Might 27, 2025Ravie LakshmananCloud Safety / Menace Intelligence
Misconfigured Docker API cases have turn into the goal of a brand new malware marketing campaign that transforms them right into a cryptocurrency mining botnet.
The assaults, designed to mine for Dero forex, is notable for its worm-like capabilities to propagate the malware to different uncovered Docker cases and cord them into an ever-growing horde of mining bots.
Kaspersky mentioned it noticed an unidentified risk actor gaining preliminary entry to a operating containerized infrastructure by exploiting an insecurely revealed Docker API, after which weaponizing that entry to create the illicit cryptojacking community.
“This led to the operating containers being compromised and new ones being created not solely to hijack the sufferer’s assets for cryptocurrency mining but additionally to launch exterior assaults to propagate to different networks,” safety researcher Amged Wageh mentioned.
The assault chain is realized by way of two parts: A propagation malware “nginx” that scans the web for uncovered Docker APIs and the “cloud” Dero cryptocurrency miner. Each the payloads are developed utilizing Golang. Using “nginx” is a deliberate try to masquerade because the reliable nginx net server and fly underneath the radar.
The propagation malware is designed to report the operating actions of the malware, launch the miner, and enter into an infinite loop to generate random IPv4 community subnets for flagging extra inclined Docker cases which have the default API port 2375 open and compromising them.
It then proceeds to verify whether or not the distant dockerd daemon on the host with an identical IPv4 is operating and responsive. If it fails to execute the “docker -H PS” command, “nginx” merely strikes to the following IP deal with from the listing.
“After confirming that the distant dockerd daemon is operating and responsive, nginx generates a container title with 12 random characters and makes use of it to create a malicious container on the distant goal,” Wageh defined. “Then nginx prepares the brand new container to put in dependencies later by updating the packages through ‘docker -H exec apt-get -yq replace.'”
The propagation instrument then installs masscan and docker.io within the container in order to permit the malware to work together with the Docker daemon and to carry out the exterior scan to contaminate different networks, successfully spreading the malware additional. Within the final stage, the 2 payloads “nginx” and “cloud” are transferred to the container utilizing the command “docker -H cp -L /usr/bin/ :/usr/bin.”
As a means of establishing persistence, the transferred “nginx” binary is added to the “/root/.bash_aliases” file to be sure that it routinely launches upon shell login. One other vital side of the malware is that it is also engineered to contaminate Ubuntu-based operating containers on distant weak hosts.
The final word objective of the marketing campaign is to execute the Dero cryptocurrency miner, which is predicated on the open-source DeroHE CLI miner accessible on GitHub.
Kaspersky has assessed that the exercise overlaps with a Dero mining marketing campaign that was beforehand documented by CrowdStrike in March 2023 focusing on Kubernetes clusters primarily based on the pockets deal with and derod node addresses used. A subsequent iteration of the identical marketing campaign was flagged by Wiz in June 2024.
“Containerized environments have been compromised by way of a mixture of a beforehand identified miner and a brand new pattern that created malicious containers and contaminated present ones,” Wageh mentioned. “The 2 malicious implants unfold with no C2 server, making any community that has a containerized infrastructure and insecurely revealed Docker API to the web a possible goal.”
The event comes because the AhnLab Safety Intelligence Middle (ASEC) detailed a marketing campaign that entails the deployment of the Monero coin miner together with a never-before-seen backdoor that makes use of the PyBitmessage peer-to-peer (P2P) communication protocol to course of incoming directions and execute them as PowerShell scripts.
The precise distribution methodology used within the marketing campaign is at present not identified, however it’s suspected to be disguised as cracked variations of well-liked software program, making it important that customers keep away from downloading recordsdata from unknown or untrusted sources and keep on with reliable distribution channels.
“The Bitmessage protocol is a messaging system designed with anonymity and decentralization in thoughts, and it options the prevention of interception by intermediaries and the anonymization of message senders and receivers,” ASEC mentioned.
“Menace actors exploited the PyBitmessage module, which implements this protocol within the Python setting, to change encrypted packets in a format just like common net visitors. Particularly, C2 instructions and management messages are hidden inside messages from actual customers within the Bitmessage community.”
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