Hackers Infect 50,000 MS-SQL and PHPMyAdmin Servers with Rootkit Malware

May 29, 2019

Cyber Security researchers at Guardicore Labs today published ^[1]
a detailed report on a widespread cryptojacking campaign attacking
Windows MS-SQL and PHPMyAdmin servers worldwide.

Dubbed Nansh0u, the malicious campaign is reportedly
being carried out by an APT-style Chinese hacking group who has
already infected nearly 50,000 servers and are installing a
sophisticated kernel-mode rootkit on compromised systems to prevent
the malware from being terminated.

The campaign, which dates back to February 26 but was first
detected in early-April, has been found delivering 20 different
payload versions hosted on various hosting providers.

The attack relies on the brute-forcing technique after finding
publicly accessible Windows MS-SQL and PHPMyAdmin servers using a
simple port scanner.

Upon successful login authentication with administrative
privileges, attackers execute a sequence of MS-SQL commands on the
compromised system to download malicious payload from a remote file
server and run it with SYSTEM privileges.

In the background, the payload leverages a known privilege
escalation vulnerability (CVE-2014-4113) to gain SYSTEM privileges
on the compromised systems.

“Using this Windows privilege, the attacking exploit injects code
into the Winlogon process. The injected code creates a new process
which inherits Winlogon SYSTEM privileges, providing equivalent
permissions as the prior version.”

The payload then installs a cryptocurrency mining malware on
compromised servers to mine TurtleCoin cryptocurrency.
Besides this, the malware also protects its process from
terminating using a digitally-signed kernel-mode rootkit for
persistence.

“We found that the driver had a digital signature issued by the top
Certificate Authority Verisign. The certificate – which is expired
– bears the name of a fake Chinese company – Hangzhou Hootian
Network Technology.”

Researchers have also released a complete list of
IoCs ^[2] (indicators of
compromise) and a free PowerShell-based
script ^[3] that Windows
administrators can use to check whether their systems are infected
or not.

Since the attack relies on a weak username and password
combinations for MS-SQL and PHPMyAdmin servers, admins are advised
to always keep a strong, complex password for their
accounts.

References

^{^}
published
(www.guardicore.com)
^{^}
list of IoCs
(github.com)
^{^}
PowerShell-based script
(github.com)

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OWASP TOP !0

Injection. Injection flaws, such as SQL, NoSQL, OS, and LDAP injection, occur when untrusted data is sent to an interpreter as part of a command or query. The attacker’s hostile data can trick the interpreter into executing unintended commands or accessing data without proper authorization. Broken Authentication. Application functions related to authentication and session management are often implemented incorrectly, allowing attackers to compromise passwords, keys, or session tokens, or to exploit other implementation flaws to assume other users’ identities temporarily or permanently. Sensitive Data Exposure. Many web applications and APIs do not properly protect sensitive data, such as financial, healthcare, and PII. Attackers may steal or modify such weakly protected data to conduct credit card fraud, identity theft, or other crimes. Sensitive data may be compromised without extra protection, such as encryption at rest or in transit, and requires special precautions when exchanged with the browser. XML External Entities (XXE). Many older or poorly configured XML processors evaluate external entity references within XML documents. External entities can be used to disclose internal files using the file URI handler, internal file shares, internal port scanning, remote code execution, and denial of service attacks. Broken Access Control. Restrictions on what authenticated users are allowed to do are often not properly enforced. Attackers can exploit these flaws to access unauthorized functionality and/or data, such as access other users’ accounts, view sensitive files, modify other users’ data, change access rights, etc. Security Misconfiguration. Security misconfiguration is the most commonly seen issue. This is commonly a result of insecure default configurations, incomplete or ad hoc configurations, open cloud storage, misconfigured HTTP headers, and verbose error messages containing sensitive information. Not only must all operating systems, frameworks, libraries, and applications be securely configured, but they must be patched/upgraded in a timely fashion. Cross-Site Scripting XSS. XSS flaws occur whenever an application includes untrusted data in a new web page without proper validation or escaping, or updates an existing web page with user-supplied data using a browser API that can create HTML or JavaScript. XSS allows attackers to execute scripts in the victim’s browser which can hijack user sessions, deface web sites, or redirect the user to malicious sites. Insecure Deserialization. Insecure deserialization often leads to remote code execution. Even if deserialization flaws do not result in remote code execution, they can be used to perform attacks, including replay attacks, injection attacks, and privilege escalation attacks. Using Components with Known Vulnerabilities. Components, such as libraries, frameworks, and other software modules, run with the same privileges as the application. If a vulnerable component is exploited, such an attack can facilitate serious data loss or server takeover. Applications and APIs using components with known vulnerabilities may undermine application defenses and enable various attacks and impacts. Insufficient Logging & Monitoring. Insufficient logging and monitoring, coupled with missing or ineffective integration with incident response, allows attackers to further attack systems, maintain persistence, pivot to more systems, and tamper, extract, or destroy data. Most breach studies show time to detect a breach is over 200 days, typically detected by external parties rather than internal processes or monitoring.

Hackers Infect 50,000 MS-SQL and PHPMyAdmin Servers with Rootkit Malware

References

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