Blog entry by Les Bell

Les Bell
Security News: 2023-11-02
by Les Bell - Thursday, 2 November 2023, 10:38 AM
Anyone in the world

Welcome to today's daily briefing on security news relevant to our CISSP (and other) courses. Links within stories may lead to further details in the course notes of some of our courses, and will only be accessible if you are enrolled in the corresponding course - this is a shallow ploy to encourage ongoing study. However, each item ends with a link to the original source.

News Stories

Updated Guidance on Cisco IOS XE Vulnerabilities

In mid-October we reported on a 0-day vulnerability, CVE-2023-20198, which was being exploited in the wild. This vulnerability was in the web UI of Cisco's IOS XE operating system, and sported a CVSS 3.1 score of 10.0, which is guaranteed to get the attention of network admins. More recently, this vuln was joined by CVE-2023-20273, an input sanitization failure which allows an authenticated attacker to perform remote command execution with root privileges via crafted input. The CVSS score this time is only 7.2, so it's not quite as bad, but still . . .

Now Cisco has updated its advisory on these, recommending that admins check whether the web server is running with the command

show running-config | include ip http server|secure|active

If the output contains either of

ip http server

or

ip http secure-server

then the web UI is enabled. However, the presence of either ip http active-session-modules none or ip http secure-active-session-modules none indicates that the vulnerabilities are not exploitable via either HTTP or HTTPS, respectively.

Cisco's security advisory suggests a number of mitigations, principally disabling the web server or at least restricting access to a trusted network only, but the real fix is to download and install the appropriate software updates.

Cisco, Cisco IOS XE Software Web UI Privilege Escalation Vulnerability, security advisory, 1 November 2023. Available online at https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-iosxe-webui-privesc-j22SaA4z.

US and Allies Up the Ante Against Ransomware

Via Reuters come reports that the White House is finalizing a new policy on government responses to ransomware attacks, and will share information on ransomware groups, including the accounts they use for ransom collection. The policy was announced during this week's International Counter Ransomware Initiative. Two information-sharing platforms will be created, one by Lithuania and the other jointly by Israel and the United Arab Emirates. These will share a blacklist, managed by the US Department of Treasury, of cybercurrency wallets being used to transfter ransomware payments.

The massive revenues collected by ransomware operators has been used to fund the development of new exploits and malware, creating a feedback loop that further increases their profitability. As a result, in recent years, ransomware has been the number one concern of CISO's globally. Security professionals generally agree that the only way to break this loop is to simply refuse to pay any ransoms, a decision that must weigh heavily on organizations that necessarily process personal - especially sensitive personal - information. When such organizations refuse to pay an extortion demand from an operator which has exfiltrated personal information, the extortionists will often turn their focus to the individual victims, as happened last week to the parents of children in the Clark County (Las Vegas) school district.

One option that is perennially raised is that governments should make ransomware payments illegal, a somewhat drastic step that would lift the moral burden of not paying off the affected organizations - but may well transfer the harm to the individual victims who usually have absolutely no responsibility for a breach. At the International Counter Ransomware Initiative meeting, forty countries pledged never to pay a ransom to cybercriminals, although this seems to apply to the governments themselves.

Clearly, the best option by far is to never fall victim to a ransomware attack in the first place - something that is obviously much more easily said than done.

Hunnicutt, Trevor and Zeba Siddiqui, White House to share ransomware data with allies -source, Reuters, 31 October 2023. Available online at https://www.reuters.com/technology/white-house-share-ransomware-data-with-allies-source-2023-10-30/.

Siddiqui, Zeba, Alliance of 40 countries to vow not to pay ransom to cybercriminals, US says, Reuters, 1 November 2023. Available online at https://www.reuters.com/technology/alliance-40-countries-vow-not-pay-ransom-cybercriminals-us-says-2023-10-31/.

Wootton-Greener, Julie, Some CCSD parents get suspicious email with information about their kids, Las Vegas Review-Journal, 26 October 2023. Available online at https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/education/some-ccsd-parents-get-suspicious-email-with-information-about-their-kids-2928929/.

Arid Viper Spreads Android Malware Disguides as Dating App

Just a couple of days ago we reported on the activities of the Hamas-aligned hacktivist group, Arid Viper. Cisco Talos now reports that the group has been running an 18-month campaign which targets Arabic-speaking Android users with malicious .apk (Android package) files.

Curiously, the malware is very similar to an apparently legitimate online dating application referred to as "Skipped", e.g. "Skipped - Chat, Match & Dating", specifically using a similar name and the same shared project on the app's development platform. This suggests that Arid Viper is actually behind the dating app, or somehow gained unauthorized access to its development platform. However, Skipped is only one of many linked fake dating apps for both Android and iOS, including VIVIO, Meeted and Joostly, suggesting that Arid Viper may make use of these apps in future campaigns. Arid Viper is known to have used similar "honey trap" tactics on Android, iOS and Windows in the past.

Under the covers, the malware uses Google's Firebase messaging platform as a C2 channel, and has the ability to gather system information, exfiltrate credentials, record, send and receive calls and text messages, record contacts and call history, exfitrate files, switch to a new C2 domain and also to download and execute additional trojanized apps.

Cisco Talos, Arid Viper disguising mobile spyware as updates for non-malicious Android applications, technical report, 31 October 2023. Available online at https://blog.talosintelligence.com/arid-viper-mobile-spyware/.

Surge in Office Add-ins Used as Droppers, Reports HP

In their Threat Insights Report for Q3 of 2023, HP Wolf Security reports a surge in the use of Excel add-in (.xlam) malware, which has risen from the 46th place in malware delivery file types in Q2 to 7th place in Q3. In many campaigns, the threat actors use an Excel add-in as a dropper, often carrying the Parallax RAT as a payload. The victims were lured into opening malicious email attachments containing Excel add-ins claiming to be scanned invoices, generally sent from compromised email accounts.

When the victim opens the attachment, it runs the Excel xlAutoOpen() function, which in turn makes use of various system libraries as a LOLbin strategy, making it harder for static analysis to flag the add-in as malware. The malware starts two threads: one creates an executable file called lum.exe and runs it, while the other creates a decoy invoice called Invoice.xlsx and opens it to distract the user. Meanwhile, lum.exe unpacks itself in memory and then uses process hollowing to take over another process. It also creates a copy of lum.exe in the AppData Startup folder to achieve persistence.

The malware itself is Parallax RAT, which can remotely control the infected PC, steal login credentials, upload and download files, etc. It requires no C2 infrastructure or support, which makes it easy for novice cybercriminals, can can be rented for only $US65 per month via the hacking forums where it is advertised.

Other tactics observed by HP's researchers include using malicious macro-enabled Powerpoint add-ins (.ppam) to spread XWorm malware and a campaign in which a threat actor lured novice cybercriminals into installing fake RAT's, thereby getting them to infect themselves with malware. Honestly, is there no honour among thieves any more?

HP Wolf Security, Threat Insights Report, Q3 - 2023, technical report, October 2023. Available online at https://threatresearch.ext.hp.com/hp-wolf-security-threat-insights-report-q3-2023/.

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