22-28/12/2022. Hackers Breach Okta’s GitHub Repositories, W4SP Stealer Discovered in Multiple PyPI Packages, Security Flaws in Ghost CMS Blogging Software And More

1. W4SP Stealer Discovered in Multiple PyPI Packages Under Various Names

Threat actors have published another round of malicious packages to Python Package Index (PyPI) with the goal of delivering information-stealing malware on compromised developer machines. Interestingly, while the malware goes by a variety of names like ANGEL Stealer, Celestial Stealer, Fade Stealer, Leaf $tealer, PURE Stealer, Satan Stealer, and @skid Stealer, cybersecurity company Phylum found them all to be copies of W4SP Stealer. W4SP Stealer primarily functions to siphon user data, including credentials, cryptocurrency wallets, Discord tokens, and other files of interest. For some reason, each deployment appears to have simply tried to do a find/replace of the W4SP references in exchange for some other seemingly arbitrary name. The campaign distributing W4SP Stealer gained traction around October 2022.  Since then dozens of additional bogus packages containing W4SP Stealer have been published on PyPI by the persistent threat actors. It’s worth noting that previous versions of the attack chains have been spotted fetching next-stage Python code directly from a public GitHub repository that then drops the credential stealer. 

2.  LastPass Admits to Severe Data Breach, Encrypted Password Vaults Stolen

The August 2022 security breach of LastPass may have been more severe than previously disclosed by the company. The popular password management service  revealed that malicious actors obtained a trove of personal information belonging to its customers that include their encrypted password vaults by using data siphoned from the earlier break-in. Also stolen is “basic customer account information and related metadata including company names, end-user names, billing addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers, and the IP addresses from which customers were accessing the LastPass service”.  The August 2022 incident involved the miscreants accessing source code and proprietary technical information from its development environment via a single compromised employee account. LastPass said this permitted the unidentified attacker to obtain credentials and keys that were subsequently leveraged to extract information from a backup stored in a cloud-based storage service, which it emphasized is physically separate from its production environment.  LastPass confirmed that the security lapse did not involve access to unencrypted credit card data, as this information was not archived in the cloud storage container. The company did not divulge how recent the backup was, but warned that the threat actor “may attempt to use brute-force to guess your master password and decrypt the copies of vault data they took,” as well as target customers with social engineering and credential stuffing attacks.

3.  GuLoader Malware Utilizing New Techniques to Evade Security Software

Cybersecurity researchers have exposed a wide variety of techniques adopted by an advanced malware downloader called GuLoader to evade security software. New shellcode anti-analysis technique attempts to thwart researchers and hostile environments by scanning entire process memory for any virtual machine (VM)-related strings. GuLoader, also called CloudEyE, is a Visual Basic Script (VBS) downloader that’s used to distribute remote access trojans such as Remcos on infected machines. A recent GuLoader sample unearthed by CrowdStrike exhibits a three-stage process wherein the VBScript is designed to deliver a next-stage that performs anti-analysis checks before injecting shellcode embedded within the VBScript into memory. The shellcode, besides incorporating the same anti-analysis methods, downloads a final payload of the attacker’s choice from a remote server and executes it on the compromised host. The shellcode employs several anti-analysis and anti-debugging tricks at every step of execution, throwing an error message if the shellcode detects any known analysis of debugging mechanisms. This includes anti-debugging and anti-disassembling checks to detect the presence of a remote debugger and breakpoints, and if found, terminate the shellcode. The shellcode also features scans for virtualization software. An added capability is what the cybersecurity company calls a “redundant code injection mechanism” to avoid NTDLL.dll hooks implemented by endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions. In a nutshell, the method involves using assembly instructions to invoke the necessary windows API function to allocate memory (i.e., NtAllocateVirtualMemory) and inject arbitrary shellcode into that location via process hollowing.

4.  Two New Security Flaws Reported in Ghost CMS Blogging Software

Cybersecurity researchers have detailed two security flaws in the JavaScript-based blogging platform known as Ghost, one of which could be abused to elevate privileges via specially crafted HTTP requests. Tracked as CVE-2022-41654 (CVSS score: 9.6), the authentication bypass vulnerability allows unprivileged users (i.e., members) to make unauthorized modifications to newsletter settings. Cisco Talos, which discovered the shortcoming, said it could enable a member to change the system-wide default newsletter that all users are subscribed to by default. Even worse, the ability of a site administrator to inject JavaScript into the newsletter by default could be exploited to trigger the creation of arbitrary administrator accounts when attempting to edit the newsletter.  The CMS platform blamed the bug due to a “gap” in its API validation, adding it found no evidence that the issue has been exploited in the wild. Also patched by Ghost is an enumeration vulnerability in the login functionality (CVE-2022-41697, CVSS score: 5.3) that could lead to the disclosure of sensitive information.

5. Zerobot Malware Now Spreads By Exploiting Apache Vulnerabilities

The Zerobot botnet has been upgraded to infect new devices by exploiting security vulnerabilities affecting Internet-exposed and unpatched Apache servers. The Microsoft Defender for IoT research team also observed that this latest version adds new distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) capabilities. Zerobot has been under active development since at least November, with new versions adding new modules and features to expand the botnet’s attack vectors and make it easier to infect new devices, including firewalls, routers, and cameras. Since early December, the malware’s developers have removed modules that targeted phpMyAdmin servers, Dasan GPON home routers, and D-Link DSL-2750B wireless routers with year-old exploits. The update spotted by Microsoft adds newer exploits to the malware’s toolkit, enabling it to target seven new types of devices and software, including unpatched Apache and Apache Spark servers. 
The  list of modules added to Zerobot 1.1 includes:

• CVE-2017-17105: Zivif PR115-204-P-RS
• CVE-2019-10655: Grandstream
• CVE-2020-25223: WebAdmin of Sophos SG UTM
• CVE-2021-42013: Apache
• CVE-2022-31137: Roxy-WI

Microsoft researchers have also found new evidence that Zerobot propagates by compromising devices with known vulnerabilities that are not included in the malware binary, such as CVE-2022-30023, a command injection vulnerability in Tenda GPON AC1200 routers.

6. Critical Vulnerability in Premium Gift Cards WordPress Plugin Exploited in Attacks

 Defiant’s Wordfence team warns of a critical-severity vulnerability in the YITH WooCommerce Gift Cards premium WordPress plugin being exploited in attacks. The YITH WooCommerce Gift Cards plugin allows online merchants to create gift cards that their customers can purchase for their friends to use on the ecommerce store. The premium plugin has more than 50,000 installations, its developer says. Tracked as CVE-2022-45359 (CVSS score of 9.8), the exploited vulnerability was reported in November and a patch for it was made available soon after. The issue is described as an arbitrary file upload, allowing attackers to upload executable files to the WordPress sites that use a vulnerable version of the plugin. No authentication is required for successful exploitation. According to the WordPress security firm, an attacker can exploit the vulnerability to place a backdoor on a vulnerable installation, gain remote code execution (RCE), and potentially take over the site. Site admins can identify signs of an attack by checking their logs for POST requests to wp-admin/admin-post.php.
According to Wordfence, observed attacks came from hundreds of IP addresses, but only two IPs were responsible for the majority of exploitation attempts. Site admins are advised to update to YITH WooCommerce Gift Cards premium version 3.20.0 or newer, which contain patches for this vulnerability.

15-21/12/2022 Malicious ‘SentinelOne’ PyPI package, Hackers bombard PyPi platform, Veeam Backup and Replication Vulnerabilities, And More

1.  Hackers Bombard Open Source Repositories with Over 144,000 Malicious Packages

NuGet, PyPi, and npm ecosystems are the target of a new campaign that has resulted in over 144,000 packages being published by unknown threat actors.The packages were part of a new attack vector, with attackers spamming the open source ecosystem with packages containing links to phishing campaigns. Of the 144,294 phishing-related packages that were detected, 136,258 were published on NuGet, 7,824 on PyPi, and 212 on npm. The offending libraries have since been unlisted or taken down. The fake packages themselves claimed to provide hacks, cheats, and free resources in an attempt to trick users into downloading them. The URLs to the rogue phishing pages were embedded in the package description. In all, the massive campaign encompassed more than 65,000 unique URLs on 90 domains.

2. CISA Alert: Veeam Backup and Replication Vulnerabilities Being Exploited in Attacks

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has added two vulnerabilities impacting Veeam Backup & Replication software to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) Catalog, citing evidence of active exploitation in the wild. The now-patched critical flaws, tracked as CVE-2022-26500 and CVE-2022-26501, are both rated 9.8 on the CVSS scoring system, and could be leveraged to gain control of a target system. The Veeam Distribution Service (TCP 9380 by default) allows unauthenticated users to access internal API functions. A remote attacker may send input to the internal API which may lead to uploading and executing of malicious code. Both the issues that impact product versions 9.5, 10, and 11 have been addressed in versions 10a and 11a. Users of Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5 are advised to upgrade to a supported version.

3. Researchers Discover Malicious PyPI Package Posing as SentinelOne SDK to Steal Data

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new malicious package on the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository that impersonates a software development kit (SDK) for SentinelOne, a major cybersecurity company, as part of a campaign dubbed SentinelSneak. The package, named SentinelOne and now taken down, is said to have been published between December 8 and 11, 2022, with nearly two dozen versions pushed in quick succession over a period of two days. It claims to offer an easier method to access the company’s APIs, but harbors a malicious backdoor that’s engineered to amass sensitive information from development systems, including access credentials, SSH keys, and configuration data. What’s notable about the fraudulent package is it mimics a legitimate SDK that’s offered by SentinelOne to its customers, potentially tricking developers into downloading the module from PyPI. It’s not immediately clear if the package was weaponized as part of an active supply chain attack, although it has been downloaded more than 1,000 times prior to its removal.

4. Glupteba Botnet Continues to Thrive Despite Google’s Attempts to Disrupt It

 The operators of the Glupteba botnet resurfaced in June 2022 as part of a renewed and “upscaled” campaign, months after Google disrupted the malicious activity. The ongoing attack is suggestive of the malware’s resilience in the face of takedowns. In addition, there was a tenfold increase in TOR hidden services being used as C2 servers since the 2021 campaign. The malware, which is distributed through fraudulent ads or software cracks, is also equipped to retrieve additional payloads that enable it to steal credentials, mine cryptocurrencies, and expand its reach by exploiting vulnerabilities in IoT devices from MikroTik and Netgear. Specifically, the botnet is designed to search the public Bitcoin blockchain for transactions related to wallet addresses owned by the threat actor so as to fetch the encrypted C2 server address. This is made possible by the OP_RETURN opcode that enables storage of up to 80 bytes of arbitrary data within the signature script.

5. New Agenda Ransomware Variant, Written in Rust, Aiming at Critical Infrastructure

A Rust variant of a ransomware strain known as Agenda has been observed in the wild, making it the latest malware to adopt the cross-platform programming language after BlackCat, Hive, Luna, and RansomExx. Agenda is a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) group that has been linked to a spate of attacks primarily targeting manufacturing and IT industries. It expands on the idea of partial encryption (aka intermittent encryption) by configuring parameters that are used to determine the percentage of file content to be encrypted. An analysis of the ransomware binary reveals that encrypted files are given the extension “MmXReVIxLV,” before proceeding to drop the ransom note in every directory. In addition, the Rust version of Agenda is capable of terminating the Windows AppInfo process and disabling User Account Control (UAC), the latter of which helps mitigate the impact of malware by requiring administrative access to launch a program or task. At present, its threat actors appear to be migrating their ransomware code to Rust as recent samples still lack some features seen in the original binaries written in the Golang variant of the ransomware.

6. Samba Issues Security Updates to Patch Multiple High-Severity Vulnerabilities

Samba has released software updates to remediate multiple vulnerabilities that, if successfully exploited, could allow an attacker to take control of affected systems. The high-severity flaws, tracked as CVE-2022-38023, CVE-2022-37966, CVE-2022-37967, and CVE-2022-45141, have been patched in versions 4.17.4, 4.16.8 and 4.15.13 released on December 15, 2022. Samba is an open source Windows interoperability suite for Linux, Unix, and macOS operating systems that offers file server, printing, and Active Directory services.
A brief description of each of the weaknesses is below:

• CVE-2022-38023 (CVSS score: 8.1) – Use of weak RC4-HMAC Kerberos encryption type in the Netlogon Secure Channel
• CVE-2022-37966 (CVSS score: 8.1) – An elevation of privilege vulnerability in Windows Kerberos RC4-HMAC
  An unauthenticated attacker could conduct an attack that could leverage cryptographic protocol vulnerabilities in RFC 4757 (Kerberos encryption type RC4-HMAC-MD5) and MS-PAC (Privilege Attribute Certificate Data Str

7. Okta Says Its GitHub Account Hacked, Source Code Stolen

Okta, a leading provider of authentication services and Identity and Access Management (IAM) solutions, says that its private GitHub source code repositories were hacked this month. 
Earlier this month, GitHub alerted Okta of suspicious access to Okta’s code repositories, states the notification. Despite stealing Okta’s source code, attackers did not gain unauthorized access to the Okta service or customer data, says the company. Okta’s “HIPAA, FedRAMP or DoD customers” remain unaffected as the company “does not rely on the confidentiality of its source code as a means to secure its services.” As such, no customer action is needed.

8. GitHub Announces Free Secret Scanning for All Public Repositories

GitHub said it is making available its secret scanning service to all public repositories on the code hosting platform for free. Secret scanning alerts notify you directly about leaked secrets in your code. Secret scanning is designed to examine repositories for access tokens, private keys, credentials, API keys, and other secrets in over 200 formats that may have been accidentally committed, and generate alerts to prevent their misuse. The security option was previously limited to repositories owned by organizations that use GitHub Enterprise Cloud and have a GitHub Advanced Security license. For customers of GitHub Advanced Security, the protections go a step further by performing the scans for exposed secrets, including custom patterns, during code pushes. The Microsoft subsidiary also said it’s planning to turn on two-factor authentication requirements for “distinct groups of users” starting March 2023 with the goal of expanding it to all GitHub users by the end of next year.

8-14/12/2022. Actively Exploited Citrix ADC, Malware Strains Targeting Python and JavaScript Developers, Amazon ECR Public Gallery Vulnerability, And More

1. Hackers Actively Exploiting Citrix ADC and Gateway Zero-Day Vulnerability

A threat actor tracked as APT5 has been actively exploiting a zero-day flaw in Citrix Application Delivery Controller (ADC) and Gateway to take over affected systems. The critical remote code execution vulnerability, identified as CVE-2022-27518, could allow an unauthenticated attacker to execute commands remotely on vulnerable devices and seize control. Successful exploitation, however, requires that the Citrix ADC or Citrix Gateway appliance is configured as a SAML service provider (SP) or a SAML identity provider (IdP). Citrix ADC and Citrix Gateway versions 13.1 are not impacted. The company also said there are no workarounds available “beyond disabling SAML authentication or upgrading to a current build.”

2. Malware Strains Targeting Python and JavaScript Developers Through Official Repositories

An active malware campaign is targeting the Python Package Index (PyPI) and npm repositories for Python and JavaScript with typosquatted and fake modules that deploy a ransomware strain, marking the latest security issue to affect software supply chains. The typosquatted Python packages all impersonate the popular requests library: dequests, fequests, gequests, rdquests, reauests, reduests, reeuests, reqhests, reqkests, requesfs, requesta, requeste, requestw, requfsts, resuests, rewuests, rfquests, rrquests, rwquests, telnservrr, and tequests.
The rogue packages embed source code that retrieves Golang-based ransomware binary from a remote server depending on the victim’s operating system and microarchitecture. Successful execution causes the victim’s desktop background to be changed to an actor-controlled image that claims to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It’s also designed to encrypt files and demand a $100 ransom in cryptocurrency. In a sign that the attack is not limited to PyPI, the adversary has been spotted publishing five different modules in npm: discordallintsbot, discordselfbot16, discord-all-intents-bot, discors.jd, and telnservrr. 

3. Researchers Uncover New Drokbk Malware that Uses GitHub as a Dead Drop Resolver

 The subgroup of an Iranian nation-state group known as Nemesis Kitten has been attributed as behind a previously undocumented custom malware dubbed Drokbk that uses GitHub as a dead drop resolver to exfiltrate data from an infected computer, or to receive commands. The use of GitHub as a virtual dead drop helps the malware blend in. All the traffic to GitHub is encrypted, meaning defensive technologies can’t see what is being passed back and forth. Subsequent investigations into the adversary’s operations have uncovered two distinct intrusion sets: Cluster A, which employs BitLocker and DiskCryptor to conduct opportunistic ransomware attacks for financial gain, and Cluster B, which carries out targeted break-ins for intelligence gathering. This attack entailed the compromise of a VMware Horizon server using the Log4j vulnerabilities (CVE-2021-44228 and CVE-2021-45046), ultimately leading to the delivery of the Drokbk binary by means of a compressed ZIP archive hosted on a file transfer service.

4. Serious Attacks Could Have Been Staged Through This Amazon ECR Public Gallery Vulnerability

A critical security flaw has been disclosed in Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR) Public Gallery that could have been potentially exploited to stage a multitude of attacks. By exploiting this vulnerability, a malicious actor could delete all images in the Amazon ECR Public Gallery or update the image contents to inject malicious code. This malicious code is executed on any machine that pulls and runs the image, whether on user’s local machines, Kubernetes clusters or cloud environments. ECR is a container image registry service managed by Amazon Web Services, enabling users to package code as Docker images and deploy the artifacts in a scalable manner. Amazon has since deployed a fix to resolve the weakness as of November 16, 2022, less than 24 hours after it was reported, indicative of the severity of the problem. No customer action is required. 

5. Fortinet Says SSL-VPN Pre-auth RCE Bug Is Exploited in Attacks

Fortinet urges customers to patch their appliances against an actively exploited FortiOS SSL-VPN vulnerability that could allow unauthenticated remote code execution on devices.
The security flaw is tracked as CVE-2022-42475 and is a heap-based buffer overflow bug in FortiOS sslvpnd. When exploited, the flaw could allow unauthenticated users to crash devices remotely and potentially perform code execution. A heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability [CWE-122] in FortiOS SSL-VPN may allow a remote unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code or commands via specifically crafted requests. The company said it’s “aware of an instance where this vulnerability was exploited in the wild,” urging customers to move quickly to apply the updates.
Patches are available in FortiOS versions 7.2.3, 7.0.9, 6.4.11, and 6.2.12 as well as FortiOS-6K7K versions 7.0.8, 6.4.10, 6.2.12, and 6.0.15.

6. New Python Malware Backdoors VMware ESXi Servers For Remote Access

A previously undocumented Python backdoor targeting VMware ESXi servers has been spotted, enabling hackers to execute commands remotely on a compromised system.
VMware ESXi is a virtualization platform commonly used in the enterprise to host numerous servers on one device while using CPU and memory resources more effectively.
The new backdoor was discovered by Juniper Networks researchers, who found the backdoor on a VMware ESXi server. However, they could not determine how the server was compromised due to limited log retention. They believe the server may have been compromised using the CVE-2019-5544 and CVE-2020-3992 vulnerabilities in ESXi’s OpenSLP service. While the malware is technically capable of targeting Linux and Unix systems, too, Juniper’s analysts found multiple indications it was designed for attacks against ESXi. To determine if this backdoor has impacted your ESXi servers, check for the existence of the files: /etc/rc.local.d/local.sh, /store/packages/vmtools.py, /etc/vmware/rhttpproxy/endpoints.conf and the additional lines in the “local.sh” file. All configuration files that persist reboots should be scrutinized for suspicious changes and reversed to the correct settings.

7. Patch Tuesday: Microsoft Plugs Windows Hole Exploited in Ransomware Attacks

 The operating system update, released as part of Microsoft’s scheduled Patch Tuesday, addresses a flaw that lets malicious attackers use rigged files to evade MOTW (Mart of the Web) defenses. An attacker can craft a malicious file that would evade Mark of the Web (MOTW) defenses, resulting in a limited loss of integrity and availability of security features such as Protected View in Microsoft Office, which rely on MOTW tagging. The security defect, tracked as CVE-2022-44698, is marked as publicly disclosed and exploited, adding to the urgency for Windows fleet administrators to prioritize this month’s patches. Microsoft is also calling special attention to CVE-2022-44710, a privilege escalation flaw affecting the DirectX graphics kernel.  Microsoft described the bug as a race condition issue that’s already been publicly disclosed. In all, Microsoft documented at least 52 vulnerabilities in a wide range of operating system components and software products. Six of the 52 bulletins are rated critical, Microsoft’s highest severity rating. The December Patch Tuesday barrage also includes major fixes from VMware, Adobe, Fortinet and Citrix.

8. Google Releases Dev Tool to List Vulnerabilities in Project Dependencies

Google has launched OSV Scanner, a new tool that allows developers to scan for vulnerabilities in open-source software dependencies used in their project. The scanner draws data from OSV.dev, the distributed vulnerability database for open source code that Google released in February 2021, to offer relevant information about known security issues affecting open-source code.
The OSV-Scanner generates reliable, high-quality vulnerability information that closes the gap between a developer’s list of packages and the information in vulnerability databases.  The scanner uses openly distributed advisories from authoritative and reliable sources following the OSV schema for vulnerability triage in the installed package version. Currently, the OSV.dev service supports 16 major coding ecosystems, including the Linux Kernel, Android, Debian, Alpine, PyPI, npm, OSS-Fuzz, and Maven. It is the world’s largest open-source vulnerability database, counting 23,000 advisories in 2022 alone.
Google says the next step for OSV Scanner is to improve C/C++ vulnerability support, tackling a very challenging software ecosystem, and integrate standalone CI actions to allow easy scheduling of scans. OSV Scanner is free for everyone to use without restrictions and is available for download via GitHub or the osv.dev website.