Hackers Stolen 2M+ User’s Data Via XSS & SQL Injection Attacks

A large-scale cyber attack was launched to steal and market confidential user information, focusing mainly on the APAC region’s employment agencies and retail firms.

A group of hackers called ResumeLooters initiated a campaign aimed at job seekers. The hackers’ identities remain unknown, and their primary objective was to target and exploit vulnerabilities in the job-seeking process.

Group-IB, a cybersecurity company, recently discovered that a group of hackers, ResumeLooters, compromised 65 websites during November and December 2023.

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Like GambleForce, ResumeLooters primarily targets the Asia-Pacific – over 70% of known victims are located in the region (India, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, and other countries, as seen below in Figure 2).

ResumeLooters SQL injection & XSS as Attack Vectors

The threat actor attempts to steal user databases that may include names, phone numbers, emails, DOBs, information about job seekers’ experience, employment history, and other sensitive personal data.

By employing XSS Attacks, the hackers intended to load additional malicious scripts from the associated malicious infrastructure and display phishing forms on legitimate resources.

By using SQL injections, the group has stolen data from 65 websites. The stolen files contained 2,188,444 rows, of which 510,259 were user data stolen from job search websites.

To launch attacks, they used various penetration testing tools such as sqlmap, Acunetix, Beef Framework, X-Ray, Metasploit, ARL (Asset Reconnaissance Lighthouse), and Dirsearch.

ResumeLooters tried to inject XSS scripts into all possible web forms of the targeted websites.

“Throughout our research, we found several pieces of evidence supporting the first version. The attackers’ server, among other pieces of stolen data, stored a file named AdminJobApprovalGrid.aspx_2023_11_23_02_02_39.html.”

The attackers created a fake employer profile on one of the legitimate websites identified by Group-IB (https://jobs[redacted]co/company-detail/248). Within one of the fields in this profile, ResumeLooters could inject the XSS script referencing 8r[.]ae, which is also displayed on the site’s main page.

According to Group-IB, the malicious server is 139.180.137[.]107. We found logs of several penetration testing tools on this server, including sqlmap. 

The emergence of ResumeLooters underscores the pernicious potential of a select few publicly available tools. Its impact is a cautionary tale for organizations seeking to protect sensitive information. 

Such tools pose a severe threat to data confidentiality, integrity, and availability and require a multi-layered approach to safeguard against such attacks.

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