PyPI Repository Under Attack: User Sign-Ups and Package Uploads Temporarily Halted

The maintainers of Python Package Index (PyPI), the official third-party software repository for the Python programming language, have temporarily disabled the ability for users to sign up and upload new packages until further notice. "The volume of malicious users and malicious projects being created on the index in the past week has outpaced our ability to respond to it in a timely fashion,

Developer Alert: NPM Packages for Node.js Hiding Dangerous TurkoRat Malware

Two malicious packages discovered in the npm package repository have been found to conceal an open source information stealer malware called TurkoRat. The packages – named nodejs-encrypt-agent and nodejs-cookie-proxy-agent – were collectively downloaded approximately 1,200 times and were available for more than two months before they were identified and taken down. ReversingLabs, which broke

Searching for AI Tools? Watch Out for Rogue Sites Distributing RedLine Malware

Malicious Google Search ads for generative AI services like OpenAI ChatGPT and Midjourney are being used to direct users to sketchy websites as part of a BATLOADER campaign designed to deliver RedLine Stealer malware. "Both AI services are extremely popular but lack first-party standalone apps (i.e., users interface with ChatGPT via their web interface while Midjourney uses Discord)," eSentire

This Cybercrime Syndicate Pre-Infected Over 8.9 Million Android Phones Worldwide

A cybercrime enterprise known as Lemon Group is leveraging millions of pre-infected Android smartphones worldwide to carry out their malicious operations, posing significant supply chain risks. "The infection turns these devices into mobile proxies, tools for stealing and selling SMS messages, social media and online messaging accounts and monetization via advertisements and click fraud,"

New Phishing-as-a-Service Platform Lets Cybercriminals Generate Convincing Phishing Pages

A new phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS or PaaS) platform named Greatness has been leveraged by cybercriminals to target business users of the Microsoft 365 cloud service since at least mid-2022, effectively lowering the bar to entry for phishing attacks. "Greatness, for now, is only focused on Microsoft 365 phishing pages, providing its affiliates with an attachment and link builder that creates

New APT Group Red Stinger Targets Military and Critical Infrastructure in Eastern Europe

A previously undetected advanced persistent threat (APT) actor dubbed Red Stinger has been linked to attacks targeting Eastern Europe since 2020. "Military, transportation, and critical infrastructure were some of the entities being targeted, as well as some involved in the September East Ukraine referendums," Malwarebytes disclosed in a report published today. "Depending on the campaign,

Why Honeytokens Are the Future of Intrusion Detection

A few weeks ago, the 32nd edition of RSA, one of the world's largest cybersecurity conferences, wrapped up in San Francisco. Among the highlights, Kevin Mandia, CEO of Mandiant at Google Cloud, presented a retrospective on the state of cybersecurity. During his keynote, Mandia stated: "There are clear steps organizations can take beyond common safeguards and security tools to strengthen their

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

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

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

Meta Takes Down Malware Campaign That Used ChatGPT as a Lure to Steal Accounts

Meta said it took steps to take down more than 1,000 malicious URLs from being shared across its services that were found to leverage OpenAI's ChatGPT as a lure to propagate about 10 malware families since March 2023. The development comes against the backdrop of fake ChatGPT web browser extensions being increasingly used to steal users' Facebook account credentials with an aim to run

Apple and Google Join Forces to Stop Unauthorized Location-Tracking Devices

Apple and Google have teamed up to work on a draft industry-wide specification that's designed to tackle safety risks and alert users when they are being tracked without their knowledge or permission using devices like AirTags. "The first-of-its-kind specification will allow Bluetooth location-tracking devices to be compatible with unauthorized tracking detection and alerts across Android and

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 

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,

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

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

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

Google TAG Warns of Russian Hackers Conducting Phishing Attacks in Ukraine

Elite hackers associated with Russia's military intelligence service have been linked to large-volume phishing campaigns aimed at hundreds of users in Ukraine to extract intelligence and influence public discourse related to the war. Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG), which is monitoring the activities of the actor under the name FROZENLAKE, said the attacks continue the "group's 2022 focus

Cryptocurrency Stealer Malware Distributed via 13 NuGet Packages

Cybersecurity researchers have detailed the inner workings of the cryptocurrency stealer malware that was distributed via 13 malicious NuGet packages as part of a supply chain attack targeting .NET developers. The sophisticated typosquatting campaign, which was uncovered by JFrog late last month, impersonated legitimate packages to execute PowerShell code designed to retrieve a follow-on binary

Cryptocurrency Companies Targeted in Sophisticated 3CX Supply Chain Attack

The adversary behind the supply chain attack targeting 3CX deployed a second-stage implant specifically singling out a small number of cryptocurrency companies. Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky, which has been internally tracking the versatile backdoor under the name Gopuram since 2020, said it observed an increase in the number of infections in March 2023 coinciding with the 3CX breach.

Italian Watchdog Bans OpenAI's ChatGPT Over Data Protection Concerns

The Italian data protection watchdog, Garante per la Protezione dei Dati Personali (aka Garante), has imposed a temporary ban of OpenAI's ChatGPT service in the country, citing data protection concerns. To that end, it has ordered the company to stop processing users' data with immediate effect, stating it intends to investigate the company over whether it's unlawfully processing such data in

Winter Vivern APT Targets European Government Entities with Zimbra Vulnerability

The advanced persistent threat (APT) actor known as Winter Vivern is now targeting officials in Europe and the U.S. as part of an ongoing cyber espionage campaign. "TA473 since at least February 2023 has continuously leveraged an unpatched Zimbra vulnerability in publicly facing webmail portals that allows them to gain access to the email mailboxes of government entities in Europe," Proofpoint 

Cyber Police of Ukraine Busted Phishing Gang Responsible for $4.33 Million Scam

The Cyber Police of Ukraine, in collaboration with law enforcement officials from Czechia, has arrested several members of a cybercriminal gang that set up phishing sites to target European users. Two of the apprehended affiliates are believed to be organizers, with 10 others detained in other territories across the European Union. The suspects are alleged to have created more than 100 phishing

3CX Supply Chain Attack — Here's What We Know So Far

Enterprise communications software maker 3CX on Thursday confirmed that multiple versions of its desktop app for Windows and macOS are affected by a supply chain attack. The version numbers include 18.12.407 and 18.12.416 for Windows and 18.11.1213, 18.12.402, 18.12.407, and 18.12.416 for macOS. The issue has been assigned the CVE identifier CVE-2023-29059. The company said it's engaging the

OpenAI Reveals Redis Bug Behind ChatGPT User Data Exposure Incident

OpenAI on Friday disclosed that a bug in the Redis open source library was responsible for the exposure of other users' personal information and chat titles in the upstart's ChatGPT service earlier this week. The glitch, which came to light on March 20, 2023, enabled certain users to view brief descriptions of other users' conversations from the chat history sidebar, prompting the company to

Fake ChatGPT Chrome Browser Extension Caught Hijacking Facebook Accounts

Google has stepped in to remove a bogus Chrome browser extension from the official Web Store that masqueraded as OpenAI's ChatGPT service to harvest Facebook session cookies and hijack the accounts. The "ChatGPT For Google" extension, a trojanized version of a legitimate open source browser add-on, attracted over 9,000 installations since March 14, 2023, prior to its removal. It was originally

New Cyber Platform Lab 1 Decodes Dark Web Data to Uncover Hidden Supply Chain Breaches

2022 was the year when inflation hit world economies, except in one corner of the global marketplace – stolen data. Ransomware payments fell by over 40% in 2022 compared to 2021. More organisations chose not to pay ransom demands, according to findings by blockchain firm Chainalysis. Nonetheless, stolen data has value beyond a price tag, and in risky ways you may not expect. Evaluating stolen

Winter Vivern APT Group Targeting Indian, Lithuanian, Slovakian, and Vatican Officials

The advanced persistent threat known as Winter Vivern has been linked to campaigns targeting government officials in India, Lithuania, Slovakia, and the Vatican since 2021. The activity targeted Polish government agencies, the Ukraine Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Italy Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and individuals within the Indian government, SentinelOne said in a report shared with The

Authorities Shut Down ChipMixer Platform Tied to Crypto Laundering Scheme

A coalition of law enforcement agencies across Europe and the U.S. announced the takedown of ChipMixer, an unlicensed cryptocurrency mixer that began its operations in August 2017. "The ChipMixer software blocked the blockchain trail of the funds, making it attractive for cybercriminals looking to launder illegal proceeds from criminal activities such as drug trafficking, weapons trafficking,

Microsoft Warns of Large-Scale Use of Phishing Kits to Send Millions of Emails Daily

An open source adversary-in-the-middle (AiTM) phishing kit has found a number of takers in the cybercrime world for its ability to orchestrate attacks at scale. The Microsoft Threat Intelligence team is tracking the threat actor behind the development of the kit under its emerging moniker DEV-1101. An AiTM phishing attack typically involves a threat actor attempting to steal and intercept a

New Mirai Botnet Variant 'V3G4' Exploiting 13 Flaws to Target Linux and IoT Devices

A new variant of the notorious Mirai botnet has been found leveraging several security vulnerabilities to propagate itself to Linux and IoT devices. Observed during the second half of 2022, the new version has been dubbed V3G4 by Palo Alto Networks Unit 42, which identified three different campaigns likely conducted by the same threat actor. "Once the vulnerable devices are compromised, they

Researchers Hijack Popular NPM Package with Millions of Downloads

A popular npm package with more than 3.5 million weekly downloads has been found vulnerable to an account takeover attack. "The package can be taken over by recovering an expired domain name for one of its maintainers and resetting the password," software supply chain security company Illustria said in a report. While npm's security protections limit users to have only one active email address

Researchers Uncover Obfuscated Malicious Code in PyPI Python Packages

Four different rogue packages in the Python Package Index (PyPI) have been found to carry out a number of malicious actions, including dropping malware, deleting the netstat utility, and manipulating the SSH authorized_keys file. The packages in question are aptx, bingchilling2, httops, and tkint3rs, all of which were collectively downloaded about 450 times before they were taken down. While

CERT-UA Alerts Ukrainian State Authorities of Remcos Software-Fueled Cyber Attacks

The Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT-UA) has issued an alert warning of cyber attacks against state authorities in the country that deploy a legitimate remote access software named Remcos. The mass phishing campaign has been attributed to a threat actor it tracks as UAC-0050, with the agency describing the activity as likely motivated by espionage given the toolset employed. The

The Pivot: How MSPs Can Turn a Challenge Into a Once-in-a-Decade Opportunity

Cybersecurity is quickly becoming one of the most significant growth drivers for Managed Service Providers (MSPs). That's the main insight from a recent study from Lumu: in North America, more than 80% of MSPs cite cybersecurity as a primary growth driver of their business. Service providers have a huge opportunity to expand their business and win new customers by developing their cybersecurity

Auditing Kubernetes with Open Source SIEM and XDR

Container technology has gained traction among businesses due to the increased efficiency it provides. In this regard, organizations widely use Kubernetes for deploying, scaling, and managing containerized applications. Organizations should audit Kubernetes to ensure compliance with regulations, find anomalies, and identify security risks. The Wazuh open source platform plays a critical role in

ISC Releases Security Patches for New BIND DNS Software Vulnerabilities

The Internet Systems Consortium (ISC) has released patches to address multiple security vulnerabilities in the Berkeley Internet Name Domain (BIND) 9 Domain Name System (DNS) software suite that could lead to a denial-of-service (DoS) condition. "A remote attacker could exploit these vulnerabilities to potentially cause denial-of-service conditions and system failures," the U.S. Cybersecurity

Mailchimp Suffers Another Security Breach Compromising Some Customers' Information

Popular email marketing and newsletter service Mailchimp has disclosed yet another security breach that enabled threat actors to access an internal support and account admin tool to obtain information about 133 customers. "The unauthorized actor conducted a social engineering attack on Mailchimp employees and contractors, and obtained access to select Mailchimp accounts using employee

Unlock Your Potential: Get 9 Online Cyber Security Courses for Just $49.99

Are you looking to take your career in the information security industry to the next level? Look no further than the 2023 Certified Technology Professional Bundle! This unparalleled offer grants you lifetime access to nine comprehensive courses in information security, hacking, and cybersecurity at a remarkable price of just $49.99. Yes, you heard me right. Instead of paying the full price of

PyTorch Machine Learning Framework Compromised with Malicious Dependency

The maintainers of the PyTorch package have warned users who have installed the nightly builds of the library between December 25, 2022, and December 30, 2022, to uninstall and download the latest versions following a dependency confusion attack. "PyTorch-nightly Linux packages installed via pip during that time installed a dependency, torchtriton, which was compromised on the Python Package

BitKeep Confirms Cyber Attack, Loses Over $9 Million in Digital Currencies

Decentralized multi-chain crypto wallet BitKeep on Wednesday confirmed a cyber attack that allowed threat actors to distribute fraudulent versions of its Android app with the goal of stealing users' digital currencies. "With maliciously implanted code, the altered APK led to the leak of user's private keys and enabled the hacker to move funds," BitKeep CEO Kevin Como said, describing it as a "

W4SP Stealer Discovered in Multiple PyPI Packages Under Various Names

Threat actors have published yet another round of malicious packages to Python Package Index (PyPI) with the goal of delivering information-stealing malware on compromised developer machines. Interestingly, while the malware goes by a variety of names like ANGEL Stealer, Celestial Stealer, Fade Stealer, Leaf $tealer, PURE Stealer, Satan Stealer, and @skid Stealer, cybersecurity company Phylum

Researchers Discover Malicious PyPI Package Posing as SentinelOne SDK to Steal Data

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new malicious package on the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository that impersonates a software development kit (SDK) for SentinelOne, a major cybersecurity company, as part of a campaign dubbed SentinelSneak. The package, named SentinelOne and now taken down, is said to have been published between December 8 and 11, 2022, with nearly two dozen

Google Takes Gmail Security to the Next Level with Client-Side Encryption

Google on Friday announced that its client-side encryption for Gmail is in beta for Workspace and education customers as part of its efforts to secure emails sent using the web version of the platform. The development comes at a time when concerns about online privacy and data security are at an all-time high, making it a welcome change for users who value the protection of their personal data.

Trojanized Windows 10 Installer Used in Cyberattacks Against Ukrainian Government Entities

Government entities in Ukraine have been breached as part of a new campaign that leveraged trojanized versions of Windows 10 installer files to conduct post-exploitation activities. Mandiant, which discovered the "socially engineered supply chain" attack around mid-July 2022, said the malicious ISO files were distributed via Ukrainian- and Russian-language Torrent websites. It's tracking the

Serious Attacks Could Have Been Staged Through This Amazon ECR Public Gallery Vulnerability

A critical security flaw has been disclosed in Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR) Public Gallery that could have been potentially exploited to stage a multitude of attacks, according to cloud security firm Lightspin. "By exploiting this vulnerability, a malicious actor could delete all images in the Amazon ECR Public Gallery or update the image contents to inject malicious code," Gafnit

COVID-bit: New COVert Channel to Exfiltrate Data from Air-Gapped Computers

An unconventional data exfiltration method leverages a previously undocumented covert channel to leak sensitive information from air-gapped systems. "The information emanates from the air-gapped computer over the air to a distance of 2 m and more and can be picked up by a nearby insider or spy with a mobile phone or laptop," Dr. Mordechai Guri, the head of R&D in the Cyber Security Research

Researchers Disclose Supply-Chain Flaw Affecting IBM Cloud Databases for PostgreSQL

IBM has fixed a high-severity security vulnerability affecting its Cloud Databases (ICD) for PostgreSQL product that could be potentially exploited to tamper with internal repositories and run unauthorized code. The privilege escalation flaw (CVSS score: 8.8), dubbed "Hell's Keychain" by cloud security firm Wiz, has been described as a "first-of-its-kind supply-chain attack vector impacting a

Researchers 'Accidentally’ Crash KmsdBot Cryptocurrency Mining Botnet Network

An ongoing analysis into an up-and-coming cryptocurrency mining botnet known as KmsdBot has led to it being accidentally taken down. KmsdBot, as christened by the Akamai Security Intelligence Response Team (SIRT), came to light mid-November 2022 for its ability to brute-force systems with weak SSH credentials. The botnet strikes both Windows and Linux devices spanning a wide range of

Researchers Find a Way Malicious NPM Libraries Can Evade Vulnerability Detection

New findings from cybersecurity firm JFrog show that malware targeting the npm ecosystem can evade security checks by taking advantage of an "unexpected behavior" in the npm command line interface (CLI) tool. npm CLI's install and audit commands have built-in capabilities to check a package and all of its dependencies for known vulnerabilities, effectively acting as a warning mechanism for

The 5 Cornerstones for an Effective Cyber Security Awareness Training

It's not news that phishing attacks are getting more complex and happening more often. This year alone, APWG reported a record-breaking total of 1,097,811 phishing attacks. These attacks continue to target organizations and individuals to gain their sensitive information.  The hard news: they're often successful, have a long-lasting negative impact on your organization and employees, including:

Russia-based RansomBoggs Ransomware Targeted Several Ukrainian Organizations

Ukraine has come under a fresh onslaught of ransomware attacks that mirror previous intrusions attributed to the Russia-based Sandworm nation-state group. Slovak cybersecurity company ESET, which dubbed the new ransomware strain RansomBoggs, said the attacks against several Ukrainian entities were first detected on November 21, 2022. "While the malware written in .NET is new, its deployment is

Dell, HP, and Lenovo Devices Found Using Outdated OpenSSL Versions

An analysis of firmware images across devices from Dell, HP, and Lenovo has revealed the presence of outdated versions of the OpenSSL cryptographic library, underscoring a supply chain risk. EFI Development Kit, aka EDK, is an open source implementation of the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), which functions as an interface between the operating system and the firmware embedded in

Hackers Exploiting Abandoned Boa Web Servers to Target Critical Industries

Microsoft on Tuesday disclosed the intrusion activity aimed at Indian power grid entities earlier this year likely involved the exploitation of security flaws in a now-discontinued web server called Boa. The tech behemoth's cybersecurity division said the vulnerable component poses a "supply chain risk that may affect millions of organizations and devices." The findings build on a prior report 

Daixin Ransomware Gang Steals 5 Million AirAsia Passengers' and Employees' Data

The cybercrime group called Daixin Team has leaked sample data belonging to AirAsia, a Malaysian low-cost airline, on its data leak portal. The development comes a little over a week after the company fell victim to a ransomware attack on November 11 and 12, per DataBreaches.net. <!--adsense--> The threat actors allegedly claim to have obtained the personal data associated with five million

Google Wins Lawsuit Against Russians Linked to Blockchain-based Glupteba Botnet

Google has won a lawsuit filed against two Russian nationals in connection with the operation of a botnet called Glupteba, the company said last week. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York imposed monetary sanctions against the defendants and their U.S.-based legal counsel. The defendants have also been asked to pay Google's attorney fees. The defendants' move to press

New KmsdBot Malware Hijacking Systems for Mining Crypto and Launch DDoS Attacks

A newly discovered evasive malware leverages the Secure Shell (SSH) cryptographic protocol to gain entry into targeted systems with the goal of mining cryptocurrency and carrying out distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. Dubbed KmsdBot by the Akamai Security Intelligence Response Team (SIRT), the Golang-based malware has been found targeting a variety of companies ranging from gaming to

APT29 Exploited a Windows Feature to Compromise European Diplomatic Entity Network

The Russia-linked APT29 nation-state actor has been found leveraging a "lesser-known" Windows feature called Credential Roaming following a successful phishing attack against an unnamed European diplomatic entity. "The diplomatic-centric targeting is consistent with Russian strategic priorities as well as historic APT29 targeting," Mandiant researcher Thibault Van Geluwe de Berlaere said in a

Dropbox Breach: Hackers Unauthorizedly Accessed 130 GitHub Source Code Repositories

File hosting service Dropbox on Tuesday disclosed that it was the victim of a phishing campaign that allowed unidentified threat actors to gain unauthorized access to 130 of its source code repositories on GitHub. "These repositories included our own copies of third-party libraries slightly modified for use by Dropbox, internal prototypes, and some tools and configuration files used by the

GitHub Repojacking Bug Could've Allowed Attackers to Takeover Other Users' Repositories

Cloud-based repository hosting service GitHub has addressed a high-severity security flaw that could have been exploited to create malicious repositories and mount supply chain attacks. The RepoJacking technique, disclosed by Checkmarx, entails a bypass of a protection mechanism called popular repository namespace retirement, which aims to prevent developers from pulling unsafe repositories with