Capoae Malware Attacking Linux systems & Web Apps Using Multiple Vulnerabilities

A senior security researcher Larry Cashdollar, has detected malware that is dubbed Capoae on Thursday, and this malware by exploiting the multiple vulnerabilities is attacking the Linux systems and several web applications. 

The Capoae malware was actually written in the Golang programming language, and it has soon become the firm favorite since it has cross-platform capabilities.

Moreover, it also spreads through identified bugs and weak official credentials. However, the vulnerabilities that were exploited by Capoae append:- 

• CVE-2020-14882: It is a remote code execution (RCE) flaw in Oracle WebLogic Server.
• CVE-2018-20062: It is another RCE flaw in ThinkPHP.

The main motive of the malware is to grow by taking advantage of vulnerable systems and weak administrative credentials as we hinted above. 

Apart from spreading crypto-mining malware attacks, the cyber security analysts also found that the SIRT honeypots were also affected by PHP malware that appeared through a backdoored which is an extension to a WordPress plugin called “Download-monitor.”

Now to deploy the main Capoae payload to /tmp this plugin was used as a channel, and once done, then a 3MB UPX packed binary was decoded. And all these steps were executed to install XMRig to mine Monero (XMR) cryptocurrency.

What is in the binary?

After detecting the malware, cybersecurity authorities initiated a strong investigation to know all the details about these vulnerabilities. And to do so, they unpacked the malware along with ‘upx -d’, to have a proper look at the actual binary structure. 

Here the researchers declared that they have found many key details regarding the vulnerabilities, and they noticed that the main structure reveals that it has functions that are targeting a handful of well-known vulnerabilities and has content management frameworks. 

The Golang malware can be found in VirusTotal with an origin date of 8/9/2021:-

$ ./redress -compiler Capoae 

Compiler version: go1.15.4 (2020-11-05T21:21:32Z)

However, this Capoae campaign’s use of several vulnerabilities and different methods during the attack highlights that how intent these threat actors are on getting a foothold on as many machines as they can.

Recommendations

The most important point is that the techniques that were used by the threat actors, were the same methods that are recommended for most companies to keep their systems and networks secure. 

But, one can understand if they got attacked or not by seeing:- 

• High system resource use
• Accidental or unrecognizable system processes in administration
• Unfamiliar log entries or artifacts

This type of campaign is quite dangerous for the organization, that’s why every user must have a brief knowledge regarding this kind of attack, and how they will overcome it efficiently.

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