this makes use of an old windows specific vulnerability. Linux is only mentioned on the title, not again in the whole article. clickbait.
edit: downvote me if you want, but the original article didn't say a thing about Linux.
this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2023
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On Linux, the malware assumes the name 'sd-pam'. It achieves persistence using systemd services, an autostarting .desktop file, or by modifying various profile and startup files, such as /etc/rc*, profile, bashrc, or inittab files.
That's from a completely different article.
And it doesn't say how this is achieved without already having root privilegies. I'm not sure I believe this can in fact infect a Linux system, except if it's already heavily compromised, for instance by a user logging in as root as default.
.bashrc and .profile can be modified without root, as can autostarting .desktop files. I think systemd and anything in /etc require root though.
Also a lot of users set sudo to not require a password (I am guilty of this) which makes privilege escalation easy.
It is a different article, but both articles are simply reporting research by Kaspersky, and Kaspersky goes into quite a bit of depth covering the Linux side of the threat, which is very real. PCMag focuses mostly on the windows side, because it's a windows focused site.
This isn't a single exploit, this is a "framework" that can take advantage of multiple exploits and will use which ever one it can find. You don't need to be "heavily compromised" you just need to be vulnerable to one of the compromises. And you definitely don't need root either.
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It does include this:
quietly spread across a victim’s network, including to Linux machines.
But that's a completely ridiculous lack of detail of any actual vulnerability. Smells like bullshit.
The quote from OP is from a different article.
I wasn't intentionally trying to imply that it came from the article. That's why I posted the naked link. I wasn't really thinking about the Linux component when I posted the article.
That’s why I posted the naked link.
Which is perfectly fine and dandy. I think some people just had a knee jerk reaction, based on a misunderstanding of context.
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It does though: "On Linux, the malware assumes the name 'sd-pam'. It achieves persistence using systemd services, an autostarting .desktop file, or by modifying various profile and startup files, such as /etc/rc*, profile, bashrc, or inittab files."
So technically useless . it can't do shit.
It can pwn poorly configured dev systems.
Malware disguised as malware? Interesting
It's always the one you least suspect, like disguising yourself as an impersonation of yourself.
It's just malware all the way down
Malware turtles?
A disc of malware resting on top of 4 malware elephants, riding a giant malware turtle
Morris balanced on Michelangelo standing on the shoulders of ILOVEYOU holding stuxnet giving HeartBleed
It's like inception
According to Kaspersky, StripedFly uses its own custom EternalBlue attack to infiltrate unpatched Windows systems and quietly spread across a victim’s network, including to Linux machines.
Yeah I call bullshit on that. Absolutely zero description of any vulnerability.
This is a different article but you should find at least some more information on how the malware works with Linux here:
I'm not a Linux user so I honestly don't know if that article is incredibly helpful or not.
From what it's describing, it sounds like it would only impact Linux computers that allow SMB1 access, such as domain-joined systems with samba access allowed. It sounds like this would target mainly enterprise Linux deployments but home Linux setups should be fine for the most part.
They describe an SSH infector, as well as a credentials scanner. To me, that sounds like it started like from exploited/infected Windows computers with SSH access, and then continued from there.
With how many unencrypted SSH keys there are, how most hosts keep a list of the servers they SSH into, and how they can probably bypass some firewall protections once they're inside the network: not a bad idea.
I think the original article talked about "spreading" to Linux machines so that generally tracks with what you're saying that it starts on a Windows machine that itself has access to a Linux machine.
Interesting, thanks for that
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I don't know why op did not want to share the original report, but it is linked in the article: https://securelist.com/stripedfly-perennially-flying-under-the-radar/110903/
I too am struggling to find the actual Linux vuln. It sounds like it steals ssh keys, so maybe just poorly configured hosts?
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