CISA: Email from federal agencies possibly accessed in Russian breach of Microsoft
CISA publicly released an emergency directive issued to federal agencies earlier this month, detailing how a breach at Microsoft could have affected the government.
Why CISA is Warning CISOs About a Breach at Sisense
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said today it is investigating a breach at business intelligence company Sisense, whose products are designed to allow companies to view the status of multiple third-party online services in a single dashboard.…
Understanding and Responding to Distributed Denial-Of-Service Attacks
This joint guide, Understanding and Responding to Distributed Denial-Of-Service Attacks, addresses the specific needs and challenges faced by organizations in defending against DDoS attacks. The guidance now includes detailed insight into three different types of DDoS techniques: Volumetric, attacks aiming to consume available bandwidth. Protocol, attacks which exploit vulnerabilities in network protocols. * Application, attacks targeting vulnerabilities in specific applications or running services.
CISA forced to take two systems offline last month after Ivanti compromise
Hackers breached the systems of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in February through vulnerabilities in Ivanti products, officials said.
CISA, FBI, and MS-ISAC Release Advisory on Phobos Ransomware
Today, CISA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) released a joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA), #StopRansomware: Phobos Ransomware, to disseminate known tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) and indicators of compromise (IOCs), which are from incident response investigations tied to Phobos ransomware activity from as recently as February, 2024.
Phobos Ransomware Aggressively Targeting U.S. Critical Infrastructure
U.S. cybersecurity and intelligence agencies have warned of Phobos ransomware attacks targeting government and critical infrastructure entities, outlining the various tactics and techniques the threat actors have adopted to deploy the file-encrypting malware. "Structured as a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) model, Phobos ransomware actors have targeted entities including municipal and county governments, emergency services, education, public healthcare, and critical infrastructure to successfully ransom several million in U.S. dollars," the government said.
ALPHV/BlackCat hits healthcare after retaliation threat, FBI says
The gang claimed responsibility for a high-profile attack against Change Healthcare Wednesday.
CISA cautions against using hacked Ivanti VPN gateways even after factory resets
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) revealed today that attackers who hack Ivanti VPN appliances using one of multiple actively exploited vulnerabilities may be able to maintain root persistence even after performing factory resets.
Threat Actors Exploit Multiple Vulnerabilities in Ivanti Connect Connect and Policy Secure Gateways | CISA
Based upon the authoring organizations’ observations during incident response activities and available industry reporting, as supplemented by CISA’s research findings, the authoring organizations recommend that the safest course of action for network defenders is to assume a sophisticated threat actor may deploy rootkit level persistence on a device that has been reset and lay dormant for an arbitrary amount of time. For example, as outlined in PRC State-Sponsored Actors Compromise and Maintain Persistent Access to U.S. Critical Infrastructure), sophisticated actors may remain silent on compromised networks for long periods. The authoring organizations strongly urge all organizations to consider the significant risk of adversary access to, and persistence on, Ivanti Connect Secure and Ivanti Policy Secure gateways when determining whether to continue operating these devices in an enterprise environment.
Threat Actor Leverages Compromised Account of Former Employee to Access State Government Organization | CISA
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Multi-State Information Sharing & Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) conducted an incident response assessment of a state government organization’s network environment after documents containing host and user information, including metadata, were posted on a dark web brokerage site. Analysis confirmed that an unidentified threat actor compromised network administrator credentials through the account of a former employee—a technique commonly leveraged by threat actors—to successfully authenticate to an internal virtual private network (VPN) access point, further navigate the victim’s on-premises environment, and execute various lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) queries against a domain controller.[1] Analysis also focused on the victim’s Azure environment, which hosts sensitive systems and data, as well as the compromised on-premises environment. Analysis determined there were no indications the threat actor further compromised the organization by moving laterally from the on-premises environment to the Azure environment.
Technology News Government News Get more insights with the Recorded Future Intelligence Cloud. Learn more. In alerting about two Citrix bugs, CISA recommends immediate attention for one
Two bugs in Citrix technology are drawing serious attention this week from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. CISA says federal agencies much patch one of the vulnerabilities — tagged as CVE-2023-6548 — by January 24. It’s one of the rare times the cyber agency has put a remediation date of less than three weeks on a vulnerability. CISA did not respond to requests for comment about why the remediation timeline was shorter than most. The other bug — listed as CVE-2023-6548 — must be fixed by February 7. CISA’s alerts are aimed at federal agencies but often serve as general warnings for the public.
Act Now: CISA Flags Active Exploitation of Microsoft SharePoint Vulnerability
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has added a critical security vulnerability impacting Microsoft SharePoint Server to its
Russian FSB Cyber Actor Star Blizzard Continues Worldwide Spear-phishing Campaigns | CISA
The Russia-based actor Star Blizzard (formerly known as SEABORGIUM, also known as Callisto Group/TA446/COLDRIVER/TAG-53/BlueCharlie) continues to successfully use spear-phishing attacks against targeted organizations and individuals in the UK, and other geographical areas of interest, for information-gathering activity. The UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the US National Security Agency (NSA), the US Cyber National Mission Force (CNMF), the Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre (ASD’s ACSC), the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS), and the New Zealand National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-NZ) assess that Star Blizzard is almost certainly subordinate to the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Centre 18.
IRGC-Affiliated Cyber Actors Exploit PLCs in Multiple Sectors, Including U.S. Water and Wastewater Systems Facilities
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), National Security Agency (NSA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Israel National Cyber Directorate (INCD)—hereafter referred to as "the authoring agencies"—are disseminating this joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) to highlight continued malicious cyber activity against operational technology devices by Iranian Government Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)-affiliated Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) cyber actors.
MAR-10478915-1.v1 Citrix Bleed
This report is provided "as is" for informational purposes only. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not provide any warranties of any kind regarding any information contained herein. The DHS does not endorse any commercial product or service referenced in this bulletin or otherwise. This document is marked TLP:CLEAR--Recipients may share this information without restriction. Sources may use TLP:CLEAR when information carries minimal or no foreseeable risk of misuse, in accordance with applicable rules and procedures for public release. Subject to standard copyright rules, TLP:CLEAR information may be shared without restriction. For more information on the Traffic Light Protocol (TLP), see http://www.cisa.gov/tlp.
MAR-10430311-1.v1 Multiple Nation-State Threat Actors Exploit CVE-2022-47966 and CVE-2022-42475
CISA received 4 files for analysis from an incident response engagement conducted at an Aeronautical Sector organization. 2 files (bitmap.exe, wkHPd.exe) are identified as variants of Metasploit (Meterpreter) and designed to connect and receive unencrypted payloads from their respective command and control (C2) servers. Note: Metasploit is an open source penetration testing software; Meterpreter is a Metasploit attack payload that runs an interactive shell. These executables are used as attack payloads to run interactive shells, allowing a malicious actor the ability to control and execute code on a system. 2 files (resource.aspx, ConfigLogin.aspx) are Active Server Pages (ASPX) web shells designed to execute remote JavaScript code on the victim server.
Malicious Actors Exploit CVE-2023-27350 in PaperCut MF and NG
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) are releasing this joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) in response to the active exploitation of CVE-2023-27350. This vulnerability occurs in certain versions of PaperCut NG and PaperCut MF and enables an unauthenticated actor to execute malicious code remotely without credentials. PaperCut released a patch in March 2023.
Hunting Russian Intelligence “Snake” Malware
The Snake implant is considered the most sophisticated cyber espionage tool designed and used by Center 16 of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) for long-term intelligence collection on sensitive targets. To conduct operations using this tool, the FSB created a covert peer-to-peer (P2P) network of numerous Snake-infected computers worldwide. Many systems in this P2P network serve as relay nodes which route disguised operational traffic to and from Snake implants on the FSB’s ultimate targets. Snake’s custom communications protocols employ encryption and fragmentation for confidentiality and are designed to hamper detection and collection efforts.
Untitled Goose Tool Aids Hunt and Incident Response in Azure, Azure Active Directory, and Microsoft 365 Environments
Today, CISA released the Untitled Goose Tool to help network defenders detect potentially malicious activity in Microsoft Azure, Azure Active Directory (AAD), and Microsoft 365 (M365) environments. The Untitled Goose Tool offers novel authentication and data gathering methods for network defenders to use as they interrogate and analyze their Microsoft cloud services. The tool enables users to:
Untitled Goose Tool Aids Hunt and Incident Response in Azure, Azure Active Directory, and Microsoft 365 Environments
Today, CISA released the Untitled Goose Tool to help network defenders detect potentially malicious activity in Microsoft Azure, Azure Active Directory (AAD), and Microsoft 365 (M365) environments. The Untitled Goose Tool offers novel authentication and data gathering methods for network defenders to use as they interrogate and analyze their Microsoft cloud services. The tool enables users to:
CISA Red Team Shares Key Findings to Improve Monitoring and Hardening of Networks | CISA
Today, CISA released a Cybersecurity Advisory, CISA Red Team Shares Key Findings to Improve Monitoring and Hardening of Networks. This advisory describes a red team assessment of a large critical infrastructure organization with a mature cyber posture. CISA is releasing this Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) detailing the red team’s tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) and key findings to provide network defenders proactive steps to reduce the threat of similar activity from malicious cyber actors.
CISA Red Team Shares Key Findings to Improve Monitoring and Hardening of Networks | CISA
Today, CISA released a Cybersecurity Advisory, CISA Red Team Shares Key Findings to Improve Monitoring and Hardening of Networks. This advisory describes a red team assessment of a large critical infrastructure organization with a mature cyber posture. CISA is releasing this Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) detailing the red team’s tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) and key findings to provide network defenders proactive steps to reduce the threat of similar activity from malicious cyber actors.
Iranian Government-Sponsored APT Actors Compromise Federal Network, Deploy Crypto Miner, Credential Harvester
From mid-June through mid-July 2022, CISA conducted an incident response engagement at a Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) organization where CISA observed suspected advanced persistent threat (APT) activity. In the course of incident response activities, CISA determined that cyber threat actors exploited the Log4Shell vulnerability in an unpatched VMware Horizon server, installed XMRig crypto mining software, moved laterally to the domain controller (DC), compromised credentials, and then implanted Ngrok reverse proxies on several hosts to maintain persistence.
Iranian Government-Sponsored APT Actors Compromise Federal Network, Deploy Crypto Miner, Credential Harvester
From mid-June through mid-July 2022, CISA conducted an incident response engagement at a Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) organization where CISA observed suspected advanced persistent threat (APT) activity. In the course of incident response activities, CISA determined that cyber threat actors exploited the Log4Shell vulnerability in an unpatched VMware Horizon server, installed XMRig crypto mining software, moved laterally to the domain controller (DC), compromised credentials, and then implanted Ngrok reverse proxies on several hosts to maintain persistence.
#StopRansomware: Daixin Team
Actions to take today to mitigate cyber threats from ransomware: • Install updates for operating systems, software, and firmware as soon as they are released. • Require phishing-resistant MFA for as many services as possible. • Train users to recognize and report phishing attempts.
#StopRansomware: Daixin Team
Actions to take today to mitigate cyber threats from ransomware: • Install updates for operating systems, software, and firmware as soon as they are released. • Require phishing-resistant MFA for as many services as possible. • Train users to recognize and report phishing attempts.
MAR-10365227-3.v1 China Chopper Webshells
CISA analyzed 15 files associated with China Chopper malware. The files are modified Offline Address Book (OAB) Virtual Directory (VD) configuration files for Microsoft Exchange servers. The files have been modified with a variant of the China Chopper webshell. The webshells allow an attacker to remotely access the server and execute arbitrary code on the system(s).referenced in this bulletin or otherwise.
MAR-10365227-3.v1 China Chopper Webshells
CISA analyzed 15 files associated with China Chopper malware. The files are modified Offline Address Book (OAB) Virtual Directory (VD) configuration files for Microsoft Exchange servers. The files have been modified with a variant of the China Chopper webshell. The webshells allow an attacker to remotely access the server and execute arbitrary code on the system(s).referenced in this bulletin or otherwise.
MAR-10365227-2.v1 HyperBro
CISA analyzed 4 files associated with HyperBro malware. The files creates a backdoor program that is capable of uploading and downloading files to and from the system. The RAT is also capable of logging keystrokes and executing commands on the system.
MAR-10365227-2.v1 HyperBro
CISA analyzed 4 files associated with HyperBro malware. The files creates a backdoor program that is capable of uploading and downloading files to and from the system. The RAT is also capable of logging keystrokes and executing commands on the system.