Backdoored Automatic Updates Amplify NotPetya's Destruction

According to ESET, and later confirmed by Cisco’s Talos threat intelligence division, NotPetya installed backdoors in a popular accounting software in Ukraine, M.E.Doc, through which it managed to infect the systems of over 2,000 Ukrainian companies. This feat shows that although automatic updates are generally beneficial, unless a vendor takes great care in securing its servers, they could also prove to be catastrophic.

NotPetya’s Attack Vectors

NotPetya--or Nyetya, as it was nicknamed by antivirus companies after they discovered that it wasn’t in fact the original Petya ransomware--has infected thousands of Ukrainian companies or multinationals with operations in Ukraine.

The NotPetya "ransomware" later proved to be a destructive malware that asked for ransom mainly as a distraction from its real objectives. It used multiple attack vectors, including the Windows SMB protocol and NSA’s EternalBlue exploit tools, just like the WannaCry ransomware before it.

Infecting M.E.Doc Accounting Software

The ESET security researchers found that the malware authors had an even better way to spread NotPetya to thousands of companies. They hacked the M.E.Doc update servers and then put in a backdoor through which they could later push the NotPetya malware to the systems of thousands of companies using the M.E.Doc accounting software.

According to ESET, backdooring M.E.Doc shouldn’t have been possible without the malware authors first having access to the M.E.Doc source code. This likely means that the malicious actors had previously stolen that source code from other servers belonging to the makers of the M.E.Doc software.

Fully-Featured Cyber-sabotage Platform

The backdoored version of M.E.Doc was also able to collect the Ukrainian companies’ legal entity identifiers, called EDRPOU numbers, as well as proxy and email settings, including usernames and passwords. The attackers also added the ability to control the infected machines remotely, making the malware a “fully-featured cyber-espionage and cyber-sabotage platform” at the same time.

ESET said it couldn’t verify at this time whether or not there are other backdoors in the 1.5GB M.E.Doc accounting software, as the source code is quite large. It also couldn’t say for how long the backdoor has been in use. The security company recommended M.E.Doc users to change their proxy and email passwords immediately.  

Dangers Of Malicious Automatic Updates

The M.E.Doc accounting software uses automatic updates, which made the backdooring of the software so much more dangerous, because it allowed NetPetya to quickly spread to thousands of companies.

Auto-updates are generally considered a security feature, because they remove much of the delay between when a security patch is released of and when it's actually installed by all the people who use that particular software.

We can see how ransomware makers continue to abuse the SMB vulnerability in unpatched Windows systems, despite the fact that Microsoft started issuing a patch for it months ago. When the updates are not automatic, a large portion of the users tend to postpone them for whatever reason. However, once Microsoft announces patches for some bugs, the malware makers also know which bugs to use to spread their malware on unpatched systems.

The problem with auto-update systems arises when software vendors with millions of users, and with a target painted on their backs by hackers, don’t take good care of their servers’ security. When updates are manual, even if the servers are hacked, that delay until everyone patches could be used to the users’ advantage, because during that time, the hack may be discovered. Therefore, many users may never be affected by the backdoored update.

If more of this type of attack continues, people may start losing faith in automatic updates, such as those seen in Chrome and Windows 10. The NSA, which had previously hijacked Windows’ update system to spread the Flame cyber-espionage tool, has also been a proponent of malicious automatic updates as a way to bypass encryption. However, as security experts have warned, if this ever came to pass, even more people would disable auto-updates. That could further put their own security at risk.

There is no easy solution against malicious updates in general, because this “comes with the package” when using a digital service or product. When you use an online service or product you’re always at risk of having your data stolen, which is why choosing companies that prioritize security is always a good idea. As for the avoid automatic malicious updates, the solution could be to disable them, but then you may be exposed to other attacks, so this solution would at least need some serious consideration.