Get Ready for WannaCry 2.0

Another widespread worm attack is inevitable, but spreading a different more lucrative or destructive payload, experts say.

Theyre still out there, pinging away for vulnerable Sever Message Block (SMB) services in order to find a way in. One year after the historic and massive WannaCry ransomware attack unleashed by nation-state hackers from North Korea, an unknown number of WannaCry-infected Windows machines in their zombie state around the globe continue to attack other devices.
WannaCry
marked the biggest ransomware attack ever, but it wasnt the first widespread worm infection, and experts say it wont be the last. Symantec blocked some 5.4 billion WannaCry attack attempts last year overall.
Security experts say another worm-spreading mass attack akin to WannaCry is inevitable. It may not be a ransomware attack, but it likely will be another SMB-type worm that exploits the fact that so many organizations leave Windows machines unattended and with open ports to the Internet — and unpatched for the newest flaws.
Its just a matter of time, says Dan Wiley, head of incident response at Check Point, of the next WannaCry. It will happen again, no question in my mind.
A WannaCry 2.0-type attack could be more of a data-wiping campaign akin to NotPetya, which posed as a ransomware attack but in reality was destroying the data it locked down rather than locking it up for ransom. Or it could be a widespread cryptojacking campaign that could more easily net attackers more profit and a lower-profile, less-noticeable attack method than ransomware.
Worms tend to wreak havoc quickly and loudly, so it depends on the attackers intent. If you want to be destructive, a worm is a quick way to spread pain, like the data-wiping NotPetya worm did, notes Chris Wysopal, CTO and co-founder of Veracode. He doesnt believe WannaCry was meant to spread as widely as it did because its high visibility led to its demise as a not-so-profitable ransomware attack.
If you dont go wormable, youre not going to get noticed for months, Wysopal says.
The thing about worms, though, is that they never really die. Security firms and researchers today still see remnants of the epic 2003 SQLSlammer worm attack, and even the mysterious Conficker worm from early 2009. Any time you have one of these worms [out], they are never going to go away, says Craig Williams, senior threat researcher and global outreach manager for Cisco Talos.
Keeping the worm alive are older and forgotten machines that dont get the security patch. Youre always going to have some number of machines connected to the network that are going to be patched and they ping packets around for all time, Williams says.
WannaCrys abuse of the EternalBlue exploit basically let the cat out of the bag, and other worms continue to employ it, Williams says. The good news, though, is that WannaCry itself is at least declining in infections. Were confident that its decreasing, but we dont see it going away.
Large organizations for the most part have updated their Windows machines and revisited their SMB policies, but smaller and midsized companies in healthcare, education, and other industries most likely remain at risk. Check Points incident response team sees four to five cases of ransomware attacks per week, mostly in the networks of small- to midsized organizations.
Its really simple: almost every one of the cases we worked, the customer had RDP [Remote Desktop Protocol] exposed to the Internet, he says, leaving the network vulnerable to WannaCrys SMB exploit.
Juniper Networks reports seeing 2.3 million devices in the US, UAE, Russia, Taiwan, and Japan, still leaving their SMBv1 protocol port exposed to the public Internet.
Mayday
It all began on May 12, 2017. WannaCry suddenly spread like wildfire via a Windows SMB flaw Microsoft had patched in March of that year after an NSA hacking exploit called EternalBlue that abused the flaw was leaked online. The worm was used to automatically and rapidly propagate the ransomware part of the attack, locking victims out of their files in exchange for Bitcoin payments of $300 to $600. In the end, WannaCry infected some 230,000 machines in 150 countries, and by some accounts netted North Korea a relatively measly $140,000 in ransom profit overall.
UK hospitals were the first high-profile victims, followed by all types of companies including car manufacturers like Nissan and Honda, Telefonica in Spain, and aerospace giant Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
The EternalBlue attack exploited a critical remote code execution flaw (MS17-010) in Windows that let an attacker hack Microsoft Server Message Block (SMBv1) server systems, which
Microsoft patched
on March 17, 2017.
WannaCry basically exposed poor patching practices, as well as weak management of SMB ports. It was also a wakeup call for how narrow the window has become between vulnerability disclosure and exploitation by attackers in the wild.
WannaCry 2.0
The next big worm attack is not likely to resemble a mass ransomware attack like WannaCry. While WannaCry was a relative financial failure for North Korea, it did wreak havoc and chaos. I think it was a colossal fail, says Ciscos Williams. Im not sure if test code got out or somebodys science project for a future attack. It was poorly built and it didnt work very well, he says, pointing to WannaCrys gap in tracking ransom payments as well as cracks in the exploit.
Ransomware in the wake of WannaCry has become more targeted, while cryptojacking attacks have surged practically overnight. Its more low-risk and profitable for attackers, Williams says. And were absolutely going to continue to see that trend, he says.
WannaCry 2.0 could be a stealthy cryptojacking campaign that only mines during off-hours when businesses are closed, for example.
Larry Cashdollar, senior engineer for Akamais security response team, says he expects a worm attack to spread cryptojacking malware. Thats probably going to be the next phase of attacks. And there are other not-yet-disclosed vulnerabilities our nation or other nation-states know about that could be exploited for them, he says.
But nation-states could opt for a NotPetya-like worm attack that destroys data altogether in a targeted attack meant to wreak chaos and confusion, experts say. NotPetya was the type of worm we lose sleep over, Williams says. It was written by a well-funded, organized attacker that absolutely understands everything about compromising machines.
The good news, according to Symantec director of security response Kevin Haley, is that the industry in general has better defenses for worms than it did a decade ago. We were in a much better place to block this than we were 10 years ago, Haley says. A patch was available and security vendors had protections, so theres reason for optimism if something similar hits again.
Hopefully, while we will see more of these [worm attacks], we will be better at this on the defense side, he says.
Related Content:
50,000 Machines Remain Vulnerable to EternalBlue Attacks
NotPetya: How to Prep and Respond if Youre Hit
WannaCry Ransom Notes Penned by Chinese-Speaking Authors, Analysis Shows
WannaCry: The North Korea Debate

Last News
▸ Hack Your Hotel Room ◂ Discovered: 23/12/2024 Category: security	▸ Website hacks happened during World Cup final. ◂ Discovered: 23/12/2024 Category: security	▸ Criminal Possession of Government-Grade Stealth Malware ◂ Discovered: 23/12/2024 Category: security

**Cyber Security Categories**
Google Dorks Database	Exploits Vulnerability	Exploit Shellcodes

CVE List

Tools/Apps

News/Aarticles

Phishing Database

Deepfake Detection

Trends/Statistics & Live Infos

Tags:
Get Ready for WannaCry 2.0