Skip to main content

Eight Australian web hosting providers compromised in ‘​Manic Menagerie’ attack campaign

 
 
  • Vulnerabilities within web applications and information stealing malware were leveraged to perform the attack.
  • One vulnerability that was exploited in the attack was related to privilege escalation - CVE-2018-1038, also known as TotalMeltdown.
According to a recent report from the Australian Cyber Security Center (ACSC), eight Australian web hosting providers were compromised in a malware attack in 2018.
Attack method
It was revealed that hackers abused the flaws with web applications to get root access to web servers. Upon gaining access, they installed a malware - that included both password stealing tools and the Gh0st remote access tool (RAT).
Further analysis revealed that the attackers used a web browser to manually interact with the targeted websites and find the vulnerabilities. Once identified, the attackers manually exploited these flaws to create a web shell on the server. This enabled them to gain control over the websites and perform future interactions remotely.
“The actor’s privilege escalation tools were all public proof of concepts (POC) and demonstrated an ability to quickly use new POC exploits,” the center said in a report.
About Gh0st RAT
Gh0st is a fully featured remote access tool (RAT). The malware’s capabilities include recording keystrokes, capturing recordings from webcam and microphone, stealing files from victims’ systems, downloading additional payloads and providing full remote control of a host.
"When executed, the Gh0st dropper creates a Windows executable with a .gif extension in a legitimate Windows directory then registers a new service to execute the dropped file on start-up," stated the report. "Every execution of the dropper results in a binary with a different hash being generated which causes hash-based detection to be ineffective."
Two of the eight compromised web hosting providers were used for mining Monero cryptocurrency. While none of the websites’ names have been disclosed by the ACSC, it is found that attackers had stolen a sum of AU$3868 (approximately 22.57 XMR).
The ACSC found that actors had modified some of these sites to boost SEO rankings and to redirect legitimate traffic to sites selling illegitimate products.
In the wake of the malware attack campaign, the ACSC has advised web hosting providers to patch their web applications and CMSs, disable malicious plugins and reset user credentials.

Global Locations

  • Block A, A-25, Second Floor, Sector 3
    Noida, Uttar Pradesh
    +91-120 429 1672+91 931 991 8771

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Information Security Analyst Interview Questions

Top 12 Information Security Analyst Interview Questions & Answers 1) Explain what is the role of information security analyst? From small to large companies role of information security analyst includes Implementing security measures to protect computer systems, data and networks Keep himself up-to-date with on the latest intelligence which includes hackers techniques as well Preventing data loss and service interruptions Testing of data processing system and performing risk assessments Installing various security software like firewalls, data encryption and other security measures Recommending security enhancements and purchases Planning, testing and implementing network disaster plans Staff training on information and network security procedures 2) Mention what is data leakage? What are the factors that can cause data leakage? The separation or departing of IP from its intended place of storage is known as data leakage.  The factors that are respons...

Community Health Systems agrees to pay nearly $3.1 million as a part of settlement for 2014 data breach

The settlement covers a total of 4.5 million patients impacted in the breach. The cyber attack took place in April and June of 2014 and was orchestrated by a Chinese criminal group. Tennessee-based Community Health Systems has reached a settlement over a 2014 data breach that 4.5 million patients. A proposed amount of $3.1 million has been reached as a part of the settlement in a class action lawsuit filed against the healthcare. What happened? According to court records, the cyber attack took place in April and June of 2014 and was orchestrated by a Chinese criminal group, that solely focused on obtaining intellectual data. The hackers used an advanced malware and exfiltrated a variety of information such as patient names, Social Security numbers, addresses, dates of birth, and phone numbers. However, no credit card details and medical details were affected in the breach. Following the breach, the healthcare firm had notified the patients about the breach. However, the...
Phishing Campaigns Targeting Google and Yahoo Accounts To Bypassing Two-Factor Authentication Several phishing campaigns targeting hundreds of individuals across the Middle East and North Africa. The attacker targers HRDs, journalists, political actors. Amnesty International published a report on multiple campaigns that traget self-described “secure email” services, such as Tutanota and ProtonMail and another campaign that aimed in bypassing two-factor authentication. Crafted Phishing Sites – Secure Email Providers The phishing campaign primarily targeted popular secure email service providers such as Tutanota and ProtonMail. Threat actors used a well-crafted phishing page – by obtaining the domain tutanota[.]org, whereas the original domain of the service provider is tutanota[.]com. A phishing attack is one of the dangerous social engineering attacks that leads to capture a victim’s username and password that will get store it to an attacker machine and reuse it l...