CacheWarp Attack: New Vulnerability in AMD SEV Exposes Encrypted VMs

A group of academics has disclosed a new "software fault attack" on AMD's Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV) technology that could be potentially exploited by threat actors to infiltrate encrypted virtual machines (VMs) and even perform privilege escalation. The attack has been codenamed CacheWarp (CVE-2023-20592) by researchers from the CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security and the

CI/CD Risks: Protecting Your Software Development Pipelines

Have you heard about Dependabot? If not, just ask any developer around you, and they'll likely rave about how it has revolutionized the tedious task of checking and updating outdated dependencies in software projects.  Dependabot not only takes care of the checks for you, but also provides suggestions for modifications that can be approved with just a single click. Although Dependabot is limited

New Campaign Targets Middle East Governments with IronWind Malware

Government entities in the Middle East are the target of new phishing campaigns that are designed to deliver a new initial access downloader dubbed IronWind. The activity, detected between July and October 2023, has been attributed by Proofpoint to a threat actor it tracks under the name TA402, which is also known as Molerats, Gaza Cyber Gang, and shares tactical overlaps with a pro-Hamas

Vietnamese Hackers Using New Delphi-Powered Malware to Target Indian Marketers

The Vietnamese threat actors behind the Ducktail stealer malware have been linked to a new campaign that ran between March and early October 2023, targeting marketing professionals in India with an aim to hijack Facebook business accounts. "An important feature that sets it apart is that, unlike previous campaigns, which relied on .NET applications, this one used Delphi as the programming

CISA Sets a Deadline - Patch Juniper Junos OS Flaws Before November 17

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has given a November 17, 2023, deadline for federal agencies and organizations to apply mitigations to secure against a number of security flaws in Juniper Junos OS that came to light in August. The agency on Monday added five vulnerabilities to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, based on evidence of active

New Ransomware Group Emerges with Hive's Source Code and Infrastructure

The threat actors behind a new ransomware group called Hunters International have acquired the source code and infrastructure from the now-dismantled Hive operation to kick-start its own efforts in the threat landscape. "It appears that the leadership of the Hive group made the strategic decision to cease their operations and transfer their remaining assets to another group, Hunters

Top 5 Marketing Tech SaaS Security Challenges

Effective marketing operations today are driven by the use of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications. Marketing apps such as Salesforce, Hubspot, Outreach, Asana, Monday, and Box empower marketing teams, agencies, freelancers, and subject matter experts to collaborate seamlessly on campaigns and marketing initiatives.  These apps serve as the digital command centers for marketing

New BiBi-Windows Wiper Targets Windows Systems in Pro-Hamas Attacks

Cybersecurity researchers have warned about a Windows version of a wiper malware that was previously observed targeting Linux systems in cyber attacks aimed at Israel. Dubbed BiBi-Windows Wiper by BlackBerry, the wiper is the Windows counterpart of BiBi-Linux Wiper, which has been put to use by a pro-Hamas hacktivist group in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war last month. "The Windows variant [...

Microsoft Warns of Fake Skills Assessment Portals Targeting IT Job Seekers

A sub-cluster within the infamous Lazarus Group has established new infrastructure that impersonates skills assessment portals as part of its social engineering campaigns. Microsoft attributed the activity to a threat actor it calls Sapphire Sleet, describing it as a "shift in the persistent actor's tactics." Sapphire Sleet, also called APT38, BlueNoroff, CageyChameleon, and CryptoCore, has a

Russian Hackers Sandworm Cause Power Outage in Ukraine Amidst Missile Strikes

The notorious Russian hackers known as Sandworm targeted an electrical substation in Ukraine last year, causing a brief power outage in October 2022. The findings come from Google's Mandiant, which described the hack as a "multi-event cyber attack" leveraging a novel technique for impacting industrial control systems (ICS). "The actor first used OT-level living-off-the-land (LotL) techniques to

Iran-Linked Imperial Kitten Cyber Group Targeting Middle East's Tech Sectors

A group with links to Iran targeted transportation, logistics, and technology sectors in the Middle East, including Israel, in October 2023 amid a surge in Iranian cyber activity since the onset of the Israel-Hamas war. The attacks have been attributed by CrowdStrike to a threat actor it tracks under the name Imperial Kitten, and which is also known as Crimson Sandstorm (previously Curium),

Stealthy Kamran Spyware Targeting Urdu-speaking Users in Gilgit-Baltistan

Urdu-speaking readers of a regional news website that caters to the Gilgit-Baltistan region have likely emerged as a target of a watering hole attack designed to deliver a previously undocumented Android spyware dubbed Kamran. The campaign, ESET has discovered, leverages Hunza News (urdu.hunzanews[.]net), which, when opened on a mobile device, prompts visitors of the Urdu version to install its

MuddyC2Go: New C2 Framework Iranian Hackers Using Against Israel

Iranian nation-state actors have been observed using a previously undocumented command-and-control (C2) framework called MuddyC2Go as part of attacks targeting Israel. "The framework's web component is written in the Go programming language," Deep Instinct security researcher Simon Kenin said in a technical report published Wednesday. The tool has been attributed to MuddyWater, an Iranian 

SideCopy Exploiting WinRAR Flaw in Attacks Targeting Indian Government Entities

The Pakistan-linked threat actor known as SideCopy has been observed leveraging the recent WinRAR security vulnerability in its attacks targeting Indian government entities to deliver various remote access trojans such as AllaKore RAT, Ares RAT, and DRat. Enterprise security firm SEQRITE described the campaign as multi-platform, with the attacks also designed to infiltrate Linux systems with a

SecuriDropper: New Android Dropper-as-a-Service Bypasses Google's Defenses

Cybersecurity researchers have shed light on a new dropper-as-a-service (DaaS) for Android called SecuriDropper that bypasses new security restrictions imposed by Google and delivers the malware. Dropper malware on Android is designed to function as a conduit to install a payload on a compromised device, making it a lucrative business model for threat actors, who can advertise the capabilities

Google Warns How Hackers Could Abuse Calendar Service as a Covert C2 Channel

Google is warning of multiple threat actors sharing a public proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit that leverages its Calendar service to host command-and-control (C2) infrastructure. The tool, called Google Calendar RAT (GCR), employs Google Calendar Events for C2 using a Gmail account. It was first published to GitHub in June 2023. "The script creates a 'Covert Channel' by exploiting the event

U.S. Treasury Sanctions Russian Money Launderer in Cybercrime Crackdown

The U.S. Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions against a 37-year-old Russian woman for taking part in the laundering of virtual currency for the country's elites and cybercriminal crews, including the Ryuk ransomware group. Ekaterina Zhdanova, per the department, is said to have facilitated large cross border transactions to assist Russian individuals to gain access to Western financial

StripedFly Malware Operated Unnoticed for 5 Years, Infecting 1 Million Devices

An advanced strain of malware masquerading as a cryptocurrency miner has managed to fly the radar for over five years, infecting no less than one million devices around the world in the process. That's according to findings from Kaspersky, which has codenamed the threat StripedFly, describing it as an "intricate modular framework that supports both Linux and Windows." The Russian cybersecurity

Kinsing Actors Exploiting Recent Linux Flaw to Breach Cloud Environments

The threat actors linked to Kinsing have been observed attempting to exploit the recently disclosed Linux privilege escalation flaw called Looney Tunables as part of a "new experimental campaign" designed to breach cloud environments. "Intriguingly, the attacker is also broadening the horizons of their cloud-native attacks by extracting credentials from the Cloud Service Provider (CSP)," cloud

NodeStealer Malware Hijacking Facebook Business Accounts for Malicious Ads

Compromised Facebook business accounts are being used to run bogus ads that employ "revealing photos of young women" as lures to trick victims into downloading an updated version of a malware called NodeStealer. "Clicking on ads immediately downloads an archive containing a malicious .exe 'Photo Album' file which also drops a second executable written in .NET – this payload is in charge of

CanesSpy Spyware Discovered in Modified WhatsApp Versions

Cybersecurity researchers have unearthed a number of WhatsApp mods for Android that come fitted with a spyware module dubbed CanesSpy. These modified versions of the instant messaging app have been observed propagated via sketchy websites advertising such modded software as well as Telegram channels used primarily by Arabic and Azerbaijani speakers, one of which boasts of two million users. "The

48 Malicious npm Packages Found Deploying Reverse Shells on Developer Systems

A new set of 48 malicious npm packages have been discovered in the npm repository with capabilities to deploy a reverse shell on compromised systems. "These packages, deceptively named to appear legitimate, contained obfuscated JavaScript designed to initiate a reverse shell on package install," software supply chain security firm Phylum said. All the counterfeit packages have been published by

Researchers Find 34 Windows Drivers Vulnerable to Full Device Takeover

As many as 34 unique vulnerable Windows Driver Model (WDM) and Windows Driver Frameworks (WDF) drivers could be exploited by non-privileged threat actors to gain full control of the devices and execute arbitrary code on the underlying systems. "By exploiting the drivers, an attacker without privilege may erase/alter firmware, and/or elevate [operating system] privileges," Takahiro Haruyama, a

North Korean Hackers Targeting Crypto Experts with KANDYKORN macOS Malware

State-sponsored threat actors from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) have been found targeting blockchain engineers of an unnamed crypto exchange platform via Discord with a novel macOS malware dubbed KANDYKORN. Elastic Security Labs said the activity, traced back to April 2023, exhibits overlaps with the infamous adversarial collective Lazarus Group, citing an analysis of the

Turla Updates Kazuar Backdoor with Advanced Anti-Analysis to Evade Detection

The Russia-linked hacking crew known as Turla has been observed using an updated version of a known second-stage backdoor referred to as Kazuar. The new findings come from Palo Alto Networks Unit 42, which is tracking the adversary under its constellation-themed moniker Pensive Ursa. "As the code of the upgraded revision of Kazuar reveals, the authors put special emphasis on Kazuar's ability to

Malicious NuGet Packages Caught Distributing SeroXen RAT Malware

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a new set of malicious packages published to the NuGet package manager using a lesser-known method for malware deployment. Software supply chain security firm ReversingLabs described the campaign as coordinated and ongoing since August 1, 2023, while linking it to a host of rogue NuGet packages that were observed delivering a remote access trojan called

Atlassian Warns of New Critical Confluence Vulnerability Threatening Data Loss

Atlassian has warned of a critical security flaw in Confluence Data Center and Server that could result in "significant data loss if exploited by an unauthenticated attacker." Tracked as CVE-2023-22518, the vulnerability is rated 9.1 out of a maximum of 10 on the CVSS scoring system. It has been described as an instance of "improper authorization vulnerability." All versions of Confluence Data

Trojanized PyCharm Software Version Delivered via Google Search Ads

A new malvertising campaign has been observed capitalizing on a compromised website to promote spurious versions of PyCharm on Google search results by leveraging Dynamic Search Ads. "Unbeknownst to the site owner, one of their ads was automatically created to promote a popular program for Python developers, and visible to people doing a Google search for it," Jérôme Segura, director of threat

Pro-Hamas Hacktivists Targeting Israeli Entities with Wiper Malware

A pro-Hamas hacktivist group has been observed using a new Linux-based wiper malware dubbed BiBi-Linux Wiper, targeting Israeli entities amidst the ongoing Israeli-Hamas war. "This malware is an x64 ELF executable, lacking obfuscation or protective measures," Security Joes said in a new report published today. "It allows attackers to specify target folders and can potentially destroy an entire

Hackers Using MSIX App Packages to Infect Windows PCs with GHOSTPULSE Malware

A new cyber attack campaign has been observed using spurious MSIX Windows app package files for popular software such as Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Brave, Grammarly, and Cisco Webex to distribute a novel malware loader dubbed GHOSTPULSE. "MSIX is a Windows app package format that developers can leverage to package, distribute, and install their applications to Windows users," Elastic

N. Korean Lazarus Group Targets Software Vendor Using Known Flaws

The North Korea-aligned Lazarus Group has been attributed as behind a new campaign in which an unnamed software vendor was compromised through the exploitation of known security flaws in another high-profile software. The attack sequences, according to Kaspersky, culminated in the deployment of malware families such as SIGNBT and LPEClient, a known hacking tool used by the threat actor for

iLeakage: New Safari Exploit Impacts Apple iPhones and Macs with A- and M-Series CPUs

A group of academics has devised a novel side-channel attack dubbed iLeakage that exploits a weakness in the A- and M-series CPUs running on Apple iOS, iPadOS, and macOS devices, enabling the extraction of sensitive information from the Safari web browser. "An attacker can induce Safari to render an arbitrary webpage, subsequently recovering sensitive information present within it using

Iranian Group Tortoiseshell Launches New Wave of IMAPLoader Malware Attacks

The Iranian threat actor known as Tortoiseshell has been attributed to a new wave of watering hole attacks that are designed to deploy a malware dubbed IMAPLoader. "IMAPLoader is a .NET malware that has the ability to fingerprint victim systems using native Windows utilities and acts as a downloader for further payloads," the PwC Threat Intelligence team said in a Wednesday analysis. "It uses

Critical Flaw in NextGen's Mirth Connect Could Expose Healthcare Data

Users of Mirth Connect, an open-source data integration platform from NextGen HealthCare, are being urged to update to the latest version following the discovery of an unauthenticated remote code execution vulnerability. Tracked as CVE-2023-43208, the vulnerability has been addressed in version 4.4.1 released on October 6, 2023. "This is an easily exploitable, unauthenticated remote code

YoroTrooper: Researchers Warn of Kazakhstan's Stealthy Cyber Espionage Group

A relatively new threat actor known as YoroTrooper is likely made up of operators originating from Kazakhstan. The assessment, which comes from Cisco Talos, is based on their fluency in Kazakh and Russian, use of Tenge to pay for operating infrastructure, and very limited targeting of Kazakhstani entities, barring the government's Anti-Corruption Agency. "YoroTrooper attempts to obfuscate the

Nation State Hackers Exploiting Zero-Day in Roundcube Webmail Software

The threat actor known as Winter Vivern has been observed exploiting a zero-day flaw in Roundcube webmail software on October 11, 2023, to harvest email messages from victims' accounts. "Winter Vivern has stepped up its operations by using a zero-day vulnerability in Roundcube," ESET security researcher Matthieu Faou said in a new report published today. Previously, it was using known

The Rise of S3 Ransomware: How to Identify and Combat It

In today's digital landscape, around 60% of corporate data now resides in the cloud, with Amazon S3 standing as the backbone of data storage for many major corporations.  Despite S3 being a secure service from a reputable provider, its pivotal role in handling vast amounts of sensitive data (customer personal information, financial data, intellectual property, etc.), provides a juicy target for

Act Now: VMware Releases Patch for Critical vCenter Server RCE Vulnerability

VMware has released security updates to address a critical flaw in the vCenter Server that could result in remote code execution on affected systems. The issue, tracked as CVE-2023-34048 (CVSS score: 9.8), has been described as an out-of-bounds write vulnerability in the implementation of the DCE/RPC protocol. "A malicious actor with network access to vCenter Server may trigger an out-of-bounds

Malvertising Campaign Targets Brazil's PIX Payment System with GoPIX Malware

The popularity of Brazil's PIX instant payment system has made it a lucrative target for threat actors looking to generate illicit profits using a new malware called GoPIX. Kaspersky, which has been tracking the active campaign since December 2022, said the attacks are pulled off using malicious ads that are served when potential victims search for "WhatsApp web" on search engines. "The

Alert: PoC Exploits Released for Citrix and VMware Vulnerabilities

Virtualization services provider VMware has alerted customers to the existence of a proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit for a recently patched security flaw in Aria Operations for Logs. Tracked as CVE-2023-34051 (CVSS score: 8.1), the high-severity vulnerability relates to a case of authentication bypass that could lead to remote code execution. "An unauthenticated, malicious actor can inject files

DoNot Team's New Firebird Backdoor Hits Pakistan and Afghanistan

The threat actor known as DoNot Team has been linked to the use of a novel .NET-based backdoor called Firebird targeting a handful of victims in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Cybersecurity company Kaspersky, which disclosed the findings in its APT trends report Q3 2023, said the attack chains are also configured to deliver a downloader named CSVtyrei, so named for its resemblance to Vtyrei. "Some

Quasar RAT Leverages DLL Side-Loading to Fly Under the Radar

The open-source remote access trojan known as Quasar RAT has been observed leveraging DLL side-loading to fly under the radar and stealthily siphon data from compromised Windows hosts. "This technique capitalizes on the inherent trust these files command within the Windows environment," Uptycs researchers Tejaswini Sandapolla and Karthickkumar Kathiresan said in a report published last week,

Europol Dismantles Ragnar Locker Ransomware Infrastructure, Nabs Key Developer

Europol on Friday announced the takedown of the infrastructure associated with Ragnar Locker ransomware, alongside the arrest of a "key target" in France. "In an action carried out between 16 and 20 October, searches were conducted in Czechia, Spain, and Latvia," the agency said. "The main perpetrator, suspected of being a developer of the Ragnar group, has been brought in front of the examining

Vietnamese Hackers Target U.K., U.S., and India with DarkGate Malware

Attacks leveraging the DarkGate commodity malware targeting entities in the U.K., the U.S., and India have been linked to Vietnamese actors associated with the use of the infamous Ducktail stealer. "The overlap of tools and campaigns is very likely due to the effects of a cybercrime marketplace," WithSecure said in a report published today. "Threat actors are able to acquire and use multiple

ExelaStealer: A New Low-Cost Cybercrime Weapon Emerges

A new information stealer named ExelaStealer has become the latest entrant to an already crowded landscape filled with various off-the-shelf malware designed to capture sensitive data from compromised Windows systems. "ExelaStealer is a largely open-source infostealer with paid customizations available from the threat actor," Fortinet FortiGuard Labs researcher James Slaughter said in a

Lazarus Group Targeting Defense Experts with Fake Interviews via Trojanized VNC Apps

The North Korea-linked Lazarus Group (aka Hidden Cobra or TEMP.Hermit) has been observed using trojanized versions of Virtual Network Computing (VNC) apps as lures to target the defense industry and nuclear engineers as part of a long-running campaign known as Operation Dream Job. "The threat actor tricks job seekers on social media into opening malicious apps for fake job interviews," Kaspersky

Qubitstrike Targets Jupyter Notebooks with Crypto Mining and Rootkit Campaign

A threat actor, presumably from Tunisia, has been linked to a new campaign targeting exposed Jupyter Notebooks in a two-fold attempt to illicitly mine cryptocurrency and breach cloud environments. Dubbed Qubitstrike by Cado, the intrusion set utilizes Telegram API to exfiltrate cloud service provider credentials following a successful compromise. "The payloads for the Qubitstrike campaign are

Discord: A Playground for Nation-State Hackers Targeting Critical Infrastructure

In what's the latest evolution of threat actors abusing legitimate infrastructure for nefarious ends, new findings show that nation-state hacking groups have entered the fray in leveraging the social platform for targeting critical infrastructure. Discord, in recent years, has become a lucrative target, acting as a fertile ground for hosting malware using its content delivery network (CDN) as

SpyNote: Beware of This Android Trojan that Records Audio and Phone Calls

The Android banking trojan known as SpyNote has been dissected to reveal its diverse information-gathering features. Typically spread via SMS phishing campaigns, attack chains involving the spyware trick potential victims into installing the app by clicking on the embedded link, according to F-Secure. Besides requesting invasive permissions to access call logs, camera, SMS messages, and external

New PEAPOD Cyberattack Campaign Targeting Women Political Leaders

European Union military personnel and political leaders working on gender equality initiatives have emerged as the target of a new campaign that delivers an updated version of RomCom RAT called PEAPOD. Cybersecurity firm Trend Micro attributed the attacks to a threat actor it tracks under the name Void Rabisu, which is also known as Storm-0978, Tropical Scorpius, and UNC2596, and is also

Researchers Unveil ToddyCat's New Set of Tools for Data Exfiltration

The advanced persistent threat (APT) actor known as ToddyCat has been linked to a new set of malicious tools that are designed for data exfiltration, offering a deeper insight into the hacking crew's tactics and capabilities. The findings come from Kaspersky, which first shed light on the adversary last year, linking it to attacks against high-profile entities in Europe and Asia for nearly three

Ransomware Attacks Double: Are Companies Prepared for 2024's Cyber Threats?

Ransomware attacks have only increased in sophistication and capabilities over the past year. From new evasion and anti-analysis techniques to stealthier variants coded in new languages, ransomware groups have adapted their tactics to effectively bypass common defense strategies.  Cyble, a renowned cyber threat intelligence company recognized for its research and findings, recently released its 

DarkGate Malware Spreading via Messaging Services Posing as PDF Files

A piece of malware known as DarkGate has been observed being spread via instant messaging platforms such as Skype and Microsoft Teams. In these attacks, the messaging apps are used to deliver a Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) loader script that masquerades as a PDF document, which, when opened, triggers the download and execution of an AutoIt script designed to launch the malware. "It's

FBI, CISA Warn of Rising AvosLocker Ransomware Attacks Against Critical Infrastructure

The AvosLocker ransomware gang has been linked to attacks against critical infrastructure sectors in the U.S., with some of them detected as recently as May 2023. That's according to a new joint cybersecurity advisory released by the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) detailing the ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation's

Microsoft Releases October 2023 Patches for 103 Flaws, Including 2 Active Exploits

Microsoft has released its Patch Tuesday updates for October 2023, addressing a total of 103 flaws in its software, two of which have come under active exploitation in the wild. Of the 103 flaws, 13 are rated Critical and 90 are rated Important in severity. This is apart from 18 security vulnerabilities addressed in its Chromium-based Edge browser since the second Tuesday of September. The two

Researchers Uncover Grayling APT's Ongoing Attack Campaign Across Industries

A previously undocumented threat actor of unknown provenance has been linked to a number of attacks targeting organizations in the manufacturing, IT, and biomedical sectors in Taiwan. The Symantec Threat Hunter Team, part of Broadcom, attributed the attacks to an advanced persistent threat (APT) it tracks under the name Grayling. Evidence shows that the campaign began in February 2023 and

PEACHPIT: Massive Ad Fraud Botnet Powered by Millions of Hacked Android and iOS

An ad fraud botnet dubbed PEACHPIT leveraged an army of hundreds of thousands of Android and iOS devices to generate illicit profits for the threat actors behind the scheme. The botnet is part of a larger China-based operation codenamed BADBOX, which also entails selling off-brand mobile and connected TV (CTV) devices on popular online retailers and resale sites that are backdoored with an 

Security Patch for Two New Flaws in Curl Library Arriving on October 11

The maintainers of the Curl library have released an advisory warning of two security vulnerabilities that are expected to be addressed as part of an forthcoming update set for release on October 11, 2023. This includes a high-severity and a low-severity flaw tracked under the identifiers CVE-2023-38545 and CVE-2023-38546, respectively. Additional details about the issues and the exact version

Supermicro's BMC Firmware Found Vulnerable to Multiple Critical Vulnerabilities

Multiple security vulnerabilities have been disclosed in the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) firmware for Supermicro baseboard management controllers (BMCs) that could result in privilege escalation and execution of malicious code on affected systems. The seven flaws, tracked from CVE-2023-40284 through CVE-2023-40290, vary in severity from High to Critical, according to Binarly

QakBot Threat Actors Still in Action, Using Ransom Knight and Remcos RAT in Latest Attacks

Despite the disruption to its infrastructure, the threat actors behind the QakBot malware have been linked to an ongoing phishing campaign since early August 2023 that led to the delivery of Ransom Knight (aka Cyclops) ransomware and Remcos RAT. This indicates that “the law enforcement operation may not have impacted Qakbot operators’ spam delivery infrastructure but rather only their