An analysis of the BENIGNCERTAIN exploit found in the Shadow Brokers leaked data reveals that the Equation Group, a group linked to the NSA, had the ability to compromise Cisco PIX firewalls and obtain RSA private keys from VPNs, among other sensitive details.
Over the weekend, the Shadow Brokers made several tools stolen from a server used by the Equation Group available online.
The hackers make this data available to bidders in an auction they hold with Bitcoins.
These exploits include EPICBANANA, JETPLOW, and EXTRABACON, which target Cisco ASA devices. Other exploits such as ESCALATEPLOWMAN target WatchGuard firewalls, while EGREGIOUSBLUNDER targets Fortinet devices.
Mustafa Al-Bassam, aka tFlow, co-founder of the hacking group LulzSec, now a legitimate White Hat researcher, reportedly tested the BENIGNCERTAIN exploit.
It was discovered that BENIGNCERTAIN targets Cisco PIX hardware versions 5.2 (9) through 6.3 (4), and uses three files in an exploitation chain that examines the device's memory using Internet Key Exchange (IKE) packets.
Can the NSA steal the keys?
“The memory dump can then be analyzed to extract an RSA private key and other sensitive configuration information,” Al-Bassam says in his analysis.
Below is what the memory dump looks like.
RSA private key structure at offset 0x%04x, size 0x%x bytes: *** Found probable RSA private key *** RSA public key structure at offset 0x%04x, size 0x%x bytes: *** Found probable RSA public key *** RSA key structure at offset 0x%04x, size 0x%x bytes: RSA keys were generated at %s VPN group structure at offset 0x%04x, size 0x%x bytes Split-tunnel ACL: 0x%08x %s Idle-time: 0x%08x [%d seconds] Max-time: 0x%08x [%d %s] PFS: 0x%08x %s Clear-client-cfg: 0x%08x %s User-idle-timeout: 0x%08x [%d seconds] Authen. server: 0x%08x %s Secure-unit-auth: 0x%08x %s User authen.: 0x%08x %s Device pass-thru: 0x%08x %s
