CISA Alert AA22-320A – Iranian government-sponsored APT actors compromise federal network, deploy crypto miner, credential harvester.

From mid-June through mid-July 2022, CISA conducted an incident response engagement at a Federal Civilian Executive Branch organization where CISA observed suspected advanced persistent threat activity. In the course of incident response activities, CISA determined that cyber threat actors exploited the Log4Shell vulnerability in an unpatched VMware Horizon server, installed XMRig crypto mining software, moved laterally to the domain controller, compromised credentials, and then implanted Ngrok reverse proxies on several hosts to maintain persistence.

AA22-320A Alert, Technical Details, and Mitigations

Malware Analysis Report MAR 10387061-1.v1

For more information on Iranian government-sponsored Iranian malicious cyber activity, see CISA’s Iran Cyber Threat Overview and Advisories webpage and FBI’s Iran Threats webpage.

CISA offers several no-cost scanning and testing services to help organizations reduce their exposure to threats by taking a proactive approach to mitigating attack vectors. See www.cisa.gov/cyber-hygiene-services

U.S. DIB sector organizations may consider signing up for the NSA Cybersecurity Collaboration Center’s DIB Cybersecurity Service Offerings, including Protective Domain Name System services, vulnerability scanning, and threat intelligence collaboration for eligible organizations. For more information on how to enroll in these services, email dib_defense@cyber.nsa.gov 

To report incidents and anomalous activity or to request incident response resources or technical assistance related to these threats, contact CISA at report@cisa.gov, or call (888) 282-0870, or report incidents to your local FBI field office.