02/02/2023-02/08/2023. Vulnerabilities in Sunlogin, Atlassian’s Jira Service Management Found Vulnerable, OpenSSH Releases Patch And More

1. Hackers Exploit Vulnerabilities in Sunlogin to Deploy Sliver C2 Framework

Threat actors are leveraging known flaws in Sunlogin software to deploy the Sliver command-and-control (C2) framework for carrying out post-exploitation activities. Not only did threat actors use the Sliver backdoor, but they also used the BYOVD (Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver) malware to incapacitate security products and install reverse shells. 

The mechanism of the attack 

Attack chains commence with the exploitation of two remote code execution bugs in Sunlogin versions prior to v11.0.0.33 (CNVD-2022-03672 and CNVD-2022-10270), followed by delivering Sliver or other malware such as Gh0st RAT and XMRig crypto coin miner. In one instance, the threat actor is said to have weaponized the Sunlogin flaws to install a PowerShell script that, in turn, employs the BYOVD technique to incapacitate security software installed in the system and drop a reverse shell using Powercat.
The BYOVD method abuses a legitimate but vulnerable Windows driver, mhyprot2.sys, that’s signed with a valid certificate to gain elevated permissions and terminate antivirus processes.

2. OpenSSH Releases Patch for New Pre-Auth Double Free Vulnerability

The maintainers of OpenSSH have released OpenSSH 9.2 to address a number of security bugs, including a memory safety vulnerability in the OpenSSH server (sshd). Tracked as CVE-2023-25136, the shortcoming has been classified as a pre-authentication double free vulnerability that was introduced in version 9.1. This is not believed to be exploitable, and it occurs in the unprivileged pre-auth process that is subject to chroot(2) and is further sandboxed on most major platforms.The exposure occurs in the chunk of memory freed twice, the ‘options.kex_algorithms. Double free flaws arise when a vulnerable piece of code calls the free() function – which is used to deallocate memory blocks – twice, leading to memory corruption, which, in turn, could lead to a crash or execution of arbitrary code. Doubly freeing memory may result in a write-what-where condition, allowing an attacker to execute arbitrary code. 

3. Atlassian’s Jira Service Management Found Vulnerable to Critical Vulnerability

An authentication vulnerability was discovered in Jira Service Management Server and Data Center which allows an attacker to impersonate another user and gain access to a Jira Service Management instance under certain circumstances. The vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2023-22501 (CVSS score: 9.4) and has been described as a case of broken authentication with low attack complexity. With write access to a User Directory and outgoing email enabled on a Jira Service Management instance, an attacker could gain access to signup tokens sent to users with accounts that have never been logged into. 
The tokens, Atlassian noted, can be obtained in either of the two scenarios –

• If the attacker is included on Jira issues or requests with these users, or
• If the attacker is forwarded or otherwise gains access to emails containing a “View Request” link from these users

4. CISA Alert: Oracle E-Business Suite and SugarCRM Vulnerabilities Under Attack

The first of the two vulnerabilities is CVE-2022-21587 (CVSS score: 9.8), a critical issue impacting versions 12.2.3 to 12.2.11 of the Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator product. Oracle E-Business Suite contains an unspecified vulnerability that allows an unauthenticated attacker with network access via HTTP to compromise Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator.  The issue was addressed by Oracle as part of its Critical Patch Update released in October 2022. Not much is known about the nature of the attacks exploiting the vulnerability, but the development follows the publication of a proof-of-concept (PoC) by cybersecurity firm Viettel on January 16, 2023. 
The second security flaw to be added to the KEV catalog is CVE-2023-22952 (CVSS score: 8.8), which relates to a case of missing input validation in SugarCRM that could result in the injection of arbitrary PHP code. The bug has been fixed in SugarCRM versions 11.0.5 and 12.0.2.

5. Actively Exploited GoAnywhere MFT Zero-Day Gets Emergency Patch

Fortra has released an emergency patch to address an actively exploited zero-day vulnerability in the GoAnywhere MFT secure file transfer tool. The vulnerability allows attackers to gain remote code execution on vulnerable GoAnywhere MFT instances whose administrative console is exposed online. The flaw is being exploited in attacks and has provided indicators of compromise for potentially affected customers, including a specific stack trace that would show up in the logs on compromised systems. If this stacktrace is in the logs, it is very likely this system has been the target of attack. Now, it has added an update to its customer dashboard tagged as “time sensitive” and urging customers to patch their instances “as soon as possible.”

6. New Wave of Ransomware Attacks Exploiting VMware Bug to Target ESXi Servers

VMware ESXi hypervisors are the target of a new wave of attacks designed to deploy ransomware on compromised systems. These attack campaigns appear to exploit CVE-2021-21974, for which a patch has been available since February 23, 2021. VMware described the issue as an OpenSLP heap-overflow vulnerability that could lead to the execution of arbitrary code. A malicious actor residing within the same network segment as ESXi who has access to port 427 may be able to trigger the heap-overflow issue in OpenSLP service resulting in remote code execution. 
Recommendation 
Users are recommended to upgrade to the latest version of ESXi to mitigate potential threats as well as restrict access to the OpenSLP service to trusted IP addresses.

01/26/2023-02/01/2023. GitHub Breach, Vulnerabilities Uncovered in AMI MegaRAC BMC Software, New Python-based RAT And More

1. GitHub Breach: Hackers Stole Code-Signing Certificates for GitHub Desktop and Atom

GitHub disclosed that unknown threat actors managed to exfiltrate encrypted code signing certificates pertaining to some versions of GitHub Desktop for Mac and Atom apps. As a result, the company is taking the step of revoking the exposed certificates out of abundance of caution. The following versions of GitHub Desktop for Mac have been invalidated: 3.0.2, 3.0.3, 3.0.4, 3.0.5, 3.0.6, 3.0.7, 3.0.8, 3.1.0, 3.1.1, and 3.1.2. Versions 1.63.0 and 1.63.1 of 1.63.0 of Atom are also expected to stop working as of February 2, 2023, requiring that users downgrade to a previous version (1.60.0) of the source code editor. Atom was officially discontinued in December 2022. GitHub Desktop for Windows is not affected.

2. Additional Supply Chain Vulnerabilities Uncovered in AMI MegaRAC BMC Software

Two more supply chain security flaws have been disclosed in AMI MegaRAC Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) software, nearly two months after three security vulnerabilities were brought to light in the same product. Firmware security firm Eclypsium said the two shortcomings were held back until now to provide AMI additional time to engineer appropriate mitigations. The issues, collectively tracked as BMC&C, could act as springboard for cyber attacks, enabling threat actors to obtain remote code execution and unauthorized device access with superuser permissions.The two new flaws in question are as follows: CVE-2022-26872 (CVSS score: 8.3) – ​​Password reset interception via API; CVE-2022-40258 (CVSS score: 5.3) – Weak password hashes for Redfish and API.
It’s worth pointing out that the weaknesses are exploitable only in scenarios where the BMCs are exposed to the internet or in cases where the threat actor has already gained initial access into a data center or administrative network by other methods.

3. ISC Releases Security Patches for New BIND DNS Software Vulnerabilities

The Internet Systems Consortium (ISC) has released patches to address multiple security vulnerabilities in the Berkeley Internet Name Domain (BIND) 9 Domain Name System (DNS) software suite that could lead to a denial-of-service (DoS) condition. A remote attacker could exploit these vulnerabilities to potentially cause denial-of-service conditions and system failures. The open source software is used by major financial firms, national and international carriers, internet service providers (ISPs), retailers and government entities. All four flaws reside in named, a BIND9 service that functions as an authoritative nameserver for a fixed set of DNS zones or as a recursive resolver for clients on a local network. Successful exploitation of the vulnerabilities could cause the named service to crash or exhaust available memory on a target server. The issues affect versions 9.16.0 to 9.16.36, 9.18.0 to 9.18.10, 9.19.0 to 9.19.8, and 9.16.8-S1 to 9.16.36-S1. CVE-2022-3488 also impacts BIND Supported Preview Edition versions 9.11.4-S1 to 9.11.37-S1. They have been resolved in versions 9.16.37, 9.18.11, 9.19.9, and 9.16.37-S1.

4. PY#RATION: New Python-based RAT Uses WebSocket for C2 and Data Exfiltration

Cybersecurity researchers have unearthed a new attack campaign that leverages a Python-based remote access trojan (RAT) to gain control over compromised systems. This malware is unique in its utilization of WebSockets to avoid detection and for both command-and-control (C2) communication and exfiltration. The malware, dubbed PY#RATION by the cybersecurity firm, comes with a host of capabilities that allows the threat actor to harvest sensitive information. Later versions of the backdoor also sport anti-evasion techniques, suggesting that it’s being actively developed and maintained. 
Two versions of the trojan have been detected (version 1.0 and 1.6), with nearly 1,000 lines of code added to the newer variant to support network scanning features to conduct a reconnaissance of the compromised network and conceal the Python code behind an encryption layer using the fernet module. Other noteworthy functionalities comprise the ability to transfer files from host to C2 or vice versa, record keystrokes, execute system commands, extract passwords and cookies from web browsers, capture clipboard data, and check for the presence of antivirus software.

5. Realtek Vulnerability Under Attack: Over 134 Million Attempts to Hack IoT Devices

Researchers are warning about a spike in exploitation attempts weaponizing a now-patched critical remote code execution flaw in Realtek Jungle SDK since the start of August 2022.  The ongoing campaign is said to have recorded 134 million exploit attempts as of December 2022, with 97% of the attacks occurring in the past four months. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2021-35394 (CVSS score: 9.8), a set of buffer overflows and an arbitrary command injection bug that could be weaponized to execute arbitrary code with the highest level of privilege and take over affected appliances. Unit 42 said it discovered three different kinds of payloads distributed as a result of in-the-wild exploitation of the flaw: 

• A script executes a shell command on the targeted server to download additional malware;
• An injected command that writes a binary payload to a file and executes it;
• An injected command that directly reboots the targeted server to cause a denial-of-service (DoS) condition.

6. QNAP Fixes Critical Bug Letting Hackers Inject Malicious Code

QNAP is warning customers to install QTS and QuTS firmware updates that fix a critical security vulnerability allowing remote attackers to inject malicious code on QNAP NAS devices.
The vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2022-27596 and rated by the company as ‘Critical’ (CVSS v3 score: 9.8), impacting QTS 5.0.1 and QuTS hero h5.0.1 versions of the operating system. If exploited, this vulnerability allows remote attackers to inject malicious code. SQL injection flaws allow attackers to send specially crafted requests on vulnerable devices to modify legitimate SQL queries to perform unexpected behavior. Furthermore, QNAP released a JSON file describing the severity of the vulnerability, which indicates it is exploitable in low-complexity attacks by remote attackers, without requiring user interaction or privileges on the targeted device.
Recommendation 
QNAP users  should download the update from QNAP’s Download Center after selecting the correct product type and model and applying it manually on their devices.

7. Researchers Release PoC Exploit for Windows CryptoAPI Bug Discovered by NSA

Proof-of-concept (Poc) code has been released for a now-patched high-severity security flaw in the Windows CryptoAPI that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and the U.K. National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) reported to Microsoft last year. An attacker could manipulate an existing public x.509 certificate to spoof their identity and perform actions such as authentication or code signing as the targeted certificate. The Windows CryptoAPI offers an interface for developers to add cryptographic services such as encryption/decryption of data and authentication using digital certificates to their applications. CVE-2022-34689 is rooted in the fact that the vulnerable piece of code that’s designed to accept an x.509 certificate carried out a check that solely relied on the certificate’s MD5 fingerprint. MD5, a message-digest algorithm used for hashing, is essentially cryptographically broken as of December 2008 owing to the risk of birthday attacks, a cryptanalytic method used to find collisions in a hash function. The net effect of this shortcoming is that it opens the door for a bad actor to serve a modified version of a legitimate certificate to a victim app, and then create a new certificate whose MD5 hash collides with the rigged certificate and use it to masquerade as the original entity.

01/19/2023-01/25/2023. New Microsoft Azure Vulnerability, Git Users Urged to Update Software, Fortinet Flaw, 75k WordPress Sites Impacted By Critical Online Course Plugin Flaws, And More

1. Threat Actors Turn to Sliver as Open Source Alternative to Popular C2 Frameworks

The legitimate command-and-control (C2) framework known as Sliver is gaining more traction from threat actors as it emerges as an open source alternative to Cobalt Strike and Metasploit. Sliver, developed by cybersecurity company BishopFox, is a Golang-based cross-platform post-exploitation framework that’s designed to be used by security professionals in their red team operations. Its myriad features for adversary simulation – including dynamic code generation, in-memory payload execution, and process injection – have also made it an appealing tool for threat actors looking to gain elevated access to the target system upon gaining an initial foothold. A hypothetical attack sequence detailed by the Israeli cybersecurity company shows that Sliver could be leveraged for privilege escalation, following it up by credential theft and lateral movement to ultimately take over the domain controller for exfiltration of sensitive data. Sliver has been weaponized in recent years by the Russia-linked APT29 group (aka Cozy Bear) as well as cybercrime operators like Shathak (aka TA551) and Exotic Lily (aka Projector Libra), the latter of which is attributed to the Bumblebee malware loader.

2. New Microsoft Azure Vulnerability Uncovered — EmojiDeploy for RCE Attacks

A new critical remote code execution (RCE) flaw discovered impacting multiple services related to Microsoft Azure could be exploited by a malicious actor to completely take control of a targeted application. The vulnerability is achieved through CSRF (cross-site request forgery) on the ubiquitous SCM service Kudu. By abusing the vulnerability, attackers can deploy malicious ZIP files containing a payload to the victim’s Azure application. It could further enable the theft of sensitive data and lateral movement to other Azure services. Microsoft has since fixed the vulnerability as of December 6, 2022, following responsible disclosure on October 26, 2022, in addition to awarding a bug bounty of $30,000. In a hypothetical attack chain devised by Ermetic, an adversary could exploit the CSRF vulnerability in the Kudu SCM panel to defeat safeguards put in place to thwart cross-origin attacks by issuing a specially crafted request to the “/api/zipdeploy” endpoint to deliver a malicious archive (e. g., web shell) and gain remote access.

3. Git Users Urged to Update Software to Prevent Remote Code Execution Attacks

The maintainers of the Git source code version control system have released updates to remediate two critical vulnerabilities that could be exploited by a malicious actor to achieve remote code execution. The flaws, tracked as CVE-2022-23521 and CVE-2022-41903, impacts the following versions of Git: v2.30.6, v2.31.5, v2.32.4, v2.33.5, v2.34.5, v2.35.5, v2.36.3, v2.37.4, v2.38.2, and v2.39.0. Patched versions include v2.30.7, v2.31.6, v2.32.5, v2.33.6, v2.34.6, v2.35.6, v2.36.4, v2.37.5, v2.38.3, and v2.39.1. The most severe issue discovered allows an attacker to trigger a heap-based memory corruption during clone or pull operations, which might result in code execution. CVE-2022-41903, also a critical vulnerability, is triggered during an archive operation, leading to code execution by way of an integer overflow flaw that arises when formatting the commit logs. 
Recommendation 
While there are no workarounds for CVE-2022-23521, Git is recommending that users disable “git archive” in untrusted repositories as a mitigation for CVE-2022-41903 in scenarios where updating to the latest version is not an option.

4. GoTo Says Hackers Stole Customers’ Backups And Encryption Key

GoTo (formerly LogMeIn) is warning customers that threat actors who breached its development environment in November 2022 stole encrypted backups containing customer information and an encryption key for a portion of that data. At the time, the impact on the client data had yet to become known as the company’s investigation into the incident with the help of cybersecurity firm Mandiant had just begun. The attack affected backups relating to the Central and Pro product tiers stored in a third-party cloud storage facility.
The information present in the exfiltrated backups includes the following:

• Central and Pro account usernames
• Central and Pro account passwords (salted and hashed)
• Deployment and provisioning information
• One-to-Many scripts (Central only)
• Multi-factor authentication information
• Licensing and purchasing data like emails, phone numbers, billing address, and last four digits of credit card numbers.
  In response to the situation, GoTo is resetting Central and Pro passwords for impacted customers and automatically migrates accounts to GoTo’s enhanced Identity Management Platform.

5. VMware Fixes Critical Security Bugs In vRealize Log Analysis Tool

VMware released security patches to address vRealize Log Insight vulnerabilities that could enable attackers to gain remote execution on unpatched appliances. The first critical bug patched today is tracked as CVE-2022-31703 and is described as a directory traversal vulnerability that malicious actors can exploit to inject files into the operating system of impacted appliances to achieve remote code execution. The second one (tracked as CVE-2022-31704) is a broken access control flaw that can also be abused to gain remote code execution on vulnerable appliances by injecting maliciously crafted files. Both vulnerabilities are tagged as critical severity with CVSS base scores of 9.8/10 and can be exploited by unauthenticated threat actors in low-complexity attacks that don’t require user interaction. The company said the vulnerabilities were addressed with VMware vRealize Log Insight 8.10.2. None of the security bugs addressed today were tagged as being exploited in the wild.

6.  75k WordPress Sites Impacted By Critical Online Course Plugin Flaws

The WordPress online course plugin ‘LearnPress’ was vulnerable to multiple critical-severity flaws, including pre-auth SQL injection and local file inclusion. The vulnerabilities in the plugin, used in over 100,000 active sites, were discovered by PatchStack between November 30 and December 2, 2022, and reported to the software vendor. The issues were fixed on December 20, 2022, with the release of LearnPress version 4.2.0. However, according to WordPress.org stats, only about 25% have applied the update. This means that roughly 75,000 websites could be using a vulnerable version of LearnPress, exposing themselves to severe security flaws, the exploitation of which can have serious repercussions.