Attackers Use AntiFox AI Agents in AWS Credential-Theft Operations
Summary
Arctic Wolf observed Alibaba Cloud-hosted AntiFox infrastructure involved in malicious web-service and AWS activity, including webshell deployment and successful access to production secrets. Researchers recommend correlating IIS activity with unusual AWS API calls.
Key points
- Arctic Wolf observed Alibaba Cloud systems hosting AntiFox associated with confirmed malicious actions against internet-facing web services and AWS environments.
- In one case, an attacker deployed an ASPX webshell on an exposed IIS server, ran OS commands, accessed application settings and database connection strings, and copied configuration and log files.
- The attacker used valid IAM credentials and assumed EC2 roles to probe AWS APIs, cycling through identities and making hundreds of requests in about 30 minutes.
- Most attempts were blocked, but some succeeded and production secrets were obtained; in a separate incident, an attacker read, copied, and deleted S3 objects.
- Researchers recommend correlating IIS webshell activity with unusual AWS access, reviewing successful API calls amid bursts of denials, revoking affected sessions and keys, and rotating exposed credentials.
- AntiFox is an open-source agentic penetration-testing platform; its publishers prohibit unauthorized real-world use but describe no technical controls enforcing those restrictions.
Article Details
- Event Type
- Credential-theft and cloud-intrusion attacks using self-managed AntiFox instances hosted on Alibaba Cloud.
- Impact
- Attackers used valid IAM credentials and assumed EC2 roles to probe AWS APIs. Although most attempts were blocked, some succeeded and production secrets were obtained. In a separate incident, attackers read, copied, and deleted S3 objects. One reported intrusion also involved deploying an ASPX webshell on an internet-facing IIS server, executing OS commands, and copying configuration and log files to a web-accessible directory.
MITRE ATT&CK
T1059 · Command and Scripting InterpreterThe attacker used the webshell to execute OS commands.T1078 · Valid AccountsAttackers used valid IAM credentials and, in some cases, assumed EC2 roles to make authenticated AWS API requests.T1505.003 · Web ShellAn attacker deployed an ASPX webshell on an internet-facing IIS server.T1530 · Data from Cloud StorageIn a separate incident, attackers read, copied, and deleted S3 objects.
Threat Actors
Vendors
Alibaba CloudAttackers are using Alibaba Cloud to host self-managed instances of AntiFox, an open-source agentic penetration testing platform, to target web services and AWS environments.Amazon Web Servicesincluding IAM users and, in some cases, assumed EC2 roles, to make authenticated requests to Amazon Web Services APIs.
Products
AWSHackers use AntiFox AI agents in AWS credential-theft attacksIISOne case highlighted in the report involved deploying an ASPX webshell on an internet-exposed IIS server, executing OS commands, accessing application settings and database connection strings, and copying configurationS3In a separate incident, the attackers used a valid AWS identity to read, copy, and delete S3 objects.
Tools
Countries
ChinaThe AntiFox findings follow recent attacks involving ARTEX AI, another agentic penetration-testing framework developed in China that went closed-source after it was used in attacks on South Korean banks.South KoreaThe AntiFox findings follow recent attacks involving ARTEX AI, another agentic penetration-testing framework developed in China that went closed-source after it was used in attacks on South Korean banks.