Comprehensive data protection for all workloads
Post Reply
lando_uk
Veteran
Posts: 371
Liked: 32 times
Joined: Oct 17, 2013 10:02 am
Full Name: Mark
Location: UK
Contact:

Crypto protection (ransomware) for repositories

Post by lando_uk »

Hi

I don't have any Shares for repositories, my repo's are proxies so the backups stay on the servers.

The only risk I see is the Admin shares - D$, E$ , F$ etc as a potential path to the VBK's, am I safe to disable these admin shares on the Veeam servers?

I know these shares would only be vulnerable if a domain admin got hit with some ransomware, which is unlikely but not impossible.

From a support case point of view, have any of you Veeam guys seen any backup files been targeted in the wild yet?

Thanks
Mark
adrien.herve
Enthusiast
Posts: 49
Liked: 15 times
Joined: Dec 16, 2014 8:15 am
Full Name: Adrien HERVE
Contact:

Re: Crypto protection (ransomware) for repositories

Post by adrien.herve »

Mark,

For my point of view, it's not the only risk. It's highly possible that a CyptoLocker will success to infect a server by using a Windows breach. In this particular case it can infect your proxy and its local disk which is the repository of your backups too. For me it's necessary to have an off-line and maybe off-site backup with tape and/or cloud replication.
If this is not possible you can maybe try to enable a scheduled shutdown/power on your proxy by using the management card. In this case your backup server is only vulnerable when it's up & running, it will be down and not directly accessible the rest of the time.
Tell me if I'm wrong but I think you need to have admin shares enabled to install or upgrade your proxy from the backup server.

Adrien
olafurh
Service Provider
Posts: 25
Liked: 16 times
Joined: Oct 29, 2014 9:41 am
Full Name: Olafur Helgi Haraldsson
Location: Iceland
Contact:

Re: Crypto protection (ransomware) for repositories

Post by olafurh »

Hi,

It's easy just to disable SMB on the repository server it self without a reboot.

Get the current SMB status:
Get-SmbServerConfiguration | Select EnableSMB1Protocol, EnableSMB2Protocol

Disable SMB
Set-SmbServerConfiguration -EnableSMB1Protocol $false
Set-SmbServerConfiguration -EnableSMB2Protocol $false


Olafur
lando_uk
Veteran
Posts: 371
Liked: 32 times
Joined: Oct 17, 2013 10:02 am
Full Name: Mark
Location: UK
Contact:

Re: Crypto protection (ransomware) for repositories

Post by lando_uk »

I'm thinking we can limit the exposure using internal firewalls and access lists - limit how a future crypto-type worm can access the servers from. I think removing the D$, E$, F$ etc admin shares would be ok, as the B&R server probably used just C$ admin to update system files, I just need some clarification on that.

We have 1:2:3 system with offsites, so risk is low, but I'm mainly thinking how to make it bullet proof and build that into any future designs from day one.
lando_uk
Veteran
Posts: 371
Liked: 32 times
Joined: Oct 17, 2013 10:02 am
Full Name: Mark
Location: UK
Contact:

Re: Crypto protection (ransomware) for repositories

Post by lando_uk »

olafurh wrote:It's easy just to disable SMB on the repository server it self without a reboot.
Thanks Olafur, I guess for those who use remote SMB shares for their repo's this script could be run before and after each job is run, so SMB is only available when a backup is running.

Maybe we need a Veeam hardening whitepaper...
Moebius
Veeam ProPartner
Posts: 206
Liked: 28 times
Joined: Jun 09, 2009 2:48 pm
Full Name: Lucio Mazzi
Location: Reggio Emilia, Italy
Contact:

Re: Crypto protection (ransomware) for repositories

Post by Moebius » 1 person likes this post

lando_uk wrote:Maybe we need a Veeam hardening whitepaper...
I seem to remember that Luca Dell'Oca was working on such a white paper.
dellock6
Veeam Software
Posts: 6137
Liked: 1928 times
Joined: Jul 26, 2009 3:39 pm
Full Name: Luca Dell'Oca
Location: Varese, Italy
Contact:

Re: Crypto protection (ransomware) for repositories

Post by dellock6 » 5 people like this post

I wrote my part, now it's in the hands of our solution architects. It may take some time as we decided to make it a full hardening guide.
Luca Dell'Oca
Principal EMEA Cloud Architect @ Veeam Software

@dellock6
https://www.virtualtothecore.com/
vExpert 2011 -> 2022
Veeam VMCE #1
francs
Influencer
Posts: 17
Liked: 1 time
Joined: Mar 20, 2012 8:54 am
Contact:

Re: Crypto protection (ransomware) for repositories

Post by francs »

How about putting you repositories on Linux servers?
I'm talking about minimal linux installation with only the necessary ports opened for Veeam to use it.
No Samba, as the virus seems to scan for all network shares and encrypt them too.

As far as I understand it, when the Veeam server sends backups to a Linux repo the following happens:
- It starts a ssh shell
- Kicks of a perl script
- Data is send from the proxy to the linux server using a specified number of ports.
- This exchange of data between proxy and repo looks to be proprietary to Veeam. In other words it doesn't use something like SMB/CIFS.

To get to your repositories the virus will have to do the following:
- Infect your Veeam server and/or proxy
- It won't find any "normal" network shares it can infect
- Interrogate Veeam to find a list of repositories and their IP's.
- Somehow, find the credentials to the repos, stored in Veeam
- Use that to ssh to your linux repo and encrypt the files

So, how safe is Veeam's credential storage?
ita-tomi
Influencer
Posts: 12
Liked: 7 times
Joined: Apr 09, 2015 7:14 pm
Contact:

Re: Crypto protection (ransomware) for repositories

Post by ita-tomi »

You can also disable "File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks" under NIC Properties. Or use Windows firewall and disable these services/ports, there are already defined rules for File and Printer Sharing.
tinto1970
Expert
Posts: 109
Liked: 32 times
Joined: Sep 26, 2013 8:40 am
Full Name: Alessandro T.
Location: Bologna, Italy
Contact:

Re: Crypto protection (ransomware) for repositories

Post by tinto1970 »

i don't know if it was a good idea... but for the same reason i have moved my repo located in the DR site from windows to linux. I hope it's a bit safer.

Waiting to read the Hardening Guide from Luca :wink:
Alessandro aka Tinto | VMCE 2024 | Veeam Legend | VCP-DCV 2023 | VVSPHT2023 | vExpert 2024
blog.tinivelli.com
Delo123
Veteran
Posts: 361
Liked: 109 times
Joined: Dec 28, 2012 5:20 pm
Full Name: Guido Meijers
Contact:

Re: Crypto protection (ransomware) for repositories

Post by Delo123 »

Not sure if allowed here, but this helped us a lot securing things...

http://www.thirdtier.net/ransomware-prevention-kit/
yasuda
Enthusiast
Posts: 64
Liked: 10 times
Joined: May 15, 2014 3:29 pm
Full Name: Peter Yasuda
Contact:

Re: Crypto protection (ransomware) for repositories

Post by yasuda »

If you want to stick with Windows, how about taking your repository hosts off the domain? Veeam connects to their shares using local credentials, and those shares and admin shares will not be accessible to domain admins. We do this when we set up Veeam Endpoint Backup with backup to NAS shares. I read a good blog post by Veeam on protecting VEB backups from ransomware, and a lot of those ideas would be applicable to B&R. As Francs pointed out, you are depending on Veeam storing credentials safely, and you will be vulnerable to unpatched exploits (Badlock! 1 week to go), but the only protection I see would be air gapped or write-only backups.

You could disable and enable your SMB shares with Task Scheduler to limit access outside backup windows, and that would give a you a chance to catch the ransomware before backups start.
superture
Lurker
Posts: 1
Liked: 1 time
Joined: Dec 18, 2014 9:17 am
Contact:

Re: Crypto protection (ransomware) for repositories

Post by superture » 1 person likes this post

dellock6 wrote:I wrote my part, now it's in the hands of our solution architects. It may take some time as we decided to make it a full hardening guide.
What's the status on the guide pls?
Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Bing [Bot], david.domask and 175 guests