Tag Archives: Threat Intelligence

ComRAT V4 got an upgrade: On the value of Threat Intelligence

30 May 2020

Popular IT security media and threat intelligence services reported this week that the ComRAT V4 malware used by Turla APT got an upgrade. (1)(2)(3)

The big question for all businesses is: Do we have an increased risk resulting from this upgrade? Are the existing security controls still mitigating the risk stemmed from the ComRAT upgrade? Or do we have to upgrade our security controls as well.

The businesses in focus of the Turla APT should answer this question as soon as possible. Detailed information about the feature upgrade as well as the existing security controls are required to answer this question. This is nothing new. “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.” says Tzu Sun in the “Art of War” about 500 BC.

Are you prepared to answer this question? Your invest in threat intelligence is uneconomic if you cannot evaluate the threat details in the context of your environment.

What about ComRAT? The way command and control is performed changed. But the primary installation method has not changed: “ComRAT is typically installed via PowerStallion, a lightweight PowerShell backdoor used by Turla to install other backdoors.”(1)

PowerShell 5.0 Icon (5)

PowerShell 5.0 Icon. Picture Credits (5)

So, if you already implemented security controls, that deal with malware which uses PowerShell, your risk will not change. Otherwise, the publication “Securing PowerShell in the Enterprise” (4) of the Australian Cyber Security Center is a good starting point for a systematic approach to PowerShell security.

My advice: Disable PowerShell on all standard user computers. For administrative purposes, use hardened systems without email and internet access and implement PowerShell Endpoints.

Have a great Weekend.

References

  1. Lakshmanan R. New ComRAT Malware Uses Gmail to Receive Commands and Exfiltrate Data [Internet]. The Hacker News. 2020 [zitiert 28. Mai 2020]. Verfügbar unter: https://thehackernews.com/2020/05/gmail-malware-hacker.html

  2. Robinson T. Turla’s ComRAT v4 uses Gmail web UI to receive commands, steal data [Internet]. SC Media. 2020 [zitiert 30. Mai 2020]. Verfügbar unter: https://www.scmagazine.com/home/security-news/malware/turlas-comrat-v4-uses-gmail-web-ui-to-receive-commands-steal-data/

  3. Gatlan S. Russian cyberspies use Gmail to control updated ComRAT malware [Internet]. BleepingComputer. 2020 [zitiert 30. Mai 2020]. Verfügbar unter: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/russian-cyberspies-use-gmail-to-control-updated-comrat-malware/

  4. Australian Cyber Security Center. Securing PowerShell in the Enterprise | Cyber.gov.au [Internet]. Australian Signals Directorate. 2019 [zitiert 6. März 2020]. Verfügbar unter: https://www.cyber.gov.au/publications/securing-powershell-in-the-enterprise

Picture credits

  1. PowerShell 5.0 Icon. Microsoft / Public domain. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PowerShell_5.0_icon.png

Threat Intelligence – What is it good for?

31 August 2019

I attended a virtual summit on threat intelligence this week. I watched two interesting presentations and found that I am still not convinced of the value of threat intelligence.

In vulnerability management for example threat intelligence speeds up decision making. But is speed in the decision-making phase of vulnerability management an issue?

OODA Loop

OODA Loop

When we deal with critical vulnerabilities, e.g. vulnerabilities of the WannyCry Class, speed is crucial. The OODA procedural model is perfectly suited as execution procedure for environments where speed is crucial for survival.

OODA, an acronym for Observe, Orient, Decide, Act, was developed by John Richard Boyd in the 1950’s as survival strategy in aerial combat. Colonel Boyd, one of the most influential military strategists ever, transferred OODA to other domains after he retired from the US Air Force.

The picture below shows the OODA procedural model adapted for vulnerability management.

OODA for Vulnerability Management

OODA for Vulnerability Management

We must decide whether urgent action is required if a new critical vulnerability is published. Data collected from OSINT sources, asset details, and experience in the evaluation of vulnerabilities are required for creating a well-founded decision.

Threat intelligence speeds up the Observe and Orient phase by e.g. providing data on exploits seen in the wild. But threat intelligence will neither replace current asset data, which are crucial for the Orient phase, nor speed up the Act phase, where the affected assets are patched, and their correct operations is verified.

So, if you decide on investing in threat intelligence ask yourself the question: What benefits do I expect to gain from threat intelligence in what use cases? Otherwise, it is very likely that you get disappointed.

Have a good weekend.

Adobe Flash zero day exploited in the wild. Remote code execution vulnerabilities are hacker’s favorites!

8 December 2018

On December 5th, 2018 Adobe published security bulletin APSB18-41[1] for critical vulnerability CVE-2018-15928 in the widely used Flash Player. Gigamon Applied Threat Research (ATR) reported the vulnerability on November 29th, 2018 to Adobe. They detected the issue some days before while analyzing a malicious word document that was uploaded to VirusTotal from a Ukrainian IP address. For a detailed analysis of the attack and the vulnerability see [2][3].

Successful exploitation of CVE-2018-15928 could lead to Arbitrary Code Execution in the context of the current user. Due to RedHat the CVSS3 Base Metrics is CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H with a CVSS3 Base Score of 8.8.

Zero days are not a rare phenomenon. Between 2013 and 2017[4] about 60% of the exploits were disclosed before the related CVE was published.

For about 20% of vulnerabilities in the NVD exploits are published in the exploit database[5]. Only about 1% of the vulnerabilities are exploited in the wild. Thus CVE-2018-15928 is a really rare event.

Remote code/script execution (RxE) vulnerabilities like CVE-2018-15928 represent about 20% of all vulnerabilities. 43% of the exploits published between 1988 and 2018 are related to RxE vulnerabilities.

Remote Code Execution Vulnerabilities. Data: 1988-2018

RxE Vulnerabilities. Data: 1988-2018

Exploits for Remote Code Execution Vulnerabilities. Data: 1988-2018

Exploits for RxE Vulnerabilities. Data: 1988-2018

About 5% of the RxE vulnerabilities are exploited in the wild.

This means, that RxE vulnerabilities are 5 times more often exploited in the wild then Non-RxE vulnerabilities. They are hacker’s favorites!

What does the mean for our vulnerability management strategy?

  • The remediation process must be started directly upon publication of an RxE vulnerability in the NVD or the disclosure of an exploit for an RxE in the exploit database.
  • In scope for the first remediation wave must be at least all systems facing the internet, e.g. workstations, servers in the DMZ or in public clouds.
  • Gathering intelligence about new vulnerabilities from a plethora of publicly available sources (OSINT) is a time-consuming task. A threat intelligence service can speed-up information gathering and reduces the workload of your IT security staff.
  • In addition, since remediation takes some time, it makes sense to invest in means for enhancing the resilience of application systems.

Expect the worst and be prepared. Or, to echo Hamlet:

To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing, end them? To die: to sleep;

Have a good weekend.

  1. Adobe. Security updates available for Flash Player | APSB18-42 [Internet]. 2018 [cited 2018 Dec 8]. Available from: https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/flash-player/apsb18-42.html

  2. Gigamon Threat Research Team. Adobe Flash Zero-Day Exploited In the Wild [Internet]. Gigamon ATR Blog. 2018 [cited 2018 Dec 8]. Available from: https://atr-blog.gigamon.com/2018/12/05/adobe-flash-zero-day-exploited-in-the-wild/

  3. Qihoo 360 Advanced Threat Response Team. Operation Poison Needles – APT Group Attacked the Polyclinic of the Presidential Administration of Russia, Exploiting a Zero-day [Internet]. 2018 [cited 2018 Dec 8]. Available from: http://blogs.360.cn/post/PoisonNeedles_CVE-2018-15982_EN.html

  4. Jochem K. About 60% of exploits are published before the CVE. What does this mean for your cyber security strategy? [Internet]. IT Security Matters. 2018 [cited 2018 Dec 8]. Available from: https://klausjochem.me/2018/11/04/about-60-of-exploits-are-published-before-the-cve-what-does-this-mean-for-your-cyber-security-strategy/

  5. Offensive Security. Offensive Security’s Exploit Database Archive [Internet]. Exploit Database. [cited 2018 Nov 4]. Available from: https://www.exploit-db.com/

Critical vulnerabilities require immediate action – How to prevent Equifax like attacks

23 September 2017

Critical Vulnerabilities are

  • exploitable from the network (Access Vector: Network),
  • require only low or medium skills to exploit (Access Complexity: Low or Medium),
  • require no authentication (Authentication: None),
  • cause great damage (Severity: High), and
  • allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on the victims’ computer

Among the vulnerabilities with CVSS vector (AV:N/AC:L/Au:N) or (AV:N/AC:M/Au:N) which cause great damage the last property makes the difference.

The infographic below shows that the number of critical vulnerabilities (320) is very small compared to the total number of vulnerabilities in 2016.

Critical Vulnerabilities 2016

Critical vulnerabilities 2016. Click to enlarge.

Nevertheless, immediate action is required because the reach of attacks is technically unlimited if critical vulnerabilities can be exploited.

Once an attacker has exploited a critical vulnerability in the DMZ he is able to execute arbitrary code on this computer. With this, he can probe the network for other computers with critical vulnerabilities or leverage Windows built-in weaknesses, configuration issues, and tools to explore the network until he finally gets to a computer which has a connection across a firewall to the company network.

Both, NotPetya and WannaCry exploited critical vulnerabilities. While WannaCry was just annoying, NotPetya caused multi-million dollar damage in companies across the world.

Mitigation

The TEAM approach for handling risks shows the direction for dealing with critical vulnerabilities.

Transfer: No insurer will take the risk because in the case of a critical vulnerability on a server in the DMZ both the probability of occurrence and the impact are high.

Eliminate: Is not possible, because this will result in loss of business.

Accept: No option because the probability of occurrence and the impact are high.

Mitigate: Patching is the only possible response in this case. Isolation of the system from the network will result in loss of business.

Urgency

Under normal conditions, patches are available at the time of disclosure.

Rule: Critical vulnerabilities should be patched faster than exploits show up on the market.

With this, immediate action is required because very often exploits are available yet at the time of disclosure. In addition, we cannot expect that only ethical hackers publish vulnerabilities.

Equifax

Critical Vulnerabilities Mitigation Process

Critical vulnerabilities mitigation process.

In the Equifax attack the critical vulnerability CVE-2017-5638 in the Apache Struts framework was used. A patch was available at the time of disclosure but apparently not applied.

Patching the Apache Struts framework is a challenging job.

Firstly, it is a challenge to identify the systems with the vulnerable framework installed.

Secondly, patches must be carefully tested prior implementation to avoid business loss.

Finally, the patches must be implemented manually because automated patch management is not available.

Thus, an up-to-date asset repository, a current QA system, and actual automated test routines are required to get the job done in the required short time frame.

To be honest, the Equifax attack remains a mystery for me. The IT shop of a billion dollar company should be able to deal with critical vulnerabilities in the required short time. Perhaps someone simply underestimated the risk.

For more details on the Equifax attack see Steven Bellovin’s post Preliminary Thoughts on the Equifax Hack published at CircleID.

Have a great weekend.

Threat intelligence is the new Hype, but can threat intel actually defend you against future attacks?

19 January 2016

Can threat intel actually defend you against future attacks?

Tim Holman’s answer is simple, although not surprising:

‘Most of the time, yes. But by far the best way is to take a pro-active approach, presume attackers are already on the inside and tailor your defences from the inside out.’

For effective treatment of the inevitable he recommends to invest in a ISMS:

‘No firm can ever defend against 100% of attacks, 100% of the time, but without a doubt you can create resilient systems and business processes that are 100% effective in restoring your firm to business-as-usual when the inevitable cyber attack happens.’

For the full report please see ‘Security Think Tank: Security intelligence demands getting the basics right‘ published on ComputerWeekly.com

 Have a good day.

To be successful a SIEM implementation should follow the ISO 27001 approach

20 July 2015

Last Wednesday I participated in a workshop on Production IT Security in Frankfurt. The presentations about Security Assessments, SIEM solutions, Next Generation Firewalls and Threat Intelligence were very interesting, but, as always, I got the most valuable information from the discussions with the other attendees during coffee break. It was really amazing to hear that the attendees, although they came from different companies, talked about the same mostly negative experiences in their SIEM projects.

During my ride back to Leverkusen I had time to think about this. Expectation management was a big issue in the discussions. The PowerPoints of the vendors suggest a quick and easy installation and start-up, and with some days training in Big Data methods the SIEM operator can set up dashboards which show the current security status of your company. Far from it!

The key capabilities of a SIEM solution are:

(1) Data aggregation and correlation:  Collect event data from various sources, correlate them, and integrate them with other information sources to turn the data into useful information.

(2) Compliance: Gather compliance data to support security, governance and auditing processes.

(3) Retention and Forensic analysis: Long term storage of historical event data for correlation over time and forensic analysis in the case of a security incident.

(4) Dashboard: Turn aggregated and correlated data into informational charts to aid security staff in identifying abnormal usage patterns.

(5) Alerting: Automated analysis of correlated events and production of alerts, to notify recipients of immediate issues.

The implementation of each function requires a big effort in preparation and operation. Let me show this by the means of two examples:

(4) Dashboard. In order to find abnormal usage patterns you have to define normal usage patterns first. This takes not only time. It is really hard to find relevant patterns from the ocean of events that systems create during normal operation. To ensure fast start-up it is required to cleanup your systems of e.g. event errors created by mis-configured services before you start operation.

(5) Alerting is probably the most interesting capability of a SIEM system. It allows you to act directly upon security incidents. To get the most of alerting you have to set up an incident response process, ideally depending on the classification of the information assets to prevent wasting of time and effort.

This requires that all assets are listed in an asset repository, classified and an asset owner is assigned, before your SIEM solution goes into production.

In addition it is required that your SIEM operations group is sufficiently staffed, the operators are well-trained, and enabled to take proper actions on an incident, e.g. alerting your server operators or shutting down a server to prevent larger damage.

Sounds like the preparations required for the implementation of an Information Security Management System due to ISO 27001.

With this my advice is: For a successful and quick SIEM implementation you should follow the major steps for implementation of an ISMS.

Bonne semaine!