Malicious PyPI Packages Using Compiled Python Code to Bypass Detection

Researchers have discovered a novel attack on the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository that employs compiled Python code to sidestep detection by application security tools. "It may be the first supply chain attack to take advantage of the fact that Python bytecode (PYC) files can be directly executed," ReversingLabs analyst Karlo Zanki said in a report shared with The Hacker News. The package

How Wazuh Improves IT Hygiene for Cyber Security Resilience

IT hygiene is a security best practice that ensures that digital assets in an organization's environment are secure and running properly. Good IT hygiene includes vulnerability management, security configuration assessments, maintaining asset and system inventories, and comprehensive visibility into the activities occurring in an environment. As technology advances and the tools used by

N. Korean ScarCruft Hackers Exploit LNK Files to Spread RokRAT

Cybersecurity researchers have offered a closer look at the RokRAT remote access trojan that's employed by the North Korean state-sponsored actor known as ScarCruft. "RokRAT is a sophisticated remote access trojan (RAT) that has been observed as a critical component within the attack chain, enabling the threat actors to gain unauthorized access, exfiltrate sensitive information, and potentially

Active Mirai Botnet Variant Exploiting Zyxel Devices for DDoS Attacks

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has added a recently patched critical security flaw in Zyxel gear to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, citing evidence of active exploitation. Tracked as CVE-2023-28771 (CVSS score: 9.8), the issue relates to a command injection flaw impacting different firewall models that could enable an unauthenticated attacker

Critical Firmware Vulnerability in Gigabyte Systems Exposes ~7 Million Devices

Cybersecurity researchers have found "backdoor-like behavior" within Gigabyte systems, which they say enables the UEFI firmware of the devices to drop a Windows executable and retrieve updates in an unsecure format. Firmware security firm Eclypsium said it first detected the anomaly in April 2023. Gigabyte has since acknowledged and addressed the issue. "Most Gigabyte firmware includes a Windows

Beware of Ghost Sites: Silent Threat Lurking in Your Salesforce Communities

Improperly deactivated and abandoned Salesforce Sites and Communities (aka Experience Cloud) could pose severe risks to organizations, leading to unauthorized access to sensitive data. Data security firm Varonis dubbed the abandoned, unprotected, and unmonitored resources “ghost sites.” “When these Communities are no longer needed, though, they are often set aside but not deactivated,” Varonis

Microsoft Details Critical Apple macOS Vulnerability Allowing SIP Protection Bypass

Microsoft has shared details of a now-patched flaw in Apple macOS that could be abused by threat actors with root access to bypass security enforcements and perform arbitrary actions on affected devices. Specifically, the flaw – dubbed Migraine and tracked as CVE-2023-32369 – could be abused to get around a key security measure called System Integrity Protection (SIP), or “rootless,” which

6 Steps to Effectively Threat Hunting: Safeguard Critical Assets and Fight Cybercrime

Finding threat actors before they find you is key to beefing up your cyber defenses. How to do that efficiently and effectively is no small task – but with a small investment of time, you can master threat hunting and save your organization millions of dollars. Consider this staggering statistic. Cybersecurity Ventures estimates that cybercrime will take a $10.5 trillion toll on the global

RomCom RAT Using Deceptive Web of Rogue Software Sites for Covert Attacks

The threat actors behind RomCom RAT are leveraging a network of fake websites advertising rogue versions of popular software at least since July 2022 to infiltrate targets. Cybersecurity firm Trend Micro is tracking the activity cluster under the name Void Rabisu, which is also known as Tropical Scorpius (Unit 42) and UNC2596 (Mandiant). "These lure sites are most likely only meant for a small

Alert: Hackers Exploit Barracuda Email Security Gateway 0-Day Flaw for 7 Months

Enterprise security firm Barracuda on Tuesday disclosed that a recently patched zero-day flaw in its Email Security Gateway (ESG) appliances had been abused by threat actors since October 2022 to backdoor the devices. The latest findings show that the critical vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023-2868 (CVSS score: N/A), has been actively exploited for at least seven months prior to its discovery.

CAPTCHA-Breaking Services with Human Solvers Helping Cybercriminals Defeat Security

Cybersecurity researchers are warning about CAPTCHA-breaking services that are being offered for sale to bypass systems designed to distinguish legitimate users from bot traffic. "Because cybercriminals are keen on breaking CAPTCHAs accurately, several services that are primarily geared toward this market demand have been created," Trend Micro said in a report published last week. "These

Implementing Risk-Based Vulnerability Discovery and Remediation

In this day and age, vulnerabilities in software and systems pose a considerable danger to businesses, which is why it is essential to have an efficient vulnerability management program in place. To stay one step ahead of possible breaches and reduce the damage they may cause, it is crucial to automate the process of finding and fixing vulnerabilities depending on the level of danger they pose.

New BrutePrint Attack Lets Attackers Unlock Smartphones with Fingerprint Brute-Force

Researchers have discovered an inexpensive attack technique that could be leveraged to brute-force fingerprints on smartphones to bypass user authentication and seize control of the devices. The approach, dubbed BrutePrint, bypasses limits put in place to counter failed biometric authentication attempts by weaponizing two zero-day vulnerabilities in the smartphone fingerprint authentication (SFA

3 Challenges in Building a Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) Program and How to Beat Them

If you're a cybersecurity professional, you're likely familiar with the sea of acronyms our industry is obsessed with. From CNAPP, to CWPP, to CIEM and all of the myriad others, there seems to be a new initialism born each day. In this article, we'll look at another trending acronym – CTEM, which stands for Continuous Threat Exposure Management – and the often-surprising challenges that come

New GobRAT Remote Access Trojan Targeting Linux Routers in Japan

Linux routers in Japan are the target of a new Golang remote access trojan (RAT) called GobRAT. "Initially, the attacker targets a router whose WEBUI is open to the public, executes scripts possibly by using vulnerabilities, and finally infects the GobRAT," the JPCERT Coordination Center (JPCERT/CC) said in a report published today. The compromise of an internet-exposed router is followed by the

Don't Click That ZIP File! Phishers Weaponizing .ZIP Domains to Trick Victims

A new phishing technique called "file archiver in the browser" can be leveraged to "emulate" a file archiver software in a web browser when a victim visits a .ZIP domain. "With this phishing attack, you simulate a file archiver software (e.g., WinRAR) in the browser and use a .zip domain to make it appear more legitimate," security researcher mr.d0x disclosed last week. Threat actors, in a

Critical OAuth Vulnerability in Expo Framework Allows Account Hijacking

A critical security vulnerability has been disclosed in the Open Authorization (OAuth) implementation of the application development framework Expo.io. The shortcoming, assigned the CVE identifier CVE-2023-28131, has a severity rating of 9.6 on the CVSS scoring system. API security firm Salt Labs said the issue rendered services using the framework susceptible to credential leakage, which could

5 Must-Know Facts about 5G Network Security and Its Cloud Benefits

5G is a game changer for mobile connectivity, including mobile connectivity to the cloud. The technology provides high speed and low latency when connecting smartphones and IoT devices to cloud infrastructure. 5G networks are a critical part of all infrastructure layers between the end user and the end service; these networks transmit sensitive data that can be vital for governments and

New COSMICENERGY Malware Exploits ICS Protocol to Sabotage Power Grids

A new strain of malicious software that's engineered to penetrate and disrupt critical systems in industrial environments has been unearthed. Google-owned threat intelligence firm Mandiant dubbed the malware COSMICENERGY, adding it was uploaded to the VirusTotal public malware scanning utility in December 2021 by a submitter in Russia. There is no evidence that it has been put to use in the wild

Barracuda Warns of Zero-Day Exploited to Breach Email Security Gateway Appliances

Email protection and network security services provider Barracuda is warning users about a zero-day flaw that it said has been exploited to breach the company's Email Security Gateway (ESG) appliances. The zero-day is being tracked as CVE-2023-2868 and has been described as a remote code injection vulnerability affecting versions 5.1.3.001 through 9.2.0.006. The California-headquartered firm 

Zyxel Issues Critical Security Patches for Firewall and VPN Products

Zyxel has released software updates to address two critical security flaws affecting select firewall and VPN products that could be abused by remote attackers to achieve code execution. Both the flaws – CVE-2023-33009 and CVE-2023-33010 – are buffer overflow vulnerabilities and are rated 9.8 out of 10 on the CVSS scoring system. A brief description of the two issues is below - CVE-2023-33009 -

Webinar with Guest Forrester: Browser Security New Approaches

In today's digital landscape, browser security has become an increasingly pressing issue, making it essential for organizations to be aware of the latest threats to browser security. That's why the Browser Security platform LayerX is hosting a webinar featuring guest speaker Paddy Harrington, a senior analyst at Forrester and the lead author of Forrester's browser security report "Securing The

Buhti Ransomware Gang Switches Tactics, Utilizes Leaked LockBit and Babuk Code

The threat actors behind the nascent Buhti ransomware have eschewed their custom payload in favor of leaked LockBit and Babuk ransomware families to strike Windows and Linux systems. "While the group doesn't develop its own ransomware, it does utilize what appears to be one custom-developed tool, an information stealer designed to search for and archive specified file types," Symantec said in a

China's Stealthy Hackers Infiltrate U.S. and Guam Critical Infrastructure Undetected

A stealthy China-based group managed to establish a persistent foothold into critical infrastructure organizations in the U.S. and Guam without being detected, Microsoft and the "Five Eyes" nations said on Wednesday. The tech giant's threat intelligence team is tracking the activity, which includes post-compromise credential access and network system discovery, under the name Volt Typhoon. The

GUAC 0.1 Beta: Google's Breakthrough Framework for Secure Software Supply Chains

Google on Wednesday announced the 0.1 Beta version of GUAC (short for Graph for Understanding Artifact Composition) for organizations to secure their software supply chains. To that end, the search giant is making available the open source framework as an API for developers to integrate their own tools and policy engines. GUAC aims to aggregate software security metadata from different sources

What to Look for When Selecting a Static Application Security Testing (SAST) Solution

If you're involved in securing the applications your organization develops, there is no question that Static Application Security Testing (SAST) solutions are an important part of a comprehensive application security strategy. SAST secures software, supports business more securely, cuts down on costs, reduces risk, and speeds time to development, delivery, and deployment of mission-critical

The Rising Threat of Secrets Sprawl and the Need for Action

The most precious asset in today's information age is the secret safeguarded under lock and key. Regrettably, maintaining secrets has become increasingly challenging, as highlighted by the 2023 State of Secrets Sprawl report, the largest analysis of public GitHub activity.  The report shows a 67% year-over-year increase in the number of secrets found, with 10 million hard-coded secrets detected

New WinTapix.sys Malware Engages in Multi-Stage Attack Across Middle East

An unknown threat actor has been observed leveraging a malicious Windows kernel driver in attacks likely targeting the Middle East since at least May 2020. Fortinet Fortiguard Labs, which dubbed the artifact WINTAPIX (WinTapix.sys), attributed the malware with low confidence to an Iranian threat actor. "WinTapix.sys is essentially a loader," security researchers Geri Revay and Hossein Jazi said

China Bans U.S. Chip Giant Micron, Citing "Serious Cybersecurity Problems"

China has banned U.S. chip maker Micron from selling its products to Chinese companies working on key infrastructure projects, citing national security risks. The development comes nearly two months after the country's cybersecurity authority initiated a probe in late March 2023 to assess potential network security risks. "The purpose of this network security review of Micron's products is to

E.U. Regulators Hit Meta with Record $1.3 Billion Fine for Data Transfer Violations

Facebook's parent company Meta has been fined a record $1.3 billion by European Union data protection regulators for transferring the personal data of users in the region to the U.S. In a binding decision taken by the European Data Protection Board (EDPB), the social media giant has been ordered to bring its data transfers into compliance with the GDPR and delete unlawfully stored and processed

Indonesian Cybercriminals Exploit AWS for Profitable Crypto Mining Operations

A financially motivated threat actor of Indonesian origin has been observed leveraging Amazon Web Services (AWS) Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instances to carry out illicit crypto mining operations. Cloud security company's Permiso P0 Labs, which first detected the group in November 2021, has assigned it the moniker GUI-vil (pronounced Goo-ee-vil). "The group displays a preference for Graphical

Are Your APIs Leaking Sensitive Data?

It's no secret that data leaks have become a major concern for both citizens and institutions across the globe. They can cause serious damage to an organization's reputation, induce considerable financial losses, and even have serious legal repercussions. From the infamous Cambridge Analytica scandal to the Equifax data breach, there have been some pretty high-profile leaks resulting in massive

KeePass Exploit Allows Attackers to Recover Master Passwords from Memory

A proof-of-concept (PoC) has been made available for a security flaw impacting the KeePass password manager that could be exploited to recover a victim's master password in cleartext under specific circumstances. The issue, tracked as CVE-2023-32784, impacts KeePass versions 2.x for Windows, Linux, and macOS, and is expected to be patched in version 2.54, which is likely to be released early

Warning: Samsung Devices Under Attack! New Security Flaw Exposed

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has warned of active exploitation of a medium-severity flaw affecting Samsung devices. The issue, tracked as CVE-2023-21492 (CVSS score: 4.4), impacts select Samsung devices running Android versions 11, 12, and 13. The South Korean electronics giant described the issue as an information disclosure flaw that could be exploited by a

Privacy Sandbox Initiative: Google to Phase Out Third-Party Cookies Starting 2024

Google has announced plans to officially flip the switch on its twice-delayed Privacy Sandbox initiatives as it slowly works its way to deprecate support for third-party cookies in Chrome browser. To that end, the search and advertising giant said it intends to phase out third-party cookies for 1% of Chrome users globally in the first quarter of 2024. "This will support developers in conducting

WebKit Under Attack: Apple Issues Emergency Patches for 3 New Zero-Day Vulnerabilities

Apple on Thursday rolled out security updates to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, watchOS, and the Safari web browser to address dozens of flaws, including three new zero-days that it said are being actively exploited in the wild. The three security shortcomings are listed below - CVE-2023-32409 - A WebKit flaw that could be exploited by a malicious actor to break out of the Web Content sandbox. It

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,"

Zero Trust + Deception: Join This Webinar to Learn How to Outsmart Attackers!

Cybersecurity is constantly evolving, but complexity can give hostile actors an advantage. To stay ahead of current and future attacks, it's essential to simplify and reframe your defenses. Zscaler Deception is a state-of-the-art next-generation deception technology seamlessly integrated with the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange. It creates a hostile environment for attackers and enables you to track

Darknet Carding Kingpin Pleads Guilty: Sold Financial Info of Tens of Thousands

A U.S. national has pleaded guilty in a Missouri court to operating a darknet carding site and selling financial information belonging to tens of thousands of victims in the country. Michael D. Mihalo, aka Dale Michael Mihalo Jr. and ggmccloud1, has been accused of setting up a carding site called Skynet Market that specialized in the trafficking of credit and debit card data. Mihalo and his

Apple Thwarts $2 Billion in App Store Fraud, Rejects 1.7 Million App Submissions

Apple has announced that it prevented over $2 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions and rejected roughly 1.7 million app submissions for privacy and security violations in 2022. The computing giant said it terminated 428,000 developer accounts for potential fraudulent activity, blocked 105,000 fake developer account creations, and deactivated 282 million bogus customer accounts. It

Critical Flaws in Cisco Small Business Switches Could Allow Remote Attacks

Cisco has released updates to address a set of nine security flaws in its Small Business Series Switches that could be exploited by an unauthenticated, remote attacker to run arbitrary code or cause a denial-of-service (DoS) condition. "These vulnerabilities are due to improper validation of requests that are sent to the web interface," Cisco said, crediting an unnamed external researcher for

OilAlpha: Emerging Houthi-linked Cyber Threat Targets Arabian Android Users

A hacking group dubbed OilAlpha with suspected ties to Yemen's Houthi movement has been linked to a cyber espionage campaign targeting development, humanitarian, media, and non-governmental organizations in the Arabian peninsula. "OilAlpha used encrypted chat messengers like WhatsApp to launch social engineering attacks against its targets," cybersecurity company Recorded Future said in a

Identifying a Patch Management Solution: Overview of Key Criteria

Software is rarely a one-and-done proposition. In fact, any application available today will likely need to be updated – or patched – to fix bugs, address vulnerabilities, and update key features at multiple points in the future. With the typical enterprise relying on a multitude of applications, servers, and end-point devices in their day-to-day operations, the acquisition of a robust patch

Serious Unpatched Vulnerability Uncovered in Popular Belkin Wemo Smart Plugs

The second generation version of Belkin's Wemo Mini Smart Plug has been found to contain a buffer overflow vulnerability that could be weaponized by a threat actor to inject arbitrary commands remotely. The issue, assigned the identifier CVE-2023-27217, was discovered and reported to Belkin on January 9, 2023, by Israeli IoT security company Sternum, which reverse-engineered the device and

State-Sponsored Sidewinder Hacker Group's Covert Attack Infrastructure Uncovered

Cybersecurity researchers have unearthed previously undocumented attack infrastructure used by the prolific state-sponsored group SideWinder to strike entities located in Pakistan and China. This comprises a network of 55 domains and IP addresses used by the threat actor, cybersecurity companies Group-IB and Bridewell said in a joint report shared with The Hacker News. "The identified phishing

Cyolo Product Overview: Secure Remote Access to All Environments

Operational technology (OT) cybersecurity is a challenging but critical aspect of protecting organizations' essential systems and resources. Cybercriminals no longer break into systems, but instead log in – making access security more complex and also more important to manage and control than ever before. In an effort to solve the access-related challenges facing OT and critical infrastructure

CopperStealer Malware Crew Resurfaces with New Rootkit and Phishing Kit Modules

The threat actors behind the CopperStealer malware resurfaced with two new campaigns in March and April 2023 that are designed to deliver two novel payloads dubbed CopperStealth and CopperPhish. Trend Micro is tracking the financially motivated group under the name Water Orthrus. The adversary is also assessed to be behind another campaign known as Scranos, which was detailed by Bitdefender in

Industrial Cellular Routers at Risk: 11 New Vulnerabilities Expose OT Networks

Several security vulnerabilities have been disclosed in cloud management platforms associated with three industrial cellular router vendors that could expose operational technology (OT) networks to external attacks. The findings were presented by Israeli industrial cybersecurity firm OTORIO at the Black Hat Asia 2023 conference last week. "Industrial cellular routers and gateways are essential

Former Ubiquiti Employee Gets 6 Years in Jail for $2 Million Crypto Extortion Case

A former employee of Ubiquiti has been sentenced to six years in jail after he pleaded guilty to posing as an anonymous hacker and a whistleblower in an attempt to extort almost $2 million worth of cryptocurrency while working at the company. Nickolas Sharp, 37, was arrested in December 2021 for using his insider access as a senior developer to steal confidential data and sending an anonymous

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

XWorm Malware Exploits Follina Vulnerability in New Wave of Attacks

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered an ongoing phishing campaign that makes use of a unique attack chain to deliver the XWorm malware on targeted systems. Securonix, which is tracking the activity cluster under the name MEME#4CHAN, said some of the attacks have primarily targeted manufacturing firms and healthcare clinics located in Germany. "The attack campaign has been leveraging rather

Solving Your Teams Secure Collaboration Challenges

In today's interconnected world, where organisations regularly exchange sensitive information with customers, partners and employees, secure collaboration has become increasingly vital. However, collaboration can pose a security risk if not managed properly. To ensure that collaboration remains secure, organisations need to take steps to protect their data. Since collaborating is essential for

Bl00dy Ransomware Gang Strikes Education Sector with Critical PaperCut Vulnerability

U.S. cybersecurity and intelligence agencies have warned of attacks carried out by a threat actor known as the Bl00dy Ransomware Gang that attempt to exploit vulnerable PaperCut servers against the education facilities sector in the country. The attacks took place in early May 2023, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said in a

New Flaw in WordPress Plugin Used by Over a Million Sites Under Active Exploitation

A security vulnerability has been disclosed in the popular WordPress plugin Essential Addons for Elementor that could be potentially exploited to achieve elevated privileges on affected sites. The issue, tracked as CVE-2023-32243, has been addressed by the plugin maintainers in version 5.7.2 that was shipped on May 11, 2023. Essential Addons for Elementor has over one million active

Twitter Finally Rolling Out Encrypted Direct Messages — Starting with Verified Users

Twitter is officially beginning to roll out support for encrypted direct messages (DMs) on the platform, more than five months after its chief executive Elon Musk confirmed plans for the feature in November 2022. The "Phase 1" of the initiative will appear as separate conversations alongside existing direct messages on users' inboxes. Encrypted chats carry a lock icon badge to visually

GitHub Extends Push Protection to Prevent Accidental Leaks of Keys and Other Secrets

GitHub has announced the general availability of a new security feature called push protection, which aims to prevent developers from inadvertently leaking keys and other secrets in their code. The Microsoft-owned cloud-based repository hosting platform, which began testing the feature a year ago, said it's also extending push protection to all public repositories at no extra cost. The

Experts Detail New Zero-Click Windows Vulnerability for NTLM Credential Theft

Cybersecurity researchers have shared details about a now-patched security flaw in Windows MSHTML platform that could be abused to bypass integrity protections on targeted machines. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023-29324 (CVSS score: 6.5), has been described as a security feature bypass. It was addressed by Microsoft as part of its Patch Tuesday updates for May 2023. Akamai security

Sophisticated DownEx Malware Campaign Targeting Central Asian Governments

Government organizations in Central Asia are the target of a sophisticated espionage campaign that leverages a previously undocumented strain of malware dubbed DownEx. Bitdefender, in a report shared with The Hacker News, said the activity remains active, with evidence likely pointing to the involvement of Russia-based threat actors. The Romanian cybersecurity firm said it first detected the

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

Mastermind Behind Twitter 2020 Hack Pleads Guilty and Faces up to 70 Years in Prison

A U.K. national has pleaded guilty in the U.S. in connection with the July 2020 Twitter attack affecting numerous high-profile accounts and defrauding other users of the platform. Joseph James O'Connor, who also went by the online alias PlugwalkJoe, admitted to "his role in cyberstalking and multiple schemes that involve computer hacking, including the July 2020 hack of Twitter," the U.S.