Attacks against Domain Specific Languages, EU Cybersecurity Laws, & Supply Chain Attacks

Jordan_Zebor is your editor once again for this issue of This Week In Security. This week I will cover some interesting research which highlights Attacks against Domain Specific Languages, some new EU Cybersecurity Laws, & a few more instances of Supply Chain Attacks.

 

Attacks against Domain Specific Languages

The article highlights new attack techniques discovered in Open Policy Agent (OPA) and Terraform by security researcher Shelly Raban, who uncovered vulnerabilities in the supply chain and configuration management of these infrastructure-as-code and policy-as-code tools. The research explores how attackers can exploit these DSLs to compromise cloud identities, enable lateral movement, and exfiltrate data through various malicious techniques, such as credential theft and DNS tunneling.

Open Policy Agent (OPA) Attacks

OPA, a policy engine, uses Rego, a domain-specific language (DSL), to make policy decisions. Attackers can exploit vulnerabilities in OPA's supply chain by gaining access to the policy storage and uploading malicious policies. Once the malicious policy is fetched during a regular update, it can execute harmful actions like credential exfiltration. This can be done by abusing OPA's built-in functions, such as opa.runtime().env for accessing environment variables or http.send for exfiltrating sensitive data to an external server. Additionally, attackers can use DNS tunneling via the net.lookup_ip_addr function to stealthily transmit sensitive information, such as credentials, to a malicious server.

Terraform Attacks

Terraform, a popular Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) tool, uses the HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL) for declarative configurations. Terraform's CI/CD pipelines often run the terraform plan phase on pull requests, which can inadvertently trigger malicious code execution if a pull request includes a compromised module or data source. One risk arises from the use of external and HTTP data sources, which can be manipulated to exfiltrate sensitive information, such as AWS credentials, to an attacker-controlled server. Terraform also uses provisioners like local-exec and remote-exec, which can run arbitrary code on the local or remote infrastructure, making them a target for attackers who could deploy malicious scripts or even cryptocurrency miners.

These attack techniques highlight the importance of securing IaC and PaC tools to prevent malicious code from being executed during the infrastructure provisioning or policy evaluation phases.

 

New EU Cybersecurity Laws

The new cybersecurity laws in the EU establish a European Cybersecurity Alert System and amend the Cybersecurity Act of 2019 to enhance security standards for managed security services. The first law creates a pan-European network of cyberhubs to improve coordinated threat detection and response across borders, leveraging AI and advanced data analytics. It also introduces a Cybersecurity Emergency Mechanism and a European Cybersecurity Incident Review Mechanism to support member states in preparing for and recovering from major cyberattacks. The second law focuses on certifying managed security services, ensuring higher quality and reducing market fragmentation by creating a unified certification scheme.

These laws are beneficial because they foster stronger international collaboration, improve threat detection and response, and enhance the quality of cybersecurity services across Europe. By using data analytics, the alert system can enable faster and more effective responses to cyberattacks. However, the laws may also have potential drawbacks, such as the complexity of managing cross-border cooperation and ensuring privacy while sharing sensitive threat information.

 

Software Supply Chain Attacks

Software supply chain attacks involve the compromise of trusted software packages or their distribution channels to introduce malicious code that can harm users. The Ultralytics AI library, a widely used Python package for artificial intelligence applications, and the Solana Web3.js JavaScript SDK, utilized by decentralized applications to interact with the Solana blockchain, were both targeted in separate incidents that exploited vulnerabilities in their build processes to inject malicious payloads.

Ultralytics AI

The Ultralytics AI module, a popular Python package for AI, was compromised in a supply chain attack that introduced a cryptocurrency miner in versions 8.3.41 and 8.3.42. The malicious code, which caused high CPU usage, was injected through a vulnerability in the library's build environment via GitHub Actions Script Injection. After being flagged by a researcher, the compromised versions were removed, and a new release fixed the security flaw. While the payload was a miner, more severe malware risks, like backdoors, remain a concern.

Solana Web3.js

In a separate attack, the Solana Web3.js JavaScript SDK was modified to steal private keys from developers and users in versions 1.95.6 and 1.95.7. The malicious "addToQueue" function exfiltrated keys, sending them to an attacker-controlled server. The breach occurred via a compromised publish-access account. Developers were advised to upgrade to the latest release and rotate keys. The stolen funds amounted to an estimated $184,000.

 

That's it for this week. Hope you enjoyed the content.