Financial and business information was stolen from several shipping and logistics firms by sophisticated malware hiding in inventory scanners manufactured by a Chinese company.
The supply chain attack, dubbed "Zombie Zero," was identified by security researchers from TrapX, a cybersecurity firm in San Mateo, California, who wrote about it in a report released Thursday.
TrapX hasn't named the Chinese manufacturer, but said that the malware was implanted in physical scanners shipped to customers, as well as in the Windows XP Embedded firmware available for download on the manufacturer's website.
The malware was designed to launch attacks using the SMB (Server Message Block) protocol and the Radmin remote control protocol when the infected inventory scanner was connected to a company's wireless network. It then looked for ERP (enterprise resource planning) servers with the word "finance" in their names and used known exploits to compromise them, said Carl Wright, executive vice president and general manager of TrapX.
Wright declined to name the targeted ERP software, but said that it's a very popular one that runs on Linux.
According to the TrapX researchers, once an ERP server is found and compromised, the malware installs a second-stage component that connects to command-and-control server at the Lanxiang Vocational School in China's Shandong province. The researchers noted in their report that the Lanxiang Vocational School has been linked in the past to cyberespionage attacks against Google and other companies as part of a campaign called Operation Aurora.
The second-stage component downloads a third and more sophisticated payload that establishes a separate connection to a facility in Beijing.
The malware's goal is to steal corporate financial and customer data from ERP servers, as well shipping manifest information, the TrapX researchers said.
Wright declined to speculate on whether the unnamed Chinese vendor intentionally inserted malware into its scanners or if it might have been a victim of an attack that led to its products and software being compromised. However, he pointed out that when contacted, the vendor initially denied the allegations, but then replaced the infected firmware on its website. He also noted that the company is based only a few blocks from the Lanxiang Vocational School.
Since the attack was originally detected, TrapX has identified seven victims in the shipping and logistics industry, as well as a robotics firm that was attacked with the same initial malware, but with different payloads, Wright said. In the case of the robotics firms, the attack didn't target ERP systems, he said.
Security researchers have warned about the possibility of malware attacks through the supply chain for years, but the number of confirmed incidents has been low. However, according to Wright, the world is changing and this type of attack could happen more often.
Recent media reports based on documents leaked by former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden said that the NSA routinely intercepted routers, servers and other network equipment shipped by U.S. manufacturers to international customers and installed surveillance tools in them.