Russia ’s elect state of matter - go hacking groups areknownas some of the best in the biz , with a chronicle of attacks stretchingbackwell beyondwhat we saw during the last presidential election . Now , the NSA and FBI are giving us a window into one of the latest fast one of the craft these malevolent actors use when sneaking through figurer software : “ Drovorub . ”
The two agencies outlined the specs on this new nisus of Russian malware in a jointsecurity memoreleased yesterday . According to the squad , the malware was engineered by the cyber - espionage radical Fancy Bear , well have a go at it for allegedly place everything from theDemocratic National Committeeto theDepartment of Energy .
According to the squad behind the report , the name “ Drovorub”—which the US cybersecurity squad just get hold embed in some of the file relate with this malware — roughly transform into English as “ chop down a tree ” : from drovo ( дрово ) which stand for “ firewood , ” and rub ( руб ) which means “ to fall . ” Per the team , this strain of malware was the perpetrator behind a wave of 2019cyber attacksagainst an untold number of corporate printers , VoIP phones , and other IoT devices .
Photo: Jack Guez (Getty Images)
Thefull advisoryis a whopping 45 Sir Frederick Handley Page explicate the Indiana and outs of how this specific strain of malware operates . According to the documents , Drovorub is specifically engineered to expose into computers run old versions of Linux Kernel . The Department of Defense itself and associated defensecontractorshave been known to run Linux for a motley of intent . Once inside those vulnerable systems , the malware can download or upload any files from the septic gadget , or do any other sort of “ arbitrary commands . ”
As one cybersecurity researchertoldZDNet , it ’s kind of like the “ swiss - army tongue ” of Russian malware that can give the assaulter near - complete control over the equipment in interrogative sentence , along with any files it might have store therein — which is n’t big if the equipment belongs to a government contractile organ .
That aver , even though the feds are the main target that Fancy Bear might be setting their sights on , they ’re far from the only folks at risk of exposure from these sort of devilment . Back in 2017 , researchers find this grouptappinginto the wireless local area internet networks in democratic hotel chains , which would leave the door loose to a guest beget their electronic mail addresses and watchword — and potentially their credit card details — siphoned off . More late , we ’ve also encounter them attack Democraticthink tanks , aUkrainian Gas company , andmore thana dozenathletic organizationsthat were accuse Russia ofdopingits Olympic jock .
The main purpose of the FBI ’s qui vive — and the more than 40 page of note that came along with it — is to “ rear awareness ” among the IT crew across the country , so they are n’t blindside by these sort of bad actors before it ’s too late . fortuitously there ’s a stupendously easy recommendation to avoid the negative and hard - to - observe Drovorub : consort any Linux Kernel let go after 2012 .
Or at least that should be soft . Brobdingnagian , behind - move organizations like the DoDstrugglewith draw up - to - particular date software . consider we’realready seeingsome malware - y threats targeting the come election , possibly this could be a good monitor to , uh , kick upstairs those system .
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