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Red Cross Hack Linked to Iranian Influence Operation?

krebsonsecurity Feb 16, 2022 Data Breaches

A network intrusion at the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) in January led to the theft of personal information on more than 500,000 people receiving assistance from the group. KrebsOnSecurity has learned that the email address used by a cybercriminal actor who offered to sell the stolen ICRC data also show more ...

was used to register multiple domain names the FBI says are tied to a sprawling media influence operation originating from Iran. On Jan. 19, the ICRC disclosed the compromise of servers hosting the personal information of more than 500,000 people receiving services from the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The ICRC said the hacked servers contained data relating to the organization’s Restoring Family Links services, which works to reconnect people separated by war, violence, migration and other causes. The same day the ICRC went public with its breach, someone using the nickname “Sheriff” on the English-language cybercrime forum RaidForums advertised the sale of data from the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Sheriff’s sales thread suggests the ICRC was asked to pay a ransom to guarantee the data wouldn’t be leaked or sold online. “Mr. Mardini, your words have been heard,” Sheriff wrote, posting a link to the Twitter profile of ICRC General Director Robert Mardini and urging forum members to tell him to check his email. “Check your email and send a figure you can pay.” RaidForums member “unindicted” aka Sheriff selling access to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement data. Image: Ke-la.com In their online statement about the hack (updated on Feb. 7) the ICRC said it had not had any contact with the hackers, and no ransom demand had been made. “In line with our standing practice to engage with any actor who can facilitate or impede our humanitarian work, we are willing to communicate directly and confidentially with whoever may be responsible for this operation to impress upon them the need to respect our humanitarian action,” the ICRC statement reads. Asked to comment on Sheriff’s claims, the ICRC issued the following statement: “Right now, we do not have any conclusive evidence that this information from the data breach has been published or is being traded. Our cybersecurity team has looked into any reported allegation of data being available on the dark web.” Update, 2:00 p.m., ET: The ICRC just published an update to its FAQ on the breach. The ICRC now says the hackers broke in on Nov. 9, 2021, using an unpatched critical vulnerability (CVE-2021-40539). “This vulnerability allows malicious cyber actors to place web shells and conduct post-exploitation activities such as compromising administrator credentials, conducting lateral movement, and exfiltrating registry hives and Active Directory files. Once inside our network, the hackers were able to deploy offensive security tools which allowed them to disguise themselves as legitimate users or administrators. This in turn allowed them to access the data, despite this data being encrypted.” Original story: The email address that Sheriff used to register at RaidForums — kelvinmiddelkoop@hotmail.com — appears in an affidavit for a search warrant filed by the FBI roughly a year ago. That FBI warrant came on the heels of an investigation published by security firm FireEye, which examined an Iranian-based network of inauthentic news sites and social media accounts aimed at the United States., U.K. and other western audiences. “This operation is leveraging a network of inauthentic news sites and clusters of associated accounts across multiple social media platforms to promote political narratives in line with Iranian interests,” FireEye researchers wrote. “These narratives include anti-Saudi, anti-Israeli, and pro-Palestinian themes, as well as support for specific U.S. policies favorable to Iran.” The FBI says the domains registered by the email address tied to Sheriff’s RaidForums account were used in service of the Liberty Front Press, a network of phony news sites thought to originate from Iran. According to the FBI affidavit, the address kelvinmiddelkoop@hotmail.com was used to register at least three different domains for phony news sites, including awdnews[.]com, sachtimes[.]com, and whatsupic[.]com. A reverse WHOIS search on that email address at DomainTools.com (an advertiser on this site) shows it was used to register 17 domains between 2012 and 2021, including moslimyouthmedia[.]com, moslempress[.]com, and realneinovosti[.]net. A review of Sheriff’s postings to RaidForum reveals he has used two other nicknames since registering on the forum in December 2021: “Unindicted,” and “threat_actor.” In several posts, Sheriff taunts one FireEye employee by name. In a Jan. 3, 2022 post, Sheriff says their “team” is seeking licenses for the Cobalt Strike penetration testing tool, and that they’re prepared to pay $3,000 – $4,000 per license. Cobalt Strike is a legitimate security product that is sold only to vetted partners, but compromised or ill-gotten Cobalt Strike licenses frequently are used in the run-up to ransomware attacks. “We will buy constantly, make contact,” Sheriff advised. “Do not ask if we still need)) the team is interested in licenses indefinitely.” On Jan. 4, 2022, Sheriff tells RaidForums that their team is in need of access to a specific data broker platform, and offers to pay as much as $35,000 for that access. Sheriff says they will only accept offers that are guaranteed through the forum’s escrow account. The demand for escrow in a sales thread is almost universally a sign that someone means business and they are ready to transact on whatever was advertised or requested. That’s because escrow transactions necessarily force the buyer to make a deposit with the forum’s administrators before proceeding on any transaction. Sheriff appears to have been part of a group on RaidForums that offered to buy access to organizations that could be extorted with ransomware or threatened with the publication of stolen data (PDF screenshot from threat intelligence firm KELA). In a “scam report” filed against Sheriff by another RaidForums member on Dec. 31, 2021, the claimant says Sheriff bought access from them and agreed to pay 70 percent of any ransom paid by the victim organization. Instead, the claimant maintains, Sheriff only paid them roughly 25 percent. “The company pay $1.35 million ransom and only payment was made of $350k to me, so i ask for $600k to fix this dispute,” the affiliate wrote. In another post on RaidForums, a user aptly named “FBI Agent” advised other denizens to steer clear of Sheriff’s ransomware affiliate program, noting that transacting with this person could run afoul of sanctions from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) that restrict commerce with people residing in Iran. “To make it clear, we don’t work with individuals under the OFAC sanctions list, which @Sheriff is under,” the ransomware affiliate program administrator wrote in reply. RaidForums says Sheriff was referred to the forum by Pompompurin, the same hacker who used a security hole in the FBI’s website last year to blast a phony alert about a cybercrime investigation to state and local authorities. Pompompurin has been quite active on RaidForums for the past few years, frequently posting databases from newly-hacked organizations, and selling access to stolen information. Reach via Twitter, Pompompurin said they had no idea who might have offered money and information on Sheriff, and that they would never “snitch” on Sheriff. “I know who he is but I’m not saying anything,” Pompompurin replied. The information about Sheriff was brought to my attention by an anonymous person who initially contacted KrebsOnSecurity saying they wanted to make a donation to the publication. When the person offering the gift asked if it was okay that the money came from a ransomware transaction, I naturally declined the offer. That person then proceeded to share the information about the connection between Sheriff’s email address and the FBI search warrant, as well as the account’s credentials. The same identity approached several other security researchers and journalists, one of whom was able to validate that the kelvinmiddelkoop@hotmail.com address actually belonged to Sheriff’s account. Those researchers were likewise offered tainted donations, except the individual offering the donation seemed to use a different story with each person about who they were or why they were offering money. Others contacted by the same anonymous user said they also received unsolicited details about Sheriff. It seems clear that whoever offered that money and information has their own agenda, which may also involve attempts to make members of the news media appear untrustworthy for agreeing to accept stolen funds. However, the information they shared checks out, and since there is precious little public reporting on the source of the ICRC intrusion, the potential connection to hacker groups based in Iran seems worth noting.

Cyberattackers Find New Interest in LOLBins to Spread a Variety of Malware

cyware Feb 16, 2022 Trends, Reports, Analysis

Living-off-the Land Binaries (LOLBins) are no joke; These system utility tools have become a new favorite attack channel for threat actors to hide their malicious activity from security solutions.

Netacea announces $12Million Series A investment

cyware Feb 16, 2022 Companies to Watch

The $12 million Series A funding round will enable Netacea to expand its presence in the U.K. and the U.S., where the business sees significant opportunities for further growth.

Grafana web security vulnerability opened a plethora of attack possibilities

cyware Feb 16, 2022 Malware and Vulnerabilities

The CSRF flaw, tracked as CVE-2022-21703, opens the door for attackers to elevate privileges through cross-origin attacks against administrators on systems running vulnerable versions of Grafana.

New tool can uncover redacted, pixelated text to reveal sensitive data

cyware Feb 16, 2022 Security Products & Services

Researchers have demonstrated how a new tool named Unredacter can help uncover redacted text from documents, potentially exposing sensitive information to nefarious actors.

QNAP extends critical updates for some unsupported NAS devices

cyware Feb 16, 2022 Malware and Vulnerabilities

The company added that, while the support date has been moved until October, these EOL devices will only receive security updates addressing high severity and critical vulnerabilities.

BlackByte Ransomware Spreads Far and Wide, Attacks Critical Infrastructure

cyware Feb 16, 2022 Malware and Vulnerabilities

The Super Bowl came by and the BlackByte ransomware group claimed its target. Not only that, but the group has also attacked at least three critical infrastructure organizations in the U.S.

Ransomware-Related Data Leaks Nearly Doubled in 2021: Report

cyware Feb 16, 2022 Trends, Reports, Analysis

There was a significant increase in ransomware-related data leaks and interactive intrusions in 2021, according to the 2022 Global Threat Report released on Tuesday by security firm CrowdStrike.

CISA added 9 new flaws to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, including Magento e Chrome bugs

cyware Feb 16, 2022 Threat Intel & Info Sharing

The CISA added nine new vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, including two recently patched zero-day issues affecting Adobe Commerce/Magento Open Source and Google Chrome.

Ukrainian Military Agencies, State-Owned Banks Suffer Disruptive Cyberattacks

cyware Feb 16, 2022 Breaches and Incidents

Ukraine's Cyberpolice also reported that bank customers received SMS messages claiming that bank ATMs were down, adding that they were "part of an information attack and do not correspond to reality."

Cyber security company Securonix raises $1 billion in Vista-led round

cyware Feb 16, 2022 Companies to Watch

Cloud-based security solutions provider Securonix has raised more than $1 billion in a private fundraising round led by private equity firm Vista Equity Partners, the company said on Monday.

High-Severity RCE Security Bug Reported in Apache Cassandra Database Software

cyware Feb 16, 2022 Malware and Vulnerabilities

Researchers revealed details of a now-patched high-severity vulnerability in Apache Cassandra that, if left unaddressed, could be abused to gain remote code execution on affected installations.

Missouri prosecutor declines to file charges over ‘hacker’ allegation against reporter

cyware Feb 16, 2022 Incident Response, Learnings

Missouri’s public prosecutor has decided not to file charges against a journalist accused of illegal hacking over his disclosure of security vulnerabilities in a state government-run website.

Singapore introduces strong measures to stop online scams

cyware Feb 16, 2022 Laws, Policy, Regulations

Singapore will step up up efforts to stamp out phishing and spoofing, ministers told the parliament on Tuesday. The topic gained attention after instances of attacks and scams soared recently.

Supply chain shortages create a cybersecurity nightmare

cyware Feb 16, 2022 Expert Blogs and Opinion

Supply chain issues are already one of the weakest links for an organization, even in the best of times. Challenges are not just in production capabilities, but also in security of the final product.

Emotet Malware Spreads by Hijacking Email Threats and Luring Users with Malicious Attachments

cyware Feb 16, 2022 Malware and Vulnerabilities

As early as December 21, 2021, researchers from Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 observed a new infection method for the highly prevalent malware family Emotet involving thread hijacking.

WhiteSource acquires DefenseCode and Xanitizer to enter into the SAST market

cyware Feb 16, 2022 Companies to Watch

WhiteSource announced the company’s expansion into custom code security following two recent acquisitions and the availability of its static application security testing (SAST) solution.

New Zealand government mandates bug reporting process for federal agencies

cyware Feb 16, 2022 Govt., Critical Infrastructure

In its latest security manual, the GCSB said agencies should establish a process that would allow members of the public to report potential software vulnerabilities or other security problems.

Trickbot has infected 140,000-plus machines since late 2020

cyware Feb 16, 2022 Trends, Reports, Analysis

In October 2020, Microsoft reported that more than 90% of Trickbot's infrastructure had been disabled. However, the threat actor bounced back and began thriving soon after.

CISA Identifies Next Set of Actively Exploited Vulnerabilities

cyware Feb 16, 2022 Threat Intel & Info Sharing

The CISA has added more flaws in its catalog of known exploited vulnerabilities. They were found in products of top tech giants, such as Microsoft, Oracle, Apache, and Apple. Also, there are some priority ones, for which the CISA has asked FCEB agencies to patch the vulnerabilities within February. Last month, the agency had warned federal agencies to fix old unpatched vulnerabilities.

Google Drive Now Accounts for 50% of Malicious Document Downloads

cyware Feb 16, 2022 Trends, Reports, Analysis

According to Atlas VPN, nearly 50% of malicious Office documents were downloaded from Google Drive in 2021. Until 2020, Microsoft OneDrive was the major source of malicious office documents at 34% share. Cybercriminals spread these by creating free accounts on cloud apps hosting services, upload malicious files and show more ...

share them publicly or with selected individuals. Organizations must secure their cloud apps with user authentication and threat monitoring tools.

Log4Shell: A retrospective

cyware Feb 16, 2022 Expert Blogs and Opinion

An attacker could use this notorious vulnerability (dubbed Log4Shell) to force a victim to download, install and execute externally hosted malicious payloads with relative ease.

How The Initial Access Broker Market Leads To Ransomware Attacks

packetstormsecurity Feb 16, 2022 headline,hacker,malware,cybercrime,fraud

Chinese MI6 Informant Gives Information About Huawei

packetstormsecurity Feb 16, 2022 headline,government,britain,china,cyberw

Emotet Now Spreading Through Malicious Excel Files

packetstormsecurity Feb 16, 2022 headline,malware,microsoft

Right Wingers Try To Spin DNS Traffic Logged As Intercepting Emails

packetstormsecurity Feb 16, 2022 headline,government,email,usa,russia,dns