Tag Archive for: Mitigating

Mitigating Cyber Risks At Sea

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Cybercrime is a growing threat to all Internet-connected businesses. 2023 has seen a doubling in the growth of ransomware variants, with a staggering 67% of companies having been victims of such an attack. 93% of organizations have experienced an intrusion targeting their operational technology (OT) infrastructure between mid-2021 and mid-2022, with 83% falling victim to more than three attacks. Attacks like these cost an estimated $600 million in the first half of 2022.1

The rate of cybersecurity breaches in the maritime industry has mirrored this trend. Attempted attacks on maritime information systems rose by 400% in the first few months of the pandemic.2 A report by Cyberstar claims that in 2021, attacks targeting ships increased in frequency by 33%, which came on the heels of a 900% increase in cyber breaches on vessel and port systems in 2020.3

The commercial maritime industry has historically been more conservative than other industries and slower to adopt new and emerging technology, including cybersecurity measures. As a result, commercial fleets and operations have suffered some of the most prominent and costly cyber-attacks, including attacks on the port of Houston, Japan’s “K” line, DNV, Carnival Cruise Lines, and many more.

Attacks come in three basic formats:

  • Ransomware breaches:  Cybercriminals breach a company’s digital infrastructure and use malicious software to steal data or shut down all or part of its online systems and hold it for ransom.
  •  Man-in-the-middle intercepts: Increasingly popular among cybercriminals, a hacker intercepts a genuine supplier invoice email to a company and then uses it to trick that company into sending payments to a different bank account.
  •  Malware: Malware attacks are triggered when a user clicks on a link to a site containing malicious software (malware). This new code enters a company’s digital infrastructure and disrupts the network, potentially stealing or leaking information onto the dark web or locking genuine users out of their computer systems.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) issued Resolution MSC.428 (98), which requires all vessels to include cyber risk management in their safety…

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Mitigating ransomware attacks in SA organisations

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A recent independent, vendor-agnostic survey of 200 IT professionals in medium-sized organisations in South Africa painted a rather dismal picture of the effects of ransomware on the respondents’ organisations.

As part of the larger project undertaken by an independent research company for Sophos, the resulting report – The State of Ransomware 2023 – discussed the findings from interviews with 3 000 IT/cyber security leaders across 14 countries.

Conducted between January and March this year, the survey covered the experiences of the respondents over the past 12 months regarding ransomware. One of the key findings was that there was a considerable increase in the number of South African organisations affected by ransomware attacks in the past year.

“It is very sobering to realise that there was a 27% increase in organisations affected by ransomware attacks, from last year’s 51%. And this is higher than the global average of 66%, indicating that South African organisations are indeed very vulnerable to attack,” says Charleen Rheeder, Product Manager and Shared Service Support from the Elvey Group (part of the Hudaco Group of companies), local distributor of Sophos technology.

A staggering 89% of all attacks in SA resulted in data being encrypted, which again is higher than the global average – at 76%. It is also significantly higher than the figure – just 12 months previously – where data was encrypted in 45% of data in South African attacks. In addition, data was stolen in 35% of these attacks, higher than the global average of 30%.

“Where South Africa did outshine the global market was in the complete recovery of encrypted data, which is 3% better than the global average. Furthermore, there was a decrease in 4% of affected organisations paying the ransom, bringing it to 2% lower than the global average of 47%. Sadly, though, two local organisations paid a hefty ransom of over $5 million each,” says Rheeder.

The average cost (excluding ransom payments) of recovery from a ransomware attack was reported at $750 000, including downtime costs, lost business opportunities, device costs, people costs and network costs.

According to the report, it is far cheaper to…

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Understanding and Mitigating Russian State-Sponsored Cyber Threats to U.S. Critical Infrastructure

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Summary

Actions Critical Infrastructure Organizations Should Implement to Immediately Strengthen Their Cyber Posture.
• Patch all systems. Prioritize patching known exploited vulnerabilities.
• Implement multi-factor authentication.
• Use antivirus software.
• Develop internal contact lists and surge support.

Note: this advisory uses the MITRE Adversarial Tactics, Techniques, and Common Knowledge (ATT&CK®) framework, version 10. See the ATT&CK for Enterprise for all referenced threat actor tactics and techniques.

This joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA)—authored by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and National Security Agency (NSA)—is part of our continuing cybersecurity mission to warn organizations of cyber threats and help the cybersecurity community reduce the risk presented by these threats. This CSA provides an overview of Russian state-sponsored cyber operations; commonly observed tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs); detection actions; incident response guidance; and mitigations. This overview is intended to help the cybersecurity community reduce the risk presented by these threats.

CISA, the FBI, and NSA encourage the cybersecurity community—especially critical infrastructure network defenders—to adopt a heightened state of awareness and to conduct proactive threat hunting, as outlined in the Detection section. Additionally, CISA, the FBI, and NSA strongly urge network defenders to implement the recommendations listed below and detailed in the Mitigations section. These mitigations will help organizations improve their functional resilience by reducing the risk of compromise or severe business degradation.

  1. Be prepared. Confirm reporting processes and minimize personnel gaps in IT/OT security coverage. Create, maintain, and exercise a cyber incident response plan, resilience plan, and continuity of operations plan so that critical functions and operations can be kept running if technology systems are disrupted or need to be taken offline.
  2. Enhance your organization’s cyber posture. Follow best practices for identity and access management, protective controls and architecture, and vulnerability and configuration management.
  3. Increase organizational vigilance. Stay current on reporting on this threat. Subscribe to CISA’s mailing list and feeds to receive notifications when CISA releases information about a security topic or threat.

CISA, the FBI, and NSA encourage critical infrastructure organization leaders to review CISA Insights: Preparing for and Mitigating Cyber Threats for information on reducing cyber threats to their organization.

Click here for a PDF version of this report.

Technical Details

Historically, Russian state-sponsored advanced persistent threat (APT) actors have used common but effective tactics—including spearphishing, brute force, and exploiting known vulnerabilities against accounts and networks with weak security—to gain initial access to target networks. Vulnerabilities known to be exploited by Russian state-sponsored APT actors for initial access include:

Russian state-sponsored APT actors have also demonstrated sophisticated tradecraft and cyber capabilities by compromising third-party infrastructure, compromising third-party software, or developing and deploying custom malware. The actors have also demonstrated the ability to maintain persistent, undetected, long-term access in compromised environments—including cloud environments—by using legitimate credentials.

In some cases, Russian state-sponsored cyber operations against critical infrastructure organizations have specifically targeted operational technology (OT)/industrial control systems (ICS) networks with destructive malware. See the following advisories and alerts for information on historical Russian state-sponsored cyber-intrusion campaigns and customized malware that have targeted ICS:

Russian state-sponsored APT actors have used sophisticated cyber capabilities to target a variety of U.S. and international critical infrastructure organizations, including those in the Defense Industrial Base as well as the Healthcare and Public Health, Energy, Telecommunications, and Government Facilities Sectors. High-profile cyber activity publicly attributed to Russian state-sponsored APT actors by U.S. government reporting and legal actions includes:

For more information on recent and historical Russian state-sponsored malicious cyber activity, see the referenced products below or cisa.gov/Russia.

Table 1 provides common, publicly known TTPs employed by Russian state-sponsored APT actors, which map to the MITRE ATT&CK for Enterprise framework, version 10. Note: these lists are not intended to be all inclusive. Russian state-sponsored actors have modified their TTPs before based on public reporting.[1] Therefore, CISA, the FBI, and NSA anticipate the Russian state-sponsored actors may modify their TTPs as they deem necessary to reduce their risk of detection. 

Table 1: Common Tactics and Techniques Employed by Russian State-Sponsored APT Actors

Tactic Technique Procedure

Reconnaissance [TA0043]

Active Scanning: Vulnerability Scanning [T1595.002]

Russian state-sponsored APT actors have performed large-scale scans in an attempt to find vulnerable servers.

Phishing for Information [T1598]

Russian state-sponsored APT actors have conducted spearphishing campaigns to gain credentials of target networks.

Resource Development [TA0042]

Develop Capabilities: Malware [T1587.001]

Russian state-sponsored APT actors have developed and deployed malware, including ICS-focused destructive malware.

Initial Access [TA0001]

Exploit Public Facing Applications [T1190]

Russian state-sponsored APT actors use publicly known vulnerabilities, as well as zero-days, in internet-facing systems to gain access to networks.

Supply Chain Compromise: Compromise Software Supply Chain [T1195.002]

Russian state-sponsored APT actors have gained initial access to victim organizations by compromising trusted third-party software. Notable incidents include M.E.Doc accounting software and SolarWinds Orion.

Execution [TA0002]

Command and Scripting Interpreter: PowerShell [T1059.003] and Windows Command Shell [T1059.003]

Russian state-sponsored APT actors have used cmd.exe to execute commands on remote machines. They have also used PowerShell to create new tasks on remote machines, identify configuration settings, exfiltrate data, and to execute other commands.

Persistence [TA0003]

Valid Accounts [T1078]

Russian state-sponsored APT actors have used credentials of existing accounts to maintain persistent, long-term access to compromised networks.

Credential Access [TA0006]

Brute Force: Password Guessing [T1110.001] and Password Spraying [T1110.003]

Russian state-sponsored APT actors have conducted brute-force password guessing and password spraying campaigns.

OS Credential Dumping: NTDS [T1003.003]

Russian state-sponsored APT actors have exfiltrated credentials and exported copies of the Active Directory database ntds.dit.

Steal or Forge Kerberos Tickets: Kerberoasting [T1558.003]

Russian state-sponsored APT actors have performed “Kerberoasting,” whereby they obtained the Ticket Granting Service (TGS) Tickets for Active Directory Service Principal Names (SPN) for offline cracking.

Credentials from Password Stores [T1555]

Russian state-sponsored APT actors have used previously compromised account credentials to attempt to access Group Managed Service Account (gMSA) passwords.

Exploitation for Credential Access [T1212]

Russian state-sponsored APT actors have exploited Windows Netlogon vulnerability CVE-2020-1472 to obtain access to Windows Active Directory servers.

Unsecured Credentials: Private Keys [T1552.004]

Russian state-sponsored APT actors have obtained private encryption keys from the Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) container to decrypt corresponding SAML signing certificates.

Command and Control [TA0011]

Proxy: Multi-hop Proxy [T1090.003]

Russian state-sponsored APT actors have used virtual private servers (VPSs) to route traffic to targets. The actors often use VPSs with IP addresses in the home country of the victim to hide activity among legitimate user traffic.

 

For additional enterprise TTPs used by Russian state-sponsored APT actors, see the ATT&CK for Enterprise pages on APT29, APT28, and the Sandworm Team, respectively. For information on ICS TTPs see the ATT&CK for ICS pages on the Sandworm Team, BlackEnergy 3 malware, CrashOveride malware, BlackEnergy’s KillDisk component, and NotPetya malware.

Detection

Given Russian state-sponsored APT actors demonstrated capability to maintain persistent, long-term access in compromised enterprise and cloud environments, CISA, the FBI, and NSA encourage all critical infrastructure organizations to:

  • Implement robust log collection and retention. Without a centralized log collection and monitoring capability, organizations have limited ability to investigate incidents or detect the threat actor behavior described in this advisory. Depending on the environment, examples include:
    • Native tools such as M365’s Sentinel. 
    • Third-party tools, such as Sparrow, Hawk, or CrowdStrike’s Azure Reporting Tool (CRT), to review Microsoft cloud environments and to detect unusual activity, service principals, and application activity. Note: for guidance on using these and other detection tools, refer to CISA Alert Detecting Post-Compromise Threat Activity in Microsoft Cloud Environments.
  • Look for behavioral evidence or network and host-based artifacts from known Russian state-sponsored TTPs. See table 1 for commonly observed TTPs. 
    • To detect password spray activity, review authentication logs for system and application login failures of valid accounts. Look for multiple, failed authentication attempts across multiple accounts.
    • To detect use of compromised credentials in combination with a VPS, follow the below steps:
      • Look for suspicious “impossible logins,” such as logins with changing username, user agent strings, and IP address combinations or logins where IP addresses do not align to the expected user’s geographic location.
      • Look for one IP used for multiple accounts, excluding expected logins.
      • Look for “impossible travel.” Impossible travel occurs when a user logs in from multiple IP addresses that are a significant geographic distance apart (i.e., a person could not realistically travel between the geographic locations of the two IP addresses during the time period between the logins). Note: implementing this detection opportunity can result in false positives if legitimate users apply VPN solutions before connecting into networks.
      • Look for processes and program execution command-line arguments that may indicate credential dumping, especially attempts to access or copy the ntds.dit file from a domain controller. 
      • Look for suspicious privileged account use after resetting passwords or applying user account mitigations. 
      • Look for unusual activity in typically dormant accounts.
      • Look for unusual user agent strings, such as strings not typically associated with normal user activity, which may indicate bot activity.
  • For organizations with OT/ICS systems: 
    • Take note of unexpected equipment behavior; for example, unexpected reboots of digital controllers and other OT hardware and software. 
    • Record delays or disruptions in communication with field equipment or other OT devices. Determine if system parts or components are lagging or unresponsive.

Incident Response

Organizations detecting potential APT activity in their IT or OT networks should:

  1. Immediately isolate affected systems. 
  2. Secure backups. Ensure your backup data is offline and secure. If possible, scan your backup data with an antivirus program to ensure it is free of malware.
  3. Collect and review relevant logs, data, and artifacts.
  4. Consider soliciting support from a third-party IT organization to provide subject matter expertise, ensure the actor is eradicated from the network, and avoid residual issues that could enable follow-on exploitation.
  5. Report incidents to CISA and/or the FBI via your local FBI field office or the FBI’s 24/7 CyWatch at (855) 292-3937 or [email protected].

Note: for OT assets, organizations should have a resilience plan that addresses how to operate if you lose access to—or control of—the IT and/or OT environment. Refer to the Mitigations section for more information.

See the joint advisory from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States on Technical Approaches to Uncovering and Remediating Malicious Activity for guidance on hunting or investigating a network, and for common mistakes in incident handling. CISA, the FBI, and NSA encourage critical infrastructure owners and operators to see CISA’s Federal Government Cybersecurity Incident and Vulnerability Response Playbooks. Although tailored to federal civilian branch agencies, these playbooks provide operational procedures for planning and conducting cybersecurity incident and vulnerability response activities and detail each step for both incident and vulnerability response.  

Note: organizations should document incident response procedures in a cyber incident response plan, which organizations should create and exercise (as noted in the Mitigations section). 

Mitigations

CISA, the FBI, and NSA encourage all organizations to implement the following recommendations to increase their cyber resilience against this threat.

Be Prepared

Confirm Reporting Processes and Minimize Coverage Gaps

Create, Maintain, and Exercise a Cyber Incident Response, Resilience Plan, and Continuity of Operations Plan

  • Create, maintain, and exercise a cyber incident response and continuity of operations plan.
  • Ensure personnel are familiar with the key steps they need to take during an incident and are positioned to act in a calm and unified manner. Key questions:
    • Do personnel have the access they need?
    • Do they know the processes?
  • For OT assets/networks,
    • Identify a resilience plan that addresses how to operate if you lose access to—or control of—the IT and/or OT environment.
      • Identify OT and IT network interdependencies and develop workarounds or manual controls to ensure ICS networks can be isolated if the connections create risk to the safe and reliable operation of OT processes. Regularly test contingency plans, such as manual controls, so that safety critical functions can be maintained during a cyber incident. Ensure that the OT network can operate at necessary capacity even if the IT network is compromised.
    • Regularly test manual controls so that critical functions can be kept running if ICS or OT networks need to be taken offline.
    • Implement data backup procedures on both the IT and OT networks. Backup procedures should be conducted on a frequent, regular basis. Regularly test backup procedures and ensure that backups are isolated from network connections that could enable the spread of malware.
    • In addition to backing up data, develop recovery documents that include configuration settings for common devices and critical OT equipment. This can enable more efficient recovery following an incident.

Enhance your Organization’s Cyber Posture

CISA, the FBI, and NSA recommend organizations apply the best practices below for identity and access management, protective controls and architecture, and vulnerability and configuration management.

Identity and Access Management

  • Require multi-factor authentication for all users, without exception.
  • Require accounts to have strong passwords and do not allow passwords to be used across multiple accounts or stored on a system to which an adversary may have access.
  • Secure credentials. Russian state-sponsored APT actors have demonstrated their ability to maintain persistence using compromised credentials.
    • Use virtualizing solutions on modern hardware and software to ensure credentials are securely stored.
    • Disable the storage of clear text passwords in LSASS memory.
    • Consider disabling or limiting New Technology Local Area Network Manager (NTLM) and WDigest Authentication.
    • Implement Credential Guard for Windows 10 and Server 2016 (Refer to Microsoft: Manage Windows Defender Credential Guard for more information). For Windows Server 2012R2, enable Protected Process Light for Local Security Authority (LSA).
    • Minimize the Active Directory attack surface to reduce malicious ticket-granting activity. Malicious activity such as “Kerberoasting” takes advantage of Kerberos’ TGS and can be used to obtain hashed credentials that attackers attempt to crack.
  • Set a strong password policy for service accounts.
  • Audit Domain Controllers to log successful Kerberos TGS requests and ensure the events are monitored for anomalous activity.  
    • Secure accounts.
    • Enforce the principle of least privilege. Administrator accounts should have the minimum permission they need to do their tasks.
    • Ensure there are unique and distinct administrative accounts for each set of administrative tasks.
    • Create non-privileged accounts for privileged users and ensure they use the non- privileged accounts for all non-privileged access (e.g., web browsing, email access).

Protective Controls and Architecture

  • Identify, detect, and investigate abnormal activity that may indicate lateral movement by a threat actor or malware. Use network monitoring tools and host-based logs and monitoring tools, such as an endpoint detection and response (EDR) tool. EDR tools are particularly useful for detecting lateral connections as they have insight into common and uncommon network connections for each host.
  • Enable strong spam filters.
    • Enable strong spam filters to prevent phishing emails from reaching end users.
    • Filter emails containing executable files to prevent them from reaching end users.
    • Implement a user training program to discourage users from visiting malicious websites or opening malicious attachments.

Note: CISA, the FBI, and NSA also recommend, as a longer-term effort, that critical infrastructure organizations implement network segmentation to separate network segments based on role and functionality. Network segmentation can help prevent lateral movement by controlling traffic flows between—and access to—various subnetworks.

  • Appropriately implement network segmentation between IT and OT networks. Network segmentation limits the ability of adversaries to pivot to the OT network even if the IT network is compromised. Define a demilitarized zone that eliminates unregulated communication between the IT and OT networks.
  • Organize OT assets into logical zones by taking into account criticality, consequence, and operational necessity. Define acceptable communication conduits between the zones and deploy security controls to filter network traffic and monitor communications between zones. Prohibit ICS protocols from traversing the IT network.

Vulnerability and Configuration Management

  • Update software, including operating systems, applications, and firmware on IT network assets, in a timely manner. Prioritize patching known exploited vulnerabilities, especially those CVEs identified in this CSA, and then critical and high vulnerabilities that allow for remote code execution or denial-of-service on internet-facing equipment.
    • Consider using a centralized patch management system. For OT networks, use a risk-based assessment strategy to determine the OT network assets and zones that should participate in the patch management program.  
    • Consider signing up for CISA’s cyber hygiene services, including vulnerability scanning, to help reduce exposure to threats. CISA’s vulnerability scanning service evaluates external network presence by executing continuous scans of public, static IP addresses for accessible services and vulnerabilities.
  • Use industry recommended antivirus programs.
    • Set antivirus/antimalware programs to conduct regular scans of IT network assets using up-to-date signatures.
    • Use a risk-based asset inventory strategy to determine how OT network assets are identified and evaluated for the presence of malware.
  • Implement rigorous configuration management programs. Ensure the programs can track and mitigate emerging threats. Review system configurations for misconfigurations and security weaknesses.
  • Disable all unnecessary ports and protocols
    • Review network security device logs and determine whether to shut off unnecessary ports and protocols. Monitor common ports and protocols for command and control  activity.
    • Turn off or disable any unnecessary services (e.g., PowerShell) or functionality within devices.
  • Ensure OT hardware is in read-only mode.

Increase Organizational Vigilance

  • Regularly review reporting on this threat. Consider signing up for CISA notifications to receive timely information on current security issues, vulnerabilities, and high-impact activity.

Resources

  • For more information on Russian state-sponsored malicious cyber activity, refer to cisa.gov/Russia.
  • Refer to CISA Analysis Report Strengthening Security Configurations to Defend Against Attackers Targeting Cloud Services for steps for guidance on strengthening your organizations cloud security practices.
  • Leaders of small businesses and small and local government agencies should see CISA’s Cyber Essentials for guidance on developing an actionable understanding of implementing organizational cybersecurity practices.
  • Critical infrastructure owners and operators with OT/ICS networks, should review the following resources for additional information:
    • NSA and CISA joint CSA NSA and CISA Recommend Immediate Actions to Reduce Exposure Across Operational Technologies and Control Systems
    • CISA factsheet Rising Ransomware Threat to Operational Technology Assets for additional recommendations.

Rewards for Justice Program

If you have information on state-sponsored Russian cyber operations targeting U.S. critical infrastructure, contact the Department of State’s Rewards for Justice Program. You may be eligible for a reward of up to $10 million, which DOS is offering for information leading to the identification or location of any person who, while acting under the direction or control of a foreign government, participates in malicious cyber activity against U.S. critical infrastructure in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). Contact +1-202-702-7843 on WhatsApp, Signal, or Telegram, or send information via the Rewards for Justice secure Tor-based tips line located on the Dark Web. For more details refer to rewardsforjustice.net/malicious_cyber_activity.

Caveats

The information you have accessed or received is being provided “as is” for informational purposes only. CISA, the FBI, and NSA do not endorse any commercial product or service, including any subjects of analysis. Any reference to specific commercial products, processes, or services by service mark, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not constitute or imply endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by CISA, the FBI, or NSA.

References

Revisions

January 11, 2022: Initial Version

This product is provided subject to this Notification and this Privacy & Use policy.

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Mitigating Log4Shell and Other Log4j-Related Vulnerabilities

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The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), National Security Agency (NSA), Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS), the Computer Emergency Response Team New Zealand (CERT NZ), the New Zealand National Cyber Security Centre (NZ NCSC), and the United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-UK) are releasing this joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) to provide mitigation guidance on addressing vulnerabilities in  Apache’s Log4j software library: CVE-2021-44228 (known as “Log4Shell”), CVE-2021-45046, and CVE-2021-45105. Sophisticated cyber threat actors are actively scanning networks to potentially exploit Log4Shell, CVE-2021-45046, and CVE-2021-45105 in vulnerable systems. According to public reporting, Log4Shell and CVE-2021-45046 are being actively exploited.

CISA, in collaboration with industry members of CISA’s Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC), previously published guidance on Log4Shell for vendors and affected organizations in which CISA recommended that affected organizations immediately apply appropriate patches (or apply workarounds if unable to upgrade), conduct a security review, and report compromises to CISA or the FBI. CISA also issued an Emergency Directive directing U.S. federal civilian executive branch (FCEB) agencies to immediately mitigate Log4j vulnerabilities in solution stacks that accept data from the internet. This joint CSA expands on the previously published guidance by detailing steps that vendors and organizations with IT and/or cloud assets should take to reduce the risk posed by these vulnerabilities.

These steps include:

  • Identifying assets affected by Log4Shell and other Log4j-related vulnerabilities, 
  • Upgrading Log4j assets and affected products to the latest version as soon as patches are available and remaining alert to vendor software updates, and
  • Initiating hunt and incident response procedures to detect possible Log4Shell exploitation. 

This CSA also provides guidance for affected organizations with operational technology (OT)/industrial control systems (ICS) assets.

Log4j is a Java-based logging library used in a variety of consumer and enterprise services, websites, applications, and OT products. These vulnerabilities, especially Log4Shell, are severe—Apache has rated Log4Shell and CVE-2021-45046 as critical and CVE-2021-45105 as high on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS). These vulnerabilities are likely to be exploited over an extended period. CISA, the FBI, NSA, ACSC, CCCS, CERT NZ, NZ NCSC, and NCSC-UK strongly urge all organizations to apply the recommendations in the Mitigations section. 

CISA, the FBI, NSA, ACSC, CCCS, CERT NZ, NZ NCSC, and NCSC-UK encourage leaders of organizations to review NCSC-UK’s blog post, Log4j vulnerability: what should boards be asking?, for information on Log4Shell’s possible impact on their organization as well as response recommendations.

Note: this is an evolving situation, and new vulnerabilities are being discovered. CISA, the FBI, NSA, ACSC, CCCS, CERT NZ, NZ NCSC, and NCSC-UK will update this CSA as we learn more about this exploitation and have further guidance to impart.

Click here for a PDF version of this report.

Disclaimer

The information in this report is being provided “as is” for informational purposes only. CISA, the FBI, NSA, ACSC, CCCS, CERT NZ, NZ NCSC, and NCSC-UK do not endorse any commercial product or service, including any subjects of analysis. Any reference to specific commercial products, processes, or services by service mark, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not constitute or imply endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by CISA, the FBI, NSA, ACSC, CCCS, CERT NZ, NZ NCSC, or NCSC-UK.

Log4Shell

Log4Shell, disclosed on December 10, 2021, is a remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability affecting Apache’s Log4j library, versions 2.0-beta9 to 2.14.1. The vulnerability exists in the action the Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI) takes to resolve variables. Affected versions of Log4j contain JNDI features—such as message lookup substitution—that do not protect against adversary-controlled Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), Domain Name System (DNS), and other JNDI-related endpoints. 

An adversary can exploit Log4Shell by submitting a specially crafted request to a vulnerable system that causes that system to execute arbitrary code. The request allows the adversary to take full control over the system. The adversary can then steal information, launch ransomware, or conduct other malicious activity.

CVE-2021-45046

CVE-2021-45046, disclosed on December 13, 2021, enables a remote attacker to cause RCE, a denial-of-service (DoS) condition, or other effects in certain non-default configurations. This vulnerability affects all versions of Log4j from 2.0-beta9 through 2.12.1 and 2.13.0 through 2.15.0. In response, Apache released Log4j version 2.16.0 (Java 8).

CVE-2021- 45105

CVE-2021-45105, disclosed on December 16, 2021, enables a remote attacker to cause a DoS condition or other effects in certain non-default configurations. According to Apache, when the logging configuration uses a non-default Pattern Layout with a Context Lookup (for example, $${ctx:loginId}), attackers with control over Thread Context Map (MDC) input data can craft malicious input data that contains a recursive lookup, resulting in a StackOverflowError that will terminate the process. In response, Apache released Log4j version 2.17.0 (Java 8).

Impact

Log4Shell and CVE-2021-45046—rated as critical vulnerabilities by Apache—are severe because Java is used extensively across IT and OT platforms, they are easy to exploit, and applying mitigations is resource intensive. Log4Shell is especially critical because it allows malicious actors to remotely run code on vulnerable networks and take full control of systems. 

According to public reporting, exploitation of Log4Shell began on or around December 1, 2021, and a proof-of-concept exploit is publicly available for this vulnerability. The FBI has observed attempted exploitation and widespread scanning of the Log4j vulnerability to gain access to networks to deploy cryptomining and botnet malware. The FBI assesses this vulnerability may be exploited by sophisticated cyber threat actors and incorporated into existing cyber criminal schemes that are looking to adopt increasingly sophisticated obfuscation techniques. According to public reporting, CVE-2021-45046 is being actively exploited as well. 

CISA, the FBI, NSA, ACSC, CCCS, CERT NZ, NZ NCSC, and NCSC-UK assess that exploitation of these vulnerabilities, especially Log4Shell, is likely to increase and continue over an extended period. Given the severity of the vulnerabilities and likely increased exploitation, CISA, the FBI, NSA, ACSC, CCCS, CERT NZ, NZ NCSC, and NCSC-UK strongly urge all organizations to apply the recommendations in the Mitigations section to identify, mitigate, and update affected assets.

For more information on these vulnerabilities, see the Apache Log4j Security Vulnerabilities webpage. 

Vendors

CISA, the FBI, NSA, ACSC, CCCS, CERT NZ, NZ NCSC, and NCSC-UK encourage vendors to:

  1. Immediately identify, mitigate, and update affected products that use Log4j to the latest patched version.
    1. For environments using Java 8 or later, upgrade to Log4j version 2.17.0 (released December 17, 2021) or newer.
    2. For environments using Java 7, upgrade to Log4j version 2.12.3 (released December 21, 2021). Note: Java 7 is currently end of life and organizations should upgrade to Java 8.
  2. Inform your end users of products that contain these vulnerabilities and strongly urge them to prioritize software updates. CISA, the FBI, NSA, ACSC, CCCS, CERT NZ, NZ NCSC, and NCSC-UK strongly recommend vendors take steps to ensure messaging on software updates reaches the widest possible audience (for example, avoid placing relevant information behind paywalls). Note: CISA is actively maintaining a GitHub page and repository with patch information for products known to be affected by Log4Shell. CISA has also notified ICS vendors that may be affected and has asked them to confirm any assets affected by Log4Shell and to apply available mitigations. 

Affected Organizations with IT and Cloud Assets

CISA, the FBI, NSA, ACSC, CCCS, CERT NZ, NZ NCSC, and NCSC-UK recommend that affected organizations take the following steps to patch these vulnerabilities in their IT and cloud assets and initiate threat hunting to detect possible compromise. Organizations with OT/ICS environments should review the Organizations with OT/ICS Assets section for additional guidance. Note: this guidance includes resources that may or may not be possible for all organizations. CISA, the FBI, NSA, ACSC, CCCS, CERT NZ, NZ NCSC, and NCSC-UK recommend that organizations apply the mitigations listed in this advisory to the extent allowed by their environments.
 

1. Identify vulnerable assets in your environment.

Knowing where Log4j and other affected products exist in your environment is key for protecting your networks.

  1. Inventory all assets that make use of the Log4j Java library. According to public reporting, adversaries are patching and mitigating assets they compromise to retain control of assets. To avoid missing such defense evasion, organizations should carefully track assets under investigation.
    1. Assume all versions of Java and Log4j are vulnerable and include them in the inventory.
    2. Ensure the inventory includes all assets, including cloud assets, regardless of function, operating system, or make. Ensure the inventory includes the following information about each asset
      1. Software versions
      2. Timestamps of when last updated and by whom
      3. User accounts on the asset with their privilege level
      4. Location of asset in your enterprise topology
  2. Identify the inventoried assets that are likely vulnerable.
    1. Use CISA’s GitHub repository and CERT/CC’s CVE-2021-44228_scanner to identify assets vulnerable to Log4Shell.

Additional resources for detecting vulnerable instances of Log4j are identified below. CISA, the FBI, NSA, ACSC, CCCS, CERT NZ, NZ NCSC, and NCSC-UK will update the sources for detection rules as we obtain them. Note: due to the urgency to share this information, CISA, the FBI, NSA, ACSC, CCCS, CERT NZ, NZ NCSC, and NCSC-UK have not yet validated this content.

  • To identify server applications that may be affected by Log4Shell and CVE-2021-45046, see TrendMicro: Log4J Vulnerability Tester.
  • For a list of hashes to help determine if a Java application is running a vulnerable version of Log4j, see:
  • For PowerShell to detect vulnerable instances, see:
  • For guidance on using Canary Token to test for callback, see Thinkst Canary’s Twitter thread on using Canary Tokens.
  • For guidance on using Burpsuite Pro to scan, see:
  • For guidance on using NetMap’s Nmap Scripting Engine (NSE), see Divertor’s GitHub page: nse-log4shell.
  • See Florian Roth’s GitHub page, Fenrir 0.9.0 – Log4Shell Release, for guidance on using Roth’s Fenrir tool to detect vulnerable instances.

2. Mitigate known and suspected vulnerable assets in your environment.

   A. Treat known and suspected vulnerable assets as compromised. These assets should be isolated until they are mitigated and verified (step 2.D). The method of isolation that you should use depends on the criticality of the asset. Possible isolation methods include:

  • Physically removing the asset from the network (e.g., unplug the network cable);
  • Moving the asset to a “jail VLAN” with heightened monitoring and security;
  • Blocking at the network layer (a switch or some other device);
  • Implementing a firewall (including web application firewall) with strict port control and logging; or
  • Restricting the asset’s communication, especially to the internet and the rest of the enterprise network.

   B. Patch Log4j and other affected products to the latest version. 

  • See the Apache Log4j Security Vulnerabilities webpage (as of December 22, 2021, the latest Log4j version is 2.17.0 for Java 8 and 2.12.3 for Java 7). Note: patching or updating Java is not enough, you must upgrade the Log4j library itself.
  • For other affected products, see CISA’s GitHub page.

Note: if your organization is unable to immediately identify and patch vulnerable instances of Log4j, apply appropriate workarounds. CISA, the FBI, NSA, ACSC, CCCS, CERT NZ, NZ NCSC, and NCSC-UK recommend using vendor-provided mitigations when available. Due to the rapidly evolving situation, these workarounds should not be considered permanent fixes and organizations should apply the appropriate patch as soon as it is made available. Additional mitigations are identified below; however, organizations should use these mitigations at their own risk as they may be incomplete, temporary, or cause harmful effects, such as application instability, a DoS condition, or log evasion.

  • Remove the Jndilookup.class from the class path. [1]
  • Delete or rename Jndilookup.class. Note: removal of the JndiManager will cause the JndiContextSelector and JMSAppender to no longer function). [2]
  • Apply a hot patch. 

   C. Keep an inventory of known and suspected vulnerable assets and what is done with them  throughout  this process. It is important to track patching because malicious cyber actors may compromise an asset and then patch it to protect their operations. Organizations should keep a meticulous record of vulnerable assets they have patched to identify whether a threat actor may have patched an asset.

   D. Verify the mitigation has worked, if possible.

  1. Scan the patched/mitigated asset with the tools and methods listed in step 1.B. Use more than one method to verify the mitigation was successfully applied.
  2. Monitor the asset closely.
  3. Remain alert to changes from vendors for the software on the asset. Additionally, see CISA’s GitHub page for known affected products and patch information. CISA will continually update the repository as vendors release patches.

3. Initiate hunt and incident response procedures. Given the widespread exploitation of this vulnerability, CISA, the FBI, NSA, ACSC, CCCS, CERT NZ, NZ NCSC, and NCSC-UK encourage all organizations to assume their assets that use Log4j may have been compromised and initiate hunt procedures.

   A. Hunt for signs of exploitation and compromise.

  1. Treat assets that use Log4j as suspect and conduct vigorous forensic investigation of those assets.
  2. Inspect and monitor accounts across your enterprise that exist on or connect to assets that use Log4j.
  3. Inspect changes to configurations made since December 1, 2021, and verify they were intended, especially on assets that use Log4j.
  4. Use CISA’s GitHub page to detect possible exploitation or compromise. 

Additional resources to detect possible exploitation or compromise are identified below. Note: due to the urgency to share this information, CISA, the FBI, NSA, ACSC, CCCS, CERT NZ, NZ NCSC, and NCSC-UK have not yet validated this content.

   B. If compromise is detected, organizations should:

  1. Initiate incident response procedures. See the joint advisory from ACSC, CCCS, NZ NCSC, CERT NZ, NCSC-UK, and CISA on Technical Approaches to Uncovering and Remediating Malicious Activity for guidance on hunting or investigating a network, and for common mistakes in incident handling. CISA, the FBI, NSA, ACSC, CCCS, CERT NZ, NZ NCSC, and NCSC-UK encourage organizations to see CISA’s Federal Government Cybersecurity Incident and Vulnerability Response Playbooks. Although tailored to U.S. FCEB agencies, these playbooks provide operational procedures for planning and conducting cybersecurity incident and vulnerability response activities and detail each step for both incident and vulnerability response.
  2. Consider reporting compromises immediately to applicable cybersecurity authorities. Organizations are encouraged to be as thorough as possible by including information such as IP addresses/domains used to exploit your infrastructure, exploited applications/servers, administrators contact information, and the start and end dates of the attack.
  • U.S. organizations should report compromises to CISA and the FBI. 
  • Australian organizations can visit cyber.gov.au or call 1300 292 371 (1300 CYBER 1) to report cybersecurity incidents. 
  • Canadian organizations can report incidents by emailing CCCS at [email protected].
  • New Zealand organizations can visit NCSC.govt.nz to report incidents.
  • UK organizations can report a significant cyber security incident at ncsc.gov.uk/report-an-incident (monitored 24 hrs) or, for urgent assistance, call 03000 200 973.

4. Evaluate and apply other mitigations.

   A. Remain alert to changes from vendors for the software on the asset, and immediately apply updates to assets when notified by a vendor that their product has a patch for this vulnerability. Additionally, see CISA’s GitHub repository for known affected products and patch information. CISA will continually update the repository as vendors release patches.

   B. Continue to monitor Log4J assets closely. Continually use signatures and indicators of compromise that may indicate exploitation.

  1. See the exploitation and detection resources listed in step 3.A.(4).
  2. Be aware that there are many ways to obfuscate the exploit string. Do not depend on one detection method to work all the time.

   C. Continue to monitor the Apache Log4j Security Vulnerabilities webpage for new updates. Note: as this is an evolving situation and new vulnerabilities in Log4J are being discovered, organizations should ensure their Apache Log4j is up to date. Identify the software your enterprise uses and stay on top of updates as these may be superseded by other updates and fixes.

   D.  Block specific outbound Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) network traffic.

  1. Outbound LDAP: for most networks, LDAP is used internally, but it is rare for LDAP requests to be routed outside a network. Organizations should block outbound LDAP or use an allowlist for outbound LDAP to known good destinations. Note: this may be difficult to detect on certain ports without a firewall that does application layer filtering. 
  2. Remote Method Invocation (RMI): for most networks, RMI is either unused or used for internal sources. Organizations should block outbound RMI or use an allowlist for outbound RMI to known good destinations.
  3. Outbound DNS: organizations using enterprise DNS resolution can block outbound DNS from sources other than identified DNS resolvers. At a minimum, blocking direct outbound DNS from web application servers configured to use enterprise DNS resolution will mitigate the risks to those systems.

Note: blocking attacker internet IP addresses during this event is difficult due to the high volume of scanning from non-malicious researchers and vendors. The false positives on IP addresses are high. Organizations should focus on looking for signs of successful exploitation and not scans.

Affected Organizations with OT/ICS Assets

Due to the pervasiveness of the Apache Log4j software library—and the integration of the library in operational products—CISA, the FBI, NSA, ACSC, CCCS, CERT NZ, NZ NCSC, and NCSC-UK strongly recommend that OT asset owners and operators review their operational architecture and enumerate the vulnerability status against current product alerts and advisories. If a product does not have a security advisory specifically addressing the status of the vulnerability, treat it with additional protections. CISA, the FBI, NSA, ACSC, CCCS, CERT NZ, NZ NCSC, and NCSC-UK urge patching or deployment of mitigations to reduce the risk of the threat of these vulnerabilities. 

Note: CISA, the FBI, NSA, ACSC, CCCS, CERT NZ, NZ NCSC, and NCSC-UK recommend prioritizing patching IT devices, especially those with internet connectivity. Affected internet-facing devices as well as laptops, desktops, and tablets are especially susceptible to exploitation of these vulnerabilities. OT/ICS devices—if segmented appropriately from the IT environment—do not face the internet and, as such, have a smaller attack surface to this vulnerability. Exploitation of IT devices may affect OT/ICS devices if there is insufficient network segmentation that prevents lateral movement. 

CISA, the FBI, NSA, ACSC, CCCS, CERT NZ, NZ NCSC, and NCSC-UK recommend that OT/ICS asset owner/operators take the following guidance into consideration:

  1. Review operational architecture and enumerate the vulnerability against current product alerts and advisories. If products do not have a security advisory specifically addressing their status of the vulnerability, it is recommended to treat these devices with additional protections.  
  2. Implement the steps listed in the previous section to identify and isolate vulnerable assets in the OT/ICS environment. Understand what type of products in the OT environment would be affected. Many OT/ICS-specific products incorporate vulnerable versions of the Log4j library.
  3. Use a risk-informed decision-making process to apply the latest version of hotfixes or patches to affected devices as soon as is operationally feasible. If patches cannot be applied, mitigations provided by the product’s manufacturer or reseller should be deployed. Note: CISA, the FBI, NSA, ACSC, CCCS, CERT NZ, NZ NCSC, and NCSC-UK recommend, as quality assurance, that users test the update in a test development environment that reflects their production environment prior to installation. 
  4. Minimize network exposure for all control system devices and/or systems, and ensure they are not accessible from the internet.
  5. Locate control system networks and remote devices behind firewalls and isolate them from the business network.

When remote access is required, use secure methods such as virtual private networks (VPNs), recognizing VPNs may have vulnerabilities and should be updated to the most current version available. Also recognize that a VPN is only as secure as its connected devices. 

CISA, the FBI, NSA, ACSC, CCCS, CERT NZ, NZ NCSC, and NCSC-UK also remind organizations to perform proper impact analysis and risk assessment prior to deploying defensive measures.

CISA also provides a section for control systems security recommended practices on the ICS webpage on cisa.gov. Several recommended practices are available for reading and download, including Improving Industrial Control Systems Cybersecurity with Defense-in-Depth Strategies.

Additional mitigation guidance and recommended practices are publicly available on the ICS webpage on cisa.gov in the Technical Information Paper, ICS-TIP-12-146-01B–Targeted Cyber Intrusion Detection and Mitigation Strategies.

Organizations observing any suspected malicious activity should follow their established internal procedures and consider reporting compromises immediately.

  • U.S. organizations should report compromises to CISA and the FBI. 
  • Australian organizations can visit cyber.gov.au or call 1300 292 371 (1300 CYBER 1) to report cybersecurity incidents. 
  • Canadian organizations can report incidents by emailing CCCS at [email protected].
  • New Zealand organizations can visit NCSC.govt.nz to report incidents. 
  • UK organizations can report a significant cyber security incident at ncsc.gov.uk/report-an-incident (monitored 24 hrs) or, for urgent assistance, call 03000 200 973. 

Resources

For more information, resources, and general guidance, including resources and mitigation guidance from industry members of JCDC, see CISA’s webpage Apache Log4j Vulnerability Guidance. Note: due to the prominent and ever evolving nature of this vulnerability, there are multiple unverified published guidance documents that are geared towards Log4j vulnerabilities. CISA, the FBI, NSA, ACSC, CCCS, CERT NZ, NZ NCSC, and NCSC-UK encourage all organizations to verify information with trusted sources, such CISA, the FBI, NSA, ACSC, CCCS, CERT NZ, NZ NCSC, NCSC-UK vendors.

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