December 13, 2023 at 06:32PM
APT29, the Russian cyber threat group responsible for the SolarWinds hack, is actively exploiting a critical security vulnerability in JetBrains TeamCity. This presents a global threat, potentially enabling access to valuable data and the possibility of sabotaging software compilations and deployments. Patching alone won’t mitigate the danger, making active threat hunting and patching crucial for protection.
Based on the meeting notes, the key takeaways are:
1. APT29, also known as CozyBear, the Dukes, Midnight Blizzard, or Nobelium, is actively exploiting a critical security vulnerability in JetBrains TeamCity – tracked as CVE-2023-42793 with a CVSS score of 9.8.
2. The exploitation of the vulnerability began in September and has the potential to result in widespread damage, including enabling access to valuable data and compromising software compilation and deployment processes.
3. The affected platform, TeamCity, is a software development lifecycle management tool that houses source code and signing certificates, making it a prime target for cyber attackers.
4. Patches alone may not mitigate the danger as backdoors are likely to persist and remain undetected after the TeamCity upgrade or security patch plugin are applied.
5. There are at least 800 unpatched TeamCity software instances exposed to the Internet, and the number of compromised instances remains unclear.
6. Other state-sponsored cyber threats, including North Korea-backed APTs, are also taking advantage of the TeamCity vulnerability to install persistent backdoors.
7. Organizations are advised to patch any vulnerable instances to version 2023.05.4, conduct active threat hunting based on indicators of compromise (IoCs), and vet TeamCity servers and build agents for signs of trouble.
If you need further details or additional information regarding the meeting notes, please let me know.