Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a brand new malware marketing campaign concentrating on Linux environments to conduct illicit cryptocurrency mining and ship botnet malware.
The exercise, which particularly singles out the Oracle Weblogic server, is designed to ship a malware pressure dubbed Hadooken, in response to cloud safety agency Aqua.
“When Hadooken is executed, it drops a Tsunami malware and deploys a crypto miner,” safety researcher Assaf Moran stated.
The assault chains exploit recognized safety vulnerabilities and misconfigurations, reminiscent of weak credentials, to acquire an preliminary foothold and execute arbitrary code on vulnerable cases.
That is completed by launching two nearly-identical payloads, one written in Python and the opposite, a shell script, each of that are liable for retrieving the Hadooken malware from a distant server (“89.185.85[.]102” or “185.174.136[.]204”).
“As well as, the shell script model makes an attempt to iterate over varied directories containing SSH knowledge (reminiscent of consumer credentials, host data, and secrets and techniques) and makes use of this data to assault recognized servers,” Morag stated.
“It then strikes laterally throughout the group or linked environments to additional unfold the Hadooken malware. “
Hadooken comes embedded with two elements, a cryptocurrency miner and a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) botnet referred to as Tsunami (aka Kaiten), which has a historical past of concentrating on Jenkins and Weblogic companies deployed in Kubernetes clusters.
Moreover, the malware is liable for establishing persistence on the host by creating cron jobs to run the crypto miner periodically at various frequencies.
Aqua famous that the IP handle 89.185.85[.]102 is registered in Germany underneath the internet hosting firm Aeza Worldwide LTD (AS210644), with a earlier report from Uptycs in February 2024 linking it to an 8220 Gang cryptocurrency marketing campaign by abusing flaws in Apache Log4j and Atlassian Confluence Server and Knowledge Middle.
The second IP handle 185.174.136[.]204, whereas at the moment inactive, can also be linked to Aeza Group Ltd. (AS216246). As highlighted by Qurium and EU DisinfoLab in July 2024, Aeza is a bulletproof internet hosting service supplier with a presence in Moscow M9 and in two knowledge facilities in Frankfurt.
“The modus operandi of Aeza and its quick development will be defined by the recruitment of younger builders affiliated to bulletproof internet hosting suppliers in Russia providing shelter to cybercrime,” the researchers stated within the report.