Tag Archive for: targeting

Facebook Blocked PA-Connected Hacking Ring Targeting Journalists, Activists

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Acting from the West Bank, the group – allegedly connected to Palestinian intelligence – used ‘low-sophistication malware’ to spy on its targets

In a report released Wednesday, Facebook detailed its actions against two hacker groups from the Palestinian territories that made use of the Facebook platform to spy on Palestinians.

According to the report, the first group targeted journalists, human rights activists and government opposition, among others, and used malware to access phones and computers for spying. This group is connected to the Palestinian Authority’s Preventive Security Service (PSS), an intelligence agency tasked with internal security.

The second group, named Arid Viper, directed its efforts at Fatah members, PA officials and members of security forces, hinting at a possible connection to Fatah-rival Hamas. This second group employed a variety of tactics, all aimed at accessing personal information on phones and computers.

A PSS spokesperson rejected these allegations, telling Reuters that “we respect the media, we work within the law that governs our work.”

Facebook took action against these groups by blocking their accounts, as well as internet domains connected to them. The company also notified the attackers’ targets as well as “industry partners.”

If the allegations are true, the attacks are in keeping with the PA’s suppression of dissidents and critics. Both the PA and Hamas have been harshly criticized by human rights organizations for their employment of suppressive measures. A 2020 report by Amnesty International said that both Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, and Fatah, the organization heading the PA, arrested dozens of protesters, opposition members, activists and journalists throughout the year.

The 2020 annual report of MADA, the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms, noted a decline in the number of attacks on journalists in the Palestinian territories. Yet the report attributes the smaller numbers to lockdown measures enforced because of COVID-19, which lowered the number of interactions between journalists and potential attackers. “The state of media freedoms in Palestine has not witnessed any real positive…

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Hackers are actively targeting flaws in these VPN devices. Here’s what you need to do

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Hackers are actively exploiting a newly discovered flaw in Pulse Connect Secure VPN products, alongside some older flaws that some customers have yet to patch. 



a man sitting in front of a window: Young women using computer, Cyber security concept.

© Getty Images/iStockphoto

Young women using computer, Cyber security concept.


Cybersecurity firm FireEye reported it has been investigating multiple incidents of compromises of the devices that use a bug tracked as CVE-2021-22893 that was discovered in April. It’s an significant vulnerability with a severity score of 10 out of a possible 10 and the malware being deployed is designed to bypass two-factor authentication. 

The vulnerability includes an authentication bypass that can “allow an unauthenticated user to perform remote arbitrary file execution on the Pulse Connect Secure gateway,” according to Pulse Secure’s advisory. 

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SEE: VPN: Picking a provider and troubleshooting tips (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

FireEye’s incident response unit Mandiant says it is tracking 12 malware families linked to attacks on Pulse Secure VPN appliances that use this bug in combination with older bugs affecting the software. 

FireEye has attributed the activity to a group it labels UNC2630, a suspected China state-sponsored hacking group that has allegedly targeted the US Defense industry and European organizations. 

US-based IT asset management firm Ivanti has released the Pulse Connect Secure Integrity Tool and other mitigations for the bug that’s under attack. 

The US Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)  said the attacks on this VPN product began in June 2020: other bugs the attackers have used include CVE-2019-11510, CVE-2020-8260, and CVE-2020-8243, which allow them to install web shells to gain persistence on the device. 

As ZDNet reported last August, attackers have been scanning the internet for Pulse Secure VPN servers with these flaws since June because the VPNs are used by staff to remotely access internal apps. 

“The threat actor is using this access to place web shells on the Pulse Connect Secure appliance for further access and persistence. The known web shells allow for a variety of functions, including authentication bypass,…

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Attackers Heavily Targeting VPN Vulnerabilities

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Threat actors like attacking the technology because they provide a convenient entry point to enterprise networks.

Attacks on virtual private networks, like those this week targeting a trio of known vulnerabilities in Pulse Secure appliances, have intensified in recent months along with the increase in remote and hybrid work environments since the outbreak of COVID-19.

The trend requires organizations to patch VPN and other externally facing devices with the highest priority, says a new report from Digital Shadows.

The report, based on an analysis of vulnerability activity in first quarter of 2021, highlights other threats as well, including increased targeting of remote code execution (RCE) vulnerabilities such as one affecting Oracle WebLogic (CVE-2020-14882) and widespread attacks targeting the ProxyLogon flaws in Microsoft Exchange Server.

 

“[VPNs] continue to be targeted by a plethora of threat groups, which will almost certainly continue for the remainder of 2021,” says Chris Morgan, senior cyber-threat intelligence analyst at Digital Shadows. “VPN devices, in addition to other remote access software, are often prioritized as a useful entry point that can provide threat groups with a stable foothold onto target networks.”

The threat intelligence firm’s analysis of vulnerability activity in the first quarter of this year shows cyber adversaries are actively targeting VPN vulnerabilities, more so than most other attack avenues, to break into enterprise networks. VPN accesses were among the top three access types listed for sale on cybercriminal forums last quarter, Digital Shadows says.

According to the firm, attackers targeted vulnerabilities in a range of VPN appliances, including one in the Fortinet FortiGate VPN (CVE-2018-13379) and an older, previously patched flaw in Pulse Connect Secure VPN (CVE-2019-11510). Both the Fortinet and Pulse VPN appliances were the subject of a joint advisory last week from the National Security Agency (NSA), FBI, and the Cyber Security & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). The advisory warned US organizations of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Services (SVR) — the actor behind the SolarWinds attack — actively targeting the VPN flaws…

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Russians responsible for SolarWinds hack are targeting COVID-19 research, cyber officials say

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Federal cyber officials on Thursday blamed the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) for the SolarWinds hack of computer network management software and the targeting of COVID-19 research.

Previously, the government had said Russia was likely responsible for the hack that compromised nine federal agencies, but Thursday’s joint statement from the National Security Agency, FBI, and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency provided more formal attribution of the hack that was publicly disclosed last year. The federal agencies pointed to SVR actors, also known as APT29 and Cozy Bear, as responsible for the hack.

“Recent Russian SVR activities include compromising SolarWinds® Orion® software updates, targeting COVID-19 research facilities through deploying WellMess malware, and leveraging a VMware® vulnerability that was a zero-day at the time for follow-on Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) authentication abuse,” said the agencies in the cybersecurity advisory. “SVR cyber actors also used authentication abuse tactics following SolarWinds-based breaches.”

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