The FBI, CISA and DHS have issued warnings against the ongoing active attacks which are coordinated by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Services (SVR) or APT29. These attacks are targeted towards the US and foreign organizations. Additionally, the SVR was detected to have connection with the SolarWinds Orion supply chain attack which occurred recently.
About the warning-
The joint advisory provided some additional information on the APT29 tactic, techniques and the tools. The capabilities of the attacks were also mentioned. The federal agencies highlight the following-
- Leveraging Zero-Day Vulnerability- a zero-day exploit CVE-2019-19781 was used by SVR against a VPN to be able to gain access inside the network.
- Password Spraying- The cybercriminals used password spraying to identify the weak password linked with the administrative account in one of the large compromises in 2018.
- The WELLMESS Malware- Intrusion on the government of UK, Canada, and the US were attempted using malware with the name WELLMESS in 2020.
The recent attacks were targeted at the government and the extraction of intelligence information of these entities. They aim at the government networks, think tanks, analysis of the policies of the organizations, etc.
Conclusion-
CISA has reported that APT29 will continue to attack the government and collect intelligence from US and other foreign entities with cyber exploitation. It is using exploitation techniques and stealthy intrusions. Recommendation has been shared as a security alert that should be followed by organizations all over the world.
