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As we’re nearing the top of 2022, trying on the most regarding threats of this turbulent yr by way of testing numbers provides a threat-based perspective on what triggers cybersecurity groups to test how weak they’re to particular threats. These are the threats that have been most examined to validate resilience with the Cymulate safety posture administration platform between January 1st and December 1st, 2022.
Manjusaka
Date printed: August 2022
Reminiscent of Cobalt Strike and Sliver framework (each commercially produced and designed for crimson groups however misappropriated and misused by risk actors), this rising assault framework holds the potential to be broadly utilized by malicious actors. Written in Rust and Golang with a User Interface in Simple Chinese (see the workflow diagram beneath), this software program is of Chinese origin.
Manjasuka carries Windows and Linux implants in Rust and makes a ready-made C2 server freely obtainable, with the potential of creating customized implants.
Geopolitical context
Manjasuka was designed for felony use from the get-go, and 2023 could possibly be outlined by elevated felony utilization of it as it’s freely distributed and would cut back felony reliance on the misuse of commercially obtainable simulation and emulation frameworks reminiscent of Cobalt Strike, Sliver, Ninja, Bruce Ratel C4, and so on.
At the time of writing, there was no indication that the creators of Manjasuka are state-sponsored however, as clearly indicated beneath, China has not been resting this yr.
PowerLess Backdoor
Date printed: February 2022
Powerless Backdoor is the most well-liked of this yr Iran-related threats, designed to keep away from PowerShell detection. Its capabilities embrace downloading a browser information stealer and a keylogger, encrypting and decrypting knowledge, executing arbitrary instructions, and activating a kill course of.
Geopolitical context
The variety of fast threats attributed to Iran has jumped from 8 to 17, greater than double of the same 2021 interval. However, it has slowed significantly because the September 14th U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions towards Iranian cyber actors, trickling all the way down to a single assault imputed to Iran since then.
The present political tensions inside Iran will little question impression the frequency of assaults in 2023, however at this stage, it’s troublesome to guage whether or not these will improve or lower.
APT 41 focusing on U.S. State Governments
Date printed: March 2022
Already flagged as very lively in 2021, APT41 is a Chinese state-sponsored attacker group exercise that confirmed no signal of slowing down in 2022, and investigations into APT41 exercise uncovered proof of a deliberate marketing campaign focusing on U.S. state governments.
APT 41 makes use of reconnaissance instruments, reminiscent of Acunetix, Nmap, SQLmap, OneForAll, subdomain3, subDomainsBrute, and Sublist3r. It additionally launches a big array of assault varieties, reminiscent of phishing, watering gap, and supply-chain assaults, and exploits numerous vulnerabilities to initially compromise their victims. More just lately, they’ve been seen utilizing the publicly obtainable software SQLmap because the preliminary assault vector to carry out SQL injections on web sites.
This November, a brand new subgroup, Earth Longhi, joined the already lengthy record of monikers related to APT 41 (ARIUM, Winnti, LEAD, WICKED SPIDER, WICKED PANDA, Blackfly, Suckfly, Winnti Umbrella, Double Dragon). Earth Longhi was noticed focusing on a number of sectors throughout Taiwan, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Ukraine.
Geopolitical context
According to Microsoft digital Defense Report 2022, “Many of the assaults coming from China are powered by its means to seek out and compile “zero-day vulnerabilities” – distinctive unpatched holes in software program not beforehand identified to the safety group. China’s assortment of those vulnerabilities seems to have elevated on the heels of a brand new regulation requiring entities in China to report vulnerabilities they uncover to the federal government earlier than sharing them with others.”
LoLzarus Phishing Attack on DoD Industry
Date printed: February 2022
Dubbed LolZarus, a phishing marketing campaign tried to lure U.S. protection sector job candidates. This marketing campaign was initially recognized by Qualys Threat Research, which attributed it to the North-Korean risk actor Lazarus (AKA Dark Seoul, Labyrinth Chollima, Stardust Chollima, BlueNoroff, and APT 38). Affiliated with North Korea’s Reconnaissance General Bureau, this group is each politically and financially motivated and have been greatest identified for the excessive profile assault on Sondy in 2016 and WannaCry ransomware assault in 2017.
The LolZarus phishing marketing campaign relied on at the least two malicious paperwork, Lockheed_Martin_JobOpportunities.docx and salary_Lockheed_Martin_job_opportunities_confidential.doc, that abused macros with aliases to rename the API used and relied on ActiveX Frame1_Layout to automated the assault execution. The macro then loaded the WMVCORE.DLL Windows Media dll file to assist ship the second stage shellcode payload geared toward hijacking management and connecting with the Command & Control server.
Geopolitical context
Another two North Korean infamous assaults flagged by CISA this yr embrace the usage of Maui ransomware and exercise in cryptocurrency theft. Lazarus subgroup BlueNoroff appears to have branched out of cryptocurrency specialization this yr to additionally goal cryptocurrency-connected SWIFT servers and banks. Cymulate related seven fast threats with Lazarus since January 1st, 2022.
Industroyer2
Date printed: April 2022
Ukraine’s high-alert state, as a result of battle with Russia, demonstrated its efficacy by thwarting an tried cyber-physical assault focusing on high-voltage electrical substations. That assault was dubbed Industroyer2 in reminiscence of the 2016’s Industroyer cyber-attack, apparently focusing on Ukraine energy stations and minimally profitable, chopping the ability in a part of Kyiv for about one hour.
The stage of Industroyer2 custom-made focusing on included statically specified executable file units of distinctive parameters for particular substations.
Geopolitical context
Ukraine’s cyber-resilience in defending its essential amenities is sadly powerless towards kinetic assaults, and Russia seems to have now opted for extra conventional army means to destroy energy stations and different civilian amenities. According to ENISA, a side-effect of the Ukraine-Russia battle is a recrudescence of cyber threats towards governments, firms, and important sectors reminiscent of vitality, transport, banking, and digital infrastructure, basically.
In conclusion, as of the 5 most regarding threats this yr, 4 have been immediately linked with state-sponsored risk actors and the risk actors behind the fifth one are unknown, it seems that geopolitical tensions are on the root of essentially the most burning risk considerations for cybersecurity groups.
As state-sponsored attackers sometimes have entry to cyber assets unattainable by most firms, pre-emptive protection towards advanced assaults ought to focus on safety validation and steady processes targeted on figuring out and shutting in-context safety gaps.
Note: This article was written and contributed by David Klein, Cyber Evangelist at Cymulate.