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Under Active Attack

Executive Summary

Between June and July 2025, Ukrainian autonomous system FDN3 (AS211736) orchestrated large-scale brute-force and password spraying attacks targeting SSL VPN and Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) devices across multiple regions. The campaign, identified and attributed by French cybersecurity firm Intrinsec, involved distributed login attempts to compromise organizations’ remote access infrastructure using stolen or weak credentials. This led to unauthorized system access, at-risk sensitive data, and the potential for further lateral movement inside target environments. The attack underscored the critical vulnerabilities that arise when VPNs and RDP servers are exposed without adequate security controls.

This incident is emblematic of the growing trend of threat actors exploiting internet-facing authentication portals with automated credential attacks. As organizations continue to rely on remote access solutions, adversaries are increasingly targeting SSL VPN and RDP endpoints to gain initial entry—a method further complicated by the prevalence of weak password policies, limited anomaly detection, and insufficient segmentation.

Why This Matters Now

Accelerated brute-force campaigns against remote access systems highlight an urgent need for improved credential hygiene and multi-factor authentication deployment. With automated attacks on the rise and attacker infrastructure proliferating globally, organizations must rapidly strengthen access controls and monitoring on VPN and RDP endpoints before attackers seize new footholds.

Attack Path Analysis

Related CVEs

MITRE ATT&CK® Techniques

Potential Compliance Exposure

Sector Implications

Sources

Frequently Asked Questions

Regulations like HIPAA, PCI DSS, and NIST require strong access controls, encryption, and monitoring. Credential attacks can directly undermine these controls, exposing compliance gaps.

Cloud Native Security Fabric Mitigations and ControlsCNSF

Zero Trust segmentation, East-West traffic security, and threat detection controls would have contained initial remote access attempts, detected anomalous brute-force activity, restricted unauthorized lateral movement, and prevented data exfiltration, significantly mitigating the attack's potential impact.

Initial Compromise

Control: Threat Detection & Anomaly Response

Mitigation: Abnormal access attempts detected and alerted in real time.

Privilege Escalation

Control: Zero Trust Segmentation

Mitigation: Unauthorized privilege elevation attempts flagged or blocked.

Lateral Movement

Control: East-West Traffic Security

Mitigation: Unapproved east-west connections detected and prevented.

Command & Control

Control: Cloud Firewall (ACF)

Mitigation: Suspicious outbound communications blocked or logged.

Exfiltration

Control: Egress Security & Policy Enforcement

Mitigation: Unauthorized data exfiltration attempts detected and stopped.

Impact (Mitigations)

Malicious actions rapidly contained through centralized policy enforcement.

Impact at a Glance

Affected Business Functions

  • Remote Access
  • Network Security
  • IT Operations
Operational Disruption

Estimated downtime: 3 days

Financial Impact

Estimated loss: $500,000

Data Exposure

Potential exposure of sensitive corporate data due to unauthorized access through compromised VPN and RDP systems.

Recommended Actions

  • • Implement Zero Trust Segmentation to isolate remote access endpoints from sensitive workloads and restrict lateral movement.
  • • Deploy advanced anomaly detection and automated incident response to rapidly surface and block brute-force or password spraying attacks.
  • • Enforce strict egress controls with FQDN filtering and policy-based restrictions to prevent unauthorized data exfiltration and C2 communications.
  • • Centralize visibility and enforce least privilege access through both cloud-native and cross-cloud policy for better threat containment.
  • • Continuously monitor for configuration drift and leverage microsegmentation to minimize the blast radius from potential credential compromise.

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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