ASD warns of Australian attacks on N-able N-central RMM

The Australian Cyber Security Centre said it has observed attackers targeting vulnerabilities in N-able N-central, putting managed service providers (MSPs) and client networks they administer at risk.

N-central is a remote monitoring and management (RMM) platform that MSPs and large enterprise IT departments use to discover, manage, automate and secure endpoints and network infrastructure.

The company behind it, N-able, disclosed a critical authentication vulnerability in N-central at the beginning of August which, if exploited, provides “god mode” access to the RMM console on both hosted and on-premises instances, security vendor Huntress wrote in its analysis.

Huntress said the vulnerability is actively exploited, with ASD’s ACSC now warning about the same for Australia.

N-able has issued hotfixes for the vulnerability which users are advised to apply immediately.

“A threat actor exploited a vulnerability in N‑central that allowed remote administrative access without authentication,” N-able said in its August 10 security update.

“Once inside, they used N‑central’s Take Control feature to connect to managed devices, and registered Cloudflare tunnel services on those devices to maintain persistence even after their access to N‑central was revoked.

“Hotfix 1 addressed the original access point. Continued monitoring identified a related attack path, which Hotfix 2 addresses with additional hardening,” 

ACSC advises users to check their networks and environments for use of vulnerable versions of the N-able N-central product, and whether or not there is a need to continue to have the interface for the RMM exposed to the internet.

Users are also advised to contact their MSPs and enterprise IT providers to ensure managed N-able N-central instances are patched, with monitoring for suspicious activity.

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AndyC

Andy Curtis is an award-winning security consultant, researcher and public speaker. He has been working in the computer security industry since the early 1990s, having been employed by state and federal government, leading healthcare and banking providers across three continents. He has given talks about computer security for some of the world’s largest companies, worked with law enforcement agencies on investigations into hacking groups, and is a regular voice on TV and radio explaining IT security threats.

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