A recently discovered Linux malware with backdoor capabilities has flown under the radar for years, allowing attackers to harvest and exfiltrate sensitive information from compromised devices.
I don’t think it’s an exploit, it’s a backdoor. So someone who already had access drops this binary which then allows for further control by a CoC server.
this clarifies further: https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/29/stealthy_linux_backdoor_malware_spotted
yeah, I was looking for what piece of SW was offering the backdoor, and if there was any attempt to remove it. It seems systemd is where the backdoor is placed, but it’s not a systemd’s vulnerability, but rather where the backdoor gets instanced. I’m still wondering how to prevent that backdoor getting instanced in the 1st place, and how come systemd was the target and not anything else like linux itself, wouldn’t that reflect some weakness, like being easier to place backdoor there, than any other piece of SW?
If you target a binary for dropping a backdoor you usually want to build a binary that runs everywhere. My guess is that they could figure out how to build a drop-in systemd that they could compile once and worked on all major distros. This would be much harder with the kernel itself.
Regarding how it is setup: Often backdoors & exploits are sold in packages and combined when attacking the victims. Depending on the group behind the specific attack, the exploit used for setup may be different on each deployment.
I don’t think it’s an exploit, it’s a backdoor. So someone who already had access drops this binary which then allows for further control by a CoC server.
this clarifies further: https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/29/stealthy_linux_backdoor_malware_spotted yeah, I was looking for what piece of SW was offering the backdoor, and if there was any attempt to remove it. It seems systemd is where the backdoor is placed, but it’s not a systemd’s vulnerability, but rather where the backdoor gets instanced. I’m still wondering how to prevent that backdoor getting instanced in the 1st place, and how come systemd was the target and not anything else like linux itself, wouldn’t that reflect some weakness, like being easier to place backdoor there, than any other piece of SW?
If you target a binary for dropping a backdoor you usually want to build a binary that runs everywhere. My guess is that they could figure out how to build a drop-in systemd that they could compile once and worked on all major distros. This would be much harder with the kernel itself.
Regarding how it is setup: Often backdoors & exploits are sold in packages and combined when attacking the victims. Depending on the group behind the specific attack, the exploit used for setup may be different on each deployment.