3,000 Leaked ASP.NET Keys Exposing IIS Servers to Code Injection Attacks

Key Insights:

Microsoft's Threat Intelligence team has identified over 3,000 publicly disclosed ASP.NET machine keys that are being exploited by attackers to perform ViewState code injection attacks. These keys, often found in publicly accessible resources like code repositories and documentation, are being used to inject malicious code into IIS web servers, leading to remote code execution.

Immediate Action Required:

1. Avoid Publicly Available Keys: Developers should refrain from using machine keys found in public resources.

2. Regular Key Rotation: Organizations should regularly rotate their machine keys to mitigate the risk of exploitation.

3. Enhanced Monitoring: Use security tools like Microsoft Defender for Endpoint to detect exposed keys and monitor configuration files for unauthorized changes.

4. Investigation and Remediation: If exploitation is suspected, merely rotating keys may not be sufficient. Conduct thorough investigations to identify and remove any backdoors or persistence mechanisms established by attackers.

Source: Hackernews

Background and Technical Details

ViewState is a method used in the ASP.NET framework to preserve page and control values between postbacks. By default, ViewState data is stored in a hidden field and encoded using base64 encoding. A hash of the ViewState data is created using a machine authentication code (MAC) key, ensuring that the data has not been tampered with. However, if these keys are stolen or made accessible to unauthorized third-parties, attackers can leverage them to send malicious ViewState requests and execute arbitrary code.

Microsoft's Recommendations:

Microsoft has provided a list of hash values for the publicly disclosed machine keys, urging customers to check them against the machine keys used in their environments. It has also warned that in the event of a successful exploitation of publicly disclosed keys, merely rotating the keys will not be sufficient as the threat actors may have already established persistence on the host.

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Conclusion:

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