Web-exposed Selenium Grid cases are being focused by dangerous actors for illicit cryptocurrency mining and proxyjacking campaigns.
“Selenium Grid is a server that facilitates working check circumstances in parallel throughout completely different browsers and variations,” Cado Safety researchers Tara Gould and Nate Invoice stated in an evaluation revealed right now.
“Nevertheless, Selenium Grid’s default configuration lacks authentication, making it susceptible to exploitation by menace actors.”
The abuse of publicly-accessible Selenium Grid cases for deploying crypto miners was beforehand highlighted by cloud safety agency Wiz in late July 2024 as a part of an exercise cluster dubbed SeleniumGreed.
Cado, which noticed two completely different campaigns in opposition to its honeypot server, stated the menace actors are exploiting the dearth of authentication protections to hold out malicious actions.
The primary of them leverage the “goog:chromeOptions” dictionary to inject a Base64-encoded Python script that, in flip, retrieves a script named “y,” which is the open-source GSocket reverse shell.
The reverse shell subsequently serves as a medium for introducing the next-stage payload, a bash script named “pl” that retrieves IPRoyal Pawn and EarnFM from a distant server through curl and wget instructions.
“IPRoyal Pawns is a residential proxy service that permits customers to promote their web bandwidth in alternate for cash,” Cado stated.
“The consumer’s web connection is shared with the IPRoyal community with the service utilizing the bandwidth as a residential proxy, making it accessible for varied functions, together with for malicious functions.”
EarnFM can be a proxyware answer that is marketed as a “ground-breaking” solution to “generate passive revenue on-line by merely sharing your web connection.”
The second assault, just like the proxyjacking marketing campaign, follows the identical path to ship a bash script through a Python script that checks if it is working on a 64-bit machine after which proceeds to drop a Golang-based ELF binary.
The ELF file subsequently makes an attempt to escalate to root by leveraging the PwnKit flaw (CVE-2021-4043) and drops an XMRig cryptocurrency miner referred to as perfcc.
“As many organizations depend on Selenium Grid for internet browser testing, this marketing campaign additional highlights how misconfigured cases will be abused by menace actors,” the researchers stated. “Customers ought to guarantee authentication is configured, as it’s not enabled by default.”
