Sakura Samurai security researchers identified exposed GitHub credentials on a United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) subdomain, which allowed them to access a trove of data, including more than 100,000 employee records.  The researchers discovered an ilo.org subdomain that exposed .git contents.   This allowed cyber criminals to take over an SQL database, as well as perform account takeover on a Survey Management Platform belonging to the International Labor Organization.  

Researchers were led to a UNEP subdomain that leaked GitHub credentials, thus enabling them to access and download “a lot of private password-protected GitHub projects.  These projects contained multiple databases, as well as application credentials for the UNEP production environment. A total of 7 credential pairs were identified, providing unauthorized access to more databases.  In one of these, two documents containing over 102,000 travel records of employees were identified. These records included names, employee ID numbers, employee groups, justification of travel, start and end dates of travel, approval status, length of stay, and destination.

The researchers also found two documents containing over 7,000 HR nationality demographics records: employee names and groups, ID numbers, nationality and gender of employee, employee pay grade, and organization work unit identification number and unit text tags.  Over 1,000 generalized employee records were found in another document: index numbers, employee names and emails, and employee work subareas.

Another document exposed in excess of 4,000 project and funding source records, including affected areas, grant and co-financing amounts, funding sources, project identification numbers, implementing agencies, countries, period of the project, and approval status.

What to do?

  • Ensure you have a robust security system in place, up to date and operational.
  • Ensure the latest security patches are installed as soon as they are received.
  • Provide comprehensive training for employees, so they are able to identify the types of malicious emails that spread malware.

What can you do to when this happens to you?

  • If you find your network breached immediately shut down and identify the source for the breach.
  • Determine if any data has been corrupted and/or exfiltrated.  If data has been lost notify those effected immediately.
  • Notify your local law enforcement cybercrimes division and the FBI.
  • Restore the network from a known clean backup

Sources.

United Nations Environment Programme Exposed 100,000 Employee Records | SecurityWeek.Com

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