This month's Patch Tuesday offers a little something for everyone, including security updates for a zero-day flaw in Microsoft Windows that is under active attack, and another Windows weakness experts say could be used to power a fast-spreading computer worm. Also, Apple has also quashed a pair of zero-day bugs affecting certain macOS and iOS users, and released iOS 16, which includes a nifty new privacy and security feature called "Lockdown Mode." And Adobe axed 63 vulnerabilities in a range of products.

This month’s Patch Tuesday offers a little something for everyone, including security updates for a zero-day flaw in **Microsoft Windows** that is under active attack, and another Windows weakness experts say could be used to power a fast-spreading computer worm. Also, **Apple** has also quashed a pair of zero-day bugs affecting certain macOS and iOS users, and released **iOS 16**, which offers a new privacy and security feature called “**Lockdown Mode**.” And **Adobe** axed 63 vulnerabilities in a range of products.

Microsoft today released software patches to plug at least 64 security holes in Windows and related products. Worst in terms of outright scariness is CVE-2022-37969, which is a “privilege escalation” weakness in the **Windows Common Log File System Driver** that allows attackers to gain SYSTEM-level privileges on a vulnerable host. Microsoft says this flaw is already being exploited in the wild.

**Kevin Breen**, director of cyber threat research at **Immersive Labs**, said any vulnerability that is actively targeted by attackers in the wild must be put to the top of any patching list.

“Not to be fooled by its relatively low CVSS score of 7.8, privilege escalation vulnerabilities are often highly sought after by cyber attackers,” Breen said. “Once an attacker has managed to gain a foothold on a victim’s system, one of their first actions will be to gain a higher level of permissions, allowing the attacker to disable security applications and any device monitoring. There is no known workaround to date, so patching is the only effective mitigation.”

**Satnam Narang** at **Tenable** said CVE-2022-24521 — a similar vulnerability in the same Windows log file component — was patched earlier this year as part of Microsoft’s April Patch Tuesday release and was also exploited in the wild.

“CVE-2022-37969 was disclosed by several groups, though it’s unclear if CVE-2022-37969 is a patch-bypass for CVE-2022-24521 at this point,” Narang said.

Another vulnerability Microsoft patched this month — CVE-2022-35803 — also seems to be related to the same Windows log file component. While there are no indications CVE-2022-35803 is being actively exploited, Microsoft suggests that exploitation of this flaw is more likely than not.

Trend Micro’s **Dustin Childs** called attention to CVE-2022-34718, a remote code execution flaw in the **Windows TCP/IP** service that could allow an unauthenticated attacker to execute code with elevated privileges on affected systems without user interaction.

“That officially puts it into the ‘wormable’ category and earns it a CVSS rating of 9.8,” Childs said. “However, only systems with IPv6 enabled and IPSec configured are vulnerable. While good news for some, if you’re using IPv6 (as many are), you’re probably running IPSec as well. Definitely test and deploy this update quickly.”

**Cisco Talos** warns about four critical vulnerabilities fixed this month — CVE-2022-34721 and CVE-2022-34722 — which have severity scores of 9.8, though they are “less likely” to be exploited, according to Microsoft.

“These are remote code execution vulnerabilities in the **Windows Internet Key Exchange** protocol that could be triggered if an attacker sends a specially crafted IP packet,” wrote **Jon Munshaw** and **Asheer Malhotra**. “Two other critical vulnerabilities, CVE-2022-35805 and CVE-2022-34700 exist in on-premises instances of **Microsoft Dynamics 365**. An authenticated attacker could exploit these vulnerabilities to run a specially crafted trusted solution package and execute arbitrary SQL commands. The attacker could escalate their privileges further and execute commands as the database owner.”

Not to be outdone, Apple fixed at least two zero-day vulnerabilities when it released updates for iOS, iPadOS, macOS and Safari. CVE-2022-32984 is a problem in the deepest recesses of the operating system (the kernel). Apple pushed an emergency update for a related zero-day last month in CVE-2022-32983, which could be used to foist malware on iPhones, iPads and Macs that visited a booby-trapped website.

Also listed under active attack is **CVE-2022-32817**, which has been fixed on macOS 12.6 (Monterey), macOS 11.7 (Big Sur), iOS 15.7 and iPadOS 15.7, and iOS 16. The same vulnerability was fixed in Apple Watch in July 2022, and credits **Xinru Chi** of Japanese cybersecurity firm **Pangu Lab**.

“Interestingly, this CVE is also listed in the advisory for iOS 16, but it is not called out as being under active exploit for that flavor of the OS,” Trend Micro’s Childs noted. “Apple does state in its iOS 16 advisory that ‘Additional CVE entries to be added soon.’ It’s possible other bugs could also impact this version of the OS. Either way, it’s time to update your Apple devices.”

Apple’s iOS 16 includes two new security and privacy features — Lockdown Mode and Safety Check. **Wired.com** describes Safety Check as a feature for users who are at risk for, or currently experiencing, domestic abuse.

“The tool centralizes a number of controls in one place to make it easier for users to manage and revoke access to their location data and reset privacy-related permissions,” wrote **Lily Hay Newman**.

“Lockdown Mode, on the other hand, is meant for users who potentially face targeted spyware attacks and aggressive state-backed hacking. The feature comprehensively restricts any nonessential iOS features so there are as few potential points of entry to a device as possible. As more governments and repressive entities around the world have begun purchasing powerful commodity spyware to target individuals of particular importance or interest, iOS’s general security defenses haven’t been able to keep pace with these specialized threats.”

To turn on Lockdown Mode in iOS 16, go to **Settings**, then **Privacy and Security**, then **Lockdown Mode**. Safety Check is located in the same area.

Finally, Adobe released seven patches addressing 63 security holes in **Adobe Experience Manager**, **Bridge**, **InDesign**, **Photoshop**, **InCopy**, **Animate**, and **Illustrator**. More on those updates is here.

Don’t forget to back up your data and/or system before applying any security updates. If you experience glitches or problems installing any of these patches this month, please consider leaving a comment about it below; there’s a decent chance other readers have experienced the same and may chime in here with useful tips.

Wormable Flaw, 0days Lead Sept. 2022 Patch Tuesday

The mobile application in Transtek Mojodat FAM (Fixed Asset Management) 2.4.6 allows remote attackers to send SCRIPT tags as injected input to the API request.

****Vendor of Product:** Transtek******Affected Product:** Mojodat FAM (Fixed Asset Management)******Affected Component:** Mobile Appicaltion******Vulnerabilities Details:** **

**_CVE ID_**

**_Version_**

**_Problem Type_**

**_Description_**

**_CVE-2022-38768_**

2.4.6

Incorrect Access Control

The mobile application allows remote attackers to bypass authorization.

**_CVE-2022-38769_**

2.4.6

Incorrect Access Control

The mobile application allows remote attackers to fetch cleartext passwords upon a successful login request.

**_CVE-2022-38770_**

2.4.6

Incorrect Access Control

The mobile application allows remote attackers to fetch other users' data upon a successful login request.

**_CVE-2022-38771_**

2.4.6

SQL Injection

The mobile application allows remote attackers to send SCRIPT tags as injected input to the API request.

CVE-2022-38771

WAPPLES through 6.0 has a hardcoded systemi account accessible via db/wp.no1 (as configured in the /opt/penta/wapples/script/wcc_auto_scaling.py file). A threat actor could use this account to access the system configuration and confidential information (such as SSL keys) via an HTTPS request to the /webapi/ URI on port 443 or 5001.

**

The Logical Web Application Firewall for protecting web applications hosted on Azure

**

With the largest market share in the WAF market of Asia Pacific, WAPPLES’ customers include some of the largest in the finance, public, and commercial sectors.  
WAPPLES protects applications from attacks that exploit both known and zero-day vulnerabilities. From Application-layer DoS to SQLi and XSS, WAPPLES is effectively covers all OWASP top 10 risks.  
With an intuitive GUI that is easy to learn and use, WAPPLES allows for quick deployment within a few steps. All VMs can be configured and monitored through one central management console. Online customer support is available at all times.

WAPPLES SA v6.0 is extremely versatile, where security policies include a selection of 32 configurable logic-based detection rules, specifically tailored to protect against web attacks. It is deployable in reverse proxy, inline, and high availability modes. Even reports are customizable.  
The AI-based COCEP engine allows automatic detection of known and zero-day attacks, resulting in high accuracy and low false-positives.  
Fully integrated to Azure, WAPPLES offers a wide range of additional services such as load balancing and data loss prevention, helping users make the most out of their Azure experience.  
WAPPLES SA is available in the following languages: English, Korean, Japanese, Russian, and Ukrainian.

Please contact the corresponding region for inquires:  

*   Korea: cloud@pentasecurity.com
*   Japan: japan@pentasecurity.com
*   Global: globalbiz@pentasecurity.com

CVE-2022-35413: Microsoft Azure Marketplace

In Microsoft's lightest Patch Tuesday update of the year so far, several security vulnerabilities stand out as must-patch, researchers warn.

Microsoft addressed a pair of important-rated zero-day bugs in its September Patch Tuesday update, including a local privilege-escalation (LPE) that's being actively exploited in the wild. To boot, it disclosed three separate critical vulnerabilities that could be used for worming attacks.

The patches are part of a cache of just 64 fixed vulnerabilities from Microsoft this week, the fewest for any month this year (and almost a 50% decrease from August). The disclosed bugs affect Microsoft Windows and Windows Components; Azure and Azure Arc; .NET, Visual Studio, .NET Framework; Microsoft Edge (Chromium-based); Office and Office Components; Windows Defender; and Linux Kernel.

**A Pair of Zero-Day Vulnerabilities**

The actively exploited vulnerability (CVE-2022-37969, with a CVSS score of 7.8) exists in the Windows Common Log File System Driver, which is a general-purpose logging subsystem first introduced in Windows 2003 R2 OS and which has shipped with all later versions. An exploit for the bug allows an attacker with initial system access to elevate their privilege to SYSTEM privileges on a zero-click basis.

"No other technical details are available, but since the vulnerability has low complexity and requires no user interaction, an exploit will likely soon be in the arsenal of both white hats and black hats," Mike Walters, cybersecurity executive and co-founder of Action1, wrote in an analysis provided to Dark Reading. "It’s recommended that you deploy the patch as soon as possible."

Dustin Childs of Trend Micro's Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) noted that it's likely being deployed in a tidy exploit chain package.

"Bugs of this nature are often wrapped into some form of social engineering attack, such as convincing someone to open a file or click a link," he wrote in his Patch Tuesday blog post. "Once they do, additional code executes with elevated privileges to take over a system."

This is one for everyone to patch quickly, he stressed: "Usually, we get little information on how widespread an exploit may be used. However, Microsoft credits four different agencies reporting this bug, so it’s likely beyond just targeted attacks."

The other zero-day bug (CVE-2022-23960) exists in Windows 11 for ARM64-based Systems. Microsoft didn't provide any further details, and it was not assigned a CVSS score, but Bharat Jogi, director of vulnerability and threat research at Qualys, offered context in an emailed comment, noting that it's a processor-based speculative execution issue of the sort made infamous with the Spectre and Meltdown attacks. A successful exploit would give attackers access to sensitive information.

"This \[is\] a fix for a vulnerability known as Spectre-BHB that affects ARM64-based systems," he noted. "This vulnerability is a variant of Spectre v2 which has reinvented itself on numerous occasions and has affected various processor architectures since its discovery in 2017."

He added, "This class of vulnerabilities poses a large headache to the organizations attempting mitigation, as they often require updates to the operating systems, firmware, and in some cases, a recompilation of applications and hardening."

**Five Critical Bugs for September**

As mentioned, three of the critical-rated bugs are wormable — i.e., could be used to spread infections from machine to machine with no user interaction.

The most concerning of these is likely CVE-2022-34718, researchers said, which can be found in Windows TCP/IP. It allows a remote, unauthenticated attacker to execute code with elevated privileges on affected systems without user interaction; and it can be exploited by sending a specially crafted IPv6 packet to a Windows node where IPsec is enabled.

"That officially puts it into the 'wormable' category and earns it a CVSS rating of 9.8," Childs said. "Definitely test and deploy this update quickly."

It should be noted that it only affects systems with IPv6 enabled and IPsec configured, but this is a common setup.

"If a system doesn’t need the IPsec service, disable it as soon as possible," said Action1's Walters. "This vulnerability can be exploited in supply chain attacks where contractor and customer networks are connected by an IPsec tunnel. If you have IPsec tunnels in your Windows infrastructure, this update is a must-have."

The other two wormable bugs, CVE-2022-34722 and CVE-2022-34721, are both found in Windows Internet Key Exchange (IKE) Protocol Extensions. They both allow RCE by sending a specially crafted IP packet to a target machine that is running Windows and has IPsec enabled, and both carry a CVSS score of 9.8.

Walters noted that the vulnerability impacts only IKEv1 and not IKEv2. "However, all Windows Servers are affected because they accept both V1 and V2 packets," he wrote. "There is no exploit or PoC detected in the wild yet; however, installing the fix is highly advisable."

The final two critical bugs (CVE-2022-34700 and CVE-2022-35805) both exist in Dynamics 365 (On-Premises), and "could allow an authenticated user to perform SQL injection attacks and execute commands as db\_owner within their Dynamics 356 database," Childs explained. They have a CVSS score of 8.8.

**Other Vulnerabilities of Note**

As for noncritical flaws to pay attention to first this month, Childs also flagged a denial-of-service bug in Windows DNS server (CVE-2022-34724, CVSS score of 7.5), which can be exploited by remote, unauthenticated attacker to knock out DNS service used to connect to cloud resources and websites.

While there's no chance of code execution, the bug should be treated as critical, he added. "With so many resources in the cloud, a loss of DNS pointing the way to those resources could be catastrophic for many enterprises," Childs said.

Rapid7's Patch Tuesday analysis this month, sent via email, also noted that SharePoint administrators should also be aware of four separate RCE bugs, all rated important (CVE-2022-35823, CVE-2022-37961, CVE-2022-38008, and CVE-2022-38009).

And there's a large swath of RCE bugs affecting OLE DB Provider for SQL Server and the Microsoft ODBC Driver (CVE-2022-34731; CVE-2022-34733, CVE-2022-35834, CVE-2022-35835, CVE-2022-35836, and CVE-2022-35840).

"These require some social engineering to exploit, by convincing a user to either connect to a malicious SQL Server or open a maliciously crafted .mdb (Access) file," Greg Wiseman, product manager at Rapid7, explained in the analysis.

Overall, administrators should have an easier time parsing the lighter patch load this month, but ZDI's Childs noted that the smaller collection is in line with the volume of patches from previous September releases. Qualys' Jogi also pointed out that while September's Patch Tuesday clocks in on the lighter side, Microsoft hit a milestone of fixing the 1,000th CVE of the year, meaning the software giant is "likely on track to surpass 2021, which patched 1,200 CVEs in total."

Microsoft Quashes Actively Exploited Zero-Day, Wormable Critical Bugs

IBM Db2 for Linux, UNIX and Windows 9.7, 10.1, 10.5, 11.1, and 11.5 is vulnerable to a denial of service after entering a malformed SQL statement into the Db2expln tool. IBM X-Force ID: 230823.

  

**Summary**

IBM® Db2® is vulnerable to a denial of service after entering a specially crafted malformed SQL statement into the db2expln tool.

**Vulnerability Details**

**CVEID:**   CVE-2022-35637  
**DESCRIPTION:**   IBM DbB2 for Linux, UNIX and Windows (includes DB2 Connect Server) is vulnerable to a denial of service after entering a malformed SQL statement into the Db2expln tool.  
CVSS Base score: 6.5  
CVSS Temporal Score: See: https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/230823 for the current score.  
CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H)

**Affected Products and Versions**

All fix pack levels of IBM Db2 V10.5, V11.1, and V11.5 server editions on all platforms are affected.  

IBM Db2 versions 9.7 and 10.1 are not affected.

**Remediation/Fixes**

Customers running any vulnerable fixpack level of an affected Program, V10.5, v11.1 and V11.5, can download the special build containing the interim fix for this issue from Fix Central. These special builds are available based on the most recent fixpack level for each impacted release:  V10.5 FP11, V11.1.4 FP7, and V11.5.7. They can be applied to any affected fixpack level of the appropriate release to remediate this vulnerability.

**Release**

**Fixed in fix pack**

**APAR**

**Download URL**

V10.5

TBD

IT41339

Special Build for V10.5 FP11:

AIX 64-bit  
HP-UX 64-bit  
Linux 32-bit, x86-32  
Linux 64-bit, x86-64  
Linux 64-bit, POWER™ big endian  
Linux 64-bit, POWER™ little endian  
Linux 64-bit, System z®, System z9® or zSeries®  
Solaris 64-bit, SPARC  
Solaris 64-bit, x86-64  
Windows 32-bit, x86  
Windows 64-bit, x86  
Inspur

V11.1

TBD

IT41338

Special Build for V11.1.4 FP7:

AIX 64-bit  
Linux 32-bit, x86-32  
Linux 64-bit, x86-64  
Linux 64-bit, POWER™ little endian  
Linux 64-bit, System z®, System z9® or zSeries®  
Solaris 64-bit, SPARC  
Windows 32-bit, x86  
Windows 64-bit, x86

V11.5

TBD

IT41312

Special Build for V11.5.7:

AIX 64-bit  
Linux 32-bit, x86-32  
Linux 64-bit, x86-64  
Linux 64-bit, POWER™ little endian  
Linux 64-bit, System z®, System z9® or zSeries®  
Windows 32-bit, x86  
Windows 64-bit, x86

IBM does not disclose key Db2 functionality nor replication steps for a vulnerability to avoid providing too much information to any potential malicious attacker. IBM does not want to enable a malicious attacker with sufficient knowledge to craft an exploit of the vulnerability.

**Workarounds and Mitigations**

None

**References**

Off

**Acknowledgement**

**Change History**

12 Sep 2022: Initial Publication

\*The CVSS Environment Score is customer environment specific and will ultimately impact the Overall CVSS Score. Customers can evaluate the impact of this vulnerability in their environments by accessing the links in the Reference section of this Security Bulletin.

**Disclaimer**

According to the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST), the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) is an "industry open standard designed to convey vulnerability severity and help to determine urgency and priority of response." IBM PROVIDES THE CVSS SCORES ""AS IS"" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. CUSTOMERS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF ANY ACTUAL OR POTENTIAL SECURITY VULNERABILITY. In addition to other efforts to address potential vulnerabilities, IBM periodically updates the record of components contained in our product offerings. As part of that effort, if IBM identifies previously unidentified packages in a product/service inventory, we address relevant vulnerabilities regardless of CVE date. Inclusion of an older CVEID does not demonstrate that the referenced product has been used by IBM since that date, nor that IBM was aware of a vulnerability as of that date. We are making clients aware of relevant vulnerabilities as we become aware of them. "Affected Products and Versions" referenced in IBM Security Bulletins are intended to be only products and versions that are supported by IBM and have not passed their end-of-support or warranty date. Thus, failure to reference unsupported or extended-support products and versions in this Security Bulletin does not constitute a determination by IBM that they are unaffected by the vulnerability. Reference to one or more unsupported versions in this Security Bulletin shall not create an obligation for IBM to provide fixes for any unsupported or extended-support products or versions.

**Document Location**

Worldwide

\[{"Business Unit":{"code":"BU058","label":"IBM Infrastructure w\\/TPS"},"Product":{"code":"SSEPGG","label":"DB2 for Linux- UNIX and Windows"},"Component":"","Platform":\[{"code":"PF002","label":"AIX"},{"code":"PF027","label":"Solaris"},{"code":"PF010","label":"HP-UX"},{"code":"PF016","label":"Linux"},{"code":"PF033","label":"Windows"}\],"Version":"10.5, 11.1, 11.5","Edition":"","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB10","label":"Data and AI"}}\]

CVE-2022-35637: IBM® Db2® is vulnerable to a denial of service after entering a specially crafted malformed SQL statement into the db2expln tool. (CVE-2022-35637)

In Amanda 3.5.1, an information leak vulnerability was found in the calcsize SUID binary. An attacker can abuse this vulnerability to know if a directory exists or not anywhere in the fs. The binary will use `opendir()` as root directly without checking the path, letting the attacker provide an arbitrary path.

**What is Amanda?**

AMANDA, the Advanced Maryland Automatic Network Disk Archiver, is a backup solution that allows the IT administrator to set up a single master backup server to back up multiple hosts over network to tape drives/changers or disks or optical media. Amanda uses native utilities and formats (e.g. dump and/or GNU tar) and can back up a large number of servers and workstations running multiple versions of Linux or Unix. Amanda uses a native Windows client to back up Microsoft Windows desktops and servers.

The **latest stable version of Amanda**, 3.5.2 was released on 20th July 2022. As part of this release, we have addressed unintentional deletions of tape data in the backup environment. Your existing data on tapes will be safe and will not get replaced by your new backup set.

The most recent **stable release** is version 3.5.1, released on December 1, 2017.

The latest **release** is the 3.4.x series is 3.4,5, released on June 8, 2017. This is a bugfix release for 3.4.4.  

The latest **release** is the 3.3.x series is 3.3.9, released on February 10, 2016. It is a security fix. The amanda user was allowed to run any code as root, upgrade is not required if you trust the amanda user.

The latest **release** in the 3.2.x series is 3.2.3, released on May 9, 2011. It is a bug fix release for version 3.2.2.

The latest **release** in the 3.1.x series is 3.1.3, released on October 5, 2010. It is a security release for version 3.1.2.

Amanda-3.1.2 has a known security vulnerability, and all users should upgrade to Amanda-3.1.3 as soon as possible. See the security alert.

**Download here!** (README) | Learn more about Amanda's 3.5.2 release in our blog

**Release Notes for 3.5.2:**

The 3.5.2 version of Amanda will prevent unintentional deletions of data on tapes. With this release, you can stay assured that your data on tapes is safe, irrespective of the value set on the retention period.

**Enhancement**

Prevent auto-label from erasing tapes - Auto-label is disabled from claiming non-Amanda and other configuration labels by default. This change will prevent rewriting your existing tape media with new backup set.

**Release Notes for 3.5.1:**

*   compilation on Solaris
*   Do not check all 'r' bit on suid binary
*   Fix parsing of configuration override (-o)

*   can unset some setting

*   client code will not fail if shared memory is not available
*   amreport

*   lot of improvement

*   allow '\*' for a datestamp wildcard
*   amgetconf

*   print an empty string if a parameter is not set instead of 'no such parameter'

*   amdump

*   new --no-dump, --no-flush and --no-vault argument

*   amstatus fix
*   lock holding disk to protect multiple parallel access

**Release Notes for 3.5:**

*   Use different thread to connect to different client
*   amservice, amcheck, planner, dumper are no longer suid root
*   ambind

*   new suid program to bind to a privileged port

*   amanda-security.conf

*   new tcp\_port\_range, range of privileged tcp port
*   new udp\_port\_range, range of privileged udp port

*   S3 device

*   openstack keystone v3 support

*   device-property STORAGE-API must be set to SWIFT-3
*   new PROJECT-NAME device-property
*   new DOMAIN-NAME device-property

*   amfetchdump

*   rename --directory argument to --target

*   ampgsql

*   new --incremental property
*   new --remove-full-wal property
*   new --remove-incremental-wal property

  
*   fix planner looping
*   fix overflow in S3 device
*   fix compilation on OpenBSD
*   fix race in amarchive reader
*   fix amflush (flush date selected by user)
*   fix local auth, use getaddrinfo to find if the host is local
*   fix dumper cancelling the shm\_ring with a STRANGE result
*   fix chunker hang
*   Improve taperscan with chg-single and interactivity

**View more available versions**

**Amanda Web Pages**

*   Amanda wiki
*   **Backup & Recovery** (O'Reilly 2007) has a chapter dedicated to Amanda.

  
_Last updated: $Date: 2017-09-28 21:37:44 $_

CVE-2022-37703: Open Source Backup for Linux, Windows, UNIX and OS X

Cyber spies are using legitimate apps for DLL sideloading, deploying an updated range of malware, including the new "Logdatter" info-stealer.

A threat group previously associated with the notorious ShadowPad remote access Trojan (RAT) has been observed using old and outdated versions of popular software packages to load malware on systems belonging to multiple target government and defense organizations in Asia.

The reason for using outdated versions of legitimate software is because they allow the attackers to use a well-known method called dynamic link library (DLL) sideloading to execute their malicious payloads on a target system. Most current versions of the same products protect against the attack vector, which basically involves adversaries disguising a malicious DLL file as a legitimate one and putting it in a directory where the application would automatically load and run the file.

Researchers from Broadcom's Software's Symantec Threat Hunter team observed the ShadowPad\-related threat group using the tactic in a cyber-espionage campaign. The group's targets have so far included a prime minister's office, government organizations linked to the finance sector, government-owned defense and aerospace firms, and state-owned telecom, IT, and media companies. The security vendor's analysis showed the campaign has been ongoing since at least early 2021, with intelligence being the primary focus.

**A Well-Known Cyberattack Tactic, but Successful**

"The use of legitimate applications to facilitate DLL sideloading appears to be a growing trend among espionage actors operating in the region," Symantec said in a report this week. It's an attractive tactic because anti-malware tools often don't spot the malicious activity because attackers used old applications for side loading.

"Aside from the age of the applications, the other commonality is that they were all relatively well-known names and thus may appear innocuous." says Alan Neville, threat intelligence analyst with Symantec's threat hunter team.  

The fact that the group behind the current campaign in Asia is using the tactic despite it being well-understood suggests the technique is yielding some success, Symantec said.

Neville says his company has not recently observed threat actors use the tactic in the US or elsewhere. "The technique is mostly used by attackers focusing on Asian organizations," he adds.

Neville says that in most of the attacks in the latest campaign, threat actors used the legitimate PsExec Windows utility for executing programs on remote systems to carry out the sideloading and deploy malware. In each case, the attackers had already previously compromised the systems on which it installed the old, legitimate apps.

"\[The programs\] were installed on each compromised computer the attackers wanted to run malware on. In some cases, it could be multiple computers on the same victim network," Neville says. In other instances, Symantec also observed them deploying multiple legitimate application on a single machine to load their malware, he adds.

"They used quite an array of software, including security software, graphics software, and Web browsers," he notes. In some cases, Symantec researchers also observed the attacker using legitimate system files from the legacy Windows XP OS to enable the attack.  

**Logdatter, Range of Malicious Payloads**

One of the malicious payloads is a new information stealer dubbed Logdatter, which allows the attackers to log keystrokes, take screenshots, query SQL databases, inject arbitrary code, and download files, among other things. Other payloads that the threat actor is using in its Asian campaign include a PlugX-based Trojan, two RATs dubbed Trochilus and Quasar, and several legitimate dual-use tools. These include Ladon, a penetration testing framework, FScan, and NBTscan for scanning victim environments.

Neville says Symantec has been unable to determine with certainty how the threat actors might be gaining initial access on a target environment. But phishing and opportunity targeting of unpatched systems are likely vectors.

"Alternatively, a software supply chain attack is not outside the remit of these attackers as actors with access to ShadowPad are known to have launched supply chain attacks in the past," Neville notes. Once the threat actors have gained access to an environment, they have tended to use a range of scanning tools such as NBTScan, TCPing, FastReverseProxy, and Fscan to look for other systems to target.

To defend against these kinds of attacks, organizations need to implement mechanisms for auditing and controlling what software might be running on their network. They should also consider implementing a policy of only allowing whitelisted applications to run in the environment and prioritize patching of vulnerabilities in public-facing applications. 

"We'd also recommend taking immediate action to clean machines that exhibit any indicators of compromise," Neville advises, "... including cycling credentials and following your own organization's internal process to perform a thorough investigation."

ShadowPad Threat Actors Return With Fresh Government Strikes, Updated Tools

Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. This CVE ID is unique from CVE-2022-34731, CVE-2022-34733, CVE-2022-35834, CVE-2022-35835, CVE-2022-35836.

CVE-2022-35840

Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. This CVE ID is unique from CVE-2022-34731, CVE-2022-34733, CVE-2022-35834, CVE-2022-35835, CVE-2022-35840.

CVE-2022-35836

Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. This CVE ID is unique from CVE-2022-34731, CVE-2022-34733, CVE-2022-35835, CVE-2022-35836, CVE-2022-35840.

Tag

#sql