{"id":31512,"date":"2019-10-30T15:36:43","date_gmt":"2019-10-30T15:36:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/packetstormsecurity.com\/news\/view\/30630\/North-Korean-Malware-Found-On-Indian-Nuclear-Plants-Network.html"},"modified":"2019-10-30T15:36:43","modified_gmt":"2019-10-30T15:36:43","slug":"north-korean-malware-found-on-indian-nuclear-plants-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/north-korean-malware-found-on-indian-nuclear-plants-network\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korean Malware Found On Indian Nuclear Plant’s Network"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"the-kudankulam-nuclear-power-plant-kknpp.jpg\"<\/span>Image via indiawaterportal.org<\/span><\/p>\n

The network of one of India’s nuclear power plants was infected with malware created by North Korea’s state-sponsored hackers, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) confirmed today.<\/p>\n

News that the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) might have been infected with a dangerous strain of malware first surfaced on Twitter on Monday.<\/p>\n

Pukhraj Singh, a former security analyst for India’s National Technical Research Organization (NTRO), pointed out that a recent VirusTotal upload was actually linked to a malware infection at the KNPP.<\/p>\n

The particular malware sample included hardcoded credentials for KNPP’s internal network, suggesting the malware was specifically compiled to spread and operate inside the power plant’s IT network.<\/p>\n

Malware linked to North Korea’s Lazarus Group<\/h3>\n

Several security researchers identified the malware as a version of Dtrack<\/a>, a backdoor trojan developed by the Lazarus Group, North Korea’s elite hacking unit.<\/p>\n

Singh’s tweet<\/a> and revelation immediately went viral because just days before, the same power plant had an unexpected shutdown of one of its reactors — with many users conflating the two unrelated incidents as one.<\/p>\n

Initially, KNPP officials denied that they’ve suffered any malware infection, issuing a statement to describe the tweets as “false information,” and that a cyber-attack on the power plant was “not possible.”<\/p>\n

\"knpp-statement-1.png\"<\/span>

\"knpp-statement-1.png\"<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/noscript> Image: ZDNet<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/section>\n

But today, NPCIL, the KNPP’s parent company, admitted to the security breach in a separate statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Identification of malware in NPCIL system is correct,” the statement started.<\/p>\n

NPCIL said the malware only infected its administrative network, but did not reach its critical internal network, the one used to control the power plant’s nuclear reactors. NPCIL said the two networks were isolated.<\/p>\n

In addition, NPCIL confirmed statements made by Singh on Twitter; that they received notification from CERT India back on September 4, when the malware was first spotted, and that they investigated the matter at the time of the report.<\/p>\n

Not actually a big deal<\/h3>\n

According to an analysis of the Dtrack malware<\/a> from Russian antivirus maker Kaspersky, this trojan includes features for:<\/p>\n