Black Arrow Cyber Advisory 27/05/2022 – Trend Micro identified a new Ransomware strain specifically targeting VMware servers

Executive Summary

Ransomware specifically designed to target VMware systems has been found to be in use by malicious attackers. VMware systems have been a prime target for attackers, as many different services which organisations rely on run on these systems. By compromising these systems, all of the hosted services can also be impacted.

What’s the risk to me or my business?

This attack works by shutting down virtual machines running on a VMware system, and encrypting them before demanding a ransom. If the ransom is not paid within three days, then there is a further threat to release the data which the attacker has exfiltrated. This requires an attacker to be able to gain prior access to the system, and to enable ‘Shell’ access to run the malicious script.

What can I do?

Ensure that appropriate security measures are applied to these critical systems, to prevent an attacker from being able to access them. This includes up to date patching of the systems, and appropriate network segregation to prevent end user devices from being able to access the systems. Ensure that Shell access to the server is not left enabled.

The adoption of a security framework such as NIST CSF would greatly assist with applying appropriate controls to prevent this type of attack.

Technical Summary

Trend Micro has conducted the research into this specific strain of ransomware. This strain works by accessing VMware Servers using Secure Shell (SSH), and running a script which shuts down all active virtual machines in order to encrypt them, with the file extension ‘.cheers’. It is worth noting that the renaming of the files happens before the encryption starts, so it is possible that a file is renamed but is in fact not encrypted due to a permissions issue on the account logged in via SSH.

A full break down of the attack can be read here: New Linux-Based Ransomware Cheerscrypt Targets ESXi Devices (trendmicro.com)

Need help understanding your gaps, or just want some advice? Get in touch with us.

#threatadvisory #threatintelligence #cybersecurity

Black Arrow Cyber Advisory 26/05/2022 – Check the security of IoT Devices, Increase in Linux Botnet Malware

Executive Summary

Microsoft has detected a significant increase in malware targeted at Linux systems to create botnets which can be used for distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) and other types of attack. Internet-of-Things (IoT) or Smart Devices often use a Linux operating system to run their service. These are often not patched regularly, if at all, making them a target for this type of attack. Cloud service providers also often use Linux based operating systems.

What’s the risk to me or my business?

While IoT/Smart Devices are normally associated with home use, there has been an increase of their usage in business locations. As these devices are often not as well supported by the manufacturer for security updates, and use internet connectivity for function, they are a prime target for attackers. Once a device has been compromised and added to a botnet, it could be used to bring targeted services down via a DDOS attack or could be used to compromise other devices through brute force attacks.

What can I do?

It is important to keep all devices and systems used updated to patch vulnerabilities which enable the attacks described above to take place. It is also important to have Anti-Virus and endpoint management enabled on these devices where supported. IoT/Smart Devices pose their own challenge with this, as it is often not immediately clear who is responsible for updating the device (the vendor or user), and if security updates will be provided by the vendor. It is also not always possible for services such as Anti-Virus and endpoint management to be installed on these devices.

The following list are good practice points for mitigating the risk that IoT/Smart devices pose:

1.       Separation: Ensure that IoT/Smart devices do not sit on the same network as corporate devices. This layer of separation may be logical using network technologies such as VLANs with access control lists, or physical separation with different network infrastructure for the devices. This will help to prevent a compromised device from being used to gain access to corporate systems.

2.       Inventory: Take inventory and track what IoT/Smart devices are in use, with justification on their function. It is important to keep track of support information for these devices to establish if updates are still being published by the manufacturer, and when it is a good time to replace the devices if updates are no longer supported.

3.       Updates: While most IoT/Smart devices will automatically update when an update is published by the vendor, this is not always the case. It is important to check how frequently updates are applied to the devices, and if this is something which needs to be done manually by the device administrator. At end of manufacturer support for updates, it is important to consider replacing the device.

4.       Monitoring: It is important to monitor the activity of a IoT device, to establish a baseline on expected connectivity for the service it provides. This can then be used to provide alerts for anomalous activity outside of this baseline as an indicator of compromise, making it quick to lock down and remove a device from the network.

5.       Physical Protection: Take steps to physically protect the IoT device from tampering. These devices may contain USB ports designed for delivering updates or debugging errors, but these ports could also potentially be used to install malware.

6.       Account Protection: Ensure that the accounts used to access and administer the devices are appropriately secured, following the relevant corporate Identity and Access Management policies and Password policies. These accounts often allow access to the device via the internet, which if compromised could be a potential route into the network bypassing boundary perimeters.

Technical Summary

The specific attack identified by Microsoft is a Linux Trojan named XorDdos. This is not new malware and was originally discovered in 2014. Research shows that once compromised, these devices are often infected with additional malware used for different purposes.

Further technical details can be found here: Rise in XorDdos: A deeper look at the stealthy DDoS malware targeting Linux devices - Microsoft Security Blog. Further information on IoT best practices can be found here: Internet of Things (IoT) security best practices | Microsoft Docs, Code of Practice for consumer IoT security - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk), Ten best practices for securing the Internet of Things in your organization | ZDNet

Need help understanding your gaps, or just want some advice? Get in touch with us.

#threatadvisory #threatintelligence #cybersecurity

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 20 May 2022

Welcome to this week’s Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing – a weekly digest, collated and curated by our cyber experts to provide senior and middle management with an easy to digest round up of the most notable threats, vulnerabilities, and cyber related news from the last week.

Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week

• Fifth of Businesses Say Cyber Attack Nearly Broke Them

A fifth of US and European businesses have warned that a serious cyber attack nearly rendered them insolvent, with most (87%) viewing compromise as a bigger threat than an economic downturn, according to Hiscox.

The insurer polled over 5000 businesses in the US, UK, Ireland, France, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium to compile its annual Hiscox Cyber Readiness Report.

It revealed the potentially catastrophic financial damage that a serious cyber-attack can wreak. The number claiming to have nearly been brought down by a breach increased 24% compared to the previous year.

Nearly half (48%) of respondents said they suffered an attack over the past 12 months, a 12% increase from the previous report’s findings. Perhaps unsurprisingly, businesses in seven out of eight countries see cyber as their biggest threat.

Yet perception appears to vary greatly depending on whether an organisation has suffered a serious compromise or not. While over half (55%) of total respondents said they view cyber as a high-risk area, the figure among companies that have not yet suffered an attack is just 36%.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/fifth-of-businesses-cyber-attack/

• Weak Security Controls and Practices Routinely Exploited for Initial Access

Cyber actors routinely exploit poor security configurations (either misconfigured or left unsecured), weak controls, and other poor cyber hygiene practices to gain initial access or as part of other tactics to compromise a victim’s system. A joint Cybersecurity Advisory by the cyber security authorities of the United States, Canada, New Zealand, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom identifies commonly exploited controls and practices and includes best practices to mitigate the issues.

Malicious cyber actors often exploit the following common weak security controls, poor configurations, and poor security practices to employ the initial access techniques.

• Multifactor authentication (MFA) is not enforced

• Incorrectly applied privileges or permissions and errors within access control lists

• Software is not up to date

• Use of vendor-supplied default configurations or default login usernames and passwords

• Remote services, such as a virtual private network (VPN), lack sufficient controls to prevent unauthorised access

• Strong password policies are not implemented

• Cloud services are unprotected

• Open ports and misconfigured services are exposed to the internet

• Failure to detect or block phishing attempts

• Poor endpoint detection and response.

https://www.cisa.gov/uscert/ncas/alerts/aa22-137a

• How Do Ransomware Attacks Impact Victim Organisations’ Stock?

Ransomware has developed into an extremely lucrative business model with little risk involved for the threat actors. Couple this with the willingness of most victim organisations to pay the ransom demand under the assumption it will return business operations to normal - ultimately encouraging more attacks - and we have a big problem with no easy remedies.

Back in 2021, Cybereason published a report titled Ransomware Attacks and the True Cost to Business that revealed the various costs that organisations face after falling victim to a ransomware attack. Here are some of the most significant findings that stood out:

• Two-thirds of ransomware victims said that they endured a significant loss of revenue following the attack

• More than half (53%) of organisations suffered damage to their brand and reputation after a ransomware infection

• A third of those who fell to ransomware lost C-level talent in the attack’s aftermath

• Three in 10 organisations had no choice but to lay off employees due to the financial pressures resulting from a ransomware incident

• A quarter of ransomware victims said that they needed to suspend operations.

https://www.msspalert.com/cybersecurity-guests/how-do-ransomware-attacks-impact-victim-organizations-stock/

• Prioritise Patching Vulnerabilities Associated with Ransomware

In the last quarter, ransomware attacks have made mainstream headlines on a near-daily basis, with groups like Lapsus$ and Conti’s names splashed across the page. Major organisations like Okta, Globant and Kitchenware maker Meyer Corporation have all fallen victim, and they are very much not alone. The data indicates that increasing vulnerabilities, new advanced persistent threat (APT) groups and new ransomware families are contributing to ransomware’s continued prevalence and profitability.

The top stats include:

• 22 new vulnerabilities and nine new weaknesses have been associated with ransomware since January 2022; of the 22, a whopping 21 are considered of critical or high risk severity

• 19 (out of 22) of the newly-added vulnerabilities are associated with the Conti ransomware gang

• Three new APT groups (Exotic Lily, APT 35, DEV-0401) and four new ransomware families (AvosLocker, Karma, BlackCat, Night Sky) are deploying ransomware to attack their targets

• 141 of CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEVs) are being used by ransomware operators – including 18 newly identified this quarter

• 11 vulnerabilities tied to ransomware remain undetected by popular scanners

• 624 unique vulnerabilities were found within the 846 healthcare products analysed.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/05/19/increase-ransomware-vulnerabilities/

• Researchers Warn of Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs), Data Leaks as Serious Threats Against UK Financial Sector

Researchers say that geopolitical tension, ransomware, and cyber attacks using stolen credentials threaten the UK's financial sector.

KELA's security team published a report examining the cyber security issues and attacks that surfaced in 2021 and early 2022, specifically focused on the United Kingdom's banks and other financial services.

The UK was one of the first countries to stand with Ukraine after the invasion by Russia. This could make UK organisations a tempting target for threat actors siding with Russia - whether by state-sponsored advanced persistent threat (APT) groups or hacktivists. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) previously warned businesses to shore up their cyber security following Russia's assault.

APTs are often responsible for attacking the financial sector: account credentials, card numbers, and the personally identifiable information (PII) of customers are useful not only in social engineering and identity theft but also to make fraudulent purchases or for card cloning.

APTs target organisations worldwide, and those located in the UK are no exception. Over the past few years, APTs, including the Chinese APT40 and APT31, have utilised vulnerabilities, including ProxyLogon, to compromise UK businesses.

"In general, APTs may target the financial sector to commit fraud, burglarise ATMs, execute transactions, and penetrate organisations' internal financial systems," KELA says. "Although specific threats to the UK financial sector have not been identified, there is no doubt that the UK has occasionally been a target of APT groups during 2021."

Exposed corporate information and leaked credentials are also of note. After browsing Dark Web forums, the researchers found that UK data is "in demand" by cyber criminals who are seeking PII, access credentials, and internal data.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/researchers-warn-of-apts-data-leaks-as-serious-threats-against-uk-financial-sector/

• Remote Work Hazards: Attackers Exploit Weak WiFi, Endpoints, and the Cloud

Infoblox unveils a global report examining the state of security concerns, costs, and remedies. As the pandemic and uneven shutdowns stretch into a third year, organisations are accelerating digital transformation projects to support remote work. Meanwhile, attackers have seized on vulnerabilities in these environments, creating more work and larger budgets for security teams.

1,100 respondents in IT and cyber security roles in 11 countries – United States, Mexico, Brazil, United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain, United Arab Emirates, Australia, and Singapore – participated in the survey.

The surge in remote work has changed the corporate landscape significantly – and permanently. 52% of respondents accelerated digital transformation projects, 42% increased customer portal support for remote engagement, 30% moved apps to third party cloud providers, and 26% shuttered physical offices for good. These changes led to the additions of VPNs and firewalls, a mix of corporate and employee owned devices as well as cloud and on-premises DDI servers to manage data traffic across the expanded network.

The hybrid workforce reality is causing greater concerns with data leakage, ransomware and attacks through remote access tools and cloud services. Respondents indicate concerns about their abilities to counter increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks with limited control over employees, work-from-home technologies, and vulnerable supply chain partners. The sophistication of state-sponsored malware also is a source of worry for many.

Organisations have good reason to worry: 53% of respondents experienced up to five security incidents that led to at least one breach.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/05/17/state-of-security/

• Small Businesses Under Fire from Password Stealers

Password-stealing malware and other cyber attacks have increased significantly against small businesses over the past year, according to Kaspersky researchers.

An assessment released this week detailed the number of Trojan Password Stealing Ware (PSW) detections, internet attacks and attacks on Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) between January and April 2022, compared with the same time frame from 2021. Kaspersky's research showed a jump in the detection of password stealers within small business environments, as well as increases in other types of cyber attacks.

According to Kaspersky, the biggest increase in threats against small businesses was password stealers, specifically Trojan PSWs. There were nearly 1 million more detected Trojan PSWs targeting small and medium-sized businesses in the first trimester of 2022 than the first of 2021, increasing from 3,029,903 to 4,003,323.

https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/news/252518442/Small-businesses-under-fire-from-password-stealers

• Email Is the Riskiest Channel for Data Security

Research from Tessian and the Ponemon Institute reveals that nearly 60% of organisations experienced data loss or exfiltration caused by an employee mistake on email in the last 12 months.

Email was revealed as the riskiest channel for data loss in organisations, as stated by 65% of IT security practitioners. This was closely followed by cloud file-sharing services (62%) and instant messaging platforms (57%).

The research surveyed 614 IT security practitioners across the globe to also reveal that:

• Employee negligence, because of not following policies, is the leading cause of data loss incidents (40%)

• 27% of data loss incidents are caused by malicious insiders

• It takes up to three days for security and risk management teams to detect and remediate a data loss and exfiltration incident caused by a malicious insider on email

• 23% of organisations experience up to 30 security incidents involving employees’ use of email every month (for example, email was sent to an unintended recipient).

The most common types of confidential and sensitive information lost or intentionally stolen include: customer information (61%); intellectual property (56%); and consumer information (47%). User-created data (sensitive email content, text files, M&A documents), regulated data (credit card data, Social Security numbers, national ID numbers, employee data), and intellectual property were identified as the three types of data that are most difficult to protect from data loss.

The top two consequences for data loss incidents were revealed as non-compliance with data protection regulations (57%) and damage to an organisation’s reputation (52%). Furthermore, a previous study from Tessian found that 29% of businesses lost a client or customer because of an employee sending an email to the wrong person.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/05/20/data-loss-email/

• Phishing Attacks for Initial Access Surged 54% in Q1

Threat actors doubled down on their use of phishing emails as an initial attack vector during the first quarter of 2022 — and in many cases then used that access to drop ransomware or to extort organisations in other ways.

Researchers from Kroll recently analysed data gathered from security incidents they responded to in the first three months of this year. The analysis showed a 54% increase in incidents of phishing for initial access compared with the same period last year.

For the first time since Microsoft disclosed the so-called ProxyLogon set of vulnerabilities in Exchange Server in the first quarter of 2021, incidents tied to email compromises surpassed those related to ransomware. Kroll described the sharp increase in phishing activity as likely the result of a surge in activity tied to Emotet and IceID malware — threat actors have been using both to drop other malware.

https://www.darkreading.com/risk/phishing-attacks-for-initial-access-surged-q1

• Fears Grow for Smaller Nations After Ransomware Attack on Costa Rica Escalates

Conti demanded $20M in ransom — and the overthrow of the government.

It’s been a rough start for the newly elected Costa Rica president Rodrigo Chaves, who less than a week into office declared his country “at war” with the Conti ransomware gang.

“We’re at war and this is not an exaggeration,” Chaves told local media. “The war is against an international terrorist group, which apparently has operatives in Costa Rica. There are very clear indications that people inside the country are collaborating with Conti.”

Conti’s assault on the Costa Rican government began in April. The country’s Finance Ministry was the first hit by the Russia-linked hacking group, and in a statement on May 16, Chaves said the number of institutions impacted had since grown to 27. This, he admitted, means civil servants wouldn’t be paid on time and will impact the country’s foreign trade.

In a message posted to its dark web leaks blog, Conti urged the citizens of Costa Rica to pressure their government to pay the ransom, which the group doubled from an initial $10 million to $20 million. In a separate statement, the group warned: “We are determined to overthrow the government by means of a cyber attack, we have already shown you all the strength and power.”

Conti is among the most prolific hacking groups. The FBI warned earlier this year that the gang was among “the three top variants” that targeted businesses in the United States, and it has been blamed for ransomware attacks targeting dozens of businesses, including Fat Face, Shutterfly and the Irish healthcare service.

But Conti has picked up its pace in recent months: In January and February it published 31 victims on its leaks blog. In March and April, it posted 133 victims.

https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/20/costa-rica-ransomware-attack/

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Threats

Ransomware

• Ransomware Gangs Rely More on Weaponizing Vulnerabilities (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Ransomware Gang Extorted 725 BTC in One Attack, On-Chain Sleuths Find (coindesk.com)

• 5 Critical Questions to Test Your Ransomware Preparedness - Help Net Security

• “Alarming” Surge in Conti Group Activity This Year - Infosecurity Magazine

• Why AI-Powered Ransomware Cyber Attacks Could Be Coming Soon - Protocol

• Nikkei Says Customer Data Likely Impacted in Ransomware Attack | SecurityWeek.Com

• Wizard Spider Hackers Hire Cold Callers to Scare Ransomware Victims Into Paying Up | ZDNet

• Greenland Hit by Cyber Attack, Finds Its Health Service Crippled (bitdefender.com)

• Conti Ransomware Shuts Down Operation, Rebrands into Smaller Units (bleepingcomputer.com)

• No One Is Slowing Down BlackByte Ransomware Gang • The Register

• President Rodrigo Chaves says Costa Rica is at war with Conti hackers - BBC News

• Engineering Firm Parker Discloses Data Breach After Ransomware Attack (bleepingcomputer.com)

• US links Thanos and Jigsaw ransomware to 55-year-old doctor (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Russian Conti Ransomware Gang Threatens to Overthrow New Costa Rican Government (thehackernews.com)

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

• This Phishing Attack Delivers Three Forms of Malware. And They All Want to Steal Your Data | ZDNet

• HTML Attachments Remain Popular Among Phishing Actors In 2022 (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Chatbot Army Deployed in Latest DHL Shipping Phish (darkreading.com)

• Phishing Gang That Stole Over 400,000 Euros Busted in Spain (tripwire.com)

• Long Lost @ Symbol Gets New Life Obscuring Malicious URLs | Malwarebytes Labs

• Spanish Police Dismantle Phishing Gang That Emptied Bank Accounts (bleepingcomputer.com)

Malware

• Emotet is the Most Common Malware - Help Net Security

• Microsoft Identifies Botnet Variant Targeting Windows and Linux Systems - Infosecurity Magazine

• Activity of the Linux XorDdos bot increased by 254% over the last 6 monthsSecurity Affairs

• Fake Domains Offer Windows 11 Installers - But Deliver Malware Instead | ZDNet

• Bruised but Not Broken: The Resurgence of the Emotet Botnet Malware (trendmicro.com)

• Malicious PyPI Pymafka Package Opens Backdoors On Windows, Linux, and Macs (bleepingcomputer.com)

• April VMware Bugs Abused to Deliver Mirai Malware, Exploit Log4Shell | Threatpost

Mobile

• 6 Scary Tactics Used in Mobile App Attacks (darkreading.com)

• Researchers Find Potential Way to Run Malware on iPhone Even When it's OFF (thehackernews.com)

• Google TAG: Cytrox's Predator Spyware Used to Target Android Users | WIRED

IoT

• New Bluetooth Hack Could Let Attackers Remotely Unlock Smart Locks and Cars (thehackernews.com)

Data Breaches/Leaks

• Cornwall Council Data Breach - Information Security Buzz

• Pharmacy Giant Hit By Data Breach Affecting 3.6 Million Customers - Infosecurity Magazine

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

• Ukrainian Hacker Jailed for 4-Years in U.S. for Selling Access to Hacked Servers (thehackernews.com)

• US Recovers a Record $15m from the 3ve Ad-Fraud Crew • The Register

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs

• How Cryptocurrencies Enable Attackers and Defenders (techtarget.com)

• Monero-Mining Sysrv Botnet Targets Windows, Linux Web Servers • The Register

• US Brings First-Of-Its-Kind Bitcoin Sanctions-Busting Case • The Register

• Fake Pixelmon NFT Site Infects You with Password-Stealing Malware (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Hackers Compromise a String of NFT Discord Channels (vice.com)

Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime

• Popularity Of Online Payment Goes Hand-In-Hand with Fraud - Help Net Security

Supply Chain and Third Parties

• MITRE Creates Framework for Supply Chain Security (darkreading.com)

• The Four Horsemen of Software Supply Chain Attacks - MSSP Alert

• Recovering From a Cyber Security Earthquake: The Lessons Organisations Must Learn - Help Net Security

Cloud/SaaS

• 7 Key Findings from the 2022 SaaS Security Survey Report (thehackernews.com)

• New Research Identifies Poor IAM Policies as The Greatest Cloud Vulnerability - CyberScoop

• Are You Investing in Securing Your Data in the Cloud? (thehackernews.com)

• 380K Kubernetes API Servers Exposed to Public Internet | Threatpost

Open Source

• The Industry Must Better Secure Open Source Code From Threat Actors (darkreading.com)

Privacy

• How To Ensure That the Smart Home Doesn’t Jeopardize Data Privacy? - Help Net Security

• Privacy. Ad Bidders Haven't Heard of It, Report Reveals • The Register

• Third-Party Web Trackers Log What You Type Before Submitting (bleepingcomputer.com)

Passwords & Credential Stuffing

• The Most Insecure and Easily Hackable Passwords - Help Net Security

• Half of IT Leaders Store Passwords in Shared Docs - Infosecurity Magazine

Cyber Bullying and Cyber Stalking

• UK Sextortion Cases Doubled in 2021 - Infosecurity Magazine

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

• Europe Moves Closer to Stricter Cyber Security Standards • The Register

• EU's NIS 2 Directive to Strengthen Cyber Security Requirements For Companies - Help Net Security

Spyware, Espionage & Cyber Warfare, including Russian Invasion of Ukraine

• Google TAG: Cytrox's Predator Spyware Used to Target Android Users | WIRED

• Britain can legally launch cyber attacks against hostile states, says Attorney General (telegraph.co.uk)

• How Mobile Networks Have Become a Front in the Battle for Ukraine (darkreading.com)

• China-linked Twisted Panda Caught Spying on Russian R&D Orgs • The Register

• Pro-Russian Hackers Spread Hoaxes to Divide Ukraine, Allies | SecurityWeek.Com

• A custom PowerShell RAT Targets Germany Using Crisis in Ukraine as Bait - Security Affairs

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Nation State Actors

Nation State Actors – Russia

• Putin Promises to Bolster Russia's IT Security in Face of Cyber Attacks | Reuters

• Russian Hackers Declare War On 10 Countries After Failed Eurovision DDoS attack | IT PRO

• Pro-Russian Information Operations Escalate in Ukraine War (darkreading.com)

• Russian Undersea Cable Threat Shifts Tech Business to UK (telegraph.co.uk)

• Russians Allegedly Storm Ukrainian ISP, Blackmail It to Switch To Russian Networks - CyberScoop

• Russia-linked Sandworm Continues to Conduct Attacks Against Ukraine - Security Affairs

• Russian Cyber Attack on Eurovision Foiled By Italian Authorities (bitdefender.com)

• This Russian Botnet Does Far More Than DDoS Attacks - And on A Massive Scale | ZDNet

Nation State Actors – China

• Chinese ‘Space Pirates’ are Hacking Russian Aerospace Firms (bleepingcomputer.com)

Nation State Actors – North Korea

• FBI Warns of North Korean Spies Posing as Foreign IT Workers • The Register

Nation State Actors – Iran

• US Charges Venezuelan Doctor with Selling Ransomware Used By Iranian Group | Reuters

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Vulnerability Management

• APTs Overwhelmingly Share Known Vulnerabilities Rather Than Attack O-Days | Threatpost

• How Micropatching Could Help Close the Security Update Gap (techtarget.com)

• Partial Patching Still Provides Strong Protection Against APTs (darkreading.com)

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Vulnerabilities

• QNAP Urges Users to Update NAS Devices to Prevent Deadbolt Ransomware Attacks (thehackernews.com)

• Cisco Fixes an IOS XR Flaw Actively Exploited in The Wild - Security Affairs

• 2 Vulnerabilities With 9.8 Severity Ratings Are Under Exploit. A 3rd Looms | Ars Technica

• Microsoft Rushes a Fix After May Patch Tuesday Breaks Authentication (darkreading.com)

• Microsoft Fixes New PetitPotam Windows NTLM Relay Attack Vector (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Apple Patches Zero-Day Kernel Hole and Much More – Update Now! – Naked Security (sophos.com)

• Two Business-Grade Netgear VPN Routers Have Security Vulnerabilities That Can't Be Fixed - Help Net Security

• SharePoint RCE Bug Resurfaces Three Months After Being Patched by Microsoft | The Daily Swig (portswigger.net)

• High-Severity Bug Reported in Google's OAuth Client Library for Java (thehackernews.com)

• Over 20,000 Zyxel Firewalls Still Exposed to Critical Bug - Infosecurity Magazine

• Apple Fixes the Sixth Zero-Day Since The Beginning of 2022 - Security Affairs

• Apache Releases Security Advisory for Tomcat | CISA

• Mozilla Patches Wednesday’s Pwn2Own Double-Exploit… on Friday! – Naked Security (sophos.com)

• Critical Vulnerability in Premium WordPress Themes Allows for Site Takeover | Threatpost

• Critical Jupiter WordPress Plugin Flaws Let Hackers Take Over Sites (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Apple Finally Patches Exploited Vulnerabilities in macOS Big Sur, Catalina | SecurityWeek.Com

• NVIDIA Fixes Ten Vulnerabilities in Windows GPU Display Drivers (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Gmail-Linked Facebook Accounts Vulnerable to Attack Using A Chain Of Bugs—Now Fixed | Malwarebytes Labs

• New Brute Force Attacks Against SQL Servers Use PowerShell Wrapper | SecurityWeek.Com

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Sector Specific

Retail/eCommerce

• How Crooks Backdoor Sites and Scrape Credit Card Info • The Register

• Digital Skimming is Now the Preserve of Non-Magecart Groups - Infosecurity Magazine

Energy & Utilities

• Water Companies Are Increasingly Uninsurable Due To Ransomware, Industry Execs Say - CyberScoop

• UK Announces Nuclear Cyber Security Strategy - IT Security Guru

Education and Academia

• Ransomware Attack Exposes Data of 500,000 Chicago Students (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Higher Education Institutions Being Targeted for Ransomware Attacks | TechRepublic

• “Incompetent” Council Leaks Details of Students With Special Educational Needs • Graham Cluley

• Researchers Find Backdoor in School Management Plugin for WordPress (thehackernews.com)

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Reports Published in the Last Week

• Q2 2022 State of Fraud & Account Security Report - Arkose Labs

• 2022 SaaS Security Survey Report (adaptive-shield.com)

• 2021-2022 UK Financial Sector Dark Web Threat Landscape Report - Kela (ke-la.com)

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Other News

• UK Government: Lack of Skills the Number One Issue in Cyber Security - Infosecurity Magazine

• Malicious Hackers Are Finding It Too Easy to Achieve Their Initial Access (tripwire.com)

• NIST’s Cyber Security Framework Has Become The Common Language For International Cyber Security (scmagazine.com)

• How Threat Actors Are a Click Away From Becoming Quasi-APTs (darkreading.com)

• Cyber Security: Global Food Supply Chain at Risk From Malicious Hackers - BBC News

• Cyber Security Agencies Reveal Top Initial Access Attack Vectors (bleepingcomputer.com)

• 50% of Orgs Rely on Email to Manage Security (darkreading.com)

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As usual, contact us to help assess where your risks lie and to ensure you are doing all you can do to keep you and your business secure.

Look out for our ‘Cyber Tip Tuesday’ video blog and on our YouTube channel.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Black Arrow Cyber Advisory 19/05/2022 – VMware provides patches for critical vulnerabilities in multiple product lines. CISA advise to disconnect systems if they cannot be patched

Executive Summary

VMware is a large supplier of virtualisation products which are used to run a variety of different services. They announced on 18/05/2022 that updates have been released for multiple products in their range to address two different vulnerabilities. The United States Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) are advising US Civilian Government agencies to patch affected products, or disconnect those that cannot be patched by 5PM EDT on 23/05/2022.

What’s the risk to me or my business?

As VMware are one of the primary suppliers of virtual infrastructure, it is highly likely that some business services will be hosted on machines running VMware software. One of the vulnerabilities would allow an attacker with network access to the user interface of an affected product to obtain administrative access without the need to authenticate. As business services may be hosted on VMware infrastructure, this could impact Confidentiality, Integrity, or Availability for these services.

What can I do?

As patches have been released, it is important that these are applied as soon as possible, particularly as some of the vulnerabilities are now being actively exploited.

Discuss with you Managed Service Provider (MSP) whether any of your devices or services are impacted, and when they can expect to be patched. While VMware has supplied workaround to help mitigate the issue if it cannot be immediately patched, it is strongly noted that the work arounds do not remove the vulnerabilities and may introduce additional unforeseen issues.

Technical Summary

The following is a break down of the different vulnerabilities with the affected VMware products.

CVE-2022-22972: Critical severity range with maximum CVSSv3 base score of 9.8, malicious actor with network access to the UI may be able to obtain administrative access without the need to authenticate. Affected VMware products:

·         VMware Workspace One Access

·         Identity Manager

·         vRealize Automation

CVE-2022-22973: Important severity range with maximum CVSSv3 base core of 7,8, malicious actor with local access to the system can escalate privileges to ‘root’.

·         VMware Workspace ONE Access and Identity Manager

The following VMware products deploy the above affected components.

• VMware Cloud Foundation

• vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager

Further technical information including a response patch matrix and workarounds can be found here: VMSA-2022-0014 (vmware.com), VMSA-2022-0014: Questions & Answers | VMware

Need help understanding your gaps, or just want some advice? Get in touch with us.

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 13 May 2022

Welcome to this week’s Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing – a weekly digest, collated and curated by our cyber experts to provide senior and middle management with an easy to digest round up of the most notable threats, vulnerabilities, and cyber related news from the last week.

Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week

• UK, US Intelligence Agencies Warn Managed Service Providers, including External IT Providers, Are Now Prime Targets for Cyber Attacks

The Five Eyes coalition of international cyber security authorities, this week issued an advisory to warn managed service providers (MSPs), including external IT providers, of an escalating threat of attack from both everyday cyber criminals and state-sponsored threat actors.

MSPs provide or operate information and communications technology services.

With input from cyber security leaders from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US, the NSA provided recommendations to help bolster their cyber defences, including:

• Finding and disabling dormant accounts.

• Implementing and enforcing multifactor authentication on accounts.

• Ensuring contracts clearly map out who owns and is responsible for securing data.

Malicious actors are targeting MSPs to break into their customers' networks and deploy ransomware, steal data, and spy on them, the Five Eyes authorities have formally warned in a joint security alert.

"The UK, Australian, Canadian, New Zealand, and US cyber security authorities expect malicious cyber actors — including state-sponsored advanced persistent threat (APT) groups — to step up their targeting of MSPs in their efforts to exploit provider-customer network trust relationships," the alert warned.

These types of supply-chain or "island-hopping" attacks can prove very lucrative for cyber criminals because once they break into an MSP, they gain access to all of the customers' networks and data being managed, and in turn commit computer crimes and fraud against those customers' customers.

https://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/nsa-warns-managed-service-providers-are-now-prime-targets-for-cyberattacks

• Wannacry – 5 Years On, 68% Of Enterprises Are Still at Risk

5 years on from one of the world’s most damaging ransomware attacks, research from network detection and response leader ExtraHop has found that 68% of enterprises are still running insecure protocol that were exploited by the North Korean ransomware.

The events of 12 May 2017 live on in cyber security lore. WannaCry revealed just how extensive the damage caused by ransomware can be if deployed in large scale – from downtime to ransom paid to reputational damage. Yet despite the danger, huge numbers of organisations are still running SMBv1, the protocol exploited in the WannaCry attacks that has been publicly deprecated since 2014.

https://informationsecuritybuzz.com/expert-comments/wannacry-5-years-on-68-of-enterprises-are-still-at-risk/

• You Can’t Eliminate Cyber Attacks, So Focus on Reducing the Blast Radius

Given it is impossible to prevent all cyber attacks, many organisations should look to reduce the size of the company’s attack surface and the limit the “blast radius” of a potential attack.

There is a danger that the biggest risk concerning cyber attacks is that we’re becoming desensitised to them. After all, businesses experience a ransomware attack every 11 seconds—the majority of which the public never hears about. Faced with this reality, it may seem like efforts to safeguard the enterprise are futile. But that’s all the more reason to strengthen your resolve—and switch up your cyber defence strategy.

The core of this strategy should be the concept of “reducing the blast radius” of an attack, and since you can’t completely eliminate cyber attacks, you need to take steps to contain the impact.

This strategy should contain basic blocking and also consider things such as Zero Trust for remote access, traffic inspection, software-based micro-segmentation and other practical measures to reduce your attack surface.

https://threatpost.com/cyberattacks-blast-radius/179612/

• Just In Time? Bosses Are Finally Waking Up to The Cyber Security Threat

Boardrooms have a reputation for not paying much attention to cyber security, but it could be that executives are finally keen to take more interest in securing the systems and networks their businesses rely on.

Senior figures from American, British and Australian cyber security agencies have said that business execs are now more aware of cyber threats and are actively engaging with their chief information security officer (CISO) and information security teams.

Chief execs are starting to ask their CISOs the right questions, rather than leaving them to it because they don't have to understand complex technology. It does feel like a much more engaging strategic conversation, but there can still be a disconnect between knowing what needs to happen, then actually budgeting for and implementing a cyber security strategy.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/just-in-time-bosses-are-finally-waking-up-to-the-cybersecurity-threat/

• Most Organisations Hit by Ransomware Would Pay Up If Hit Again

Almost nine in 10 organisations that have suffered a ransomware attack would choose to pay the ransom if hit again, according to a new report, compared with two-thirds of those that have not experienced an attack.

The findings come from a report titled "How business executives perceive ransomware threat" by security company Kaspersky, which states that ransomware has become an ever-present threat, with 64 percent of companies surveyed already having suffered an attack, but more worryingly, that executives seem to believe that paying the ransom is a reliable way of addressing the issue.

The report is based on research involving 900 respondents across North America, South America, Africa, Russia, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. The respondents were in senior non-IT management roles at companies between 50 and 1,000 employees.

Kaspersky claims that in 88 percent of organisations that have had to deal with a ransomware incident, business leaders said they would choose to pay the money if faced with another attack. In contrast, among those that have not so far suffered a ransomware attack, only 67 percent would be willing to pay, and they would be less inclined to do so immediately.

https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/13/organizations_pay_ransomware/

• 31,000 FTSE 100 Logins Found on Dark Web

Researchers with Outpost24 are reporting over 31,000 corporate credentials for many of the UK’s leading FTSE 100 firms on the dark web. These are the 100 biggest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange by market capitalisation. The researchers used their threat monitoring and auditing tool Blueliv to search dark web sites for the breached credentials.

Key findings from stolen and leaked credentials study:

• The majority (81%) of the companies within the FTSE 100 had at least one credential compromised and exposed on the dark web

• 31,135 total stolen and leaked credentials detected for FTSE 100 companies, with 38% disclosed on the underground in the past 12 months

• Nearly half (42%) of FTSE 100 companies have more than 500 compromised credentials exposed on the dark web

• Up to 20% of credentials are stolen via malware infection and stealers

• 11% disclosed in the last 3 months (21% in the last 6 months and over 68% have been exposed for over 12 months)

• Over 60% of stolen credentials came from 3 industries – IT/Telecom (23%), Energy and Utility (22%) and Finance (21%)

• IT/Telecoms industry is the most at risk with the highest total amount (7,303) and average stolen credentials per company (730), they are most affected by malware infection and have the most amount of stolen credentials disclosed in the last 3 months

• On average, healthcare has the highest number of stolen credentials per company (485) from data breach as they found themselves increasingly in the cyber criminals’ crosshairs since the pandemic.

https://informationsecuritybuzz.com/expert-comments/31000-ftse-100-logins-found-on-dark-web/

• Ransomware: How Executives Should Prepare Given the Current Threat Landscape

As the number of ransomware attacks continue to increase, the response at C-level must be swift and decisive.

Top executives are increasingly dreading the phone call from their fellow employee notifying them that their company has been hit by a cyber attack. Nearly every week in 2021 and early 2022, a prominent organisation has been in the media spotlight as their public relations team struggles to explain how they were attacked and how they can regain consumer confidence. A recent survey showed that 37 percent of organisations surveyed had been affected by ransomware attacks in the last year.

Worse, the days when executive leadership teams could fully delegate responsibility to a CISO are over. Regardless of reality, surveys have shown that about 40 percent of the public perception of fault for a ransomware attack lands squarely on the CEO’s shoulders, and that 36 percent of attacks result in the loss of C-level talent. While executive involvement in the security program does not guarantee a successful defence, it does give the executive leadership team (ELT) a degree of ownership of the final product, as well as the ability to speak confidently and knowledgeably to the public.

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/ransomware-how-executives-should-prepare-given-the-current-threat-landscape/

• What Your Cyber Insurance Application Form Can Tell You About Ransomware Readiness

The annual cyber insurance application form shows what the carriers think you should be doing to best prevent and recover from ransomware attacks. Pay attention.

If it’s the time of year for you to fill out the annual cyber insurance policy application, you will see how the focus for insurance firms is changing. Each year you can get an insight into what insurance vendors are using to rate the risks and threats to your business and what they are stressing firms should have in place as best practice or what they are expecting you should have in place as a baseline set of controls. Not having them in place could affect insurance rates, whether you are able to get cyber coverage at all, or crucially whether they would pay out in the event of you having to make a claim.

This year you might find more questions specifically around ransomware prevention techniques and protections, from Multi Factor Authentication (MFA) to Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), and email filtering protections to the robustness of your backups.

Make sure to review your cyber insurance policy and its related questionnaire. And ask whether you are doing everything you can to protect your firm and tailoring your actions to align with what your insurance provider has deemed as a best practice.

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3659831/what-your-cyber-insurance-application-form-can-tell-you-about-ransomware-readiness.html#tk.rss_news

• NCSC Shut Down 2.7 Million Scams in 2021

The UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) removed 2.7 million online scams last year, it was revealed this week, four times as many scams compared to 2020.

The announcement comes as the security agency shared the most recent data from its Active Cyber Defence initiative at the CYBERUK summit earlier in the week.

According to the NCSC, neutralised scams included fake celebrity endorsements and spoof extortion emails.

It has also been revealed that fraud campaigns used common themes, with NHS vaccines and vaccine passports being particularly popular.

Some cyber criminals even posed as NCSC CEO Lindy Cameron – victims received an email claiming the NCSC had prevented £5m of their money from being stolen, and were urged to supply personal information to retrieve the funds.

https://www.itsecurityguru.org/2022/05/10/ncsc-shut-down-2-7-million-scams-in-2021/

• Security Threats Targeting Remote Workers

Remote work offers great benefits, like reduced commute time, increased freedom, and more time to spend with loved ones. But there can be security downsides if sufficient controls are not in place to protect remote workers against the digital threats that come with working via unsecured connections.

Being on a home network lacks the layered network security of the company environment. Remote work itself is not new, but the dramatic shift to working from home over the past two years means there are more security-naive people who are not in the office.

Not all security threats are the fault of technology. Much of it also comes from human error.

Remote work greatly exacerbates human-activated risk, and people are working in more distracting environments where they may have to answer the door for deliveries or might multitask with household chores. That means mistakes are more likely to happen, like sending an email to the wrong recipient or falling for a malicious email attack.

Recent research by Egress found that 77% of IT leaders said they have seen an increase in security compromises since going remote two years ago.

https://www.darkreading.com/endpoint/top-6-security-threats-targeting-remote-workers

• Password Reuse Is Rampant Among Employees in All Sectors

SpyCloud published an annual analysis of identity exposure among employees of Fortune 1000 companies in key sectors such as technology, finance, retail and telecommunications.

Drawing on a database of over 200 billion recaptured assets, researchers identified over 687 million exposed credentials and PII tied to Fortune 1000 employees, a 26% increase from last year’s analysis.

Analysis of this data showed a 64% password reuse rate, widespread use of easy-to-guess passwords, and a spike in malware-infected devices –– all sources of cyber risk for both employers and consumers who rely on businesses to safeguard their personal data. With remote work blurring the lines between work and personal device use, a larger attack surface compounds the risk of cyber attacks proliferating beyond compromised employee and consumer identities to penetrate corporate networks.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/05/11/fortune-1000-identity-exposure/

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Threats

Ransomware

• Costa Rica Shows the Damage Ransomware Can Do to a Country - The Washington Post

• Ransomware-as-a-Service: Understanding The Cyber Crime Gig Economy And How To Protect Yourself - Microsoft Security Blog

• Ransomware Works Fast, You Need to Be Faster To Counter It - Help Net Security

• A Closer Look At Today’s Ransomware Attack Landscape - MSSP Alert

• Ransomware Is a National Security Threat, So Please Tell Us About Attacks, Says Government | ZDNet

• 5 Years That Altered the Ransomware Landscape (darkreading.com)

• Colonial Pipeline Faces Nearly $1m Fine After Ransomware • The Register

• These Ransomware Attackers Sent Their Ransom Note to The Victim's Printer | ZDNet

• New Malware Samples Indicate Return of REvil Ransomware | SecurityWeek.Com

• How to Avoid Falling Victim to PayOrGrief's Next Rebrand (darkreading.com)

• Examining the Black Basta Ransomware’s Infection Routine (trendmicro.com)

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

• Novel Phishing Trick Uses Weird Links to Bypass Spam Filters | Threatpost

• New Email Security Tool Launched to Help Organisations Check Their Defences - NCSC.GOV.UK

• TA578 Using Thread-Hijacked Emails to Push ISO Files For Bumblebee Malware - SANS Internet Storm Center

Malware

• Novel ‘Nerbian’ Trojan Uses Advanced Anti-Detection Tricks | Threatpost

• Low-rent Remote Access Trojan (RAT) Worries Researchers | Threatpost

• Eternity Malware Kit Offers Stealer, Miner, Worm, Ransomware Tools (bleepingcomputer.com)

• It costs $7 to Rent DCRat Malware to Backdoor Your Network • The Register

• Shopping For Malware: $260 Gets You a Password Stealer... • The Register

• Microsoft: Sysrv Botnet Targets Windows, Linux Servers with New Exploits (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Google Drive Emerges as Top App For Malware Downloads - Help Net Security

• Stealthy Linux Implant BPFdoor Compromised Organizations Globally For Years | CSO Online

• Malware Builder Leverages Discord Webhooks | Threatpost

• Malware Attacks Getting More Regional, Claims Netskope • The Register

• 5-Buck DCRat Malware Foretells a Worrying Cyber Future (darkreading.com)

• Threat Actors Use Telegram to Spread ‘Eternity’ Malware-as-a-Service | Threatpost

• German Automakers Targeted in Year-Long Malware Campaign (bleepingcomputer.com)

Data Breaches/Leaks

• PII Of 21M SuperVPN, GeckoVPN Users Leaked On Telegram - Information Security Buzz

• Victims of Horizon Actuarial Data Breach Exceed 1M (techtarget.com)

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

• Crypto Robber Who Lured Victims Via Snapchat and Stole £34,000 Jailed (bleepingcomputer.com)

• NCSC Shut Down 2.7 Million Scams in 2021- IT Security Guru

• Crook Jailed for Selling Stolen Credentials On Dark Web • The Register

• UK Government Hackers Destroyed Hundreds of Thousands of Stolen Credit Card Details Held By Criminals | Science & Tech News | Sky News

• US Agrees to International Electronic Cyber Crime Evidence Swap (darkreading.com)

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs

• NFT Scams, Toxic ‘Mines’ And Lost Life Savings: The Cryptocurrency Dream Is Fading Fast | David A Banks | The Guardian

• NFTs Emerge as the Next Enterprise Attack Vector (darkreading.com)

• Fake Binance NFT Mystery Box Bots Steal Victim's Crypto Wallets (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Possible $1 Billion Crypto Ponzi Scheme Probed by Tax Investigators - Bloomberg

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

• Angry IT Admin Wipes Employer’s Databases, Gets 7 Years in Prison (bleepingcomputer.com)

Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime

• How Can Your Business Defend Itself Against Fraud-as-a-Service? (darkreading.com)

• Scammers Impersonate Britain’s Top Cyber Crime Chief in Fake £5m Heist (telegraph.co.uk)

• Caramel Credit Card Stealing Service Is Growing in Popularity (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Hackers Are Exploiting WordPress Themes, Plugins to Hawk Scams (gizmodo.com)

• Thousands of WordPress Sites Hacked to Redirect Visitors to Scam Sites (thehackernews.com)

Insurance

• Multi-Factor Authentication: A Key to Cyber Risk Insurance Coverage (tripwire.com)

• How Cyber Liability Insurance Can Help Protect Your Business Reputation - MSSP Alert

Supply Chain and Third Parties

• Five Eyes Urges Organisations to Secure Supply Chains - IT Security Guru

Denial of Service DoS/DDoS

• Why Are DDoS Attacks So Easy to Launch and So Hard to Defend Against? - Help Net Security

Cloud

• The SaaS-to-SaaS Supply Chain Is a Wild, Wild Mess - Help Net Security

Open Source

• Tech Giants Pledge Multimillion Down Payment to Secure Open Source | Cybersecurity Dive

Travel

• Historic Hotel Stay, Complementary Emotet Exposure included (bleepingcomputer.com)

Parental Controls and Child Safety

• Europe Proposes Tackling Child Abuse by Killing Encryption • The Register

Cyber Bullying and Cyber Stalking

• Another ex-eBay Exec Pleads Guilty to Cyber Stalking Critics • The Register

Regulations, Fines and Legislation

• India’s Battle with Pegasus Tells a Bigger Tale Of Tech Laws • The Register

Spyware, Espionage & Cyber Warfare, including Russian Invasion of Ukraine

• Wars Start in Cyberspace Well Before Shots Are Fired • The Register

• #CYBERUK22: Cyber Trends from the Russia-Ukraine War - Infosecurity Magazine

• US Pledges to Help Ukraine Keep the Internet and Lights On (darkreading.com)

• Cyber-Espionage Attack Drops Post-Exploit Malware Framework on Microsoft Exchange Servers (darkreading.com)

• Chinese CCTV Cameras On Our Streets Have Hidden Microphones That Could Be Spying on You (telegraph.co.uk)

• Spain’s Spy Chief Sacked Over Pegasus Scandal - Infosecurity Magazine

• OpRussia Update: Anonymous Breached Other Organizations - Security Affairs

• Pro-Russian Hacktivists Target Italy Government Websites - Security Affairs

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Nation State Actors

Nation State Actors – Russia

• Russian Hackers Targeting Opponents Of Ukraine Invasion, Warns GCHQ Chief | Hacking | The Guardian

• Western Intelligence Blames Russia for Europe-Wide Cyber Attack - Infosecurity Magazine

• State Department Says Russian Cyber War Against Ukraine Began in January | The Independent

• Ukraine War: Don’t Underestimate Russia Cyber-Threat, Warns US - BBC News

Nation State Actors – China

• Experts Uncovered a New Wave Of Attacks Conducted By Mustang Panda - Security Affairs

• China-Backed Winnti Hackers Attacked Manufacturers Globally, Cybereason Alleges - MSSP Alert

Nation State Actors – Iran

• Iranian Hackers Leveraging BitLocker and DiskCryptor in Ransomware Attacks (thehackernews.com)

• Iran-Linked OilRig APT Caught Using New Backdoor | SecurityWeek.Com

• Iran-linked COBALT MIRAGE Group Uses Ransomware in Its Operations - Security Affairs

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Vulnerability Management

• US Cyber Boss Wants Software Patches to Be Like Car Recalls • The Register

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Vulnerabilities

• Critical F5 BIG-IP Vulnerability Exploited to Wipe Devices (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Microsoft Patch Tuesday updates for May 2022 fixes 3 zero-days, 1 under active attack - Security Affairs

• Adobe Warns of 'Critical' Security Flaws in Enterprise Products | SecurityWeek.Com

• Log4Shell Exploit Threatens Enterprise Data Lakes, AI Poisoning (darkreading.com)

• Intel Emits Raft of Firmware Patches For Security Flaws • The Register

• Actively Exploited Zero-Day Bug Patched by Microsoft | Threatpost

• Hundreds of Thousands of Konica Printers Vulnerable to Hacking via Physical Access | SecurityWeek.Com

• HP Fixes Bug Letting Attackers Overwrite Firmware in Over 200 Models (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Zyxel Fixes Firewall Flaws That Could Lead to Hacked Networks (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Microsoft Releases Fixes for Azure Flaw Allowing RCE Attacks (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Researchers Find Flaws in Word, PDF Script Handling • The Register

• SonicWall Releases Patches for New Flaws Affecting SSLVPN SMA1000 Devices (thehackernews.com)

• Microsoft: May Windows Updates Cause AD Authentication Failures (bleepingcomputer.com)

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Sector Specific

Health/Medical/Pharma Sector

• Ransomware Group Strikes Second US Health Care System in The Last Two Months - CyberScoop

• Is That Health App Safe to Use? A New Framework Aims To Provide An Answer - Help Net Security

Manufacturing

• German Automakers Targeted in Year-Long Malware Campaign (bleepingcomputer.com)

• China-Backed Winnti Hackers Attacked Manufacturers Globally, Cybereason Alleges - MSSP Alert

Education and Academia

• A US College Is Shutting Down for Good Following A Ransomware Attack (yahoo.com)

• Fraudulent 'Bot-driven' College Enrolment up 50%, New Study Finds (darkreading.com)

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Reports Published in the Last Week

• How Business Executives Perceive Ransomware Threat | Kaspersky official blog

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Other News

• An Offensive Mindset Is Crucial for Effective Cyber Defence - Help Net Security

• Zero-Click Attacks Explained, And Why They Are So Dangerous | CSO Online

• Britain Must Upgrade Cyber Defences ‘Or Be Hit By 9/11-Style Attack’ (telegraph.co.uk)

• Everything We Learned From the LAPSUS$ Attacks (thehackernews.com)

• Threat Actors Are Stealing Data Now to Decrypt When Quantum Computing Comes (darkreading.com)

• Prepare for What You Wish For: More CISOs on Boards | SecurityWeek.Com

• Ready, IAM, Fire: How Weak Identity and Access Management (IAM) Makes You a Target (darkreading.com)

• How Privileged Access Management (PAM) Must Evolve - MSSP Alert

• Secure Your CMS-Based Websites Against Pervasive Attacks - Help Net Security

• Threats To Hardware Security Are Growing - Help Net Security

• Government’s “Whole of Society” Cyber Strategy Takes Shape - Infosecurity Magazine

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As usual, contact us to help assess where your risks lie and to ensure you are doing all you can do to keep you and your business secure.

Look out for our ‘Cyber Tip Tuesday’ video blog and on our YouTube channel.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Links to articles are for interest and awareness and linking to or reposting external content does not endorse any service or product, likewise we are not responsible for the security of external links.

Are you Awesome? We're Hiring!

Due to our continued growth and expansion, and to coincide with the opening of our first UK office in Bristol, we are recruiting for a number of cyber roles in the UK:

• Cyber Security Analysts

• Threat Intelligence Analysts

• Incident Responders and Digital Forensics

• IT Security/Technical Specialists

• Microsoft 365 Security Specialists

• Cyber Risk and Governance Consultants

• Penetration Testers and Red Team Specialists

• Trainers

• Cyber Operations Specialists

Contact us for more information careers@blackarrowcyber.com

blackarrowcyber.com/careers

Black Arrow Cyber are back in Jersey 26 & 27 May - contact us to arrange a meeting

Black Arrow are back in Jersey on 26 and 27 May, we have a few time slots available if anyone wanted to discuss their cyber security risk and governance requirements. Email contact@blackarrowcyber.com or call 01481 711 988 to set up a meeting.

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 05 May 2022

Welcome to this week’s Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing – a weekly digest, collated and curated by our cyber experts to provide senior and middle management with an easy to digest round up of the most notable threats, vulnerabilities, and cyber related news from the last week.

Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week

• Cyber Scams Cost Victims $6.9b-Plus Worldwide in 2021

Cyber-scams cost victims around the globe at least $6.9 billion last year, according to the FBI's latest Internet Crime Report.

Since 2017, the bureau's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received an average of 552,000 complaints per year. This includes reports of extortion, identity theft, phishing, fraud, and a slew of other nefarious schemes that cost victims no less than $18.7 billion in losses over the five-year period.

Unsurprisingly, the volume of these crimes — and related costs — have grown every year; 2021 set records for the total number of complaints (847,376) as well as losses exceeding $6.9 billion, a jump from the $4.2 billion reported a year earlier.

As with earlier years, phishing attacks were by far the most commonly reported crimes, with 323,972 last year. A subset of this category, business email compromise (BEC), is proving very lucrative and cost victims almost $2.4 billion from 19,954 victims, according to the Feds.

BEC involves a cyber criminal compromising a legitimate email account, and then tricking a business or individual into transferring funds, sending employees' personal data, or unlocking cryptocurrency wallets. The fraudster then steals the cash, drains the crypto wallet and/or sells employees' identities and credentials on the dark web.

https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/05/fbi_cyber_scams/

• Bad Actors Are Maximising Remote Everything

The rise of remote work and learning opened new opportunities for many people – as we’ve seen by the number of people who have moved to new places or adapted to “workcations.” Cyber criminals are taking advantage of the same opportunities – just in a different way. Evaluating the prevalence of malware variants by region reveals a sustained interest by cyber adversaries in maximising the remote work and learning attack vector.

As hybrid work and learning become embedded paradigms in our culture, there are fewer layers of protection between malware and would-be victims. And bad actors are gaining access to more tools to help them pull off their nefarious deeds – like exploit kits. At the same time, the attack surface has rapidly expanded and continues to do so.

That means enterprises must take a work-from-anywhere approach to their security. They need to deploy solutions capable of following, enabling and protecting users no matter where they are located. They need security on the endpoint (EDR) combined with zero trust network access (ZTNA) approaches.

https://threatpost.com/bad-actors-remote-everything/179458/

• This Sneaky Hacking Group Hid Inside Networks For 18 Months Without Being Detected

A previously undisclosed cyber-espionage group is using clever techniques to breach corporate networks and steal information related to mergers, acquisitions and other large financial transactions – and they've been able to remain undetected by victims for periods of more than 18 months.

Detailed by cyber security researchers at Mandiant, who've named it UNC3524, the hacking operation has been active since at least December 2019 and uses a range of advanced methods to infiltrate and maintain persistence on compromised networks that set it apart from most other hacking groups. These methods include the ability to immediately re-infect environments after access is removed. It's currently unknown how initial access is achieved. 

One of the reasons UNC3524 is so successful at maintaining persistence on networks for such a long time is because it installs backdoors on applications and services that don't support security tools, such as anti-virus or endpoint protection.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/this-sneaky-hacking-group-hid-inside-networks-for-18-months-without-being-detected/

• FBI: Business Email Compromise: The $43 Billion Scam

According to the FBI, business email compromise (BEC) and email account compromise (EAC) losses have surpassed $43 billion globally. BEC/EAC is a sophisticated scam that targets both businesses and individuals who perform legitimate transfer-of-funds requests.

The BEC/EAC scam continues to grow and evolve, targeting small local businesses to larger corporations, and personal transactions. Between July 2019 and December 2021, there was a 65% increase in identified global exposed losses, meaning the dollar loss that includes both actual and attempted loss in United States dollars.

The following information was derived from filings with financial institutions between June 2016 and December 2021:

• Domestic and international incidents: 241,206

• Domestic and international exposed dollar loss: $43,312,749,946

The following BEC/EAC statistics were reported in victim complaints to the IC3 between October 2013 and December 2021:

• Total US victims: 116,401

• Total US exposed dollar loss: $14,762,978,290

• Total non-US victims: 5,260

• Total non-US exposed dollar loss: $1,277,131,099

https://informationsecuritybuzz.com/expert-comments/fbi-business-email-compromise-the-43-billion-scam/

• Disgruntled Employees Cashing in On Confidential Information Over Dark Web

Disgruntled employees are making hundreds of thousands of dollars by leaking confidential information over a new platform on the so-called dark web, cyber researchers have said.

Hidden in a part of the internet that is only accessible using special software, the Industrial Spy platform promises huge payouts to staff willing to hand over "dirty secrets" to competitors, according to experts at intelligence business Cyberint.

Industrial Spy currently has data on twelve companies from a range of industries available to people who sign up, Cyberint said.

The platform recently managed to sell two tranches of company data for $400,000 (£318,236) and $750,000 each.

An individual has advertised the platform to potential purchasers of the data on the dark web.

The post said: "With our information you could refuse partnership with an unscrupulous partner, reveal dirty secrets of your competitors and earn millions of dollars using insider information."

Cyber criminals have long approached employees individually and offered a bribe to release sensitive information such as internal data and passwords to access computer systems.

But this new platform allows employees to act on their own initiative to steal data and sell it online.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/05/02/disgruntled-employees-cashing-confidential-information-dark/

• Google Sees More APTs Using Ukraine War-Related Themes

Researchers at Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) say the number of advanced threat actors using Ukraine war-related themes in cyber attacks went up in April with a surge in malware attacks targeting critical infrastructure.

According to Google, known state-backed APT groups from China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia, along with various unattributed groups have been using war-related themes in phishing and malware distribution campaigns.

Looking at the cyber attacks that target Eastern Europe, however, a new Google report notes there hasn't been a significant change from the normal levels of activity, despite the increased adoption of lures related to the Ukraine war.

https://www.securityweek.com/google-sees-more-apts-using-ukraine-war-related-themes

• Cryptocurrency Regulators Are Scrambling to Catch Up with Hackers Who Are Swiping Billions

Just four months in, 2022 has been a banner year for hackers, and fraudsters targeting the industry have swindled more than $1 billion from cryptocurrency investors, according to separate estimates by cryptocurrency analysis firm Immunefi.

The rise in fraud has put US regulators on the offensive. The US Securities and Exchange Commission, which has positioned itself as the industry’s main regulator and enforcer, announced on Tuesday that it was going to double its staff working to resources to combat the rise in fraud.

“Crypto markets have exploded in recent years, with retail investors bearing the brunt of abuses in this space. Meanwhile, cyber-related threats continue to pose existential risks to our financial markets and participants,” Gurbir Grewal, director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement said in a statement. “The bolstered Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit will be at the forefront of protecting investors and ensuring fair and orderly markets in the face of these critical challenges.”

https://www.cyberscoop.com/cryptocurrency-sec-cybersecurity-bitcoin-regulation-enforcement/

• Tackling the Threats Posed by Shadow IT

While remote technologies have allowed businesses to shift their workforces online, this flexibility has created a swathe of challenges for IT teams who must provide a robust security framework for their organisation – encompassing all the personnel and devices within their remit. In addition to the ever-increasing number of personal devices, corporate devices and programs, more and more applications are moving to the cloud as workloads become increasingly distributed across public clouds and software-as-a-service (SaaS).

This means IT teams are even harder pressed to secure and manage the complex environments they operate in. The unsanctioned use of corporate IT systems, devices, and software – known as shadow IT – has increased significantly during the shift to remote work, and recent research found almost one in seven (68%) are concerned about information security because of employees following shadow IT practices.

Shadow IT can allow hackers to steal employee and customer identities, company intellectual property, and cause companies to fail compliance audits. It can also open the door to enterprises accidentally breaking laws and exposes organisations to data exfiltration, malware, and phishing.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/05/05/shadow-it-risk/

• Hackers Used the Log4j Flaw to Gain Access Before Moving Across a Company's Network, Say Security Researchers

State-backed hacking groups are some of the most advanced cyber attack operations in the world - but criminals don't need to rely on them if they can exploit unpatched cyber security flaws.

A North Korean hacking and cyber espionage operation breached the network of an engineering firm linked to military and energy organisations by exploiting a cyber security vulnerability in Log4j.

First detailed in December, the vulnerability (CVE-2021-44228) allows attackers to remotely execute code and gain access to systems that use Log4j, a widely used Java logging library.

The ubiquitous nature of Log4j meant cyber security agencies urged organisations globally to apply security updates as quickly as possible, but months on from disclosure, many are still vulnerable to the flaw.

According to cyber security researchers at Symantec, one of those companies that was still vulnerable was an undisclosed engineering firm that works in the energy and military sectors. That vulnerability resulted in the company being breached when attackers exploited the gap on a public-facing VMware View server in February this year. From there, attackers were able to move around the network and compromise at least 18 computers.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/heres-how-hackers-used-the-log4j-flaw-to-gain-access-before-moving-across-a-companys-network/

• New Hacker Group Pursuing Corporate Employees Focused on Mergers and Acquisitions

[Explanatory note from Black Arrow: When a group of cyber attackers is identified by the cyber security community, it is given a code name usually composed of letters and digits. These groups are also sometimes referred to as APTs., or Advanced Persistent Threats, because the groups are highly skilled and are persistent in their attacks; they are often supported by their state government].

A newly discovered suspected espionage threat actor has been targeting employees focusing on mergers and acquisitions as well as large corporate transactions to facilitate bulk email collection from victim environments.

Mandiant is tracking the activity cluster under the uncategorised moniker UNC3524, citing a lack of evidence linking it to an existing group. However, some of the intrusions are said to mirror techniques used by different Russia-based hacking crews like APT28 and APT29.

"The high level of operational security, low malware footprint, adept evasive skills, and a large Internet of Things (IoT) device botnet set this group apart and emphasise the 'advanced' in Advanced Persistent Threat," the threat intelligence firm said in a report.

The initial access route is unknown but upon gaining a foothold, attack chains involving UNC3524 culminate in the deployment of a novel backdoor called QUIETEXIT for persistent remote access for as long as 18 months without getting detected in some cases.

https://thehackernews.com/2022/05/new-hacker-group-pursuing-corporate.html

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Threats

Ransomware

• Lockbit 2.0, Conti Dominate Ransomware Attack Activity - MSSP Alert: Cyber Security News for MSSPs & MDR Service Providers

• Twitter May Have Given User's Private Data to A Ransomware Hacker, Who Then Ran a Researcher Offline - CyberScoop

• US DoS Offers a Reward of Up To $15M For Info on Conti Ransomware Gang - Security Affairs

• Trend Micro Discovers AvosLocker Can Disable Antivirus Software (techtarget.com)

• Experts Analyse Conti and Hive Ransomware Gangs' Chats with Their Victims (thehackernews.com)

• New Ransomware Strains Linked to North Korean Govt Hackers (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Ransomware Attacks: Why Case Studies Provide Rare Learning Opportunities - MSSP Alert: Cybersecurity News for MSSPs & MDR Service Providers

• REvil Revival: Are Ransomware Gangs Ever Really Gone? (darkreading.com)

• What We've Learned in the 12 Months Since the Colonial Pipeline Attack (darkreading.com)

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

• MSPs Need a Layered Defence Against Phishing - MSSP Alert: Cyber Security News for MSSPs & MDR Service Providers

• Google SMTP Relay Service Abused for Sending Phishing Emails (bleepingcomputer.com)

• US DoD Scammed Out of $23M in Phishing Attack on Jet-Fuel Vendors (darkreading.com)

• 1000s of Phishing Emails Sent from NHS Inboxes - IT Security Guru

Malware

• This New Fileless Malware Hides Shellcode in Windows Event Logs (thehackernews.com)

• Raspberry Robin Spreads Via Removable USB Devices - Security Affairs

• Hackers Using PrivateLoader PPI Service to Distribute New NetDooka Malware (thehackernews.com)

Mobile

• Android Monthly Updates Are Out – Critical Bugs Found in Critical Places! – Naked Security (sophos.com)

IoT

• Unpatched DNS Bug Affects Millions of Routers and IoT Devices (bleepingcomputer.com)

• What Should I Know About Defending IoT Attack Surfaces? (darkreading.com)

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

• Scammer Infects His Own Machine with Spyware, Reveals True Identity (darkreading.com)

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs

• Crypto Hackers Stole More Than $370 Million In April Alone (vice.com)

• Ferrari Subdomain Hijacked to Push Fake Ferrari NFT Collection (bleepingcomputer.com)

Supply Chain

• NIST Issues Guidance for Addressing Software Supply-Chain Risk (darkreading.com)

Open Source

• Open-Source Security: It's Too Easy to Upload 'Devastating' Malicious Packages, Warns Google | ZDNet

• How Linux Became the New Bullseye for Bad Guys | SecurityWeek.Com

Passwords & Credential Stuffing

• Good End User Passwords Begin with A Well-Enforced Password Policy - Help Net Security

• 55% of People Rely on Their Memory To Manage Passwords - Help Net Security

• A Security Researcher Easily Found My Passwords and More: How My Digital Footprints Left Me Surprisingly Over-Exposed | ZDNet

• A Third of Americans Use Easy-to-Guess Pet Passwords (darkreading.com)

Spyware, Espionage & Cyber Warfare, including Russian Invasion of Ukraine

• Mandiant CEO: False-flag Ops a Red Line For Nation-States • The Register

• Anonymous and Ukraine IT Army Continue to Target Russian Entities - Security Affairs

• Pro-Ukraine Hackers Use Docker Images to DDoS Russian Sites (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Chinese Hackers Caught Stealing Intellectual Property from Multinational Companies (thehackernews.com)

• Russia Hammered by Pro-Ukrainian Hackers Following Invasion | Ars Technica

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Nation State Actors

Nation State Actors – Russia

• Russia-Linked APT29 Targets Diplomatic and Government Organisations - Security Affairs

• Russian Ransomware Group Claims Attack on Bulgarian Refugee Agency - CyberScoop

• Russia Cyber Attacks Raise Questions About Hacking Red Lines - Bloomberg

• Putin Threatens Supply Chains with Counter-Sanction Order • The Register

• Russian Hackers Targeting Diplomatic Entities in Europe, Americas, and Asia (thehackernews.com)

• China-linked APT Curious Gorge Targeted Russian Govt Agencies - Security Affairs

• Russia-Ukraine War Prompts Security Best Practices Refresher (techtarget.com)

Nation State Actors – China

• China-Linked Winnti APT Group Silently Stole Trade Secrets for Years: Report | SecurityWeek.Com

• State-Backed Chinese Hackers Target Russia - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• Chinese "Override Panda" Hackers Resurface With New Espionage Attacks (thehackernews.com)

• Experts Uncover New Espionage Attacks by Chinese 'Mustang Panda' Hackers (thehackernews.com)

• China Not Happy With South Korea Joining NATO Cyber Defense Center | SecurityWeek.Com

Nation State Actors – North Korea

• Security Researchers: Here's How the Lazarus Hackers Start Their Attacks | ZDNet

• US Sanctions Cryptocurrency Mixer Blender for Helping North Korea Launder Millions (thehackernews.com)

• VHD Ransomware Variant Linked to North Korean Cyber Army (darkreading.com)

Nation State Actors – Misc

• Stealthy APT Group Plunders Very Specific Corporate Email Accounts - Help Net Security

• UNC3524 APT Uses IP Cameras to Deploy Backdoors and Target Exchange - Security Affairs

• 1,000+ Attacks in 2 Years: How the SideWinder APT Sheds Its Skin (darkreading.com)

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Vulnerabilities

• CISA Adds Five Known Exploited Vulnerabilities to Catalogue | CISA

• Aruba and Avaya Network Switches Are Vulnerable to RCE Attacks (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Cisco Issues Patches for 3 New Flaws Affecting Enterprise NFVIS Software (thehackernews.com)

• F5 Warns of a New Critical BIG-IP Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (thehackernews.com)

• May 2022 Patch Tuesday Forecast: Look Beyond Just Application and OS Updates - Help Net Security

• Critical Cisco VM-Escape Bug Threatens Host Takeover (darkreading.com)

• Researchers Disclose Years-Old Vulnerabilities in Avast and AVG Antivirus (thehackernews.com)

• QNAP Releases Firmware Patches for 9 New Flaws Affecting NAS Devices (thehackernews.com)

• Multiple Vulnerabilities in Firefox Products Could Allow for Arbitrary Code Execution (cisecurity.org)

• Critical RCE Bug Reported in dotCMS Content Management Software (thehackernews.com)

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Sector Specific

Financial Services Sector

• German Finance Watchdog Sees 'Very Big' Risk of Cyber Attacks | SecurityWeek.Com

Telecoms

• Top Ransomware Attack Targets: Telecom Leapfrogs Healthcare - MSSP Alert: Cybersecurity News for MSSPs & MDR Service Providers

• Chinese Hackers Caught Exploiting Popular Antivirus Products to Target Telecom Sector (thehackernews.com)

Health/Medical/Pharma Sector

• Healthcare and Education Sectors Most Susceptible to Cyber Incidents - Infosecurity Magazine

• Phishing Operation Hits NHS Email Accounts • The Register

Education and Academia

• April Ransomware Attacks Slam US Universities (techtarget.com)

• Healthcare and Education Sectors Most Susceptible to Cyber Incidents - Infosecurity Magazine

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Other News

• WordPress Sites Getting Hacked ‘Within Seconds’ of TLS Certificates Being Issued | The Daily Swig (portswigger.net)

• Heroku: Cyber Attacker Used Stolen OAuth Tokens to Steal Customer Account Credentials (darkreading.com)

• Car Rental Company Sixt Hit by a Cyber Attack that Caused Disruptions - Security Affairs

• White House Says To Prepare For Cryptography-Cracking Quantum Computers - Information Security Buzz

• CMS-Based Sites Under Attack: The Latest Threats and Trends - Help Net Security

• Mozilla Finds Mental Health Apps Fail 'Spectacularly' at User Security, Data Policies | ZDNet

• Renew Focus on Web Application Security - MSSP Alert: Cybersecurity News for MSSPs & MDR Service Providers

• UK to Place Security Requirements on App Developers and Store Operators - Infosecurity Magazine

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As usual, contact us to help assess where your risks lie and to ensure you are doing all you can do to keep you and your business secure.

Look out for our ‘Cyber Tip Tuesday’ video blog and on our YouTube channel.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Links to articles are for interest and awareness and linking to or reposting external content does not endorse any service or product, likewise we are not responsible for the security of external links.

Black Arrow Cyber Advisory 04/05/2022 – Avaya and Aruba Switch Vulnerability

Executive Summary

A set of five vulnerabilities named “TLStorm 2.0” have been discovered, affecting some network switches produced by Aruba and Avaya. The vulnerabilities could allow a malicious party to remotely execute code on the devices, allowing access to data flowing through the device or configuration control of the device which could lead to further attacks.

What’s the risk to me or my business?

Network switches are the backbone of IT infrastructure that allows data to flow from different devices. These switches also provide the ability to segregate data, such as having a separate guest and corporate network. If exploited, these vulnerabilities could allow a malicious attacker to bypass a guest network and gain access to the corporate network, which exposes corporate infrastructure to further attacks. There is currently evidence these vulnerabilities are being used in the wild.

What can I do?

Confirm with your managed service provider if affected devices are in use within your organisation, and if the appropriate patches have been supplied to the devices. It is important to remember all network devices when considering software and firmware patching, not just Windows endpoints. Other mitigation steps include limiting the potential attack service by denying management portal access on guest network ports or limiting this specifically to a dedicated management port.

Technical Summary

There are a total of five vulnerabilities disclosed affecting Avaya and Aruba switches. Only four of these vulnerabilities were given CVE’s, as the fifth vulnerability was only found on a discontinued product line. All the vulnerabilities relate to the NanoSSL library, and it’s implementation by the vendors on the network switches. It’s worth noting that the library itself does not contain the vulnerabilities, these vulnerabilities are present due to the vendor not following the correct implementation guidelines for the library.

Avaya - CVE-2022-29860, CVE-2022-29861

·         ERS3500 Series

·         ERS3600 Series

·         ERS4900 Series

·         ERS5900 Series

Aruba - CVE-2022-23677 and CVE-2022-23676

·         Aruba 5400R Series

·         Aruba 3810 Series

·         Aruba 2920 Series

·         Aruba 2930F Series

·         Aruba 2930M Series

·         Aruba 2530 Series

·         Aruba 2540 Series

Further details can be found here, under “Technical Overview”: TLStorm 2.0 - Armis

Need help understanding your gaps, or just want some advice? Get in touch with us.

Black Arrow Cyber Advisory 03/05/2022 – Hacking tool disclosed for Privilege Escalation on Windows

Executive Summary

A privileged escalation hacking tool has been publicly disclosed, which allows an attacker to use the PowerShell to step through a process leading to local administrator access. Known as “KrbRelayUp” takes advantage of default configuration settings for Windows Domain environments, and the ability for local accounts to access Microsoft PowerShell. This attack requires a low-privilege account to be compromised, and could lead to further privilege escalation including compromising a domain administrator account.

What’s the risk to me or my business?

As the requirements for this attack are credentials to a low privileged account, and default configuration for Windows Active Directory, it is a likely path for an attacker to use once they have compromised an account in order to gain privileged access. This vulnerability affects any environments using either Local Domain Controllers, or a Hybrid between Azure and On-Premises Active Directory.

What can I do?

Contact your Managed Service Provider and request that tools such as “PSExec” and “PowerShell” are blocked for standard users, who would not require access to these tools typically used for administration purposes. Other mitigation options include enforcing “LDAP Signing” within active directory environments, however it is important to test the impact that making these changes may have on a production environment to avoid unexpected outcomes.

Technical Summary

The attack follows the following steps:

1.       Compromise/have access to low-privileged credentials linked to a Local Active Directory environment.

2.       Create a new machine account and add this to the domain.

3.       Obtain the SID for the machine account.

4.       Use the KrbRelay software to abuse the attribute “msDS-AllowedToActOnBehalfOfOtherIdentity” of the targeted computer account.

5.       Obtain privileged Silver Ticket for the local machine through Rebeus by performing a Resource-based Constrained Delegation attack (RBCD).

6.       Use the Silver Ticket to authenticate with local service manager, creating a new service as NT/System. This service now has local administrator access.

Further details can be found here:

GitHub - Dec0ne/KrbRelayUp: KrbRelayUp - a universal no-fix local privilege escalation in windows domain environments where LDAP signing is not enforced (the default settings). Privilege Escalation using KrbRelay and RBCD · GitHub

Need help understanding your gaps, or just want some advice? Get in touch with us.

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 29 April 2022

Welcome to this week’s Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing – a weekly digest, collated and curated by our cyber experts to provide senior and middle management with an easy to digest round up of the most notable threats, vulnerabilities, and cyber related news from the last week.

Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week

• Ransomware Attacks Surged to New Highs in 2021

Ransomware attacks are getting more frequent, more successful and more expensive.

Sixty-six percent of the organisations surveyed by Sophos for its annual State of Ransomware report admitted that they were hit with a ransomware attack last year, up from 37% in 2020. And 65 percent of those attacks were successful in encrypting their victims' data, up from 54 percent the year before.

On top of that, the average ransom paid by organisations for their most significant ransomware attack grew by nearly five times, to just over $800,000, while the number of organisations that paid ransoms of $1 million or more tripled to 11%, the UK-based cybersecurity company said. For its annual report, Sophos surveyed 5,600 organisations from 31 countries. A total of 965 of those polled shared details of their ransomware attacks.

The numbers aren't a huge surprise after a year of epic ransomware attacks that shut down everything from a major oil pipeline to one of the largest meat processors in the US. While both Colonial Pipeline and JBS US Holdings paid millions in ransom, the attacks paused their operations long enough to spark panic buying and drive prices up for consumers.

https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/ransomware-attacks-surged-to-new-highs-in-2021/#ftag=CAD-09-10aai5b

• NCSC and Allies Publish Advisory on The Most Commonly Exploited Vulnerabilities In 2021

The UK and international partners have published an advisory for public and private sector organisations on the 15 most commonly exploited vulnerabilities in 2021.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), a part of GCHQ, has jointly published an advisory with agencies in the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, showing that malicious cyber actors aggressively targeted newly disclosed critical software vulnerabilities across the public and private sectors worldwide.

Threat actors often geared their efforts towards targeting internet-facing systems, such as email and virtual private network (VPN) servers.

It also indicates that, to a lesser extent, actors continue to exploit publicly known – and often dated – vulnerabilities, some of which were routinely exploited in 2020 or earlier.

The advisory directs organisations to follow specific mitigation advice to protect against exploitation, which includes applying timely patches, using a centralised patch management system and replacing any software no longer supported by the vendor.

https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/news/ncsc-and-allies-publish-advisory-on-the-most-commonly-exploited-vulnerabilities-in-2021

•  Network Attacks Increased to a 3-Year High

WatchGuard Technologies’ Internet Security Report for Q4 2021 revealed all threats were up, whether they’re network attacks or malware.

When the pandemic started, their research team saw a big drop in malware being detected by network security devices. In this period, tech based jobs moved to remote work, which meant a lot of users were no longer browsing the internet and encountering bad things through the network security control at the office. That’s probably why network detection for malware dropped quite a bit at the beginning of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, network attacks continued to rise even through the pandemic, since the servers still lived at the offices and the cloud, and network security still protected those.

The big takeaway in Q4 2021 is that malware rose significantly, returning to normal levels. The reason might be the holiday season, but it’s most probably the fact that, at the end of last year, a lot of tech-based offices started reopening and offering employees to come back in, and thus there’s a bigger chance for network security controls to catch malware.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/04/25/network-attacks-q4-2021-video/

• World War Three Is Far More Likely Than Anyone Is Prepared to Admit

A Telegraph article looks at the Russia-Ukraine conflict and considers risks posed by new weapons and how the West’s failure to understand our enemies are raising the chances of a horrific conflict.

The fact is the world is becoming more, rather than less, dangerous: there are plenty of other wannabe Putins, and they are better equipped to sow death and destruction. Not only traditional and nuclear threats but bioterrorism is a growing worry and a major cyber attack or assault on transatlantic cables could be so devastating to an internet-based economy as to be seen as a declaration of war.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/04/27/world-war-three-far-likely-anyone-prepared-admit/

• The Ransomware Crisis Deepens, While Data Recovery Stalls

Higher probabilities of attack, soaring ransoms, and less chance of getting data back — the ransomware plague gets worse, and cyber insurance fails to be a panacea.

When it comes to ransomware, more companies are seeing attacks and have had data encrypted, according to research out this week. And even though more companies are backing up or paying ransom demands, less data was recovered in 2021 compared with the previous year.

For instance, in its "State of Ransomware 2022" report, cybersecurity firm Sophos found that 66% of surveyed companies had encountered ransomware in 2021, with two-thirds of those firms — or 43% overall — suffering from an actual attack that encrypted data. In its previous report covering 2020, the frequency of successful attacks was much smaller, with about 20% overall resulting in encryption.

The deteriorating cyberthreat landscape is largely due to the evolution of ransomware groups and their techniques, says Sean Gallagher, senior threat researcher with Sophos.

"Over the past couple of years, there has been a massive transition from ransomware to ransomware-as-a-service," he says. "There are very well-established [groups] that are doing these attacks, and as a result, the number of attacks companies are seeing has gone up."

Ransomware continues to plague companies with business-disrupting attacks and defy efforts by cybersecurity experts to rein in the operators behind the criminals’ campaigns. Not only did the portion of companies affected by ransomware more than double last year, but the mean ransomware payment more than quadrupled to $812,000, according to the Sophos report.

https://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/ransomware-crisis-deepens-data-recovery-stalls

• Ransoms Only Make Up 15% of Ransomware Costs

New research suggests that paying ransoms is only the tip of the cost iceberg when it comes to ransomware attacks.

Researchers at Check Point have revealed that the collateral damage of ransomware attacks make up costs roughly seven times higher than the ransom demanded by threat actors.

The costs include financial implications caused by incident response efforts, system restoration, legal fees, monitoring costs and the overall impact of business disruption.

Ransomware attacks are an increasingly popular attack method, typically involving stealing data from the victim, encrypting data and forcing them to pay for decryption and avoiding a data leak.

Check Point said in the report:

“Most other losses, including response and restoration costs, legal fees, monitoring costs, etc., are applied whether the extortion demand was paid or not. The year 2020 showed that the average total cost of a ransomware attack was more than seven times higher than the average ransom paid.”

https://www.itsecurityguru.org/2022/04/28/ransoms-only-make-up-15-of-ransomware-costs/

• Defending Your Business Against Russian Cyber Warfare

We are likely to see Russian state sponsored attacks escalate as the West continues to increase sanctions and support Ukraine.

The eyes of the world are focused on the war in Ukraine. As expected, Russia has targeted Ukraine with cyber attacks first, and much of the West is wondering when Russia will also retaliate against countries supporting Ukraine. Most agree that some attacks are already in progress, and the attacks against western entities are sure to escalate as the war continues and more sanctions are put in place. 

The first wave of companies targeted by the Russian state, and threat actors it supports, will be those that suspend Russian operations or take direct action to support Ukraine. Information operations and subversion against these companies will likely ensue. In the event of Russian cyberwarfare, reviewing the industries, styles, and objectives of their attacks can help organisations to prepare and implement more robust defences. These defences include actions both inside and outside an enterprise's perimeter.

https://www.securityweek.com/defending-your-business-against-russian-cyberwarfare

• 5-Year Vulnerability Trends Are Both Surprising and Sadly Predictable

What 5,800+ pentests show us: Companies have been struggling with the same known and preventable security bugs year over year. Bandwidth stands at the heart of the problem.

Cyber crime can cause major disruption when it comes to the sustainability and long-term success of companies. Teams want to have robust security but often struggle to meet that objective. It's crucial for security professionals to leverage insights into emerging trends in cybersecurity to pinpoint which vulnerabilities put organisations at the greatest risk, and Cobalt's "State of Pentesting" reports explore how to achieve efficiency to strengthen security.

The "State of Pentesting 2022" surveyed 602 cybersecurity and software development professionals and analysed data from 2,380 pentests conducted over the course of 2021 to pull key insights that are relevant to security and development teams when it comes to fixing vulnerabilities.

As a result of the data collected, the top five most common vulnerability categories outlined in this year's "State of Pentesting" report include:

·       Server Security Misconfigurations

·       Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)

·       Broken Access Control

·       Sensitive Data Exposure

·       Authentication and Sessions

Surprisingly — yet predictably — these vulnerability categories have stayed at the top of the list for at least the last five years in a row. They're also recognisable to those who are familiar with OWASP Top 10 list for Web Application Security Risks.

The majority of these findings are connected to missing configurations, outdated software, and a lack of access management controls — all common and easily preventable security flaws. So, what's holding companies back from preventing well-known security flaws? Why does this come as a surprise?

https://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities-threats/5-year-vulnerability-trends-are-both-surprising-and-sadly-predictable

• Cisco Talos Observes 'Novel Increase' in APT Activity in Q1

Advanced persistent threat actors have been busy over the past few months, according to Cisco Talos.

The security vendor released its Quarterly Trends report, which examined incident response trends from engagements in the first quarter of 2022. While ransomware remained the top threat, as it has for the past two years now, Cisco observed a new trend of increased APT activity. The Cisco Talos Incident Response (CTIR) team attributed some of the increase to groups like Iranian state-sponsored Muddywater and China-based Mustang Panda.

One suspected Chinese APT, dubbed "Deep Panda," was connected to exploitation of the Log4j flaw that was discovered last year in the widely used Java logging tool. Log4j exploitation was the second most common threat for Q1 behind ransomware, indicating the bug is a growing threat despite a patch being available.

https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/news/252516380/Cisco-Talos-observes-novel-increase-in-APT-activity-in-Q1

• Deepfakes Set to Be Used in Organised Crime

New research from Europol suggests that deepfakes will be used extensively in organised crime operations.

Europol has warned of a projected rise in the use of deepfake technology by organised crime organisations.

Deepfakes involve the use of artificial intelligence to create realistic audio and audio-visual content “that convincingly shows people saying or doing things they never did, or create personas that never existed in the first place.”

Law enforcement and the challenge of deepfakes is the first published analysis of the Europol Innovation Lab’s Observatory function, warning that law enforcement agencies must rapidly improve skills and technologies utilised by officers in order to keep up with criminal deepfake use.

The analysis report highlighted how deepfakes are used primarily in disinformation, non-consensual pornography and document fraud campaigns, which will grow more realistic in years to come.

https://www.itsecurityguru.org/2022/04/29/deepfakes-set-to-be-used-in-organised-crime/

• Smart Contract Developers Not Really Focused on Security. Who Knew?

"Smart contracts," which consist of self-executing code on a blockchain, are not nearly as smart as the label suggests.

They are at least as error-prone as any other software, where historically the error rate has been about one bug per hundred lines of code.

And they may be shoddier still due to disinterest in security among smart contract developers, and perhaps inadequate technical resources.

Multi-million dollar losses attributed to smart contract bugs – around $31m stolen from MonoX via smart contract exploit and ~$34m locked into a contract forever due to bad increment math, to name a few – illustrate the consequences.

https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/26/smart_contract_losses/

• Tractor-Trailer Brake Controllers Vulnerable to Remote Hacker Attacks

We’ve been predicting this for a while now and the move to more and more connected systems, autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles, how long until someone is subject to threats to disconnect a vehicle’s brakes as they are driving along a motorway? Who wouldn’t pay the ransom demand in that scenario?

A report this week is related to articulated lorries but this is something that will be affecting all vehicles unless safeguards are put in place.

Researchers have analysed the cyber security of heavy vehicles and discovered that the brake controllers found on many tractor-trailers in North America are susceptible to remote hacker attacks.

The research was conducted by the US National Motor Freight Traffic Association (NMFTA), which is a non-profit organisation that represents roughly 500 motor freight carriers, in collaboration with Assured Information Security, Inc.

NMFTA has been analysing the cyber security of heavy vehicles since 2015 and it has periodically disclosed its findings. The latest report from the organisation came in early March, when the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) also issued an advisory to describe two vulnerabilities affecting trailer brake controllers.

The flaws described in the CISA advisory are related to the power line communications (PLC) between tractors and trailers, specifically the PLC4TRUCKS technology, which uses a standard named J2497 for bidirectional communications between the tractor and trailer without adding new wires.

https://www.securityweek.com/tractor-trailer-brake-controllers-vulnerable-remote-hacker-attacks

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Threats

Ransomware

• Prevent HEAT Attacks to Foil Ransomware Incidents - Help Net Security

• 4-Hour Time-to-Ransom Seen in Quantum Attack as Accelerated Ransomware Increasingly Common | SecurityWeek.Com

• Conti Ransomware Operations Surge Despite Recent Leak - Security Affairs

• Beware: Onyx Ransomware Destroys Files Instead of Encrypting Them (bleepingcomputer.com)

• FBI says BlackCat Rust-Based Ransomware Scratched 60+ Orgs • The Register

• REvil Ransomware Attacks Resume, But Operators Are Unknown (techtarget.com)

• Fake Windows 10 Updates Infect You with Magniber Ransomware (bleepingcomputer.com)

• New Black Basta Ransomware Springs into Action with A Dozen Breaches (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Companies Can't Get Enough of Good Ol' Tape Storage For Ransomware Resistance | PC Gamer

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

• Phishing Goes KISS: Don’t Let Plain and Simple Messages Catch You Out! – Naked Security (sophos.com)

• Phishing Attacks Benefiting from Shady SEO Practices (techtarget.com)

• Cyber Criminals Deliver IRS Tax Scams and Phishing Campaigns by Mimicking Government Vendors - Help Net Security

Malware

• Emotet Malware Now Installs Via Powershell in Windows Shortcut Files (bleepingcomputer.com)

• It’s Called BadUSB for a Reason - Security Affairs

• New RIG Exploit Kit Campaign Infecting Victims' PCs with RedLine Stealer (thehackernews.com)

• Emotet Tests New Attack Techniques: Sign of Things to Come? | CSO Online

• Cyber Criminals Using New Malware Loader 'Bumblebee' in the Wild (thehackernews.com)

• New Powerful Prynt Stealer Malware Sells for Just $100 Per Month (bleepingcomputer.com)

Mobile

• These Are Signs That Your Phone Could Be Infected with Malware - PhoneArena

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

• Interpol: We Can't Arrest Our Way Out of Cyber Crime • The Register

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking/NFTs

• Scammers Are Copying News Sites To Push Elon Musk-themed Crypto Scams - Information Security Buzz

• Why Did Hackers Target DeFi L1, L2 Solutions for a $1.2 Billion Theft in 2022? (watcher.guru)

• Intuit Sued Over Phishing Attack Targeting Trezor Crypto Wallet Users - Decrypt

• Crypto Trading Fund Partners Accused of Fraud - Infosecurity Magazine

• LemonDuck Botnet Evades Detection in Cryptomining Attacks (techtarget.com)

• Bored Ape Yacht Club Instagram Hacked, NFTs Worth Millions Stolen (vice.com)

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

• Don't Ignore Risks Lurking Within Your Own Network - Help Net Security

AML/CFT

• Two More Indicted Over North Korean Sanctions Evasion Plot - Infosecurity Magazine

• FCA: Challenger Banks Failing to Spot Money Launderers - Infosecurity Magazine

Denial of Service DoS/DDoS

• Cloudflare Stomps On 15.3 Million Requests Per Second DDoS • The Register

• How a New Generation of IoT Botnets Is Amplifying DDoS Attacks | CSO Online

• Attackers Remain Persistent and Indiscriminate As Multi-Vector DDoS Attacks Continue To Rise - Help Net Security

• DDoS Attacks Target Healthcare, Education Markets, Research Finds - MSSP Alert

Cloud

• Is Cloud Critical Infrastructure? Prep Now for Provider Outages (techtarget.com)

• Shadow IT Is A Top Concern Related To SaaS Adoption - Help Net Security

• Security Turbulence in the Cloud: Survey Says… | Threatpost

Travel

• Finnish Hotels' Data Compromised - Infosecurity Magazine

Parental Controls and Child Safety

• Hackers Sexually Extort Kids with Stolen Data: Report (gizmodo.com)

Spyware, Espionage & Cyber Warfare, including Russian Invasion of Ukraine

• The Hybrid War in Ukraine - Microsoft On the Issues

• Data-Wiper Malware Strains Surge Amid Ukraine Invasion • The Register

• Russia Is Being Hacked at an Unprecedented Scale | WIRED

• Chinese Hackers Targeting Russian Military Personnel with Updated PlugX Malware (thehackernews.com)

• Cyber Attacks Rage in Ukraine, Support Military Operations | Threatpost

• Ongoing DDoS Attacks from Compromised Sites Hit Ukraine - Security Affairs

• Anonymous Hacked Russian PSCB Commercial Bank and Energy Firms - Security Affairs

• Russia-Linked Threat Actors Launched Hundreds of Cyber Attacks on Ukraine - Security Affairs

• Russian Hacktivists Launch DDoS Attacks on Romanian Govt Sites (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Cyber Espionage APT Now Identified as Three Separate Actors | Threatpost

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Nation State Actors

Nation State Actors – Russia

• Microsoft Documents Over 200 Cyber Attacks by Russia Against Ukraine (thehackernews.com)

• Russian Govt Impersonators Target Telcos in Phishing Attacks (bleepingcomputer.com)

• The Subject of Trusting ‘Russian’ Applications - Information Security Buzz

Nation State Actors – North Korea

• Nation-state Hackers Target Journalists with Goldbackdoor Malware | Threatpost

Nation State Actors – Iran

• Iran's Rocket Kitten Likely Behind VMware Exploitation • The Register

Nation State Actors – Misc

• Case Study: Why It's Difficult To Attribute Nation-State Attacks (techtarget.com)

• Experts Detail 3 Hacking Teams Working Under the Umbrella of TA410 Group (thehackernews.com)

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Vulnerability Management

• Five Eyes Nations Reveal 2021's Fifteen Most-Exploited Flaws • The Register

• Experts Warn of A Surge In Zero-Day Flaws Observed And Exploited in 2021 - Security Affairs

• Cyber Criminals are Feasting Over 'Zero-day Hacks' While the World Watches (analyticsinsight.net)

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Vulnerabilities

• CISA Adds 7 Vulnerabilities to List Of Bugs Exploited In Attacks (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Cisco Patches 11 High-Severity Vulnerabilities in Security Products | SecurityWeek.Com

• Update Now! Critical Patches for Chrome and Edge | Malwarebytes Labs

• Microsoft Patches Pair of Dangerous Vulnerabilities in Azure PostgreSQL (darkreading.com)

• Log4j Attack Surface Remains Massive (darkreading.com)

• Microsoft Discovers New Privilege Escalation Flaws in Linux Operating System (thehackernews.com)

• Millions of Java Apps Remain Vulnerable to Log4Shell | Threatpost

• Organisations Warned of Attacks Exploiting WSO2 Vulnerability | SecurityWeek.Com

• Critical Vulnerabilities Leave Some Network-Attached Storage Devices Open to Attack (darkreading.com)

• Vulnerability Found in WordPress Anti-Malware Firewall (searchenginejournal.com)

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Sector Specific

Financial Services Sector

• Private Investigator Admits Role in Hedge Fund Hack - Infosecurity Magazine

Government

• Governments Under Attack Must Think Defensively - Help Net Security

• Data Breach Disrupts UK Army Recruitment - Infosecurity Magazine

Health/Medical/Pharma Sector

• French Hospital Group Disconnects Internet After Hackers Steal Data (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Medical Software Firm Fined €1.5M for Leaking Data of 490k Patients (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Data breach at US healthcare provider ARcare impacts 345,000 individuals | The Daily Swig (portswigger.net)

• DDoS Attacks Target Healthcare, Education Markets, Research Finds - MSSP Alert

• Smile Brands Breach Impacts 2.5 Million Individuals - Infosecurity Magazine

CNI, OT, ICS, IIoT and SCADA

• Why Is It So Easy To Break Into The Systems That Run The World’s Most Critical, Expert Weighs In - Information Security Buzz

• Chickens Baked Alive Due to Computer Glitch - Infosecurity Magazine

Education and Academia

• Universities Lose Over £2m to Ransomware - IT Security Guru

• DDoS Attacks Target Healthcare, Education Markets, Research Finds - MSSP Alert

Gaming/Gambling

• New APT Group Earth Berberoka Targets Gambling Websites With Old and New Malware (trendmicro.com)

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Reports Published in the Last Week

• Cisco Talos Intelligence Group - Comprehensive Threat Intelligence: Quarterly Report: Incident Response trends in Q1 2022

• Internet Security Report - Q4 2021 | WatchGuard Technologies

• State of Pentesting Report 2022 | Cobalt

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Other News

• SolarWinds Breach Lawsuits: 6 Takeaways for CISOs | CSO Online

• 41% Of Businesses Had an API Security Incident Last Year - Help Net Security

• Security Leaders Relying More Heavily on MSPs Amid Talent Crunch - Help Net Security

• 2022 Security Priorities: Staffing and Remote Work (darkreading.com)

• GitHub: How Stolen OAuth Tokens Helped Breach Dozens of Orgs (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Why Companies Should Focus on Preventing Privilege Escalation (techtarget.com)

• German Wind Turbine Firm Hit by 'Targeted, Professional Cyber Attack' | SecurityWeek.Com

• 308,000 Exposed Databases Discovered, Proper Management Is Key - Help Net Security

• Lapsus$ targeting SharePoint, VPNs and virtual machines (techtarget.com)

• Indian Govt Orders Organisations to Report Security Breaches Within 6 Hours to CERT-In (thehackernews.com)

• Top Five Post-Pandemic Priorities for Cyber Security Leaders - Help Net Security

• Security Spending Set to Hit $198bn by 2025 - Infosecurity Magazine

• Companies Poorly Prepared to Meet CCPA, CPRA and GDPR Compliance Requirements - Help Net Security

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As usual, contact us to help assess where your risks lie and to ensure you are doing all you can do to keep you and your business secure.

Look out for our ‘Cyber Tip Tuesday’ video blog and on our YouTube channel.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Links to articles are for interest and awareness and linking to or reposting external content does not endorse any service or product, likewise we are not responsible for the security of external links.

Black Arrow Cyber Advisory 26/04/2022 – Actively exploited vulnerability affecting Microsoft Exchange Server (on-premise)

Executive Summary

A vulnerability which was previously disclosed in May 2021 and confirmed to be actively exploited in August 2021 is still being actively exploited by malicious actors on Microsoft Exchange systems that have not been patched. This vulnerability can be exploited by any compromised user account that can access an unpatched exchange server using PowerShell, and is a potential ingress point for further attacks including ransomware. This vulnerability relates to Microsoft Exchange instances that are either ‘on premises’, importantly this includes any IT provider hosted private cloud instances.

What’s the risk to my business?

The initial exploit required related CVE notices for the three vulnerabilities known as ‘ProxyShell’ were classified as two critical and one medium. However, it is now being actively exploited with only the medium vulnerability used to deliver ransomware attacks to unpatched systems. The compromised account does not need administrative access and could be any account which makes phishing a very likely vector for initial compromise.

What can I do?

If your business is using Microsoft Exchange on-premise, ensure that the appropriate security updates have been applied. If Microsoft Exchange is being hosted by an MSP, then ensure that the MSP confirms the vulnerabilities have been patched. As these security updates are for Exchange which facilitates business email, the application of these patches can involve system downtime. Since these vulnerabilities are being actively exploited it is now recommended that the patches are applied as soon as possible.

Technical Summary

The following Microsoft Exchange products are affected by this vulnerability: Microsoft Exchange Server 2019, 2016 and 2013. To address this, KB5003435 was issued which targets four CVE vulnerabilities: CVE-2021-31195, CVE-2021-31198, CVE-2021-31207 and CVE-2021-31209.

Further information on the security update can be found here, including the specific updates for different systems, and troubleshooting steps if the update is not applying correctly. Details on each individual CVE can also be found through this link: Description of the security update for Microsoft Exchange Server 2019, 2016, and 2013: May 11, 2021 (KB5003435)

Need help understanding your gaps, or just want some advice? Get in touch with us.

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 22 April 2022

Welcome to this week’s Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing – a weekly digest, collated and curated by our cyber experts to provide senior and middle management with an easy to digest round up of the most notable threats, vulnerabilities, and cyber related news from the last week.

Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week

• Why Ransomware Attacks Prefer Small Business Targets Rather Than Rich Enterprises

Enterprise businesses with 25,000 employees+ are less likely to get hit by a ransomware attack than smaller businesses — even though big companies typically can afford to pay higher ransoms, the 2022 CyberEdge Cyberthreat Defense Report concluded.

What explains hackers taking aim at small businesses more frequently than enterprise giants?  The answer: Damaging a critical infrastructure facility or similar disruptions are certain to catch the eye of federal law enforcement, or national governments — something that no hacker wants, CyberEdge said. Smaller to medium-sized firms, as it turns out, get hit more frequently by ransomware attacks, on average at roughly 70 percent, the report said.

Overall, some 71 percent of organisations have been bitten by ransomware in 2022, up a point and a half from last year and by 8.5 points in 2020. It’s companies of 10,000 to 24,999 employees that are the sweet spot for ransomware hackers, nearly 75 percent of which are victimised by cyber extortionists.

The extensive study, which surveyed 1,200 security decision makers and practitioners employed by companies of greater than 500 people in 17 countries across 19 industries, is geared to helping gauge their internal practices and investments against those of their counterparts in other parts of the world.

https://www.msspalert.com/cybersecurity-research/why-ransomware-attacks-prefer-small-business-targets-rather-than-rich-enterprises/

• Ransomware Plagues Finance Sector as Cyber Attacks Get More Complex

Cyber criminals have evolved from hacking wire transfers to targeting market data, as ransomware continues to hit financial firms, says a new VMware report. Here's what to do about it.

Ransomware plagues financial institutions as they face increasingly complex threats over previous years owing to the changing behaviour of cyber criminal cartels, according to VMware's latest Modern Bank Heists report.

This has happened as the cyber crime cartels have evolved beyond wire transfer frauds to target market strategies, take over brokerage accounts, and island-hop into banks, according to the report.

For the report, VMware surveyed 130 financial sector CISOs and security leaders from across different regions including North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Central and South America, and Africa.

Report findings were consistent with observations by other security experts. "The Secret Service, in its investigative capacity to protect the nation's financial payment systems and financial infrastructure, has seen an evolution and increase in complex cyber-enabled fraud," says Jeremy Sheridan, former assistant director at the US Secret Service. "The persistent, inadequate security of systems connected to the internet provides opportunity and methodology."

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3657875/ransomware-plagues-finance-sector-as-cyberattacks-get-more-complex.html

• 76% of Organisations Worldwide Expect to Suffer a Cyber Attack This Year

Ransomware, phishing/social engineering, denial of service (DoS) attacks, and the business fallout of a data breach rank as the top concerns of global organisations, a new study shows.

The newly published Cyber Risk Index, a study by Trend Micro and the Ponemon Institute, shows that more than three-quarters of global organisations expect to suffer a cyber attack in the next 12 months — 25% of which say an attack is "very likely."

More than 80% of the 3,400 CISO and IT professionals and managers surveyed say their organisations were hit with one or more successful cyber attacks in the past 12 months, and 35% suffered seven or more attacks, according to the report, which covers the second half of 2021.

https://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/76-of-organizations-worldwide-expect-to-suffer-a-cyberattack-this-year

• Most Email Security Approaches Fail to Block Common Threats

A full 89 percent of organisations experienced one or more successful email breaches during the previous 12 months, translating into big-time costs.

On overwhelming number of security teams believe their email security systems to be ineffective against the most serious inbound threats, including ransomware.

That’s according to a survey of business customers using Microsoft 365 for email commissioned by Cyren and conducted by Osterman Research, which examined concerns with phishing, business email compromise (BEC), and ransomware threats, attacks that became costly incidents, and preparedness to deal with attacks and incidents.

“Security team managers are most concerned that current email security solutions do not block serious inbound threats (particularly ransomware), which requires time for response and remediation by the security team before dangerous threats are triggered by users,” according to the report, released Wednesday.

Less than half of those surveyed said that their organisations can block delivery of email threats. And, correspondingly, less than half of organisations rank their currently deployed email security solutions as effective.

https://threatpost.com/email-security-fail-block-threats/179370/

• Financial Leaders Grappling with More Aggressive and Sophisticated Attack Methods

VMware released a report which takes the pulse of the financial industry’s top CISOs and security leaders on the changing behaviour of cyber criminal cartels and the defensive shift of the financial sector.

The report found that financial institutions are facing increased destructive attacks and falling victim to ransomware more than in years past, as sophisticated cyber crime cartels evolve beyond wire transfer fraud to now target market strategies, take over brokerage accounts and island hop into banks.

In the Modern Bank Heists report, 63% of financial institutions admitted experiencing an increase in destructive attacks, with cyber criminals leveraging this method as a means to burn evidence as part of a counter incident response.

Additionally, 74% experienced at least one ransomware attack over the past year, with 63% paying the ransom. When asked about the nation-state actors behind these attacks, the majority of financial instructions stated that Russia posed the greatest concern, as geopolitical tension continues to escalate in cyberspace.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/04/21/cybercriminal-cartels-financial-sector/

• Hackers Sneak Malware into Resumes Sent to Corporate Hiring Managers

A new set of phishing attacks delivering the ‘more_eggs’ malware has been observed striking corporate hiring managers with bogus resumes as an infection vector, a year after potential candidates looking for work on LinkedIn were lured with weaponised job offers.

"This year the more_eggs operation has flipped the social engineering script, targeting hiring managers with fake resumes instead of targeting jobseekers with fake job offers," eSentire's research and reporting lead, Keegan Keplinger, said in a statement.

The Canadian cyber security company said it identified and disrupted four separate security incidents, three of which occurred at the end of March. Targeted entities include a US-based aerospace company, an accounting business located in the UK, a law firm, and a staffing agency, both based out of Canada.

The malware, suspected to be the handiwork of a threat actor called Golden Chickens (aka Venom Spider), is a stealthy, modular backdoor suite capable of stealing valuable information and conducting lateral movement across the compromised network.

"More_eggs achieves execution by passing malicious code to legitimate windows processes and letting those windows processes do the work for them," Keplinger said. The goal is to leverage the resumes as a decoy to launch the malware and sidestep detection.

https://thehackernews.com/2022/04/hackers-sneak-moreeggs-malware-into.html

• West Warns of Russian Cyber Attacks as Concerns Rise Over Putin’s Nuclear Rhetoric

Cyber crime groups have publicly pledged support for Russia, western officials worry about Putin’s reliance on nuclear threats and the battle for Mariupol in Ukraine grinds on.

The US and four of its closest allies have warned that “evolving intelligence” shows that Russia is contemplating cyber attacks on countries backing Ukraine, as the Kremlin’s frustration grows at its failure to make military gains.

Vladimir Putin used the launch on Wednesday of a powerful new Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), capable of carrying ten or more warheads, to make nuclear threats against western countries.

The Sarmat has long been in development and test flights were initially due to start in 2017. The Pentagon confirmed that the US had been given notice of the test and was not alarmed. Western officials are more concerned by the increasing emphasis Moscow puts on its nuclear arsenal as its conventional forces have faltered in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian army continued to put up resistance in the besieged and devastated city of Mariupol, but Putin’s Chechen ally, Ramzan Kadyrov, predicted that the last stand of the port’s defenders at the Azovstal steel works would fall on Thursday.

The Kremlin has made repeated threats against the many countries that have been supplying Ukraine’s army with modern weapons, and members of the “Five Eyes” intelligence sharing network – the US, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – predicted Moscow could also work with cyber crime groups to launch attacks on governments, institutions and businesses.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/21/west-warns-of-russian-cyber-attacks-as-concerns-rise-over-putins-nuclear-rhetoric

• Criminals Adopting New Methods To Bypass Improved Defences, Says Zscaler

The number of phishing attacks worldwide jumped 29 percent last year as threat actors countered stronger enterprise defences with newer methods, according to researchers with Zscaler's ThreatLabz research team.

Cyber criminals have adapted to multi-factor authentication (MFA), employee security awareness training, and security controls by broadening who and where they will attack.

While the United States remained the country with the most phishing attempts, others are seeing faster growth in the number of incidents – exploiting new vectors like SMS and lowering the barrier of entry for launching attacks through pre-built tools made available on the market.

"Phishing attacks continue to remain one of the most prevalent attack vectors, often serving as a starting point for more advanced next stage attacks that may result in a large-scale breach," Deepen Desai, CISO and vice president of security research and operations at Zscaler, told The Register.

https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/20/phishing-attempts-on-rise-zscaler/

• Cyber Criminals Are ‘Drinking the Tears’ of Ukrainians

In biology, when an insect drinks the tears of a large creature, it is called lachryphagy. And in cyberspace, malicious actors are likewise “drinking tears” by exploiting humanitarian concerns about the war in Ukraine for profit. Different forms of deception include tricking people into donating to bogus charities, clicking on Ukraine-themed malicious links and attachments, and even impersonating officials to extort payment for rescuing loved ones.

It is an unfortunate reality that cyber opportunists are engaging in lachryphagy to exploit humanitarian concerns about the war for profit or data collection. To date, one of the largest cryptocurrency scams involving fraudulent Ukrainian relief payments totalled $50 million in March, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Immediately following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, cybersecurity companies warned the public that criminals were preying on Ukrainian relief fundraising efforts with cryptocurrency scams. Bitdefender Labs reports that cyber criminals have impersonated Ukrainian government entities and charitable organisations such as UNICEF, and the Australian humanitarian agency, Act for Peace. “Some [scammers] are even pretending to be Wladimir Klitschko, whose brother Vitali is mayor of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv,” according to the BBC.

https://thehill.com/opinion/cybersecurity/3273636-cyber-criminals-are-drinking-the-tears-of-ukrainians/?rl=1

• Hackers For Hire Attempt to Destroy Hedge Fund Manager's Reputation

Hackers bombarded a British hedge fund manager with 3,000 emails and fake news stories about his mortgage in an effort to destroy his reputation after being hired by a corporate rival.

Criminals even sought to gain personal information about Matthew Earl by pretending to be his sister in a three-year campaign when he raised concerns over the controversial German payments company Wirecard.

Mr Earl, a former City analyst who runs the hedge fund ShadowFall, said he was targeted by a group called Dark Basin.

This group has been linked to Aviram Azari, who this week pleaded guilty in New York to a conspiracy to target journalists and critics of Wirecard using phishing emails.

Mr Earl said the hacking attempts started in 2016 after ShadowFall, nicknamed the “dark destroyer” in the City, criticised the financial performance of Wirecard. The German company was later mired in a series of accounting scandals and went bust.

He said: “I was being sent very targeted emails, which were crafted with personal information about my interests, friends and family’s details. They were very specific.”

Mr Earl received news stories that appeared to be from media outlets such as Reuters and Bloomberg. Another email appeared to be sent by his sister, sharing family photographs, he added.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/04/21/reign-terror-hackers-hire-ramp-corporate-espionage/

• New Threat Groups and Malware Families Emerging

Mandiant announced the findings of an annual report that provides timely data and insights based on frontline investigations and remediations of high-impact cyber attacks worldwide. The 2022 report––which tracks investigation metrics between October 1, 2020 and December 31, 2021—reveals over 1,100 new threat groups and 733 new malware families.

The report also notes a realignment and retooling of China cyber espionage operations to align with the implementation of China’s 14th Five-Year Plan in 2021. The report warns that the national-level priorities included in the plan “signal an upcoming increase in China-nexus actors conducting intrusion attempts against intellectual property or other strategically important economic concerns, as well as defence industry products and other dual-use technologies over the next few years.”

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/04/22/adversaries-innovating-and-adapting/

Economic Warfare: Attacks on Critical Infrastructure Part of Geopolitical Conflict

We’ve known for years that since at least March of 2016, Russian government threat actors have been targeting multiple U.S. critical infrastructure sectors including the energy, nuclear, commercial facilities, water, aviation, and critical manufacturing sectors. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), and other agencies have acknowledged this for quite some time in many of their technical alerts and statements.

In the intervening years, with the acceleration of digital transformation, cyber criminals and nation-state actors have increasingly set their sights on these sectors. The convergence of physical and digital assets brings competitive advantage but also inevitable risks. Attacks against hospitals, oil pipelines, food supply chains, and other critical infrastructure, have brought into sharp focus the vulnerability of cyber-physical systems (CPS) and the impact on lives and livelihoods when they are disrupted. Now, overwhelming signs indicate critical infrastructure companies are in the bullseye of geopolitical conflict.

https://www.securityweek.com/economic-warfare-attacks-critical-infrastructure-part-geopolitical-conflict

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Threats

Ransomware

• How Ready Are Organisations to Manage and Recover From A Ransomware Attack? - Help Net Security

• FBI: BlackCat Ransomware Breached At Least 60 Entities Worldwide (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Ransomware: This Gang Is Getting a Lot Quicker at Encrypting Networks | ZDNet

• Hive Hackers Are Exploiting Microsoft Exchange Servers in Ransomware Spree | ZDNet

• REvil's TOR Sites Come Alive to Redirect To New Ransomware Operation (bleepingcomputer.com)

• PYSA Ransomware Attacks: Here's What MSSPs Need to Know - MSSP Alert

• An Investigation of the BlackCat Ransomware via Trend Micro Vision One

• REvil Resurrected? Ransomware Crew Appears to Be Back • The Register

• FBI Warning: Ransomware Gangs Are Going After This Lucrative but Unexpected Target | ZDNet

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

• LinkedIn Brand Takes Lead as Most Impersonated In Phishing Attacks (bleepingcomputer.com)

• FBI Warns of 'Reverse' Instant Payments Phishing Schemes | SecurityWeek.Com

• Spreading Malware Through Community Phishing - Help Net Security

Malware

• Windows Malware Can Steal Social Media Credentials and Banking Logins (komando.com)

• Emotet Botnet Switches to 64-bit Modules, Increases Activity (bleepingcomputer.com)

• New SolarMarker Malware Variant Using Updated Techniques to Stay Under the Radar (thehackernews.com)

• Emotet Reestablishes Itself at The Top Of The Malware World • The Register

Mobile

• Millions of Android Users at Risk Of Attack After Widespread Security Issue Uncovered | TechRadar

BYOD

• 60% of Companies using BYOD Face Serious Security Risks - Help Net Security

IoT

• How to Secure Smart Home (IOT) Devices | Reviews by Wirecutter (nytimes.com)

• New Stealthy BotenaGo Malware Variant Targets DVR Devices (bleepingcomputer.com)

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

• Russian Hackers Are Seeking Alternative Money-Laundering Options (bleepingcomputer.com)

• How Russia Is Isolating Its Own Cyber Criminals (darkreading.com)

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking

• Hackers Hammer SpringShell Vulnerability In Attempt To Install Cryptominers | Ars Technica

• Beanstalk DeFi Platform Loses $182 Million In Flash-Loan Attack (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Yet Another Phishing Attack? Terra Users Lose $4.3 Million, According To Security Firm (watcher.guru)

• Hackers Steal $655K After Picking MetaMask Seed from iCloud Backup (bleepingcomputer.com)

• LemonDuck Botnet Plunders Docker Cloud Instances in Cryptocurrency Crime Wave | ZDNet

Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime

• Security Lessons From a Payment Fraud Attack (darkreading.com)

• Scammers Snatch Up Expired Domains, Vexing Google | TechCrunch

Insurance

• Cyber Insurance and the Changing Global Risk Environment - Security Affairs

Dark Web

• Experts Spotted Industrial Spy, A New Stolen Data Marketplace - Security Affairs

Supply Chain and Third Parties

• Strength in Unity: Why It's Especially Important to Strengthen Your Supply Chain Now (darkreading.com)

• More Than Half of Initial Infections in Cyber Attacks Come Via Exploits, Supply Chain Compromises (darkreading.com)

Cloud

• IT Leaders Require Deeper Security Insights to Confidently Manage Multi-Cloud Workloads - Help Net Security

• Rethinking Cyber-Defence Strategies in the Public-Cloud Age | Threatpost

• Cyber Criminals Are Shifting Their Gaze To Kubernetes - Information Security Buzz

Passwords & Credential Stuffing

• What Is Peppering in Password Security and How Does It Work? (makeuseof.com)

Digital Transformation

• The Price of An Accelerated Digital Transformation - Help Net Security

Spyware, Espionage & Cyber Warfare, including Russian Invasion of Ukraine

• Moving Towards Defence in Depth Under The Grey Skies Of Conflict - Help Net Security

• Locked Shields ‘Live Fire’ Cyber Drills to be Held as War in Ukraine Continues - Bloomberg

• Russian-Linked Shuckworm Crew Ups Attacks on Ukraine • The Register

• Russian Gamaredon APT Continues to Target Ukraine - Security Affairs

• Phishing Attacks Using the Topic "Azovstal" Targets Entities in Ukraine - Security Affairs

• Hackers Claim to Target Russia with Cyber Attacks and Leaks - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

• The Anonymous Collective Hacked Other Russian Organisations - Security Affairs

• Spyware Was Used Against Catalan Targets and UK Prime Minister and Foreign Office | CSO Online

• Stalkerware Detection Trends: Monitor and Spyware Findings - MSSP Alert

• Catalan Chief Accuses Spain's Intelligence Agency of Hacking | SecurityWeek.Com

• Anomaly 6 Tracked NSA and CIA Spies as Product Demo: Report (gizmodo.com)

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Nation State Actors

Nation State Actors – Russia

• Five Eyes Nations Warn of Russian Cyber Attacks Against Critical Infrastructure (thehackernews.com)

• NATO Locked Shields War Games Prep for Real Russian Cyber Attack (gizmodo.com)

• The Russian Cyber Threat Is Here to Stay and NATO Needs To Understand It | Fox News

• A Russian Cyber Attack Is Coming —Lawmakers and Citizens Must Prepare | The Hill

• US Officials Increase Warnings About Russian Cyber-Attacks - Infosecurity Magazine

• Work From Home Software 'At Risk of Russian Cyber Attacks' (telegraph.co.uk)

• US Officials Preparing for Potential Russian Cyber Attacks - CBS News

• After Foiled Sandworm Attack, US Critical Infrastructure Should Stand Guard | CSO Online

Nation State Actors – China

• Chinese Hackers Behind Most Zero-Day Exploits During 2021 (bleepingcomputer.com)

Nation State Actors – North Korea

• North Korea Funds Nuclear Program with Cyber Crime- IT Security Guru

• North Korea Aims 'TraderTraitor' Malware at Cryptocurrency Workers (cyberscoop.com)

• Blockchain Companies Warned of North Korean Hackers - IT Security Guru

Nation State Actors – Misc

• State Actors Drive Record Number of Zero-Day Exploits in 2021 - Infosecurity Magazine

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Vulnerability Management

• Vulnerabilities That Kept Security Leaders Busy in Q1 2022 - Help Net Security

• How Fast Do Cyber Criminals Capitalize on New Security Weaknesses? - Help Net Security

• Zero-Day Exploit Use Exploded in 2021 (darkreading.com)

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Vulnerabilities

• VMware, Chrome Flaws Added to Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalogue - Security Affairs

• Hackers Exploiting Recently Reported Windows Print Spooler Vulnerability in the Wild (thehackernews.com)

• Cisco Releases Security Patches for TelePresence, RoomOS and Umbrella VA (thehackernews.com)

• Time to get patching: Oracle's quarterly Critical Patch Update arrives with 520 fixes | ZDNet

• 7-Zip Zero-Day Vulnerability Grants Privilege Escalation | TechSpot

• When “Secure” Isn’t Secure at All: High‑Impact UEFI Vulnerabilities Discovered in Lenovo Consumer Laptops | WeLiveSecurity

• QNAP Warns of New Bugs in Its Network Attached Storage Devices – Naked Security (sophos.com)

• Cisco Umbrella Default SSH Key Allows Theft of Admin Credentials (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Researcher Releases PoC for Recent Java Cryptographic Vulnerability (thehackernews.com)

• Critical Cryptographic Java Security Blunder Patched – Update Now! – Naked Security (sophos.com)

• Atlassian Drops Patches for Critical Jira Authentication Bypass Vulnerability (thehackernews.com)

• Unpatched Bug in RainLoop Webmail Could Give Hackers Access to all Emails (thehackernews.com)

• Zero-Day Exploits Found And Disclosed Hit A Record High In 2021, Google Project Zero says - CyberScoop

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Sector Specific

Financial Services Sector

• Modern Bank Heists 5.0: The Escalation from Dwell to Destruction (vmware.com)

• Two-Thirds of Global Banks Witness Surge in Destructive Attacks - Infosecurity Magazine

FinTech

• Ransomware in Fintech: Cyber Criminals Adopt New Means as Theft Gives Way To Sabotage - Help Net Security

Health/Medical/Pharma Sector

• The New Cyberthreat To Healthcare: Killware - Information Security Buzz

• Many Medical Device Makers Skimp on Security Practices (darkreading.com)

Transport and Aviation

• Cyber-Attackers Hit Sunwing Airlines - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

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Reports Published in the Last Week

• Modern Bank Heist 5.0 (vmware.com)

• 3 Key Takeaways from the 2022 ConnectWise MSP Threat Report - MSSP Alert

• Discover The Anatomy of An External Cyber Attack Surface With New RiskIQ Report - Microsoft Security Blog

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Other News

• Why Companies Should Make ERP Security a Top Priority (techtarget.com)

• The Evolving Role of The Lawyer in Cyber Security - Help Net Security

• Cyber Security Litigation Risks: 4 Top Concerns for CISOs | CSO Online

• Ponemon Research - Businesses to Invest $172b On Cyber Security In 2022 - Information Security Buzz

• T-Mobile Admits Lapsus$ Hackers Gained Access to its Internal Tools and Source Code (thehackernews.com)

• Funkypigeon.com Suspends Orders After 'Cyber Security Incident' | Business News | Sky News

• The SEC Is About To Force CISOs Into America’s Boardrooms (forbes.com)

• Data Breaches, Ransomware Attacks Leave Security Teams “Exhausted” - MSSP Alert

• When Attacks Surge, Turn to Data to Strengthen Detection and Response | SecurityWeek.Com

• What Can Someone Do with Your IP Address? (makeuseof.com)

• Attacker Accessed Dozens of Repositories After OAuth Token Theft - Information Security Buzz

• 7 Best Practices for Web3 Security Risk Mitigation (techtarget.com)

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As usual, contact us to help assess where your risks lie and to ensure you are doing all you can do to keep you and your business secure.

Look out for our ‘Cyber Tip Tuesday’ video blog and on our YouTube channel.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Links to articles are for interest and awareness and linking to or reposting external content does not endorse any service or product, likewise we are not responsible for the security of external links.

Black Arrow Cyber Advisory 20/04/2022 – Vulnerabilities identified within Lenovo Laptop UEFI BIOS

Executive Summary

UEFI Firmware provides an interface allowing for configuration of a computer at the beginning of the boot sequence, prior to the operating system loading. This firmware is supplied with every modern computer and allows an administrator to make hardware and security configuration changes to the system, while allowing the computer to boot successfully into the operating system. Lenovo has disclosed three vulnerabilities within this UEFI Firmware, affecting its consumer laptop range. These vulnerabilities could allow an attacker with local access to the machine to execute arbitrary code on the laptop.

What’s the risk to my business?

A malicious actor with local access to an affected laptop may be able to compromise the security and data stored on the laptop.

What can I do?

Updates to the UEFI Firmware on affected laptops are available and should be installed onto affected laptops. It’s noted that this firmware will need to be downloaded and installed from the Lenovo website, and these updates will not be supplied through Windows Update. As these firmware updates apply to low-level software that effectively makes the computer work, it is critical that the laptop is plugged in and not restarted while the update is taking place.

Important: Firmware updates have not been supplied for models that have reached end of development support with Lenovo. It is important to ensure that all corporate systems are within a support window with the manufacturer for this reason.

Technical Summary

Lenovo have issued firmware updates for the following CVE’s: CVE-2021-3970, CVE-2021-3971, CVE-2021-3972. Security researchers originally disclosed these updates on 11/10/2021, and Lenovo released fixes on 18/04/2022.

CVE-2021-3970 relates to a validation vulnerability within a variable named “LenovoVariable SMI Handler” which may allow an attacker with local access and elevated privileges to execute arbitrary code.

CVE-2021-3971 relates to a vulnerability within an older driver used during the manufacturing process that was mistakenly included within the BIOS image. This vulnerability could allow an attacker with elevated privileges to modify the firmware protection region by modifying an NVRAM variable.

CVE-2021-3972 relates to a vulnerability within an older driver used during the manufacturing process was mistakenly not deactivated which could allow an attacker with elevated privileges to modify secure boot settings by modifying an NVRAM variable.

Information on affected models with firmware updates available can be found here: Lenovo Notebook BIOS Vulnerabilities - Lenovo Support GB

Further information on the technicalities of the vulnerabilities can be found here: When “secure” isn’t secure at all: High‑impact UEFI vulnerabilities discovered in Lenovo consumer laptops | WeLiveSecurity

Need help understanding your gaps, or just want some advice? Get in touch with us.

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 15 April 2022

Welcome to this week’s Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing – a weekly digest, collated and curated by our cyber experts to provide senior and middle management with an easy to digest round up of the most notable threats, vulnerabilities, and cyber related news from the last week.

Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week

• Cyber Security Is Getting Harder: More Threats, More Complexity, Fewer People

Splunk and Enterprise Strategy Group released a global research report that examines the security issues facing the modern enterprise. More than 1,200 security leaders participated in the survey, revealing they’ve seen an increase in cyber attacks while their teams are facing widening talent gaps.

According to the report, 65% of respondents say they have seen an increase in attempted cyber attacks. In addition, many have been directly impacted by data breaches and costly ransomware attacks, which have left security teams exhausted:

·       49% of organisations say they have suffered a data breach over the past two years, an increase from 39% a year earlier.

·       79% of respondents say they’ve encountered ransomware attacks, and 35% admit that one or more of those attacks led them to lose access to data and systems.

·       59% of security teams say they had to devote significant time and resources to remediation, an increase from 42% a year ago.

·       54% of respondents report that their business-critical applications have suffered from unplanned outages related to cyber security incidents on at least a monthly basis, with a median of 12 outages per year. The median time to recover from unplanned downtime tied to cyber security incidents is 14 hours. Respondents estimated the cost of this downtime averaged about $200,000 per hour.

·       64% of security professionals have stated that it’s challenging to keep up with new security requirements, up from 49% a year ago.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/04/13/modern-enterprise-security-issues/

• Terrible Cloud Security Is Leaving the Door Open for Hackers. Here's What You're Doing Wrong

A rise in hybrid work and a shift to cloud platforms has changed how businesses operate - but it's also leaving them vulnerable to cyber attacks.

Cloud applications and services are a prime target for hackers because poor cyber security management and misconfigured services are leaving them exposed to the internet and vulnerable to simple cyber attacks.

Analysis of identity and access management (IAM) polices taking into account hundreds of thousands of users in 18,000 cloud environments across 200 organisations by cyber security researchers at Palo Alto Networks found that cloud accounts and services are leaving open doors for cyber criminals to exploit – and putting businesses and users at risk.

The global pandemic pushed organisations and employees towards new ways of remote and hybrid working, with the aid of cloud services and applications. While beneficial to businesses and employees, it also created additional cyber security risks – and malicious hackers know this.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/terrible-cloud-security-is-leaving-the-door-open-for-hackers-heres-what-youre-doing-wrong/

• More Organisations Are Paying the Ransom. Why?

Most organisations (71%) have been hit by ransomware in 2021, and most of those (63%) opted for paying the requested ransom, the 2022 Cyberthreat Defense Report (CDR) by the CyberEdge Group has shown.

The research company says that possible explanations for the steady yearly rise of the percentage of organisations that decided to pay the ransom may include: the threat of exposing exfiltrated data, increased confidence for data recovery, and the fact that many organisations find that paying a ransom is significantly less costly than system downtime, customer disruption, and potential lawsuits.

“72% of ransom-paying victims recovered their data [in 2021], up from 49% in 2017. This increased confidence for successful data recovery is often factored into the ransom-paying decision,” the company noted.

Similarly, BakerHostatler’s 2022 Data Security Incident Response Report says that in ransomware incidents the US-based law firm was called in to manage in 2021, ransomware groups provided decryptors and stuck to their promise to not publish stolen data 97% of the time.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/04/11/organizations-paying-ransom/

• Cyber Attack Puts City Firms on High Alert to Bolster Defences

Experts warn a combination of 'ignorance and arrogance' makes City executives vulnerable to attacks.

City firms on high alert for cyber attacks were sent a clear warning recently, bolstering concerns of the potential for breaches from Russia.

Ince Group, the London-listed law firm, last month fell prey to hackers who infiltrated its computer systems and stole confidential data. The company's security systems detected the intrusion on March 13, prompting the IT team to shut down servers to try and prevent widespread damage.

But soon after, the hackers demanded a ransom for stolen data and threatened to publish it on the dark web if Ince Group, which has clients in the shipping, energy and healthcare sectors, didn't pay up.

The incident has intensified worries of possible breaches after warnings that City firms could be targeted by Russian hackers following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Julia O'Toole, chief executive of MyCena Security Solutions, says executives should be "very concerned" about any news of a cyber attack at a rival company.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/04/11/cyber-attack-puts-city-firms-high-alert-bolster-defences/

• More Than 60% of Organisations Suffered a Breach in the Past 12 Months

Firms focus too narrowly on external attackers when it's insiders, third parties, and stolen assets that cause many breaches, new study shows.

The majority of companies — 63% — have suffered at least one breach in the past 12 months. The global average breach cost $2.4 million — a price tag that increases to $3.0 million for companies unprepared to respond to compromises.

The new data from Forrester Research, released on April 8 in a report titled "The 2021 State Of Enterprise Breaches," found that the number of breaches and the cost of breaches varied widely depending on the geographic location of the business and to what degree the organisation is prepared to respond to breaches. Companies in North America had the largest disparity between the haves and have-nots: While the average organisation required 38 days to find, eradicate, and recover from a breach, companies that failed to adequately prepare for security challenges took 62 days.

The difference in response resulted in a large difference in cost as well, with the average North American company paying $3.0 million to recover from a breach, a bill that rises to $4.0 million if the company suffered from a lack of incident-response preparation.

"The misalignment between the expectation and the reality of breaches has become very important," says Allie Mellen, an analyst with Forrester's Security and Risk group. "On a global scale, there is a big disparity of about $600,000 between those who are prepared to respond to a breach and those who are not."

https://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/more-than-60-of-organizations-suffered-a-breach-in-the-past-12-months

• Account Takeover Poised to Surpass Malware as The No. 1 Security Concern

As most researchers and financial executives can attest, virtually all types of fraud have dramatically risen over the past two years. However, attackers taking over legitimate financial accounts have become even more of a favourite with cyber criminals than most fraud schemes.

Many major recent research reports have pointed out that account takeover (ATO), a form of identity theft where bad actors access legitimate bank accounts, change the account information and passwords, and hijack a real customer’s account, has skyrocketed since last year. According to Javelin Research’s annual "Identity Fraud Study: The Virtual Battleground" report, account takeover increased by 90% to an estimated $11.4 billion in 2021 when compared with 2020 — representing roughly one-quarter of all identity fraud losses last year.

Like many types of financial fraud, cyber thieves are betting on the fact that if they attempt to seize a large number of legitimate accounts, eventually they will get a payoff.

Account takeovers are a numbers game, the more accounts that an organisation has, the bigger their risk that some of them will be compromised.

Account takeovers often piggyback off of previous attacks, making these crimes a way for hackers to make the most out of stolen information. Diskin pointed out that account takeovers most commonly happen when a password is “taken from another data leak and reused for different accounts. But there are a variety of risky scenarios that can lead to compromise.”

https://www.scmagazine.com/analysis/cybercrime/account-takeover-poised-to-surpass-malware-as-the-no-1-security-concern

• Security Research Reveals 42% Rise in New Ransomware Programs In 2021

Critical infrastructure in the crosshairs: operational technology vulnerabilities jump 88% .

Threat intelligence analysts at Skybox Research Lab uncovered a 42% increase in new ransomware programs targeting known vulnerabilities in 2021. The Silicon Valley cyber security company released its annual 2022 Vulnerability and Threat Trends Report, revealing how quickly cyber criminals capitalise on new security weaknesses – shrinking the window that organisations have to remediate vulnerabilities ahead of an attack.

With 20,175 new vulnerabilities published in 2021, Skybox Research Lab witnessed the most vulnerabilities ever reported in a single year. And these new vulnerabilities are just the tip of the iceberg. The total number of vulnerabilities published over the last 10 years reached 166,938 in 2021 — a three-fold increase over a decade. These cumulative vulnerabilities, piling up year after year, represent an enormous aggregate risk, and they’ve left organisations struggling with a mountain of cyber security debt. As the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) highlights in its Top Routinely Exploited Vulnerabilities list, threat actors are routinely exploiting publicly disclosed vulnerabilities from years past.

The sheer volume of accumulated risks — hundreds of thousands or even millions of vulnerability instances within organisations — means they can’t possibly patch all of them. To prevent cyber security incidents, it is critical to prioritise exposed vulnerabilities that could cause the most significant disruption, then, apply appropriate remediation options including configuration changes or network segmentation to eliminate risk, even before patches are applied or in cases where patches aren’t available.

https://informationsecuritybuzz.com/study-research/skybox-security-research-reveals-42-rise-in-new-ransomware-programs-in-2021/

• Fraudsters Stole £58m with Remote Access Trojans (RATs) in 2021

2021 saw victims of Remote Access Tool (RAT) scams lose £58m in 2021, official UK police figures show.

RAT scams involve scammers taking control of a victim’s device, typically in order to access bank accounts.

Some 20,144 victims fell for this type of scam in 2021, averaging around £2800 stolen per incident.

Typically, RAT attacks begin with a victim being inundated with pop-ups claiming there is a problem with the computer. Users are often then asked to call a “hotline” number, when a scammer will persuade them to download a RAT.

RAT scams are often compared to the classic “tech support” scams. Modern RAT scams are typically more devious, however, with scammers often cold-calling their victims pretending to work for their bank and claiming that they need computer access to investigate a fraudulent transaction.

https://www.itsecurityguru.org/2022/04/11/fraudsters-stole-58m-with-rats-in-2021/

• As State-Backed Cyber Threats Grow, Here's How the World Is Reacting

With the ongoing conflict in Eurasia, cyber warfare is inevitably making its presence felt. The fight is not only being fought on the fields. There is also a big battle happening in cyberspace. Several cyber-attacks have been reported over the past months.

Notably, cyber attacks backed by state actors are becoming prominent. There have been reports of a rise of ransomware and other malware attacks such as Cyclops Blink, HermeticWiper, and BlackCat. These target businesses as well as government institutions and nonprofit organisations. There have been cases of several attempts to shut down online communications and IT infrastructure.

The ongoing list of significant cyber incidents curated by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) shows that the number of major incidents in January 2022 is 100% higher compared to the same period in the previous year. With the recent activities in cyberspace impacted by the emergence of the geopolitical tumult in February, it is not going to be surprising to see an even more dramatic rise in the number of significant incidents.

https://thehackernews.com/2022/04/as-state-backed-cyber-threats-grow.html

• Q1 Reported Data Compromises Up 14% Over 2021

The Identity Theft Resource Center published a First Quarter 2022 Data Breach Analysis which found that Q1 of 2022 began with the highest number of publicly reported data compromises in the past three years.

Publicly reported data compromises totalled 404 through March 31, 2022, a 14 percent increase compared to Q1 2021.

This is the third consecutive year when the number of total data compromises increased compared to Q1 of the previous year. It also represents the highest number of Q1 data compromises since 2020.

https://informationsecuritybuzz.com/expert-comments/q1-reported-data-compromises-up-14-over-2021/

• Europol Announces Operation to Hit Russian Sanctions-Evaders

European police have announced a major new operation designed to crack down on Russian oligarchs and businesses looking to circumvent sanctions.

Operation Oscar will run for at least a year as an umbrella initiative that will feature many separate investigations, Europol explained.

The policing organisation’s European Financial and Economic Crime Centre will work to exchange information and intelligence with partners and provide operational support in financial crime investigations.

A key focus appears to be on illicit flows of money, which Russian individuals and entities will be trying to move around the region in order to bypass sanctions imposed since President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Europol will centralise and analyse all information contributed under this operation to identify international links, criminal groups and suspects, as well as new criminal trends and patterns,” Europol said.

“Europol will further provide tailor-made analytical support to investigations, as well as operational coordination, forensics and technical expertise, and financial support to the relevant national authorities.”

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/europol-hit-russian/

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Threats

Ransomware

• Ransomware: These Two Gangs Are Behind Half of All Attacks | ZDNet

• Clueless Hackers Spent Months Inside a Network And Nobody Noticed. But Then a Ransomware Gang Turned Up | ZDNet

• Conti Ransomware Leak Shows Group Operates Like a Normal Tech Company, with an HR Department, Performance Reviews and an ‘Employee of the Month’ (cnbc.com)

• Don't Let Ransomware Gangs Spend Months in Your Network • The Register

• Dismantling ZLoader: How Malicious Ads Led to Disabled Security Tools And Ransomware - Microsoft Security Blog

• Analysis of the SunnyDay Ransomware - Security Affairs

• Karakurt Data Thieves Linked to Larger Conti Hacking Group | CSO Online

• Conti Ransomware Gang Claims Responsibility for The Nordex Hack - Security Affairs

• OldGremlin Ransomware Gang Targets Russia with New Malware (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Conti Ransomware Offshoot Targets Russian Organisations | Malwarebytes Labs

Other Social Engineering

• FBI: Payment App Users Targeted in Social Engineering Attacks (bleepingcomputer.com)

• These Hackers Pretend to Poach, Recruit Rival Bank Staff In New Cyber Attacks | ZDNet

Malware

• Credential-Stealing Malware Disguises Itself As Telegram, Targets Social Media Users | Malwarebytes Labs

• Microsoft Sounds The Alarm Over New Cunning Windows Malware | TechRadar

• Spring4Shell Under Active Exploit by Mirai Botnet Herders • The Register

• Haskers Gang Gives Away ZingoStealer Malware to Other Cyber Criminals for Free (thehackernews.com)

• Hackers Hijack Adult Websites to Infect Victims With Malware | TechRadar

• Qbot Malware Switches To New Windows Installer Infection Vector (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Windows 11 tool to Add Google Play Secretly Installed Malware (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Over 16,500 Sites Hacked to Distribute Malware via Web Redirect Service (thehackernews.com)

• Researchers Warn of FFDroider and Lightning Info-Stealers Targeting Users in The Wild (thehackernews.com)

• Enemybot: a New Mirai, Gafgyt Hybrid Botnet Joins The Scene | ZDNet

Mobile

• Android Banking Malware Intercepts Calls to Customer Support (bleepingcomputer.com)

• How to Stop Octo Malware From Remotely Accessing Your Android (lifehacker.com)

IoT

• New EnemyBot DDoS Botnet Recruits Routers and IoTs Into Its Army (bleepingcomputer.com)

• 3 Reasons Connected Devices are More Vulnerable than Ever (bleepingcomputer.com)

Data Breaches/Leaks

• GitHub Says Hackers Breached Dozens of Organisations Using Stolen OAuth Access Tokens (thehackernews.com)

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

• New Industrial Spy Stolen Data Market Promoted Through Cracks, Adware (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Google Files Suit Against Cameroonian Cyber Criminal Who Used Puppies as Lures - CyberScoop

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking

• 10 NFT and Cryptocurrency Security Risks That CISOs Must Navigate | CSO Online

• A Practical Reason Why Crypto Might Not Work for Large-Scale Sanctions Evasion - CyberScoop

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

• Who Is Your Biggest Insider Threat? | CSO Online

• Former DHS Acting IT Chief Convicted in Software, Database Theft Scheme (darkreading.com)

Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime

• Cyber Criminals Do Their Homework for Latest Banking Scam • The Register

Denial of Service DoS/DDoS

• New Fodcha DDoS Botnet Targets Over 100 Victims Every Day (bleepingcomputer.com)

• New EnemyBot DDoS Botnet Borrows Exploit Code from Mirai and Gafgyt (thehackernews.com)

Cloud

• 99% Of Cloud Identities Are Overly Permissive, Opening Door to Attackers | CSO Online

• The Perils of SaaS Misconfigurations - Help Net Security

• Top Attack Techniques for Breaching Enterprise And Cloud Environments - Help Net Security

• Finding Attack Paths in Cloud Environments (thehackernews.com)

• The Two Words You Should Never Forget When You’re Securing a Cloud - Help Net Security

Privacy

• Muting Your Mic Reportedly Doesn’t Stop Big Tech from Recording Your Audio (thenextweb.com)

Spyware, Espionage & Cyber Warfare, including Russian Invasion of Ukraine

• Preparing for Armageddon: How Ukraine Battles Russian hackers | Ars Technica

• Ukraine Proves Cyber War Has No Borders - MSSP Alert

• Hackers Target Ukrainian Govt with IcedID Malware, Zimbra Exploits (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Russia’s Sandworm Hackers Attempted a Third Blackout In Ukraine | Ars Technica

• The Unceasing Action of Anonymous Against Russia - Security Affairs

• European Officials Reportedly Targeted by NSO Spyware • The Register

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Nation State Actors

Nation State Actors – Russia

• CISA Warns Orgs of WatchGuard Bug Exploited by Russian State Hackers (bleepingcomputer.com)

Nation State Actors – China

• China-Linked Hafnium APT Leverages Tarrask Malware to Gain Persistence - Security Affairs

• China ‘Decodes’ An Orbiting US Satellite; Claims Expertise In Automatically Detecting & Fixing Security Flaws In Outer Space (eurasiantimes.com)

Nation State Actors – North Korea

• US Gov Believes Lazarus APT is Behind Ronin Validator Cyber Heist - Security Affairs

• Feds Offer $5m Reward for Info on North Korean Cyber Crooks • The Register

• FBI Links Largest Crypto Hack Ever to North Korean Hackers (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Symantec: North Korea's Lazarus Targets Chemical Companies • The Register

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Vulnerabilities

• Microsoft Issues Patches for 2 Windows Zero-Days and 126 Other Vulnerabilities (thehackernews.com)

• Google Issues Third Emergency Fix For Chrome This Year • The Register

• Critical HP Teradici PCoIP Flaws Impact 15 Million Endpoints (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Critical Windows RPC Vulnerability Raises Alarm (techtarget.com)

• VMware Workspace One Flaw Actively Exploited in The Wild (techtarget.com)

• Adobe Patches Gaping Security Holes in Acrobat, Reader, Photoshop | SecurityWeek.Com

• Cisco Vulnerability Lets Hackers Craft Their Own Login Credentials (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Critical VMware Cloud Director Bug Could Let Hackers Takeover Entire Cloud Infrastructure (thehackernews.com)

• Several Vulnerabilities Allow Disabling of Palo Alto Networks Products | SecurityWeek.Com

• Cisco Patches Critical Vulnerability in Wireless LAN Controller | SecurityWeek.Com

• Critical Flaw in Elementor WordPress Plugin May Affect 500k Sites (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Critical Apache Struts RCE Vulnerability Wasn't Fully Fixed, Patch Now (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Attackers Are Exploiting VMware RCE to Deliver Malware (CVE-2022-22954) - Help Net Security

• These D-Link Routers Are Vulnerable To Remote Hacks And Should Be Retired Immediately | HotHardware

• Upgrades for Spring Framework Have Stalled (darkreading.com)

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Sector Specific

CNI, OT, ICS, IIoT and SCADA

• CISA Alert on ICS, SCADA Devices Highlights Growing Enterprise IoT Security Risks (darkreading.com)

• Pipedream Malware: Feds Uncover 'Swiss Army Knife' for Industrial System Hacking | WIRED

• New Malware Tools Pose 'Clear and Present Threat' to ICS Environments (darkreading.com)

• US Warns of APT Hackers Targeting ICS/SCADA Systems with Specialized Malware (thehackernews.com)

• Flaws in ABB Network Interface Modules Expose Industrial Systems to DoS Attacks | SecurityWeek.Com

Energy & Utilities

• US Agencies Warn of Custom-Made Hacking Tools Targeting Energy Sector Systems - The Record by Recorded Future

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Reports Published in the Last Week

• The 2021 State Of Enterprise Breaches | Forrester

• First Quarter 2022 Data Breach Analysis Report | Identity Theft Resource Centre
  

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Other News

• Singapore To License Infosec Service Providers • The Register

• What Is the Cyber Kill Chain? A Model for Tracing Cyber Attacks | CSO Online

• Cyber Defense: Prioritized By Real-World Threat Data - Help Net Security

• How Can You Spot Fake News? And What Should We, As A Society, Do About Mass Disinformation? - Information Security Buzz

• The Cyber Criminal Isn’t Necessarily Who You Think… | Mind Matters

• Consumer Trust Is in The Doldrums: Indifference Towards Data Exposure Is Widespread - Help Net Security

• How Cryptocurrency Gave Birth to the Ransomware Epidemic (vice.com)

• Dark Data Is a Pain Point For Many Security Leaders - Help Net Security

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As usual, contact us to help assess where your risks lie and to ensure you are doing all you can do to keep you and your business secure.

Look out for our ‘Cyber Tip Tuesday’ video blog and on our YouTube channel.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Links to articles are for interest and awareness and linking to or reposting external content does not endorse any service or product, likewise we are not responsible for the security of external links.

Black Arrow Cyber Advisory 13/04/2022 – Microsoft Patch Tuesday – patches released for various vulnerabilities

Executive Summary

As part of Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday, several high and critical vulnerabilities have been patched, of which at least four critical vulnerabilities affect all supported versions of Windows (Clients and Servers). These include ‘wormable’ vulnerabilities, meaning that the vulnerability can be exploited by a malicious program which can replicate itself across a network.

Security updates have also been released for other Microsoft products including Edge, Office and Active Directory Domain Services.

What’s the risk to me or my business?

Security updates are available for all supported versions of Windows, including Windows 7 to Windows 11, and Windows Server 2008 R2 to Windows Server 2022. As some of these updates address vulnerabilities that are known to be actively exploited, the updates should be applied as soon as possible.

What can I do?

Apply the available updates from Microsoft as soon as possible, while taking into consideration any potential downtime that these updates may cause.

Technical Summary

CVE-2022-24491 and CVE-2022-24497 relate to the previously mentioned ‘wormable’ vulnerability, which have CVSS scores of 9.8. They are Remote Code Execution vulnerabilities within the Windows Network File System (NFS). Further details on the individual updates and each affected Windows version can be found here: Microsoft Windows Security Updates April 2022 overview - gHacks Tech News

Need help understanding your gaps, or just want some advice? Get in touch with us.

Black Arrow Cyber Advisory 13/04/2022 – Adobe releases security patches to address various vulnerabilities.

Executive Summary

Adobe has released several security updates deemed as ‘critical’ across their product range to address various vulnerabilities. The affected applications include Adobe Acrobat and Reader which are used by most commercial organisations, along with Photoshop and other products within their range. Some of these vulnerabilities could give a malicious actor access to remote code execution.

What’s the risk to me or my business?

While Adobe has disclosed that they are not aware of these vulnerabilities being currently exploited, it is highly likely that they will a target by malicious actors since products such as Adobe Reader are used by a large percentage of organisations.

What can I do?

Apply the available updates from Adobe as soon as possible for the software products deployed across your organisation, while taking into consideration any potential downtime that these updates may cause.

Technical Summary

The vulnerabilities have been confirmed to affect both Windows and MacOS versions of various Adobe products, including Acrobat, Reader, Photoshop, After Effects, commerce, Magento Open Source, DC. Some of the effects of the vulnerabilities may be mitigated by good security practices, such as limiting end users local privileged access on end points. Further details on the individual vulnerabilities can be found here: Multiple Vulnerabilities in Adobe Products Could Allow for Arbitrary Code Execution (cisecurity.org)

 Need help understanding your gaps, or just want some advice? Get in touch with us.

Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing 08 April 2022

Welcome to this week’s Black Arrow Cyber Threat Briefing – a weekly digest, collated and curated by our cyber experts to provide senior and middle management with an easy to digest round up of the most notable threats, vulnerabilities, and cyber related news from the last week.

Top Cyber Stories of the Last Week

• Nearly Two-Thirds of Ransomware Victims Paid Ransoms Last Year, Finds "2022 Cyberthreat Defense Report"

CyberEdge Group, a leading research and marketing firm serving the cyber security industry’s top vendors, announced the launch of its ninth annual Cyberthreat Defense Report (CDR). The award-winning CDR is the standard for assessing organisations’ security posture, gauging perceptions of information technology (IT) security professionals, and ascertaining current and planned investments in IT security infrastructure – across all industries and geographic regions.

A record 71% of organisations were impacted by successful ransomware attacks last year, according to the 2022 CDR, up from 55% in 2017. Of those that were victimised, nearly two-thirds (63%) paid the requested ransom, up from 39% in 2017.

https://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/nearly-two-thirds-of-ransomware-victims-paid-ransoms-last-year-finds-2022-cyberthreat-defense-report-

• New Android Banking Malware Remotely Takes Control of Your Device

A new Android banking malware named Octo has appeared in the wild, featuring remote access capabilities that allow malicious operators to perform on-device fraud.

Octo is an evolved Android malware based on ExoCompact, a malware variant based on the Exo trojan that quit the cyber crime space and had its source code leaked in 2018.

The new variant has been discovered by researchers at ThreatFabric, who observed several users looking to purchase it on darknet forums.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/new-android-banking-malware-remotely-takes-control-of-your-device/

• Network Intrusion Detections Skyrocketing

A WatchGuard report shows a record number of evasive network malware detections with advanced threats increasing by 33%, indicating a higher level of zero day threats than ever before.

Researchers detected malware threats in EMEA at a much higher rate than other regions of the world in Q4 2021, with malware detections per Firebox at 49%, compared to Americas at 23% and APAC at 29%. The trajectory of network intrusion detections also continued its upward climb with the largest total detections of any quarter in the last three years and a 39% increase quarter over quarter.

Researchers suggest that this may be due to the continued targeting of old vulnerabilities as well as the growth in organisations’ networks. As new devices come online and old vulnerabilities remain unpatched, network security is becoming more complex.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/04/08/network-malware-detections/

• Organisations Underestimating the Seriousness of Insider Threats

Imperva releases data that shows organisations are failing to address the issue of insider threats during a time when the risk is at its greatest.

New research, conducted by Forrester, found that 59% of incidents in EMEA organisations that negatively impacted sensitive data in the last 12 months were caused by insider threats, and yet 59% do not prioritise insider threats the way they prioritise external threats. Despite the fact that insider events occur more often than external ones, they receive lower levels of investment.

This approach is at odds with today’s threat landscape where the risk of malicious insiders has never been higher. The rapid shift to remote working means many employees are now outside the typical security controls that organisations employ, making it harder to detect and prevent insider threats.

Further, the Great Resignation is creating an environment where there is a higher risk of employees stealing data. This data could be stolen intentionally by people looking to help themselves in future employment, because they are disgruntled and want revenge, or it could be taken unintentionally when a careless employee leaves the business with important information.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/04/08/organizations-insider-threats-issue/

• Watch Out for Phishing Emails from Genuine Mailing Lists, Following Mailchimp Hack

A Mailchimp hack means that you’ll want to be even more vigilant than usual about phishing emails. Attackers have taken a clever approach to making their emails appear genuine …

When you subscribe to an email list, there’s a decent chance that the emails you received are actually sent by a company called Mailchimp, rather than directly by the company itself. Mailchimp offers companies a range of tools that make it easy to manage email databases, and send marketing emails and newsletters.

Hackers managed to gain access to more than 100 Mailchimp customer accounts, giving them the ability to send emails that would appear to have come from any one of those businesses.

Users will need to be more vigilant when receiving emails and avoid clicking on links in emails, even if they appear genuine.

https://9to5mac.com/2022/04/05/mailchimp-hack-phishing-alert/

• SpringShell Attacks Target About One in Six Vulnerable Orgs

Roughly one out of six organisations worldwide that are impacted by the Spring4Shell zero-day vulnerability have already been targeted by threat actors, according to statistics from one cyber security company.

The exploitation attempts took place in the first four days since the disclosure of the severe remote code execution (RCE) flaw, tracked as CVE-2022-22965, and the associated exploit code.

According to Check Point, who compiled the report based on their telemetry data, 37,000 Spring4Shell attacks were detected over the past weekend alone.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/springshell-attacks-target-about-one-in-six-vulnerable-orgs/

• New Threat Group Underscores Mounting Concerns Over Russian Cyber Threats

Crowdstrike says Ember Bear is likely responsible for the wiper attack against Ukrainian networks and that future Russian cyber attacks might target the West.

As fears mount over the prospects of a “cyberwar” initiated by the Russian government, the number of identified Russian threat actors also continues to climb. Last week CrowdStrike publicly revealed a Russia-nexus state-sponsored actor that it tracks as Ember Bear.

CrowdStrike says that Ember Bear (also known as UAC-0056, Lorec53, Lorec Bear, Bleeding Bear, Saint Bear) is likely an intelligence-gathering adversary group that has operated against government and military organisations in eastern Europe since early 2021. The group seems “motivated to weaponize the access and data obtained during their intrusions to support information operations (IO) aimed at creating public mistrust in targeted institutions and degrading government ability to counter Russian cyber operations,” according to CrowdStrike intelligence.

Despite its state-sponsored Russia nexus, Ember Bear differs from its better-known kin such as Fancy Bear or Voodoo Bear because CrowdStrike can’t tie it to a specific Russian organisation. Its target profile, assessed intent, and technical tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) are consistent with other Russian GRU cyber operations.

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3655976/new-threat-group-underscores-mounting-concerns-over-russian-cyber-threats.html

• Consumer Fraud Tripled in The Last Two Years

Reported cases of consumer fraud more than tripled in the years 2020-2021 from prior years, finds a new report by Accenture, presenting a growing challenge for public safety agencies to find new strategies to counter the trend.

The report compiled data from eight developed nations (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States) on consumer fraud, defined as any fraud directly targeting citizens and excluding fraud targeting government agencies and companies. Reports of such fraud increased at an estimated 6.8% rate annually during 2013-2019 and then increased to a 22.5% annual growth rate yearly during 2020-2021 in parallel with the large shift of workers and consumers to digital channels and greater use of technology during the pandemic.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/04/08/consumer-fraud-tripled/

• Borat RAT: Multiple Threat of Ransomware, DDoS and Spyware

A new remote access trojan (RAT) dubbed "Borat" doesn't come with many laughs but offers bad actors a menu of cyberthreats to choose from.

RATs are typically used by cyber criminals to get full control of a victim's system, enabling them to access files and network resources and manipulate the mouse and keyboard. Borat does all this and also delivers features to enable hackers to run ransomware, distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS) and other online assaults and to install spyware, according to researchers at cyber security biz Cyble.

"The Borat RAT provides a dashboard to Threat Actors (TAs) to perform RAT activities and also has an option to compile the malware binary for performing DDoS and ransomware attacks on the victim's machine," the researchers wrote in a blog post, noting the malware is being made available for sale to hackers.

Borat – named after the character made famous by actor Sacha Baron Cohen in two comedy films – comes with the standard requisite of RAT features in a package that includes such functions as builder binary, server certificate and supporting modules.

https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/04/borat-rat-ransomware-ddos/

• Bank Had No Firewall License, Intrusion or Phishing Protection – Guess the Rest

An Indian bank that did not have a valid firewall license, had not employed phishing protection, lacked an intrusion detection system and eschewed use of any intrusion prevention system has, shockingly, been compromised by criminals who made off with millions of rupees.

The unfortunate institution is called the Andra Pradesh Mahesh Co-Operative Urban Bank. Its 45 branches and just under $400 million of deposits make it one of India's smaller banks.

It certainly thinks small about security – at least according to Hyderabad City Police, which last week detailed an attack on the Bank that started with over 200 phishing emails being sent across three days in November 2021. At least one of those mails succeeded in fooling staff, resulting in the installation of a Remote Access Trojan (RAT).

Another technology the bank had chosen not to adopt was virtual LANs, so once the RAT went to work the attackers gained entry to the Bank's systems and were able to roam widely – even in its core banking application

https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/05/mahesh_bank_no_firewall_attack/

• Global APT Groups Use Ukraine War for Phishing Lures

Security researchers have detected multiple APT campaigns leveraging Ukraine war-themed documents and news sources to lure victims into clicking on spear-phishing links.

Check Point Research said victim locations ranged from South America to the Middle East, with malware downloads designed to perform keylogging and screenshotting and execute commands.

The threat groups in question include El Machete, which is targeting the financial and government sectors in Nicaragua and Venezuela with malicious macro-laden Word documents containing articles on the war.

One of the docs was an article written by the Russian ambassador to Nicaragua titled: “Dark plans of the neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine.”

Another is Lyceum, an Iranian state-linked group targeting the energy sector with emails about war crimes in Ukraine that link to a malicious document hosted elsewhere. Its victims so far have been in Israel and Saudi Arabia, according to Check Point.

One email contained a link to an article from The Guardian hosted on the news-spot[.]live domain, alongside several malicious docs about the war.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/global-apt-ukraine-war-phishing/

• Paying Ransom Doesn’t Guarantee Data Recovery

OwnBackup announced the findings of a global survey conducted by Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) that reveals a staggering 79% of respondent organisations have been targeted by ransomware within the past 12 months. Of those organisations, nearly three quarters said the attack was successful, meaning that it disrupted business operations.

Other key findings

·       Of the respondents that said their organisation paid a cyber ransom to regain access to data, applications, and/or systems after an attack, only 14% were able to recover all of their data.

·       87% of respondents who made ransom payments said that they experienced additional extortion attempts beyond the initial ransomware demand.

·       31% of respondent organisations targeted by ransomware indicated that application user and permission misconfigurations were the initial point of compromise.

·       87% of respondents are very or somewhat concerned about their backups being infected by ransomware attacks.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/04/07/organizations-targeted-by-ransomware/

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Threats

Ransomware

• March Ransomware Attacks Strike Finance, Government Targets (techtarget.com)

• Why Paying The Ransom Isn’t The Answer For Ransomware Victims - Information Security Buzz

• Companies Are More Prepared to Pay Ransoms Than Ever Before (tripwire.com)

• Conti Ransomware Deployed in IcedID Banking Trojan Attack (techtarget.com)

• Researchers Connect BlackCat Ransomware with Past BlackMatter Malware Activity (thehackernews.com)

• Notorious Hacking Group FIN7 Adds Ransomware to Its Repertoire - CyberScoop

• BlackCat Purveyor Shows Ransomware Operators Have 9 Lives (darkreading.com)

• FIN7 Hackers Evolve Toolset, Work with Multiple Ransomware Gangs (bleepingcomputer.com)

• LockBit Ransomware Attack Costs CRM Services Provider Over $42 Million - MSSP Alert

• Snap-on Discloses Data Breach Claimed by Conti Ransomware Gang (bleepingcomputer.com)

Phishing & Email Based Attacks

• Phishing Hook: Are you on the line? Cyber Security Experts Explain How the Criminals Lure You In. (winknews.com)

Other Social Engineering

• Hackers Employ Voicemail Phishing Attacks On WhatsApp Users | TechRepublic

Malware

• Borat RAT Malware: A 'Unique' Triple Threat That Is Far from Funny | ZDNet

• Multiple Hacker Groups Capitalizing on Ukraine Conflict for Distributing Malware (thehackernews.com)

• Experts Shed Light on BlackGuard Infostealer Malware Sold on Russian Hacking Forums (thehackernews.com)

• Malicious Web Redirect Service Infects 16,500 Sites to Push Malware (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Researchers Uncover How Colibri Malware Stays Persistent on Hacked Systems (thehackernews.com)

Mobile

• 44 Vulnerabilities Patched in Android With April 2022 Security Updates | SecurityWeek.Com

• Fake Versions of Real Smartphone Apps Are Being Used To Spread Malware. Here's How to Stay Safe | ZDNet

• Samsung Security Flaw Left Phones Exposed for Years (androidpolice.com)

• Six 'Antivirus' Apps Were Caught Spreading Malware That Steals Banking Info — Here Are the Culprits | Laptop Mag

• SharkBot Android Malware Continues Popping Up on Google Play | SecurityWeek.Com

• Android Apps With 45 Million Installs Used Data Harvesting SDK (bleepingcomputer.com)

• New Android Spyware Uses Turla-Linked Infrastructure | SecurityWeek.Com

Organised Crime & Criminal Actors

• Cyber Criminals Taking Advantage of The Ukraine Crisis To Create Charity Donation Scams - Help Net Security

Cryptocurrency/Cryptomining/Cryptojacking

• Crypto 2022: Hackers Have Nabbed $1.22 Billion Already (yahoo.com)

• Malicious Crypto Miners Can Make A Profit In A Few Hours - Help Net Security

• Malicious Actors Targeting the Cloud For Cryptocurrency-Mining Activities - Help Net Security

• Cryptocurrency-Mining AWS Lambda-Specific Malware Spotted • The Register

• MailChimp Breached, Intruders Conducted Phishing Attacks Against Crypto Customers - Security Affairs

• Turkey Seeks 40,000-Year Sentences for Alleged Cryptocurrency Exit Scammers | ZDNet

Insider Risk and Insider Threats

• New Insider Threat: Bad Business Decisions That Put IP At Risk | CSO Online

Fraud, Scams & Financial Crime

• Traditional Identity Fraud Losses Soar, Totalling $52 Billion in 2021 - Help Net Security

• Online Fraud Up 233% - Infosecurity Magazine

• Internal Auditors Stepping Up to Become Strategic Advisors In The Fight Against Fraud - Help Net Security

• South African and US Officers Swoop on Fraud Gang - Infosecurity Magazine

Insurance

• 18% Of the Top 99 Insurance Carriers Have A High Susceptibility To Ransomware - Help Net Security

Supply Chain

• The Blurring Line, and Growing Risk, Between Physical and Digital Supply Chains (darkreading.com)

Cloud

• The Importance of Understanding Cloud Native Security Risks - Help Net Security

• 15 Cyber Security Measures for the Cloud Era - Security Affairs

Privacy

• How You’re Still Being Tracked on the Internet - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

• Using Google's Chrome Browser? This New Feature Will Help You Fix Your Security Settings | ZDNet

Passwords & Credential Stuffing

• Attack on Ukraine Telecoms Provider Caused by Compromised Employee Credentials - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

• FIN7 Hackers Leveraging Password Reuse and Software Supply Chain Attacks (thehackernews.com)

Travel

• Hotels In Hackers’ Sights as Technology Replaces Personal Touch | Financial Times (ft.com)

Spyware, Espionage & Cyber Warfare, including Russian Invasion of Ukraine

• Hackers Use Conti's Leaked Ransomware to Attack Russian Companies (bleepingcomputer.com)

• Hacking Group Claim It Has Leaked More Than 900,000 Emails from Russian State Media | The Independent

• What Is the Risk Of Retaliation For Taking A Corporate Stance on Russia? | CSO Online

• Anonymous and the IT ARMY of Ukraine Continue to Target Russian Entities - Security Affairs

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Nation State Actors

Nation State Actors – Russia

• The Russian Cyber Attack Threat Might Force a New IT Stance | Computerworld

• FBI Operation Aims to Take Down Massive Russian GRU Botnet | TechCrunch

• Microsoft Sinkholes Russian Hacking Group's Domains Targeting Ukraine (darkreading.com)

• FBI Disrupts Russian Military Hackers, Preventing Botnet Amid Ukraine War | Fox News

• Russia (still) Trying To Weaponize Facebook Amid Ukraine War • The Register

Nation State Actors – China

• Symantec: Chinese APT Group Targeting Global MSPs | SecurityWeek.Com

• Chinese Hackers Are Using VLC Media Player to Launch Malware Attacks (androidpolice.com)

• Hacked: Inside the US-China Cyberwar | Cybersecurity | Al Jazeera

• China Uses AI Software to Improve Its Surveillance Capabilities | Reuters

Nation State Actors – Misc

• Israeli Officials Are Being Catfished by APT-C-23 Hackers | ZDNet

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Vulnerabilities

• CISA Warns of Active Exploitation of Critical Spring4Shell Vulnerability (thehackernews.com)

• Palo Alto Networks firewalls, VPNs vulnerable to OpenSSL bug (bleepingcomputer.com)

• A Vulnerability in Zyxel Firewall Could Allow for Authentication Bypass (cisecurity.org)

• Citrix Releases Security Updates for Hypervisor | CISA

• Spring4Shell Patching Is Going Slow but Risk Not Comparable To Log4Shell | CSO Online

• VMware Releases Critical Patches for New Vulnerabilities Affecting Multiple Products (thehackernews.com)

• Apple Leaves Big Sur, Catalina Exposed to Critical Flaws: Intego | SecurityWeek.Com

• A Mirai-Based Botnet Is Exploiting the Spring4Shell Vulnerability - Security Affairs

• Steady Rise in Severe Web Vulnerabilities - Help Net Security

• ACF WordPress Plugin Vulnerability Affects Up To +2 Million Sites (searchenginejournal.com)

• Zero Days Are for Life, Not Just For Christmas. Here’s How to Deal With Them • The Register

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Sector Specific

Financial Services Sector

• March Ransomware Attacks Strike Finance, Government Targets (techtarget.com)

FinTech

• Server-Side-Request-Forgery Enabled Administrative Account Takeover on FinTech Platform - IT Security Guru

Health/Medical/Pharma Sector

• 49% of Small Medical Practices Lack a Cyber Attack Response Plan - Help Net Security

Manufacturing

• A Cyber Attack Forced The Wind Turbine Manufacturer Nordex Group To Shut Down Some of IT Systems - Security Affairs

CNI, OT, ICS, IIoT and SCADA

• Europe Warned About Cyber Threat to Industrial Infrastructure | SecurityWeek.Com

• BlackCat Ransomware Targets Industrial Companies | SecurityWeek.Com

Energy & Utilities

• Spanish Energy Giant Hit by Data Breach - IT Security Guru

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Reports Published in the Last Week

• Cyberthreat Defense Report 2021 - CyberEdge Group (cyber-edge.com)

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Other News

• Okta CEO Says Lapsus$ Hack is 'Big Deal,' Aims to Restore Trust (yahoo.com)

• 86% of Developers Don't Prioritise Application Security - Help Net Security

• Digital Transformation Requires Security Intelligence - Help Net Security

• Government Officials: AI Threat Detection Still Needs Humans (techtarget.com)

• The Original APT: Advanced Persistent Teenagers – Krebs on Security

• Scan This: There's Danger in QR Codes (darkreading.com)

• How Many Steps Does It Take for Attackers To Compromise Critical Assets? - Help Net Security

• Cyber Talent Shortage Remains A Top Problem For Sec Pros – CEO Perspective - Information Security Buzz

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As usual, contact us to help assess where your risks lie and to ensure you are doing all you can do to keep you and your business secure.

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Links to articles are for interest and awareness and linking to or reposting external content does not endorse any service or product, likewise we are not responsible for the security of external links.

Black Arrow Cyber Advisory 07/04/2022 – VMware provides patches for critical vulnerabilities in multiple products.

Executive Summary

VMware is a large supplier of virtualisation products which are used to run a variety of different services. They announced on 06/04/2022 that updates have been released for multiple products in their range to address different vulnerabilities. Some of these vulnerabilities have been marked as “critical”, including Spring4Shell due to the ability for a malicious actor to remotely execute code.

What’s the risk to me or my business?

As VMware are one of the primary suppliers of virtual infrastructure, it is highly likely that some business services will be hosted on machines running VMware software. There are a range of different critical and medium vulnerabilities being patched with these updates, including Spring4Shell, which CISA are now stating is being actively exploited.

What can I do?

As patches have been released, it is important that these are applied as soon as possible, particularly as some of the vulnerabilities are now being actively exploited.

Discuss with you Managed Service Provider (MSP) whether any of your devices or services are impacted, and when they can expect to be patched. While VMware has supplied workaround to help mitigate the issue if it cannot be immediately patched, it is strongly noted that the work arounds do not remove the vulnerabilities and may introduce additional unforeseen issues.

Technical Summary

The following VMware products have been listed as being affected by the following CVEs:

• VMware Workspace ONE Access (Access) | CVE-2022-22954, CVE-2022-22955, CVE-2022-22956, CVE-2022-22957, CVE-2022-22958, CVE-2022-22959, CVE-2022-22960, CVE-2022-22961

• VMware Identity Manager (vIDM) | CVE-2022-22954, CVE-2022-22957, CVE-2022-22958, CVE-2022-22959, CVE-2022-22960, CVE-2022-22961

• VMware vRealize Automation (vRA) | CVE-2022-22957, CVE-2022-22958, CVE-2022-22959, CVE-2022-22960, CVE-2022-22961

The following VMware products deploy the above affected components:

• VMware Cloud Foundation

• vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager

CVE-2022-22954: Critical severity range with maximum CVSSv3 base score of 9.8, malicious actor with network access can trigger server-side template injection that could result in remote code execution.

CVE-2022-22955 & CVE-2022-22956: Critical severity range with maximum CVSSv3 base score of 9.8, malicious actor may bypass authentication mechanism and execute any operation due to exposed endpoints in the authentication framework.

CVE-2022-22957 & CVE-2022-22958: Critical severity range with maximum CVSSv3 base score of 9.1, malicious actor with administrator access can trigger deserialization of untrusted data through malicious Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) Uniform Resource Identifier (UDI), which can result in remote code execution.

CVE-2022-22959, CVE-2022-22960 & CVE-2022-22961: These vulnerabilities range from Important with maximum CVSSv3 base score of 8.8 to moderate with maximum CVSSv3 base score of 5.3.

Further technical information including a response patch matrix and workarounds can be found here: VMSA-2022-0011 (vmware.com), HW-154129 - Workaround instructions to address CVE-2022-22954, CVE-2022-22955, CVE-2022-22956, CVE-2022-22957, CVE-2022-22958, CVE-2022-22959, CVE-2022-22960 in Workspace ONE Access Appliance (VMware Identity Manager) (88098)

Need help understanding your gaps, or just want some advice? Get in touch with us.

Black Arrow Cyber Advisory – Spring4Shell Remote Code Execution Vulnerability - updated 05/04/2022 under active exploitation

Update 05/04/2022: CISA have now confirmed that there is Active Exploitation of Critical Spring4Shell Vulnerability. It is recommended that patches are applied as soon as possible.

Executive Summary

Spring Core is a popular framework used for creating Java-based enterprise applications. Spring4Shell is a critical zero-day bug within this framework, that allows attackers to remotely execute code on affecting systems running certain, non-default configurations. Due to the popularity, Spring Core may be found within many java-based enterprise applications, and Java, is an almost ubiquitous software that’s found in billions of devices across the globe, from the enterprise to the home. The bug has been deemed “Critical”, primarily due to the remote root or administrator capabilities of an attacker if exploited.

This bug is currently receiving a large quantity of media attention. While we do not believe that this issue is of major concern at this time, it is something that is important to be aware of. We will continue to monitor and upgrade our advisory if we deem appropriate.

What’s the risk to me or my business?

While the use of the Spring Core framework is very popular, this exploit appears to be only exploitable in certain configurations. The bug is not noted to be widely exploited at this time, however attackers will leverage anything they can when compromising a network, and it may only be a matter of time now the bug has been made public. The risk will primarily come from a failure to patch the flaw, which may be easy to overlook.

What can I do?

A patch has been released for the Spring Framework. The bug affects versions 5.3.0 to 5.3.17, 5.2.0-5.2.19 and all other older versions. This bug will be present in any java application made using the Spring Framework.

Discuss with you Managed Service Provider (MSP) whether any of your devices or services are impacted, and when they can expect to be patched. Equally, keeping devices at home or elsewhere up to date is an important step to mitigation, both for your professional and private life.

It is advised that network administrators patch as soon as possible.

We are continuing to monitor this and will provide updates when more information is available.

Technical Summary

The bug, tracked as CVE-2022-22965, was first reported to VMware late Tuesday evening, 29/03/2022. Investigation and analysis into the issue was being conducted with the aim for an emergency release on Thursday, 31/03/2022 however details were leaked in full online prior to this. The vendor has detailed that if the application was deployed using the default configuration, then it should not be exploitable, however due to the nature of the vulnerability there may be more unknown ways to exploit it. Further technical details will be supplied when more details are released.

Need help understanding your gaps, or just want some advice? Get in touch with us.