• 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

U.S. CISA adds Citrix NetScaler ADC and Gateway flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

UK NCA arrested four people over M&S, Co-op cyberattacks

 | 

PerfektBlue Bluetooth attack allows hacking infotainment systems of Mercedes, Volkswagen, and Skoda

 | 

Qantas data breach impacted 5.7 million individuals

 | 

DoNot APT is expanding scope targeting European foreign ministries

 | 

Nippon Steel Solutions suffered a data breach following a zero-day attack

 | 

Iranian group Pay2Key.I2P ramps Up ransomware attacks against Israel and US with incentives for affiliates

 | 

Hackers weaponize Shellter red teaming tool to spread infostealers

 | 

Microsoft Patch Tuesday security updates for July 2025 fixed a zero-day

 | 

Italian police arrested a Chinese national suspected of cyberespionage on a U.S. warrant

 | 

U.S. CISA adds MRLG, PHPMailer, Rails Ruby on Rails, and Synacor Zimbra Collaboration Suite flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

IT Worker arrested for selling access in $100M PIX cyber heist

 | 

New Batavia spyware targets Russian industrial enterprises

 | 

Taiwan flags security risks in popular Chinese apps after official probe

 | 

U.S. CISA adds Google Chromium V8 flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

Hunters International ransomware gang shuts down and offers free decryption keys to all victims

 | 

SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 52

 | 

Security Affairs newsletter Round 531 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION

 | 

North Korea-linked threat actors spread macOS NimDoor malware via fake Zoom updates

 | 

Critical Sudo bugs expose major Linux distros to local Root exploits

 | 
  • 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
  • Hacking
  • Malware
  • Apache Struts 2 vulnerability exploited to deliver the Cerber ransomware

Apache Struts 2 vulnerability exploited to deliver the Cerber ransomware

Pierluigi Paganini April 07, 2017

Cyber criminals exploited the recently patched Apache Struts 2 vulnerability CVE-2017-5638 in the wild to deliver the Cerber ransomware.

A recently patched Apache Struts 2 vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2017-5638, has been exploited by crooks in the wild to deliver the Cerber ransomware.

The remote code execution vulnerability affected the Jakarta-based file upload Multipart parser under Apache Struts 2. The CVE-2017-5638 flaw was documented in Rapid7’s Metasploit Framework GitHub site and researchers at Cisco Talos discovered that attackers in the wild are exploiting a publicly available PoC code that triggers the issue.

The attackers targeted both Unix and Windows systems to establish backdoor or to infect the system with a DDoS trojan. The recent campaign spotted by researchers at F5 Networks targeted Windows machines.

Since March 20, the experts observed attacks delivering Cerber ransomware to Windows servers.

“This campaign started on the 10th of March, 2017 a couple of days after the vulnerability was disclosed. While it looked similar to the other CVE-2017-5638 campaigns, the attack vector seemed to be a slight modification of the original public exploit.” reads the blog post published by F5 Networks.

“The exploit triggers the vulnerability via the Content-Type header value, which the attacker customized with shell commands to be executed if the server is vulnerable.”

Cerber ransomware

“Since about a month, we are tracking numerous attempts to exploit the Java Struts2 vulnerability (CVE 2017-5638). Typically, the exploits targeted Unix systems with simple Perl backdoors and bots.” states an analysis published by experts at the SANS Technology Institute. “But recently, I saw a number of exploit attempts targeting Windows systems using a variant of the Cerber ransomware.”

Crooks exploited the CVE-2017-5638 vulnerability to run Windows tools like shell commands and ITSAdmin to download and execute the Cerber malware.

Below the attack sequence observed by the researchers at the SANS Institute:

  1. The script uses BITSAdmin to download the malware (I obfuscated the URL above.
  2. The malware (“UnInstall.exe”) is saved in the %TEMP% directory
  3. finally, the malware is executed.

The experts at F5 Network analyzed the Bitcoin address where victims are told to send the payment of the ransom and discovered that 84 bitcoins, roughly $100,000 at the current market value.

“The new vulnerability in Apache STRUTS provides a target-rich environment for threat actors to extend their business while infecting thousands of new servers,” F5 said in a blog post. “Targeting servers, rather than individuals, with ransomware has better chances for monetization because those are usually run by organizations with deeper pockets and better infrastructure that might be critical for their business.”

[adrotate banner=”9″]

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – Cerber ransomware, CVE-2017-5638 vulnerability)

 


facebook linkedin twitter

Cerber CVE-2017-5638 Cybercrime ransomware

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini July 11, 2025
U.S. CISA adds Citrix NetScaler ADC and Gateway flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini July 10, 2025
UK NCA arrested four people over M&S, Co-op cyberattacks
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

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

    recent articles

    U.S. CISA adds Citrix NetScaler ADC and Gateway flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

    Hacking / July 11, 2025

    UK NCA arrested four people over M&S, Co-op cyberattacks

    Cyber Crime / July 10, 2025

    PerfektBlue Bluetooth attack allows hacking infotainment systems of Mercedes, Volkswagen, and Skoda

    Hacking / July 10, 2025

    Qantas data breach impacted 5.7 million individuals

    Data Breach / July 10, 2025

    DoNot APT is expanding scope targeting European foreign ministries

    APT / July 10, 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