This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Mozilla has released security updates to address vulnerabilities in Thunderbird, Firefox ESR, and Firefox. An attacker could exploit these vulnerabilities to cause user confusion or conduct spoofing attacks.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
From mid-June through mid-July 2022, CISA conducted an incident response engagement at a Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) organization where CISA observed suspected advanced persistent threat (APT) activity. In the course of incident response activities, CISA determined that cyber threat actors exploited the Log4Shell vulnerability in an unpatched VMware Horizon server, installed XMRig crypto mining software, moved laterally to the domain controller (DC), compromised credentials, and then implanted Ngrok reverse proxies on several hosts to maintain persistence. CISA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) assess that the FCEB network was compromised by Iranian government-sponsored APT actors.
CISA and FBI are releasing this Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) providing the suspected Iranian government-sponsored actors’ tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) and indicators of compromise (IOCs) to help network defenders detect and protect against related compromises.
CISA and FBI encourage all organizations with affected VMware systems that did not immediately apply available patches or workarounds to assume compromise and initiate threat hunting activities. If suspected initial access or compromise is detected based on IOCs or TTPs described in this CSA, CISA and FBI encourage organizations to assume lateral movement by threat actors, investigate connected systems (including the DC), and audit privileged accounts. All organizations, regardless of identified evidence of compromise, should apply the recommendations in the Mitigations section of this CSA to protect against similar malicious cyber activity.
Download the PDF version of this report: pdf, 528 kb.
For a downloadable copy of the Malware Analysis Report (MAR) accompanying this report, see: MAR 10387061-1.v1.
Note: This advisory uses the MITRE ATT&CK for Enterprise framework, version 11. See the MITRE ATT&CK Tactics and Techniques section for a table of the threat actors’ activity mapped to MITRE ATT&CK® tactics and techniques with corresponding mitigation and/or detection recommendations.
Overview
In April 2022, CISA conducted retrospective analysis using EINSTEIN—an FCEB-wide intrusion detection system (IDS) operated and monitored by CISA—and identified suspected APT activity on an FCEB organization’s network. CISA observed bi-directional traffic between the network and a known malicious IP address associated with exploitation of the Log4Shell vulnerability (CVE-2021-44228) in VMware Horizon servers. In coordination with the FCEB organization, CISA initiated threat hunting incident response activities; however, prior to deploying an incident response team, CISA observed additional suspected APT activity. Specifically, CISA observed HTTPS activity from IP address 51.89.181[.]64 to the organization’s VMware server. Based on trusted third-party reporting, 51.89.181[.]64 is a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server associated with threat actors exploiting Log4Shell. Following HTTPS activity, CISA observed a suspected LDAP callback on port 443 to this IP address. CISA also observed a DNS query for us‐nation‐ny[.]cf that resolved back to 51.89.181[.]64 when the victim server was returning this Log4Shell LDAP callback to the actors’ server.
CISA assessed that this traffic indicated a confirmed compromise based on the successful callback to the indicator and informed the organization of these findings; the organization investigated the activity and found signs of compromise. As trusted-third party reporting associated Log4Shell activity from 51.89.181[.]64 with lateral movement and targeting of DCs, CISA suspected the threat actors had moved laterally and compromised the organization’s DC.
From mid-June through mid-July 2022, CISA conducted an onsite incident response engagement and determined that the organization was compromised as early as February 2022, by likely Iranian government-sponsored APT actors who installed XMRig crypto mining software. The threat actors also moved laterally to the domain controller, compromised credentials, and implanted Ngrok reverse proxies.
Threat Actor Activity
In February 2022, the threat actors exploited Log4Shell [T1190] for initial access [TA0001] to the organization’s unpatched VMware Horizon server. As part of their initial exploitation, CISA observed a connection to known malicious IP address 182.54.217[.]2 lasting 17.6 seconds.
The actors’ exploit payload ran the following PowerShell command [T1059.001] that added an exclusion tool to Windows Defender [T1562.001]:
powershell try{Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath ‘C:’; Write-Host ‘added-exclusion’} catch {Write-Host ‘adding-exclusion-failed’ }; powershell -enc “$BASE64 encoded payload to download next stage and execute it”
The exclusion tool allowlisted the entire c:drive, enabling threat actors to download tools to the c:drive without virus scans. The exploit payload then downloaded mdeploy.text from 182.54.217[.]2/mdepoy.txt to C:userspublicmde.ps1 [T1105]. When executed, mde.ps1 downloaded file.zip from 182.54.217[.]2 and removed mde.ps1 from the disk [T1070.004].
file.zip contained XMRig cryptocurrency mining software and associated configuration files.
WinRing0x64.sys – XMRig Miner driver
wuacltservice.exe – XMRig Miner
config.json – XMRig miner configuration
RuntimeBroker.exe – Associated file. This file can create a local user account [T1136.001] and tests for internet connectivity by pinging 8.8.8.8 [T1016.001]. The exploit payload created a Scheduled Task [T1053.005] that executed RuntimeBroker.exe daily as SYSTEM. Note: By exploiting Log4Shell, the actors gained access to a VMware service account with administrator and system level access. The Scheduled Task was named RuntimeBrokerService.exe to masquerade as a legitimate Windows task.
See MAR 10387061-1.v1 for additional information, including IOCs, on these four files.
After obtaining initial access and installing XMRig on the VMWare Horizon server, the actors used RDP [T1021.001] and the built-in Windows user account DefaultAccount [T1078.001] to move laterally [TA0008] to a VMware VDI-KMS host. Once the threat actor established themselves on the VDI-KMS host, CISA observed the actors download around 30 megabytes of files from transfer[.]sh server associated with 144.76.136[.]153. The actors downloaded the following tools:
PsExec – a Microsoft signed tool for system administrators.
Ngrok – a reverse proxy tool for proxying an internal service out onto an Ngrok domain, which the user can then access at a randomly generated subdomain at *.ngrok[.]io. CISA has observed this tool in use by some commercial products for benign purposes; however, this process bypasses typical firewall controls and may be a potentially unwanted application in production environments. Ngrok is known to be used for malicious purposes.[1]
The threat actors then executed Mimikatz on VDI-KMS to harvest credentials and created a rogue domain administrator account [T1136.002]. Using the newly created account, the actors leveraged RDP to propagate to several hosts within the network. Upon logging into each host, the actors manually disabled Windows Defender via the Graphical User Interface (GUI) and implanted Ngrok executables and configuration files. The threat actors were able to implant Ngrok on multiple hosts to ensure Ngrok’s persistence should they lose access to a machine during a routine reboot. The actors were able to proxy [T1090] RDP sessions, which were only observable on the local network as outgoing HTTPS port 443 connections to tunnel.us.ngrok[.]com and korgn.su.lennut[.]com (the prior domain in reverse). It is possible, but was not observed, that the threat actors configured a custom domain, or used other Ngrok tunnel domains, wildcarded here as *.ngrok[.]com, *.ngrok[.]io, ngrok.*.tunnel[.]com, or korgn.*.lennut[.]com.
Once the threat actors established a deep foothold in the network and moved laterally to the domain controller, they executed the following PowerShell command on the Active Directory to obtain a list of all machines attached to the domain [T1018]:
The threat actors also changed the password for the local administrator account [T1098] on several hosts as a backup should the rogue domain administrator account get detected and terminated. Additionally, the threat actor was observed attempting to dump the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS) process [T1003.001] with task manager but this was stopped by additional anti-virus the FCEB organization had installed.
MITRE ATT&CK TACTICS AND TECHNIQUES
See table 1 for all referenced threat actor tactics and techniques in this advisory, as well as corresponding detection and/or mitigation recommendations. For additional mitigations, see the Mitigations section.
Table 1: Cyber Threat Actors ATT&CK Techniques for Enterprise
The actors exploited Log4Shell for initial access to the organization’s VMware Horizon server.
Mitigation/Detection: Use a firewall or web-application firewall and enable logging to prevent and detect potential Log4Shell exploitation attempts [M1050].
Mitigation: Perform regular vulnerability scanning to detect Log4J vulnerabilities and update Log4J software using vendor provided patches [M1016],[M1051].
The actors changed the password for the local administrator account on several hosts.
Mitigation: Use multifactor authentication for user and privileged accounts [M1032].
Detection: Monitor events for changes to account objects and/or permissions on systems and the domain, such as event IDs 4738, 4728, and 4670. Monitor for modification of accounts in correlation with other suspicious activity [DS0002].
The actors’ malware can create local user accounts.
Mitigation: Configure access controls and firewalls to limit access to domain controllers and systems used to create and manage accounts.
Detection: Monitor executed commands and arguments for actions that are associated with local account creation, such as net user /add , useradd, and dscl -create [DS0017].
Detection: Enable logging for new user creation [DS0002].
The actors’ exploit payload created Scheduled Task RuntimeBrokerService.exe, which executed RuntimeBroker.exe daily as SYSTEM.
Mitigation: Configure settings for scheduled tasks to force tasks to run under the context of the authenticated account instead of allowing them to run as SYSTEM [M1028].
Detection: Monitor for newly constructed processes and/or command-lines that execute from the svchost.exe in Windows 10 and the Windows Task Scheduler taskeng.exe for older versions of Windows [DS0009]
Detection: Monitor for newly constructed scheduled jobs by enabling the Microsoft-Windows-TaskScheduler/Operational setting within the event logging service [DS0003].
The actors added an exclusion tool to Windows Defender. The tool allowlisted the entire c:drive, enabling the actors to bypass virus scans for tools they downloaded to the c:drive.
The actors manually disabled Windows Defender via the GUI.
Mitigation: Ensure proper user permissions are in place to prevent adversaries from disabling or interfering with security services. [M1018].
Detection: Monitor for changes made to Windows Registry keys and/or values related to services and startup programs that correspond to security tools such as HKLM:SOFTWAREPoliciesMicrosoftWindows Defender [DS0024].
Detection: Monitor for telemetry that provides context for modification or deletion of information related to security software processes or services such as Windows Defender definition files in Windows and System log files in Linux [DS0013].
Detection: Monitor processes for unexpected termination related to security tools/services [DS0009].
The actors were observed trying to dump LSASS process.
Mitigation: With Windows 10, Microsoft implemented new protections called Credential Guard to protect the LSA secrets that can be used to obtain credentials through forms of credential dumping [M1043]
Mitigation: On Windows 10, enable Attack Surface Reduction (ASR) rules to secure LSASS and prevent credential stealing [M1040].
Mitigation: Ensure that local administrator accounts have complex, unique passwords across all systems on the network [M1027].
Detection: Monitor for unexpected processes interacting with LSASS.exe. Common credential dumpers such as Mimikatz access LSASS.exe by opening the process, locating the LSA secrets key, and decrypting the sections in memory where credential details are stored. [DS0009].
Detection: Monitor executed commands and arguments that may attempt to access credential material stored in the process memory of the LSASS [DS0017].
Mitigation: Organizations may consider weighing the risk of storing credentials in password stores and web browsers. If system, software, or web browser credential disclosure is a significant concern, technical controls, policy, and user training may be used to prevent storage of credentials in improper locations [M1027].
Detection: Monitor for processes being accessed that may search for common password storage locations to obtain user credentials [DS0009].
Detection: Monitor executed commands and arguments that may search for common password storage locations to obtain user credentials [DS0017].
The actors executed a PowerShell command on the AD to obtain a list of all machines attached to the domain.
Detection: Monitor executed commands and arguments that may attempt to get a listing of other systems by IP address, hostname, or other logical identifier on a network that may be used for lateral movement [DS0017].
Detection: Monitor for newly constructed network connections associated with pings/scans that may attempt to get a listing of other systems by IP address, hostname, or other logical identifier on a network that may be used for lateral movement [DS0029].
Detection: Monitor for newly executed processes that can be used to discover remote systems, such as ping.exe and tracert.exe, especially when executed in quick succession [DS0009].
System Network Configuration Discovery: Internet Connection Discovery
The actors’ malware tests for internet connectivity by pinging 8.8.8.8.
Mitigation: Monitor executed commands, arguments [DS0017] and executed processes (e.g., tracert or ping) [DS0009] that may check for internet connectivity on compromised systems.
Mitigation: Disable the RDP service if it is unnecessary [M1042].
Mitigation: Do not leave RDP accessible from the internet. Enable firewall rules to block RDP traffic between network security zones within a network [M1030].
Mitigation: Consider removing the local Administrators group from the list of groups allowed to log in through RDP [M1026].
Detection: Monitor for user accounts logged into systems associated with RDP (ex: Windows EID 4624 Logon Type 10). Other factors, such as access patterns (ex: multiple systems over a relatively short period of time) and activity that occurs after a remote login, may indicate suspicious or malicious behavior with RDP [DS0028].
The actors used Ngrok to proxy RDP connections and to perform command and control.
Mitigation: Traffic to known anonymity networks and C2 infrastructure can be blocked through the use of network allow and block lists [M1037].
Detection: Monitor and analyze traffic patterns and packet inspection associated to protocol(s) that do not follow the expected protocol standards and traffic flows (e.g., extraneous packets that do not belong to established flows, gratuitous or anomalous traffic patterns, anomalous syntax, or structure) [DS0029].
The actors downloaded malware and multiple tools to the network, including PsExec, Mimikatz, and Ngrok.
Mitigation: Employ anti-malware to automatically detect and quarantine malicious scripts [M1049].
INCIDENT RESPONSE
If suspected initial access or compromise is detected based on IOCs or TTPs in this CSA, CISA encourages organizations to assume lateral movement by threat actors and investigate connected systems and the DC.
CISA recommends organizations apply the following steps before applying any mitigations, including patching.
Immediately isolate affected systems.
Collect and review relevant logs, data, and artifacts. Take a memory capture of the device(s) and a forensic image capture for detailed analysis.
Consider soliciting support from a third-party incident response organization that can provide subject matter expertise to ensure the actor is eradicated from the network and to avoid residual issues that could enable follow-on exploitation.
CISA and FBI recommend implementing the mitigations below and in Table 1 to improve your organization’s cybersecurity posture on the basis of threat actor behaviors.
Install updated builds to ensure affected VMware Horizon and UAG systems are updated to the latest version.
If updates or workarounds were not promptly applied following VMware’s release of updates for Log4Shell in December 2021, treat those VMware Horizon systems as compromised. Follow the pro-active incident response procedures outlined above prior to applying updates. If no compromise is detected, apply these updates as soon as possible.
Note: Until the update is fully implemented, consider removing vulnerable components from the internet to limit the scope of traffic. While installing the updates, ensure network perimeter access controls are as restrictive as possible.
If upgrading is not immediately feasible, see KB87073 and KB87092 for vendor-provided temporary workarounds. Implement temporary solutions using an account with administrative privileges. Note that these temporary solutions should not be treated as permanent fixes; vulnerable components should be upgraded to the latest build as soon as possible.
Prior to implementing any temporary solution, ensure appropriate backups have been completed.
Verify successful implementation of mitigations by executing the vendor supplied script Horizon_Windows_Log4j_Mitigations.zip without parameters to ensure that no vulnerabilities remain. See KB87073 for details.
Minimize the internet-facing attack surface by hosting essential services on a segregated DMZ, ensuring strict network perimeter access controls, and not hosting internet-facing services that are not essential to business operations. Where possible, implement regularly updated web application firewalls (WAF) in front of public-facing services. WAFs can protect against web-based exploitation using signatures and heuristics that are likely to block or alert on malicious traffic.
Use best practices for identity and access management (IAM) by implementing phishing resistant multifactor authentication (MFA), enforcing use of strong passwords, regularly auditing administrator accounts and permissions, and limiting user access through the principle of least privilege. Disable inactive accounts uniformly across the AD, MFA systems, etc.
If using Windows 10 version 1607 or Windows Server 2016 or later, monitor or disable Windows DefaultAccount, also known as the Default System Managed Account (DSMA).
Audit domain controllers to log successful Kerberos Ticket Granting Service (TGS) requests and ensure the events are monitored for anomalous activity.
Secure accounts.
Enforce the principle of least privilege. Administrator accounts should have the minimum permission necessary to complete their tasks.
Ensure there are unique and distinct administrative accounts for each set of administrative tasks.
Create non-privileged accounts for privileged users and ensure they use the non-privileged accounts for all non-privileged access (e.g., web browsing, email access).
Create a deny list of known compromised credentials and prevent users from using known-compromised passwords.
Secure credentials by restricting where accounts and credentials can be used and by using local device credential protection features.
Use virtualizing solutions on modern hardware and software to ensure credentials are securely stored.
Ensure storage of clear text passwords in LSASS memory is disabled. Note: For Windows 8, this is enabled by default. For more information see Microsoft Security Advisory Update to Improve Credentials Protection and Management.
Consider disabling or limiting NTLM and WDigest Authentication.
Implement Credential Guard for Windows 10 and Server 2016 (refer to Microsoft: Manage Windows Defender Credential Guard for more information). For Windows Server 2012R2, enable Protected Process Light for Local Security Authority (LSA).
Minimize the AD attack surface to reduce malicious ticket-granting activity. Malicious activity such as “Kerberoasting” takes advantage of Kerberos’ TGS and can be used to obtain hashed credentials that threat actors attempt to crack.
VALIDATE SECURITY CONTROLS
In addition to applying mitigations, CISA and FBI recommend exercising, testing, and validating your organization’s security program against the threat behaviors mapped to the MITRE ATT&CK for Enterprise framework in this advisory. CISA and FBI recommend testing your existing security controls inventory to assess how they perform against the ATT&CK techniques described in this advisory.
To get started:
Select an ATT&CK technique described in this advisory (see table 1).
Align your security technologies against the technique.
Test your technologies against the technique.
Analyze your detection and prevention technologies performance.
Repeat the process for all security technologies to obtain a set of comprehensive performance data.
Tune your security program, including people, processes, and technologies, based on the data generated by this process.
CISA and FBI recommend continually testing your security program, at scale, in a production environment to ensure optimal performance against the MITRE ATT&CK techniques identified in this advisory.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Managers everywhere are struggling to find solutions to building trust, teamwork, and improving morale within their organization. Many are turning to games for help.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Traditionally, warehouse workers pack items for shipment at a specific packing station, using a process that’s optimized to ship small and medium-sized parcels. To improve packing efficiency when working in larger areas and with larger items, the Warehouse Management mobile app in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management now provides a mobile packing experience that gives workers the freedom to move around while performing packing activities.
Flexibility improves packing efficiency
The packing flow in the Warehouse Management mobile app includes three main processes:
Identifying the items to pack
Creating and identifying the containers to pack the items into
Closing the containers to finalize the packing process
To provide for more flexibility, you can easily embed the container creation and closing processes in any packing operation step using a detour. The same applies to look-up requirements (for example, when not able to scan an item barcode label) by querying data using mobile app detours.
To improve packing efficiency even more, you can configure the packing process to automatically print a container label from the mobile app. Workers can apply the label to the container to ease the packing validation process when they are packing items into the container.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
In the world of hybrid work, ensuring all participants feel included and can contribute their ideas in an effective and visual way is incredibly important. A successful meeting not only invites all participants but provides everyone with the tools to contribute to the conversation. For your next Microsoft Teams meeting, you can lead more visually engaging discussions that hit your objectives before, during, and after the meeting by using Microsoft Whiteboard. With new innovations in Whiteboard, you can feel empowered to create a strong and productive meeting – together.
Before the meeting
Quickly set up your whiteboard with discussion objectives using one of the 60+ Whiteboard templates. Whether you’re leading a discussion for brainstorming, problem solving, or team bonding, you can easily use template search in the create panel. Template search will be generally available for Microsoft 365 commercial users in December 2022.
Looking to enhance your meeting whiteboard? Embedded online videos and links can add visual richness and make your meeting more dynamic. Avoid fussing with tab and window switching that interrupts the flow of a meeting by including supplemental videos directly on the whiteboard with embedded online videos. Embedded online videos and links is now generally available for Microsoft 365 commercial users.
An image of a user embedding a YouTube video and website link onto the whiteboard from the create panel in Whiteboard.
During the meeting
Engaging your participants from the moment they join the meeting is easy. Pull up the whiteboard you prepared earlier by using open existing board in Teams meetings, and your meeting is already off to a great start. Open existing board in Teams meetings is now generally available for Microsoft 365 commercial users.
Provide time for individual participants to brainstorm for inclusive discussions with timer in Whiteboard. Create focus, stay on-task, and keep your meeting moving by setting a timer for agenda activities. Timer will be generally available for Microsoft 365 commercial users early next calendar year.
Invite users on a whiteboard to follow your viewpoint as you navigate through the board for a more visually guided discussion. The facilitator originally locates the follow feature by selecting their profile picture in the Whiteboard roster. When follow is activated, a participant can pause following the facilitator to continue to move through and contribute to the board on their own. With just one click, the participant can resume follow to get back to where the facilitator is at any time. Microsoft Teams Rooms devices will also be enhanced with automatic follow sessions, bringing greater flexibility for you in the conference room for hybrid work. Follow will start rolling out to Microsoft 365 users with a work account by the end of the calendar year.[1]
Enhance the look and legibility of your whiteboard with automatic resizing of text inside sticky notes so you can add more lines of text without needing to scroll. Text inside sticky notes now also automatically scales in text size as you resize the sticky note, increasing legibility, even at lower zoom levels. Finally, text formatting features like bold, italics and underlining, as well as a new, more professional default font, help emphasize your fresh ideas across notes, text boxes, and shapes. For Microsoft 365 commercial users, auto-resize text in notes is now generally available and text formatting will be rolling out to general availability by the end of the calendar year.
An image displaying sticky notes that automatically resize the font with amount of text and text formatting options on Whiteboard.
Create collaborative relationships by knowing who is contributing notes and feedback with sticky note attribution. Sticky note attribution will start rolling out to Microsoft 365 commercial users by the end of the calendar year.
Whiteboard is a new Microsoft Loop endpoint, enabling you to copy and paste Loop components into Whiteboard from Teams chat and soon from Outlook mail and Word for the web. Loop components in Whiteboard help your team continue adding information to lists, tables and more while they brainstorm in Whiteboard. Changes made in Loop components in Whiteboard will stay in sync across all the places the component has been shared, ensuring everyone has the latest info. Copy and paste Loop components in Whiteboard will start rolling out to be generally available for Microsoft 365 commercial users in the coming months.
After the meeting
The collaboration doesn’t have to end after a synchronous meeting! The whiteboard you and your participants collaborated on can be accessed in the Teams chat under the Whiteboard tab. With the ease of Whiteboard integration in Teams, you and your participants can continue collaborating on the same whiteboard asynchronously. For your next synchronous meeting, start again with open existing Whiteboard in Teams Meetings and show the progress of iterative collaboration in between meetings.
An image demonstrating a magnifier window showcasing the Whiteboard tab in a Teams chat.
With comments you can share your thoughts, celebrate with your teammates, or just have a conversation. You can create an anchored comment that will stay connected to the content being shared, keeping things simple and effective, while comment bubbles help you understand the sentiment and find areas where there is more discussion on the content. Commenting will start rolling out to Microsoft 365 commercial users by the end of the calendar year.
We hear from customers every day that while the future of work may be evolving, one thing remains clear—it’s never been more important for people to be able to collaborate effectively wherever and whenever. We continue to be committed and focused to meet this need, so both remote and in-person attendees can visually collaborate across the same digital canvas. To get started, try Whiteboard today.
Did you know? The Microsoft 365 Roadmap is where you can get the latest updates on productivity apps and intelligent cloud services. Check out what features are in development or coming soon on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap,or view Microsoft Whiteboard roadmap items here.
Footnotes
[1] Follow will not be generally available for school accounts.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
CISA released one Industrial Control Systems (ICS) advisory on November 15, 2022. This advisory provides timely information about current security issues, vulnerabilities, and exploits surrounding ICS.
CISA encourages users and administrators to review the newly released ICS advisory for technical details and mitigations:
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