North Korean Hackers Exploit Unpatched Zimbra Devices in 'No Pineapple' Campaign
Vulnerabilities mentionedAll →
| CVE | Vulnerability | CVSS | EPSS | Flags | Affected | Exposure | Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVE-2021-4034 | Out-of-Bounds Read/Write Local Privilege Escalation in polkit pkexec (PwnKit) CVE-2021-4034 ('PwnKit') is an out-of-bounds read and write (CWE-125/CWE-787) in polkit's setuid-root pkexec utility, which mishandles the calling parameter count and ends up trying to execute environment variables as commands. A local attacker who runs pkexec with crafted environment variables can induce it to execute arbitrary code, gaining administrative (root) rights on the target machine. Because polkit is installed by default on mainstream Linux distributions — including Red Hat Enterprise Linux and its many variants, with the flaw also tracked against Canonical, SUSE, Oracle, Siemens, and StarWind Software products — essentially every standard Linux installation was exposed. The flaw is being actively exploited in the wild: CISA added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2022-06-27 with known ransomware use, and EPSS assigns a 94.9% probability of exploitation (100th percentile). Public proof-of-concept exploits are widely available, making exploitation trivial for any user with local access to an unpatched host. Do: Apply the polkit/pkexec updates from each distribution vendor immediately per vendor instructions, as required by the CISA KEV catalog. If patching must be delayed, removing the setuid bit from pkexec (e.g., chmod 0755 /usr/bin/pkexec) is a widely documented interim mitigation, though it may affect functionality that relies on pkexec. Prioritize hosts where untrusted or low-privilege users can log in, and hunt for prior exploitation given known ransomware use. | 7.8 | 95% | KEV ransomware PoC ×4 |
| masstens of millions of Linux servers and workstations (polkit/pkexec ships by default on virtually all mainstream distributions) | |
| CVE-2022-27925 | Authenticated Path Traversal File Upload Leading to RCE in Zimbra Collaboration Suite CVE-2022-27925 is a directory traversal flaw (CWE-22) in the mailbox import (mboximport) functionality of Synacor Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS), which accepts a ZIP archive and extracts files from it without properly validating paths. An authenticated user with administrator rights can trigger the flaw by submitting a malicious ZIP archive, causing arbitrary files to be written outside the intended directory. By planting attacker-controlled files in arbitrary locations, an attacker can achieve remote code execution on the server. All organizations running ZCS 8.8.15 or 9.0 are potentially affected, and the flaw has been mass-exploited in the wild — CISA added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2022-08-11, ordered civilian agencies to patch it, and ransomware operators and other actors are known to be using it. Do: Apply the vendor's updates/patches for ZCS 8.8.15 and 9.0 as instructed by Zimbra, per CISA's required action. Limit external access to Zimbra's mailbox import/administration endpoints to trusted networks only, and hunt for indicators of compromise such as unexpected files or webshells in the Zimbra web root, unusual admin activity, and signs of follow-on ransomware deployment. | 7.2 | 99% | KEV ransomware PoC |
| largetens of thousands of internet-exposed Zimbra servers serving an estimated hundreds of thousands of users (vendor claims 200,000+ organizational customers) | |
| CVE-2022-37042 | Unauthenticated ZIP Path Traversal RCE in Synacor Zimbra Collaboration Suite CVE-2022-37042 is an authentication bypass combined with a ZIP archive path traversal (CWE-22) in the mboximport functionality of Synacor Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) 8.8.15 and 9.0, and it exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2022-27925. An attacker does not need a valid authtoken: by sending an attacker-crafted ZIP archive to the mboximport endpoint, the flaw lets arbitrary files be extracted and written outside the intended directory. Successful file-write primitives on a Zimbra server lead directly to remote code execution, with no privileges or user interaction required (CVSS 3.1: 9.8, AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N). All internet-reachable ZCS 8.8.15 and 9.0 deployments are in scope, and the flaw has been added to CISA KEV (2022-08-11) with known ransomware use and a 91.9% EPSS exploitation probability. Exploitation is confirmed in the wild at scale: CISA ordered civilian agencies to patch after mass exploitation, and headlines attribute campaigns to both North Korean (No Pineapple) and Chinese state-sponsored (RedHotel) actors. Do: Immediately apply the current ZCS 8.8.15 and 9.0 patch releases per Synacor/Zimbra vendor instructions, as required by CISA's KEV required action. Until patched, restrict or block unauthenticated access to the mboximport/service extension endpoint (e.g., via firewall or reverse proxy rules) and verify no authtoken-less requests have reached it. Hunt for unexpected files written by the mailbox process, review mailboxd/access logs for ZIP uploads lacking an authtoken, and check for follow-on webshell, lateral-movement, or ransomware artifacts given confirmed ransomware use. | 9.8 | 92% | KEV ransomware PoC |
| largetens of thousands of internet-exposed Zimbra servers (public internet-wide scans show on the order of 10k-100k ZCS instances) |
Full article616 words · extracted from thehackernews.com · click to collapse
Ravie LakshmananFeb 02, 2023Healthcare / Cyber Attack
A new intelligence gathering campaign linked to the prolific North Korean state-sponsored Lazarus Group leveraged known security flaws in unpatched Zimbra devices to compromise victim systems.
That's according to Finnish cybersecurity company WithSecure (formerly F-Secure), which codenamed the incident No Pineapple in reference to an error message that's used in one of the backdoors.
Targets of the malicious operation included a healthcare research organization in India, the chemical engineering department of a leading research university, as well as a manufacturer of technology used in the energy, research, defense, and healthcare sectors, suggesting an attempt to breach the supply chain.
Roughly 100GB of data is estimated to have been exported by the hacking crew following the compromise of an unnamed customer, with the digital break-in likely taking place in the third quarter of 2022.
"The threat actor gained access to the network by exploiting a vulnerable Zimbra mail server at the end of August," WithSecure said in a detailed technical report shared with The Hacker News.
The security flaws used for initial access are CVE-2022-27925 and CVE-2022-37042, both of which could be abused to gain remote code execution on the underlying server.
This step was succeeded by the installation of web shells and the exploitation of local privilege escalation vulnerability in the Zimbra server (i.e., Pwnkit aka CVE-2021-4034), thereby enabling the threat actor to harvest sensitive mailbox data.
Subsequently, in October 2022, the adversary is said to have carried out lateral movement, reconnaissance, and ultimately deployed backdoors such as Dtrack and an updated version of GREASE.
GREASE, which has been attributed as the handiwork of another North Korea-affiliated threat cluster called Kimsuky, comes with capabilities to create new administrator accounts with remote desktop protocol (RDP) privileges while also skirting firewall rules.
Dtrack, on the other hand, has been employed in cyber assaults aimed at a variety of industry verticals, and also in financially motivated attacks involving the use of Maui ransomware.
"At the beginning of November, Cobalt Strike [command-and-control] beacons were detected from an internal server to two threat actor IP addresses," researchers Sami Ruohonen and Stephen Robinson pointed out, adding the data exfiltration occurred from November 5, 2022, through November 11, 2022.
Also used in the intrusion were tools like Plink and 3Proxy to create a proxy on the victim system, echoing previous findings from Cisco Talos about Lazarus Group's attacks targeting energy providers.
Besides relying solely on an IP address-based infrastructure without any domain names, a crucial link exposing the campaign's links to North Korea stems from a connection originating from an IP address located in the country (175.45.176[.]27) to the patient zero server.
North Korea-backed hacking groups have had a busy 2022, conducting a series of both espionage-driven attacks and cryptocurrency heists that align with the regime's strategic priorities.
Most recently, the BlueNoroff cluster, also known by the names APT38, Copernicium, Stardust Chollima, and TA444, was connected to wide-ranging credential harvesting attacks aimed at education, financial, government, and healthcare sectors.
"North Korea-linked hackers such as those in cybercriminal syndicate Lazarus Group have been by far the most prolific cryptocurrency hackers over the last few years," blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis said, calling 2022 the "biggest year ever for crypto hacking."
In 2022 alone, the threat actors have been accused of being responsible for $1.65 billion worth of cryptocurrency theft, out of which $1.1 billion originated from hacks of DeFi protocols. A total of $3.8 billion was stolen from crypto businesses during the year, up from $3.3 billion in 2021.
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