Description

The cybercriminal group known as Muddled Libra, also referred to as Starfraud, UNC3944, Scatter Swine, and Scattered Spider, has intensified its focus on infiltrating software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications and cloud service provider (CSP) environments with the aim of extracting sensitive data. Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 revealed in a report published in April 2024 that Muddled Libra has started exploiting data stored in SaaS applications and CSP services to facilitate their attacks and potentially extort victims. Employing sophisticated social engineering tactics, Muddled Libra gains initial access to target networks, evading detection through living-off-the-land techniques and frequently modifying their tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs). The group has a history of monetizing access through extortion and data theft, leveraging ransomware and other means. A significant aspect of Muddled Libra's evolution is its reconnaissance methods, which involve identifying administrative users to target, often by posing as helpdesk staff and obtaining passwords via phone calls. The group conducts extensive research on the target organization's applications and cloud service providers. One notable tactic observed involves leveraging Okta cross-tenant impersonation attacks to bypass Identity and Access Management (IAM) restrictions and gain access to SaaS applications and CSP environments. Once access is obtained, Muddled Libra moves laterally within the network, abusing admin credentials and exploiting single sign-on (SSO) portals. In cases where SSO is not integrated, the group engages in broad discovery activities to uncover CSP credentials stored in unsecured locations. Muddled Libra specifically targets services such as AWS IAM, Amazon S3, AWS Secrets Manager, Azure storage accounts, Azure Blob Storage, and Azure Files to extract valuable data. Data exfiltration is achieved using legitimate CSP services like AWS DataSync and AWS Transfer, as well as techniques like snapshotting in Azure environments.