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2022-03-10 23:39:03 | APT41 Compromised Six U.S. State Government Networks (lien direct) | FortiGuard Labs is aware of a report that threat actor APT41 compromised at least six networks belonging to U.S. state governments between May 2021 and February 2022. To gain a foothold into the victim's network, the threat actor used a number of different attack vectors: exploiting vulnerable Internet facing web applications and directory traversal vulnerabilities, performing SQL injection, and conducting de-serialization attacks. The intent of APT41 appears to be reconnaissance, though how the stolen information is to be used has not yet been determined.Why is this Significant? This is significant because at least six U.S. state government systems were broken into and data exfiltration was performed by APT41 as recent as February 2022 In addition, a zero-day vulnerability in the USAHerds application (CVE-2021-44207) as well as Log4j (CVE-2021-44228), among others, were exploited in the attacksWhat's the Detail of the Attack?APT41 performed several different ways to break into the targeted networks.In one case, the group exploited a SQL injection vulnerability in a Internet-facing web application. In another case, a then previously unknown vulnerability (CVE-2021-44207) in USAHerds, which is a web application used by agriculture officials to manage animal disease control and prevention, livestock identification and movement. Also, APT41 reportedly started to exploit the infamous Log4j vulnerability (CVE-2021-44228) within hours of Proof-of-Concept (PoC) code becoming available. Patches for both vulnerabilities are available. Once successful in breaking into the victim's network, the threat actor performed reconnaissance and credential harvesting activities. What is APT41?APT41 is a threat actor who has been active since at least 2012. Also known as TA415, Double Dragon, Barium, GREF and WickedPanda, the group reportedly performs Chinese state-sponsored espionage activities. APT41 targets organizations in multiple countries across a wide range of industries, such as telecommunications, industrial and engineering and think tanks. In 2020, five alleged members of the group were charged by the U.S. Justice Department for hacking more than 100 companies in the United States.What are the Tools Used by APT41?APT41 is known to use the following tools:ASPXSpy - web shell backdoorBITSAdmin - PowerShell cmdlets for creating and managing file transfers.BLACKCOFFEE - backdoor that disguise its communications as benign traffic to legitimate websites certutil - command-line utility tool used for manipulating certification authority (CA) data and components.China Chopper - web shell backdoor that allows attacker to have remote access to an enterprise networkCobalt Strike - a commercial penetration testing tool, which allows users to perform a wide range of activitiesDerusbi - DLL backdoorEmpire - PowerShell post-exploitation agent, which provides a wide range of attack activities to usersgh0st RAT - Remote Access Trojan (RAT)MESSAGETAP - data mining malware Mimikatz - open-source credential dumpernjRAT - Remote Access Trojan (RAT)PlugX - Remote Access Trojan (RAT)PowerSploit - open-source, offensive security framework which allows users to perform a wide range of activitiesROCKBOOT - BootkitShadowPad - backdoorWinnti for Linux - Remote Access Trojan (RAT) for LinuxZxShell - Remote Access Trojan (RAT)Badpotato - open-source tool that allows elevate user rights towards System rightsDustPan - shellcode loader. aka StealthVectorDEADEYE - downloaderLOWKEY - backdoorKeyplug - backdoorWhat are Other Vulnerabilities Known to be Exploited by APT41?APT41 exploited the following, but not restricted to, these vulnerabilities in the past:CVE-2020-10189 (ManageEngine Desktop Central remote code execution vulnerability)CVE-2019-19781 (Vulnerability in Citrix Application Delivery Controller, Citrix Gateway, and Citrix SD-WAN WANOP appliance)CVE-2019-3396 (Atlassian Confluence Widget Connector Macro Velocity Template Injection)CVE-2017-11882 (Microsoft Office Memory Corruption Vulnerability)CVE-2017-0199 (Microsoft Office/WordPad Remote Code Execut | Malware Tool Vulnerability Threat Guideline | APT 41 APT 15 APT 15 | |
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2021-12-07 15:08:56 | NICKEL - Targeting Organizations Across Europe, North America, and South America (lien direct) | FortiGuard Labs is aware of reports relating to NICKEL, a state sponsored group targeting varying interests in Europe, North and South America. NICKEL is a state sponsored group operating out of China and is targeting governmental organizations, diplomatic groups and non governmental organizations in 29 countries.NICKELs' modus operandi is the usage of exploits on unpached systems to compromise vulnerable systems and their unpatched services. Observed exploits used by NICKEL included the exploitation of services such as Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SharePoint, and Pulse Secure VPN. Microsoft filed pleadings with the United States District Court of Eastern Virginia on December 2nd to seize control of servers used by NICKEL.What are the Technical Details?NICKEL malware variants use Internet Explorer COM interfaces to receive instructions from predefined command and control (C2) servers. The malware will then connect to the web-based C2 servers to check for a specific string located on these servers. Once confirmed, the malware will decode a Base64 encoded blob that will load shellcode for further exploitation.NICKEL malware is capable of capturing system information such as the IP address, OS version, system language, computer name and username of the current signed in user. It also contains backdoor functionality to execute commands and to upload and download files. NICKEL then uses the stolen and compromised credentials of the targeted victim to login to Microsoft 365 accounts via browser logins to exfiltrate victim emails for further damage.What Other Names is NICKEL Known As?According to Microsoft - NICKEL is also known as APT15, APT25, and Ke3Chang.Is this Limited to Targeted Attacks?Yes. Attacks are limited to varying targets in specific countries and verticals.What Countries were Targeted?They are:Argentina, Barbados, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Italy, Jamaica, Mali, Mexico, Montenegro, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago, United Kingdom, United States of America, and Venezuela.What is the Status of Protections?FortiGuard Labs provides the following AV coverage used in this campaign as:W32/Staser.COFE!trW32/Staser.CBQX!trW32/NetE.VH!trW32/BackDoor.U!trAll network IOC's are blocked by the FortiGuard WebFiltering client.Any Other Suggested Mitigation?Because it has been reported that NICKEL obtains access via unpatched and vulnerable systems, It is important to ensure that all known vendor vulnerabilities are addressed and updated to protect from attackers having a foothold within a network. Attackers are well aware of the difficulty of patching and if it is determined that patching is not feasible at this time, an assessment should be conducted to determine risk.Also - organizations are encouraged to conduct ongoing training sessions to educate and inform personnel about the latest phishing/spear phishing attacks. They also need to encourage employees to never open attachments from someone they don't know, and to always treat emails from unrecognized/untrusted senders with caution. Since it has been reported that various phishing and spear phishing attacks have been delivered via social engineering distribution mechanisms, it is crucial that end users within an organization be made aware of the various types of attacks being delivered. This can be accomplished through regular training sessions and impromptu tests using predetermined templates by an organizations' internal security department. Simple user awareness training on how to spot emails with malicious attachments or links could also help prevent initial access into the network. | Malware Patching Guideline | APT 15 APT 25 | ★★★★ |
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