REWTERZ THREAT ALERT – New SpeakUp Backdoor Infects Linux and macOS with Miners in East Asia

SEVERITY: Medium

CATEGORY: Emerging Threat

Analysis Summary

The backdoor SpeakUp connects to the command and control (C&C) server upon infection, to register the machine and exploits known vulnerabilities in six different Linux distributions. The initial infection vector is targeting the recently reported vulnerability in ThinkPHP and uses command injection techniques for uploading a PHP shell that serves and executes a Perl backdoor. It begins with exploiting CVE-2018-20062 for uploading a PHP shell by using a GET request. Then this shell executes commands sent via the “module” parameter in a query.

SpeakUp uses POST and GET requests over HTTP to communicate with its main C&C which is the compromised website of speakupomaha[.]com. The first POST packet sends a victim ID and more introductory information such as the current version of the installed script. SpeakUp also equips its backdoors with i (sic), a python script which allows the backdoor to scan and infect more Linux servers within its internal and external subnets. Apart from Brute Forcing other potential victims in the local network, the threat actors try to exploit the following Remote Code Execution vulnerabilities in the targeted servers:

a) CVE-2012-0874: JBoss Enterprise Application Platform Multiple Security Bypass Vulnerabilities

b) CVE-2010-1871: JBoss Seam Framework remote code execution

c) JBoss AS 3/4/5/6: Remote Command Execution (exploit)

d) CVE-2017-10271: Oracle WebLogic wls-wsat Component Deserialization RCE

e) CVE-2018-2894: Vulnerability in the Oracle WebLogic Server component of Oracle Fusion Middleware.

f) Hadoop YARN ResourceManager – Command Execution (exploit)

g) CVE-2016-3088: Apache ActiveMQ Fileserver File Upload Remote Code Execution Vulnerability.

A successful exploitation of one of the vulnerabilities will result in deploying the original ibus script on the exploited server. It has the ability to scan the surrounding network of an infected server and distribute the malware.

Impact

Code Execution

Mining of Cryptocurrency

Affected Products

Linux

MacOS

Indicators of Compromise

IP(s) / Hostname(s)

• 67[.]209.177.163
• 173[.]82.104.196
• 5[.]196.70.86
• 120[.]79.247.183
• 5[.]2.73.127/lnsqqFE2jK/pprtnp153WWW.php
• Speakupomaha[.]com/misc/ui/images/Indxe.php
• Linuxservers[.]000webhostapp[.]com/hp.html linuxsrv134[.]xp3[.]biz

URLs

speakupomaha[.]com.

Malware Hash (MD5/SHA1/SH256)

• 0a4e5831a2d3115acb3e989f0f660a6f
• 0b5e1eb67be7c3020610b321f68375c1
• 968d1906be7eb8321a3afac5fde77467
• 074d7a4417d55334952d264c0345d885
• f357f32d7c2ddfef4b5850e7506c532b
• b6311bffcea117dceac5ccac0a243ae5
• 2adf4e4512aaafab75e8411aa7121ffa
• a73c7b777d31b0a8ef270809e2ed6510
• 114cda60d215e44baeef22b7db0c64d5
• 8f725fc5406ebf679c5c7ade3e8d5f70
• 4a80a075c7c6b5e738a7f4b60b7b101f
• e18749e404baec2aa29f4af001164d1b
• 1a377b5d5d2162327f0706cc84427780
• 1da94e156609d7e880c413a124bad004
• 713260a53eff05ad44aad8d6899f1c6e
• 36cda3c77ba380d6388a01aafcbaa6c7
• 0f83482368343f5c811bac84a395d2c0
• 8dd6cb5f33d25512805c70bd3db5f433
• e4ca1e857034cbe0428d431c15ec8608
• 36502273cee61825dc97d62a3dffe729
• f16c5a6342ccc253b1de177d3fa310b1
• 08d7674532cc226931570e6a99d5ba30
• 279c4aa955085480f3ad0c19aa36a93b
• f79be3df4cbfe81028040796733ab07f
• a21a3d782d30b51515834a7bf68adc8e
• c572a10ca12f3bd9783c6d576aa080fb
• b60ec230644b740ca4dd6fd45059a4be
• 5e6b6fcd7913ae4917b0cdb0f09bf539
• ae875c496535be196449547a15205883
• 068d424a1db93ec0c1f90f5e501449a3
• 996e0c8190880c8bf1b8ffb0826cf30f

Remediation

• Make sure to update all Linux distributions to a patched version against above-mentioned vulnerabilities.
• Block the threat indicators at their respective controls.
• Ensure close monitoring of all internal and external communications as well as activities within the network.