Security

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Massive Ransomware Campaign Targeting Unpatched Vmware ESXi Servers

From SINGCERT (https://www.csa.gov.sg/singcert/Alerts/AL-2023-015) dated 04 Feb 2023

There are reports of an ongoing ransomware campaign actively exploiting a vulnerability (CVE-2021-21974) in unpatched VMware ESXi servers.

Successful exploitation of the vulnerability could allow an attacker to perform remote code execution by triggering the heap-overflow issue in OpenSLP service.

The following versions of the products are affected by the aforementioned vulnerability:

•             ESXi versions 7.x earlier than ESXi70U1c-17325551

•             ESXi versions 6.7.x earlier than ESXi670-202102401-SG

•             ESXi versions 6.5.x earlier than ESXi650-202102101-SG

Users and administrators of affected product versions are advised to upgrade to the latest versions immediately. As a precaution, a full system scan should also be performed to detect any signs of compromise. Users and administrators are also advised to assess if the ransomware campaign-targeted port 427 can be disabled without disrupting operations.

Users and administrators may also wish to configure their firewall rules to block any connections to the following IP addresses purportedly carrying out the attacks:

  • 104.152.52[.]55
  • 193.163.125[.]138
  • 43.130.10[.]173
  • 104.152.52[.]0/24

More information can be found at

https://www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2021-0002.html

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/massive-esxiargs-ransomware-attack-targets-vmware-esxi-servers-worldwide/

https://www.cert.ssi.gouv.fr/alerte/CERTFR-2023-ALE-015/

https://www.csa.gov.sg/singcert/Advisories/ad-2021-009/

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How to disable CBC Mode Ciphers in RHEL 8 or Rocky Linux 8

This writeup is reference from The Geek Diary

Edit /etc/sysconfig/sshd and uncomment CRYPTO_POLICY line:

CRYPTO_POLICY=

Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config file. Add Ciphers, MACs and KexAlgorithms have been added

KexAlgorithms curve25519-sha256@libssh.org,ecdh-sha2-nistp521,ecdh-sha2-nistp384,ecdh-sha2-nistp256,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256
Ciphers chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com,aes256-gcm@openssh.com,aes128-gcm@openssh.com,aes256-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes128-ctr
MACs hmac-sha2-512-etm@openssh.com,hmac-sha2-256-etm@openssh.com,umac-128-etm@openssh.com,hmac-sha2-512,hmac-sha2-256,umac-128@openssh.com

After making changes to the configuration file, you may want to do a sanity check on the configuration file

# sshd -t

Restart sshd services

# systemctl restart sshd

To test if weak CBC Ciphers are enabled

$ ssh -vv -oCiphers=3des-cbc,aes128-cbc,aes192-cbc,aes256-cbc [youruserid@IP of your Server]

References:

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Using SSLScan to determine supported cipers

SSLScan queries SSL services to determine the ciphers that are supported. This is a very useful tool if you wish to

SSLScan is designed to be easy, lean and fast. The output includes preferred ciphers of the SSL service, and the certificate and is in text and XML formats.

The Project Site and Installation can be found at https://github.com/rbsec/sslscan

I was checking my Windows Server,

$ sslscan --rdp x.x.x.x
Version: 2.0.15-static
OpenSSL 1.1.1t-dev  xx XXX xxxx

Connected to x.x.x.x

Testing SSL server x.x.x.x on port 3389 using SNI name x.x.x.x

SSL/TLS Protocols:
SSLv2     disabled
SSLv3     disabled
TLSv1.0   disabled
TLSv1.1   disabled
TLSv1.2   enabled
TLSv1.3   disabled

  TLS Fallback SCSV:
Server supports TLS Fallback SCSV

  TLS renegotiation:
Session renegotiation not supported

  TLS Compression:
Compression disabled

  Heartbleed:
TLSv1.2 not vulnerable to heartbleed

  Supported Server Cipher(s):
Preferred TLSv1.2  256 bits  ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384   Curve 25519 DHE 253
Accepted  TLSv1.2  128 bits  ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256   Curve 25519 DHE 253
.....
.....

You may want to scan by port level

$ sslscan x.x.x.x:8444
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High-Severity Zero-Day Bug in Google Chrome

This article is taken from Singapore Computer Emergency Response Team (SINGCERT) titled High-Severity Zero-Day Bug in Google Chrome

Google has released Chrome 99.0.4844.84 for Windows, Mac, Linux and Chrome 99.0.4844.88 for Android users to address a high-severity zero-day bug (CVE-2022-1096). The vulnerability is a Type Confusion in V8 JavaScript engine exploit, and is reported to exist in the wild. V8 is Chrome’s component that is responsible for processing JavaScript code.

Type confusion refers to coding bugs during which an application initialises data execution operations using input of a specific “type” but is tricked into treating the input as a different “type”. This leads to logical errors in the application’s memory, which may allow an attacker to run unrestricted malicious codes inside an application.

No further technical details about the bug have been published by Google.

Google Chrome users on Windows, Mac and Linux are advised to upgrade to Chrome 99.0.4844.84 immediately by going into Chrome menu > Help > About Google Chrome, while Android users may refer to the Google Play Store for Chrome 99 (99.0.4844.88) version.

High-Severity Zero-Day Bug in Google Chrome
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Apache Log4j Zero-Day Vulnerability

Taken from https://www.lunasec.io/docs/blog/log4j-zero-day/

What is Apache Log4j Zero-Day Vulnerability?

Apache Log4j has a serious unauthenticated Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerability which was just disclosed. The exploit code for this has also been released, and the vulnerability is actively exploited in the wild. By crafting a special string that is passed to the application/service log via Log4j, attackers can execute arbitrary code loaded from remote servers. This can potentially lead to a complete compromise of the server.

What versions are vulnerable?

Any software using Apache Log4j (as a component) version between 2.0 and 2.14.1, inclusive.

What do I need to do?

A. Servers running custom Java application/services

  1. If your Log4j version is vulnerable, install the latest patched version log4j-2.15.0-rc2 available on GitHub at https://github.com/apache/logging-log4j2/releases/tag/log4j-2.15.0-rc2.

B. Servers running Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products

  1. Plese refer to https://gist.github.com/SwitHak/b66db3a06c2955a9cb71a8718970c592 for a list of advisories from the major vendors and follow the advisory.

How can I check if I have been hacked/compromised?

Check your applications’ log files for strings resembling “jndi:ldap”.

For more information

See https://www.lunasec.io/docs/blog/log4j-zero-day/

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Largest Collection of Breached data found

The largest collection of breached data in history has been discovered, comprising more than 770m email addresses and passwords posted to a popular hacking forum in mid-December…..

For more information, do take a look at https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jan/17/breached-data-largest-collection-ever-seen-email-password-hacking

You can check whether your account is compromised b Security Researcher Troy Hunt who runs the Have I Been Pwned breach-notification service.

 

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Alert on DNS Flag Day

For Full Details, see [SingCERT] Alert on DNS Flag Day 

Background
Domain Name System (DNS) infrastructure operators and Internet service providers are taking part in the first DNS Flag Day [1] on 1 February 2019. This is a global initiative to promote the use of Extension Mechanism Protocol for DNS (EDNS) [2] where participants, software and service providers such as Google and Cloudflare, are going to remove non-standard DNS workarounds.

Affected
Authoritative nameservers that bypass and do not support the EDNS protocol and those with proprietary implementations of the DNS protocol, e.g. legacy load balancing appliances.

Impact
Internet users might experience slowness or inaccessibility issues when interacting with domains whose authoritative nameservers are affected, such as accessing websites or sending emails.

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Alert on Linux Advanced Package Tool (APT) Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (CVE-2019-3462)

Taken from https://www.csa.gov.sg/singcert/news/advisories-alerts/alert-on-linux-advanced-package-tool-remote-code-execution-vulnerability

Background
A vulnerability (CVE-2019-3462) in the Linux Advanced Package Tool (APT) has been discovered. Successful exploitation of the vulnerability could result in arbitrary code execution with access to privileged administrator “root” on affected Linux systems. APT is a widely used utility that handles installation, update, upgrade and removal of software across many Linux operating system distributions. This vulnerability has been given a Common Vulnerability Score System version 3 severity base score of 8.1 out of 10.

Affected Software
APT versions 1.4.8 and older.

Impact
Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could lead to a full compromise of a user’s machine, allowing an attacker to perform malicious activities such as unauthorised installation of programs, creation of rogue administrator accounts and alteration of data.

Recommendations
Affected users and system administrators of Debian, Ubuntu, and other Linux distributions are advised to download and install the security updates immediately.