Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

On December 10th, 2021, the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) published the CVE-2021-44228 documenting a vulnerability in the Apache log4j library Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI) lookup feature allowing for remote code execution by an attacker who is able to manipulate log messages. A proof of concept was released on December 9th, 2021, and active scanning and exploitation attempts have increased through the time of the publishing of this brief.

A previously unknown zero-day vulnerability in Log4j 2.x has been reported on December 9, 2021. If your organization deploys or uses Java applications or hardware running Log4j 2.x your organization is likely affected.

Here’s the reality: hybrid and remote work are here to stay. This means access to your corporate data can now come from anywhere, on any device and any network. In order to tackle this new norm, Gartner has defined a new cybersecurity framework called Secure Access Service Edge (SASE).

To understand how Elastic is currently assessing internal risk of this vulnerability in our products please see the advisory here.

The Splunk Threat Research Team recently updated the Active Directory Lateral Movement analytic story to help security operations center (SOC) analysts detect adversaries executing these techniques within Windows Active Directory (AD) environments. In this blog post, we’ll describe some of the detection opportunities available to cyber defenders and highlight detections from the analytic story.

Authors and Contributors: As always, security at Splunk is a family business. Credit to authors and collaborators: Ryan Kovar, Shannon Davis, Marcus LaFerrera, John Stoner, James Brodsky, Dave Herrald, Audra Streetman, Johan Bjerke, Drew Church, Mick Baccio, Lily Lee, Tamara Chacon, Ryan Becwar. If you want just to see how to find detections for the Log4j 2 RCE, skip down to the “detections” sections.