Last week, I wrote about attackers scanning for various webshells, hoping to find some that do not require authentication or others that use well-known credentials. But some attackers are paying attention and are deploying webshells with more difficult-to-guess credentials. Today, I noticed some scans for what appears to be the "EncystPHP" web shell. Fortinet wrote about this webshell back in January. It appears to be a favorite among attackers compromising vulnerable FreePBX systems.
A very popular target of attackers scanning our honeypots is "phpmyadmin". phpMyAdmin is a script first released in the late 90s, before many security concepts had&#;x26;#;xc2;&#;x26;#;xa0;been discovered. It&#;x26;#;39;s rich history of vulnerabilities made it a favorite target. Its alternative, "adminer", began appearing about a decade later (https://www.adminer.org). One of its main "selling" points was simplicity. Adminer is just a single PHP file. It requires no configuration. Copy it to your server, and you are ready to go. "adminer" has a much better security record&#;x26;#;xc2;&#;x26;#;xa0;and claims to prioritize security in its development.
A remote access trojan (RAT) has been discovered in multiple Packagist packages published by the threat actor nhattuanbl. The malicious packages, disguised as Laravel utilities, install an encrypted PHP RAT via Composer dependencies. The payload connects to a C2 server, sends system reconnaissance data, and awaits commands, granting full remote access to the host. The RAT uses obfuscation techniques to resist analysis and employs a self-launch mechanism. It communicates with the C2 server using encrypted JSON messages and supports various commands for system control and data exfiltration. The attack vector leverages dependency chains, with clean-looking packages pulling in malicious ones. Affected systems should be treated as compromised, with recommendations provided for mitigation and prevention.
Key takeaways Introduction GoBruteforcer is a botnet that turns compromised Linux servers into scanning and password brute-force nodes. It targets internet-exposed services such as phpMyAdmin web panels, MySQL and PostgreSQL databases, and FTP servers. Infected hosts are incorporated into the botnet and accept remote operator commands.  Newly discovered weak credentials are used to steal data, […] The post Inside GoBruteforcer: AI-Generated Server Defaults, Weak Passwords, and Crypto-Focused Campaigns appeared first on Check Point Research .
