Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

A critical remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability was identified March 30th, 2022 for the Spring Framework. Spring core, used by millions of systems to develop Java web applications quickly, is one of the Java world’s most popular open source Java frameworks. The RCE vulnerability, if successfully exploited could potentially allow an attacker to take control of a vulnerable system.

Cyberattacks are fast becoming a part of our daily lives. Multiple sources such as Norton Security and Forbes suggest that since the pandemic, attacks are not only increasing in number, but they are becoming more targeted and sophisticated. The attackers using Ransomware as a Service and double extortion techniques are prime examples of how sophisticated attacks are becoming these days. Norton Security states that there are more than 2,200 cyberattacks on a daily basis.

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This blog was written by an independent guest blogger. Credential stuffing attacks essentially doubled in number between 2020 and 2021. As reported by Help Net Security, researchers detected 2,831,028,247 credential stuffing attacks between October 2020 and September 2021—growth of 98% over the previous year. Of the sectors that did experience credential stuffing during that period, gaming, digital and social media, as well as financial services experienced the greatest volume of attacks.

A new vulnerability was found in the Spring Core module of the Spring Framework. This was discovered by a Chinese security researcher, posting a Proof-of-Concept (POC) on GitHub (Figure 1), which later was deleted. This vulnerability is a zero-day, which currently wasn’t assigned a CVE, and was dubbed by security researchers as “Spring4Shell” or “SpringShell”, after the recent vulnerability in the Log4j Java package, discovered last December, and made waves worldwide.

In this blog post, we outline some of the key errors organisations should avoid to ensure that they are ready to manage, minimise and mitigate the impact of a data breach or cyber-attack.

Overview The internet is abuzz with the disclosure of CVE-2022-22965, an RCE vulnerability in Spring, one of the most popular open-source frameworks for Java applications in use today. Known as “Spring4Shell” or “SpringShell”, the zero-day vulnerability has triggered widespread concern about the possibility of a wave of malicious attacks targeting vulnerable applications. Is this Log4j 2.0?

Trustwave security and engineering teams are actively investigating the vulnerabilities CVE-2022-22965 (also referenced by other vendors at Spring4Shell / SpringShell) and CVE-2022-22963 and potential exploits. We are diligently watching over our clients for exposure and associated attacks and are taking action with approved mitigation efforts. At this time, Trustwave infrastructure and products have not been adversely affected by the vulnerability / exploits.

We have built a Security Operations Center at Netskope in short order. Facing the vast expanse of the Security Operations ocean, I grabbed my board with my team and focused on doing a few things really well. We documented workflows, expanded our visibility, and tuned monitoring systems. We paddled out from shore, braving the shark-infested waters of the threat landscape.