PSA: Patch your Plex media server before someone hacks it
A researcher says attacks chaining 4 vulnerabilities is hacking unpatched boxes.
Recent vulnerabilities in the Plex Media Server have become targets for cybercriminals, who exploit them to install malicious software. The Plex team addressed four security flaws at the beginning of last month, but additional weaknesses surfaced three weeks later, with a severity rating reaching 8.6 out of 10. A researcher recently discovered a complex exploit chain, dubbed Plex2Shell, which combines four vulnerabilities to achieve remote code execution on vulnerable devices.
The chain allows attackers to take control of the affected devices. A researcher created a honeypot to monitor the exploit chain in the wild, and within a day, they observed active scanning attempts and successful infections. The two primary payloads installed upon successful attacks are a cryptominer, using the compromised device for cryptocurrency mining, and residential proxy software, which enables users to bypass location-based restrictions while engaging in potentially illicit online activities.
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