The threat actors behind the notorious SolarWinds supply-chain attacks have dispatched new malware to steal data and maintain persistence on victims’ networks, researchers have found.
Researchers from the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) have observed the APT it calls Nobelium using a post-exploitation backdoor dubbed FoggyWeb, to attack Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) servers. AD FS enables single sign-on (SSO) across cloud-based apps in a Microsoft environment, by sharing digital identity and entitlements rights.
The attacks started as far back as April, Ramin Nafisi from MSTIC wrote in a blog post published Monday.
Nobelium is employing “multiple tactics to pursue credential theft” to gain admin privileges to AD FS servers, Nafisi wrote. Then, once a server is compromised, the threat group deploys FoggyWeb “to remotely exfiltrate the configuration database of compromised AD FS servers, decrypted token-signing certificates and token-decryption certificates,” he said, which can be used to penetrate into users’ cloud accounts.
In addition to remotely exfiltrating sensitive data, FoggyWeb also achieves persistence and communicates with a a command-and-control (C2) server to receive additional malicious components and execute them, Nafisi added.
Backdoor Breakdown
Nafisi provides a thorough breakdown of the sophisticated FoggyWeb backdoor, which operates by allowing abuse of the Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) token in AD FS, he explained in the post.
“The backdoor configures HTTP listeners for actor-defined URIs that mimic the structure of the legitimate URIs used by the target’s AD FS deployment,” Nafisi wrote. “The custom listeners passively monitor all incoming HTTP GET and POST requests sent to the AD FS server from the intranet/internet and intercept HTTP requests that match the custom URI patterns defined by the actor.”
Attackers store the malware in an encrypted file called Windows.Data.TimeZones.zh-PH.pri, while the malicious file version.dll acts as a loader. The DLL file leverages the CLR hosting interfaces and APIs to load FoggyWeb, a managed DLL, in the same Application Domain within which legitimate AD FS managed code is executed.
In this way, FoggyWeb gains access to the AD FS codebase and resources, including the AD FS configuration database. The malware also inherits AD FS service account permissions that are required to access the AD FS configuration database, Nafisis wrote.
Additionally, “because FoggyWeb is loaded into the same application domain as the AD FS managed code, it gains programmatical access to the legitimate AD FS classes, methods, properties, fields, objects and components that are subsequently leveraged by FoggyWeb to facilitate its malicious operations,” he added.
Moreover, FoggyWeb is also AD FS version-agnostic, which means it doesn’t need to keep track of legacy versus modern configuration table names and schemas, named pipe names and other version-dependent properties of AD FS, Nafisi wrote.
Malware Mitigation
Microsoft has notified all customers observed being targeted or compromised by FoggyWeb, as well as included a comprehensive list of compromise indicators in the post.
The company also has recommended several mitigation actions for organizations, including: Auditing of on-premises and cloud infrastructure to identify any changes the actor might have made to maintain access; removing user and app access, reviewing configurations for each, and re-issuing new, strong credentials; and using a hardware security module to prevent the exfiltration of sensitive data.
Microsoft also is advising that all customers review their AD FS Server configuration and implement whatever changes are needed to secure the systems from attacks.
Tracking a Known Threat Actor
Microsoft researchers have been keeping a wary eye on Nobelium since the company got caught up in the SolarWinds attack that was first discovered late last year. They’ve been tracking the threat group’s activity and capabilities, which have expanded as the actors have built and deployed new malware.
Since the SolarWinds incident, researchers have observed Nobelium steadily building out its arsenal beyond the Sunburst/Solorigate backdoor and Teardrop malware it initially deployed in that attack, which reached tens of thousands of organizations around the globe (though fewer than 100 were selected by the attackers for actual breach and compromise).
The group used malware called Raindrop in those follow-on SolarWinds attacks, then later added GoldMax, GoldFinder and Sibot malware for layered persistence to its toolset.
Microsoft researchers also identified EnvyScout, BoomBox, NativeZone and VaporRage as four pieces of malware that were used in a Nobelium email-based attack chain earlier this year.
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