FortiGuard Outbreak Alerts
Tactical steps to mitigate the latest cybersecurity attacks
When a cybersecurity incident/attack/event occurs that has large ramifications to the cybersecurity industry and affects numerous organizations, FortiGuard Outbreak Alerts will be the mechanism for communicating important information to Fortinet's customers and partners. These Outbreak Alerts will help you understand what happened, the technical details of the attack and how organizations can protect themselves from the attack and others like it.
The Alert will include:
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When a cybersecurity attack with large ramifications affects numerous organizations, FortiGuard Outbreak Alerts are here to help you understand what happened, learn the technical details of the attack, and how you can protect yourself now and in the future.
What is ConnectWise ScreenConnect Attack?
Threat actors including ransomware gangs are seen exploiting newly discovered critical flaws in remote monitoring and management software called ScreenConnect. The first flaw, CVE-2024-1709 is an authentication bypass vulnerability that could let attackers gain administrative access to a ScreenConnect instance. The second flaw tracked as CVE-2024-1708 is a path traversal vulnerability that may allow an attacker to execute remote code. Read more
This widely used software could pose a significant threat to hundreds of thousands of end users' systems that could be targeted downstream and can allow hackers to remotely plant malicious code on vulnerable ConnectWise instances.
An Outbreak Alert report is posted on the FortiGuard Labs website, it provides details on all the FortiGuard services that provide detection and protection, as well as how to respond, recover, and identify the attack. Read less
What is Ivanti Connect Secure and Policy Secure Attack?
Ivanti disclosed two zero-day vulnerabilities in their Ivanti Connect Secure (ICS) and Ivanti Policy Secure gateways. CVE-2023-46805 is a vulnerability found in the web component of Ivanti Connect Secure (9.x, 22.x) and Ivanti Policy Secure. This authentication bypass vulnerability allows a remote attacker to access restricted resources by bypassing control checks. While CVE-2024-21887 is a command injection vulnerability in the same web components. Read more
The CVE-2023-46805 and CVE-2024-21887 vulnerabilities are coupled together to perform exploitation on servers running on the Ivanti software. The attack does not require authentication and enables a threat actor to send malicious requests and execute arbitrary commands on the system for further exploitation. FortiGuard Labs has observed high exploitation attempts since the release of the signature to detect and block the Ivanti ICS Authentication Bypass vulnerability (CVE-2023-46805). FortiGuard Labs recommends administrators to follow vendor’s mitigation steps and apply patches as soon as they are provided.
An Outbreak Alert report is posted on the FortiGuard Labs website, it provides details on all the FortiGuard services that provide detection and protection, as well as how to respond, recover, and identify the attack. Read less
What is Androxgh0st Malware Attack?
FortiGuard Labs continue to observe widespread activity of Androxgh0st Malware in the wild exploiting multiple vulnerabilities, specifically targeting- the PHPUnit (CVE-2017-9841), Laravel Framework (CVE-2018-15133) and Apache Web Server (CVE-2021-41773) to spread and conduct information gathering attacks on the target networks. Read more
AndroxGh0st malware is a python-based malware, which primarily targets user environment (.env) files. These files may contain credentials for various high-profile applications such as AWS, O365, SendGrid, and Twilio. AndroxGh0st has numerous malicious functions to abuse SMTP, scan and exploit exposed credentials and APIs, and deploy web shell to maintain persistent access to systems.
An Outbreak Alert report is posted on the FortiGuard Labs website, it provides details on all the FortiGuard services that provide detection and protection, as well as how to respond, recover, and identify the attack. Read less
What is Adobe ColdFusion Access Control Bypass Attack?
FortiGuard labs observed extremely widespread exploitation attempts relating to security bypass vulnerabilities in Adobe ColdFusion. With IPS detections reaching up- to 50,000+ unique detections in January 2024. Read more
The vulnerabilities (CVE-2023-26347, CVE-2023-38205, CVE-2023-29298) allow an attacker to bypass the Secure Profile feature that restricts external access to the ColdFusion Administrator. Successful exploitation could result in access to the ColdFusion Administration endpoints and attackers could further exploit and chain CVE-2023-38203 to achieve remote code execution attacks.
An Outbreak Alert report is posted on the FortiGuard Labs website, it provides details on all the FortiGuard services that provide detection and protection, as well as how to respond, recover, and identify the attack. Read less
What is Microsoft SharePoint Server Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability?
The vulnerability tracked under CVE-2023-29357 is an authentication bypass vulnerability that adversaries may use to escalate privileges on affected installations of Microsoft SharePoint Server. Attackers may chain the vulnerability with other vulnerabilities for remote code execution to compromise the integrity, availability, and confidentiality of the target system. Read more
Microsoft SharePoint Server vulnerability (CVE-2023-29357) is actively being exploited. FortiGuard labs telemetry shows Government, Telco and Education industries being targeted. Due to the availability of the Proof of Concept (PoC) publicly and active exploitation attempts. FortiGuard Labs recommends users to apply patches to vulnerable systems as soon as possible.
An Outbreak Alert report is posted on the FortiGuard Labs website, it provides details on all the FortiGuard services that provide detection and protection, as well as how to respond, recover, and identify the attack. Read less
What is JetBrains TeamCity Authentication Bypass Attack?
Multiple threat actors are seen exploiting the authentication bypass flaw in JetBrains TeamCity that could lead to remote code execution. If compromised, access to a TeamCity server would provide malicious actors with access to that software developer’s source code, signing certificates, and the ability to subvert software compilation and deployment processes—access a malicious actor could further use to conduct supply chain operations. Read more
In the recent threat research by FortiGuard Labs, it was discovered that APT29 was seen exploiting CVE-2023-42793. The behavior of the malware used in post-exploitation matches the Graphical Proton malware used by APT29. The attack was through the exploitation of the CVE-2023-42793 TeamCity vulnerability using a custom-built exploit script written in Python.
An Outbreak Alert report is posted on the FortiGuard Labs website, it provides details on all the FortiGuard services that provide detection and protection, as well as how to respond, recover, and identify the attack. Read less
What is Lazarus RAT Attack?
A new attack campaign led by the Lazarus threat actor group is seen employing new DLang-based Remote Access Trojan (RAT) malware. The attack attempts to exploit the Apache Log4j2 vulnerability (CVE-2021-44228) as initial access. Once compromised, it eventually creates a command and control (C2) channel. Read more
According to the FortiGuard telemetry, there is a significant increased activity in the IPS detection of up-to 65,000+ unique IPS devices in December. However, this particular campaign is just one of the instances where threat actors are still actively targeting the Log4j2 vulnerability and using it as an initial access due to its widespread usage. In this case, the APT actors were seen implanting Remote Access Trojan (RAT) malware on the infected systems and its activities commonly include establishing remote access connections, capturing keyboard input, collecting system information, downloading/uploading files, running/terminating processes etc.
An Outbreak Alert report is posted on the FortiGuard Labs website, it provides details on all the FortiGuard services that provide detection and protection, as well as how to respond, recover, and identify the attack. Read less
What is Apache ActiveMQ Ransomware Attack?
Ransomware attackers are targeting servers running outdated and vulnerable versions of Apache ActiveMQ by exploiting a recently fixed vulnerability (CVE-2023-46604). Read more
CVE-2023-46604 is an unauthenticated deserialization vulnerability in ActiveMQ's OpenWire transport connector. Successful exploitation allows an attacker to execute arbitrary code with the same privileges of the ActiveMQ server. As technical details on exploiting CVE-2023-46604 are publicly available, applying the security updates should be prioritized.
An Outbreak Alert report is posted on the FortiGuard Labs website, it provides details on all the FortiGuard services that provide detection and protection, as well as how to respond, recover, and identify the attack. Read less
What is Citrix Bleed Attack?
The Citrix Bleed Attack targets the Citrix NetScaler Application Delivery Controller and NetScaler Gateway appliances. The attack exploits a buffer overflow vulnerability that can result in a takeover of legitimate user sessions on the appliances. The session takeover bypasses password and multi-factor authentication. Read more
The exploitation could allow threat actors the ability to hijack existing authenticated sessions, allowing them to bypass multifactor authentication (MFA). FortiGuard has blocked a thousand attack attempts on network devices on a daily basis.
An Outbreak Alert report is posted on the FortiGuard Labs website, it provides details on all the FortiGuard services that provide detection and protection, as well as how to respond, recover, and identify the attack. Read less
What is Cisco IOS XE Web UI Vulnerability?
A newly identified vulnerability on the Web UI of the Cisco IOS XE is exploited in the wild. It is a privilege escalation vulnerability tracked under CVE-2023-20198. Read more
The vulnerability targets the Web UI of the Cisco IOS XE devices. The exploitation could allow a remote, unauthenticated attacker to create an administrative account on the affected system. The attacker can then use that account to gain control of the whole system, install a backdoor to the device and further infiltrate the network.
An Outbreak Alert report is posted on the FortiGuard Labs website, it provides details on all the FortiGuard services that provide detection and protection, as well as how to respond, recover, and identify the attack. Read less
What is HTTP/2 Rapid Reset Attack?
A newly identified Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack technique is used in the wild. This DDoS attack, known as ‘HTTP/2 Rapid Reset’, leverages a flaw in the implementation of protocol HTTP/2. Read more
This HTTP/2 vulnerability allows malicious actors to launch a DDoS attack targeting HTTP/2 servers. The attack sends a set number of HTTP requests, to generate a high volume of traffic on the targeted HTTP/2 servers. Attackers can cause a significant increase in the request per second and high CPU utilization on the servers that eventually can cause resource exhaustion.
The maliciously crafted request to the server is detected by the FortiGuard IPS and Client Application Firewall as an attack attempt to exploit the vulnerability.
The Web servers running the vulnerable version of HTTP/2 is detected by the Endpoint Vulnerability to provide visibility on attack surface.
FortiGuard recommends using application layer protection service such as Web Application Firewall (WAF) by FortiWeb to protect web applications against network attacks and using Application Delivery service by FortiADC for load balancing and generally improving security posture.
Additionally, FortiWeb customers should use HTTP Protocol Constraints to define/reduce the max number of requests per client. See the instruction listed on this article.
To detect and respond to the attack, FortiAnalyzer via the FortiGuard Outbreak Detection service provides automatic event handler and reports.
An Outbreak Alert report is posted on the FortiGuard Labs website, it provides details on all the FortiGuard services that provide detection and protection, as well as how to respond, recover, and identify the attack. Read less
The vulnerability is exploited via a crafted image in WebP file-format on popular browsers and applications. A successful exploitation can impact the affected applications to crash or lead to arbitrary code execution.
An Outbreak Alert report is posted on the FortiGuard Labs website that provides details on all the FortiGuard services that provide detection and protection, as well as how to respond, recover, and identify the attack. Read less
The Agent Tesla malware attack is initiated through a phishing email with an attached Microsoft Office file. The attached file is crafted to exploit a vulnerability and execute malicious code. The code subsequently downloads additional malware that contains the payload to specifically steal saved credentials, log keystrokes, and take screenshots of the desktop.
An Outbreak Alert report is posted on the FortiGuard Labs website that provides details on all the FortiGuard services that provide detection and protection, as well as how to respond, recover, and identify the attack. You can also read the blog for a comprehensive technical analysis of the malware attack. Read less
What is Adobe ColdFusion Deserialization of Untrusted Data Vulnerabilities?
Adobe ColdFusion is actively exploited through Deserialization of Untrusted Data vulnerabilities. The untrusted data can be used to abuse application logic, deny service, or execute arbitrary code and can affect the availability, access and authorization of the system. Adobe ColdFusion is a commercial web-application and mobile applications development platform. Exploitation of this vulnerability does not require any user interaction. CISA has issued an advisory for these vulnerabilities and added to their Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) list. Read more
The insecure deserialization vulnerability on Adobe Systems ColdFusion is initiated through a remote client with a maliciously crafted server request. The attack on vulnerable versions of ColdFusion can lead to arbitrary code execution.
Click on the Outbreak Details link below to learn more about the attack and how FortiGuard services provides detection and protection against the attacks, as well as how to identify, respond and recover from the attack. Read less