Eg Equant Tech Waffarha Lms 2026 05 17
Nicholas Michael Kloster / NuClide Research nicholas@nuclide-research.com
2026-05-17
Re: Unauthenticated Elasticsearch with AI/RAG workload, Equant Tech (lms.equant-tech.com). Waffarha deals LMS
IP / Host: 161.97.148.0 (cluster waffarha-cluster (waffarha-node))
Severity: HIGH
I’m an independent security researcher conducting good-faith AI infrastructure research under the NuClide Research umbrella (CISA disclosures CVE-2025-4364, ICSA-25-140-11). This is an unsolicited coordinated disclosure. No engagement exists with your organization. I have not read, modified, or exfiltrated documents. Only index metadata (schema, counts, sizes) needed to identify the exposure.
Summary
The Elasticsearch endpoint at http://161.97.148.0:9200 is reachable from the public internet with no authentication. The cluster carries one or more AI / RAG workloads (dense_vector or knn_vector fields). TLS SAN includes lms.equant-tech.com (Egyptian LMS hosting Waffarha deals/coupons content).
State (verified 2026-05-17): MID-WIPE: extortion marker planted, course data still alive
Infrastructure
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| IP | 161.97.148.0 |
| ES version | OpenSearch 2.11.0 |
| Cluster name | waffarha-cluster (waffarha-node) |
| Country | Egypt (hosted Germany / Contabo) |
| Hosting | Contabo GmbH |
Alive on the cluster
| Index | Docs | Size | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
waffarha-deals | 355 | 6.6 MB | 768d — deals/coupons content with embeddings |
.plugins-ml-model-group | 6 | 17.5 KB | OpenSearch ML model group metadata |
.plugins-ml-model | 16 | 55.9 KB | OpenSearch ML model registry |
.plugins-ml-task | 16 | 10.2 KB | OpenSearch ML training tasks |
Extortion marker
An index named read_me is present on the cluster. This is the calling card of the Meow / Indexrm extortion campaign, an automated wipe-and-ransom operation. The marker indicates the attacker has already enumerated your cluster and either has wiped the data or is about to.
Sample marker content typically contains a ransom note pointing to a Bitcoin wallet and an email channel (wendy.etabw@gmx.com or one of two clone actor channels, scandal@onionmail.org, db-recovery@sharebot.net). We have separately reported all three channels to abuse contacts.
Do not pay. Our wallet-blockchain analysis (mempool.space) shows only ~5 victims across thousands of marked hosts have paid; the wallet has received roughly 0.018 BTC against a population of 4,400+ marked instances. Paying does not get your data back. The campaign is wipe-first, ransom-as-afterthought.
Why it matters
The ‘waffarha-deals’ index (355 docs, 768d embeddings) is your Waffarha LMS knowledge base and is still alive on the cluster. The attacker has planted the ‘read_me’ marker but has not deleted the data yet. Snapshot before they finish.
One-line fix
Bind the Elasticsearch HTTP listener to the loopback interface and require authentication for any non-local client. For a Docker deployment:
docker run -p 127.0.0.1:9200:9200 -e xpack.security.enabled=true elasticsearch:2.11.0If the cluster is on a host network: set network.host: 127.0.0.1 in elasticsearch.yml, restart, then put it behind a reverse proxy or VPN with authentication.
For OpenSearch clusters: enable the security plugin with plugins.security.disabled: false.
Reference
Companion case study with the full 22-host survey: AI-LLM-Infrastructure-OSINT/blob/main/case-studies/commercial/22-ai-stack-attribution-2026-05-17.md
Companion methodology notes:
- Snapshot vs delta measurement (Insight #29)
- WHOIS over slug heuristics for disclosure routing (Insight #04)
Happy to provide additional forensic detail if useful. No response is required.
Regards, Nicholas Michael Kloster / NuClide Research nicholas@nuclide-research.com