Tuesday, February 11, 2025
HomeMalwareSiloscape: First Known Malware Targeting Windows Containers to Hack Cloud Environments

Siloscape: First Known Malware Targeting Windows Containers to Hack Cloud Environments

Published on

SIEM as a Service

Follow Us on Google News

Using Windows Server in a “Windows container”? Then beware of it, as recently, it has been confirmed that highly sophisticated malware has been active for over a year.

The cybersecurity researchers at Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 have recently discovered a new malware, known as, “Siloscape,” and it uses Windows containers to access Kubernetes clusters. 

Since they generally focus on Linux systems, that’s why it goes after the Windows containers that are deemed as unusual. To connect to a C2 server that is used by attackers to control the Siloscape, data filtering, and commands, the malware (Siloscape) uses a Tor proxy and an onion domain.

Technical Overview

Through server isolation and un-patched vulnerabilities, Cloudmalware.exe, it’s the malware that targets the Windows containers. After that using the different breakout techniques for Windows containers, Siloscape try to run the RCE on a container’s underlying node.

Siloscape

To steal data from the apps present on the cluster or upload cryptographers, the Siloscape will create malicious containers, but these things will be possible when it will manage to break out and establish itself in a cluster successfully.

Behaviors and techniques used

  • Exploiting the known vulnerabilities, it targets the common cloud apps for initial access like web servers.
  • To gain code execution on the underlying node and avoid the container it uses escape techniques of Windows container.
  • To spread in the cluster, it abuses the node’s credentials.
  • Over the Tor network using the IRC protocol, it connects to its C2 server.
  • While for the further commands, it usually waits.
  • Waits for further commands.

During the investigations, the researchers at Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 identified, “23 active victims and a total of 313 victims from the past year.” 

However, the security experts were expelled from the server after the operators identified them, and not only that even after their detection they also shut down the service running on the onion address.

Here, initially, the Siloscape evades the detection then it installs a backdoor on the infected system to open the gateway to exploit the negotiated cloud infrastructure to carry out malicious actions like:-

  • Theft of credentials
  • Theft of personal data
  • Ransomware attacks
  • Supply chain attacks

Apart from these things, Siloscape has a different view as compared to other malware; since the maximum number of cloud-based malware is designed to carry out DDoS attacks and mine cryptocurrencies.

Indicators of Compromise

DescriptionSHA256
Our Siloscape variant5B7A23676EE1953247A0364AC431B193E32C952CF17B205D36F800C270753FCB
unzip.exe, the unzip binary Siloscape writes to the disk81046F943D26501561612A629D8BE95AF254BC161011BA8A62D25C34C16D6D2A
tor.zip, the tor archive Silsocape writes to the disk010859BA20684AEABA986928A28E1AF219BAEBBF51B273FF47CB382987373DB7
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.

Latest articles

Hackers Exploit Valentine’s Day Domains for Sneaky Cyber Attacks

Cybercriminals are capitalizing on the season of love to launch sneaky and deceptive cyberattacks.According...

EARLYCROW: Detecting APT Malware Command and Control Activities Over HTTPS

Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) represent a sophisticated and stealthy category of cyberattacks targeting critical...

Enhanced IllusionCAPTCHA: Advanced Protection Against AI-Powered CAPTCHA Attacks

As AI technologies continue to evolve, traditional CAPTCHA systems face increasing vulnerabilities.Recent studies...

Akira Ransomware Dominates January 2025 as the Most Active Ransomware Threat

January 2025 marked a pivotal month in the ransomware landscape, with Akira emerging as...

Supply Chain Attack Prevention

Free Webinar - Supply Chain Attack Prevention

Recent attacks like Polyfill[.]io show how compromised third-party components become backdoors for hackers. PCI DSS 4.0’s Requirement 6.4.3 mandates stricter browser script controls, while Requirement 12.8 focuses on securing third-party providers.

Join Vivekanand Gopalan (VP of Products – Indusface) and Phani Deepak Akella (VP of Marketing – Indusface) as they break down these compliance requirements and share strategies to protect your applications from supply chain attacks.

Discussion points

Meeting PCI DSS 4.0 mandates.
Blocking malicious components and unauthorized JavaScript execution.
PIdentifying attack surfaces from third-party dependencies.
Preventing man-in-the-browser attacks with proactive monitoring.

More like this

EARLYCROW: Detecting APT Malware Command and Control Activities Over HTTPS

Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) represent a sophisticated and stealthy category of cyberattacks targeting critical...

FinStealer Malware Targets Leading Indian Bank’s Mobile Users, Stealing Login Credentials

A new cybersecurity threat has emerged, targeting customers of a prominent Indian bank through...

Researchers Found North Korean Hackers Advanced Tactics, techniques, and procedures

Recent research has highlighted the increasingly sophisticated tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) employed by...