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A Chinese hacking group reportedly cloned and deployed a zero-day exploit developed by the U.S. National Security Agency s Equation Group before Microsoft patched the Windows vulnerability that was being exploited in 2017, according to an analysis published Monday by Check Point Research.
For several years, researchers had suspected the Chinese hacking group known as APT31 or Zirconium had developed an exploit tool to take advantage of a vulnerability tracked as CVE-2017-0005 and found in older versions of Windows, such as Windows 7 and Windows 8, according to the report.
The new Check Point research, however, demonstrates how the Chinese hacking group reportedly stole, cloned and then exploited a zero-day vulnerability created by the Equation Group, which is widely believed to be tied to the NSA s elite Tailored Access Operations team.
Chinese-Affiliated APT31 Cloned & Used NSA Hacking Tool
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Chinese Hacking Group Cloned NSA Exploit Tool
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The Coolest Hacks of 2020
Despite a pandemic and possibly the worst cyberattack campaign ever waged against the US, the year still had some bright spots when it came to good and creative hacks.
2020 unsurprisingly went out with a bang, and not in a good way. The massive cyberattack campaign by Russian nation state-actors shattered hopes for a quiet holiday break for security teams who have been heads-down since March when the COVID-19 pandemic first took hold and rocked SOCs. Workers including security analysts were sent home to set up makeshift offices, and existing network architectures were transformed practically overnight.
While this year for sure was fraught with disruption and uncertainty, it also made some space for ingenuity by security teams, who navigated a new normal, and security researchers, who unearthed new vulnerabilities that otherwise might not have been uncovered. In addition, some inspired white-hat hacks were already in the works before the pandemic