Are you the owner of a Assis router? If so, your device may be one of the thousands in a large campaign waged by cyber criminal who take advantage of it. One in Blog post published on WednesdaySecurity firm Grinois revealed that the attack was staged which suggests that “is a well revived and highly capable opponent.”
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To achieve the initial access, the attackers used the brut-form login technique and two different methods to bypass the underlying authentication. They have also been able to take advantage of some weaknesses which are not yet official CV numberOnce they reached the router, they were able to run a system command arbitrarily by exploiting a known security defect. Cve-2023-39780,
Although no malware was actually established, the attackers certainly left their imprint.
More than 9,000 Asus routers affected
By using the underlying asus settings, they were able to set SSH access, a safe way to connect and control a remote device. He also installed a backdoor to easily return to the router’s firmware without worrying about certification. The back door was stored in non-vaporing memory (NVRAM), which meant that it could not be removed by rebooting the router or updating its firmware. To avoid being caught, criminals also disable the logging, which would otherwise record their access.
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Based on Data from internet scanner sensorMore than 9,000 Asus routers are affected, and this number is increasing. However, Greenois stated that in the last three months, it saw only 30 related requests to reach the affected router. This seems to be an indication that the campaign is slowly moving and silently moving forward.
If no malware has been installed, what is the goal behind the attack?
“It appears to be part of a secret operation to collect a distributed network of back door devices – potentially to lay groundwork for future botnets,” Granois said in his post.
And who is behind it?
“The strategy used in this campaign-the initial access to the initial access, use of system facilities for perseverance, and to avoid detection, in line with those seen in long-term operations, which include advanced constant danger (APT) actors (APT) actors and operating relay box (orb), while Greynoise has not contained any contracts.
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The language used by Greynoise, especially in terms of APTS, suggests a nation-state or attackers working on behalf of a hostile government. Although GREYNOISE did not cite any particular opponent, such attacks have taken place Different countries responsibleIncluding China, Russia, North Korea and Iran.
Using its AI-operated payload analysis tool sift and its observation grid, GRYNOISE discovered the attack on 18 March. But the firm said that it was still waiting for it to disclose it publicly so that he had time to consult his government and industry partners.
What should you do if you own the Asus router?
To see if your device has been compromised, log into the router’s firmware. See for the “Saksham Ssh” option under service or administration settings. If your router was caught in the campaign, the settings will show that a person can use SSH with a trunked SSH public key using SSH on Port 53282: SSH-RSA AAAAB3NZAC1YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKEAOO41NBOVFJOO41nbovfj4hlvmfj4hlvmgv+ypsxmdrmdrmp ,
Generally, updating the firmware will solve the problem, especially since Asus fixed the CVE-2023-39780 blame with its latest firmware updates. If your router is not infected, be sure to update the firmware ASAP. But if an agreement has already been reached with your router, then the backdoor remains even after an update.
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In that case, Asus recommends you to remove or disable SSH entry. You would also like to block the following four IP addresses: 101.99.91.151, 101.99.94.173, 79.141.163.179, and 111.90.146.237. Finally, you may want to reset your router and manually configure it again to ensure that there is no mark of the back door.
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