Researchers Detect Second Wave of Shellshock Attacks Since Two-Year Anniversary

Beginning on Oct. 10, 2016, IBM X-Force detected a notable increase in Shellshock activity lasting four days. Given its prevalence over the last two years, we didn’t think we had seen the last of Shellshock. We are a little surprised, however, by its latest uptick in activity.

This spike saw nearly the same volume of Shellshock attacks as the one we observed prior to the malware’s two-year anniversary last month. The attacks in this latest wave, however, were sourced from only four U.S.-based IP addresses, whereas the previous spike in Shellshock activity originated from hundreds of unique IP addresses.

Just as quickly as they appeared, the attacks evaporated as of Oct. 14, 2016.

More Shellshock Attacks

As with September’s attacks, this more recent wave was designed to perform reconnaissance against distributed targets to find machines vulnerable to Shellshock. Targets were not concentrated in any specific geography — this was a global campaign spanning multiple industries.

The campaign — currently rated 10, indicating the highest level of risk — used the following four IP addresses:

The attack’s payload contained the following information:

:header_value=() { :;}; echo; echo “”39319c2bd3231f5c4a15e142faef5bf2″”

Unlike the September attacks, which used the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) to determine exploitability, the October attacks used a unique identifier that looks suspiciously like an MD5 checksum, but it is not. Each individual attack thread is assigned a unique string that identifies the target as vulnerable to the Shellshock exploit. Exploitation is possible when the attacker sees the unique identifier echoed back into the attack tool.

For more information about the October wave of Shellshock attacks, see the IBM X-Force Exchange collection.

Patching the Broken Record

This may sound like a broken record by now, but if you have not patched your systems against this threat, we strongly advise doing so as soon as practical. The IBM X-Force Exchange vulnerability report contains an extensive list of references. This should provide you with the information you need to obtain the appropriate patches. Protocol analysis can provide another layer of security against these attacks.

Because the aforementioned IPs are registered to what appears to be a cloud provider, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out the potential risks associated with cloud services. Companies must consider the risks of misuse of employee credentials, hijacked accounts and insecure interfaces or application program interfaces (API) when deciding whether to adopt a cloud solution. Security should be at the heart of any organization’s cloud strategy and design.

Michelle Alvarez

Manager, X-Force Strategic Threat Analysis, IBM

“Authorized” to break in: Adversaries use valid credentials to compromise cloud environments

4 min read - Overprivileged plaintext credentials left on display in 33% of X-Force adversary simulations Adversaries are constantly seeking to improve their productivity margins, but new data from IBM X-Force suggests they aren’t exclusively leaning on sophistication to do so. Simple yet reliable tactics that offer ease of use and often direct access to privileged environments are still heavily relied upon. Today X-Force released the 2023 Cloud Threat Landscape Report, detailing common trends and top threats observed against cloud environments over the past…

Email campaigns leverage updated DBatLoader to deliver RATs, stealers

11 min read - IBM X-Force has identified new capabilities in DBatLoader malware samples delivered in recent email campaigns, signaling a heightened risk of infection from commodity malware families associated with DBatLoader activity. X-Force has observed nearly two dozen email campaigns since late June leveraging the updated DBatLoader loader to deliver payloads such as Remcos, Warzone, Formbook, and AgentTesla. DBatLoader malware has been used since 2020 by cybercriminals to install commodity malware remote access Trojans (RATs) and infostealers, primarily via malicious spam (malspam). DBatLoader…

New Hive0117 phishing campaign imitates conscription summons to deliver DarkWatchman malware

8 min read - IBM X-Force uncovered a new phishing campaign likely conducted by Hive0117 delivering the fileless malware DarkWatchman, directed at individuals associated with major energy, finance, transport, and software security industries based in Russia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, and Estonia. DarkWatchman malware is capable of keylogging, collecting system information, and deploying secondary payloads. Imitating official correspondence from the Russian government in phishing emails aligns with previous Hive0117 campaigns delivering DarkWatchman malware, and shows a possible significant effort to induce a sense of urgency as…

Bringing threat intelligence and adversary insights to the forefront: X-Force Research Hub

3 min read - Today defenders are dealing with both a threat landscape that’s constantly changing and attacks that have stood the test of time. Innovation and best practices co-exist in the criminal world, and one mustn’t distract us from the other. IBM X-Force is continuously observing new attack vectors and novel malware in the wild, as adversaries seek to evade detection innovations. But we also know that tried and true tactics — from phishing and exploiting known vulnerabilities to using compromised credentials and…

Security Intelligence

{{title}}

{{title}}

{{title}}

{{title}}

Topics

More Shellshock Attacks

Patching the Broken Record

More from Threat Intelligence

“Authorized” to break in: Adversaries use valid credentials to compromise cloud environments

Email campaigns leverage updated DBatLoader to deliver RATs, stealers

New Hive0117 phishing campaign imitates conscription summons to deliver DarkWatchman malware

Bringing threat intelligence and adversary insights to the forefront: X-Force Research Hub