Go Beyond the Headlines for Deeper Dives into the Cybercriminal Underground

Discover stories about threat actors’ latest tactics, techniques, and procedures from Cybersixgill’s threat experts each month. Each story brings you details on emerging underground threats, the threat actors involved, and how you can take action to mitigate risks. Learn about the top vulnerabilities and review the latest ransomware and malware trends from the deep and dark web. Stolen ChatGPT

Cybercriminals Exploiting WooCommerce Payments Plugin Flaw to Hijack Websites

Threat actors are actively exploiting a recently disclosed critical security flaw in the WooCommerce Payments WordPress plugin as part of a massive targeted campaign. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2023-28121 (CVSS score: 9.8), is a case of authentication bypass that enables unauthenticated attackers to impersonate arbitrary users and perform some actions as the impersonated user, including an

Malicious USB Drives Targetinging Global Targets with SOGU and SNOWYDRIVE Malware

Cyber attacks using infected USB infection drives as an initial access vector have witnessed a three-fold increase in the first half of 2023,  That's according to new findings from Mandiant, which detailed two such campaigns – SOGU and SNOWYDRIVE – targeting both public and private sector entities across the world. SOGU is the "most prevalent USB-based cyber espionage attack using USB flash

Critical Security Flaws Uncovered in Honeywell Experion DCS and QuickBlox Services

Multiple security vulnerabilities have been discovered in various services, including Honeywell Experion distributed control system (DCS) and QuickBlox, that, if successfully exploited, could result in severe compromise of affected systems. Dubbed Crit.IX, the nine flaws in the Honeywell Experion DCS platform allow for "unauthorized remote code execution, which means an attacker would have the

Defend Against Insider Threats: Join this Webinar on SaaS Security Posture Management

As security practices continue to evolve, one primary concern persists in the minds of security professionals—the risk of employees unintentionally or deliberately exposing vital information. Insider threats, whether originating from deliberate actions or accidental incidents, pose a significant challenge to safeguarding sensitive data. To effectively address insider risks, organizations must

New SOHO Router Botnet AVrecon Spreads to 70,000 Devices Across 20 Countries

A new malware strain has been found covertly targeting small office/home office (SOHO) routers for more than two years, infiltrating over 70,000 devices and creating a botnet with 40,000 nodes spanning 20 countries. Lumen Black Lotus Labs has dubbed the malware AVrecon, making it the third such strain to focus on SOHO routers after ZuoRAT and HiatusRAT over the past year. "This makes AVrecon one

Zimbra Warns of Critical Zero-Day Flaw in Email Software Amid Active Exploitation

Zimbra has warned of a critical zero-day security flaw in its email software that has come under active exploitation in the wild. "A security vulnerability in Zimbra Collaboration Suite Version 8.8.15 that could potentially impact the confidentiality and integrity of your data has surfaced," the company said in an advisory. It also said that the issue has been addressed and that it's expected to

TeamTNT's Silentbob Botnet Infecting 196 Hosts in Cloud Attack Campaign

As many as 196 hosts have been infected as part of an aggressive cloud campaign mounted by the TeamTNT group called Silentbob. "The botnet run by TeamTNT has set its sights on Docker and Kubernetes environments, Redis servers, Postgres databases, Hadoop clusters, Tomcat and Nginx servers, Weave Scope, SSH, and Jupyter applications," Aqua security researchers Ofek Itach and Assaf Morag said in a

Fake PoC for Linux Kernel Vulnerability on GitHub Exposes Researchers to Malware

In a sign that cybersecurity researchers continue to be under the radar of malicious actors, a proof-of-concept (PoC) has been discovered on GitHub, concealing a backdoor with a "crafty" persistence method. "In this instance, the PoC is a wolf in sheep's clothing, harboring malicious intent under the guise of a harmless learning tool," Uptycs researchers Nischay Hegde and Siddartha Malladi said.

Rockwell Automation ControlLogix Bugs Expose Industrial Systems to Remote Attacks

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has alerted of two security flaws impacting Rockwell Automation ControlLogix EtherNet/IP (ENIP) communication module models that could be exploited to achieve remote code execution and denial-of-service (DoS). "The results and impact of exploiting these vulnerabilities vary depending on the ControlLogix system configuration, but

New Vulnerabilities Disclosed in SonicWall and Fortinet Network Security Products

SonicWall on Wednesday urged customers of Global Management System (GMS) firewall management and Analytics network reporting engine software to apply the latest fixes to secure against a set of 15 security flaws that could be exploited by a threat actor to circumvent authentication and access sensitive information. Of the 15 shortcomings (tracked from CVE-2023-34123 through CVE-2023-34137), four

The Risks and Preventions of AI in Business: Safeguarding Against Potential Pitfalls

Artificial intelligence (AI) holds immense potential for optimizing internal processes within businesses. However, it also comes with legitimate concerns regarding unauthorized use, including data loss risks and legal consequences. In this article, we will explore the risks associated with AI implementation and discuss measures to minimize damages. Additionally, we will examine regulatory

Chinese Hackers Deploy Microsoft-Signed Rootkit to Target Gaming Sector

Cybersecurity researchers have unearthed a novel rootkit signed by Microsoft that's engineered to communicate with an actor-controlled attack infrastructure. Trend Micro has attributed the activity cluster to the same actor that was previously identified as behind the FiveSys rootkit, which came to light in October 2021. "This malicious actor originates from China and their main victims are the

Python-Based PyLoose Fileless Attack Targets Cloud Workloads for Cryptocurrency Mining

A new fileless attack dubbed PyLoose has been observed striking cloud workloads with the goal of delivering a cryptocurrency miner, new findings from Wiz reveal. "The attack consists of Python code that loads an XMRig Miner directly into memory using memfd, a known Linux fileless technique," security researchers Avigayil Mechtinger, Oren Ofer, and Itamar Gilad said. "This is the first publicly

Microsoft Releases Patches for 132 Vulnerabilities, Including 6 Under Active Attack

Microsoft on Tuesday released updates to address a total of 132 new security flaws spanning its software, including six zero-day flaws that it said have been actively exploited in the wild. Of the 132 vulnerabilities, nine are rated Critical, 122 are rated Important in severity, and one has been assigned a severity rating of "None." This is in addition to eight flaws the tech giant patched in

Hackers Exploit Windows Policy Loophole to Forge Kernel-Mode Driver Signatures

A Microsoft Windows policy loophole has been observed being exploited primarily by native Chinese-speaking threat actors to forge signatures on kernel-mode drivers. "Actors are leveraging multiple open-source tools that alter the signing date of kernel mode drivers to load malicious and unverified drivers signed with expired certificates," Cisco Talos said in an exhaustive two-part report shared

How to Apply MITRE ATT&CK to Your Organization

Discover all the ways MITRE ATT&CK can help you defend your organization. Build your security strategy and policies by making the most of this important framework. What is the MITRE ATT&CK Framework? MITRE ATT&CK (Adversarial Tactics, Techniques, and Common Knowledge) is a widely adopted framework and knowledge base that outlines and categorizes the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs)

SCARLETEEL Cryptojacking Campaign Exploiting AWS Fargate in Ongoing Campaign

Cloud environments continue to be at the receiving end of an ongoing advanced attack campaign dubbed SCARLETEEL, with the threat actors now setting their sights on Amazon Web Services (AWS) Fargate. "Cloud environments are still their primary target, but the tools and techniques used have adapted to bypass new security measures, along with a more resilient and stealthy command and control

New Mozilla Feature Blocks Risky Add-Ons on Specific Websites to Safeguard User Security

Mozilla has announced that some add-ons may be blocked from running on certain sites as part of a new feature called Quarantined Domains. "We have introduced a new back-end feature to only allow some extensions monitored by Mozilla to run on specific websites for various reasons, including security concerns," the company said in its Release Notes for Firefox 115.0 shipped last week. The company

Global Retailers Must Keep an Eye on Their SaaS Stack

Brick-and-mortar retailers and e-commerce sellers may be locked in a fierce battle for market share, but one area both can agree on is the need to secure their SaaS stack. From communications tools to order management and fulfillment systems, much of today's critical retail software lives in SaaS apps in the cloud. Securing those applications is crucial to ongoing operations, chain management,

Two Spyware Apps on Google Play with 1.5 Million Users Sending Data to China

Two file management apps on the Google Play Store have been discovered to be spyware, putting the privacy and security of up to 1.5 million Android users at risk. These apps engage in deceptive behaviour and secretly send sensitive user data to malicious servers in China. Pradeo, a leading mobile security company, has uncovered this alarming infiltration. The report shows that both spyware apps,

JumpCloud Resets API Keys Amid Ongoing Cybersecurity Incident

JumpCloud, a provider of cloud-based identity and access management solutions, has swiftly reacted to an ongoing cybersecurity incident that impacted some of its clients. As part of its damage control efforts, JumpCloud has reset the application programming interface (API) keys of all customers affected by this event, aiming to protect their valuable data. The company has informed the concerned

Cybersecurity Agencies Sound Alarm on Rising TrueBot Malware Attacks

Cybersecurity agencies have warned about the emergence of new variants of the TrueBot malware. This enhanced threat is now targeting companies in the U.S. and Canada with the intention of extracting confidential data from infiltrated systems. These sophisticated attacks exploit a critical vulnerability (CVE-2022-31199) in the widely used Netwrix Auditor server and its associated agents. This

Iranian Hackers' Sophisticated Malware Targets Windows and macOS Users

The Iranian nation-state actor known as TA453 has been linked to a new set of spear-phishing attacks that infect both Windows and macOS operating systems with malware. "TA453 eventually used a variety of cloud hosting providers to deliver a novel infection chain that deploys the newly identified PowerShell backdoor GorjolEcho," Proofpoint said in a new report. "When given the opportunity, TA453

Surviving the 800 Gbps Storm: Gain Insights from Gcore's 2023 DDoS Attack Statistics

Gcore Radar is a quarterly report prepared by Gcore that provides insights into the current state of the DDoS protection market and cybersecurity trends. This report offers you an understanding of the evolving threat landscape and highlights the measures required to protect against attacks effectively. It serves as an insight for businesses and individuals seeking to stay informed about the

Researchers Uncover New Linux Kernel 'StackRot' Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

Details have emerged about a newly identified security flaw in the Linux kernel that could allow a user to gain elevated privileges on a target host. Dubbed StackRot (CVE-2023-3269, CVSS score: 7.8), the flaw impacts Linux versions 6.1 through 6.4. There is no evidence that the shortcoming has been exploited in the wild to date. "As StackRot is a Linux kernel vulnerability found in the memory

How Pen Testing can Soften the Blow on Rising Costs of Cyber Insurance

As technology advances and organizations become more reliant on data, the risks associated with data breaches and cyber-attacks also increase. The introduction of data privacy laws, such as the GDPR, has made it mandatory for organizations to disclose breaches of personal data to those affected. As such, it has become essential for businesses to protect themselves from the financial and

Alert: 330,000 FortiGate Firewalls Still Unpatched to CVE-2023-27997 RCE Flaw

No less than 330,000 FortiGate firewalls are still unpatched and vulnerable to CVE-2023-27997, a critical security flaw affecting Fortinet devices that has come under active exploitation in the wild. Cybersecurity firm Bishop Fox, in a report published last week, said that out of nearly 490,000 Fortinet SSL-VPN interfaces exposed on the internet, about 69 percent remain unpatched. CVE-2023-27997

Improve Your Security WordPress Spam Protection With CleanTalk Anti-Spam

Every website owner or webmaster grapples with the issue of spam on their website forms. The volume of spam can be so overwhelming that finding useful information within it becomes quite challenging. What exacerbates this issue is that spam can populate your public pages, appearing in comments and reviews. You likely understand how this can damage your website's reputation, affect search results

Hackers Exploiting Unpatched WordPress Plugin Flaw to Create Secret Admin Accounts

As many as 200,000 WordPress websites are at risk of ongoing attacks exploiting a critical unpatched security vulnerability in the Ultimate Member plugin. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2023-3460 (CVSS score: 9.8), impacts all versions of the Ultimate Member plugin, including the latest version (2.6.6) that was released on June 29, 2023. Ultimate Member is a popular plugin that facilitates the

Beware: New 'RustBucket' Malware Variant Targeting macOS Users

Researchers have pulled back the curtain on an updated version of an Apple macOS malware called RustBucket that comes with improved capabilities to establish persistence and avoid detection by security software. "This variant of RustBucket, a malware family that targets macOS systems, adds persistence capabilities not previously observed," Elastic Security Labs researchers said in a report

3 Reasons SaaS Security is the Imperative First Step to Ensuring Secure AI Usage

In today's fast-paced digital landscape, the widespread adoption of AI (Artificial Intelligence) tools is transforming the way organizations operate. From chatbots to generative AI models, these SaaS-based applications offer numerous benefits, from enhanced productivity to improved decision-making. Employees using AI tools experience the advantages of quick answers and accurate results, enabling

MITRE Unveils Top 25 Most Dangerous Software Weaknesses of 2023: Are You at Risk?

MITRE has released its annual list of the Top 25 "most dangerous software weaknesses" for the year 2023. "These weaknesses lead to serious vulnerabilities in software," the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said. "An attacker can often exploit these vulnerabilities to take control of an affected system, steal data, or prevent applications from working." The list is

North Korean Hacker Group Andariel Strikes with New EarlyRat Malware

The North Korea-aligned threat actor known as Andariel leveraged a previously undocumented malware called EarlyRat in phishing attacks, adding another piece to the group's wide-ranging toolset. "Andariel infects machines by executing a Log4j exploit, which, in turn, downloads further malware from the command-and-control (C2) server," Kaspersky said in a new report. Also called Silent Chollima

Android Spy App LetMeSpy Suffers Major Data Breach, Exposing Users' Personal Data

Android-based phone monitoring app LetMeSpy has disclosed a security breach that allowed an unauthorized third-party to steal sensitive data associated with thousands of Android users. "As a result of the attack, the criminals gained access to email addresses, telephone numbers and the content of messages collected on accounts," LetMeSpy said in an announcement on its website, noting the

Critical Security Flaw in Social Login Plugin for WordPress Exposes Users' Accounts

A critical security flaw has been disclosed in miniOrange's Social Login and Register plugin for WordPress that could enable a malicious actor to log in as any user-provided information about email address is already known. Tracked as CVE-2023-2982 (CVSS score: 9.8), the authentication bypass flaw impacts all versions of the plugin, including and prior to 7.6.4. It was addressed on June 14, 2023

Alert: New Electromagnetic Attacks on Drones Could Let Attackers Take Control

Drones that don't have any known security weaknesses could be the target of electromagnetic fault injection (EMFI) attacks, potentially enabling a threat actor to achieve arbitrary code execution and compromise their functionality and safety. The research comes from IOActive, which found that it is "feasible to compromise the targeted device by injecting a specific EM glitch at the right time

CryptosLabs Scam Ring Targets French-Speaking Investors, Rakes in €480 Million

Cybersecurity researchers have exposed the workings of a scam ring called CryptosLabs that's estimated to have made €480 million in illegal profits by targeting users in French-speaking individuals in France, Belgium, and Luxembourg since April 2018. The syndicate's massive fake investment schemes primarily involve impersonating 40 well-known banks, fin-techs, asset management firms, and crypto

5 Things CISOs Need to Know About Securing OT Environments

For too long the cybersecurity world focused exclusively on information technology (IT), leaving operational technology (OT) to fend for itself. Traditionally, few industrial enterprises had dedicated cybersecurity leaders. Any security decisions that arose fell to the plant and factory managers, who are highly skilled technical experts in other areas but often lack cybersecurity training or

New Ongoing Campaign Targets npm Ecosystem with Unique Execution Chain

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new ongoing campaign aimed at the npm ecosystem that leverages a unique execution chain to deliver an unknown payload to targeted systems. "The packages in question seem to be published in pairs, each pair working in unison to fetch additional resources which are subsequently decoded and/or executed," software supply chain security firm Phylum said in

New Fortinet's FortiNAC Vulnerability Exposes Networks to Code Execution Attacks

Fortinet has rolled out updates to address a critical security vulnerability impacting its FortiNAC network access control solution that could lead to the execution of arbitrary code. Tracked as CVE-2023-33299, the flaw is rated 9.6 out of 10 for severity on the CVSS scoring system. It has been described as a case of Java untrusted object deserialization. "A deserialization of untrusted data

Researchers Find Way to Recover Cryptographic Keys by Analyzing LED Flickers

In what's an ingenious side-channel attack, a group of academics has found that it's possible to recover secret keys from a device by analyzing video footage of its power LED. "Cryptographic computations performed by the CPU change the power consumption of the device which affects the brightness of the device's power LED," researchers from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Cornell

How Generative AI Can Dupe SaaS Authentication Protocols — And Effective Ways To Prevent Other Key AI Risks in SaaS

Security and IT teams are routinely forced to adopt software before fully understanding the security risks. And AI tools are no exception. Employees and business leaders alike are flocking to generative AI software and similar programs, often unaware of the major SaaS security vulnerabilities they're introducing into the enterprise. A February 2023 generative AI survey of 1,000 executives 

Microsoft Warns of Widescale Credential Stealing Attacks by Russian Hackers

Microsoft has disclosed that it's detected a spike in credential-stealing attacks conducted by the Russian state-affiliated hacker group known as Midnight Blizzard. The intrusions, which make use of residential proxy services to obfuscate the source IP address of the attacks, target governments, IT service providers, NGOs, defense, and critical manufacturing sectors, the tech giant's threat

Chinese Hackers Using Never-Before-Seen Tactics for Critical Infrastructure Attacks

The newly discovered Chinese nation-state actor known as Volt Typhoon has been observed to be active in the wild since at least mid-2020, with the hacking crew linked to never-before-seen tradecraft to retain remote access to targets of interest. The findings come from CrowdStrike, which is tracking the adversary under the name Vanguard Panda. "The adversary consistently employed ManageEngine

U.S. Cybersecurity Agency Adds 6 Flaws to Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has added a batch of six flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, citing evidence of active exploitation. This comprises three vulnerabilities that Apple patched this week (CVE-2023-32434, CVE-2023-32435, and CVE-2023-32439), two flaws in VMware (CVE-2023-20867 and CVE-2023-20887), and one shortcoming impacting Zyxel

Twitter Hacker Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison for $120,000 Crypto Scam

A U.K. citizen who took part in the massive July 2020 hack of Twitter has been sentenced to five years in prison in the U.S. Joseph James O'Connor (aka PlugwalkJoe), 24, was awarded the sentence on Friday in the Southern District of New York, a little over a month after he pleaded guilty to the criminal schemes. He was arrested in Spain in July 2021. The infamous Twitter breach allowed the

The Power of Browser Fingerprinting: Personalized UX, Fraud Detection, and Secure Logins

The case for browser fingerprinting: personalizing user experience, improving fraud detection, and optimizing login security Have you ever heard of browser fingerprinting? You should! It's an online user identification technique that collects information about a visitor's web browser and its configuration preferences to associate individual browsing sessions with a single website visitor.  With

NSA Releases Guide to Combat Powerful BlackLotus Bootkit Targeting Windows Systems

The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) on Thursday released guidance to help organizations detect and prevent infections of a Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) bootkit called BlackLotus. To that end, the agency is recommending that "infrastructure owners take action by hardening user executable policies and monitoring the integrity of the boot partition." BlackLotus is an advanced 

Alert: Million of GitHub Repositories Likely Vulnerable to RepoJacking Attack

Millions of software repositories on GitHub are likely vulnerable to an attack called RepoJacking, a new study has revealed. This includes repositories from organizations such as Google, Lyft, and several others, Massachusetts-based cloud-native security firm Aqua said in a Wednesday report. The supply chain vulnerability, also known as dependency repository hijacking, is a class of attacks that

Critical Flaw Found in WordPress Plugin for WooCommerce Used by 30,000 Websites

A critical security flaw has been disclosed in the WordPress "Abandoned Cart Lite for WooCommerce" plugin that's installed on more than 30,000 websites. "This vulnerability makes it possible for an attacker to gain access to the accounts of users who have abandoned their carts, who are typically customers but can extend to other high-level users when the right conditions are met," Defiant's

Zero-Day Alert: Apple Releases Patches for Actively Exploited Flaws in iOS, macOS, and Safari

Apple on Wednesday released a slew of updates for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and Safari browser to address a set of flaws it said were actively exploited in the wild. This includes a pair of zero-days that have been weaponized in a mobile surveillance campaign called Operation Triangulation that has been active since 2019. The exact threat actor behind the activity is not known. CVE-2023-

Startup Security Tactics: Friction Surveys

When we do quarterly planning, my team categorizes our goals within four evergreen outcomes: Reduce the risk of information security incidents Increase trust in Vanta's information security program Reduce the friction caused by information security controls Use security expertise to support the business In this article, I'm going to focus on number three: reducing friction. Declaring your

New Condi Malware Hijacking TP-Link Wi-Fi Routers for DDoS Botnet Attacks

A new malware called Condi has been observed exploiting a security vulnerability in TP-Link Archer AX21 (AX1800) Wi-Fi routers to rope the devices into a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) botnet. Fortinet FortiGuard Labs said the campaign has ramped up since the end of May 2023. Condi is the work of a threat actor who goes by the online alias zxcr9999 on Telegram and runs a Telegram channel

Alert! Hackers Exploiting Critical Vulnerability in VMware's Aria Operations Networks

VMware has flagged that a recently patched critical command injection vulnerability in Aria Operations for Networks (formerly vRealize Network Insight) has come under active exploitation in the wild. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2023-20887, could allow a malicious actor with network access to the product to perform a command injection attack, resulting in remote code execution. It impacts VMware

Researchers Expose New Severe Flaws in Wago and Schneider Electric OT Products

Three security vulnerabilities have been disclosed in operational technology (OT) products from Wago and Schneider Electric. The flaws, per Forescout, are part of a broader set of shortcomings collectively called OT:ICEFALL, which now comprises a total of 61 issues spanning 13 different vendors. "OT:ICEFALL demonstrates the need for tighter scrutiny of, and improvements to, processes related to

Zyxel Releases Urgent Security Updates for Critical Vulnerability in NAS Devices

Zyxel has rolled out security updates to address a critical security flaw in its network-attached storage (NAS) devices that could result in the execution of arbitrary commands on affected systems. Tracked as CVE-2023-27992 (CVSS score: 9.8), the issue has been described as a pre-authentication command injection vulnerability. "The pre-authentication command injection vulnerability in some Zyxel

SaaS in the Real World: How Global Food Chains Can Secure Their Digital Dish

The Quick Serve Restaurant (QSR) industry is built on consistency and shared resources. National chains like McDonald's and regional ones like Cracker Barrel grow faster by reusing the same business model, decor, and menu, with little change from one location to the next.  QSR technology stacks mirror the consistency of the front end of each store. Despite each franchise being independently

ASUS Releases Patches to Fix Critical Security Bugs Impacting Multiple Router Models

Taiwanese company ASUS on Monday released firmware updates to address, among other issues, nine security bugs impacting a wide range of router models. Of the nine security flaws, two are rated Critical and six are rated High in severity. One vulnerability is currently awaiting analysis. The list of impacted products are GT6, GT-AXE16000, GT-AX11000 PRO, GT-AXE11000, GT-AX6000, GT-AX11000,

Over 100,000 Stolen ChatGPT Account Credentials Sold on Dark Web Marketplaces

Over 101,100 compromised OpenAI ChatGPT account credentials have found their way on illicit dark web marketplaces between June 2022 and May 2023, with India alone accounting for 12,632 stolen credentials. The credentials were discovered within information stealer logs made available for sale on the cybercrime underground, Group-IB said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "The number of