Security News > 2021 > January > Elusive Lebanese Threat Actor Compromised Hundreds of Servers
A threat actor believed to be tied to the Lebanese government has compromised hundreds of servers pertaining to organizations worldwide, while maintaining a low profile, threat intelligence firm ClearSky reveals.
Referred to as Lebanese Cedar or Volatile Cedar, the advanced persistent threat group has been active since 2012, but operated under the radar since 2015, after its activity was detailed by cybersecurity companies.
Attacks observed since the beginning of 2020 have revealed the use of an updated version of the Explosive RAT and Caterpillar web shell, and artefacts identified on a victim network helped researchers identify 250 breached servers.
Lebanese Cedar employs a variety of tools, many open source, but has shown a preference for the use of the Caterpillar web shell and Explosive RAT. During their investigation, ClearSky's security researchers also discovered a JSP file browser modified to serve the hackers' purposes.
Following initial compromise with the help of the Caterpillar web shell, the attackers fingerprint the network and proceed to the deployment of additional tools, including additional web shells, likely for persistence, and the JSP file browser, to fetch the Explosive RAT. The backdoor can harvest data from the compromised machine, find specific data, log keystrokes, capture screenshots, and execute code and commands sent by the attackers.
Based on code similarities between the newly identified versions of the Caterpillar web shell and Explosive RAT, ClearSky's security researchers are confident that the Lebanese Cedar has continued to operate for the past five years, although it remained under the radar.