BadUSB
"It's the struggle between simplicity and security. The power of USB is that you plug it in and it just works. This simplicity is exactly what's enabling these attacks."
- Karsten Nohl, 2014[1]
BadUSB is a
The BadUSB attack was first revealed during a Black Hat talk in 2014 by Karsten Nohl, Sascha Krißler and Jakob Lell. Two months after the talk, other researchers published code that can be used to exploit the vulnerability.[4] In 2017, version 1.0 of the USG dongle, which acts like a hardware firewall, was released, which is designed to prevent BadUSB style attacks.[5]
Criminal usage
In March 2020, the
In January 2022, the FBI issued another warning that members FIN7 were targeting transportation and insurance companies (since August 2021), and defense companies (since November 2021), with BadUSB attacks designed to deliver REvil or BlackMatter ransomware.[8][9] These targets were sent USB drives in packages claiming to be from Amazon or the United States Department of Health and Human Services, with letters talking about free gift cards or COVID-19 protocols that were purportedly further explained by information on the USB drive.[8][9] As above, when plugged in, the USB drives emulate a keyboard, and then initiate a series of keystrokes which open a PowerShell window and issue commands to download malware.[8][9]
See also
Further reading
- Lu, Hongyi; Wu, Yechang; Li, Shuqing; Lin, You; Zhang, Chaozu; Zhang, Fengwei (May 2021). "BADUSB-C: Revisiting BadUSB with Type-C". 2021 IEEE Security and Privacy Workshops (SPW). pp. 327–338. ISBN 978-1-6654-3732-5.
References
- ^ Goodin, Dan (July 31, 2014). "This thumbdrive hacks computers. 'BadUSB' exploit makes devices turn 'evil'". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on 2017-09-09. Retrieved 2021-09-07.
- ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2021-09-07.
- ^ Nohl, Karsten; Krißler, Sascha; Lell, Jakob. "BadUSB - On accessories that turn evil" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-10-19.
- ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2021-09-07.
- ^ Doctorow, Cory (March 2, 2017). "USG: an open source anti-BadUSB hardware firewall for your USB port". Boing Boing. Archived from the original on 2017-03-03. Retrieved 2021-09-07.
- ^ a b c d Ilascu, Ionut (2020-03-27). "FBI: Hackers Sending Malicious USB Drives & Teddy Bears via USPS". Bleeping Computer.
This is not a one-off incident, though. The FBI warns that FIN7 has mailed these packages via USPS to numerous businesses (retail, restaurant, hotel industry) where they target employees in human resources, IT, or executive management departments. These packages sometimes include "gifts" like teddy bears or gift cards. These USB drives are configured to emulate keystrokes that launch a PowerShell command to retrieve malware from server controlled by the attacker. Then, the USB device contacts domains or IP addresses in Russia.
- ^ ZDNet. Archivedfrom the original on 2020-03-26. Retrieved 2021-09-07.
- ^ a b c Gatlan, Sergiu (2022-01-07). "FBI: Hackers use BadUSB to target defense firms with ransomware". Bleeping Computer.
FIN7 operators impersonated Amazon and the US Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) to trick the targets into opening the packages and connecting the USB drives to their systems. Since August, reports received by the FBI say that these malicious packages also contain letters about COVID-19 guidelines or counterfeit gift cards and forged thank you notes, depending on the impersonated entity.
- ^ a b c Tung, Liam (2022-01-10). "Ransomware warning: Cyber criminals are mailing out USB drives that install malware". ZDNET.
Further reading
- "Can BadUSB be avoided by looking at the shapes and the controller model inside it?". Information Security Stack Exchange. Retrieved 2023-01-31.