Google warns suspected China-linked hackers could exploit BeyondTrust flaw

Oct 15 (Reuters) – Google warned on Thursday that organizations should prepare for “potential widespread exploitation” after a new bug was found in US cybersecurity firm BeyondTrust’s remote support appliances.

Successful exploitation of the vulnerability gives attackers access to credentials, allows them to arbitrarily upload files and assume control of the host, according to Google Threat Intelligence Group and Mandiant.

Here are more details:

• A suspected China-linked hacking group, known as Armory Castle, had exploited the then-unknown vulnerability in August, a post on Google’s blog said

• The flaw affects BeyondTrust Remote Support, an enterprise tool that allows information technology teams to remotely access and troubleshoot computers and other devices

• Google says now that the vulnerability has been disclosed, Armory Castle and others may try to exploit it widely, in line with past behavior and urged swift action to either patch or mitigate the vulnerability

(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Diti Pujara)