Analysis Summary

Cisco reaffirmed that it removed "non-public" material from its DevHub site after a threat actor disclosed it, but it still maintains that there is no proof that its systems were compromised.

A statement from Cisco reads, “We have determined that the data in question is on a public-facing DevHub environment—a Cisco resource center that enables us to support our community by making available software code, scripts, etc. for customers to use as needed.”

Cisco has found that, at this point in the investigation, there may have been a small number of files published that were not supposed to be available for public download. Although Cisco claims there are no signs of financial or personal data being taken, it is still looking into what information might have been acquired.

This declaration follows the allegations of a threat actor that he had gained access to Cisco and was attempting to sell source code and data that had been pilfered from the company. When inquired about the purported breach, the threat actor said that he was able to enter a Cisco third-party development environment by means of an exposed API token.

The cybercriminal shared screenshots to demonstrate he had access to a Cisco developer environment as he became more and more irate with the firm throughout Cisco's probe. The threat actor has access to the majority, if not all, of the data kept on this portal, as evidenced by these screenshots and files that were also provided to Cisco. Source code, SQL files, technical documentation, and configuration files containing database credentials were all contained in this material.

It is unclear what kind of client data was kept on these servers. Additionally, the threat actor claimed that access was maintained up until this point when Cisco disabled access to the portal and the compromised JFrog development environment. The threat actor said that he was unable to access a Maven and Docker server associated with the DevHub site, but he did not provide any evidence to support this claim.

The threat actor responded that he didn't try to threaten Cisco to stop publishing stolen data since they probably wouldn't believe him if he did. Despite Cisco's insistence that no systems were compromised, all of the evidence points to a third-party developer being compromised, which gave the threat actor access to steal data.

Impact

• Sensitive Data Theft
• Information Exposure
• Reputational Damage

Remediation

• Regularly change passwords for all accounts and use strong, unique passwords for sensitive accounts.
• Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) on all accounts to add an extra layer of security to login processes.
• Consider the use of phishing-resistant authenticators to further enhance security. These types of authenticators are designed to resist phishing attempts and provide additional protection against social engineering attacks.
• Regularly monitor network activity for any unusual behavior, as this may indicate that a cyberattack is underway.
• Organizations need to stay vigilant and follow best practices for cybersecurity to protect their systems and data from potential threats. This includes regularly updating software and implementing strong access controls and monitoring tools.
• Develop a comprehensive incident response plan to respond effectively in case of a security breach or data leakage.
• Maintain regular backups of critical data and systems to ensure data recovery in case of a security incident.
• Adhere to security best practices, including the principle of least privilege, and ensure that users and applications have only the necessary permissions.
• Establish a robust patch management process to ensure that security patches are evaluated, tested, and applied promptly.
• Conduct security audits and assessments to evaluate the overall security posture of your systems and networks.
• Implement network segmentation to contain and isolate potential threats to limit their impact on critical systems.
• Never trust or open links and attachments received from unknown sources/senders.