Security News > 2021 > August > HolesWarm Malware Exploits Unpatched Windows, Linux Servers
By leveraging more than 20 known vulnerabilities in Linux and Windows servers, the HolesWarm cryptominer malware has been able to break into more than 1,000 cloud hosts just since June.
The basic cryptominer botnet has been so successful at juggling so many different known vulnerabilities between attacks, researchers at Tencent who first identified HolesWarm refer to the malware as the "King of Vulnerability Exploitation."
The Tencent team observed HolesWarm using high-risk vulnerabilities in various common office server components, including Apache Tomcat, Jenkins, Shiro, Spring boot, Structs2, UFIDA, Weblogic, XXL-JOB and Zhiyuan.
"Tencent security experts recommend that the operation and maintenance personnel of government and enterprise organizations actively repair high-risk vulnerabilities in related network components to avoid servers a broiler controlled by hackers."
Of course, without unpatched servers lingering out there with known security holes the virus wouldn't have anywhere to spread. Yaniv Bar-Dayan, EO of Vulcan Cyber told Threatpost leaving unmitigated vulnerabilities exposed to hackers is "Inexcusable."
"Organizations with exploitable known vulnerabilities should feel lucky if the worst that happens to their digital estate is a HolesWarm cryptominer deployment."
News URL
https://threatpost.com/holeswarm-malware-windows-linux/168759/
Related news
- FINALDRAFT Malware Exploits Microsoft Graph API for Espionage on Windows and Linux (source)
- EncryptHub Exploits Windows Zero-Day to Deploy Rhadamanthys and StealC Malware (source)
- Outlaw Group Uses SSH Brute-Force to Deploy Cryptojacking Malware on Linux Servers (source)
- Microsoft fixes bug causing Windows Server 2025 boot errors (source)
- LightSpy Expands to 100+ Commands, Increasing Control Over Windows, macOS, Linux, and Mobile (source)
- New Linux Malware ‘Auto-Color’ Grants Hackers Full Remote Access to Compromised Systems (source)
- Seven Malicious Go Packages Found Deploying Malware on Linux and macOS Systems (source)
- APTs have been using zero-day Windows shortcut exploit for eight years (ZDI-CAN-25373) (source)
- Steam pulls game demo infecting Windows with info-stealing malware (source)
- APT36 Spoofs India Post Website to Infect Windows and Android Users with Malware (source)