03/30/2023-04/05/2023 Azure AD Vulnerability Fixed, Cacti, Realtek, and IBM Aspera Faspex Vulnerabilities, “Super FabriXss” Vulnerability in Microsoft Azure SFX And More

1. Microsoft Fixes New Azure AD Vulnerability Impacting Bing Search and Major Apps

Microsoft has patched a misconfiguration issue impacting the Azure Active Directory (AAD) identity and access management service that exposed several “high-impact” applications to unauthorized access. One of these apps is a content management system (CMS) that powers Bing.com and allowed to not only modify search results, but also launch high-impact XSS attacks on Bing users. The crux of the vulnerability stems from what’s called “Shared Responsibility confusion,” wherein an Azure app can be incorrectly configured to allow users from any Microsoft tenant, leading to a potential case of unintended access. A malicious actor with the same access could’ve hijacked the most popular search results with the same payload and leak sensitive data from millions of users.

2. Cacti, Realtek, and IBM Aspera Faspex Vulnerabilities Under Active Exploitation

Critical security flaws in Cacti, Realtek, and IBM Aspera Faspex are being exploited by various threat actors in hacks targeting unpatched systems.This entails the abuse of CVE-2022-46169 (CVSS score: 9.8) and CVE-2021-35394 (CVSS score: 9.8) to deliver MooBot and ShellBot (aka PerlBot). CVE-2022-46169 relates to a critical authentication bypass and command injection flaw in Cacti servers that allows an unauthenticated user to execute arbitrary code. CVE-2021-35394 also concerns an arbitrary command injection vulnerability impacting the Realtek Jungle SDK that was patched in 2021. At least three different versions of ShellBot have been detected – viz. PowerBots (C) GohacK, LiGhT’s Modded perlbot v2, and B0tchZ 0.2a. All three variants are capable of orchestrating distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. PowerBots (C) GohacK and B0tchZ 0.2a also feature backdoor capabilities to carry out file uploads/downloads and launch a reverse shell. Compromised victims can be controlled and used as DDoS bots after receiving a command from a C2 server.

3. Hackers Exploiting WordPress Elementor Pro Vulnerability: Millions of Sites at Risk!

Unknown threat actors are actively exploiting a recently patched security vulnerability in the Elementor Pro website builder plugin for WordPress. The flaw, described as a case of broken access control, impacts versions 3.11.6 and earlier. It was addressed by the plugin maintainers in version 3.11.7 released on March 22. Successful exploitation of the high-severity flaw allows an authenticated attacker to complete a takeover of a WordPress site that has WooCommerce enabled. This makes it possible for a malicious user to turn on the registration page (if disabled) and set the default user role to administrator so they can create an account that instantly has the administrator privileges. After this, they are likely to either redirect the site to another malicious domain or upload a malicious plugin or backdoor to further exploit the site.
The flaw is currently being abused in the wild from several IP addresses intending to upload arbitrary PHP and ZIP archive files.

Recommendation
Users of the Elementor Pro plugin are recommended to update to 3.11.7 or 3.12.0, which is the latest version, as soon as possible to mitigate potential threats.

4. Researchers Detail Severe “Super FabriXss” Vulnerability in Microsoft Azure SFX

Details have emerged about a now-patched vulnerability in Azure Service Fabric Explorer (SFX) that could lead to unauthenticated remote code execution. Tracked as CVE-2023-23383 (CVSS score: 8.2), the issue has been dubbed “Super FabriXss” by Orca Security, a nod to the FabriXss flaw (CVE-2022-35829, CVSS score: 6.2) that was fixed by Microsoft in October 2022. The Super FabriXss vulnerability enables remote attackers to leverage an XSS vulnerability to achieve remote code execution on a container hosted on a Service Fabric node without the need for authentication. XSS refers to a kind of client-side code injection attack that makes it possible to upload malicious scripts into otherwise trusted websites. The scripts then get executed every time a victim visits the compromised website, thereby leading to unintended consequences.
This attack takes advantage of the Cluster Type Toggle options under the Events Tab in the Service Fabric platform that allows an attacker to overwrite an existing Compose deployment by triggering an upgrade with a specially crafted URL from XSS Vulnerability.

5. AlienFox Malware Targets API Keys and Secrets from AWS, Google, and Microsoft Cloud Services

A new “comprehensive toolset” called AlienFox is being distributed on Telegram as a way for threat actors to harvest credentials from API keys and secrets from popular cloud service providers. The spread of AlienFox represents an unreported trend towards attacking more minimal cloud services, unsuitable for crypto mining, in order to enable and expand subsequent campaigns. The primary use of AlienFox is to enumerate misconfigured hosts via scanning platforms like LeakIX and SecurityTrails, and subsequently leverage various scripts in the toolkit to extract credentials from configuration files exposed on the servers. Specifically, it entails searching for susceptible servers associated with popular web frameworks, including Laravel, Drupal, Joomla, Magento, Opencart, Prestashop, and WordPress. Attacks involving AlienFox are said to be opportunistic, with the scripts capable of gathering sensitive data pertaining to AWS, Bluemail, Exotel, Google Workspace, Mailgun, Mandrill, Microsoft 365, Sendgrid, Twilio, Zimbra, and Zoho.

6. ALPHV Ransomware Exploits Veritas Backup Exec Bugs Ror Initial Access

An ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware affiliate was observed exploiting three vulnerabilities impacting the Veritas Backup product for initial access to the target network. Mandiant tracks the ALPHV affiliate as ‘UNC4466’ and notes that the method is a deviation from the typical intrusion that relies on stolen credentials.
The high-severity flaws targeted by UNC4466 are:

• CVE-2021-27876: Arbitrary file access flaw caused by an error in the SHA authentication scheme, allowing a remote attacker to gain unauthorized access to vulnerable endpoints. (CVSS score: 8.1)
• CVE-2021-27877: Remote unauthorized access and privileged command execution to the BE Agent via SHA authentication. (CVSS score: 8.2)
• CVE-2021-27878: Arbitrary command execution flaw result of an error in the SHA authentication scheme, allowing a remote attacker to gain unauthorized access to vulnerable endpoints. (CVSS score: 8.8)
  All three flaws impact the Veritas Backup software. The vendor disclosed them in March 2021 and released a fix with version 21.2. However, despite over two years having passed since then, many endpoints remain vulnerable as they have not updated to a safe version.

7. Microsoft Tightens OneNote Security by Auto-Blocking 120 Risky File Extensions

Microsoft has announced plans to automatically block embedded files with “dangerous extensions” in OneNote following reports that the note-taking service is being increasingly abused for malware delivery. Up until now, users were shown a dialog warning them that opening such attachments could harm their computer and data, but it was possible to dismiss the prompt and open the files. That’s going to change going forward. Microsoft said it intends to prevent users from directly opening an embedded file with a dangerous extension and display the message: “Your administrator has blocked your ability to open this file type in OneNote.” The update is expected to start rolling out with Version 2304 later this month and only impacts OneNote for Microsoft 365 on devices running Windows. Users who opt to still open the embedded file can do so by first saving the file locally to their device and then opening it from there.

03/24/2023-03/29/2023 New MacStealer macOS Malware, Malicious Python Package, Critical WooCommerce Payments Plugin Flaw And More

1. New MacStealer macOS Malware Steals iCloud Keychain Data and Passwords

A new information-stealing malware has set its sights on Apple’s macOS operating system to siphon sensitive information from compromised devices. Dubbed MacStealer, it’s the latest example of a threat that uses Telegram as a command-and-control (C2) platform to exfiltrate data. It primarily affects devices running macOS versions Catalina and later running on M1 and M2 CPUs. MacStealer is designed to extract iCloud Keychain data, passwords and credit card information from browsers like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Brave. It also features support for harvesting Microsoft Office files, images, archives, and Python scripts. Stealer malware is typically spread through different channels, including email attachments, bogus software downloads, and other social engineering techniques.

2. Malicious Python Package Uses Unicode Trickery to Evade Detection and Steal Data

A malicious Python package on the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository has been found to use Unicode as a trick to evade detection and deploy an info-stealing malware. The package in question, named onyxproxy, was uploaded to PyPI on March 15, 2023, and comes with capabilities to harvest and exfiltrate credentials and other valuable data. It has since been taken down, but not before attracting a total of 183 downloads. The package incorporates its malicious behavior in a setup script that’s packed with thousands of seemingly legitimate code strings. These strings include a mix of bold and italic fonts and are still readable and can be parsed by the Python interpreter, only to activate the execution of the stealer malware upon installation of the package.

3. GitHub Swiftly Replaces Exposed RSA SSH Key to Protect Git Operations

GitHub replaced its RSA SSH host key used for Git operations after it was briefly exposed in a public repository. The change, carried out at 05:00 UTC on March 24, 2023, was done as a precaution to prevent impersonation or eavesdropping by bad actors. However, the move only affects Git operations using RSA, not Web traffic to GitHub.com or Git operations via HTTPS. The company, owned by Microsoft, said the exposed SSH private key was not exploited and didn’t reveal how long it was exposed. GitHub emphasized that there was no compromise of its systems or customer information, and the incident was due to “inadvertent publishing of private information.” Users of GitHub Actions may experience failed workflow runs if using actions/checkout with the ssh-key option, and the company is updating the action.

4. Critical WooCommerce Payments Plugin Flaw Patched for 500,000+ WordPress Sites

Patches have been released for a critical security flaw impacting the WooCommerce Payments plugin for WordPress, which is installed on over 500,000 websites. The flaw, if left unresolved, could enable a bad actor to gain unauthorized admin access to impacted stores. It impacts versions 4.8.0 through 5.6.1. The vulnerability appears to reside in a PHP file called “class-platform-checkout-session.php”. WooCommerce also said it worked with WordPress to auto-update sites using affected versions of the software. Patched versions include 4.8.2, 4.9.1, 5.0.4, 5.1.3, 5.2.2, 5.3.1, 5.4.1, 5.5.2, and 5.6.2. Furthermore, the maintainers of the e-commerce plugin noted that it’s disabling the WooPay beta program owing to concerns that the security defect has the potential to impact the payment checkout service.

5. CloudPanel Installations Use The Same SSL Certificate Private Key

Self-hosted web administration solution CloudPanel was found to have several security issues, including using the same SSL certificate private key across all installations and unintentional overwriting of firewall rules to default to weaker settings.  At the time of writing, the two issues mentioned above remained unfixed, while the software developer addressed a third security problem concerning the installation script. The first issue concerns the trustworthiness “curl to bash” installation procedure as it downloaded code without an integrity check, which the vendor promptly addressed by publishing a cryptographically secure checksum of the installation script. The second problem is that the CloudPanel installation script will reset a server’s pre-existing Uncomplicated Firewall (ufw) rules and introduce a far more permissive ruleset. The third flaw is tracked as CVE-2023-0391 and is caused by the CloudPanel installs using a static SSL certificate, enabling attackers to find CloudPanel instances using the certificate’s thumbprint. 

# 6. Exchange Online To Block Emails From Vulnerable On-Prem Servers
Microsoft is introducing a new Exchange Online security feature that will automatically start throttling and eventually block all emails sent from “persistently vulnerable Exchange servers” 90 days after the admins are pinged to secure them. As Redmond explains, these are Exchange servers in on-premises or hybrid environments that run end-of-life software or haven’t been patched against known security bugs. Microsoft says this new Exchange Online “transport-based enforcement system” has three distinct functions: reporting, throttling, and blocking. The new system’s primary goal is to help Exchange admins identify unpatched or unsupported on-prem Exchange servers, allowing them to upgrade or patch them before they become security risks.
However, it will also be able to throttle and eventually block emails from Exchange servers that haven’t been remediated before reaching Exchange Online mailboxes.

03/16/2023-03/23/2023 Rogue NuGet Packages Infect .NET Developers, New ShellBot DDoS Malware Variants, Adobe ColdFusion Vulnerability Exploited in the Wild And More

1. CISA Alerts on Critical Security Vulnerabilities in Industrial Control Systems

 CISA has released eight Industrial Control Systems (ICS) advisories, warning of critical flaws affecting equipment from Delta Electronics and Rockwell Automation. This includes 13 security vulnerabilities in Delta Electronics’ InfraSuite Device Master, a real-time device monitoring software. All versions prior to 1.0.5 are affected by the issues. Successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities could allow an unauthenticated attacker to obtain access to files and credentials, escalate privileges, and remotely execute arbitrary code. At the top of the list is CVE-2023-1133 (CVSS score: 9.8), a critical flaw that arises from the fact that InfraSuite Device Master accepts unverified UDP packets and deserializes the content, thereby allowing an unauthenticated remote attacker to execute arbitrary code.

2. Rogue NuGet Packages Infect .NET Developers with Crypto-Stealing Malware

The NuGet repository is the target of a new “sophisticated and highly-malicious attack” aiming to infect .NET developer systems with cryptocurrency stealer malware. The 13 rogue packages, which were downloaded more than 160,000 times over the past month, have since been taken down. The packages contained a PowerShell script that would execute upon installation and trigger a download of a ‘second stage’ payload, which could be remotely executed. Three of the most downloaded packages – Coinbase.Core, Anarchy.Wrapper.Net, and DiscordRichPresence.API – alone accounted for 166,000 downloads, although it’s also possible that the threat actors artificially inflated the download counts using bots to make them appear more legitimate. The use of Coinbase and Discord underscores the continued reliance on typosquatting techniques, in which fake packages are assigned names that are similar to legitimate packages, in order to trick developers into downloading them. 

3. New ShellBot DDoS Malware Variants Targeting Poorly Managed Linux Servers

A new cyber attack campaign is targeting poorly managed Linux SSH servers using a malware called ShellBot. This DDoS Bot malware is written in Perl and communicates via IRC protocol. Hackers use scanner malware to identify servers with open SSH port 22 and weak credentials. They then initiate a dictionary attack using a list of known SSH credentials to breach the server and install the ShellBot payload. Once installed, ShellBot communicates with a remote server via IRC protocol, allowing it to carry out DDoS attacks and exfiltrate data. The attack campaign involves three different ShellBot versions, with the first two offering various DDoS attack commands using HTTP, TCP, and UDP protocols. The third version, PowerBots, offers backdoor-like capabilities such as granting reverse shell access and uploading arbitrary files from the compromised host. If ShellBot is installed, Linux servers can be used as DDoS bots to attack specific targets after receiving commands from the attackers.

4. CISA Issues Urgent Warning: Adobe ColdFusion Vulnerability Exploited in the Wild

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on March 15 added a security vulnerability impacting Adobe ColdFusion to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation. The critical flaw in question is CVE-2023-26360 (CVSS score: 8.6), which could be exploited by a threat actor to achieve arbitrary code execution. Adobe ColdFusion contains an improper access control vulnerability that allows for remote code execution. It’s worth noting that CVE-2023-26360 also affects ColdFusion 2016 and ColdFusion 11 installations, both of which are no longer supported by the software company as they have reached end-of-life (EoL). While the exact details surrounding the nature of the attacks are unknown, Adobe said in an advisory that it’s aware of the flaw being “exploited in the wild in very limited attacks.”

5. New GoLang-Based HinataBot Exploiting Router and Server Flaws for DDoS Attacks

A new Golang-based botnet dubbed HinataBot has been observed to leverage known flaws to compromise routers and servers and use them to stage distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. Among the methods used to distribute the malware are the exploitation of exposed Hadoop YARN servers and security flaws in Realtek SDK devices (CVE-2014-8361) and Huawei HG532 routers (CVE-2017-17215, CVSS score: 8.8). The malware, like other DDoS botnets of its kind, is capable of contacting a command-and-control (C2) server to listen for incoming instructions and initiate attacks against a target IP address for a specified duration.
The findings also come as Microsoft revealed that TCP attacks emerged as the most frequent form of DDoS attack encountered in 2022, accounting for 63% of all attack traffic, followed by UDP floods and amplification attacks (22%), and packet anomaly attacks (15%).

6. NordVPN Open Sources Its Linux VPN Client And Libraries

Nord Security has released the source code of its Linux NordVPN client and networking libraries to increase transparency and address users’ security concerns. As part of this, the company has made its NordVPN MeshNet private tunneling feature free for all users who install their software, even if they do not have a paid subscription. This feature allows users to create private tunnels between other NordVPN users to access the internet through the shared network or access internal devices. NordVPN has released the source code for its Linux applications and two libraries, Libtelio and Libdrop, on its GitHub page, encouraging the coding community to scrutinize and improve its code. The company also offers a bug bounty program, with critical vulnerabilities receiving bounties ranging from $10,000 to $50,000

7. SAP Releases Security Updates Fixing Five Critical Vulnerabilities

Software vendor SAP has released security updates for 19 vulnerabilities, five rated as critical, meaning that administrators should apply them as soon as possible to mitigate the associated risks. The flaws fixed this month impact many products, but the critical severity bugs affect SAP Business Objects Business Intelligence Platform (CMC) and SAP NetWeaver.
More specifically, the five flaws fixed this time are the following:

• CVE-2023-23857: Critical severity (CVSS v3: 9.8) information disclosure, data manipulation, and DoS flaw impacting SAP NetWeaver AS for Java, version 7.50. The bug allows an unauthenticated attacker to perform unauthorized operations by attaching to an open interface and accessing services via the directory API.
• CVE-2023-25616: Critical severity (CVSS v3: 9.9) code injection vulnerability in SAP Business Intelligence Platform, allowing an attacker to access resources only available to privileged users. 
• CVE-2023-27269: Critical severity (CVSS v3: 9.6) directory traversal problem impacting SAP NetWeaver Application Server for ABAP. 
• CVE-2023-27500: Critical severity (CVSS v3: 9.6) directory traversal in SAP NetWeaver AS for ABAP.
• CVE-2023-25617: Critical severity (CVSS v3: 9.0) command execution vulnerability in SAP Business Objects Business Intelligence Platform, versions 420 and 430.