Mess of vulnerabilities expose Windows, Linux servers to attack

Leaving servers unpatched is ‘inexcusable’, says security expert

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Acryptominingmalware that exploits over twenty known vulnerabilities has been dubbed the “King of Vulnerability Exploitation” bycybersecurityexperts.

According to researchers at Chinese technology giant Tencent, the HolesWarm cryptominingmalware, which targets both Windows andLinux servers, has been able to compromise over a thousandcloudhosts since June.

Deciphering Tencent’s Chinese advisory,Threatpostsays the researchers have advised both the government and corporate sector to patch the vulnerabilities exploited by HolesWarm without delay.

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“Tencent security experts recommend that the operation and maintenance personnel of government and enterprise organizations actively repair high-risk vulnerabilities in related network components to avoidservers[becoming] a broiler controlled by hackers,” states the advisory.

‘Inexcusable’

Based on their analysis, the researchers note that the malware exploits well-known vulnerabilities in several software commonly found on servers, such as Apache Tomcat, Jenkins, Shiro, Spring boot, Structs2, Weblogic, and more.

Once it has broken into a server, it absorbs it to its botnet, which mines for the Monero cryptocurrency. In addition to the cryptomining activity, the researchers suggest the malware also scoops stored credentials and gives backdoor access to the compromised server to the threat actors.

Yaniv Bar-Dayan, CEO of security company Vulcan Cyber, toldThreatpostthat leaving unpatched vulnerabilities in internet-exposed servers is “inexcusable”.

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“Organizations with exploitable known vulnerabilities should feel lucky if the worst that happens to their digital estate is a HolesWarm cryptominer deployment,” she said.

ViaThreatpost

With almost two decades of writing and reporting on Linux, Mayank Sharma would like everyone to think he’sTechRadar Pro’sexpert on the topic. Of course, he’s just as interested in other computing topics, particularly cybersecurity, cloud, containers, and coding.

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