Billions of Android, iOS, Windows and Linux devices that use Bluetooth may be exposed to a new attack that can be carried out remotely without any user interaction, researchers warned.
Armis Labs, a company that specializes in protecting Internet of Things (IoT) devices, has discovered a total of eight Bluetooth implementation vulnerabilities that expose mobile, desktop and IoT systems to an attack it has dubbed “BlueBorne.”
According to the security firm, the attack only requires Bluetooth to be enabled on the targeted device – no pairing is needed between the victim and the attacker’s device, and the Bluetooth connection does not even have to be discoverable.
A hacker who is in range of the targeted device can exploit one of the several Bluetooth implementation vulnerabilities that can lead to remote code execution, information disclosure or man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks. The attacker only needs to determine what type of operating system the target is using in order to deploy an exploit specific to that platform.
BlueBorne does not require the targeted user to click on a link or open a file, and the malicious activities can take place in the background, making it less likely for the victim to notice anything suspicious. And since the attack leverages Bluetooth, a less common attack vector, many security solutions may not detect the malicious activity, Armis said.
The flaws can be exploited by malicious actors to deliver ransomware and other types of malware. Armis claims the technique can also be used to create a worm that spreads from one device to another via Bluetooth.
Armis showed that an attacker can also exploit one BlueBorne vulnerability to launch MitM attacks against Windows machines and redirect the victim’s browsing session to a phishing website. Another video shows a hacker taking control of a Samsung smartwatch running a Linux-based Tizen operating system and eavesdropping on its owner.
Vulnerabilities that allow BlueBorne attacks have been found in several implementations of Bluetooth, including in Windows, Android, Linux and iOS. Experts discovered information disclosure and code execution flaws in Linux; one vulnerability that allows MitM attacks in Windows (CVE-2017-8628); four code execution, MitM and information disclosure vulnerabilities in Android (CVE-2017-0781, CVE-2017-0782, CVE-2017-0783 and CVE-2017-0785); and one code execution flaw in the Bluetooth Low Energy Audio protocol used by iOS.
Google patched the weaknesses in Android with its September security updates. Microsoft told SecurityWeek it released fixes for Windows in July, but withheld disclosure until other vendors could develop and release updates. Apple has already addressed the vulnerabilities with the release of iOS 10 (one year ago) and Apple TV 7.2.2. Earlier versions of the Apple operating systems are still vulnerable to attacks.
The developers of Linux distributions have also been notified and are also said to be working on patches.
Armis has released some technical details about each of the vulnerabilities, but it will only make the exploits available at a later date.
A recently patched Samba flaw known as EternalRed and SambaCry has been exploited in the wild to deliver a cryptocurrency miner to vulnerable machines, researchers warned.
These attacks, observed by both Kaspersky and Cyphort, were launched shortly after the existence of the security hole was brought to light and proof-of-concept (PoC) exploits were made available.
The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2017-7494, affects all versions of Samba since 3.5.0 and it has been addressed with the release of versions 4.6.4, 4.5.10 and 4.4.14. The flaw allows a malicious client to upload a shared library to a writable share, and cause the server to execute the file.
The attackers first identified writable shares to which they could deliver their payload. In earlier attacks, the cybercriminals attempted to guess the local path needed to exploit the vulnerability, but Cyphort noticed that they later turned to using the NetShareGetInfo method, which provides information about a particular shared resource on a server.
The first file delivered is a backdoor that provides the attackers a reverse shell they can leverage to remotely execute commands. Experts pointed out that this part of the attack is based on the Metasploit module released shortly after CVE-2017-7494 was disclosed.
The backdoor is used to download and execute a popular open-source cryptocurrency miner named cpuminer (miderd). The miner is configured to abuse compromised systems to mine Monero (XMR) and send it to a wallet whose address is hardcoded.
Kaspersky analyzed the wallet and found that, as of June 8, the attackers had obtained nearly 100 Monero, which is currently worth roughly $5,500. The domain from which the mining utility is downloaded was registered on April 29 and the attackers’ wallet started receiving Monero the next day.
During the first two weeks the wallet received only one Monero per day, but the amount increased following the disclosure of CVE-2017-7494, and recently the attackers have been earning roughly 5 Monero each day.
“The attacked machine turns into a workhorse on a large farm, mining crypto-currency for the attackers,” Kaspersky researchers said in a blog post. “In addition, through the reverse-shell left in the system, the attackers can change the configuration of a miner already running or infect the victim’s computer with other types of malware.”
The Samba vulnerability has been found to affect many networking devices, including Cisco, Netgear, QNAP, Synology, Varitas and NetApp products.