Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with Backdoored Operating System

Are you also the one who downloaded Linux Mint on February 20th? You may have been Infected!
Linux Mint is one of the best and popular Linux distros available today, but if you have downloaded and installed the operating system recently you might have done so using a malicious ISO image.

Here's why:
Last night, Some unknown hacker or group of hackers had managed to hack into the Linux Mint website and replaced the download links on the site that pointed to one of their servers offering a malicious ISO images for the Linux Mint 17.3 Cinnamon Edition.

"Hackers made a modified Linux Mint ISO, with a backdoor in it, and managed to hack our website to point to it," the head of Linux Mint project Clement Lefebvre said in a surprising announcement dated February 21, 2016.

Who are affected?
As far as the Linux Mint team knows, the issue only affects the one edition, and that is Linux Mint 17.3 Cinnamon edition.

The situation happened last night, so the issue only impacts people who downloaded the above-mentioned version of Linux Mint on February 20th.

However, if you have downloaded the Cinnamon edition or release before Saturday 20th, February, the issue does not affect you. Even if you downloaded a different edition including Mint 17.3 Cinnamon via Torrent or direct HTTP link, this does not affect you either.

What had Happened?
Hackers believed to have accessed the underlying server via the team's WordPress blog and then got shell access to www-data.

From there, the hackers manipulated the Linux Mint download page and pointed it to a malicious FTP (File Transfer Protocol) server hosted in Bulgaria (IP: 5.104.175.212), the investigative team discovered.

The infected Linux ISO images installed the complete OS with the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) backdoor Tsunami, giving the attackers access to the system via IRC servers.
Tsunami is a well-known Linux ELF trojan that is a simple IRC bot used for launching Distributed
Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.

Hackers vs. Linux Mint SysAdmins
However, the Linux Mint team managed to discover the hack, cleaned up the links from their website quickly, announced the data breach on their official blog, and then it appears that the hackers compromised its download page again.

Knowing that it has failed to eliminate the exact point of entry of hackers, the Linux Mint team took the entire linuxmint.com domain offline to prevent the ISO images from spreading to its users.

The Linux Mint official website is currently offline until the team investigates the issue entirely.
However, the hackers' motive behind the hack is not clear yet.

"What we don't know is the motivation behind this attack. If more efforts are made to attack our project and if the goal is to hurt us, we’ll get in touch with authorities and security firms to confront the people behind this," Lefebvre added.

Hackers Selling Linux Mint Website's Database
The hackers are selling the Linux Mint full website's database for a just $85, which shows a sign of their lack of knowledge.

The hack seems to be a work of some script kiddies or an inexperienced group as they opted to infect a top-shelf Linux distro with a silly IRC bot that is considered to be outdated in early 2010. Instead, they would have used more dangerous malware like Banking Trojans.
Also, even after the hack was initially discovered, the hackers re-compromised the site, which again shows the hackers' lack of experience.

Here's How to Protect your Linux Machine
Users with the ISO image can check its signature in an effort to make sure it is valid.
To check for an infected download, you can compare the MD5 signature with the official versions, included in Lefebvre's blog post.

If found infected, users are advised to follow these steps:

• Take the computer offline.
• Backup all your personal data.
• Reinstall the operating system (with a clean ISO) or format the partition.
• Change passwords for sensitive websites and emails.

You can read full detail about the hack here. The official website is not accessible at the time of writing. We’ll update the story when we hear more.

Secret SSH backdoor in Fortinet hardware found in more products

A recently identified backdoor in hardware sold by security company Fortinet has been found in several new products, many that were running current software, the company warned this week.

Discovery comes a month after competitor Juniper disclosed unauthorized code.

The undocumented account with a hard-coded password came to light last week when attack code exploiting the backdoor was posted online. In response, Fortinet officials said it affected only older versions of Fortinet's FortiOS software. The company went on to say the undocumented method for logging into servers using the secure shell (SSH) protocol was a "remote management" feature that had been removed in July 2014.

In a blog post published this week, Fortinet revised the statement to say the backdoor was still active in several current company products, including some versions of its FortiSwitch, FortiAnalyzer, and FortiCache devices. The company said it made the discovery after conducting a review of its products. Company officials wrote:

As previously stated, this vulnerability is an unintentional consequence of a feature that was designed with the intent of providing seamless access from an authorized FortiManager to registered FortiGate devices. It is important to note, this is not a case of a malicious backdoor implemented to grant unauthorized user access.

 In accordance with responsible disclosure, today we have issued a security advisory that provides a software update that eliminates this vulnerability in these products. This update also covers the legacy and end-of-life products listed above. We are actively working with customers and strongly recommend that all customers using the following products update their systems with the highest priority:

• FortiAnalyzer: 5.0.0 to 5.0.11 and 5.2.0 to 5.2.4 (branch 4.3 is not affected)
• FortiSwitch: 3.3.0 to 3.3.2
• FortiCache: 3.0.0 to 3.0.7 (branch 3.1 is not affected)
• FortiOS 4.1.0 to 4.1.10
• FortiOS 4.2.0 to 4.2.15
• FortiOS 4.3.0 to 4.3.16
• FortiOS 5.0.0 to 5.0.7

Undocumented backdoors have long been a security concern because they make it possible for outsiders to gain unauthorized access to sensitive devices. Backdoors have received increased scrutiny since network hardware maker Juniper dropped last month's bombshell that there was unauthorized code added to its Netscreen line of firewalls. Among other things, the unauthorized code in the Juniper product allowed attackers to surreptitiously decrypt encrypted traffic. While Fortinet officials say the backdoor in its products had no malicious intentions, there's little doubt it could be used for covert eavesdropping by people with knowledge of its presence.