Chinese 'infrastructure laundering' abuses AWS, Microsoft CloudChinese 'infrastructure laundering' abuses AWS, Microsoft Cloud

Researchers have linked the China-based Funnull content delivery network (CDN) to a malicious practice they've dubbed "infrastructure laundering," in which threat actors exploit mainstream hosting providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. The activity involves threat actors operating "hosting companies" that rent IP addresses from these providers and then map them to their criminal websites.

Researchers from Silent Push discovered the practice when they noticed that AWS and Microsoft Azure cloud hosting services are "often seen in large-scale use by threat actors," according to the recently published report. Further investigation led them to the discovery that Funnull CDN, a Chinese company that already has raised suspicions for other malicious activity, has been using this tactic to host a network of scam websites.

Funnull has rented more than 1,200 IPs from AWS and nearly 200 IPs from Microsoft, according to Silent Push. While these have nearly all been taken down as of this writing, the company continuously acquires new IPs every few weeks, using them and then dumping them before defenders can identify the malicious activity.

"While providers are consistently banning specific IP addresses used by the Funnull CDN, the pace is unfortunately not fast enough to keep up with processes being used to acquire the IPs," according to the report.

The tactic is complicated to defend against because it blends malicious activities with legitimate Web traffic, making it difficult for hosting providers to block access without creating a disruption for legitimate users, one security expert notes.

"By utilizing major providers, the bad actors make it much tougher for organizations to block IP ranges because those major providers may also be providing legitimate IP addresses for important Web services," observes Erich Kron, a security awareness advocate at cybersecurity company KnowBe4. "This precludes the ability to block large chunks of addresses easily."

Running Multiple Scams

Funnull CDN hosts more than 200,000 unique hostnames — approximately 95% of which are generated through domain generation algorithms (DGAs) — linked to "illicit activities such as investment scams and fake trading applications," according to the report.

"Moreover, these activities are directly associated with money laundering as a service on shell gambling websites that abuse the trademarks of a dozen popular casino brands and which are available online today," according to the report.

To read the complete article, visit Dark Reading.