Potential cyber-security attack on DNS infrastructure: U.S. Warning
The U.S. government is warning of a potentially disastrous cyber-security attack targeting DNS infrastructure.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has not publicly disclosed which agencies have been impacted by the DNS hijacking campaign. Several cyber-security firms including FireEye and Cisco Talos have been warning about the risks of a global DNS hijacking campaign. On Jan. 9, FireEye stated in a report that the campaign might have the backing of organizations in Iran.
According to FireEye’s Mandiant Incident Response and Intelligence teams have identified a wave of DNS hijacking that has affected dozens of domains belonging to government, telecommunications and internet infrastructure entities across the Middle East and North Africa, Europe and North America. While we do not currently link this activity to any tracked group, initial research suggests the actor or actors responsible have a nexus to Iran. This campaign has targeted victims across the globe on an almost unprecedented scale, with a high degree of success. We have been tracking this activity for several months, mapping and understanding the innovative tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) deployed by the attacker. We have also worked closely with victims, security organizations, and law enforcement agencies where possible to reduce the impact of the attacks and/or prevent further compromises.
Initial Research Suggests Iranian Sponsorship
Attribution analysis for this activity is ongoing. While the DNS record manipulations described in this post are noteworthy and sophisticated, they may not be exclusive to a single threat actor as the activity spans disparate timeframes, infrastructure, and service providers.
- Multiple clusters of this activity have been active from January 2017 to January 2019.
- There are multiple, nonoverlapping clusters of actor-controlled domains and IPs used in this activity.
- A wide range of providers were chosen for encryption certificates and VPS hosts.
Preliminary technical evidence allows us to assess with moderate confidence that this activity is conducted by persons based in Iran and that the activity aligns with Iranian government interests.
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