CISA News

In recent incidents, CISA has seen malicious cyber actors acquire system configuration files by leveraging available protocols or software on devices, such as abusing the legacy Cisco Smart Install feature. CISA recommends organizations disable Smart Install and review NSA’s Smart Install Protocol Misuse advisory and Network Infrastructure Security Guide for configuration guidance. 

CISA also continues to see weak password types used on Cisco network devices. A Cisco password type is the type of algorithm used to secure a Cisco device’s password within a system configuration file. The use of weak password types enables password cracking attacks. Once access is gained a threat actor would be able to access system configuration files easily. Access to these configuration files and system passwords can enable malicious cyber actors to compromise victim networks. Organizations must ensure all passwords on network devices are stored using a sufficient level of protection. 

CISA recommends type 8 password protection for all Cisco devices to protect passwords within configuration files. Type 8 password protection is more secure than other password types and approved by NIST. CISA urges organizations to review NSA’s Cisco Password Types: Best Practices guide for more information and follow the best practices for securing administrator accounts and passwords:  

• Properly store passwords with a strong hashing algorithm.  

• Do not reuse passwords across systems.  

• Assign passwords that are strong and complex.  

• Do not use group accounts that do not provide accountability. 

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

• CVE-2024-36971 Android Kernel Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
• CVE-2024-32113 Apache OFBiz Path Traversal 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—in partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)—released an update to joint Cybersecurity Advisory #StopRansomware: Royal Ransomware, #StopRansomware: BlackSuit (Royal) Ransomware. The updated advisory provides network defenders with recent and historically observed tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) and indicators of compromise (IOCs) associated with BlackSuit and legacy Royal activity. FBI investigations identified these TTPs and IOCs as recently as July 2024.

BlackSuit ransomware attacks have spread across numerous critical infrastructure sectors including, but not limited to, commercial facilities, healthcare and public health, government facilities, and critical manufacturing.

CISA encourages network defenders to review the updated advisory and apply the recommended mitigations. See #StopRansomware for additional guidance on ransomware protection, detection, and response. Visit CISA’s Cross-Sector Cybersecurity Performance Goals for more information on the CPGs, including additional recommended baseline protections.

CISA encourages software manufacturers to take ownership of improving the security outcomes of their customers by applying secure by design tactics. For more information on secure by design, see CISA’s Secure by Design webpage and joint guide Shifting the Balance of Cybersecurity Risk: Principles and Approaches for Secure by Design Software.

Today, CISA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have released Secure by Demand Guide: How Software Customers Can Drive a Secure Technology Ecosystem to help organizations drive a secure technology ecosystem by ensuring their software manufacturers prioritize secure technology from the start.

An organization’s acquisition staff often has a general understanding of the core cybersecurity requirements for a particular technology acquisition. However, they frequently don’t assess whether a given supplier has practices and policies in place to ensure that security is a core consideration from the earliest stages of the product development lifecycle.

This guide provides organizations with questions to ask when buying software, considerations to integrate product security into various stages of the procurement lifecycle, and resources to assess product security maturity in line with secure by design principles. 

This guide compliments the “Software Acquisition Guide for Government Enterprise Consumers: Software Assurance in the Cyber-Supply Chain Risk Management (C-SCRM) Lifecycle” that was recently published.

CISA encourages organizations to review both the Secure by Demand Guide and Software Acquisition Guide and implement recommended actions.

CISA released one Industrial Control Systems (ICS) advisory on August 6, 2024. These advisories provide timely information about current security issues, vulnerabilities, and exploits surrounding ICS.

• ICSA-24-219-01 Delta Electronics DIAScreen

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

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

• CVE-2018-0824 Microsoft COM for Windows Deserialization of Untrusted Data 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 nine Industrial Control Systems (ICS) advisories on August 1, 2024. These advisories provide timely information about current security issues, vulnerabilities, and exploits surrounding ICS.

• ICSA-24-214-01 Johnson Controls exacqVision Client and exacqVision Server
• ICSA-24-214-02 Johnson Controls exacqVision Web Service
• ICSA-24-214-03 Johnson Controls exacqVision Web Service
• ICSA-24-214-04 Johnson Controls exacqVision Web Service
• ICSA-24-214-05 Johnson Controls exacqVision Server
• ICSA-24-214-06 Johnson Controls exacqVision Web Service
• ICSA-24-214-07 AVTECH IP Camera
• ICSA-24-214-08 Vonets WiFi Bridges
• ICSA-24-214-09 Rockwell Automation Logix Controllers 

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

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

• CVE-2024-37085 VMware ESXi Authentication Bypass 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.

Update 9:00 a.m., EDT, July 31, 2024: 

DigiCert has provided updated information and revocation timelines which can be found by visiting: https://status.digicert.com/

CISA encourages customers to contact DigiCert if unable to reissue/rekey certificates by the updated revocation deadline: 3:30 p.m., EDT, July 31, 2024.

Initial Alert (7:00 p.m., EDT, July 30, 2024):

DigiCert, a certificate authority (CA) organization, is revoking a subset of transport layer security (TLS) certificates due to a non-compliance issue with domain control verification (DCV). Revocation of these certificates may cause temporary disruptions to websites, services, and applications relying on these certificates for secure communication. DigiCert has notified affected customers and provided instructions on how to replace non-compliant certificates.

CISA urges DigiCert customers to check their DigiCert account to view any non-compliant certificates and reissue/rekey certificates. See DigiCert’s Revocation Incident Notice for customer instructions and more information.
 

Apple released security updates to address vulnerabilities in Safari, iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS. 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: 

• Safari 17.6
• iOS 17.6 and iPadOS 17.6
• iOS 16.7.9 and iPadOS 16.7.9
• macOS Sonoma 14.6
• macOS Ventura 13.6.8
• macOS Monterey 12.7.6
• watchOS 10.6
• tvOS 17.6
• visionOS 1.3

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

• CVE-2024-4879 ServiceNow Improper Input Validation Vulnerability
• CVE-2024-5217 ServiceNow Incomplete List of Disallowed Inputs Vulnerability
• CVE-2023-45249 Acronis Cyber Infrastructure (ACI) Insecure Default Password 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—in partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)—released a joint Cybersecurity Advisory, North Korea State-Sponsored Cyber Group Conducts Global Espionage Campaign to Advance Regime’s Military and Nuclear Programs. The advisory was coauthored with the following organizations:

• U.S. Cyber National Mission Force (CNMF);
• U.S. Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center (DC3);
• U.S. National Security Agency (NSA);
• Republic of Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS);
• Republic of Korea’s National Police Agency (NPA); and
• United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).

This advisory was crafted to highlight cyber espionage activity associated with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)’s Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB) 3rd Bureau based in Pyongyang and Sinuiju. The group primarily targets defense, aerospace, nuclear, and engineering entities to obtain sensitive and classified technical information and intellectual property to advance the regime’s military and nuclear programs and ambitions.

The authoring agencies believe the group and the cyber techniques remain an ongoing threat to various industry sectors worldwide, including but not limited to entities in their respective countries, as well as in Japan and India.

All critical infrastructure organizations are encouraged to review the advisory and implement the recommended mitigations. For more information on North Korean state-sponsored threat actor activity, see CISA’s North Korea Cyber Threat Overview and Advisories page.

Andariel actors fund their espionage activity through ransomware operations against U.S. healthcare entities. For more information on this ransomware activity, see joint advisories #StopRansomware: Ransomware Attacks on Critical Infrastructure Fund DPRK Malicious Cyber Activities and North Korean State-Sponsored Cyber Actors Use Maui Ransomware to Target the Healthcare and Public Health Sector.

CISA released two Industrial Control Systems (ICS) advisories on July 25, 2024. These advisories provide timely information about current security issues, vulnerabilities, and exploits surrounding ICS.

• ICSA-24-207-01 Siemens SICAM Products
• ICSA-24-207-02 Positron Broadcast Signal Processor

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

The Internet Systems Consortium (ISC) released security advisories to address vulnerabilities affecting multiple versions of ISC’s Berkeley Internet Name Domain (BIND) 9. A cyber threat actor could exploit one of these vulnerabilities to cause a denial-of-service condition. 

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

• CVE-2024-4076: Assertion failure when serving both stale cache data and authoritative zone content
• CVE-2024-1975: SIG(0) can be used to exhaust CPU resources
• CVE-2024-1737: BIND’s database will be slow if a very large number of RRs exist at the same name
• CVE-2024-0760: A flood of DNS messages over TCP may make the server unstable

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

• CVE-2012-4792 Microsoft Internet Explorer Use-After-Free Vulnerability
• CVE-2024-39891 Twilio Authy Information Disclosure 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 four Industrial Control Systems (ICS) advisories on July 23, 2024. These advisories provide timely information about current security issues, vulnerabilities, and exploits surrounding ICS.

• ICSA-24-205-01 National Instruments IO Trace
• ICSA-24-205-02 Hitachi Energy AFS/AFR Series Products
• ICSA-24-205-03 National Instruments LabVIEW
   
• ICSA-22-333-02 Hitachi Energy IED Connectivity Packages and PCM600 Products (Update A)

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

Note: CISA will update this Alert with more information as it becomes available.

Update 12:30 p.m., EDT, July 26, 2024: 

• CrowdStrike’s Counter Adversary Operations blog lists various reports of malicious cyber activity leveraging last week’s outage. 
• CISA encourages users and administrators to remain vigilant and maintain robust cybersecurity measures, including:
  • Only follow guidance from legitimate sources.
  • Block malicious domains.
  • Follow CrowdStrike’s recommendations to protect against the outage-related phishing activity listed in their Counter Adversary Operations reports.
• CrowdStrike also continues to provide updated information through its remediation and guidance hub.

Update 12:00 p.m., EDT, July 24, 2024: 

• CrowdStrike continues to provide updates to its guidance, including:
  • An instructional video to guide users through a self-remediation process.
  • An update to their initial remediation that accelerates remediation of impacted systems; CrowdStrike encourages customers to “follow the Tech Alerts for latest updates as they happen.”
  • A “Preliminary Incident Review,” which provides answers to why and how the outage occurred and how they will prevent such outages going forward.
• CrowdStrike also published a list of domains impersonating the CrowdStrike brand, which threat actors could use to deliver malicious content. 

Update 9:45 a.m., EDT, July 21, 2024: 

• Microsoft released a recovery tool that uses a USB drive to boot and repair affected systems. 
• Microsoft also published a blog post that provides links to various remediation solutions and outlines their actions in response to the outage, which include working with CrowdStrike to expedite restoring services to disrupted systems.
• In the blog post, Microsoft estimates the outage affected 8.5 million Windows devices. Microsoft notes that this number makes up less than one percent of all Windows machines.

Update 12:30 p.m., EDT, July 20, 2024: 

• CrowdStrike continues to provide updated guidance on yesterday’s widespread IT outage, including remediation steps for specific environments.
• CrowdStrike released technical details that provide:
  • A technical summary of the outage and the impact.
  • Information on how the update to the CrowdStrike Falcon sensor configuration file, Channel File 291, caused the logic error that led to the outage.
  • A discussion of the root cause analysis CrowdStrike is undertaking to determine how the logic error occurred.
• Cyber threat actors continue to leverage the outage to conduct malicious activity, including phishing attempts. CISA continues to work closely with CrowdStrike and other private sector and government partners to actively monitor any emerging malicious activity.
  • According to a new CrowdStrike blog, threat actors have been distributing a malicious ZIP archive file. This activity appears to be targeting Latin America-based CrowdStrike customers. The blog provides indicators of compromise and recommendations.

Update 7:30 p.m., EDT, July 19, 2024: 

• The CrowdStrike guidance is updated with additional guidance regarding impacts to specific environments, e.g., Azure, AWS. 
• For additional information:
  
  • Update from the United Kingdom's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-UK)
  • Update from the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC)
  • Update from the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS)
• Threat actors continue to use the widespread IT outage for phishing and other malicious activity. CISA urges organizations to ensure they have robust cybersecurity measures to protect their users, assets, and data against this activity.

CISA continues to monitor the situation and will update this Alert to provide continued support.

Initial Alert (11:30 a.m., EDT, July 19, 2024):

CISA is aware of the widespread outage affecting Microsoft Windows hosts due to an issue with a recent CrowdStrike update and is working closely with CrowdStrike and federal, state, local, tribal and territorial (SLTT) partners, as well as critical infrastructure and international partners to assess impacts and support remediation efforts. CrowdStrike has confirmed the outage:

• Impacts Windows 10 and later systems.
• Does not impact Mac and Linux hosts.
• Is due to the CrowdStrike Falcon content update and not to malicious cyber activity.

According to CrowdStrike, the issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. CrowdStrike customer organizations should reference CrowdStrike guidance and their customer portal to resolve the issue.

Of note, CISA has observed threat actors taking advantage of this incident for phishing and other malicious activity. CISA urges organizations and individuals to remain vigilant and only follow instructions from legitimate sources. CISA recommends organizations to remind their employees to avoid clicking on phishing emails or suspicious links.

Oracle released its quarterly Critical Patch Update Advisory for July 2024 to address vulnerabilities in multiple products. 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 Oracle Critical Patch Update Advisory and apply the necessary updates: 

• July 2024 Critical Patch Update Advisory

Cisco released security updates to address vulnerabilities in Cisco software. 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:

• Cisco Secure Email Gateway Arbitrary File Write Vulnerability
• Cisco Smart Software Manager On-Prem Password Change Vulnerability
• Cisco Secure Web Appliance Privilege Escalation Vulnerability
• Cisco Identity Services Engine Arbitrary File Upload Vulnerability
• Cisco Intelligent Node Software Static Key Vulnerability
• Cisco Webex App Vulnerabilities
• Cisco RV340 and RV345 Dual WAN Gigabit VPN Routers Authenticated Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
• Cisco Expressway Series Open Redirect Vulnerability
• Cisco Secure Email Gateway Server-Side Template Injection Vulnerability

Ivanti released security updates to address vulnerabilities in Ivanti Endpoint Manager (EPM) and Ivanti Endpoint Manager for Mobile (EPMM). 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 Ivanti advisories and apply the necessary updates:

• Security Advisory EPM
• Security Advisory Ivanti Endpoint Manager for Mobile (EPMM)