France's cyber-agency says Centreon IT management software sabotaged by Russian Sandworm
(2021/02/16)
- Reference: 1613462527
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/02/16/centreon_sandworm_attack/
- Source link:
France’s Agence nationale de la sécurité des systèmes d'information (ANSSI), the nation’s cyber-security agency, has identified a years-long campaign to infiltrate IT monitoring platform Centreon.
Centreon (the company) claimed that Centreon (the software) is a spiffing open-source IT monitoring tool.
[1]
“Organizations must keep an unblinking eye on their IT infrastructure and operations to ensure service uptime and peak network availability,” according to the company’s blurb. Centreon the company said Centreon the software is that unblinking eye.
ANSSI on Monday [2]revealed it is aware of two backdoors in Centreon the software, and said several French IT services providers have been infiltrated for up to three years.
[3]
In a detailed [4]report [PDF] that The Register navigated with rusty high school French and online translation services, ANSSI said the attack used the PAS web shell and the Exaramel backdoor trojan.
Neither backdoor is new. The PAS web shell has been on security vendors’ radars since 2017 and mentions of Exaramel can be found in 2018. PAS does nasty things including brute force attacks on databases, to gain access to their contents. Exaramel is a remote-control tool.
A year after devastating NotPetya outbreak, what have we learnt? Er, not a lot, says BlackBerry bod [5]READ MORE
ANSSI said the attack was possible because some Centreon users didn’t keep their systems patched. The agency did not describe the consequences of the attack but said the combination of the two backdoors allowed complete compromise of Centreon, the software, and therefore lateral movement across networks.
As the attack targeted service providers, and such organisations are likely to offer multi-tenanted infrastructure, it’s possible many entities have been compromised.
ANSSI didn’t say Russia was responsible for the attack but did say the methods used to put the backdoors in place and operate them looked a lot like the [6]”Sandworm” crew that’s also suspected of having a role in the NotPetya ransomware.
ANSSI’s report recommends that all users of management tools should limit access to their web interfaces and harden the Linux servers on which they run.
But IT service providers and the vendors that cater to their needs are constantly reminded that security excellence is non-negotiable because they’re a gateway to numerous other organisations and therefore a prime target for criminals. Yet some have clearly run old and vulnerable versions of Centreon, the software, and then failed to spot bad actors rummaging about inside.
[7]
As did the many organisations that ran compromised versions of [8]SolarWinds ' Orion management software. ®
Get our [9]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YCulySJben3CLsDwU8tISwAAANY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://www.cert.ssi.gouv.fr/cti/CERTFR-2021-CTI-004/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YCulySJben3CLsDwU8tISwAAANY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] http://www.cert.ssi.gouv.fr/uploads/CERTFR-2021-CTI-004.pdf
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2018/06/27/notpetya_anniversary/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2020/02/20/apt28_hacked_georgia_uk_us_declaration/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YCulySJben3CLsDwU8tISwAAANY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/19/fireeye_solarwinds_code/
[9] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Centreon (the company) claimed that Centreon (the software) is a spiffing open-source IT monitoring tool.
[1]
“Organizations must keep an unblinking eye on their IT infrastructure and operations to ensure service uptime and peak network availability,” according to the company’s blurb. Centreon the company said Centreon the software is that unblinking eye.
ANSSI on Monday [2]revealed it is aware of two backdoors in Centreon the software, and said several French IT services providers have been infiltrated for up to three years.
[3]
In a detailed [4]report [PDF] that The Register navigated with rusty high school French and online translation services, ANSSI said the attack used the PAS web shell and the Exaramel backdoor trojan.
Neither backdoor is new. The PAS web shell has been on security vendors’ radars since 2017 and mentions of Exaramel can be found in 2018. PAS does nasty things including brute force attacks on databases, to gain access to their contents. Exaramel is a remote-control tool.
A year after devastating NotPetya outbreak, what have we learnt? Er, not a lot, says BlackBerry bod [5]READ MORE
ANSSI said the attack was possible because some Centreon users didn’t keep their systems patched. The agency did not describe the consequences of the attack but said the combination of the two backdoors allowed complete compromise of Centreon, the software, and therefore lateral movement across networks.
As the attack targeted service providers, and such organisations are likely to offer multi-tenanted infrastructure, it’s possible many entities have been compromised.
ANSSI didn’t say Russia was responsible for the attack but did say the methods used to put the backdoors in place and operate them looked a lot like the [6]”Sandworm” crew that’s also suspected of having a role in the NotPetya ransomware.
ANSSI’s report recommends that all users of management tools should limit access to their web interfaces and harden the Linux servers on which they run.
But IT service providers and the vendors that cater to their needs are constantly reminded that security excellence is non-negotiable because they’re a gateway to numerous other organisations and therefore a prime target for criminals. Yet some have clearly run old and vulnerable versions of Centreon, the software, and then failed to spot bad actors rummaging about inside.
[7]
As did the many organisations that ran compromised versions of [8]SolarWinds ' Orion management software. ®
Get our [9]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YCulySJben3CLsDwU8tISwAAANY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://www.cert.ssi.gouv.fr/cti/CERTFR-2021-CTI-004/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YCulySJben3CLsDwU8tISwAAANY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] http://www.cert.ssi.gouv.fr/uploads/CERTFR-2021-CTI-004.pdf
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2018/06/27/notpetya_anniversary/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2020/02/20/apt28_hacked_georgia_uk_us_declaration/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YCulySJben3CLsDwU8tISwAAANY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/19/fireeye_solarwinds_code/
[9] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want
Stuart Castle
Theres an old adage in IT security worlds. I can't remember the exact phrasing, but the general idea is "Security, Features, Ease of use: Pick two..."
Aladdin Sane
Did they try walking without rhythm?
Dr_N
Les <
And it continues
Pascal Monett
Another provider to many important companies has its software compromised. Okay, through its customers' fault, granted, but still.
I think it is time to have a general review of high-profile software being used by companies that serve many other companies. We've basically stumbled across an underground trend that has been going on for years thanks to SolarWinds123's stupidity, but now it is time to take stock of the true situation and every company that operates in the Network Management market should be reviewing its published code with a fine comb and checking all of its code repositories to ensure that it is still offering secure code.
sitta_europea
"...some have clearly run old and vulnerable versions..."
No! Really? I can't believe it! I'm shocked! Who would have thought that?
All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want
[1]Is that so much to ask?
[1] https://xkcd.com/2044/