Cybersecurity and SSH

SSH Tool Weaponized

by Charles Parker, II

One of the more interesting facets of this industry is there’s always something new to learn. The

creativeness and inventive nature shine with the new tools introduced for attacks and subsequently to

improve defenses. One area that hasn’t seen many new tools created has been with SSH. This is widely

used and continue to be a primary security method.

The new security tool is SSH-Snake. This is an open-source tool. Originally released in January 2024, the

design was to work through a network using SSH private keys. This is done automatically. The program

through its work then creates a thorough network map and its dependencies. The result allows the

security staff to understand vulnerable points where an attacker could use SSH and private keys.

You can see the usefulness of this for the company. Like any tool, there are positive and negative uses.

The negative side of the coin here is the tool was weaponized. This was modified to self-modify and

replicate itself through the network. The upgraded tool has been coded to find locations where

credentials are generally kept and analyzes the shell history files.

As an additional aspect to circumvent security, the tool is fileless. While this is newer, it allows for an

increased level of difficulty in detecting the tool and allows it a greater level of flexibility. This is still a

tool to be used to improve your network security stance. The weaponized version should be on your

radar.

About the author-

Charles Parker II has been working in the info sec field for over a decade, in the banking, medical, automotive, and staffing industries. Charles has matriculated and attained the MBA, MSA, JD, LLM, and is in the final stage of the PhD in Information Assurance and Security (ABD) from Capella University. Mr. Parker’s areas of interest include cryptography, AV, and SCADA.