For starters, ElasticSearch is a search engine that’s based on the one and only Lucene library. This search engine provides an HTTP interface and on top of everything, it’s a full-text search engine that comes with multitenant capabilities. Now, as much as this search engine is loved for its features and its functions, recently, it’s been a victim of some malware attacks and these attacks are now growing at a rapid pace.
As per the research, these attacks are being used to drop malware and for cryptocurrency mining too. Most importantly, those who are using ElasticSearch servers versions 1.4.2 and lower, they are at a higher risk of falling a victim to a malware attack. If you search about it online, you will see that the incursions of ElasticSearch are accelerating to another level altogether, that too, at a rapid pace.
For example, if your ElasticSearch server gets hacked, your data indices will be replaced with a warning. Like, if the attack is for cryptocurrency mining, then you will probably see something like this on your screen:
SEND 0.2 BTC TO THIS WALLET: 1DAsGY4Kt1a4LCTPMH5vm5PqX32eZmot4r IF YOU WANT TO RECOVER YOUR DATABASE! SEND TO THIS EMAIL YOUR SERVER IP AFTER SENDING THE BITCOINS…
Now, as per this warning message, you will have to pay somewhat around $175 to the hijacker in order to get access to your servers again. And well, this is something that no would like to do which is why opting for some precautionary measures is a must so that your data can be safe whether you are using ElasticSearch or some other search engine.
How To Protect Your ElasticSearch Server?
First of all, if you are using ElasticSearch, then don’t make the mistake of running it on those internet servers that are accessible. And in case you have to run it on an internet accessible server, then just simply restrict its access using a firewall, a proxy or a VPN. On top of everything, just make sure to have a backup of your data no matter what. You have no idea how important it is to have a backup because when an attack occurs, you’ll at least be relaxed that you still have the access to your important files and you won’t have to worry if those files are still encrypted once you get rid of the malware.
Overall Verdict
Over the past few months, thousands of attacks on ElasticSearch have been witnessed and if you look upon the numbers of those attacks on the internet, you’ll definitely be shocked and scared too. The point to tell you this is that you never know when you can fall a victim to a malicious attack so the wiser thing to do is to take some security measures before time. Especially if you don’t want to end up paying ransom!
