Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a brand new malware marketing campaign concentrating on Linux environments to conduct illicit cryptocurrency mining.
The exercise, which particularly singles out the Oracle Weblogic server, is designed to ship malware dubbed Hadooken, in response to cloud security agency Aqua.
“When Hadooken is executed, it drops a Tsunami malware and deploys a crypto miner,” security researcher Assaf Moran mentioned.
The assault chains exploit recognized security vulnerabilities and misconfigurations, reminiscent of weak credentials, to acquire an preliminary foothold and execute arbitrary code on inclined situations.
That is achieved by launching two nearly-identical payloads, one written in Python and the opposite, a shell script, each of that are answerable for retrieving the Hadooken malware from a distant server (“89.185.85[.]102” or “185.174.136[.]204”).
“As well as, the shell script model makes an attempt to iterate over numerous directories containing SSH information (reminiscent of consumer credentials, host info, and secrets and techniques) and makes use of this info to assault recognized servers,” Morag mentioned.
“It then strikes laterally throughout the group or linked environments to additional unfold the Hadooken malware. “
Hadooken comes embedded with two elements, a cryptocurrency miner and a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) botnet referred to as Tsunami (aka Kaiten), which has a historical past of concentrating on Jenkins and Weblogic companies deployed in Kubernetes clusters.
Moreover, the malware is answerable for establishing persistence on the host by creating cron jobs to run the crypto miner periodically at various frequencies.
Aqua famous that the IP deal with 89.185.85[.]102 is registered in Germany below the internet hosting firm Aeza Worldwide LTD (AS210644), with a earlier report from Uptycs in February 2024 linking it to an 8220 Gang cryptocurrency marketing campaign by abusing flaws in Apache Log4j and Atlassian Confluence Server and Data Heart.
The second IP deal with 185.174.136[.]204, whereas at present inactive, can be linked to Aeza Group Ltd. (AS216246). As highlighted by Qurium and EU DisinfoLab in July 2024, Aeza is a bulletproof internet hosting service supplier with a presence in Moscow M9 and in two information facilities in Frankfurt.
“The modus operandi of Aeza and its quick development may be defined by the recruitment of younger builders affiliated to bulletproof internet hosting suppliers in Russia providing shelter to cybercrime,” the researchers mentioned within the report.
