F5 BIG-IP APM Malware Injects a PHP Web Shell Into Memory, Evading Disk Scans
C The Hacker News ·
Admiralty grading (A–F · 1–6)
Source reliability
- A Completely reliable
- B Usually reliable
- C Fairly reliable
- D Not usually reliable
- E Unreliable
- F Cannot be judged
Information credibility
- 1 Confirmed
- 2 Probably true
- 3 Possibly true
- 4 Doubtful
- 5 Improbable
- 6 Cannot be judged
NATO Admiralty (AJP-2.1) grades confidence, independent of the risk score. Cross-source corroboration isn't tracked for non-CVE news, so single-source items are capped at a lower credibility number; a low number does not imply low quality.
Key insight
The malware uses in-memory injection to evade disk-based scanning , an indicator of targeted attacks against organisations with security monitoring.
Description
Malware breaking into F5 BIG-IP APM appliances hides a PHP web shell in memory rather than on disk. When Apache loads the appliance's own PHP scripts, the malware injects the web shell into the memory-held copy, allowing disk-based file checks to appear clean. This enables persistence and remote access that escapes traditional disk-based scans. The technique indicates advanced threat actors and is being actively deployed against BIG-IP APM appliances.
Risk score
- cvss base
- 0.00
- kev bonus
- 0.00
- epss bonus
- 0.00
- poc bonus
- 0.00
- raw before weight
- 0.00
- industry weight
- 1.10
- freshness factor
- 1.00
- exploitability factor
- 1.00
- days old
- 0.00
- vendor mismatch penalty
- 0.00
Path: operational