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Amazon Threat Intelligence says misconfigured customer network-edge devices became the main initial-access route in one Russian state-sponsored campaign targeting Western critical infrastructure by 2025, while the campaign’s use of vulnerability exploitation declined. The report describes a shift in emphasis—not an end to vulnerability exploitation, and not evidence that every Russian-linked group prefers misconfigurations.
What Amazon reported—and what it does not establish
In a December 15, 2025 AWS Security Blog report, Amazon Threat Intelligence described sustained targeting of global infrastructure from 2021 through 2025, particularly the energy sector and its supply chain. Amazon assessed with high confidence that the campaign cluster was associated with Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), citing infrastructure overlaps and consistent targeting patterns. That is Amazon’s attribution assessment, not an independently adjudicated finding.
The campaign touched a broad range of internet-facing and online services: enterprise routers, VPN concentrators, remote-access gateways, network-management appliances, collaboration and wiki platforms, and cloud-based project-management systems. Amazon’s central finding was that misconfigured customer edge devices had become the primary initial-access vector by 2025 as exploitation activity declined.
How the campaign’s tactics changed
Amazon’s timeline shows vulnerability exploitation continuing alongside targeting of misconfigured devices. The shift was in emphasis, not a clean break from exploits.
| Period | Activity Amazon reported |
|---|---|
| 2021–2022 | WatchGuard exploitation and targeting of misconfigured devices. |
| 2022–2023 | Confluence exploitation alongside continued targeting of misconfigured devices. |
| 2024 | Veeam exploitation alongside continued targeting of misconfigured devices. |
| 2025 | Sustained targeting of misconfigured customer edge devices, with declining N-day and zero-day exploitation activity. |
Amazon said the tactical change could still support credential harvesting and lateral movement while reducing an actor’s exposure and resource expenditure. The report does not provide a denominator for calculating what share of Russian-linked attacks use misconfigurations, so its campaign finding should not be treated as an industry-wide percentage.
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How a compromised edge device can lead to further access
Amazon described a sequence involving a customer network-edge device hosted on AWS. The actor compromised the device, used packet-capture capability, obtained credentials, attempted to replay them against victim online services, and sought persistent access for lateral movement. Amazon reported that the credential-replay attempts it discussed were unsuccessful.
There is an important limit to that account: Amazon said it did not directly observe how credentials were extracted. Its assessment that packet capture and traffic analysis enabled credential collection was based on timing, the types of credentials involved, and the actor’s position in the network. The mechanism is therefore an inference, not a directly observed step.
Other Russian-linked activity is separate from Amazon’s campaign
FBI warning about FSB Center 16
A separate FBI public service announcement dated August 20, 2025 addressed activity attributed to Russian FSB Center 16, also associated in cybersecurity reporting with names including Berserk Bear and Dragonfly. The FBI said the actors exploited SNMP and end-of-life networking devices running an unpatched Cisco Smart Install vulnerability, CVE-2018-0171.
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In the preceding year, the FBI detected collection of configuration files for thousands of networking devices associated with U.S. entities across critical-infrastructure sectors; the announcement did not state an exact count. The FBI also reported that actors modified some configurations to enable unauthorized access and conducted reconnaissance that showed interest in ICS-related protocols and applications. This is a distinct threat cluster and should not be merged with Amazon’s GRU-associated campaign.
Pro-Russia hacktivists targeting operational technology
A May 1, 2024 fact sheet from CISA, the FBI, the NSA, and partner agencies described pro-Russia hacktivists accessing internet-exposed industrial control systems (ICS) and human-machine interfaces (HMIs), including through VNC, factory-default or weak passwords, and remote access without multifactor authentication (MFA).
In early 2024, CISA and the FBI responded to U.S. water and wastewater victims whose HMIs had been manipulated. Actors changed pump and blower settings, disabled alarms, and changed administrator passwords. Some victims experienced minor tank overflow; most returned to manual controls and restored operations quickly. The agencies characterized the observed disruption as limited, while warning that insecure OT environments can have physical consequences.
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In a December 9, 2025 release, the NSA named CARR, Z-Pentest, NoName057(16), Sector16, and affiliated groups in connection with opportunistic attacks exploiting inadequately secured VNC connections to reach OT control devices. The NSA said these groups often seek notoriety and exaggerate impacts, but have also been observed causing damage. This activity is also separate from the campaign Amazon described.
What defenders should prioritize
Reduce exposure and strengthen access
- Keep HMIs and PLCs off the public internet. If remote access is necessary, put it behind a firewall or VPN and require a strong password and MFA.
- Remove factory-default and weak passwords, patch VNC and other systems, and allow access only from authorized IP addresses.
- Replace end-of-life HMIs as feasible. Unsupported devices can leave operators with fewer options for patching and maintenance.
Watch for signs of access and configuration changes
For the edge-device activity Amazon described, monitoring priorities include unexpected packet-capture files or utilities, exposed management interfaces, interactive sessions to appliance administration portals from unexpected IP addresses, and credential reuse or replay against online services. Amazon’s AWS-oriented suggestions include least-permissive security-group rules, placing management interfaces in private subnets, identity federation and IAM roles, VPC Flow Logs, CloudTrail, GuardDuty, and vulnerability scanning. These are recommended controls, not a guarantee that any single measure prevents compromise.
For OT environments, log remote access, check PLC logic for unauthorized changes, and back up HMI engineering logic, configurations, and firmware so they can be restored if altered.
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Prepare to operate safely and recover
Maintain the ability to run processes manually, and use operational interlocks, cyber-physical safety systems, and cyber-informed engineering to limit the consequences of unauthorized changes. These safeguards matter because an intrusion into an exposed control system can affect a physical process, not just data or accounts.
CISA’s 2024 fact sheet also lists its Cyber Hygiene services and assessments for eligible organizations. The cited public guidance does not endorse commercial products.
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The FBI advises suspected victims of the FSB activity to evaluate routers and other networking devices for configuration changes or malware before filing a report, then include those findings in the report to the FBI. This advice applies to the FBI’s separate FSB warning, not as a specific response procedure for every incident described above.
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