Mirai Botnet Exploits Ivanti Connect Secure Flaws for Malicious Payload Delivery
Vulnerabilities mentionedAll →
| CVE | Vulnerability | CVSS | EPSS | Flags | Affected | Exposure | Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVE-2024-21887 +1 in the same advisory: …46805 | Command Injection RCE in Ivanti Connect Secure and Policy Secure Ivanti Connect Secure (formerly Pulse Connect Secure) and Ivanti Policy Secure appliances contain a command injection flaw (CWE-77) in their web components, triggered when an authenticated administrator sends crafted requests to the appliance. The bug can be chained with the separate authentication bypass CVE-2023-46805, allowing an unauthenticated attacker to achieve the same result. Successful exploitation lets an attacker execute arbitrary commands and code on the appliance, providing a foothold into the networks behind the VPN or network access control gateway. Any organization running these appliances, typically enterprises and government agencies often deployed directly on the internet perimeter, is affected. Exploitation is confirmed in the wild: the flaw was added to CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2024-01-10 with known ransomware use and EPSS assigns a 100% probability of exploitation within 30 days, although no public proof-of-concept is available. Do: Apply Ivanti's mitigations or patched builds immediately per vendor instructions, addressing the chained authentication bypass CVE-2023-46805 at the same time, and discontinue or restrict use of any appliance for which mitigations are unavailable, especially if it is internet-facing. Because exploitation with ransomware use is known, assume compromise is possible: review appliance web logs for suspicious requests and run Ivanti's integrity-checking guidance to verify appliance images before and after remediation. Where feasible, restrict direct internet exposure of the appliance web interface and monitor for further vendor advisories. | 9.1 group max | 100% | KEV ransomware PoC |
| largetens of thousands of appliances (roughly 20,000-30,000 internet-exposed ICS gateways at disclosure; total deployed base likely higher) |
Full article324 words · extracted from thehackernews.com · click to collapse
Ravie LakshmananMay 09, 2024Network Security / Botnet
Two recently disclosed security flaws in Ivanti Connect Secure (ICS) devices are being exploited to deploy the infamous Mirai botnet.
That's according to findings from Juniper Threat Labs, which said the vulnerabilities CVE-2023-46805 and CVE-2024-21887 have been leveraged to deliver the botnet payload.
While CVE-2023-46805 is an authentication bypass flaw, CVE-2024-21887 is a command injection vulnerability, thereby allowing an attacker to chain the two into an exploit chain to execute arbitrary code and take over susceptible instances.
In the attack chain observed by the network security company, CVE-2023-46805 is exploited to gain access to the "/api/v1/license/key-status/;" endpoint, which is vulnerable to command injection, and inject the payload.
As previously outlined by Assetnote in their technical deep dive of the CVE-2024-21887, the exploit is triggered by means of a request to "/api/v1/totp/user-backup-code/" to deploy the malware.
"This command sequence attempts to wipe files, downloads a script from a remote server, sets executable permissions, and executes the script, potentially leading to an infected system," security researcher Kashinath T Pattan said.
The shell script, for its part, is designed to download the Mirai botnet malware from an actor-controlled IP address ("192.3.152[.]183").
"The discovery of Mirai botnet delivery through these exploits highlights the ever-evolving landscape of cyber threats," Pattan said. "The fact that Mirai was delivered through this vulnerability will also mean the deployment of other harmful malware and ransomware is to be expected."
The development comes as SonicWall revealed that a fake Windows File Explorer executable ("explorer.exe") has been found to install a cryptocurrency miner. The exact distribution vector for the malware is currently unknown.
"Upon execution, it drops malicious files in the /Windows/Fonts/ directory, including the main crypto miner file, a batch file containing malicious commands to start the mining process," SonicWall said.
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