Release Date: July 20
Alert Code: AA23-201A
Summary
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is releasing this Cybersecurity Advisory to warn network defenders about exploitation of CVE-2023-3519, an unauthenticated remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability affecting NetScaler (formerly Citrix) Application Delivery Controller (ADC) and NetScaler Gateway. In June 2023, threat actors exploited this vulnerability as a zero-day to drop a webshell on a critical infrastructure organization’s non-production environment NetScaler ADC appliance. The webshell enabled the actors to perform discovery on the victim’s active directory (AD) and collect and exfiltrate AD data. The actors attempted to move laterally to a domain controller but network-segmentation controls for the appliance blocked movement.
The victim organization identified the compromise and reported the activity to CISA and Citrix. Citrix released a patch for this vulnerability on July 18, 2023.
This advisory provides tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) and detection methods shared with CISA by the victim. CISA encourages critical infrastructure organizations to use the detection guidance included in this advisory for help with determining system compromise. If potential compromise is detected, organizations should apply the incident response recommendations provided in this CSA. If no compromise is detected, organizations should immediately apply patches provided by Citrix.
Download the PDF version of this report: AA23-201A Threat Actors Exploiting Citrix CVE-2023-3519 to Implant Webshells (PDF, 469.66 KB) or read it online at CISA.