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In the summer of 2020, Chef Nomi (@NomiChef) [1] presented the MasterChef contract [2], one of the most redeployed contracts during the…Continue reading on Amber Group » (https://medium.com/amber-group/dinosaur-eggs-liquiditypool-loophole-explained-ac6ef10faafe?source=rss------bug_bounty-5)
Dinosaur Eggs’ LiquidityPool Loophole Explained

In the summer of 2020, Chef Nomi (@NomiChef) 1 presented the MasterChef contract 2, one of the most redeployed contracts during the…Continue reading on Amber Group »
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Black Hat Ethical Hacking
Alibaba ECS instances actively hijacked by cryptomining malware

https://www.blackhatethicalhacking.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Untitled-design-2-1.png Alibaba ECS instances actively hijacked by cryptomining malwarePost Views: 92
Reading Time: 1 Minute
​Threat actors are hijacking Alibaba Elastic Computing Service (ECS) instances to install cryptominer malware and harness the available server resources for their own profit.
Alibaba is a Chinese technology giant with a global market presence, with its cloud services being used primarily in southeast Asia.

In particular, the ECS service is marketed as offering fast memory, Intel CPUs, and promising low-latency operations. Even better, to protect against malware such as cryptominers, ECS comes with a pre-installed security agent. Hackers remove ECS security agent to install minersAccording to a report by Trend Micro, one of the issues with Alibaba ECS is the lack of different privilege levels configured on an instance, with all instances offering root access by default.

This makes it possible for threats actors who gain access to login credentials to access the target server via SSH as root without any preparatory (escalation of privilege) work.
See Also: Complete Offensive Security and Ethical Hacking Course
“The threat actor has the highest possible privilege upon compromise, including vulnerability exploitation, any misconfiguration issue, weak credentials or data leakage,” explains Trend Micro’s report.

Furthermore, these elevated privileges allow the threat actors to create firewall rules that drop incoming packets from IP ranges belonging to internal Alibaba servers to prevent the installed security agent from detecting suspicious behavior.

The threat actors can then run scripts that stop the security agent on the compromised device.
https://www.bleepstatic.com/images/news/u/1220909/Code%20and%20Details/remove_protection.jpg
<figcaptionDisabling the security agent on ECS
Source: Trend Micro
Given how easy it is to plant kernel module rootkits and cryptojacking malware due to the elevated privileges, it is no surprise that multiple threat actors compete to take over Alibaba Cloud ECS instances.
See Also: All Windows versions impacted by new LPE zero-day vulnerability Trend Micro has also observed scripts looking for processes running on specific ports commonly used by malware and backdoors and terminating the associated processes to remove competing malware.
https://www.bleepstatic.com/images/news/u/1220909/Code%20and%20Details/mining.png
<figcaptionCryptojacking malware tuning an ECS instance and terminating processes
Source: Trend Micro
Another ECS feature exploited by the actors is an auto-scaling system that enables the service to automatically adjust computing resources based on the volume of user requests.

This is to help prevent service interruptions and hiccups from sudden traffic burdens, but it’s an opportunity for cryptojackers.

By abusing this when it’s active on the targeted account, the actors can scale up their Monero mining power and incur additional costs to the instance owner.

Considering that the billing cycles are monthly in the best-case scenario, it would take the victim some time to realize the problem and take action.

When auto-scaling isn’t available, mining will cause a more immediate and noticeable slow-down effect as the miners utilize the available CPU power.
See Also: Offensive Security Tool: Pentesting Tools All cloud services should be vettedAlibaba ECS is yet another case of a cloud service targeted by cryptominers, with other notable recent campaigns targeting Docker and Huawei Cloud.

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Black Hat Ethical Hacking Alibaba ECS instances actively hijacked by cryptomining malware https://www.blackhatethicalhacking.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Untitled-design-2-1.png Alibaba ECS instances actively hijacked by cryptomining malwarePost Views:…
o has notified Alibaba of its findings but hasn’t received a response yet.

If you are using Alibaba’s cloud service, ensure that your security settings are correct and follow best practices.

Moreover, avoid running apps under root privilege, use cryptographic keys for access, and follow the principle of least privilege.

In the case of ECS, its built-in malware protection isn’t enough, so adding a second layer of detection for malware and vulnerabilities on the cloud environment should be part of your standard security practice.
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