New EwDoor Botnet Targeting Unpatched AT&T Network Edge Devices

News

A newly discovered botnet capable of staging distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks targeted unpatched Ribbon Communications (formerly Edgewater Networks) EdgeMarc appliances belonging to telecom service provider AT&T by exploiting a four-year-old flaw in the network appliances.

Chinese tech giant Qihoo 360’s Netlab network security division, which detected the botnet first on October 27, 2021, called it EwDoor, noting it observed 5,700 compromised IP addresses located in the U.S. during a brief three-hour window.

Automatic GitHub Backups

“So far, the EwDoor in our view has undergone three versions of updates, and its main functions can be summarized into two main categories of DDoS attacks and backdoor,” the researchers noted. “Based on the attacked devices are telephone communication related, we presume that its main purpose is DDoS attacks, and gathering of sensitive information, such as call logs.”

EwDoor

Propagating through a flaw in EdgeMarc devices, EwDoor supports a variety of features, including the ability to self-update, download files, obtain a reverse shell on the compromised machine, and execute arbitrary payloads. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2017-6079 (CVSS score: 9.8), a command injection flaw affecting the session border controllers that could be weaponized to execute malicious commands.

Prevent Data Breaches

EwDoor, besides gathering information about the infected system, also establishes communications with a remote command-and-control (C2) server, either directly or indirectly using BitTorrent Trackers to fetch the C2 server IP address, to await further commands issued by the attackers.

We have reached out to AT&T for comment, and we will update the story when we hear back. Additional indicators of compromise associated with the campaign can be accessed here.

Products You May Like

Articles You May Like

U.S. Citizen Sentenced for Spying on Behalf of China’s Intelligence Agency
UK Justice System Failing Cybercrime Victims, Cyber Helpline Finds
Security Pros Positive About GenAI in Cyber, Despite Raising Attack Severity
Wanted Russian Hacker Linked to Hive and LockBit Ransomware Arrested
Joint Advisory Warns of PRC-Backed Cyber Espionage Targeting Telecom Networks

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *