ESET Research found that more than ten different APT groups (advanced persistent threats) are exploiting its recent vulnerabilities microsoft Exchange to violate email servers.
ESET identified more than 5.000 email servers affected by malicious activity related to the incident. The servers belong to organizations - businesses and governments - from all over the world.
Beginning of March, Microsoft has released updates (patches) for Exchange Server 2013, 2016, and 2019 that fix a number of remote code execution (RCE) vulnerabilities.
Vulnerabilities allow an attacker to gain control of any accessible Exchange server without the need for account credentials, making Internet-connected servers particularly vulnerable.
"The day after the updates were released, we started to see a lot of malicious agents scanning and attacking Exchange servers en masse. Interestingly, they are all APT groups focusing on espionage, except from one that appears to be related to a well-known cryptocurrency mining campaign. However, it is inevitable that sooner or later more and more cybercriminals, including ransomware administrators, will take advantage of the vulnerabilities, "said Matthieu Faou, who is leading ESET's research effort.
ESET researchers observed that some APT groups exploited vulnerabilities before the release of the updates. "Which means we can rule out the possibility that these groups created a reverse engineering exploit based on Microsoft updates," Faou added.
ESET telemetry flagged the presence of webshells (malware or scripts which allow remote control of a server via a web browser) on more than 5.000 servers in more than 115 countries.
ESET has identified more than ten different cybercriminal groups that have likely exploited recent Microsoft Exchange vulnerabilities to install malware such as webshells and backdoors on victims' email servers. In some cases, different groups target the same organization.
The APT teams are: Tick, LuckyMouse, Calypso, Websiic, Winnti Group, Tonto Team, ShadowPad activity, The “Opera” Cobalt Strike, IIS backdoors, Mikroceen and DLTMiner
"It is now clear that we need to update all Exchange servers as soon as possible. Even those who are not connected directly to the internet. In the event of a breach, administrators should remove webshells, change credentials, and investigate any additional malicious activity. "This is a great opportunity to remember that complex applications such as Microsoft Exchange or SharePoint should not be open on the Internet," Faou advises.
For more technical details on attacks that take advantage of recent Exchange vulnerabilities, read the blogpost “Exchange servers under siege from at least 10 APT groups”At WeLiveSecurity.