RCE on Log4j Among Top CVEs Exploited By Chinese-Backed Hackers

Chinese state–sponsored menace actors continue to exploit known vulnerabilities to focus on US and allied networks and businesses, in accordance to a new advisory printed on Oct 06, 2022, by the US National Security Agency (NSA), Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Company (CISA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Even worse, they use “an raising array of new and adaptive techniques—some of which pose a substantial risk to Info Technology Sector corporations (together with telecommunications suppliers), Protection Industrial Foundation (DIB) Sector corporations, and other critical infrastructure companies,” reads the joint advisory. 

As the hackers’ key goals are “to steal intellectual property” and “to build accessibility into sensitive networks,” the three businesses found that they “continue to use digital private networks (VPNs) to obfuscate their activities and focus on web–facing purposes to set up preliminary entry.”

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They then use the vulnerabilities earlier mentioned to surreptitiously achieve unauthorized entry into delicate networks, soon after which they look for to establish persistence and shift laterally to other internally related networks.

The US organizations also revealed the leading 20 widespread vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) exploited by Chinese state–sponsored actors considering the fact that 2020. Distant code execution (RCE) on Apache Log4j (CVE–2021–44228), Microsoft Trade (CVE–2021–26855) and Atlassian (CVE–2022–26134) are among these, as well as arbitrary file upload in VMWare vCenter Server (CVE–2021–22005).

The NSA, CISA and FBI further gave a list of tips for mitigating the pitfalls:

• Update and patch systems as quickly as possible. Prioritize patching vulnerabilities determined in this Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) and other recognized exploited vulnerabilities
• Make the most of phishing–resistant multi–factor authentication every time achievable. Demand all accounts with password logins to have robust, special passwords, and improve passwords immediately if there are indications that a password could have been compromised
• Block obsolete or unused protocols at the network edge
• Upgrade or substitute end–of–life units
• Move toward the Zero Belief security design
• Allow robust logging of internet–facing techniques and watch the logs for anomalous activity