Security News
Cybersecurity researchers have taken the wraps off a new and entirely undetected Linux threat dubbed OrBit, signally a growing trend of malware attacks geared towards the popular operating system. The malware gets its name from one of the filenames that's utilized to temporarily store the output of executed commands, according to cybersecurity firm Intezer.
A new ransomware operation called RedAlert, or N13V, encrypts both Windows and Linux VMWare ESXi servers in attacks on corporate networks. The Linux encryptor is created to target VMware ESXi servers, with command-line options that allow the threat actors to shut down any running virtual machines before encrypting files.
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency this week moved to add a Linux vulnerability dubbed PwnKit to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, citing evidence of active exploitation. Polkit is a toolkit for controlling system-wide privileges in Unix-like operating systems, and provides a mechanism for non-privileged processes to communicate with privileged processes.
A cloud threat actor group tracked as 8220 has updated its malware toolset to breach Linux servers with the goal of installing crypto miners as part of a long-running campaign. "The updates include the deployment of new versions of a crypto miner and an IRC bot," Microsoft Security Intelligence said in a series of tweets on Thursday.
Cybersecurity researchers from Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 disclosed details of a new security flaw affecting Microsoft's Service Fabric that could be exploited to obtain elevated permissions and seize control of all nodes in a cluster. Azure Service Fabric is Microsoft's platform-as-a-service and a container orchestrator solution used to build and deploy microservices-based cloud applications across a cluster of machines.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has added a high-severity Linux vulnerability known as PwnKit to its list of bugs exploited in the wild. PwnKit is a memory corruption bug that unprivileged users can exploit to gain full root privileges on Linux systems with default configurations.
Microsoft has fixed a container escape bug dubbed FabricScape in the Service Fabric application hosting platform that let threat actors escalate privileges to root, gain control of the host node, and compromise the entire SF Linux cluster. Additional details on how CVE-2022-30137 can be exploited to execute code and take over SF Linux clusters are available in Unit 42's report.
Microsoft has fixed a container escape vulnerability in the Service Fabric application hosting platform that would allow threat actors to escalate privileges to root, gain control of the host node, and compromise the entire SF Linux cluster. Additional details on how CVE-2022-30137 can be exploited to execute code and take over SF Linux clusters are available in Unit 42's report.
What makes Symbiote different from other Linux malware that we usually come across, is that it needs to infect other running processes to inflict damage on infected machines. Instead of being a standalone executable file that is run to infect a machine, it is a shared object library that is loaded into all running processes using LD PRELOAD, and parasitically infects the machine.
A new Golang-based peer-to-peer botnet has been spotted actively targeting Linux servers in the education sector since its emergence in March 2022. Dubbed Panchan by Akamai Security Research, the malware "Utilizes its built-in concurrency features to maximize spreadability and execute malware modules" and "Harvests SSH keys to perform lateral movement."