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Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Silent Skimmer is the name BlackBerry gave to a financially motivated campaign targeting businesses that host or build payment infrastructure. Reports published in 2023 described attackers exploiting vulnerable Telerik software to gain access to web servers and inject code into checkout pages to steal payment details. Unit 42 later reported a possibly related incident in May 2024, but the available reporting does not establish whether the activity continued after that date or who operated it.
What Silent Skimmer targeted—and when
BlackBerry described Silent Skimmer as opportunistic activity against businesses that host or create payment infrastructure, including online businesses and point-of-sale providers. A September 2023 report said the campaign initially focused on organizations in the Asia-Pacific region (APAC), and that businesses in Canada and the United States had also been targeted since October 2022. The reporting does not establish that every region was targeted throughout the same period. SecurityWeek’s September 19, 2023 report summarizes BlackBerry’s findings.
A November 2023 synopsis of BlackBerry’s threat report described targets in APAC, North America, and Latin America. That later account expands the reported geographic scope; it does not establish when activity began in each region. The synopsis is available from BlackBerry’s threat intelligence page.
There is no campaign-wide victim count, stolen-card total, or loss figure established in the reporting cited here. The dates describe reported activity and publication chronology, not the scale of impact.
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How the reported attacks worked
Entry through vulnerable Telerik software
BlackBerry’s 2023 account said attackers exploited CVE-2019-18935, a .NET deserialization vulnerability in Progress Telerik UI for ASP.NET AJAX, to execute code remotely on targeted servers. This vulnerability was not exclusive to Silent Skimmer: CISA, the FBI, and MS-ISAC separately documented its exploitation by multiple actors on a U.S. government IIS server. See the joint CISA advisory.
In its later account of a potentially related incident, Unit 42 also described attempted exploitation of CVE-2017-11317 alongside CVE-2019-18935. The overlap is part of the basis for linking the activity, not proof that the incidents had the same operator.
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Post-exploitation access and tools
For the original campaign, BlackBerry described an attacker-controlled HTTP File Server hosted on a temporary virtual private server (VPS), where tools and post-exploitation payloads were stored. The VPS location reportedly varied with the victim’s geography. The toolset described in the report included downloader and remote-access scripts, web shells, exploits, Cobalt Strike beacons, and Fast Reverse Proxy (FRP). A PowerShell remote access trojan (RAT) could collect system information, transfer files, search for files, and connect to databases.
Payment-page skimming versus database theft
The original Silent Skimmer reporting described attackers injecting a web skimmer into checkout pages to collect billing and card details, with data exfiltration using Cloudflare. In this method, the payment page is the collection point: malicious code captures information as customers enter it.
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Unit 42 later investigated an incident involving a North American-headquartered multinational in late May 2024. In that case, a compiled Python executable connected to a victim database and wrote payment information to a CSV file. That is direct database collection, not checkout-page scraping. Unit 42 assessed the activity as possibly involving the same actor, citing infrastructure, tools, and tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), while also noting differences in how payment data was collected. Its tracking label for the observed activity is CL-CRI-0941. Read the Unit 42 incident analysis for the technical account.
What is known about attribution and current activity
BlackBerry did not publicly identify the operator. Its report cited a Chinese-language developer repository, simplified Chinese in the PowerShell RAT, and an Asian command-and-control (C2) location as clues that the actor was likely Chinese-speaking and operated in Asia. Those indicators do not establish the operator’s identity, citizenship, physical location, or government sponsorship. Describing the activity as definitively conducted by Chinese nationals or a state-linked group goes beyond the evidence cited.
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Unit 42’s May 2024 incident was described as possibly involving the same actor, not as a confirmed identity match. The available sources establish related activity observed in May 2024; they do not establish whether Silent Skimmer or associated activity continued after then, or its status in 2026.
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Inventory and update Telerik installations
Identify internet-facing servers running Telerik UI for ASP.NET AJAX, then verify the installed versions and configuration. Progress Telerik’s guidance, updated January 5, 2021, said: “Only the upgrade to R1 2020 (2020.1.114) or later can prevent the known vulnerabilities at the time of writing.” That is a dated vendor recommendation, not a statement of the latest release today. Follow Progress Telerik’s current security guidance for your specific installation; Unit 42 also recommends upgrading to the latest available version.
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Use advisory indicators as investigation leads
The CISA joint advisory provides technical details, indicators of compromise, and detection and mitigation recommendations for exploitation of CVE-2019-18935. Unit 42’s incident analysis includes observed paths, command examples, and detection queries for its later investigation. These are useful leads for checking relevant environments, not a complete detection recipe for every payment business or every variant of the activity.
If you suspect a compromise
Treat a possible intrusion as an incident-response matter, not merely a patching task. Investigate web-server activity and persistence, unexpected outbound connections, checkout-page scripts, and possible database access. The evidence differs by collection path: checkout-page injection points to reviewing payment-page code and related egress, while database theft calls for investigating server persistence and database activity. Preserve relevant logs and involve qualified incident responders when needed.
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