Attack Chain

1. Attacker identifies a vulnerable Check Point Security Gateway instance exposed on the network.
2. Attacker exploits a SQL injection vulnerability to gain unauthorized access to the gateway’s database. (T1190)
3. Using the SQL injection vulnerability, the attacker extracts sensitive information, such as configuration details and user credentials. (T1595)
4. Attacker leverages disclosed information to craft a denial-of-service attack against the gateway. (T1499)
5. The attacker initiates a denial-of-service attack, flooding the gateway with malicious traffic or exploiting a resource exhaustion vulnerability.
6. The Security Gateway becomes unresponsive or crashes, disrupting network services and potentially impacting connected systems.
7. The attacker may attempt to further escalate privileges or move laterally within the network, leveraging the compromised gateway as a foothold.
8. The attacker maintains persistence to continue to perform malicious activities, like data exfiltration or further network compromise.

Impact

Successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities can lead to denial of service, impacting network availability and potentially disrupting critical business operations. Information disclosure can expose sensitive configuration data and credentials, allowing for further unauthorized access. SQL injection could lead to data breaches and manipulation of the gateway’s internal systems. The lack of specific victim count and sectors targeted makes a broad impact assessment challenging, but the potential for significant disruption and data loss is high.

Recommendation

• Deploy the Sigma rule “Detect Check Point Security Gateway SQL Injection Attempt” to your SIEM to identify potential exploitation attempts.
• Investigate and remediate any instances of SQL injection attempts identified by the Sigma rules.
• Monitor network traffic for patterns indicative of denial-of-service attacks targeting Check Point Security Gateways, and deploy rate limiting where appropriate.