Russian Cyber Adversary BlueCharlie Alters Infrastructure in Response to Disclosures

A Russia-nexus adversary has been linked to 94 new domains starting March 2023, suggesting that the group is actively modifying its infrastructure in response to public disclosures about its activities. Cybersecurity firm Recorded Future linked the revamped infrastructure to a threat actor it tracks under the name BlueCharlie, a hacking crew that's broadly known by the names Blue Callisto,

Industrial Control Systems Vulnerabilities Soar: Over One-Third Unpatched in 2023

About 34% of security vulnerabilities impacting industrial control systems (ICSs) that were reported in the first half of 2023 have no patch or remediation, registering a significant increase from 13% the previous year. According to data compiled by SynSaber, a total of 670 ICS product flaws were reported via the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in the first half of

Phishers Exploit Salesforce's Email Services Zero-Day in Targeted Facebook Campaign

A sophisticated Facebook phishing campaign has been observed exploiting a zero-day flaw in Salesforce's email services, allowing threat actors to craft targeted phishing messages using the company's domain and infrastructure. "Those phishing campaigns cleverly evade conventional detection methods by chaining the Salesforce vulnerability and legacy quirks in Facebook's Web Games platform,"

Top Industries Significantly Impacted by Illicit Telegram Networks

In recent years the rise of illicit activities conducted within online messaging platforms has become a growing concern for countless industries. One of the most notable platforms that has been host to many malicious actors and nefarious activities has been Telegram. Thanks to its accessibility, popularity, and user anonymity, Telegram has attracted a large number of threat actors driven by

Researchers Uncover AWS SSM Agent Misuse as a Covert Remote Access Trojan

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new post-exploitation technique in Amazon Web Services (AWS) that allows the AWS Systems Manager Agent (SSM Agent) to be run as a remote access trojan on Windows and Linux environments "The SSM agent, a legitimate tool used by admins to manage their instances, can be re-purposed by an attacker who has achieved high privilege access on an endpoint with

Iranian Company Cloudzy Accused of Aiding Cybercriminals and Nation-State Hackers

Services offered by an obscure Iranian company known as Cloudzy are being leveraged by multiple threat actors, including cybercrime groups and nation-state crews. "Although Cloudzy is incorporated in the United States, it almost certainly operates out of Tehran, Iran – in possible violation of U.S. sanctions – under the direction of someone going by the name Hassan Nozari," Halcyon said in a new

Norwegian Entities Targeted in Ongoing Attacks Exploiting Ivanti EPMM Vulnerability

Advanced persistent threat (APT) actors exploited a recently disclosed critical flaw impacting Ivanti Endpoint Manager Mobile (EPMM) as a zero-day since at least April 2023 in attacks directed against Norwegian entities, including a government network. The disclosure comes as part of a new joint advisory released by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Norwegian

New NodeStealer Variant Targeting Facebook Business Accounts and Crypto Wallets

Cybersecurity researchers have unearthed a Python variant of a stealer malware NodeStealer that's equipped to fully take over Facebook business accounts as well as siphon cryptocurrency. Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 said it detected the previously undocumented strain as part of a campaign that commenced in December 2022. There is no evidence to suggest that the cyber offensive is currently active.

European Bank Customers Targeted in SpyNote Android Trojan Campaign

Various European customers of different banks are being targeted by an Android banking trojan called SpyNote as part of an aggressive campaign detected in June and July 2023. "The spyware is distributed through email phishing or smishing campaigns and the fraudulent activities are executed with a combination of remote access trojan (RAT) capabilities and vishing attack," Italian cybersecurity

What is Data Security Posture Management (DSPM)?

Data Security Posture Management is an approach to securing cloud data by ensuring that sensitive data always has the correct security posture - regardless of where it's been duplicated or moved to. So, what is DSPM? Here's a quick example: Let's say you've built an excellent security posture for your cloud data. For the sake of this example, your data is in production, it's protected behind a

Researchers Expose Space Pirates' Cyber Campaign Across Russia and Serbia

The threat actor known as Space Pirates has been linked to attacks against at least 16 organizations in Russia and Serbia over the past year by employing novel tactics and adding new cyber weapons to its arsenal. "The cybercriminals' main goals are still espionage and theft of confidential information, but the group has expanded its interests and the geography of its attacks," Positive

China's APT31 Suspected in Attacks on Air-Gapped Systems in Eastern Europe

A nation-state actor with links to China is suspected of being behind a series of attacks against industrial organizations in Eastern Europe that took place last year to siphon data stored on air-gapped systems. Cybersecurity company Kaspersky attributed the intrusions with medium to high confidence to a hacking crew called APT31, which is also tracked under the monikers Bronze Vinewood,

Cybercriminals Renting WikiLoader to Target Italian Organizations with Banking Trojan

Organizations in Italy are the target of a new phishing campaign that leverages a new strain of malware called WikiLoader with an ultimate aim to install a banking trojan, stealer, and spyware referred to as Ursnif (aka Gozi). "It is a sophisticated downloader with the objective of installing a second malware payload," Proofpoint said in a technical report. "The malware uses multiple mechanisms

New P2PInfect Worm Targets Redis Servers with Undocumented Breach Methods

The P2PInfect peer-to-peer (P2) worm has been observed employing previously undocumented initial access methods to breach susceptible Redis servers and rope them into a botnet. "The malware compromises exposed instances of the Redis data store by exploiting the replication feature," Cado Security researchers Nate Bill and Matt Muir said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "A common attack

Patchwork Hackers Target Chinese Research Organizations Using EyeShell Backdoor

Threat actors associated with the hacking crew known as Patchwork have been spotted targeting universities and research organizations in China as part of a recently observed campaign. The activity, according to KnownSec 404 Team, entailed the use of a backdoor codenamed EyeShell. Patchwork, also known by the names Operation Hangover and Zinc Emerson, is suspected to be a threat group that

Webinar: Riding the vCISO Wave: How to Provide vCISO Services

Demand for Virtual CISO services is soaring. According to Gartner, the use of vCISO services among small and mid-size businesses and non-regulated enterprises was expected to grow by a whopping 1900% in just one year, from only 1% in 2021 to 20% in 2022! Offering vCISO services can be especially attractive for MSPs and MSSPs. By addressing their customers’ needs for proactive cyber resilience,

AVRecon Botnet Leveraging Compromised Routers to Fuel Illegal Proxy Service

More details have emerged about a botnet called AVRecon, which has been observed making use of compromised small office/home office (SOHO) routers as part of a multi-year campaign active since at least May 2021. AVRecon was first disclosed by Lumen Black Lotus Labs earlier this month as malware capable of executing additional commands and stealing victim's bandwidth for what appears to be an

Fruity Trojan Uses Deceptive Software Installers to Spread Remcos RAT

Threat actors are creating fake websites hosting trojanized software installers to trick unsuspecting users into downloading a downloader malware called Fruity with the goal of installing remote trojans tools like Remcos RAT. "Among the software in question are various instruments for fine-tuning CPUs, graphic cards, and BIOS; PC hardware-monitoring tools; and some other apps," cybersecurity

Multiple Flaws Found in Ninja Forms Plugin Leave 800,000 Sites Vulnerable

Multiple security vulnerabilities have been disclosed in the Ninja Forms plugin for WordPress that could be exploited by threat actors to escalate privileges and steal sensitive data. The flaws, tracked as CVE-2023-37979, CVE-2023-38386, and CVE-2023-38393, impact versions 3.6.25 and below, Patchstack said in a report last week. Ninja Forms is installed on over 800,000 sites. A brief description

New Android Malware CherryBlos Utilizing OCR to Steal Sensitive Data

A new Android malware strain called CherryBlos has been observed making use of optical character recognition (OCR) techniques to gather sensitive data stored in pictures. CherryBlos, per Trend Micro, is distributed via bogus posts on social media platforms and comes with capabilities to steal cryptocurrency wallet-related credentials and act as a clipper to substitute wallet addresses when a

RFP Template for Browser Security

Increasing cyber threats and attacks have made protecting organizational data a paramount concern for businesses of all sizes. A group of experts have recognized the pressing need for comprehensive browser security solutions and collaborated to develop "The Definitive Browser Security RFP Template." This resource helps streamline the process of evaluating and procuring browser security platforms

Apple Sets New Rules for Developers to Prevent Fingerprinting and Data Misuse

Apple has announced plans to require developers to submit reasons to use certain APIs in their apps starting later this year with the release of iOS 17, iPadOS 17, macOS Sonoma, tvOS 17, and watchOS 10 to prevent their abuse for data collection. "This will help ensure that apps only use these APIs for their intended purpose," the company said in a statement. "As part of this process, you'll need

Hackers Deploy "SUBMARINE" Backdoor in Barracuda Email Security Gateway Attacks

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Friday disclosed details of a "novel persistent backdoor" called SUBMARINE deployed by threat actors in connection with the hack on Barracuda Email Security Gateway (ESG) appliances. "SUBMARINE comprises multiple artifacts — including a SQL trigger, shell scripts, and a loaded library for a Linux daemon — that together enable

Ivanti Warns of Another Endpoint Manager Mobile Vulnerability Under Active Attack

Ivanti has disclosed yet another security flaw impacting Endpoint Manager Mobile (EPMM), formerly known as MobileIron Core, that it said has been weaponized as part of an exploit chain by malicious actors in the wild. The new vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023-35081 (CVSS score: 7.8), impacts supported versions 11.10, 11.9, and 11.8, as well as those that are currently end-of-life (EoL). "CVE-

IcedID Malware Adapts and Expands Threat with Updated BackConnect Module

The threat actors linked to the malware loader known as IcedID have made updates to the BackConnect (BC) module that's used for post-compromise activity on hacked systems, new findings from Team Cymru reveal. IcedID, also called BokBot, is a strain of malware similar to Emotet and QakBot that started off as a banking trojan in 2017, before switching to the role of an initial access facilitator

STARK#MULE Targets Koreans with U.S. Military-themed Document Lures

An ongoing cyber attack campaign has set its sights on Korean-speaking individuals by employing U.S. Military-themed document lures to trick them into running malware on compromised systems. Cybersecurity firm Securonix is tracking the activity under the name STARK#MULE. The scale of the attacks is currently not known, and it's not clear if any of these attack attempts turned out to be

A Data Exfiltration Attack Scenario: The Porsche Experience

As part of Checkmarx's mission to help organizations develop and deploy secure software, the Security Research team started looking at the security posture of major car manufacturers. Porsche has a well-established Vulnerability Reporting Policy (Disclosure Policy)[1], it was considered in scope for our research, so we decided to start there, and see what we could find. What we found is an

Hackers Abusing Windows Search Feature to Install Remote Access Trojans

A legitimate Windows search feature is being exploited by unknown malicious actors to download arbitrary payloads from remote servers and compromise targeted systems with remote access trojans such as AsyncRAT and Remcos RAT. The novel attack technique, per Trellix, takes advantage of the "search-ms:" URI protocol handler, which offers the ability for applications and HTML links to launch custom

BlueBravo Deploys GraphicalProton Backdoor Against European Diplomatic Entities

The Russian nation-state actor known as BlueBravo has been observed targeting diplomatic entities throughout Eastern Europe with the goal of delivering a new backdoor called GraphicalProton, exemplifying the continuous evolution of the threat. The phishing campaign is characterized by the use of legitimate internet services (LIS) for command-and-control (C2) obfuscation, Recorded Future said in

Major Security Flaw Discovered in Metabase BI Software – Urgent Update Required

Users of Metabase, a popular business intelligence and data visualization software package, are being advised to update to the latest version following the discovery of an "extremely severe" flaw that could result in pre-authenticated remote code execution on affected installations. Tracked as CVE-2023-38646, the issue impacts open-source editions prior to 0.46.6.1 and Metabase Enterprise

Cybersecurity Agencies Warn Against IDOR Bugs Exploited for Data Breaches

Cybersecurity agencies in Australia and the U.S. have published a joint cybersecurity advisory warning against security flaws in web applications that could be exploited by malicious actors to orchestrate data breach incidents and steal confidential data. This includes a specific class of bugs called Insecure Direct Object Reference (IDOR), a type of access control flaw that occurs when an

GameOver(lay): Two Severe Linux Vulnerabilities Impact 40% of Ubuntu Users

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed two high-severity security flaws in the Ubuntu kernel that could pave the way for local privilege escalation attacks. Cloud security firm Wiz, in a report shared with The Hacker News, said the easy-to-exploit shortcomings have the potential to impact 40% of Ubuntu users. "The impacted Ubuntu versions are prevalent in the cloud as they serve as the default

New Malvertising Campaign Distributing Trojanized IT Tools via Google and Bing Search Ads

A new malvertising campaign has been observed leveraging ads on Google Search and Bing to target users seeking IT tools like AnyDesk, Cisco AnyConnect VPN, and WinSCP, and trick them into downloading trojanized installers with an aim to breach enterprise networks and likely carry out future ransomware attacks. Dubbed Nitrogen, the "opportunistic" activity is designed to deploy second-stage

The 4 Keys to Building Cloud Security Programs That Can Actually Shift Left

As cloud applications are built, tested and updated, they wind their way through an ever-complex series of different tools and teams. Across hundreds or even thousands of technologies that make up the patchwork quilt of development and cloud environments, security processes are all too often applied in only the final phases of software development.  Placing security at the very end of the

Hackers Target Apache Tomcat Servers for Mirai Botnet and Crypto Mining

Misconfigured and poorly secured Apache Tomcat servers are being targeted as part of a new campaign designed to deliver the Mirai botnet malware and cryptocurrency miners. The findings come courtesy of Aqua, which detected more than 800 attacks against its Tomcat server honeypots over a two-year time period, with 96% of the attacks linked to the Mirai botnet. Of these attack attempts, 20% (or

Group-IB Co-Founder Sentenced to 14 Years in Russian Prison for Alleged High Treason

A city court in Moscow on Wednesday convicted Group-IB co-founder and CEO Ilya Sachkov of "high treason" and jailed him for 14 years in a "strict regime colony" over accusations of passing information to foreign spies. "The court found Sachkov guilty under Article 275 of the Russian Criminal Code (high treason) sentencing him to 14 years of incarceration in a maximum-security jail, restriction

New SEC Rules Require U.S. Companies to Reveal Cyber Attacks Within 4 Days

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday approved new rules that require publicly traded companies to publicize details of a cyber attack within four days of identifying that it has a "material" impact on their finances, marking a major shift in how computer breaches are disclosed. "Whether a company loses a factory in a fire — or millions of files in a cybersecurity

Decoy Dog: New Breed of Malware Posing Serious Threats to Enterprise Networks

A deeper analysis of a recently discovered malware called Decoy Dog has revealed that it's a significant upgrade over the Pupy RAT, an open-source remote access trojan it's modeled on. "Decoy Dog has a full suite of powerful, previously unknown capabilities – including the ability to move victims to another controller, allowing them to maintain communication with compromised machines and remain

The Alarming Rise of Infostealers: How to Detect this Silent Threat

A new study conducted by Uptycs has uncovered a stark increase in the distribution of information stealing (a.k.a. infostealer or stealer) malware. Incidents have more than doubled in Q1 2023, indicating an alarming trend that threatens global organizations. According to the new Uptycs' whitepaper, Stealers are Organization Killers, a variety of new info stealers have emerged this year, preying

Fenix Cybercrime Group Poses as Tax Authorities to Target Latin American Users

Tax-paying individuals in Mexico and Chile have been targeted by a Mexico-based cybercrime group that goes by the name Fenix to breach targeted networks and steal valuable data. A key hallmark of the operation entails cloning official portals of the Servicio de Administración Tributaria (SAT) in Mexico and the Servicio de Impuestos Internos (SII) in Chile and redirecting potential victims to

New AI Tool 'FraudGPT' Emerges, Tailored for Sophisticated Attacks

Following the footsteps of WormGPT, threat actors are advertising yet another cybercrime generative artificial intelligence (AI) tool dubbed FraudGPT on various dark web marketplaces and Telegram channels. "This is an AI bot, exclusively targeted for offensive purposes, such as crafting spear phishing emails, creating cracking tools, carding, etc.," Netenrich security researcher Rakesh Krishnan 

Rust-based Realst Infostealer Targeting Apple macOS Users' Cryptocurrency Wallets

A new malware family called Realst has become the latest to target Apple macOS systems, with a third of the samples already designed to infect macOS 14 Sonoma, the upcoming major release of the operating system. Written in the Rust programming language, the malware is distributed in the form of bogus blockchain games and is capable of "emptying crypto wallets and stealing stored password and

North Korean Nation-State Actors Exposed in JumpCloud Hack After OPSEC Blunder

North Korean nation-state actors affiliated with the Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB) have been attributed to the JumpCloud hack following an operational security (OPSEC) blunder that exposed their actual IP address. Google-owned threat intelligence firm Mandiant attributed the activity to a threat actor it tracks under the name UNC4899, which likely shares overlaps with clusters already

How MDR Helps Solve the Cybersecurity Talent Gap

How do you overcome today's talent gap in cybersecurity? This is a crucial issue — particularly when you find executive leadership or the board asking pointed questions about your security team's ability to defend the organization against new and current threats. This is why many security leaders find themselves turning to managed security services like MDR (managed detection and response),

Critical MikroTik RouterOS Vulnerability Exposes Over Half a Million Devices to Hacking

A severe privilege escalation issue impacting MikroTik RouterOS could be weaponized by remote malicious actors to execute arbitrary code and seize full control of vulnerable devices. Cataloged as CVE-2023-30799 (CVSS score: 9.1), the shortcoming is expected to put approximately 500,000 and 900,000 RouterOS systems at risk of exploitation via their web and/or Winbox interfaces, respectively,

Casbaneiro Banking Malware Goes Under the Radar with UAC Bypass Technique

The financially motivated threat actors behind the Casbaneiro banking malware family have been observed making use of a User Account Control (UAC) bypass technique to gain full administrative privileges on a machine, a sign that the threat actor is evolving their tactics to avoid detection and execute malicious code on compromised assets. "They are still heavily focused on Latin American

macOS Under Attack: Examining the Growing Threat and User Perspectives

As the number of people using macOS keeps going up, so does the desire of hackers to take advantage of flaws in Apple's operating system.  What Are the Rising Threats to macOS? There is a common misconception among macOS fans that Apple devices are immune to hacking and malware infection. However, users have been facing more and more dangers recently. Inventive attackers are specifically

TETRA:BURST — 5 New Vulnerabilities Exposed in Widely Used Radio Communication System

A set of five security vulnerabilities have been disclosed in the Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) standard for radio communication used widely by government entities and critical infrastructure sectors, including what's believed to be an intentional backdoor that could have potentially exposed sensitive information. The issues, discovered by Midnight Blue in 2021 and held back until now, have

Zenbleed: New Flaw in AMD Zen 2 Processors Puts Encryption Keys and Passwords at Risk

A new security vulnerability has been discovered in AMD's Zen 2 architecture-based processors that could be exploited to extract sensitive data such as encryption keys and passwords. Discovered by Google Project Zero researcher Tavis Ormandy, the flaw – codenamed Zenbleed and tracked as CVE-2023-20593 (CVSS score: 6.5) – allows data exfiltration at the rate of 30 kb per core, per second. The

Atlassian Releases Patches for Critical Flaws in Confluence and Bamboo

Atlassian has released updates to address three security flaws impacting its Confluence Server, Data Center, and Bamboo Data Center products that, if successfully exploited, could result in remote code execution on susceptible systems. The list of the flaws is below - CVE-2023-22505 (CVSS score: 8.0) - RCE (Remote Code Execution) in Confluence Data Center and Server (Fixed in versions 8.3.2 and

Ivanti Releases Urgent Patch for EPMM Zero-Day Vulnerability Under Active Exploitation

Ivanti is warning users to update their Endpoint Manager Mobile (EPMM) mobile device management software (formerly MobileIron Core) to the latest version that fixes an actively exploited zero-day vulnerability. Dubbed CVE-2023-35078, the issue has been described as a remote unauthenticated API access vulnerability that impacts currently supported version 11.4 releases 11.10, 11.9, and 11.8 as

Apple Rolls Out Urgent Patches for Zero-Day Flaws Impacting iPhones, iPads and Macs

Apple has rolled out security updates to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, watchOS, and Safari to address several security vulnerabilities, including one actively exploited zero-day bug in the wild. Tracked as CVE-2023-38606, the shortcoming resides in the kernel and permits a malicious app to modify sensitive kernel state potentially. The company said it was addressed with improved state management. "

Critical Zero-Days in Atera Windows Installers Expose Users to Privilege Escalation Attacks

Zero-day vulnerabilities in Windows Installers for the Atera remote monitoring and management software could act as a springboard to launch privilege escalation attacks. The flaws, discovered by Mandiant on February 28, 2023, have been assigned the identifiers CVE-2023-26077 and CVE-2023-26078, with the issues remediated in versions 1.8.3.7 and 1.8.4.9 released by Atera on April 17, 2023, and

Google Messages Getting Cross-Platform End-to-End Encryption with MLS Protocol

Google has announced that it intends to add support for Message Layer Security (MLS) to its Messages service for Android and open source an implementation of the specification. "Most modern consumer messaging platforms (including Google Messages) support end-to-end encryption, but users today are limited to communicating with contacts who use the same platform," Giles Hogben, privacy engineering

How to Protect Patients and Their Privacy in Your SaaS Apps

The healthcare industry is under a constant barrage of cyberattacks. It has traditionally been one of the most frequently targeted industries, and things haven’t changed in 2023. The U.S. Government’s Office for Civil Rights reported 145 data breaches in the United States during the first quarter of this year. That follows 707 incidents a year ago, during which over 50 million records were

New OpenSSH Vulnerability Exposes Linux Systems to Remote Command Injection

Details have emerged about a now-patched flaw in OpenSSH that could be potentially exploited to run arbitrary commands remotely on compromised hosts under specific conditions. "This vulnerability allows a remote attacker to potentially execute arbitrary commands on vulnerable OpenSSH's forwarded ssh-agent," Saeed Abbasi, manager of vulnerability research at Qualys, said in an analysis last week.

Banking Sector Targeted in Open-Source Software Supply Chain Attacks

Cybersecurity researchers said they have discovered what they say is the first open-source software supply chain attacks specifically targeting the banking sector. "These attacks showcased advanced techniques, including targeting specific components in web assets of the victim bank by attaching malicious functionalities to it," Checkmarx said in a report published last week. "The attackers

Apple Threatens to Pull iMessage and FaceTime from U.K. Amid Surveillance Demands

Apple has warned that it would rather stop offering iMessage and FaceTime services in the U.K. than bowing down to government pressure in response to new proposals that seek to expand digital surveillance powers available to state intelligence agencies. The development, first reported by BBC News, makes the iPhone maker the latest to join the chorus of voices protesting against forthcoming

Azure AD Token Forging Technique in Microsoft Attack Extends Beyond Outlook, Wiz Reports

The recent attack against Microsoft's email infrastructure by a Chinese nation-state actor referred to as Storm-0558 is said to have a broader scope than previously thought. According to cloud security company Wiz, the inactive Microsoft account (MSA) consumer signing key used to forge Azure Active Directory (Azure AD or AAD) tokens to gain illicit access to Outlook Web Access (OWA) and

HotRat: New Variant of AsyncRAT Malware Spreading Through Pirated Software

A new variant of AsyncRAT malware dubbed HotRat is being distributed via free, pirated versions of popular software and utilities such as video games, image and sound editing software, and Microsoft Office. "HotRat malware equips attackers with a wide array of capabilities, such as stealing login credentials, cryptocurrency wallets, screen capturing, keylogging, installing more malware, and