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LOCKFILE RANSOMWARE ATTACKS MICROSOFT EXCHANGE WITH PROXYSHELL EXPLOITS
By
LAWRENCE ABRAMS
* August 21, 2021
* 11:05 AM
* 1
A new ransomware gang known as LockFile encrypts Windows domains after hacking
into Microsoft Exchange servers using the recently disclosed ProxyShell
vulnerabilities.
ProxyShell is the name of an attack consisting of three chained Microsoft
Exchange vulnerabilities that result in unauthenticated, remote code execution.
The three vulnerabilities were discovered by Devcore Principal Security
Researcher Orange Tsai, who chained them together to take over a Microsoft
Exchange server in April's Pwn2Own 2021 hacking contest.
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TO PAGE
* CVE-2021-34473 - Pre-auth Path Confusion leads to ACL Bypass (Patched in
April by KB5001779)
* CVE-2021-34523 - Elevation of Privilege on Exchange PowerShell
Backend (Patched in April by KB5001779)
* CVE-2021-31207 - Post-auth Arbitrary-File-Write leads to RCE (Patched in May
by KB5003435)
While Microsoft fully patched these vulnerabilities in May 2021, more technical
details were recently disclosed, allowing security researchers and threat actors
to reproduce the exploit.
As reported last week by BleepingComputer, this has led to threat actors
actively scanning for and hacking Microsoft Exchange servers using the
ProxyShell vulnerabilities.
After exploiting an Exchange server, the threat actors dropped web shells that
could be used to upload other programs and execute them.
At the time, NCC Group's vulnerability researcher Rich Warren told
BleepingComputer that the web shells were being used to install a .NET backdoor
that was downloading a harmless payload at the time.
Since then, security researcher Kevin Beaumont reports that a new ransomware
operation known as LockFile uses the Microsoft Exchange ProxyShell and
the Windows PetitPotam vulnerabilities to take over Windows domains and encrypt
devices.
When breaching a network, the threat actors will first access the on-premise
Microsoft Exchange server using the ProxyShell vulnerabilities. Once they gain a
foothold, Symantec says the LockFile gang uses the PetitPotam vulnerability to
take over a domain controller, and thus the Windows domain.
From there, it is trivial to deploy the ransomware through the entire network.
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE LOCKFILE RANSOMWARE
At this time, there is not much known about the new LockFile ransomware
operation.
When first seen in July, the ransom note was named 'LOCKFILE-README.hta' but did
not have any particular branding, as shown below.
Old LockFile ransom notes
Starting last week, BleepingComputer began receiving reports of a ransomware
gang using branded ransom notes indicating that they were called 'LockFile,' as
shown below
These ransom notes use a naming format of '[victim_name]-LOCKFILE-README.hta'
and prompted the victim to contact them via Tox or email to negotiate the
ransom. The current email address used by the operation is
contact@contipauper.com, which appears to be a reference to the Conti ransomware
operation.
While the color schemes of the ransom notes are similar, the communication
methods and wording make it unclear if they are the same operation.
Of particular interest is that the color scheme and layout of the ransom notes
is very similar to the LockBit ransomware, but there does not appear to be any
relation.
When encrypting files, the ransomware will append the .lockfile extension to the
encrypted file's names.
Yesterday afternoon, when BleepingComputer and ransomware expert Michael
Gillespie analyzed the July version of LockFile, we found it to be a noisy
ransomware, taking up many system resources and causing temporary freezes of the
computer.
PATCH NOW!
As the LockFile operation uses both the Microsoft Exchange ProxyShell
vulnerabilities and the Windows PetitPotam NTLM Relay vulnerability, it is
imperative that Windows administrators install the latest updates.
For the ProxyShell vulnerabilities, you can install the latest Microsoft
Exchange cumulative updates to patch the vulnerabilities.
The Windows PetitPotam attack gets a bit complicated as Microsoft's security
update is incomplete and does not patch all the vulnerability vectors.
To patch the PetitPotam attack, you can use an unofficial patch from 0patch to
block this NTLM relay attack vector or apply NETSH RPC filters that block access
to vulnerable functions in the MS-EFSRPC API.
Beaumont says you can perform the following Azure Sentinel queries to check if
your Microsoft Exchange server has been scanned for the ProxyShell
vulnerability.
W3CIISLog
| where csUriStem == "/autodiscover/autodiscover.json"
| where csUriQuery has "PowerShell" | where csMethod == "POST"
All organizations are strongly advised to apply the patches as soon as possible
and create offline backups of their Exchange servers.
RELATED ARTICLES:
LockFile ransomware uses PetitPotam attack to hijack Windows domains
Microsoft Exchange servers are getting hacked via ProxyShell exploits
Microsoft Exchange servers scanned for ProxyShell vulnerability, Patch Now
The Week in Ransomware - August 20th 2021 - Exploiting Windows
New unofficial Windows patch fixes more PetitPotam attack vectors
* Exchange
* LockFile
* Microsoft Exchange
* PetitPotam
* ProxyShell
* Vulnerability
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LAWRENCE ABRAMS
Lawrence Abrams is the owner and Editor in Chief of BleepingComputer.com.
Lawrence's area of expertise includes malware removal and computer forensics.
Lawrence Abrams is a co-author of the Winternals Defragmentation, Recovery, and
Administration Field Guide and the technical editor for Rootkits for Dummies.
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COMMENTS
* AL1963 - 8 HOURS AGO
*
*
if you look at the ransom note, it looks like Crylock :)
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