Microsoft's May Patch Tuesday Fixes 38 Flaws, Including 2 Exploited Zero-Day Bugs

Microsoft has rolled out Patch Tuesday updates for May 2023 to address 38 security flaws, including two zero-day bugs that it said is being actively exploited in the wild. Trend Micro's Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) said the volume is the lowest since August 2021, although it pointed out that "this number is expected to rise in the coming months." Of the 38 vulnerabilities, six are rated Critical

Product Security: Harnessing the Collective Experience and Collaborative Tools in DevSecOps

In the fast-paced cybersecurity landscape, product security takes center stage. DevSecOps swoops in, seamlessly merging security practices into DevOps, empowering teams to tackle challenges. Let's dive into DevSecOps and explore how collaboration can give your team the edge to fight cyber villains. Application security and product security Regrettably, application security teams often intervene

Microsoft Warns of State-Sponsored Attacks Exploiting Critical PaperCut Vulnerability

Iranian nation-state groups have now joined financially motivated actors in actively exploiting a critical flaw in PaperCut print management software, Microsoft disclosed over the weekend. The tech giant's threat intelligence team said it observed both Mango Sandstorm (Mercury) and Mint Sandstorm (Phosphorus) weaponizing CVE-2023-27350 in their operations to achieve initial access. "This

New Ransomware Strain 'CACTUS' Exploits VPN Flaws to Infiltrate Networks

Cybersecurity researchers have shed light on a new ransomware strain called CACTUS that has been found to leverage known flaws in VPN appliances to obtain initial access to targeted networks. "Once inside the network, CACTUS actors attempt to enumerate local and network user accounts in addition to reachable endpoints before creating new user accounts and leveraging custom scripts to automate

Join Our Webinar: Learn How to Defeat Ransomware with Identity-Focused Protection

Are you concerned about ransomware attacks? You're not alone. In recent years, these attacks have become increasingly common and can cause significant damage to organizations of all sizes. But there's good news - with the right security measures in place, such as real-time MFA and service account protection, you can effectively protect yourself against these types of attacks. That's why we're

MSI Data Breach: Private Code Signing Keys Leaked on the Dark Web

The threat actors behind the ransomware attack on Taiwanese PC maker MSI last month have leaked the company's private code signing keys on their dark website. "Confirmed, Intel OEM private key leaked, causing an impact on the entire ecosystem," Alex Matrosov, founder and CEO of firmware security firm Binarly, said in a tweet over the weekend. "It appears that Intel Boot Guard may not be

Western Digital Confirms Customer Data Stolen by Hackers in March Breach

Digital storage giant Western Digital confirmed that an "unauthorized third party" gained access to its systems and stole personal information belonging to the company's online store customers. "This information included customer names, billing and shipping addresses, email addresses and telephone numbers," the San Jose-based company said in a disclosure last week. "In addition, the database

CERT-UA Warns of SmokeLoader and RoarBAT Malware Attacks Against Ukraine

An ongoing phishing campaign with invoice-themed lures is being used to distribute the SmokeLoader malware in the form of a polyglot file, according to the Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT-UA). The emails, per the agency, are sent using compromised accounts and come with a ZIP archive that, in reality, is a polyglot file containing a decoy document and a JavaScript file. The

New Vulnerability in Popular WordPress Plugin Exposes Over 2 Million Sites to Cyberattacks

Users of Advanced Custom Fields plugin for WordPress are being urged to update version 6.1.6 following the discovery of a security flaw. The issue, assigned the identifier CVE-2023-30777, relates to a case of reflected cross-site scripting (XSS) that could be abused to inject arbitrary executable scripts into otherwise benign websites. The plugin, which is available both as a free and pro

Lack of Visibility: The Challenge of Protecting Websites from Third-Party Scripts

Third-party apps such as Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, HotJar, and JQuery have become critical tools for businesses to optimize their website performance and services for a global audience. However, as their importance has grown, so has the threat of cyber incidents involving unmanaged third-party apps and open-source tools. Online businesses increasingly struggle to maintain complete visibility

Packagist Repository Hacked: Over a Dozen PHP Packages with 500 Million Installs Compromised

PHP software package repository Packagist revealed that an "attacker" gained access to four inactive accounts on the platform to hijack over a dozen packages with over 500 million installs to date. "The attacker forked each of the packages and replaced the package description in composer.json with their own message but did not otherwise make any malicious changes," Packagist's Nils Adermann said

Fleckpe Android Malware Sneaks onto Google Play Store with Over 620,000 Downloads

A new Android subscription malware named Fleckpe has been unearthed on the Google Play Store, amassing more than 620,000 downloads in total since 2022. Kaspersky, which identified 11 apps on the official app storefront, said the malware masqueraded as legitimate photo editing apps, camera, and smartphone wallpaper packs. The apps have since been taken down. The operation primarily targets users

Cisco Warns of Vulnerability in Popular Phone Adapter, Urges Migration to Newer Model

Cisco has warned of a critical security flaw in SPA112 2-Port Phone Adapters that it said could be exploited by a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on affected devices. The issue, tracked as CVE-2023-20126, is rated 9.8 out of a maximum of 10 on the CVSS scoring system. The company credited Catalpa of DBappSecurity for reporting the shortcoming. The product in question makes it possible

Researchers Uncover New Exploit for PaperCut Vulnerability That Can Bypass Detection

Cybersecurity researchers have found a way to exploit a recently disclosed critical flaw in PaperCut servers in a manner that bypasses all current detections. Tracked as CVE-2023-27350 (CVSS score: 9.8), the issue affects PaperCut MF and NG installations that could be exploited by an unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code with SYSTEM privileges. While the flaw was patched by the

Why the Things You Don't Know about the Dark Web May Be Your Biggest Cybersecurity Threat

IT and cybersecurity teams are so inundated with security notifications and alerts within their own systems, it’s difficult to monitor external malicious environments – which only makes them that much more threatening.  In March, a high-profile data breach hit national headlines when personally identifiable information connected to hundreds of lawmakers and staff was leaked on the dark web. The

Download the eBook: What Does it Take to be a Full-Fledged Virtual CISO?

Almost half of MSP clients fell victim to a cyberattack within the last 12 months. In the SMB world, the danger is especially acute as only 50% of SMBs have a dedicated internal IT person to take care of cybersecurity. No wonder cybercriminals are targeting SMBs so heavily. No wonder SMBs are increasingly willing to pay a subscription or retainer to gain access to expert C-level cyber-assistance

Hackers Exploiting 5-year-old Unpatched Vulnerability in TBK DVR Devices

Threat actors are actively exploiting an unpatched five-year-old flaw impacting TBK digital video recording (DVR) devices, according to an advisory issued by Fortinet FortiGuard Labs. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2018-9995 (CVSS score: 9.8), a critical authentication bypass issue that could be exploited by remote actors to gain elevated permissions. "The 5-year-old vulnerability (CVE-

CISA Issues Advisory on Critical RCE Affecting ME RTU Remote Terminal Units

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Tuesday released an Industrial Control Systems (ICS) advisory about a critical flaw affecting ME RTU remote terminal units. The security vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023-2131, has received the highest severity rating of 10.0 on the CVSS scoring system for its low attack complexity. "Successful exploitation of this

Researchers Uncover New BGP Flaws in Popular Internet Routing Protocol Software

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered weaknesses in a software implementation of the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) that could be weaponized to achieve a denial-of-service (DoS) condition on vulnerable BGP peers. The three vulnerabilities reside in version 8.4 of FRRouting, a popular open source internet routing protocol suite for Linux and Unix platforms. It's currently used by several

BouldSpy Android Spyware: Iranian Government's Alleged Tool for Spying on Minority Groups

A new Android surveillanceware possibly used by the Iranian government has been used to spy on over 300 individuals belonging to minority groups. The malware, dubbed BouldSpy, has been attributed with moderate confidence to the Law Enforcement Command of the Islamic Republic of Iran (FARAJA). Targeted victims include Iranian Kurds, Baluchis, Azeris, and Armenian Christian groups. "The spyware

Why Telecoms Struggle with SaaS Security

The telecom industry has always been a tantalizing target for cybercriminals. The combination of interconnected networks, customer data, and sensitive information allows cybercriminals to inflict maximum damage through minimal effort. It’s the breaches in telecom companies that tend to have a seismic impact and far-reaching implications — in addition to reputational damage, which can be

Alert: Active Exploitation of TP-Link, Apache, and Oracle Vulnerabilities Detected

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has added three flaws to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation. The security vulnerabilities are as follows - CVE-2023-1389 (CVSS score: 8.8) - TP-Link Archer AX-21 Command Injection Vulnerability CVE-2021-45046 (CVSS score: 9.0) - Apache Log4j2 Deserialization of Untrusted

New Decoy Dog Malware Toolkit Uncovered: Targeting Enterprise Networks

An analysis of over 70 billion DNS records has led to the discovery of a new sophisticated malware toolkit dubbed Decoy Dog targeting enterprise networks. Decoy Dog, as the name implies, is evasive and employs techniques like strategic domain aging and DNS query dribbling, wherein a series of queries are transmitted to the command-and-control (C2) domains so as to not arouse any suspicion. "

Wanted Dead or Alive: Real-Time Protection Against Lateral Movement

Just a few short years ago, lateral movement was a tactic confined to top APT cybercrime organizations and nation-state operators. Today, however, it has become a commoditized tool, well within the skillset of any ransomware threat actor. This makes real-time detection and prevention of lateral movement a necessity to organizations of all sizes and across all industries. But the disturbing truth

Vietnamese Threat Actor Infects 500,000 Devices Using 'Malverposting' Tactics

A Vietnamese threat actor has been attributed as behind a "malverposting" campaign on social media platforms to infect over 500,000 devices worldwide over the past three months to deliver variants of information stealers such as S1deload Stealer and SYS01stealer. Malverposting refers to the use of promoted social media posts on services like Facebook and Twitter to mass propagate malicious

APT28 Targets Ukrainian Government Entities with Fake "Windows Update" Emails

The Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT-UA) has warned of cyber attacks perpetrated by Russian nation-state hackers targeting various government bodies in the country. The agency attributed the phishing campaign to APT28, which is also known by the names Fancy Bear, Forest Blizzard, FROZENLAKE, Iron Twilight, Sednit, and Sofacy. The email messages come with the subject line "

Google Blocks 1.43 Million Malicious Apps, Bans 173,000 Bad Accounts in 2022

Google disclosed that its improved security features and app review processes helped it block 1.43 million bad apps from being published to the Play Store in 2022. In addition, the company said it banned 173,000 bad accounts and fended off over $2 billion in fraudulent and abusive transactions through developer-facing features like Voided Purchases API, Obfuscated Account ID, and Play Integrity

ChatGPT is Back in Italy After Addressing Data Privacy Concerns

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has officially made a return to Italy after the company met the data protection authority's demands ahead of April 30, 2023, deadline. The development was first reported by the Associated Press. OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, tweeted, "we're excited ChatGPT is available in [Italy] again!" The reinstatement comes following Garante's decision to temporarily block 

Zyxel Firewall Devices Vulnerable to Remote Code Execution Attacks — Patch Now

Networking equipment maker Zyxel has released patches for a critical security flaw in its firewall devices that could be exploited to achieve remote code execution on affected systems. The issue, tracked as CVE-2023-28771, is rated 9.8 on the CVSS scoring system. Researchers from TRAPA Security have been credited with reporting the flaw. "Improper error message handling in some firewall versions

ViperSoftX InfoStealer Adopts Sophisticated Techniques to Avoid Detection

A significant number of victims in the consumer and enterprise sectors located across Australia, Japan, the U.S., and India have been affected by an evasive information-stealing malware called ViperSoftX. ViperSoftX was first documented by Fortinet in 2020, with cybersecurity company Avast detailing a campaign in November 2022 that leveraged the malware to distribute a malicious Google Chrome

Attention Online Shoppers: Don't Be Fooled by Their Sleek, Modern Looks — It's Magecart!

An ongoing Magecart campaign has attracted the attention of cybersecurity researchers for leveraging realistic-looking fake payment screens to capture sensitive data entered by unsuspecting users. "The threat actor used original logos from the compromised store and customized a web element known as a modal to perfectly hijack the checkout page," Jérôme Segura, director of threat intelligence at

Microsoft Confirms PaperCut Servers Used to Deliver LockBit and Cl0p Ransomware

Microsoft has confirmed that the active exploitation of PaperCut servers is linked to attacks that are designed to deliver Cl0p and LockBit ransomware families. The tech giant's threat intelligence team is attributing a subset of the intrusions to a financially motivated actor it tracks under the name Lace Tempest (formerly DEV-0950), which overlaps with other hacking groups like FIN11, TA505,

Chinese Hackers Spotted Using Linux Variant of PingPull in Targeted Cyberattacks

The Chinese nation-state group dubbed Alloy Taurus is using a Linux variant of a backdoor called PingPull as well as a new undocumented tool codenamed Sword2033. That's according to findings from Palo Alto Networks Unit 42, which discovered recent malicious cyber activity carried out by the group targeting South Africa and Nepal. Alloy Taurus is the constellation-themed moniker assigned to a

Charming Kitten's New BellaCiao Malware Discovered in Multi-Country Attacks

The prolific Iranian nation-state group known as Charming Kitten is actively targeting multiple victims in the U.S., Europe, the Middle East and India with a novel malware dubbed BellaCiao, adding to its ever-expanding list of custom tools. Discovered by Bitdefender Labs, BellaCiao is a "personalized dropper" that's capable of delivering other malware payloads onto a victim machine based on

Browser Security Survey: 87% of SaaS Adopters Exposed to Browser-borne Attacks

The browser serves as the primary interface between the on-premises environment, the cloud, and the web in the modern enterprise. Therefore, the browser is also exposed to multiple types of cyber threats and operational risks.  In light of this significant challenge, how are CISOs responding? LayerX, Browser Security platform provider, has polled more than 150 CISOs across multiple verticals and

Apache Superset Vulnerability: Insecure Default Configuration Exposes Servers to RCE Attacks

The maintainers of the Apache Superset open source data visualization software have released fixes to plug an insecure default configuration that could lead to remote code execution. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023-27524 (CVSS score: 8.9), impacts versions up to and including 2.0.1 and relates to the use of a default SECRET_KEY that could be abused by attackers to authenticate and access

Modernizing Vulnerability Management: The Move Toward Exposure Management

Managing vulnerabilities in the constantly evolving technological landscape is a difficult task. Although vulnerabilities emerge regularly, not all vulnerabilities present the same level of risk. Traditional metrics such as CVSS score or the number of vulnerabilities are insufficient for effective vulnerability management as they lack business context, prioritization, and understanding of

Lazarus Subgroup Targeting Apple Devices with New RustBucket macOS Malware

A financially-motivated North Korean threat actor is suspected to be behind a new Apple macOS malware strain called RustBucket. "[RustBucket] communicates with command and control (C2) servers to download and execute various payloads," Jamf Threat Labs researchers Ferdous Saljooki and Jaron Bradley said in a technical report published last week.  The Apple device management company attributed it

Google Cloud Introduces Security AI Workbench for Faster Threat Detection and Analysis

Google's cloud division is following in the footsteps of Microsoft with the launch of Security AI Workbench that leverages generative AI models to gain better visibility into the threat landscape.  Powering the cybersecurity suite is Sec-PaLM, a specialized large language model (LLM) that's "fine-tuned for security use cases." The idea is to take advantage of the latest advances in AI to augment

Google Authenticator App Gets Cloud Backup Feature for TOTP Codes

Search giant Google on Monday unveiled a major update to its 12-year-old Authenticator app for Android and iOS with an account synchronization option that allows users to back up their time-based one-time passwords (TOTPs) to the cloud. "This change means users are better protected from lockout and that services can rely on users retaining access, increasing both convenience and security,"

Russian Hackers Tomiris Targeting Central Asia for Intelligence Gathering

The Russian-speaking threat actor behind a backdoor known as Tomiris is primarily focused on gathering intelligence in Central Asia, fresh findings from Kaspersky reveal. "Tomiris's endgame consistently appears to be the regular theft of internal documents," security researchers Pierre Delcher and Ivan Kwiatkowski said in an analysis published today. "The threat actor targets government and

Study: 84% of Companies Use Breached SaaS Applications - Here's How to Fix it for Free!

A recent review by Wing Security, a SaaS security company that analyzed the data of over 500 companies, revealed some worrisome information. According to this review, 84% of the companies had employees using an average of 3.5 SaaS applications that were breached in the previous 3 months. While this is concerning, it isn't much of a surprise. The exponential growth in SaaS usage has security and

Hackers Exploit Outdated WordPress Plugin to Backdoor Thousands of WordPress Sites

Threat actors have been observed leveraging a legitimate but outdated WordPress plugin to surreptitiously backdoor websites as part of an ongoing campaign, Sucuri revealed in a report published last week. The plugin in question is Eval PHP, released by a developer named flashpixx. It allows users to insert PHP code pages and posts of WordPress sites that's then executed every time the posts are

Russian Hackers Suspected in Ongoing Exploitation of Unpatched PaperCut Servers

Print management software provider PaperCut said that it has "evidence to suggest that unpatched servers are being exploited in the wild," citing two vulnerability reports from cybersecurity company Trend Micro. "PaperCut has conducted analysis on all customer reports, and the earliest signature of suspicious activity on a customer server potentially linked to this vulnerability is 14th April 01

CISA Adds 3 Actively Exploited Flaws to KEV Catalog, including Critical PaperCut Bug

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Friday added three security flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation. The three vulnerabilities are as follows - CVE-2023-28432 (CVSS score - 7.5) - MinIO Information Disclosure Vulnerability  CVE-2023-27350 (CVSS score - 9.8) - PaperCut MF/NG Improper Access Control

GhostToken Flaw Could Let Attackers Hide Malicious Apps in Google Cloud Platform

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a now-patched zero-day flaw in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) that could have enabled threat actors to conceal an unremovable, malicious application inside a victim's Google account. Dubbed GhostToken by Israeli cybersecurity startup Astrix Security, the shortcoming impacts all Google accounts, including enterprise-focused Workspace accounts. It

14 Kubernetes and Cloud Security Challenges and How to Solve Them

Recently, Andrew Martin, founder and CEO of ControlPlane, released a report entitled Cloud Native and Kubernetes Security Predictions 2023. These predictions underscore the rapidly evolving landscape of Kubernetes and cloud security, emphasizing the need for organizations to stay informed and adopt comprehensive security solutions to protect their digital assets. In response, Uptycs, the first

N.K. Hackers Employ Matryoshka Doll-Style Cascading Supply Chain Attack on 3CX

The supply chain attack targeting 3CX was the result of a prior supply chain compromise associated with a different company, demonstrating a new level of sophistication with North Korean threat actors. Google-owned Mandiant, which is tracking the attack event under the moniker UNC4736, said the incident marks the first time it has seen a "software supply chain attack lead to another software

Cisco and VMware Release Security Updates to Patch Critical Flaws in their Products

Cisco and VMware have released security updates to address critical security flaws in their products that could be exploited by malicious actors to execute arbitrary code on affected systems. The most severe of the vulnerabilities is a command injection flaw in Cisco Industrial Network Director (CVE-2023-20036, CVSS score: 9.9), which resides in the web UI component and arises as a result of

Two Critical Flaws Found in Alibaba Cloud's PostgreSQL Databases

A chain of two critical flaws has been disclosed in Alibaba Cloud's ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL and AnalyticDB for PostgreSQL that could be exploited to breach tenant isolation protections and access sensitive data belonging to other customers. "The vulnerabilities potentially allowed unauthorized access to Alibaba Cloud customers' PostgreSQL databases and the ability to perform a supply chain

Beyond Traditional Security: NDR's Pivotal Role in Safeguarding OT Networks

Why is Visibility into OT Environments Crucial? The significance of Operational Technology (OT) for businesses is undeniable as the OT sector flourishes alongside the already thriving IT sector. OT includes industrial control systems, manufacturing equipment, and devices that oversee and manage industrial environments and critical infrastructures. In recent years, adversaries have recognized the

Lazarus Group Adds Linux Malware to Arsenal in Operation Dream Job

The notorious North Korea-aligned state-sponsored actor known as the Lazarus Group has been attributed to a new campaign aimed at Linux users. The attacks are part of a persistent and long-running activity tracked under the name Operation Dream Job, ESET said in a new report published today. The findings are crucial, not least because it marks the first publicly documented example of the

Fortra Sheds Light on GoAnywhere MFT Zero-Day Exploit Used in Ransomware Attacks

Fortra, the company behind Cobalt Strike, shed light on a zero-day remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability in its GoAnywhere MFT tool that has come under active exploitation by ransomware actors to steal sensitive data. The high-severity flaw, tracked as CVE-2023-0669 (CVSS score: 7.2), concerns a case of pre-authenticated command injection that could be abused to achieve code execution. The

ChatGPT's Data Protection Blind Spots and How Security Teams Can Solve Them

In the short time since their inception, ChatGPT and other generative AI platforms have rightfully gained the reputation of ultimate productivity boosters. However, the very same technology that enables rapid production of high-quality text on demand, can at the same time expose sensitive corporate data. A recent incident, in which Samsung software engineers pasted proprietary code into ChatGPT,

NSO Group Used 3 Zero-Click iPhone Exploits Against Human Rights Defenders

Israeli spyware maker NSO Group deployed at least three novel "zero-click" exploits against iPhones in 2022 to infiltrate defenses erected by Apple and deploy Pegasus, according to the latest findings from Citizen Lab. "NSO Group customers widely deployed at least three iOS 15 and iOS 16 zero-click exploit chains against civil society targets around the world," the interdisciplinary laboratory

Google Chrome Hit by Second Zero-Day Attack - Urgent Patch Update Released

Google on Tuesday rolled out emergency fixes to address another actively exploited high-severity zero-day flaw in its Chrome web browser. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2023-2136, is described as a case of integer overflow in Skia, an open source 2D graphics library. Clément Lecigne of Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) has been credited with discovering and reporting the flaw on April 12, 2023. "

Uncovering (and Understanding) the Hidden Risks of SaaS Apps

Recent data breaches across CircleCI, LastPass, and Okta underscore a common theme: The enterprise SaaS stacks connected to these industry-leading apps can be at serious risk for compromise. CircleCI, for example, plays an integral, SaaS-to-SaaS role for SaaS app development. Similarly, tens of thousands of organizations rely on Okta and LastPass security roles for SaaS identity and access

U.S. and U.K. Warn of Russian Hackers Exploiting Cisco Router Flaws for Espionage

U.K. and U.S. cybersecurity and intelligence agencies have warned of Russian nation-state actors exploiting now-patched flaws in networking equipment from Cisco to conduct reconnaissance and deploy malware against select targets. The intrusions, per the authorities, took place in 2021 and targeted a small number of entities in Europe, U.S. government institutions, and about 250 Ukrainian victims

Goldoson Android Malware Infects Over 100 Million Google Play Store Downloads

h A new Android malware strain named Goldoson has been detected in the official Google Play Store spanning more than 60 legitimate apps that collectively have over 100 million downloads. An additional eight million installations have been tracked through ONE store, a leading third-party app storefront in South Korea. The rogue component is part of a third-party software library used by the apps

DFIR via XDR: How to expedite your investigations with a DFIRent approach

Rapid technological evolution requires security that is resilient, up to date and adaptable. In this article, we will cover the transformation in the field of DFIR (digital forensics and incident response) in the last couple years, focusing on the digital forensics' aspect and how XDR fits into the picture. Before we dive into the details, let's first break down the main components of DFIR and