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Under Active Attack

Executive Summary

In 2024, repeated attempts to deploy RedTail cryptojacking malware were observed targeting honeypots through brute-forced SSH credentials and exploitation of vulnerabilities. Attackers gained access by cracking weak SSH passwords, uploaded and executed scripts such as setup.sh and clean.sh, and implemented persistent access by implanting their own SSH keys. They evaded detection by deleting evidence, queried system info to optimize deployment, and communicated outbound over HTTPS to control mining pools, siphoning off computing resources for Monero mining. The attack demonstrated both technical sophistication and evasiveness, resulting in loss of system performance and increased operational costs for victims.

The RedTail campaign stands out for its focus on stealth, persistence, and lateral evasion, signaling a shift from noisy ransomware to more subtle and long-term threats like cryptojacking. With attackers honing in on resource hijacking and leveraging diverse TTPs, organizations face new challenges in detection and response. This incident shows the increasing necessity for robust SSH hardening, proactive monitoring, and defense-in-depth measures against evolving cryptojacking methods.

Why This Matters Now

Cryptojacking attacks like RedTail are rising in prevalence, targeting misconfigured or weakly secured systems to covertly exploit resources. As organizations increasingly move to cloud and hybrid environments, the silent nature of such attacks can degrade performance and inflate costs without immediate detection, emphasizing the urgency for proactive security hardening, monitoring, and compliance.

Attack Path Analysis

Related CVEs

MITRE ATT&CK® Techniques

Potential Compliance Exposure

Sector Implications

Sources

Frequently Asked Questions

Attackers used brute-force attacks against SSH logins, succeeded in obtaining valid credentials, and further ensured persistence by implanting their SSH keys.

Cloud Native Security Fabric Mitigations and ControlsCNSF

Layered Zero Trust controls—especially network segmentation, east-west inspection, rigorous egress policing, and real-time anomaly detection—could have prevented RedTail entry, limited attacker movement, and detected cryptojacking behaviors quickly. Isolating workloads and strictly controlling cloud egress would disrupt both initial compromise and C2 communications.

Initial Compromise

Control: Zero Trust Segmentation

Mitigation: Blocks external SSH attempts to sensitive/cloud management hosts.

Privilege Escalation

Control: Threat Detection & Anomaly Response

Mitigation: Detects and alerts on unauthorized SSH key additions.

Lateral Movement

Control: East-West Traffic Security

Mitigation: Limits attacker propagation to other workloads.

Command & Control

Control: Egress Security & Policy Enforcement

Mitigation: Blocks unauthorized external connections to known malicious domains.

Exfiltration

Control: Encrypted Traffic (HPE)

Mitigation: Enables inspection and policy controls on encrypted data exfiltration attempts.

Impact (Mitigations)

Detects abnormal resource spikes and mining processes in real time.

Impact at a Glance

Affected Business Functions

  • IT Infrastructure
  • Network Security
  • Server Operations
Operational Disruption

Estimated downtime: 3 days

Financial Impact

Estimated loss: $50,000

Data Exposure

Potential exposure of sensitive configuration data and credentials due to unauthorized access.

Recommended Actions

  • • Enforce granular Zero Trust segmentation and restrict SSH access to authorized admin sources only.
  • • Apply strong egress policy enforcement with FQDN filtering to prevent systems from connecting to known mining pools and illicit destinations.
  • • Implement continuous east-west traffic inspection to detect and block unauthorized internal movement.
  • • Enable anomaly-based threat detection to monitor for unauthorized SSH key changes, resource hijacking, and unusual process activity.
  • • Regularly audit, patch, and update all exposed cloud and hybrid workloads to eliminate brute-force and known vulnerability attack vectors.

Secure the Paths Between Cloud Workloads

A cloud-native security fabric that enforces Zero Trust across workload communication—reducing attack paths, compliance risk, and operational complexity.

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