According to a recent advisory published by the NSA, Chinese state-sponsored actors use several techniques to access sensitive intellectual property, economic, political, and military information. The NSA has identified the most often used techniques that can cause the most damage. These include 25 vulnerabilities they know Chinese state-sponsored actors use. 21 of these vulnerabilities became public in just the last two years.
Vulnerabilities and the effected system include:
- CVE-2019-11510 Pulse Secure VPN
- CVE-2020-5902 F5 BIG-IP
- CVE-2019-19781 Citrix Application Delivery Controller (ADC) and Gateway
- CVE-2020-8193 Citrix AD
- CVE-2020-8195 Citrix AD
- CVE-2020-8196 Citrix AD
- CVE-2019-0708 Microsoft Remote Desktop Services
- CVE-2020-15505 MobileIron
- CVE-2020-1350 Windows Domain Name System
- CVE-2020-1472 Microsoft Netlogon
- CVE-2019-1040 Microsoft Windows
- CVE-2018-6789 Exim mail transfer agent
- CVE-2020-0688 Microsoft Exchange
- CVE-2018-4939 Adobe ColdFusion
- CVE-2015-4852 Oracle WebLogic
- CVE-2020-2555 Oracle Coherence
- CVE-2019-3396 Atlassian Confluence Server Widget Connector
- CVE-2019-11580 Atlassian Crowd or Crowd Data Center
- CVE-2020-10189 Zoho ManageEngine Desktop Central
- CVE-2019-18935 Progress Telerik
- CVE-2020-0601 Windows CryptoAPI (Crypt32.dll)
- CVE-2019-0803 Microsoft Windows
- CVE-2017-6327 Symantec Messaging Gateway
- CVE-2020-3118 Cisco Discovery Protocol
- CVE-2020-8515 DrayTek
These actors use the vulnerabilities in an attack by first identifying the target, collecting information on the target, identify possible vulnerabilities, and creating or reusing software to exploit their vulnerabilities. Finally, they will attack the target with the custom software. Once they gain access, these vulnerabilities lead to Code Execution [TA0002], Privilege Escalation [TA0004], and Credential Access [TA0006]. As mentioned in the report: “The majority of the products are either for remote access [T1133] or for external web services [T1190].”
We recommend checking the vulnerably link if you use any of the products listed but in general, you should follow these best practices for securing your systems.
Automate updates to ensure you run the latest security patch. If you can’t automate this, then schedule a time every month to review your system for any updates. If you experience a data breach, ensure you change the password compromised in the breach before starting up production again. Don’t allow direct external management. Use a VPN to manage access from the outside. Use a “Deny All” policy and only allow protocols you need. Ensure you use network isolation to separate different departments and external-facing servers. Record and save logging information from your servers. Check these logs regularly for signs of compromise.
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