Recently, the security community has raised concerns regarding the vulnerabilities found in D-Link Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices. The vulnerabilities, identified as CVE-2024-3272 and CVE-2024-3273 were disclosed initially by an individual who goes by the alias “netsecfish” on GitHub on March 26, 2024. D-Link disclosed the same on April 4, 2024.
The March 26 GitHub post highlighted that the malicious HTTP request is aimed at exploiting the vulnerable endpoint of affected D-Link NAS devices, thereby generating significant interest within the cyber security community.
The severity of the issue can be understood from the fact that the Cyble Global Sensor Intelligence (CGSI) network detected ongoing exploitation attempts of these vulnerabilities from April 09 itself. This also indicates the swift weaponization of publicly available exploits by Threat Actors (TAs) targeting vulnerable internet-exposed D-Link NAS. The figure below depicts the exploitation attempts observed from one of the CGSI instances.
Figure 1 – Exploitation attempt of D-Link NAS vulnerabilities observed via CGSI Network
CGSI’s findings also indicate that the majority of these attacks are originating from China.
Figure 2 – Exploitation attempt observed by CGSI network
During routine monitoring of cybercrime forums, Cyble Researcher & Intelligence Labs (CRIL) observed a post on a prominent Russian cybercrime forum on April 8, 2024 about a Threat Actor (TA) sharing an exploit to target the vulnerable D-Link NAS instances affected with CVE-2024-3273.
To support the claims, the TA further shared the output of the successfully executed exploit on an instance deployed on localhost, along with output from the “id” command reflecting the UID of the user as 0, to demonstrate access to the root account.
Figure 3 – TA sharing an exploit for CVE-2024-3273 over a cybercrime forum
The vulnerability found in affected versions of D-Link stems from the nas_sharing.cgi CGI script. D-Link has recommended retiring these products and replacing them with products that receive firmware updates, as End of Life (EOL)/End of Support (EOS) products are no longer supported. All firmware development for these products ceases.
The vulnerability falls under the critical severity category and allows a remote attacker to manipulate the ‘user’ argument using the input ‘messagebus,’ thus revealing hard-coded credentials.
The vulnerability falls under the high severity category and allows a remote attacker to manipulate the ‘system’ parameter, which leads to command injection.
By exploiting both vulnerabilities in tandem, an attacker could effectively execute arbitrary commands on the system. This could result in unauthorized access to sensitive data, alterations to system configurations, or the creation of denial-of-service situations.
At the time of publishing this analysis, Cyble researchers observed that 94,446 internet exposed DLink NAS were exposed over the internet. With majority of instances exposed over the United Kingdom, Thailand, Italy, Germany, and Hungary (as shown below).
The ongoing exploitation of D-Link NAS devices by threat actors, as detected by the CGSI network, represents a troubling development for both public and private organizations. The criticality of the threat emerging from D-Link NAS devices that have reached their End-of-Life (EOL)/End-of-Service (EOS) status, have exposures over the internet, and are readily exploitable due to the availability of public exploits, is extremely catastrophic and can have a cascading effect on the security postures of several organizations.
The vulnerabilities present in NAS devices pose a serious risk, as exploitation not only compromises the integrity and security of the affected device but also extends to other interconnected devices within the network. This interconnectedness amplifies the potential impact, exposing enterprise networks to significant risks and vulnerabilities.
Indicators | Indicator Type | Description |
47[.]94[.]155[.]169 | IP Address | IP addresses observed attempting to exploit CVE-2024-3273. |
8[.]134[.]81[.]86 | IP Address | IP addresses observed attempting to exploit CVE-2024-3273. |
171[.]244[.]23[.]11 | IP Address | IP addresses observed attempting to exploit CVE-2024-3273. |
120[.]79[.]250[.]151 | IP Address | IP addresses observed attempting to exploit CVE-2024-3273. |
35[.]229[.]184[.]234 | IP Address | IP addresses observed attempting to exploit CVE-2024-3273. |
182[.]253[.]115[.]123 | IP Address | IP addresses observed attempting to exploit CVE-2024-3273. |
202[.]79[.]171[.]107 | IP Address | IP addresses observed attempting to exploit CVE-2024-3273. |
116[.]198[.]40[.]76 | IP Address | IP addresses observed attempting to exploit CVE-2024-3273. |
121[.]41[.]56[.]249 | IP Address | IP addresses observed attempting to exploit CVE-2024-3273. |
114[.]67[.]183[.]11 | IP Address | IP addresses observed attempting to exploit CVE-2024-3273. |
183[.]56[.]199[.]229 | IP Address | IP addresses observed attempting to exploit CVE-2024-3273. |
116[.]62[.]192[.]107 | IP Address | IP addresses observed attempting to exploit CVE-2024-3273. |
80[.]94[.]92[.]60 | IP Address | IP addresses observed attempting to exploit CVE-2024-3273. |
91[.]215[.]85[.]61 | IP Address | IP addresses observed attempting to exploit CVE-2024-3273. |
14[.]225[.]53[.]162 | IP Address | IP addresses observed attempting to exploit CVE-2024-3273. |
112[.]111[.]0[.]102 | IP Address | IP addresses observed attempting to exploit CVE-2024-3273. |
186[.]251[.]21[.]234 | IP Address | IP addresses observed attempting to exploit CVE-2024-3273. |
51[.]79[.]19[.]53 | IP Address | IP addresses observed attempting to exploit CVE-2024-3273. |
115[.]220[.]2[.]96 | IP Address | IP addresses observed attempting to exploit CVE-2024-3273. |
39[.]98[.]218[.]14 | IP Address | IP addresses observed attempting to exploit CVE-2024-3273. |
120[.]196[.]56[.]220 | IP Address | IP addresses observed attempting to exploit CVE-2024-3273. |
14[.]116[.]254[.]172 | IP Address | IP addresses observed attempting to exploit CVE-2024-3273. |
https://github.com/netsecfish/dlink
https://vuldb.com/?id.259284