Log4j RCE CVE-2021-44228 Exploitation Detection

log4j_rce_detection.md

log4j RCE Exploitation Detection

You can use these commands and rules to search for exploitation attempts against log4j RCE vulnerability CVE-2021-44228

Grep / Zgrep

This command searches for exploitation attempts in uncompressed files in folder /var/log and all sub folders

sudo egrep -i -r '\$\{jndi:(ldap[s]?|rmi|dns):/[^\n]+' /var/log

This command searches for exploitation attempts in compressed files in folder /var/log and all sub folders

sudo find /var/log -name \*.gz -print0 | xargs -0 zgrep -E -i '\$\{jndi:(ldap[s]?|rmi|dns):/[^\n]+'

Grep / Zgrep - Obfuscated Variants

These commands cover even the obfuscated variants but lack the file name in a match.

This command searches for exploitation attempts in uncompressed files in folder /var/log and all sub folders

sudo find /var/log/ -type f -exec sh -c "cat {} | sed -e 's/\${lower://'g | tr -d '}' | egrep -i 'jndi:(ldap[s]?|rmi|dns):'" \;

This command searches for exploitation attempts in compressed files in folder /var/log and all sub folders

sudo find /var/log/ -name "*.gz" -type f -exec sh -c "zcat {} | sed -e 's/\${lower://'g | tr -d '}' | egrep -i 'jndi:(ldap[s]?|rmi|dns):'"  \;

YARA

Preliminary YARA rules (work in progress)

rule EXPL_Log4j_CVE_2021_44228_Dec21_Soft {
   meta:
      description = "Detects indicators in server logs that indicate an exploitation attempt of CVE-2021-44228"
      author = "Florian Roth"
      reference = "https://twitter.com/h113sdx/status/1469010902183661568?s=20"
      date = "2021-12-10"
      score = 60
   strings:
      $x1 = "${jndi:ldap:/"
      $x2 = "${jndi:rmi:/"
      $x3 = "${jndi:ldaps:/"
      $x4 = "${jndi:dns:/"
   condition:
      1 of them
}

rule EXPL_Log4j_CVE_2021_44228_Dec21_Hard {
   meta:
      description = "Detects indicators in server logs that indicate the exploitation of CVE-2021-44228"
      author = "Florian Roth"
      reference = "https://twitter.com/h113sdx/status/1469010902183661568?s=20"
      date = "2021-12-10"
      score = 80
   strings:
      $x1 = /\$\{jndi:(ldap|ldaps|rmi|dns):\/[\/]?[a-z-\.0-9]{3,120}:[0-9]{2,5}\/[a-zA-Z\.]{1,32}\}/
      $fp1r = /(ldap|rmi|ldaps|dns):\/[\/]?(127\.0\.0\.1|192\.168\.|172\.[1-3][0-9]\.|10\.)/
   condition:
      $x1 and not 1 of ($fp*)
}

rule SUSP_Base64_Encoded_Exploit_Indicators_Dec21 {
   meta:
      description = "Detects base64 encoded strings found in payloads of exploits against log4j CVE-2021-44228"
      author = "Florian Roth"
      reference = "https://twitter.com/Reelix/status/1469327487243071493"
      date = "2021-12-10"
      score = 70
   strings:
      /* curl -s  */
      $sa1 = "Y3VybCAtcy"
      $sa2 = "N1cmwgLXMg"
      $sa3 = "jdXJsIC1zI"
      /* |wget -q -O-  */
      $sb1 = "fHdnZXQgLXEgLU8tI"
      $sb2 = "x3Z2V0IC1xIC1PLS"
      $sb3 = "8d2dldCAtcSAtTy0g"
   condition:
      1 of ($sa*) and 1 of ($sb*)
}

Help

Please report findings that are not covered by these detection attempts.

Credits

I got help and ideas from

• @matthias_kaiser
• @daphiel
• @Reelix