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Original release date: October 9, 2020
This joint cybersecurity advisory uses the MITRE Adversarial Tactics, Techniques, and Common Knowledge (ATT&CK®) framework. See the ATT&CK for Enterprise framework for all referenced threat actor techniques.
Note: the analysis in this joint cybersecurity advisory is ongoing, and the information provided should not be considered comprehensive. The Cybersecurity and Information Security Agency (CISA) will update this advisory as new information is available.
This joint cybersecurity advisory was written by CISA with contributions from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
CISA has recently observed advanced persistent threat (APT) actors exploiting multiple legacy vulnerabilities in combination with a newer privilege escalation vulnerability—CVE-2020-1472—in Windows Netlogon. The commonly used tactic, known as vulnerability chaining, exploits multiple vulnerabilities in the course of a single intrusion to compromise a network or application.
This recent malicious activity has often, but not exclusively, been directed at federal and state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) government networks. Although it does not appear these targets are being selected because of their proximity to elections information, there may be some risk to elections information housed on government networks.
CISA is aware of some instances where this activity resulted in unauthorized access to elections support systems; however, CISA has no evidence to date that integrity of elections data has been compromised. There are steps that election officials, their supporting SLTT IT staff, and vendors can take to help defend against this malicious cyber activity.
Some common tactics, techniques, and procedures used by APT actors include leveraging legacy network access and virtual private network (VPN) vulnerabilities in association with the recent critical CVE-2020-1472 Netlogon vulnerability. CISA is aware of multiple cases where the Fortinet FortiOS Secure Socket Layer (SSL) VPN vulnerability CVE-2018-13379 has been exploited to gain access to networks. To a lesser extent, CISA has also observed threat actors exploiting the MobileIron vulnerability CVE-2020-15505. While these exploits have been observed recently, this activity is ongoing and still unfolding. CISA recommends network staff and administrators review internet-facing infrastructure for vulnerabilities, including Juniper CVE-2020-1631, Pulse Secure CVE-2019-11510, Citrix NetScaler CVE-2020-19781, and Palo Alto Networks CVE-2020-2012 (this list is not considered exhaustive).
After gaining initial access, the actors exploit CVE-2020-1472 to compromise all Active Directory (AD) identity services. Actors have then been observed using legitimate remote access tools, such as VPN and Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), to access the environment with the compromised credentials. Observed activity targets multiple sectors, and is not limited to SLTT entities.
Click here for a PDF version of this report.
APT threat actors are actively leveraging legacy vulnerabilities in internet-facing infrastructure (Exploit Public-Facing Application [T1190], External Remote Services [T1133]) to gain initial access into systems. The APT actors appear to have predominately gained initial access via the Fortinet FortiOS VPN vulnerability CVE-2018-13379; however, other vulnerabilities, listed below, have been observed (as analysis is evolving, these listed vulnerabilities should not be considered comprehensive).
CVE-2018-13379 is a path traversal vulnerability in the FortiOS SSL VPN web portal. An unauthenticated attacker could exploit this vulnerability to download FortiOS system files through specially crafted HTTP resource requests.
CVE-202-15505 is a remote code execution vulnerability in MobileIron Core & Connector versions 10.3 and earlier. This vulnerability allows an external attacker, with no privileges, to execute code of their choice on the vulnerable system. As mobile device management (MDM) systems are critical to configuration management for external devices, they are usually highly permissioned and make a valuable target for threat actors.
Post initial access, the APT actors use multiple techniques to expand access to the environment. The actors are leveraging CVE-2020-1472 in Windows Netlogon to escalate privileges and obtain access to Windows AD servers. Actors are also leveraging the opensource tools such as Mimikatz and the CrackMapExec tool to obtain Valid Account [T1078] credentials from AD servers.
CVE-2020-1472 is a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows Netlogon Remote Protocol (MS-NRPC), a core authentication component of Active Directory. This vulnerability could allow an unauthenticated attacker with network access to a domain controller to completely compromise all AD identity services (Valid Accounts: Domain Accounts [T1078.002]). Malicious actors can leverage this vulnerability to compromise other devices on the network (Lateral Movement [TA0008]).
Once system access has been achieved, the APT actors use abuse of legitimate credentials (Valid Account [T1078]) to log in via VPN or Remote Access Services [T1133] to maintain persistence.
Organizations with externally facing infrastructure devices that have the vulnerabilities listed in this joint cybersecurity advisory, or other vulnerabilities, should move forward with an “assume breach” mentality. As initial exploitation and escalation may be the only observable exploitation activity, most mitigations will need to focus on more traditional network hygiene and user management activities.
Patch systems and equipment promptly and diligently. Establishing and consistently maintaining a thorough patching cycle continues to be the best defense against adversary TTPs. See table 1 for patch information on CVEs mentioned in this report.
Table 1: Patch information for exploited CVEs
Vulnerability | Vulnerable Products | Patch Information |
---|---|---|
CVE-2018-13379 |
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|
CVE-2019-19781 |
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CVE-2020-5902 |
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CVE-2020-11510 |
|
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CVE-2020-15505 |
|
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CVE-2020-1631 |
|
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CVE-2020-2021 |
|
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CVE-2020-1472 |
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If there is an observation of CVE-2020-1472 Netlogon activity or other indications of valid credential abuse detected, it should be assumed the APT actors have compromised AD administrative accounts, the AD forest should not be fully trusted, and, therefore, a new forest should be deployed. Existing hosts from the old compromised forest cannot be migrated in without being rebuilt and rejoined to the new domain, but migration may be done through “creative destruction,” wherein as endpoints in the legacy forest are decommissioned, new ones can be built in the new forest. This will need to be completed on on-premise as well as Azure hosted AD instances.
Note that fully resetting an AD forest is difficult and complex; it is best done with the assistance of personnel who have successfully completed the task previously.
It is critical to perform a full password reset on all user and computer accounts in the AD forest. Use the following steps as a guide.
krbtgt
) password; this must be completed before any additional actions and a second reset will take place in step 5krbtgt
password againkrbtgt
reset to propagate to all domain controllers (time may vary)The following accounts should be reset:
Implement the following recommendations to secure your organization’s VPNs:
Discontinue unused VPN servers. Reduce your organization’s attack surface by discontinuing unused VPN servers, which may act as a point of entry for attackers. How to protect your organization against VPN vulnerabilities:
To secure your organization’s Netlogon channel connections:
To protect your organization against this CVE, follow advice from Microsoft, including:
Recipients of this report are encouraged to contribute any additional information that they may have related to this threat.
For any questions related to this report or to report an intrusion and request resources for incident response or technical assistance, please contact:
The United States Government does not endorse any commercial product or service, including any subjects of analysis. Any reference to specific commercial products, processes, or services by service mark, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not constitute or imply their endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government.
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