[BreachExchange] Attackers Wrapping New Tools In Old Malware To Target Medical Devices

[Inga Goddijn]

http://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities---threats/attackers-wrapping-new-tools-in-old-malware-to-target-medical-devices/d/d-id/1326075

Medical devices running outdated operating systems like Windows XP and
Windows 7 are giving attackers safe harbors within hospital networks for
carrying out data theft in a nearly undetectable manner, a new report from
TrapX Security warned this week.

The report
<http://trapx.com/trapx-labs-discovers-new-medical-hijack-attacks-targeting-hospital-devices-2/>
is based on the security vendor’s analysis of data associated with an
ongoing series of attacks against three healthcare institutions that are
its customers. All of the attacks involve equipment running older,
non-supported versions of Windows installed within the hospital networks.

The most significant takeaway from the analysis, according to TrapX, is the
manner in which the attackers in each case intentionally repackaged and
embedded sophisticated new malware tools in extremely old malware wrappers
in an apparent bid to avoid detection.

One of the malware samples used in the attack, for instance, was designed
to take advantage of a remote code execution vulnerability in Microsoft
Server Service dating back to 2008. The attackers used the worm to
compromise a radiation oncology system running Windows XP and a fluoroscopy
workstation also running Windows XP in one of the hospitals. That access
then allowed the attackers to install backdoors and botnet connections
within the hospital network in order to exfiltrate data, though they could
have easily caused significant damage to the equipment as well.

Since endpoints running newer Windows versions are not vulnerable to the
threat, they did not either detect the malware or ignored it completely.
“This ensured that the worm would go undetected while it sought out older
Windows systems,” TrapX said in its report.

In another hospital, the attackers compromised a Windows XP-based MRI
system and installed a Remote Access Trojan on the device using malware
tools packaged inside an out-of-date wrapper for network32.kido.ib. The
malware sample is ignored by patched Windows 7 and Windows 8 platforms and
newer operating system and therefor managed to evade detection, the
security vendor said.

According to TrapX, its analysis showed clear evidence that attackers are
intentionally packaging their tools in a manner so to target medical
equipment running Windows XP, Windows 7 and other older operating systems.

“The most interesting approach we discovered was the utilization of
self-spreading malware that use old exploits that would compromise medical
devices only,” says Moshe Ben-Simon, co-founder and vice president of
services at TrapX.

Medical devices provide a tempting target for attackers because many of
them run old, no-longer supported operating systems. So long as the
equipment works as intended, hospitals are often reluctant to update the
operating systems on these devices, Ben-Simon says

“Also, they are closed turnkey systems and hospitals are generally not
allowed to install cyber defense software on them because of legal and risk
issues.” Unlike typical desktop systems, medical devices do not get updated
often and some equipment can remain in place for years after their
operating systems have become obsolete. As a result, the corrections and
fixes that are available on newer operating systems are not present in
these medical devices making them vulnerable to attacks, Ben-Simon says.

Even when an organization makes the effort to keep their systems patched,
all it takes for an attacker to break into them is to repackage the malware
slightly using easily available tools.

“Once a backdoor is established in one machine, they can move into other
machines under the control of the human attacker,” Ben-Simon says. “These
medical devices create a huge series of safe harbors within the hospital
network, not easily detected, and very difficult to remediate and remove.”
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.riskbasedsecurity.com/pipermail/breachexchange/attachments/20160628/b2fec948/attachment.html>