Thousands of Magento stores compromised by hackers to steal credit card numbers and to install the malware that mines cryptocurrency.
Hackers gained access to the stores that use default Magento credentials via brute force attacks. Once they had access to the Magento store attackers injects malicious scripts in the pages where the payment data is processed. By injecting the scripts into pages they can intercept and redirect data to attackers server.
Security researchers from Flashpoint said, “attackers at least compromised 1,000 of Magento admin panels and said that interest in the platform has continued unabated on entry-level and top-tier Deep & Dark Web forums since 2016″.
The infection begins with the installation data-stealing malware AZORult and then it continues to download additional malware Rarog cryptocurrency miner.
Rarog cryptocurrency miner primarily focussed on mining Monero and it was first noticed in Russian dark market forums in June 2017.
Security researchers from Palo Alto Networks observed more than 2,500 unique Rarog malware samples and they are connecting to 161 C&C servers around the world. More than 166,000 Rarog-related infections detected worldwide.
Among the thousands of Magento stores compromised, most of them are from education and healthcare industries that are located in the United States and Europe.
Flashpoint says the rash of attacks resurrects the epidemic of default credential usage among admins. Magento admins are recommended to change default credentials and to implement brute force attack prevention measures.
Magento store admins can follow the recommendations suggested by Magento Security team to mitigate the brute force attacks.