Pierluigi Paganini October 29, 2018

Cybercriminals continue to abuse unprotected Docker APIs to create new containers used for cryptojacking, Trend Micro warns.

Crooks continue to abuse unprotected Docker APIs to create new containers used for cryptojacking.

Earlier this year Sysdig and Aqua Security researchers started observing cyber attacks targeting Kubernets and Docker instances aimed at mining Monero cryptocurrency.

A container is a package that contains an application and all the dependencies that are required to its execution. Each Docker container runs on Docker Engine along with other containers. Experts pointed out that a Docker Engine is not properly secured could be exposed to remote attack through Docker Engine API.

Miscreants can abuse Docker Engine API to deploy containers they have created with the specific intent of mining cryptocurrencies.

Experts from Trend Micro have recently observed threat actors scanning for exposed Docker Engine APIs (port 2375 and 2376), attackers aimed at abusing them to deploy containers that used for cryptojacking.

“We recently observed cases of abuse of the systems running misconfigured Docker Engine-Community with Docker application program interface (API) ports exposed. We also noticed that the malicious activities were focused on scanning for open ports 2375/TCP and 2376/TCP, which are used by the Docker engine daemon (dockerd).” reads the analysis published by Trend Micro.

“The intrusion attempts to deploy a cryptocurrency-mining malware (detected by Trend Micro as Coinminer.SH.MALXMR.ATNE) on the misconfigured systems.”

The auto.sh script deploys a Monero miner and also a port scanning software, which will scan for other vulnerable Docker Engine installs.

Experts have seen attackers scanning all networks from the host with a scan rate of 50,000 packets per second for open ports 2375 and 2376 and save the result into local.txt file.