Since 2019, Kinsing malware, which particularly attacks cloud-native infrastructures, has been on the rise. A new study presents attack techniques and tactics of the malicious application, which is constantly being developed further by the criminals.
Aqua Security's Team Nautilus presents a comprehensive study detailing the infrastructure, tactics, techniques and modus operandi of the dangerous Kinsing malware. Kinsing first appeared in 2019 and targets cloud-native infrastructure, such as misconfigured APIs. Aqua's Team Nautilus discovered the malware in 2020 and has been monitoring Kinsing's activities on the front lines since then, identifying more than 75 compromised applications, including many popular cloud-native applications. The newly unveiled study, titled Kinsing Exposed: From Myth to Architecture - A Complete Cybersecurity Chronicle, details the threats Kinsing poses to organizations worldwide. The report provides the cybersecurity community with detailed information about Kinsing, shows the extent of the threat, and highlights the need for international cooperation in defense efforts.
Dangerous malware that is constantly evolving
Kinsing is constantly being actively developed and adapted by cybercriminals. Aqua Nautilus honeypots were attacked by Kinsing on average eight times per day, with numbers ranging from three to 50 attacks per day. Armed with anonymity, Kinsing exploits vulnerabilities or misconfigurations in applications, executes infection scripts, deploys cryptominers often hidden by rootkits, and maintains control over servers.
Kinsing is also able to quickly integrate newly discovered vulnerabilities in popular cloud native applications into its botnet. The actors behind Kinsing tailor their ongoing campaign to maximize the effectiveness of individual attacks.
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Kinsing malware attacks companies worldwide
The reach of the Kinsing malware extends across the globe, with Shodan scans revealing potentially millions of daily attacks. The malware's multi-pronged approach proves that robust cybersecurity measures are needed to detect, mitigate and prevent the insidious attacks.
"The ongoing campaign by the cybercriminals behind Kinsing is constantly evolving to add new vulnerabilities and misconfigurations to the malware in cloud-native environments. The attackers often act faster than the defenders - which poses a real danger to organizations of all sizes," emphasizes Assaf Morag, Director of Threat Intelligence at Aqua Nautilus.
More at AquaSec.com
About Aqua Security
Aqua Security is the largest pure cloud native security provider. Aqua gives its customers the freedom to innovate and accelerate their digital transformation. The Aqua platform provides prevention, detection, and response automation across the application lifecycle to secure the supply chain, cloud infrastructure, and ongoing workloads—regardless of where they are deployed.
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