Researchers Found RedXOR Malware Linked to Chinese Hackers

Security researchers at Intezer have recently discovered malware that has been continuously targeting Linux endpoints and servers.

Apart from this, the malware that has been detected by the security analysts of Intezer has been dubbed as “RedXOR”, and they affirmed that it’s a backdoor that is masquerading as a Polkit daemon.

In this malware, there have been some similarities that have been found between the malware, those beforehand connected with the Winnti Umbrella (or Axiom) threat group like ​PWNLNX, Groundhog, and ​XOR.DDOS​.

This Linux malware is quite different from others, and it is continuously spreading and recurring frequently.

The cybersecurity experts have already found two samples of the malware on VirusTotal, that were uploaded from Taiwan and Indonesia, and consider the campaign is still running. 

RedXOR linked to Chinese Hackers

The investigators believe and concluded that RedXOR is being managed by a group of threat actors that are directly appended to the Chinese government, after investigating this whole malware campaign.

However, there are some key similarities with former malware and botnets that were used by Winnti Group, or APT 41, a threat group that is directly linked with the Chinese intelligence services along with an affinity for targeting industries that are quite important to Beijing. 

Rather than that the experts are trying their best to know each and every key details and link that are connected with the Chinese government.

Last Decade of Linux APT Attacks

These APT attacks are increasing rapidly nowadays, and earlier the security researchers have detected various APT campaigns that were continuously targeting Linux systems, as well as unique Linux malware tools which are customized for surveillance operations.

Most of these operations and tools have been assigned to well-known APTs, and later they continue to expand their arsenal along with new tools to target Linux, not only this it also updates following detected occurrences.

Does your Malware Support Linux?

There is the majority of malware that has been used in these attacks, and the malware was both full-featured and ported to Linux straight from Windows malware. Conjointly, nowadays it’s becoming quite obvious to see the Linux malware.

Moreover, the IT security personnel are currently focusing on increasing the visibility of Linux systems, while keeping in mind that if any user wants to discover Linux threats then they will need a security solution that was designed to protect Linux OS.

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