Chinese Hackers Exploiting Log4Shell Vulnerability & Attack Internet-Facing Systems

The Chinese hackers are actively exploiting the Log4Shell Vulnerability in the Log4j library and it is identified as “CVE-2021-44228.”

Microsoft experts have claimed that Chinese hackers are targeting the companies and individuals with a new ransomware strain for double extortion, “Night Sky.”

In this ongoing ransomware operation, the hackers are exploiting the CVE-2021-44228 which is marked as one of the most critical flaws, and by exploiting this vulnerability they are also attacking the internet-facing systems as well.

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On December 27, 2021, the hackers started this ransomware operation in which they compromised the corporate networks of two well-known organizations Bangladesh and Japan.

For their victims on the Tor network, they have finely set up a leak site where they will publish the data that was stolen from the victims who have not paid the ransom.

Night Sky & Its Operators

While this ransomware family was initially spotted by the cybersecurity researchers of MalwareHunterteam, they noted that when this ransomware encrypts a file it put “.nightsky” as an extension of that encrypted file.

Here’s what the company spokesperson stated:-

“The security of our customers is our top priority at VMware as we respond to the industry-wide Apache Software Foundation Log4j vulnerabilities. Any service connected to the internet and not yet patched for Log4j vulnerabilities is vulnerable to hackers, and VMware strongly recommends taking immediate action.”

Moreover, the security experts at Microsoft have tracked the Chinese hacking group as, “DEV-0401,” they are found to be exploiting the Log4Shell flaw on VMware Horizon systems that are exposed.

Earlier, this same Chinese hacking group has deployed and exploited multiple ransomware, and among them, the most popular ones are:-

• LockFile
• AtomSilo
• Rook

Here to make things legit the operators of Night Sky ransomware has used the C2 servers that mimic the domains of security and IT companies like:-

• Trend Micro
• Sophos
• Nvidia
• Rogers Corporation

Hackers are constantly targeting the networks of vulnerable organizations and individuals, and along with financially motivated hackers, the state-sponsored threat actors from countries like China, North Korea, Turkey, and Iran are also exploiting the bug.

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