Governments on high alert after CISA snuffs out Firestarter backdoor on fed network


A US federal agency was successfully targeted by a previously unknown backdoor malware called Firestarter, according to CISA cybersnoops and their UK counterparts – neither of which disclosed the agency’s name.

Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies include NASA; Homeland Security itself (cyberworkers at CISA are part of an operational unit in Homeland Security); the FBI; the DoJ; the IRS; the Department of Veteran Affairs; the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); and more. Described as a backdoor with remote access capabilities, Firestarter was named after Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) and Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD), the two products the malware targeted.

Read more…
Source: The Register News


Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox


Related:

  • CISA Releases Six Industrial Control Systems Advisories

    August 24, 2023

    CISA released six Industrial Control Systems (ICS) advisories on August 24, 2023. These advisories provide timely information about current security issues, vulnerabilities, and exploits surrounding ICS. ICSA-23-236-01 KNX Protocol ICSA-23-236-02 Opto 22 SNAP PAC S1 Read more… Source: U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Related story: CISA Adds Two Known Exploited Vulnerabilities to Catalog  

  • CISA Releases Four Industrial Control Systems Advisories

    August 22, 2023

    CISA released four Industrial Control Systems (ICS) advisories on August 22, 2023. These advisories provide timely information about current security issues, vulnerabilities, and exploits surrounding ICS. ICSA-23-234-01 Hitachi Energy AFF66x ICSA-23-234-02 Trane Thermostats Read more… Source: U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency  

  • CISA Releases Three Industrial Control Systems Advisories

    August 17, 2023

    CISA released three Industrial Control Systems (ICS) advisories on August 17, 2023. These advisories provide timely information about current security issues, vulnerabilities, and exploits surrounding ICS. ICSA-23-229-01 ICONICS and Mitsubishi Electric Products Read more… Source: U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency  

  • Atlassian Releases Security Update for Confluence Server and Data Center

    August 17, 2023

    Atlassian has released its security bulletin for August 2023 to address a vulnerability in Confluence Server and Data Center, CVE-2023-28709. A remote attacker can exploit this vulnerability to cause a denial-of-service condition. CISA encourages users and administrators to review Atlassian’s August 2003 Security Bulletin and apply the necessary update. Read more… Source: U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency  

  • Patch-resistant autonomous exploits of Citrix NetScaler hardware hit thousands in Europe

    August 17, 2023

    Researchers have found an expansive and active threat campaign that exploited a severe Citrix NetScaler vulnerability to backdoor thousands of devices, including those that were subsequently patched. Attackers automated the exploitation of the remote code execution vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023-3519, to place Web shells on vulnerable devices. These were found to persist through patches and reboots. Read ...

  • New widespread IoT compromise could affect millions of logic controller chips

    August 15, 2023

    Microsoft security researcher Vladimir Tokarev demonstrated an interesting attack on the industrial internet of things automation software called Codesys. Tokarev, who showed the exploit last week at the annual BlackHat security conference in Las Vegas, used a miniature elevator model to demonstrate how the attack could crash its cab. The software – and more importantly, its ...