Actively Exploited GoAnywhere MFT Zero-Day Vulnerability

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On 3 February 2023, the developers of GoAnywhere MFT (Managed File Transfer) sent an advisory to their customers warning them of a zero-day remote code execution vulnerability being actively exploited in the wild. Exploitation of this vulnerability could allow sensitive data to be leaked and potentially used for extortion.  

This vulnerability affects administrator consoles in GoAnywhere MFT, and exploitation of this vulnerability would require access to the administrator console. In most cases, the administrator console is not exposed to the internet and should only be accessible via a private internal network or by an allow-listed IP address. This zero-day vulnerability is affecting both the on-premise and SaaS implementations of GoAnywhere MFT.  

Note: The web client interface is not affected by this vulnerability, only the administrator console. 

Fortra has released an emergency patch, version 7.1.2, and advised all GoAnywhere MFT customers to apply this patch to their instances as soon as possible to secure themselves from potential attacks. 

Arctic Wolf Labs is actively monitoring intelligence sources for additional information linked to this campaign, including relevant and timely indicators of compromise. This vulnerability has been seen actively exploited in campaigns, and PoC exploit code has been made available to the public. Arctic Wolf strongly recommends that all organisations running the affected products apply the emergency patch as soon as possible. 

Recommendations for Actively Exploited GoAnywhere MFT Zero-Day Vulnerability

This section provides details on the recommendations that have been provided by Fortra to patch impacted GoAnywhere MFT instances. 

Recommendation #1: Patch your GoAnywhere MFT instances 

Apply the emergency patch (7.1.2) to your GoAnywhere MFT instance as soon as possible.  

You can download the security patch from the “Product Downloads” tab at the top of the GoAnywhere account page after logging in. 

Recommendation #2: Apply GoAnywhere Workaround  

If your organization is not able to apply the emergency patch, we strongly recommend following GoAnywhere’s mitigation advice to prevent potential exploitation.  

  • Implement access controls that ensure only trusted sources can access the administrator console. 
  • Disable the vulnerable licensing server by commenting out or deleting the respective servlet and servlet-mapping configs in the web.xml file. The GoAnywhere Advisory details how to do this.  

Recommendation #3: Do Not Expose the administrator console to the Internet 

Do not expose GoAnywhere MFT administrator console to the Internet. If connectivity outside of your organisation is business critical and required, ensure proper access controls are in place and the server can only be accessed by company assets through a VPN. 

References 

James Liolios

James Liolios

James Liolios is a Senior Threat Intelligence Researcher at Arctic Wolf, where he keeps a watchful eye on the latest threats and threat actors to understand the potential impact to Arctic Wolf customers. He has a background of 9 years' experience in many areas of cybersecurity, holds a bachelor's degree in Information Security, and is also CISSP certified.
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