• Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
MUST READ

Hackers deploy fake SonicWall VPN App to steal corporate credentials

 | 

Mainline Health Systems data breach impacted over 100,000 individuals

 | 

Disrupting the operations of cryptocurrency mining botnets

 | 

Prometei botnet activity has surged since March 2025

 | 

The U.S. House banned WhatsApp on government devices due to security concerns

 | 

Russia-linked APT28 use Signal chats to target Ukraine official with malware

 | 

China-linked APT Salt Typhoon targets Canadian Telecom companies

 | 

U.S. warns of incoming cyber threats following Iran airstrikes

 | 

McLaren Health Care data breach impacted over 743,000 people

 | 

American steel giant Nucor confirms data breach in May attack

 | 

The financial impact of Marks & Spencer and Co-op cyberattacks could reach £440M

 | 

Iran-Linked Threat Actors Cyber Fattah Leak Visitors and Athletes' Data from Saudi Games

 | 

SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 50

 | 

Security Affairs newsletter Round 529 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION

 | 

Iran confirmed it shut down internet to protect the country against cyberattacks

 | 

Godfather Android trojan uses virtualization to hijack banking and crypto apps

 | 

Cloudflare blocked record-breaking 7.3 Tbps DDoS attack against a hosting provider

 | 

Linux flaws chain allows Root access across major distributions

 | 

A ransomware attack pushed the German napkin firm Fasana into insolvency

 | 

Researchers discovered the largest data breach ever, exposing 16 billion login credentials

 | 
  • Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
  • Home
  • Breaking News
  • Cyber Crime
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Malware
  • Blue Mockingbird Monero-Mining campaign targets web apps

Blue Mockingbird Monero-Mining campaign targets web apps

Pierluigi Paganini May 10, 2020

Crooks exploit CVE-2019-18935 deserialization vulnerability to achieve remote code execution in Blue Mockingbird Monero-Mining campaign.

Researchers at security firm Red Canary uncovered a Monero cryptocurrency-mining campaign, tracked as Blue Mockingbird, that exploits the CVE-2019-18935 vulnerability in web applications built on the ASP.NET framework.

The deserialization vulnerability CVE-2019-18935 could be exploited by attackers to achieve remote code execution, it affects the Progress Telerik UI for ASP.NET AJAX and was also mentioned in a joint report released by the U.S. NSA and the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) warning of attackers increasingly exploiting vulnerable web servers to deploy web shells.

This issue could be exploited only when the encryption keys are obtained via a separate attack, meaning that the attackers have to chain more exploits in their campaigns.

“Blue Mockingbird is the name we’ve given to a cluster of similar activity we’ve observed involving Monero cryptocurrency-mining payloads in dynamic-link library (DLL) form on Windows systems.” reads the report published by Red Canary experts. “They achieve initial access by exploiting public-facing web applications, specifically those that use Telerik UI for ASP.NET, followed by execution and persistence using multiple techniques “

Hackers targeted vulnerable versions of Telerik UI for ASP.NET to deploy the XMRig Monero-mining payload as a DLL on Windows systems. Experts also noticed that once compromised the system, attackers attempt lateral movements.

According to the experts, the Blue Mockingbird campaign is dated back at leak December 2019 and is still ongoing.

The researchers observed three distinct uses:

  • Execution with rundll32.exe explicitly calling the DLL export fackaaxv;
  • Execution using regsvr32.exe using the /s command-line option;
  • Execution with the payload configured as a Windows Service DLL.

“Each payload comes compiled with a standard list of commonly used Monero-mining domains alongside a Monero wallet address,” continues the analysis. “So far, we’ve identified two wallet addresses used by Blue Mockingbird that are in active circulation. Due to the private nature of Monero, we cannot see the balance of these wallets to estimate their success.”

In order to achieve persistence, attackers first elevate their privileges with different techniques (using a JuicyPotato exploit to escalate privileges from an IIS Application Pool Identity virtual account to the NT Authority\SYSTEM account, stealing access credentials using the Mimikatz tool).

Then attackers use multiple persistence techniques, including the use of a COR_PROFILER COM hijack to execute a malicious DLL and restore items removed by defenders.

Blue Mockingbird threat actors move laterally by elevating privileges and using Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) to access privileged systems and Windows Explorer to deploy the malicious payloads to remote systems.

Researchers speculate that attackers’ toolkit are still under active development.

“For mitigations, focus on patching web servers, web applications, and dependencies of the applications. Most of the techniques used by Blue Mockingbird will bypass whitelisting technologies, so the best route will be to inhibit initial access. Consider establishing a baseline of Windows Scheduled Tasks in your environment to know what is normal across your enterprise.” concludes the report.

Researchers also included Indicators of Compromise (IoCs) in the analysis they have published.

Please vote Security Affairs for European Cybersecurity Blogger Awards – VOTE FOR YOUR WINNERS
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe8AkYMfAAwJ4JZzYRm8GfsJCDON8q83C9_wu5u10sNAt_CcA/viewform

[adrotate banner=”9″][adrotate banner=”12″]

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – Blue Mockingbird, hacking)

[adrotate banner=”5″]

[adrotate banner=”13″]


facebook linkedin twitter

Blue Mockingbird Hacking information security news it security affairs malware Monero Monero mining Pierluigi Paganini Security Affairs Security News

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini June 25, 2025
Hackers deploy fake SonicWall VPN App to steal corporate credentials
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini June 25, 2025
Mainline Health Systems data breach impacted over 100,000 individuals
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

Subscribe to my email list and stay
up-to-date!

    recent articles

    Hackers deploy fake SonicWall VPN App to steal corporate credentials

    Hacking / June 25, 2025

    Mainline Health Systems data breach impacted over 100,000 individuals

    Data Breach / June 25, 2025

    Disrupting the operations of cryptocurrency mining botnets

    Malware / June 25, 2025

    Prometei botnet activity has surged since March 2025

    Cyber Crime / June 25, 2025

    The U.S. House banned WhatsApp on government devices due to security concerns

    Mobile / June 24, 2025

    To contact me write an email to:

    Pierluigi Paganini :
    pierluigi.paganini@securityaffairs.co

    LEARN MORE

    QUICK LINKS

    • Home
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber warfare
    • APT
    • Data Breach
    • Deep Web
    • Digital ID
    • Hacking
    • Hacktivism
    • Intelligence
    • Internet of Things
    • Laws and regulations
    • Malware
    • Mobile
    • Reports
    • Security
    • Social Networks
    • Terrorism
    • ICS-SCADA
    • POLICIES
    • Contact me

    Copyright@securityaffairs 2024

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT