SSH-Snake: New Self-Modifying Worm Threatens Networks

The SSH-Snake is a sophisticated, self-modifying worm discovered by the Sysdig Threat Research Team, designed to exploit SSH credentials on compromised systems for lateral movement across networks. Released in January 2024, it autonomously searches for SSH private keys, modifies itself for efficiency, and propagates without leaving a file footprint, making it challenging to detect through static methods. Unlike traditional SSH worms, SSH-Snake provides greater stealth and configurability, allowing threat actors to map networks comprehensively and exploit vulnerabilities, such as those found in Confluence. Its activity is identifiable by runtime threat detection tools like Sysdig Secure and Falco, which offer real-time alerts and customizable rules to combat such advanced threats. As SSH-Snake continues to spread, with approximately 100 victims at the time of reporting, its evolution underscores the critical need for dynamic security measures to detect and mitigate fileless malware in cloud-native environments.