Category: Data Breaches

Sopra Steria …. Ryuked.. Services down

IT services provider Sopra Steria has confirmed that it was hit by a “new version” of the Ryuk ransomware that was “previously unknown to antivirus software providers and security agencies”.

The French-headquartered company detected the cyberattack on 20 October and made it public the following day.

Rreports pointed to hackers using Ryuk ransomware to target Sopra Steria’s Active Directory infrastructure. This saw some IT systems encrypted and payment demanded to unlock them.

Sopra Steria said it has made the virus signature of the new Ryuk ransomware strain available to “all antivirus software providers” so that they can update their defences.

Sopra Steria said that the ransomware attack was launched “a few days before it was detected”, which meant the virus was contained to a “limited part of the Group’s infrastructure”.

It has been revealed that Ryuk operators exploited the Netlogon vulnerability CVE 2020-1472 which hits the domain controllers and exfilterates the data. Microsoft released the patch for this Exploit in August

The company, which provides IT outsourcing services to the NHS and Home Office, said it has not identified any leaked data or damage to client networks.

It may take few weeks for services to up across geographies.

by Categories: cybersecurity, Data Breaches, Endpoint Security, Exfilteration, Ransomware, SecurityTags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

Abaddon RAT ! Sophisticated C2C

The new ‘Abaddon‘ remote access trojan may be the first to use Discord as a full-fledged command and control server that instructs the malware on what tasks to perform on an infected PC.

Threat actors abusing Discord for malicious activity is nothing new.

A new ‘Abaddon’ remote access trojan (RAT) could be the first malware that uses Discord as a full-fledge command and control server.

When started, Abaddon will automatically steal the following data from an infected PC:

  • Chrome cookies, saved credit cards, and credentials.
  • Steam credentials and list of installed games
  • Discord tokens and MFA information.
  • File listings
  • System information such as country, IP address, and hardware information.

Abaddon will then connect to the Discord command and control server to check for new commands to execute, as shown by the image below.

Receive a task from the Discord server

These commands will tell the malware to perform one of the following tasks:

  • Steal a file or entire directories from the computer
  • Get a list of drives
  • Open a reverse shell that allows the attacker to execute commands on the infected PC.
  • Launch in-development ransomware (more later on this).
  • Send back any collected information and clear the existing collection of data.

The malware will connect to the C2 every ten seconds for new tasks to execute.

Using a Discord C2 server, the threat actor can continually monitor their collection of infected PCs for new data and execute further commands or malware on the computer like encryption and decryption after paying ransom

With ransomware being extremely lucrative, it would not be surprising to see this feature completed in the future.

by Categories: cybersecurity, Security, Malware, C2C, Data Breaches, APT, Endpoint SecurityTags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

Bazar Backdoor 🚪✴️

TrickBot trojan has survived the massive takedown operation! While the trojan is set to reboot its operations with a new bunch of backend infrastructure, the operators are making headway with another creation dubbed BazarLoader/BazarBackdoor.

BazarLoader is the newest preferred stealthy covert malware added to the TrickBot group toolkit arsenal. It came to the limelight in July when researchers were investigating a particular attack campaign against targets across the U.S. and Europe. BazarLoader consists of two components: a loader and a backdoor.

The malware uses legitimate file-sharing services, as well as phishing emails, as part of the infection chain. The group behind the malware takes advantage of certificate signing to evade antivirus and software products.

Key Strengths

  • BazarLoader’s strength lies in its stealthy core component and obfuscation capabilities. Such obfuscation qualities allow the crime group to maintain persistency on the host even if the third-party software gets detected by antivirus software. 
  • Moreover, the ingenious use of blockchain by BazarLoader operators displays their ability to abuse legitimate services for nefarious activities. 

Essence

Loaders are becoming an essential part of any cybercrime campaign. They start the infection chain by distributing the payload. In essence, they deploy and execute the backdoor from the C2 server and plant it on the victim’s machine.

BazarLoader demonstrates tha alarming trend. Furthermore, the abuse of legitimate services and digital signatures for obfuscation represents the widespread use of deception techniques

by Categories: cybersecurity, Security, Exfilteration, C2C, Data Breaches, Endpoint SecurityTags: , , , , , Leave a comment

Energetic Bear ! Strikes US

The US government said today that a Russian state-sponsored hacking group has targeted and successfully breached US government networks , said by advisory of CISA & FBI

Intruders identified as Russian hacker group, Energetic Bear a codename used by the cybersecurity industry. Other names for the same group also include TEMP.Isotope, Berserk Bear, TeamSpy, Dragonfly, Havex, Crouching Yeti, and Koala.

The two agencies said Energetic Bear “successfully compromised network infrastructure, and as of October 1, 2020, exfiltrated data from at least two victim servers.”

Networking Gear has been the target of attack

Russian hackers used publicly known vulnerabilities to breach networking gear, pivot to internal networks, elevate privileges, and steal sensitive data.

Targeted devices included Citrix access gateways (CVE-2019-19781), Microsoft Exchange email servers (CVE-2020-0688), Exim mail agents (CVE 2019-10149), and Fortinet SSL VPNs (CVE-2018-13379).

To move laterally across compromised networks, they used the Zerologon vulnerability in Windows Servers (CVE-2020-1472) to access and steal Windows Active Directory (AD) credentials.

Below are some of the details that are compromised and ex-filtrated by the group

  • Sensitive network configurations and passwords.
  • Standard operating procedures (SOP), such as enrolling in multi-factor authentication (MFA).
  • IT instructions, such as requesting password resets.
  • Vendors and purchasing information.
  • Printing access badges.

This recent malicious activity has been directed at SLTT government networks, there may be some risk to elections information housed on SLTT government networks. But nothing known to be till now.

by Categories: APT, cybersecurity, Data Breaches, Endpoint Security, Exfilteration, Network Securtiy, SecurityTags: , , , , Leave a comment