US-Cert Current Activity

Today, CISA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), and the Netherlands’ National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-NL) released a joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA), #StopRansomware: Akira Ransomware, to disseminate known Akira ransomware tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) and indicators of compromise (IOCs) identified through FBI investigations as recently as February 2024.

Evolving from an initial focus on Windows systems to a Linux variant targeting VMware ESXi virtual machines, Akira threat actors began deploying Megazord (a Rust-based code) and Akira (written in C++), including Akira_v2 (also Rust-based) in August 2023. Akira ransomware has impacted a wide range of businesses and critical infrastructure entities in North America, Europe, and Australia and claimed approximately $42 million (USD) in ransomware proceeds.

CISA and partners encourage critical infrastructure organizations to review and implement the mitigations provided in the joint CSA to reduce the likelihood and impact of Akira and other ransomware incidents. For more information, see CISA’s #StopRansomware webpage and the updated #StopRansomware Guide.

CISA released three Industrial Control Systems (ICS) advisories on April 18, 2024. These advisories provide timely information about current security issues, vulnerabilities, and exploits surrounding ICS.

• ICSA-24-109-01 Unitronics Vision Series PLCs
• ICSA-21-287-03 Mitsubishi Electric MELSEC iQ-R Series (Update B)
• ICSA-21-250-01 Mitsubishi Electric MELSEC iQ-R Series (Update B)

CISA encourages users and administrators to review the newly released ICS advisories for technical details and mitigations.

Oracle released its quarterly Critical Patch Update Advisory for April 2024 to address vulnerabilities in multiple products. A cyber threat actor could exploit some of these vulnerabilities to take control of an affected system. 

Users and administrators are encouraged to review the following Critical Patch Update Advisory and apply the necessary updates:  

• April 2024 Critical Patch Update Advisory

CISA released four Industrial Control Systems (ICS) advisories on April 16, 2024. These advisories provide timely information about current security issues, vulnerabilities, and exploits surrounding ICS.

• ICSA-24-107-01 Measuresoft ScadaPro
• ICSA-24-107-02 Electrolink FM/DAB/TV Transmitter
• ICSA-24-107-03 Rockwell Automation ControlLogix and GuardLogix
• ICSA-24-107-04 RoboDK RoboDK

CISA encourages users and administrators to review the newly released ICS advisories for technical details and mitigations.

Today, the National Security Agency’s Artificial Intelligence Security Center (NSA AISC) published the joint Cybersecurity Information Sheet Deploying AI Systems Securely in collaboration with CISA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre (ASD ACSC), the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS), the New Zealand National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-NZ), and the United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-UK).

The guidance provides best practices for deploying and operating externally developed artificial intelligence (AI) systems and aims to:

• Improve the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of AI systems. 
• Ensure there are appropriate mitigations for known vulnerabilities in AI systems.
• Provide methodologies and controls to protect, detect, and respond to malicious activity against AI systems and related data and services.

CISA encourages organizations deploying and operating externally developed AI systems to review and apply this guidance as applicable. CISA also encourages organizations to review previously published joint guidance on securing AI systems: Guidelines for secure AI system development and Engaging with Artificial Intelligence. For more CISA information and guidance on securing AI systems, see cisa.gov/ai.

Palo Alto Networks has released workaround guidance for a command injection vulnerability (CVE-2024-3400) affecting PAN-OS versions 10.2, 11.0, and 11.1. Palo Alto Networks has reported active exploitation of this vulnerability in the wild. 

CISA encourages users and administrators to review the Palo Alto Networks Security Advisory, apply the current mitigations, and update the affected software when Palo Alto Networks makes the fixes available. 

CISA has also added this vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog.
 

Juniper has released security updates to address multiple vulnerabilities in Junos OS, Junos OS Evolved, Paragon Active Assurance and Junos OS: EX4300 Series. A cyber threat actor could exploit some of these vulnerabilities to cause a denial-of-service condition.

Users and administrators are encouraged to review Juniper’s Support Portal and apply the necessary updates.

Citrix released security updates to address multiple vulnerabilities in XenServer and Citrix Hypervisor. A cyber threat actor could exploit one of these vulnerabilities to take control of an affected system. 

CISA encourages users and administrators to review and apply the necessary updates: 

• XenServer and Citrix Hypervisor Security Update for CVE-2023-46842, CVE-2024-2201 and CVE-2024-31142

CISA has added one new vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation.

• CVE-2024-3400 Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS Command Injection Vulnerability

These types of vulnerabilities are frequent attack vectors for malicious cyber actors and pose significant risks to the federal enterprise.

Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 22-01: Reducing the Significant Risk of Known Exploited Vulnerabilities established the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog as a living list of known Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) that carry significant risk to the federal enterprise. BOD 22-01 requires Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies to remediate identified vulnerabilities by the due date to protect FCEB networks against active threats. See the BOD 22-01 Fact Sheet for more information.

Although BOD 22-01 only applies to FCEB agencies, CISA strongly urges all organizations to reduce their exposure to cyberattacks by prioritizing timely remediation of Catalog vulnerabilities as part of their vulnerability management practice. CISA will continue to add vulnerabilities to the catalog that meet the specified criteria.

CISA has added two new vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation.

• CVE-2024-3272 D-Link Multiple NAS Devices Use of Hard-Coded Credentials Vulnerability
• CVE-2024-3273 D-Link Multiple NAS Devices Command Injection Vulnerability

These types of vulnerabilities are frequent attack vectors for malicious cyber actors and pose significant risks to the federal enterprise. 

Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 22-01: Reducing the Significant Risk of Known Exploited Vulnerabilities established the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog as a living list of known Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) that carry significant risk to the federal enterprise. BOD 22-01 requires Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies to remediate identified vulnerabilities by the due date to protect FCEB networks against active threats. See the BOD 22-01 Fact Sheet for more information.

Although BOD 22-01 only applies to FCEB agencies, CISA strongly urges all organizations to reduce their exposure to cyberattacks by prioritizing timely remediation of Catalog vulnerabilities as part of their vulnerability management practice. CISA will continue to add vulnerabilities to the catalog that meet the specified criteria.

Today, CISA publicly issued Emergency Directive (ED) 24-02 to address the recent campaign by Russian state-sponsored cyber actor Midnight Blizzard to exfiltrate email correspondence of Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies through a successful compromise of Microsoft corporate email accounts. This Directive rhttps://www.cisa.gov/news-events/directives/ed-24-02-mitigating-significant-risk-nation-state-compromise-microsoft-corporate-email-systemequires agencies to analyze the content of exfiltrated emails, reset compromised credentials, and take additional steps to secure privileged Microsoft Azure accounts.

While ED 24-02 requirements only apply to FCEB agencies, other organizations may also have been impacted by the exfiltration of Microsoft corporate email and are encouraged to contact their respective Microsoft account team for any additional questions or follow up. FCEB agencies and state and local government should utilize the distro MBFedResponse@Microsoft.com for any escalations and assistance with Microsoft. Regardless of direct impact, all organizations are strongly encouraged to apply stringent security measures, including strong passwords, multifactor authentication (MFA) and prohibited sharing of unprotected sensitive information via unsecure channels.

CISA released nine Industrial Control Systems (ICS) advisories on April 11, 2024. These advisories provide timely information about current security issues, vulnerabilities, and exploits surrounding ICS.

• ICSA-24-102-01 Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500
• ICSA-24-102-02 Siemens SIMATIC WinCC
• ICSA-24-102-03 Siemens RUGGEDCOM APE1808 before V11.0.1
• ICSA-24-102-04 Siemens RUGGEDCOM APE1808
• ICSA-24-102-05 Siemens Scalance W1750D
• ICSA-24-102-06 Siemens Parasolid
• ICSA-24-102-07 Siemens SINEC NMS
• ICSA-24-102-08 Siemens Telecontrol Server Basic 
• ICSA-24-102-09 Rockwell Automation 5015-AENFTXT

CISA encourages users and administrators to review the newly released ICS advisories for technical details and mitigations.

CISA is collaborating with private industry partners to respond to a recent compromise discovered by independent security researchers impacting Sisense, a company that provides data analytics services.

CISA urges Sisense customers to:

• Reset credentials and secrets potentially exposed to, or used to access, Sisense services. 
• Investigate—and report to CISA—any suspicious activity involving credentials potentially exposed to, or used to access, Sisense services.

CISA is taking an active role in collaborating with private industry partners to respond to this incident, especially as it relates to impacted critical infrastructure sector organizations. We will provide updates as more information becomes available.
 

Fortinet released security updates to address vulnerabilities in multiple products, including OS and FortiProxy. A cyber threat actor could exploit some of these vulnerabilities to take control of an affected system. 

CISA encourages users and administrators to review the following advisories and apply necessary updates: 

• FR-IR-23-345 FortiClientMac - Lack of configuration file validation
• FG-IR-23-493 FortiOS & FortiProxy - Administrator cookie leakage
• FG-IR-23-087 FortiClient Linux - Remote Code Execution due to dangerous   nodejs configuration

Microsoft released security updates to address vulnerabilities in multiple products. A cyber threat actor could exploit some of these vulnerabilities to take control of an affected system.  

Users and administrators are encouraged to review the following and apply the necessary updates:  

• Microsoft Security Update Guide for April

Adobe has released security updates to address multiple vulnerabilities in Adobe software. A cyber threat actor could exploit some of these vulnerabilities to take control of an affected system.

Users and administrators are encouraged to review the following Adobe Security Bulletins and apply the necessary updates:  

• Adobe After Effects
• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Commerce and Magento
• Adobe InDesign
• Adobe Experience Manager
• Adobe Media Encoder
• Adobe Bridge
• Adobe Illustrator
• Adobe Animate

CISA released one Industrial Control Systems (ICS) advisory on April 9, 2024. These advisories provide timely information about current security issues, vulnerabilities, and exploits surrounding ICS.

• ICSA-24-100-01 SUBNET PowerSYSTEM Server and Substation Server

CISA encourages users and administrators to review the newly released ICS advisory for technical details and mitigations.

CISA has added two new vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation.

• CVE-2024-29745 Android Pixel Information Disclosure Vulnerability
• CVE-2024-29748 Android Pixel Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

These types of vulnerabilities are frequent attack vectors for malicious cyber actors and pose significant risks to the federal enterprise. 

Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 22-01: Reducing the Significant Risk of Known Exploited Vulnerabilities established the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog as a living list of known Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) that carry significant risk to the federal enterprise. BOD 22-01 requires Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies to remediate identified vulnerabilities by the due date to protect FCEB networks against active threats. See the BOD 22-01 Fact Sheet for more information.

Although BOD 22-01 only applies to FCEB agencies, CISA strongly urges all organizations to reduce their exposure to cyberattacks by prioritizing timely remediation of Catalog vulnerabilities as part of their vulnerability management practice. CISA will continue to add vulnerabilities to the catalog that meet the specified criteria.

CISA released two Industrial Control Systems (ICS) advisories on April 4, 2024. These advisories provide timely information about current security issues, vulnerabilities, and exploits surrounding ICS.

• ICSA-24-095-01 Hitachi Energy Asset Suite 9
• ICSA-24-095-02 Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories SEL

CISA encourages users and administrators to review the newly released ICS advisory for technical details and mitigations.

Ivanti has released security updates to address vulnerabilities in all supported versions (9.x and 22.x) of Ivanti Connect Secure and Policy Secure gateways. A cyber threat actor could exploit one of these vulnerabilities to take control of an affected system. 

Users and administrators are encouraged to review the following Ivanti advisory and apply the necessary updates: 

• SA:CVE-2024-21894 (Heap Overflow), CVE-2024-22052 (Null Pointer Dereference), CVE-2024-22053 (Heap Overflow) and CVE-2024-22023 (XML entity expansion or XXE) for Ivanti Connect Secure and Ivanti Policy Secure Gateways