„Attackers Fight for Control of Sites Targeted in File Manager Vulnerability“
Conspiracy Revelation: 28.9.2020: Wordfence caused a long time a WSOD on my page…not sure if it was a counterdefense mechanism of these notorious russian cleptocratic cyberhack spambot mafiosis, that dominate the Internet for the last 25 years with their viral loads… I will check that soon…I surely would have used wordfence if it didn´t lose compatibility aka WSOD which made it impossible for me to use it at a certain point in time with this webpage.
These ico exploits are very old and typical russian cyber mafiosi method. At least 20 years old, also for Windows Systems.
Update: I installed Wordfence now, it works again, the white screen of death was likely caused by these russian cyber mafiosis as a Malware Persistence Factor, so that their exploit could survive longer, that is a good indicator that the page is finally really cleansed from this filth.
„This entry was posted in Research, Vulnerabilities, WordPress Security on September 10, 2020 by Ram Gall 5 Replies
Last week, we covered a vulnerability in the File Manager plugin installed on over 700,000 WordPress sites. By Friday, September 4, 2020, we recorded attacks on over 1.7 million sites, and by today, September 10, 2020 the total number of sites attacked has increased to over 2.6 million. We’ve seen evidence of multiple threat actors taking part in these attacks, including minor efforts by the threat actor previously responsible for attacking millions of sites, but two attackers have been the most successful in exploiting vulnerable sites, and at this time, both attackers are password protecting vulnerable copies of the connector.minimal.php file.
An early bird stealing passwords
Our site cleaning team has found numerous indicators that the most active of these attacks are the work of a Moroccan threat actor known as “bajatax” which has historically stolen credentials from PrestaShop sites. These indicators include simple files containing only the string “bajatax” as well as modifications to the original vulnerable connector.minimal.php file designed to lock out all other attackers, containing a $content=“by bajatax” line of code. Logs from infected sites indicate these files are being added by some of the most active attacking IPs, and we were able to verify that this threat actor is behind the hardfork.php and hardfile.php IOCs mentioned in our initial post. This attacker was the first to attack this vulnerability at scale.
Once a site is infected, the “bajatax” attacker adds malicious code that uses the Telegram messenger’s API to exfiltrate the credentials of any user logging into the site. This code is added to the WordPress core user.php file. If WooCommerce is installed, the wc-user-functions.php and class-wc-form-handler.php files will also be modified to exfiltrate user credentials. These credentials could then be resold or used to gain access to other accounts using the same credentials.
We’ve found IOCs from this threat actor on a substantial number of sites. Despite this attacker’s efforts to lock out other hackers, they haven’t always managed to get their foot in the door first, but we’ve seen them make regular attempts to update the passwords on both the vulnerable connector.minimal.php file and on other files they’ve added to allow additional upload capability, while leaving the credential scraping functionality in place which consistently sends to the same Telegram chat ID of 1110165405.
Our Threat Intelligence team has been hard at work adding malware signatures to detect Indicators of Compromise by the bajatax threat actor, and these have been available to Wordfence Premium users starting September 8, 2020. These signatures will be released to sites still using the free version of Wordfence after 30 days, starting October 8, 2020.
A second attacker scattering backdoors
The most prevalent single indicators of compromise we found are an infector, feoidasf4e0_index.php, with an MD5 hash of 6ea6623e8479a65e711124e77aa47e4c, and a backdoor inserted by this infector. In this case we are providing the MD5 hash since this file is extremely consistent, and as such the MD5 can be a useful indicator of compromise.
This attacker is using the mkfile method outlined in our initial article rather than the upload method favored by the “bajatax” threat actor. This attacker is also adding password protection to the vulnerable connector.minimal.php file in an effort to lock out other attackers, though our attack data indicates this threat actor is using a consistent password.
The feoidasf4e0_index.php file inserts two copies of the second backdoor with randomized filenames ending in _index.php whenever it is accessed. One copy is placed in the webroot, and one in a randomized writable folder on the site. Both backdoors have the same MD5 of 3f60851c9f7e37c0d8817101d2212c68. While the backdoor in question has been in use for several years, the fact that multiple copies might be scattered across an infected site would help this attacker maintain persistence in the absence of a thorough scanning solution. We’ve also seen additional copies of this backdoor with different MD5 hashes added by this attacker; these are simply the most common variants.
Once these backdoors are in place, the attacker is using them to make additional modifications to core WordPress files, in some cases by using obfuscated code to include separate backdoors disguised as .ico files. While the prevalence of the feoidasf4e0_index.php file appears to be declining, the secondary backdoors added by this file are still extremely common, indicating that this attacker has managed to achieve some degree of persistence.
The feoidasf4e0_index.php file itself appears to be a very slightly modified version of an infector used in previous campaigns that primarily added cryptominers and SEO spam to various sites, so these are viable monetization routes for this threat actor, though they could also simply lease access to a botnet of infected sites under their control.
Other actors abound
Our site cleaning team has cleaned a number of sites compromised by this vulnerability, and in many cases, malware from multiple threat actors is present. The aforementioned threat actors have been by far the most successful due to their efforts to lock out other attackers, and are collectively using several thousand IP addresses in their attacks. Nonetheless, we’ve seen attacks against this vulnerability from over 370,000 separate IP addresses.
There has been almost no overlap between the IPs adding and accessing the feoidasf4e0_index.php file and the IPs adding and accessing the bajatax “hardfork” files. The single exception is the IP 51.83.216.204, which appears to be a third party opportunistically checking for the presence of both of these backdoors and then attempting to add a backdoor of its own, without much success. As more and more users update or remove the File Manager plugin, control of any infected sites will likely be split between these two threat actors.
Conclusion
In today’s article, we discussed the most common infections we’re seeing on sites where the File Manager vulnerability has been exploited as well as the predominant actors involved. We’ve also managed to link at least one of the attackers to a known threat actor and determine likely paths to monetization. If you or anyone you know has had a vulnerable version of the File Manager plugin installed, we urge you to scan your site for malware using a security solution such as Wordfence. If your site has been compromised by the “bajatax” threat actor, it is critical that you completely clean your site before contacting all of your users and advising them that their credentials may have been compromised, especially if you are running an e-commerce site.“
„Some Agency September 10, 2020 at 2:42 pm:
For that telegram chat room 1110165405 I deleted their webhook using the telegram API once I found out one of our clients sites was hacked. Hoping I helped the cause a little there lol. The index file found on this server was ‚fqsvoig675_index.php‘ and they injected code into ‚user.php‘ to send user creds to their telegram bot.
https://api.telegram.org/botXXXXXXXX:XXXXXXX/deleteWebhook?chat_id=1110165405“
„Surender September 10, 2020 at 8:58 pm:
I am feeling lucky that I have been using Wordfence since beginning. It has always protected me from such attacks.
Thank you Wordfence team.“
„bloganchoi September 13, 2020 at 6:09 pm:
File managers are very important, if you install an unknown plugin that is susceptible to critical vulnerabilities that lead to your website being hacked, be careful when installing any plugin on your site.“
„Juan Erazo September 10, 2020 at 1:14 pm:
That’s right. Our site suffers this attack the las week and only yesterday we are online again. We are using wordfence from now!“
Source: https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2020/09/attackers-fight-for-control-of-sites-targeted-in-file-manager-vulnerability/

Kategorie: Sociology/Soziologie
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Attackers Fight for Control of Sites Targeted in File Manager Vulnerability
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Attacks Targeting Recent WordPress File Manager Flaw Ramping Up
„Attacks Targeting Recent WordPress File Manager Flaw Ramping Up
By Ionut Arghire on September 11, 2020
Attacks targeting a recently addressed vulnerability in the WordPress plugin File Manager are ramping up, warns the Wordfence Threat Intelligence team at WordPress security company Defiant.
With over 700,000 active installs, File Manager is a highly popular WordPress plugin that provides admins with file and folder management capabilities (copy/paste, delete, download/upload, edit, and archive).
In early September 2020, the plugin’s developer addressed a critical-severity zero-day flaw that was already being actively targeted. Assessed with a CVSS score of 10, the flaw can allow attackers to remotely execute code on a vulnerable installation.
The issue is related to code taken from the elFinder project, with the File Manager developers renaming the elFinder library’s connector.minimal.php.dist file to .php, to have it execute directly. This, however, opened the plugin to attackers.
Nearly two weeks after a patch for the vulnerability was released, multiple threat actors are targeting unpatched installations, Wordfence researchers reveal.
Within days after the zero-day was patched, attackers were targeting over 1.7 million sites, but that number increased to 2.6 million as of September 10.
“We’ve seen evidence of multiple threat actors taking part in these attacks, including minor efforts by the threat actor previously responsible for attacking millions of sites, but two attackers have been the most successful in exploiting vulnerable sites, and at this time, both attackers are password protecting vulnerable copies of the connector.minimal.php file,” Wordfence notes.
The most active of the attackers is a Moroccan threat actor referred to as “bajatax,” which modifies the vulnerable connector.minimal.php file to prevent further attacks. This is the first threat actor observed targeting the vulnerability at scale.
Once it manages to compromise a website, the attacker adds code to exfiltrate user credentials using the Telegram messenger’s API. The code is added to the WordPress core user.php file and, if WooCommerce is installed, two more files are modified to steal user credentials.
A second adversary targeting the security flaw is attempting to inject a backdoor into the vulnerable websites, and is protecting the connector.minimal.php file with a password, in an attempt to prevent other infections. However, it appears that the threat actor is using a consistent password across infections.
Two copies of the backdoor are inserted into the infected website, one in the webroot and the other in a randomized writable folder, likely in an attempt to ensure persistence. The attacker leverages the backdoors to modify core WordPress files which would then be abused for monetization purposes, based on the threat actor’s previously observed modus operandi.
On many of the compromised websites, Wordfence discovered malware from multiple adversaries. Attacks targeting the vulnerability were observed originating from more than 370,000 separate IP addresses, with almost no overlaps between the IPs used by the two most active attackers.
“As more and more users update or remove the File Manager plugin, control of any infected sites will likely be split between these two threat actors,” Wordfence notes.
Site administrators are advised to update the File Manager plugin as soon as possible, but also to scan their website for possible compromise and to remove any malicious code they might find.
Related: WordPress ‚File Manager‘ Plugin Patches Critical Zero-Day Exploited in Attacks
Related: WordPress Malware Targets WooCommerce Stores
Related: Hackers Can Inject Code Into WordPress Sites via Flaw in Product Review Plugin“
Source: https://www.securityweek.com/attacks-targeting-recent-wordpress-file-manager-flaw-ramping -
Hackers are exploiting a critical flaw affecting >350,000 WordPress sites
„Hackers are exploiting a critical flaw affecting >350,000 WordPress sites“
„Flaw is in File Manager, a plugin with more than 700,000 users; 52% are affected.
Dan Goodin – 9/2/2020, 3:40 AM“
„Hackers are actively exploiting a vulnerability that allows them to execute commands and malicious scripts on Websites running File Manager, a WordPress plugin with more than 700,000 active installations, researchers said on Tuesday. Word of the attacks came a few hours after the security flaw was patched.
Attackers are using the exploit to upload files that contain webshells that are hidden in an image. From there, they have a convenient interface that allows them to run commands in plugins/wp-file-manager/lib/files/, the directory where the File Manager plugin resides. While that restriction prevents hackers from executing commands on files outside of the directory, hackers may be able to exact more damage by uploading scripts that can carry out actions on other parts of a vulnerable site.
NinTechNet, a website security firm in Bangkok, Thailand, was among the first to report the in-the-wild attacks. The post said that a hacker was exploiting the vulnerability to upload a script titled hardfork.php and then using it to inject code into the WordPress scripts /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php and /wp-includes/user.php.
Backdooring vulnerable sites at scale
In email, NinTechNet CEO Jerome Bruandet wrote:
It’s a bit too early to know the impact because when we caught the attack, hackers were just trying to backdoor websites. However, one interesting thing we noticed is that attackers were injecting some code to password-protect the access to the vulnerable file (connector.minimal.php) so that other groups of hackers could not exploit the vulnerability on the sites that were already infected.
All commands can be run in the /lib/files folder (create folders, delete files etc), but the most important issue is that they can upload PHP scripts into that folder too, and then run them and do whatever they want to the blog.
So far, they are uploading „FilesMan“, another file manager often used by hackers. This one is heavily obfuscated. In the next few hours and days we’ll see exactly what they will do, because if they password-protected the vulnerable file to prevent other hackers to exploit the vulnerability it is likely they are expecting to come back to visit the infected sites.
Fellow website security firm Wordfence, meanwhile, said in its own post that it had blocked more than 450,000 exploit attempts in the past few days. The post said that the attackers are trying to inject various files. In some cases, those files were empty, most likely in an attempt to probe for vulnerable sites and, if successful, inject a malicious file later. Files being uploaded had names including hardfork.php, hardfind.php, and x.php.
„A file manager plugin like this would make it possible for an attacker to manipulate or upload any files of their choosing directly from the WordPress dashboard, potentially allowing them to escalate privileges once in the site’s admin area,“ Chloe Chamberland, a researcher with security firm Wordfence, wrote in Tuesday’s post. „For example, an attacker could gain access to the admin area of the site using a compromised password, then access this plugin and upload a webshell to do further enumeration of the server and potentially escalate their attack using another exploit.“
52% of 700,000 = potential for damage
The File Manager plugin helps administrators manage files on sites running the WordPress content management system. The plugin contains an additional file manager known as elFinder, an open source library that provides the core functionality in the plugin, along with a user interface for using it. The vulnerability arises from the way the plugin implemented elFinder.
„The core of the issue began with the File Manager plugin renaming the extension on the elFinder library’s connector.minimal.php.dist file to .php so it could be executed directly, even though the connector file was not used by the File Manager itself,“ Chamberland explained. „Such libraries often include example files that are not intended to be used ‚as is‘ without adding access controls, and this file had no direct access restrictions, meaning the file could be accessed by anyone. This file could be used to initiate an elFinder command and was hooked to the elFinderConnector.class.php file.“
The developers of File Manager credited researcher Ville Korhonen of security firm Seravo with discovering and first reporting the vulnerability. The researchers, who said they found the vulnerability as part of their regular „WordPress upkeep service,“ published their own writeup here.
Sal Aguilar, a contractor who sets up and secures WordPress sites, took to Twitter to warn of attacks he’s seeing.
„Oh crap!!!“ he wrote. „The WP File Manager vulnerability is SERIOUS. Its spreading fast and I’m seeing hundreds of sites getting infected. Malware is being uploaded to /wp-content/plugins/wp-file-manager/lib/files.“
The security flaw is in File Manager versions ranging from 6.0 to 6.8. Statistics from WordPress show that currently about 52 percent of installations are vulnerable. With more than half of File Manager’s installed base of 700,000 sites vulnerable, the potential for damage is high. Sites running any of these versions should updated to 6.9 as soon as possible.“
Source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/09/hackers-are-exploiting-a-critical-flaw-affecting-350000-wordpress-sites/ -
Forbidden Kingdoms of Inner Earth – ROBERT SEPEHR
„Forbidden Kingdoms of Inner Earth – ROBERT SEPEHR
191.124 Aufrufe•Premiere am 03.03.2020“
Conspiracy Revelation: 19.9.2020: Patala….

„According to certain Buddhist and Hindu traditions, secret tunnels connect Tibet with a subterranean paradise, and they call this legendary underworld Agartha or Shambhala. Mythologies throughout the world, from South America to the Arctic, describe numerous entrances to these fabled inner kingdoms. Many occult organizations, esoteric authors, and secret societies concur with these myths and legends of subterranean inhabitants, who are the remnants of antediluvian civilizations, which dwell in massive hollow caverns inside the earth. https://atlanteangardens.blogspot.com…
Atlantis and Antediluvian Anthropology…
Meaning „to weave“ in Sanskrit, the term Tantra implies a set of spiritual practices that direct the universal energies into the practitioner, thereby leading to liberation from the physical level of existence. This and other occult spiritual techniques were said to have been practiced by the members of the Thule and Vril societies in Germany, led by the medium Maria Orsic who, in pre-WWII Germany, conducted research into psychic phenomenon, and advanced propulsion technology, including saucer-shaped aircraft known in ancient Sanskrit texts as vimanas.
Hybrids and Rh Negative Blood…
They believed that many ancient civilizations owed their origins to refugees from Atlantis, and a people that dwelt inside of the earth, advancing the idea of a subterranean civilization ruled by an ancient parent-race who had mastered free energy they called Vril, but is also known as Chi, Ki, Prana, Orgone, and Aether. This Aryan breakaway civilization was said to have survived the antediluvian cataclysms which ended the ice age and continued to thrive below the surface of the Earth such as Antarctica.“












