{"id":51538,"date":"2023-04-19T21:40:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-19T21:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.darkreading.com\/attacks-breaches\/russian-fancy-bear-apt-exploited-unpatched-cisco-routers-to-hack-us-eu-government-agencies"},"modified":"2023-04-19T21:40:00","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T21:40:00","slug":"russian-fancy-bear-apt-exploited-unpatched-cisco-routers-to-hack-us-eu-govt-agencies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/russian-fancy-bear-apt-exploited-unpatched-cisco-routers-to-hack-us-eu-govt-agencies\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian Fancy Bear APT Exploited Unpatched Cisco Routers to Hack US, EU Gov&#8217;t Agencies"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/eu-images.contentstack.com\/v3\/assets\/blt66983808af36a8ef\/bltb8ccc4529ca8208c\/61eec1b6252c077e96a2dc29\/RussianMap_Miceking_Alamy.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p>As recently as 2021, the notorious Russian APT28 was exploiting network routers running outdated versions of Cisco&#8217;s IOS and IOS XE operating system software, using them to deploy backdoors in networks across European and American government institutions.<\/p>\n<p>APT28 \u2014 aka Fancy Bear, Strontium, Tsar Team, and Sofacy Group \u2014 is best known for its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.darkreading.com\/attacks-breaches\/-fancy-bear-targets-ukrainian-oil-firm-burisma-in-phishing-attack\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>campaigns against Ukraine<\/span><\/a><span> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.darkreading.com\/threat-intelligence\/fbi-dhs-report-implicates-cozy-bear-fancy-bear-in-election-related-hacks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>the 2016 US elections<\/span><\/a><span>. The UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has attributed this group to the 85th Special Service Centre, Military Intelligence Unit 26165, part of Russia&#8217;s General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>NCSC, National Security Agency, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and FBI this week <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncsc.gov.uk\/news\/apt28-exploits-known-vulnerability-to-carry-out-reconnaissance-and-deploy-malware-on-cisco-routers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>published a joint advisory<\/span><\/a><span> outlining one of APT28&#8217;s less technically impressive but more economic maneuvers. According to their findings, the group used unpatched Cisco routers to access &#8220;a small number&#8221; of EU and US government institutions, on top of &#8220;approximately 250 Ukrainian victims.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Though the campaign took place two years ago, <\/span><span><\/span><span><\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.talosintelligence.com\/state-sponsored-campaigns-target-global-network-infrastructure\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>Cisco Talos in a blog post<\/span><\/a><span> expressed how &#8220;deeply concerned&#8221; it is &#8220;by an increase in the rate of high-sophistication attacks on network infrastructure&#8221; by nation-state actors.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;We certainly have seen an increase over the last several years \u2014 even over the last six to 12 months \u2014 in targeting this type of infrastructure,&#8221; says JJ Cummings, national security principal at Cisco Talos. &#8220;I think this is probably only the tip of the iceberg.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"regular-text\">Taking Advantage of Vulnerable Routers<\/h2>\n<p>On June 29, 2017, <a href=\"https:\/\/sec.cloudapps.cisco.com\/security\/center\/content\/CiscoSecurityAdvisory\/cisco-sa-20170629-snmp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>Cisco revealed a series of vulnerabilities<\/span><\/a><span> in the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), a communications protocol for network devices running IOS versions 12.0 through 12.4 and 15.0 through 15.6, and IOS XE 2.2 through 3.17.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>A specially crafted SNMP packet, the company explained, could have allowed attackers to remotely execute code on affected devices, or cause them to reboot. The vulnerabilities were grouped under <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/nvd.nist.gov\/vuln\/detail\/CVE-2017-6742\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>CVE-2017-6742<\/span><\/a><span> and assigned a &#8220;High&#8221; CVSS score of 8.8.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Though a patch for the SNMP vulnerabilities was released all those years ago, by 2021 APT28 was still exploiting Cisco routers to access US, EU, and primarily Ukrainian government networks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In the same way administrators use SNMP to remotely monitor and configure network devices, APT28 used it to remotely access devices and penetrate networks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;A number of software tools can scan the entire network using SNMP,&#8221; the advisory explained, &#8220;meaning that poor configuration such as using default or easy-to-guess community strings, can make a network susceptible to attacks.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In particular, APT28 took advantage of weak passwords \u2014 &#8220;community strings,&#8221; in Cisco parlance \u2014 such as the default public string in order to crack routers and, in some cases, deploy their <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncsc.gov.uk\/static-assets\/documents\/malware-analysis-reports\/jaguar-tooth\/NCSC-MAR-Jaguar-Tooth.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>&#8220;Jaguar Tooth&#8221; malware<\/span><\/a><span>. Jaguar Tooth was specifically designed to exploit CVE-2017-6742, stealing device information and planting a backdoor for persistent access.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"regular-text\">Thousands of Routers Are Exposed Online<\/h2>\n<p>A remarkable number of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.darkreading.com\/vulnerabilities-threats\/recycled-core-routers-exposed-sensitive-corporate-network-info\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>enterprise Internet routers <\/span><\/a><span>in operation today are publicly exposed on the open Internet. And they&#8217;re not only exposed \u2014 they&#8217;re vulnerable. For scale, consider this:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>After a series of vulnerabilities were discovered in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/sec.cloudapps.cisco.com\/security\/center\/content\/CiscoSecurityAdvisory\/cisco-sa-sbr042-multi-vuln-ej76Pke5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>multiple Cisco Small Business Routers<\/span><\/a><span> earlier this year, software company Censys scanned for any potentially vulnerable devices online. The search returned over 20,000 results, the vast majority of which are <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/search.censys.io\/search?resource=hosts&amp;sort=RELEVANCE&amp;per_page=25&amp;virtual_hosts=EXCLUDE&amp;q=same_service%28services.service_name%3DHTTP+and+services.tls.certificates.leaf_data.issuer.organizational_unit%3A+%7BRV042G%2CRV016%2C+RV042%2C+RV082%7D+%29+or+services.http.response.headers.www_authenticate%3A+%7B%27%3D%22RV016%22%27%2C+%27%3D%22RV042%22%27%2C+%27%3D%22RV042G%22%27%2C+%27%3D%22RV082%22%27%7D\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>still equally exposed to this day<\/span><\/a><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>And just as a software company can identify these devices, so can hackers.&#8221; Usually, cybercriminals will be using tools like Shodan or Nmap to scan and look for exposed devices connected to the internet,&#8221; explains James McQuiggan, security awareness advocate at KnowBe4. &#8220;Organizations may try the &#8216;security by obscurity&#8217; model, hoping they&#8217;re not discovered running older legacy systems,&#8221; he says, but hackers who can find and so easily exploit these devices &#8220;have opened the electronic front door.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span>Cisco regularly publishes information about new vulnerabilities and risks to IT infrastructure, such as <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.cisco.com\/security\/threat-actors-exploiting-snmp-vulnerabilities-in-cisco-routers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>this blog post published on April 18<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"regular-text\">Why Routers Go Unpatched<\/h2>\n<p>In IT environments, Cummings observes, there&#8217;s one main reason why routing devices remain unpatched for years at a time. &#8220;Think about what the primary mission of a network operations team is: to keep the network up and running, right?&#8221; A byproduct of this prioritization of reliability and availability, he says, could be that &#8220;if a device is not broken, maybe they&#8217;re not going to fix it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Further, updating can sometimes come at a cost \u2014 albeit temporary \u2014 for operations. &#8220;We&#8217;ve seen in a couple of cases that, while the process to upgrade isn&#8217;t necessarily difficult or arduous, it&#8217;s also not always without risk for network availability.&#8221; If availability is the primary goal, &#8220;if they&#8217;re incentivized not to impact that, anything that gets in the way is something that they&#8217;re going to shy away from.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Updating IOS and IOS XE is necessary for addressing CVE-2017-6742, but in cases where doing so is tricky, there are other simple changes IT administrators can make to harden against similar infrastructure breaches. &#8220;If updates are not possible,&#8221; McQuiggan says, &#8220;network monitoring \u2014 even if it&#8217;s by a third-party managed security service \u2014 can alert of intrusions and possible unauthorized logins to external-facing networking equipment.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In its blog post, Cisco emphasized more than anything the need to restrict infrastructure to trusted users. &#8220;Designed to prevent unauthorized direct communication to network devices, infrastructure access control lists (ACLs) are one of the most critical security controls that can be implemented in networks,&#8221; they wrote. &#8220;Exploitation of these vulnerabilities is best prevented by restricting access to trusted administrators and IP addresses.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Read More <a href=\"https:\/\/www.darkreading.com\/attacks-breaches\/russian-fancy-bear-apt-exploited-unpatched-cisco-routers-to-hack-us-eu-government-agencies\">HERE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The nation-stage threat group deployed custom malware on archaic versions of Cisco&#8217;s router operating system. Experts warn that such attacks targeting network infrastructure are on the rise.Read More <a href=\"https:\/\/www.darkreading.com\/attacks-breaches\/russian-fancy-bear-apt-exploited-unpatched-cisco-routers-to-hack-us-eu-government-agencies\">HERE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[151],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-darkreading-ti"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Russian Fancy Bear APT Exploited Unpatched Cisco Routers to Hack US, EU Gov&#039;t Agencies 2026 | ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News | ThreatsHub.org | Cloud Security &amp; 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