Security News > 2023 > May > Microsoft: Iranian hacking groups join Papercut attack spree
Microsoft says Iranian state-backed hackers have joined the ongoing assault targeting vulnerable PaperCut MF/NG print management servers.
"The PaperCut exploitation activity by Mint Sandstorm appears opportunistic, affecting organizations across sectors and geographies," the Microsoft Threat Intelligence team said.
They follow attacks linked to Lace Tempest by Microsoft, a hacking group whose malicious activity overlaps with the FIN11 and TA505 cybercrime gangs connected to the Clop ransomware operation.
The PaperCut vulnerability exploited in these attacks and tracked as CVE-2023-27350 is a pre-authentication critical remote code execution bug in PaperCut MF or NG versions 8.0 or later.
While multiple cybersecurity companies have released indicators of compromise and detection rules for PaperCut exploits, VulnCheck shared details on a new attack method last week that can bypass existing detections, allowing attackers to keep exploiting CVE-2023-27350 unobstructed.
Defenders are encouraged to immediately upgrade theirPaperCut MF and PaperCut NG software to versions 20.1.7, 21.2.11, and 22.0.9 and later, which address this RCE bug and remove the attack vector.
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Related Vulnerability
| DATE | CVE | VULNERABILITY TITLE | RISK |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-04-20 | CVE-2023-27350 | Improper Access Control vulnerability in Papercut NG This vulnerability allows remote attackers to bypass authentication on affected installations of PaperCut NG 22.0.5 (Build 63914). | 9.8 |