02/23/2023-03/01/2023. ZK Framework Flaw Exploited, PlugX Trojan Disguised as Legitimate Windows Debugger Tool, Attacks Exploiting Zoho ManageEngine Products And More

1. CISA Issues Warning on Active Exploitation of ZK Java Web Framework Vulnerability

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has added a high-severity flaw affecting ZK Framework to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. Tracked as CVE-2022-36537, the issue impacts versions 8.6.4.1, 9.0.1.2, 9.5.1.3, 9.6.0.1, and 9.6.1. Hackers can retrieve sensitive data via specially crafted requests. The vulnerability has been patched in versions 8.6.4.2, 9.0.1.3, 9.5.1.4, 9.6.0.2, and 9.6.2. The ZK Framework is an open source Java framework that can impact multiple products, including ConnectWise R1Soft Server Backup Manager. The flaw can bypass authentication, upload a backdoored JDBC database driver, and deploy ransomware. The vulnerability has been exploited extensively by hackers to gain initial access and deploy a web shell backdoor. A majority of the infections are located in the US, South Korea, the UK, Canada, Spain, Colombia, Malaysia, Italy, India, and Panama, with 146 R1Soft servers still backdoored as of February 20, 2023

2. PlugX Trojan Disguised as Legitimate Windows Debugger Tool in Latest Attacks

The PlugX remote access trojan has been observed masquerading as an open source Windows debugger tool called x64dbg in an attempt to circumvent security protections and gain control of a target system. As a legitimate application, x32dbg.exe’s valid digital signature can confuse some security tools, allowing attackers to bypass file execution restrictions and maintain persistence, escalate privileges, and fly under the radar. PlugX is known for its multiple functionalities, such as data exfiltration and its ability to use the compromised machine for nefarious purposes. The malware employs a technique called DLL side-loading to plant and then invoke a legitimate application that executes a rogue payload. Persistence is achieved via Windows Registry modifications and the creation of scheduled tasks to ensure continued access even after system restarts. 

3. Experts Sound Alarm Over Growing Attacks Exploiting Zoho ManageEngine Products

Multiple threat actors have been exploiting a patched critical vulnerability in various Zoho ManageEngine products since January 20, 2023. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2022-47966 and scoring 9.8 on the CVSS scale, permits unauthenticated attackers to take over vulnerable systems completely. Up to 24 products, including Remote Access Plus, ADSelfService Plus, and Password Manager Pro, among others, are affected. The vulnerability allows unauthenticated remote code execution due to usage of an outdated third-party dependency for XML signature validation, Apache Santuario.
The main objective of the attacks detected to date revolves around deploying tools on vulnerable hosts such as Netcat and Cobalt Strike Beacon. Some intrusions have leveraged the initial access to install AnyDesk software for remote access, while a few others have attempted to install a Windows version of a ransomware strain known as Buhti. Some have also tried to use the ManageEngine flaw as an attack vector to install malware that can execute next-stage payloads.

4. Python Developers Warned of Trojanized PyPI Packages Mimicking Popular Libraries

Cybersecurity researchers are warning of “imposter packages” mimicking popular libraries available on the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository. The 41 malicious PyPI packages have been found to pose as typosquatted variants of legitimate modules such as HTTP, AIOHTTP, requests, urllib, and urllib3.The descriptions for these packages, for the most part, don’t hint at their malicious intent. Some are disguised as real libraries and make flattering comparisons between their capabilities and those of known, legitimate HTTP libraries. But in reality, they either harbor downloaders that act as a conduit to deliver second-stage malware to infected hosts or information stealers that are designed to exfiltrate sensitive data such as passwords and tokens. Fortinet, which also disclosed similar rogue HTTP packages on PyPI earlier this week, noted their ability to launch a trojan downloader that, in turn, contains a DLL file (Rdudkye.dll) packing a variety of functions. The development is just the latest attempt by malicious actors to poison open source repositories like GitHub, npm, PyPI, and RubyGems to propagate malware to developer systems and mount supply chain attacks. 

5. Attackers Flood NPM Repository with Over 15,000 Spam Packages Containing Phishing Links

Over 15,000 spam packages have been uploaded to the npm repository by threat actors in an attempt to spread phishing links. The attack was carried out through automated processes, creating packages with auto-generated names and closely resembling each other. The attackers used referral IDs of retail websites, earning referral rewards by referring users to phishing sites. The packages were uploaded from multiple user accounts within hours on February 20 and 21, using a Python script that automated the process. The packages included links to phishing campaigns in their README.md files and were disguised as cheats and free resources with names such as “free-tiktok-followers” and “instagram-followers-free.” The attackers designed well-crafted deceptive web pages that urged victims to fill out surveys or redirected them to legitimate e-commerce portals like AliExpress. 

6. LastPass: DevOps Engineer Hacked To Steal Password Vault Data In 2022 Breach

LastPass has revealed further information about a “coordinated second attack,” lasting over two months, which saw a threat actor steal data from Amazon AWS cloud storage servers. LastPass disclosed a data breach in December, where threat actors stole partially encrypted password vault data and customer information. The company has now revealed that the threat actors used information from an August breach, another data breach, and a remote code execution vulnerability to install a keylogger on a senior DevOps engineer’s computer. As only four LastPass DevOps engineers had access to the decryption keys, the threat actor targeted one of the engineers. They ultimately gained access to the DevOps engineer’s LastPass corporate vault and were able to export the native corporate vault entries and content of shared folders, containing encrypted secure notes with access and decryption keys needed to access AWS S3 LastPass production backups, other cloud-based storage resources, and some related critical database backups. The company says they have updated their security posture since the attack.

7. Critical Flaws In WordPress Houzez Theme Exploited To Hijack Websites

Hackers are currently exploiting two critical vulnerabilities in the Houzez theme and plugin for WordPress, primarily used in real estate websites. Patchstack researcher Dave Jong discovered the security flaws and reported them to the vendor ThemeForest, with one fixed in version 2.6.4 and the other in version 2.7.2. However, Patchstack warns that some websites have not applied the security updates, allowing threat actors to exploit the older flaws in ongoing attacks. The first flaw is a security misconfiguration affecting the Houzez Theme plugin version 2.7.1 and older, which can be exploited remotely without requiring authentication to perform privilege escalation. The second flaw impacts versions 2.6.3 and older of the Houzes Login Register plugin, allowing unauthenticated attackers to perform privilege escalation. Attackers are exploiting these vulnerabilities by sending a request to the endpoint that listens for account creation requests, enabling them to take control over the WordPress site. Website owners and administrators should apply available patches immediately.

02/16/2023-02/22/2023. New Vulnerabilities in KEV Catalog, VMware Patches Critical Vulnerability, Vulnerability Discovered in ClamAV Open Source Antivirus Software And More

1. U.S. Cybersecurity Agency CISA Adds Three New Vulnerabilities in KEV Catalog

CISA has added three security flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog that are currently being actively exploited. IBM Aspera Faspex Code Execution Vulnerability (CVE-2022-47986) is a YAML deserialization flaw that enables a remote attacker to execute code on the system. Mitel MiVoice Connect Code Injection Vulnerability (CVE-2022-41223) and Mitel MiVoice Connect Command Injection Vulnerability (CVE-2022-40765) could allow an authenticated attacker with internal network access to execute arbitrary code. The nature of the attacks is unclear, but the vulnerabilities were patched by Mitel in October 2022. Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies must apply the necessary updates by March 14, 2023, to secure networks against potential threats. In a related development, CISA released an Industrial Control Systems advisory relating to critical flaws in Mitsubishi Electric’s MELSOFT iQ AppPortal.

2. VMware Patches Critical Vulnerability in Carbon Black App Control Product

 VMware has released patches to address a critical security vulnerability affecting its Carbon Black App Control product. The injection vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023-20858, carries a CVSS score of 9.1 out of 10 and affects App Control versions 8.7.x, 8.8.x, and 8.9.x. A malicious actor with privileged access to the App Control administration console may be able to use specially crafted input to access the underlying server operating system. VMware has advised customers to update to versions 8.7.8, 8.8.6, and 8.9.4 to mitigate risks. In addition, VMware has fixed an XML External Entity (XXE) vulnerability (CVE-2023-20855, CVSS score: 8.8) affecting vRealize Orchestrator, vRealize Automation, and Cloud Foundation. It’s important to install the patches as soon as possible, given the common targeting of Fortinet product vulnerabilities by threat actors in attacks.

3. GoDaddy Discloses Multi-Year Security Breach Causing Malware Installations and Source Code Theft

GoDaddy has reported a multi-year breach that enabled unknown cybercriminals to install malware and exfiltrate source code related to some of its services. The breach occurred in December 2022, and the company identified that an unauthorized third party gained access to servers hosted in its cPanel environment. The attackers installed malware, resulting in the intermittent redirection of customer websites. GoDaddy notes that the ultimate objective of the intrusions was to infect websites and servers with malware for phishing campaigns, malware distribution, and other malicious activities. The company added that the December 2022 incident is connected to two other security events it encountered in March 2020 and November 2021. In the first incident, credentials were compromised, affecting around 28,000 hosting customers and a small number of its personnel, while the second saw a rogue actor gain access to the Managed WordPress provisioning system.

4. Critical RCE Vulnerability Discovered in ClamAV Open Source Antivirus Software

Cisco has issued security updates to fix a severe flaw affecting its ClamAV open-source antivirus engine. The bug, tracked as CVE-2023-20032, has a CVSS score of 9.8 and could lead to remote code execution on vulnerable devices. The issue is a remote code execution vulnerability that resides in the HFS+ file parser component. An attacker could exploit the flaw by submitting a crafted HFS+ partition file to be scanned by ClamAV on an affected device. The weakness affects versions 1.0.0 and earlier, 0.105.1 and earlier, and 0.103.7 and earlier. The company also addressed a remote information leak vulnerability in ClamAV’s DMG file parser and a denial-of-service vulnerability in Cisco Nexus Dashboard. The company has urged all customers to upgrade to the latest versions of ClamAV to stay secure.

5. Researchers Hijack Popular NPM Package with Millions of Downloads

A popular npm package with over 3.5 million weekly downloads has been found to be vulnerable to an account takeover attack. Illustria, a software supply chain security company, explained that the package can be taken over by recovering an expired domain name for one of its maintainers and resetting the password, enabling access to the package’s associated GitHub account. Attackers can publish trojanized versions to the npm registry, making it possible to conduct supply chain attacks at scale. Illustria did not disclose the name of the module but reached out to the maintainer, who has taken steps to secure the account. The attack bypasses two-factor authentication as the GitHub Action, configured in the repository, automatically publishes packages when new code changes are pushed.

6. New Mirai Malware Variant Infects Linux Devices To Build DDoS Botnet

A new variant of the Mirai botnet, called V3G4, has been detected targeting Linux-based servers and IoT devices to carry out DDoS attacks. The malware infects devices by exploiting weak or default telnet/SSH credentials and hardcoded vulnerabilities.

Once a device is compromised, it is recruited into the botnet. Researchers at Palo Alto Networks have identified V3G4 in three separate campaigns between July and December 2022, all believed to originate from the same threat actor. The botnet uses four different XOR encryption keys, making decoding its functions more challenging. It also terminates processes from a hardcoded list that includes competing botnet malware families. After infecting a device, a Mirai-based payload is dropped onto the system, and the botnet attempts to connect to the hardcoded C2 address. Users can protect themselves by changing default passwords and installing the latest security update. 

02/09/2023-02/15/2023. Clipper Malware Found in 450+ PyPI Packages, HTTP DDoS Attack Hits Record High, 10,000+ WordPress Sites Infected And More

1.  Python Developers Beware: Clipper Malware Found in 450+ PyPI Packages!

Malicious actors have published more than 451 unique Python packages on the official Python Package Index (PyPI) repository in an attempt to infect developer systems with clipper malware.

The mechanism of the attacks

1. The initial vector entails using typosquatting to mimic popular packages such as beautifulsoup, bitcoinlib, cryptofeed, matplotlib, pandas, pytorch, scikit-learn, scrapy, selenium, solana, and tensorflow, among others. 
2. After installation, a malicious JavaScript file is dropped to the system and executed in the background of any web browsing session. 
3. When a developer copies a cryptocurrency address, the address is replaced in the clipboard with the attacker’s address. This is achieved by creating a Chromium web browser extension in the Windows AppData folder and writing to it the rogue Javascript and a manifest.json file that requests users’ permissions to access and modify the clipboard.

The ultimate goal of the attacks is to hijack cryptocurrency transactions initiated by the compromised developer and reroute them to attacker-controlled wallets instead of the intended recipient.

2. OpenSSL Fixes Multiple New Security Flaws with Latest Update

The OpenSSL Project has released fixes to address several security flaws, including a high-severity bug in the open source encryption toolkit that could potentially expose users to malicious attacks. Tracked as CVE-2023-0286, the issue relates to a case of type confusion that may permit an adversary to read memory contents or enact a denial-of-service. The vulnerability is rooted in the way the popular cryptographic library handles X.509 certificates, and is likely to impact only those applications that have a custom implementation for retrieving a certificate revocation list (CRL) over a network. Type confusion flaws could have serious consequences, as they could be weaponized to deliberately force the program to behave in unintended ways, possibly causing a crash or code execution. The issue has been patched in OpenSSL versions 3.0.8, 1.1.1t, and 1.0.2zg.

3. Massive HTTP DDoS Attack Hits Record High of 71 Million Requests/Second

Web infrastructure company Cloudflare disclosed that it thwarted a record-breaking distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that peaked at over 71 million requests per second (RPS). The majority of attacks peaked in the ballpark of 50-70 million requests per second (RPS) with the largest exceeding 71 million. The attacks singled out websites secured by its platform and that they emanated from a botnet comprising more than 30,000 IP addresses that belonged to “numerous” cloud providers. Given a sufficiently high amount of requests, the website’s server will not be able to process all of the attack requests along with the legitimate user requests. Users will experience this as website-load delays, timeouts, and eventually not being able to connect to their desired websites at all. 

4. Massive AdSense Fraud Campaign Uncovered – 10,000+ WordPress Sites Infected

The threat actors behind the black hat redirect malware campaign have scaled up their campaign to use more than 70 bogus domains mimicking URL shorteners and infect over 10,800 websites. The main objective is still ad fraud by artificially increasing traffic to pages which contain the AdSense ID which contain Google ads for revenue generation. The campaign is orchestrated to redirect visitors to compromised WordPress sites to fake Q&A portals. It’s possible that these bad actors are simply trying to convince Google that real people from different IPs using different browsers are clicking on their search results. This technique artificially sends Google signals that those pages are performing well in search. What makes the latest campaign significant is the use of Bing search result links and Twitter’s link shortener (t[.]co) service, along with Google, in their redirects, indicating an expansion of the threat actor’s footprint. It’s not known precisely how the WordPress sites become infected in the first place. But once the website is breached, the threat actor injects backdoor PHP code that allows for persistent remote access as well as redirect site visitors.

5. NPM Packages Posing as Speed Testers Install Crypto Miners Instead

A new set of 16 malicious NPM packages are pretending to be internet speed testers but are, in reality, coinminers that hijack the compromised computer’s resources to mine cryptocurrency for the threat actors. The packages were uploaded onto NPM. Most packages feature a name resembling an internet speed tester, but they are all cryptocurrency miners. Although they share the same objective, CheckPoint’s analysts found that each package employs different coding and methods to accomplish its tasks. The “speedtestspa” package downloads a helper from GitLab and uses it to connect to the cryptocurrency mining pool, whereas “speedtestkas” includes the malicious helper file in the package. The “speedtestbom” package goes a step further by attempting to hide the cryptocurrency mining pool address, so instead of hardcoding it, it connects to an external IP to retrieve it.

Recommendation 

Software developers can minimize the chances of falling victim to those supply chain attacks by carefully reviewing the code in any packages they add to their projects. 

6. Devs Targeted By W4SP Stealer Malware In Malicious PyPi packages

Five malicious packages were found on the Python Package Index (PyPI), stealing passwords, Discord authentication cookies, and cryptocurrency wallets from unsuspecting developers. While the packages have since been removed, they have already been downloaded by hundreds of software developers. These five packages and their download stats are:

• 3m-promo-gen-api – 136 downloads
• Ai-Solver-gen – 132 downloads
• hypixel-coins – 116 downloads
• httpxrequesterv2 – 128 downloads
• httpxrequester – 134 downloads

The mechanism of the attack 

1. The malware first steals data from web browsers, such as Google Chrome, Opera, Brave Browser, Yandex Browser, and Microsoft Edge.
2. It then attempts to steal authentication cookies from Discord, Discord PTB, Discord Canary, and the LightCord client.
3. Finally, the malware will attempt to steal the Atomic Wallet and Exodus cryptocurrency wallets and cookies for The Nations Glory online game.
4. After gathering all data it finds on the compromised machine, the malware uses its ‘upload’ function to upload the stolen data using a Discord webhook, which posts it to the threat actor’s server.

Recommendation 

As package repositories, such as PyPi and NPM, are now commonly used to distribute malware, developers must analyze the code in packages before adding them to their projects.

7. Microsoft WinGet Package Manager Failing From Expired SSL Certificate

Microsoft’s WinGet package manager is currently having problems installing or upgrading packages after WinGet CDN’s SSL/TLS certificate expired. Released in May 2020, the open source Windows Package Manager (WinGet) allows users to install applications directly from the command line.
Windows users began reporting issues when attempting to install or upgrade apps via WinGet. WinGet user shared a screenshot on GitHub of their command line throwing an “InternetOpenUrl() failed” error as they tried running simple WinGet commands. The problem appears to be connected to WinGet CDN’s SSL/TLS certificate that has now expired. Both the warning and the certificate details confirm that WinGet CDN’s certificate stopped being valid over the weekend.

Update, Feb 12th  
The issue was resolved hours after publishing. Demitrius Nelon, Microsoft’s Senior Product Manager states a root cause analysis will follow on Monday.