During this incident response engagement DIRT performed a forensic analysis of multiple servers and workstations which allowed us to determine that:
The initial attack vector was a vulnerable “Microsoft Exchange Server”, that was compromised with the help of the”ProxyLogon” exploit.
The threat actor used a “China Chopper” web shell to persist on the compromised “Microsoft Exchange Server”.
The threat actor laterally moved from the patient zero to a domain controller after performing initial credential dumping activities.
The threat actor used a second domain controller as a “base” to stage his encryption attack against workstations and servers in the environment.
The threat actor used “Jetico’s BestCrypt” for server encryption and “Microsoft Bitlocker” for the encryption of workstation.
The threat actor accessed compromised systems through RDP by exposing the RDP port to the internet with the help of “NATBypass”.