Thursday, December 7, 2023

Chinese Hackers Using Log4Shell Exploit Tools to Perform Post-Exploitation Attacks

The cybersecurity firm, CrowdStrike has warned that Chinese hackers are using the Log4Shell exploit tools to perform various post-exploitation operations. 

The hacker group behind these malicious operations, Aquatic Panda was seen using the Log4Shell vulnerability, with the help of a large academic institution.

In early December the Log4Shell and LogJam vulnerability, which were tracked as CVE-2021-44228 was discovered in the popular Log4j logging library.

Aquatic Panda

Aquatic Panda is a Chinese hacking group that is operating since May 2020 and it has two primary goals:-

  • Intelligence collection.
  • Industrial espionage.

This hacking group mainly targets all its users from the following sectors:-

  • Telecommunications sectors
  • Technology sectors
  • Government sectors

Apart from this, the AQUATIC PANDA counts on the following tools for the execution of all its operations:-

  • Cobalt Strike
  • FishMaster (Unique Cobalt Strike downloader.)
  • njRAT

Technical Analysis

To gain initial access to the target system, the Aquatic Panda uses a modified version of the exploit for a bug in Log4j, and then it performs several post-exploitation activities like:- 

  • Exploration
  • Credential collection

The hackers targeted VMware Horizon that used the vulnerable Log4j library to compromise a large academic institution, and on December 13, 2021, the exploit used in this attack was published on GitHub.

Using the DNS lookups for a subdomain running on VMware Horizon as part of Apache Tomcat, the threat actors performed a connection check.

On the Windows host where the Apache Tomcat service was running, the team ran a series of Linux commands, and not only that even they also performed the same on those aimed at deploying malicious tools that are hosted on remote infrastructure.

Here at this point to better understand privilege levels and learn more about the domain, the threat actors have also conducted surveillance efforts. While they also tried to interrupt a response solution and third-party endpoint threat detection solution.

The malware and three VBS files were extracted by the hackers through PowerShell commands, and to accomplish this, additional scripts were deployed by the hackers. 

At this stage, by performing memory dumps and preparing them for theft, the threat actors of Aquatic Panda attempted several trials to collect credentials.

Moreover, the attacked academic institution was timely warned of suspicious activities to be able to quickly use the incident response protocol, fixing vulnerable software and deterring further development of the malicious activity.

You can follow us on Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook for daily Cybersecurity and hacking news updates.

Website

Latest articles

Bluetooth keystroke-injection Flaw: A Threat to Apple, Linux & Android Devices

An unauthenticated Bluetooth keystroke-injection vulnerability that affects Android, macOS, and iOS devices has been...

Atlassian Patches RCE Flaw that Affected Multiple Products

Atlassian has been discovered with four new vulnerabilities associated with Remote Code Execution in...

Reflectiz Introduces AI-powered Insights on Top of Its Smart Alerting System

Reflectiz, a cybersecurity company specializing in continuous web threat management, proudly introduces a new...

SLAM Attack Gets Root Password Hash in 30 Seconds

Spectre is a class of speculative execution vulnerabilities in microprocessors that can allow threat...

Akira Ransomware Exploiting Zero-day Flaws For Organization Network Access

The Akira ransomware group, which first appeared in March 2023, has been identified as...

Hackers Deliver AsyncRAT Through Weaponized WSF Script Files

The AsyncRAT malware, which was previously distributed through files with the .chm extension, is now being...

BlueNoroff: New Malware Attacking MacOS Users

Researchers have uncovered a new Trojan-attacking macOS user that is associated with the BlueNoroff APT...
Balaji
Balaji
BALAJI is an Ex-Security Researcher (Threat Research Labs) at Comodo Cybersecurity. Editor-in-Chief & Co-Founder - Cyber Security News & GBHackers On Security.

API Attack Simulation Webinar

Live API Attack Simulation

In the upcoming webinar, Karthik Krishnamoorthy, CTO and Vivek Gopalan, VP of Products at Indusface demonstrate how APIs could be hacked.The session will cover:an exploit of OWASP API Top 10 vulnerability, a brute force account take-over (ATO) attack on API, a DDoS attack on an API, how a WAAP could bolster security over an API gateway

Related Articles