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Luoxk Malware Campaign

First observed in 2017, Luoxk is a malware campaign targeting web servers throughout Asia, Europe and North America.

Threat ID:
CC-2550
Category:
Botnet, Worm, Trojan
Threat Severity:
Medium
Threat Vector:
Exploit, Insecure network
Published:
25 July 2018 12:00 AM
Report a cyber attack: call 0300 303 5222 or email [email protected]

This content has been archived

This article no longer conforms to NHS Digital's standards for cyber alerts, and may contain outdated or inaccurate information. Use of this information contained in this page is at your own risk

Summary

First observed in 2017, Luoxk is a malware campaign targeting web servers throughout Asia, Europe and North America.

Threat details

Luoxk uses a variety of methods to compromise vulnerable servers but is primarily exploiting CVE-2018-2893, a remote code execution vulnerability on Oracle web servers. Open Remote Desktop Protocol ports have also been used to infect devices.

Once access is achieved, the group operating Luoxk will use the compromised servers for a number of purposes including:

  • Enrolling them in a Nitol variant botnet to be used for distributed denial-of-service attacks. Nitol is a smaller botnet trojan that operates primarily in China and surrounding Asian countries.
  • Installing the Gh0st remote access trojan, which in turn is used to install an XMRig mining application and to propagate to other devices on the network.
  • Hosting malicious Android APK files for other malware to use.

For further information

Remediation advice

CVE-2018-2893 was addressed in Oracle's July 2018 Critical Patch Update (CPU). Users are advised to update their affected systems immediately.

Remediation steps

Type Step
  • Only allow access for authorised RDP users.
  • Enforce strong password policies.
  • Enforce multi-factor authentication.
  • Don't allow RDP access for privileged user accounts.
  • Don’t use generic accounts.
  • Set user accounts with an expiry date.
  • Audit user accounts periodically.
  • Only allow point-to-point connections from specific IP addresses where feasible.
  • Ensure Transport Layer Security (TLS) is up-to-date.
  • Log and monitor all RDP activity and investigate unusual behaviour.
  • Consider only allowing RDP for authorised virtual private network (VPN) connections.

Additionally, to prevent and detect an infection ensure that:

  • A robust program of education and awareness training is delivered to users to ensure they don’t open attachments or follow links within unsolicited emails.
  • All operating systems, anti-virus and other security products are kept up-to-date.
  • All day-to-day computer activities such as email and internet are performed using non-administrative accounts.
  • Strong password policies are in place.
  • Network, proxy and firewall logs should be monitored for suspicious activity.
  • User accounts accessed from affected devices should be reset on a clean computer.
  • Your organisation adopts a holistic all-round approach to Cyber Security as advocated by the 10 Steps to Cyber Security.

CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2018-2893

Last edited: 11 January 2022 3:42 pm