[BreachExchange] Sandworm Hackers Hit French Monitoring Software Vendor Centreon

[Destry Winant]

https://www.securityweek.com/sandworm-hackers-hit-french-monitoring-software-vendor-centreon

Russia-Linked Threat Group Caught Deploying Backdoors on Linux Servers
in an Attack That Triggers New Conversations on Software Supply Chain
Security

 The French National Agency for the Security of Information Systems
(ANSSI) is publicly blaming the notorious Sandworm APT group for a
series of long-term hacking attacks against multiple IT and web
hosting shops in Europe.

According to a technical advisory released by ANSSI, the data breaches
date back to 2017 and include the eyebrow-raising compromise of
Centreon, an IT monitoring software provider widely embedded
throughout government organizations in France.

The agency did not say if the Centreon compromise was part of a
supply-chain attack but the decision to publicly identify the Sandworm
attackers triggers new conversations about the group’s previous
software supply chain targeting in high-profile APT attacks.

[UPDATE] Centreon said Tuesday that only an old version of its
software dating from before 2015, used by open-source developers, had
been infiltrated by the alleged hackers, and that commercial users are
not affected.

Documented research has linked the Sandworm team to a
government-backed Russian APT group linked to separate attacks against
Ukraine targets in 2015 and 2017, and the 2018 cyberattack on the
Winter Olympics opening ceremony.

The French agency released a detailed technical report on the Centreon
hack, which targeted Linux servers running the CentOS operating
system. While the initial compromise method remains unknown, AANSI
said the attackers deployed two backdoors and “has many similarities
to previous campaigns of the Sandworm modus operandi.”

The agency also found known Sandworm-controlled servers being used as
part of the command-and-control infrastructure for the four-year-old
infiltrations of French and European entities.

“Generally speaking, the intrusion set Sandworm is known to lead
consequent intrusion campaigns before focusing on specific targets
that fits its strategic interests within the victims pool. The
campaign observed by ANSSI fits this behaviour,” the agency said.

The report details the use of public and commercial VPN services to
communicate with the backdoors, listing several legitimate tools and
providers within Sandworm’s arsenal.

AANSI also released a separate document with SNORT and YARA rules and
other  indicators of compromise (IOCs) to help threat hunters search
for signs of Sandworm activity.

The agency also published a series of recommendations for
organizations to raise the bar for Sandworm and other APT groups.
These include improved patch management, server hardening, and
limiting the exposure of monitoring systems.

“Monitoring systems such as Centreon need to be highly intertwined
with the monitored information system and therefore are a prime target
for intrusion sets seeking lateralisation,” the agency added.

“It is recommended either not to expose these tools’ web interfaces to
the Internet or to restrict such access using non-applicative
authentication (TLS client certificate, basic authentication on the
web server).”

*Updated Feb. 16 with Centreon claiming only older versions of its
open-source product were inpacted by the breach