administrator accounts and lead to a loss of confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Attack chains involve mass exploitation of vulnerable internet-facing Atlassian Confluence servers to fetch a malicious payload hosted on a remote server, leading to the execution of the ransomware payload on the compromised server. Meanwhile, a severe remote code execution flaw impacting Apache ActiveMQ (CVE-2023-46604, CVSS score: 10.0) is being weaponized to deliver a Go-based remote access trojan called SparkRAT as well as a ransomware variant that shares similarities with TellYouThePass. The presence of active exploits for CVE-2023-46604 by various threat actors with different goals highlights the urgency of promptly addressing this vulnerability.

4. Kinsing Actors Exploiting Recent Linux Flaw to Breach Cloud Environments

Kinsing, a threat group, is actively exploiting the recently disclosed Linux privilege escalation vulnerability, Looney Tunables (CVE-2023-4911), in a new campaign aimed at breaching cloud environments. They’re expanding their cloud-native attacks by extracting Cloud Service Provider (CSP) credentials. This is the first documented exploitation of Looney Tunables, which can provide root privileges. Kinsing is known for swiftly adapting to exploit newly disclosed vulnerabilities, like they did with Openfire (CVE-2023-32315). They start their attacks with a remote code execution flaw in PHPUnit (CVE-2017-9841) to gain initial access and then search for Looney Tunables using a Python-based exploit. Once inside, they deploy a JavaScript web shell to gain backdoor access, allowing for file management and data gathering. Their objective is to extract CSP credentials, a significant shift from their usual cryptocurrency mining activities. This marks the first instance of Kinsing pursuing such data.

5. HelloKitty Ransomware Group Exploiting Apache ActiveMQ Vulnerability

Cybersecurity researchers have identified the exploitation of a critical security flaw (CVE-2023-46604) in the Apache ActiveMQ open-source message broker, allowing remote code execution. Attackers, attributed to the HelloKitty ransomware family, are attempting to deploy ransomware on victim systems. This vulnerability has a maximum CVSS score of 10.0 and has been addressed in ActiveMQ versions released last month. Vulnerable versions of Apache ActiveMQ include 5.15.16, 5.16.7, 5.17.6, or 5.18.3. Since the flaw’s disclosure, a proof-of-concept exploit and technical details have been publicly shared. Successful exploitation leads to the loading of remote binaries, resulting in ransomware actions. Thousands of internet-accessible ActiveMQ instances remain vulnerable, mainly in China, the U.S., Germany, South Korea, and India. Users are urged to update ActiveMQ and scan for compromise indicators immediately.

10/25/2023-11/01/2023 F5 Issues Warning, Malicious NuGet Packages, Critical Confluence Vulnerability And More.

1. F5 Issues Warning: BIG-IP Vulnerability Allows Remote Code Execution

F5 has alerted customers of a critical security vulnerability impacting BIG-IP that could result in unauthenticated remote code execution.  This vulnerability may allow an unauthenticated attacker with network access to the BIG-IP system through the management port and/or self IP addresses to execute arbitrary system commands. The issue, rooted in the configuration utility component, has been assigned the CVE identifier CVE-2023-46747, and carries a CVSS score of 9.8 out of a maximum of 10. As mitigations, F5 has also made available a shell script for users of BIG-IP versions 14.1.0 and later. The cybersecurity company, in a technical report of its own, described CVE-2023-46747 as an authentication bypass issue that can lead to a total compromise of the F5 system by executing arbitrary commands as root on the target system, noting it’s “closely related to CVE-2022-26377.”

2. Malicious NuGet Packages Caught Distributing SeroXen RAT Malware

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a new set of malicious packages published to the NuGet package manager using a lesser-known method for malware deployment. These packages, which span several versions, imitate popular packages and exploit NuGet’s MSBuild integrations feature in order to implant malicious code on their victims, a feature called inline tasks to achieve code execution.
This is the first known example of malware published to the NuGet repository exploiting this inline tasks feature to execute malware. The now-removed packages exhibit similar characteristics in that the threat actors behind the operation attempted to conceal the malicious code by making use of spaces and tabs to move it out of view of the default screen width. As previously disclosed by Phylum, the packages also have artificially inflated downloaded counts to make them appear more legitimate. The ultimate goal of the decoy packages is to act as a conduit for retrieving a second-stage .NET payload hosted on a throwaway GitHub repository.

3. Atlassian Warns of New Critical Confluence Vulnerability Threatening Data Loss

Atlassian has warned of a critical security flaw in Confluence Data Center and Server that could result in “significant data loss if exploited by an unauthenticated attacker.” Tracked as CVE-2023-22518, the vulnerability is rated 9.1 out of a maximum of 10 on the CVSS scoring system. It has been described as an instance of “improper authorization vulnerability.” All versions of Confluence Data Center and Server are susceptible to the bug, and it has been addressed in the following versions: 7.19.16 or later; 8.3.4 or later; 8.4.4 or later; 8.5.3 or later, and 8.6.1 or later. Atlassian is also urging customers to take immediate action to secure their instances, recommending those that are accessible to the public internet be disconnected until a patch can be applied. What’s more, users who are running versions that are outside of the support window are advised to upgrade to a fixed version. Atlassian Cloud sites are not affected by the issue.

4. Alert: PoC Exploits Released for Citrix and VMware Vulnerabilities

Virtualization services provider VMware has alerted customers to the existence of a proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit for a recently patched security flaw in Aria Operations for Logs. Tracked as CVE-2023-34051 (CVSS score: 8.1), the high-severity vulnerability relates to a case of authentication bypass that could lead to remote code execution. An unauthenticated, malicious actor can inject files into the operating system of an impacted appliance which can result in remote code execution. It’s worth noting that CVE-2023-34051 is a patch bypass for a set of critical flaws that were addressed by VMware earlier this January that could expose users to remote code execution attacks. The disclosure comes as Citrix released an advisory of its own, urging customers to apply fixes for CVE-2023-4966 (CVSS score: 9.4), a critical security vulnerability affecting NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway that has come under active exploitation in the wild. 

5. Exploit Released For Critical Cisco IOS XE Flaw, Many Hosts Still Hacked

Public exploit code is now available for the critical Cisco IOS XE vulnerability tracked as CVE-2023-20198 that was leveraged as a zero-day to hack tens of thousands of devices. Cisco released patches for most releases of its IOS XE software but thousands of systems continue to be compromised, internet scans show. The creation of the exploit was possible using information captured from a honeypot set up by SECUINFRA’s team for digital forensics and incident response engagements. Horizon3.ai explains that an attacker can encode an HTTP request to the Web Services Management Agent (WMSA) service in iosd – a powerful binary in Cisco’s IOS XE that can generate the configuration file for OpenResty (an Nginx-based server with support Lua scripting) used by the webui service vulnerable to CVE-2023-20198. The WSMA allows executing commands through SOAP requests, including ones that give access to the configuration feature that enables creating a user with full privileges on the system. The researchers note that from this point an attacker has full control over the device and could write malicious implants to disk without needing to exploit another vulnerability. Cisco has updated its security bulletin for CVE-2023-20198 on October 30, announcing updates for IOS XE that address the vulnerability.

6. EleKtra-Leak Cryptojacking Attacks Exploit AWS IAM Credentials Exposed on GitHub

A new ongoing campaign dubbed EleKtra-Leak has set its eyes on exposed Amazon Web Service (AWS) identity and access management (IAM) credentials within public GitHub repositories to facilitate cryptojacking activities. As a result of this, the threat actor associated with the campaign was able to create multiple AWS Elastic Compute (EC2) instances that they used for wide-ranging and long-lasting cryptojacking operations. The operation, active since at least December 2020, is designed to mine Monero from as many as 474 unique Amazon EC2 instances between August 30 and October 6, 2023. A standout aspect of the attacks is the automated targeting of AWS IAM credentials within four minutes of their initial exposure on GitHub, indicating that threat actors are programmatically cloning and scanning the repositories to capture the exposed keys. The adversary has also been observed blocklisting AWS accounts that publicize IAM credentials in what’s likely seen as an effort to prevent further analysis. 
To mitigate the attacks, organizations that accidentally expose AWS IAM credentials are recommended to immediately revoke any API connections using the keys, remove them from the GitHub repository, and audit GitHub repository cloning events for any suspicious operations.