Hackers Deploy Python Backdoor in Palo Alto Zero-Day Attack

Threat actors have been exploiting the newly disclosed zero-day flaw in Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS software dating back to March 26, 2024, nearly three weeks before it came to light yesterday. The network security company's Unit 42 division is tracking the activity under the name Operation MidnightEclipse, attributing it as the work of a single threat actor of

Popular Rust Crate liblzma-sys Compromised with XZ Utils Backdoor Files

"Test files" associated with the XZ Utils backdoor have made their way to a Rust crate known as liblzma-sys, new findings from Phylum reveal. liblzma-sys, which has been downloaded over 21,000 times to date, provides Rust developers with bindings to the liblzma implementation, an underlying library that is part of the XZ Utils data compression software. The

Code Keepers: Mastering Non-Human Identity Management

Identities now transcend human boundaries. Within each line of code and every API call lies a non-human identity. These entities act as programmatic access keys, enabling authentication and facilitating interactions among systems and services, which are essential for every API call, database query, or storage account access. As we depend on multi-factor authentication and passwords to safeguard

Iranian MuddyWater Hackers Adopt New C2 Tool 'DarkBeatC2' in Latest Campaign

The Iranian threat actor known as MuddyWater has been attributed to a new command-and-control (C2) infrastructure called DarkBeatC2, becoming the latest such tool in its arsenal after SimpleHarm, MuddyC3, PhonyC2, and MuddyC2Go. "While occasionally switching to a new remote administration tool or changing their C2 framework, MuddyWater’s methods remain constant," Deep

Zero-Day Alert: Critical Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS Flaw Under Active Attack

Palo Alto Networks is warning that a critical flaw impacting PAN-OS software used in its GlobalProtect gateways is being actively exploited in the wild. Tracked as CVE-2024-3400, the issue has a CVSS score of 10.0, indicating maximum severity. "A command injection vulnerability in the GlobalProtect feature of Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS software for specific PAN-OS versions and distinct

Sneaky Credit Card Skimmer Disguised as Harmless Facebook Tracker

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a credit card skimmer that's concealed within a fake Meta Pixel tracker script in an attempt to evade detection. Sucuri said that the malware is injected into websites through tools that allow for custom code, such as WordPress plugins like Simple Custom CSS and JS or the "Miscellaneous Scripts" section of the Magento admin panel. "

U.S. Federal Agencies Ordered to Hunt for Signs of Microsoft Breach and Mitigate Risks

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Thursday issued an emergency directive (ED 24-02) urging federal agencies to hunt for signs of compromise and enact preventive measures following the recent compromise of Microsoft's systems that led to the theft of email correspondence with the company. The attack, which came to light earlier this year, has been

Python's PyPI Reveals Its Secrets

GitGuardian is famous for its annual State of Secrets Sprawl report. In their 2023 report, they found over 10 million exposed passwords, API keys, and other credentials exposed in public GitHub commits. The takeaways in their 2024 report did not just highlight 12.8 million new exposed secrets in GitHub, but a number in the popular Python package repository PyPI. PyPI,

TA547 Phishing Attack Hits German Firms with Rhadamanthys Stealer

A threat actor tracked as TA547 has targeted dozens of German organizations with an information stealer called Rhadamanthys as part of an invoice-themed phishing campaign. "This is the first time researchers observed TA547 use Rhadamanthys, an information stealer that is used by multiple cybercriminal threat actors," Proofpoint said. "Additionally, the actor appeared to

Apple Updates Spyware Alert System to Warn Victims of Mercenary Attacks

Apple on Wednesday revised its documentation pertaining to its mercenary spyware threat notification system to mention that it alerts users when they may have been individually targeted by such attacks. It also specifically called out companies like NSO Group for developing commercial surveillance tools such as Pegasus that are used by state actors to pull off "individually targeted

Fortinet Rolls Out Critical Security Patches for FortiClientLinux Vulnerability

Fortinet has released patches to address a critical security flaw impacting FortiClientLinux that could be exploited to achieve arbitrary code execution. Tracked as CVE-2023-45590, the vulnerability carries a CVSS score of 9.4 out of a maximum of 10. "An Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection') vulnerability [CWE-94] in FortiClientLinux may allow an unauthenticated attacker to

'eXotic Visit' Spyware Campaign Targets Android Users in India and Pakistan

An active Android malware campaign dubbed eXotic Visit has been primarily targeting users in South Asia, particularly those in India and Pakistan, with malware distributed via dedicated websites and Google Play Store. Slovak cybersecurity firm said the activity, ongoing since November 2021, is not linked to any known threat actor or group. It's tracking the group behind the operation under the

Raspberry Robin Returns: New Malware Campaign Spreading Through WSF Files

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new Raspberry Robin campaign wave that has been propagating the malware through malicious Windows Script Files (WSFs) since March 2024. "Historically, Raspberry Robin was known to spread through removable media like USB drives, but over time its distributors have experimented with other initial infection vectors," HP Wolf Security researcher Patrick

Beware: GitHub's Fake Popularity Scam Tricking Developers into Downloading Malware

Threat actors are now taking advantage of GitHub's search functionality to trick unsuspecting users looking for popular repositories into downloading spurious counterparts that serve malware. The latest assault on the open-source software supply chain involves concealing malicious code within Microsoft Visual Code project files that's designed to download next-stage payloads from a remote URL,

Hands-on Review: Cynomi AI-powered vCISO Platform

The need for vCISO services is growing. SMBs and SMEs are dealing with more third-party risks, tightening regulatory demands and stringent cyber insurance requirements than ever before. However, they often lack the resources and expertise to hire an in-house security executive team. By outsourcing security and compliance leadership to a vCISO, these organizations can more easily obtain

Researchers Uncover First Native Spectre v2 Exploit Against Linux Kernel

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed what they say is the "first native Spectre v2 exploit" against the Linux kernel on Intel systems that could be exploited to read sensitive data from the memory. The exploit, called Native Branch History Injection (BHI), can be used to leak arbitrary kernel memory at 3.5 kB/sec by bypassing existing Spectre v2/BHI mitigations, researchers from Systems and

Webinar: Learn How to Stop Hackers from Exploiting Hidden Identity Weaknesses

We all know passwords and firewalls are important, but what about the invisible threats lurking beneath the surface of your systems? Identity Threat Exposures (ITEs) are like secret tunnels for hackers – they make your security way more vulnerable than you think. Think of it like this: misconfigurations, forgotten accounts, and old settings are like cracks in your digital fortress walls. Hackers

Microsoft Fixes 149 Flaws in Huge April Patch Release, Zero-Days Included

Microsoft has released security updates for the month of April 2024 to remediate a record 149 flaws, two of which have come under active exploitation in the wild. Of the 149 flaws, three are rated Critical, 142 are rated Important, three are rated Moderate, and one is rated Low in severity. The update is aside from 21 vulnerabilities that the company addressed in its

Critical 'BatBadBut' Rust Vulnerability Exposes Windows Systems to Attacks

A critical security flaw in the Rust standard library could be exploited to target Windows users and stage command injection attacks. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-24576, has a CVSS score of 10.0, indicating maximum severity. That said, it only impacts scenarios where batch files are invoked on Windows with untrusted arguments. "The Rust standard library did not properly escape

10-Year-Old 'RUBYCARP' Romanian Hacker Group Surfaces with Botnet

A threat group of suspected Romanian origin called RUBYCARP has been observed maintaining a long-running botnet for carrying out crypto mining, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS), and phishing attacks. The group, believed to be active for at least 10 years, employs the botnet for financial gain, Sysdig said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "Its primary method of operation

Hackers Targeting Human Rights Activists in Morocco and Western Sahara

Human rights activists in Morocco and the Western Sahara region are the targets of a new threat actor that leverages phishing attacks to trick victims into installing bogus Android apps and serve credential harvesting pages for Windows users. Cisco Talos is tracking the activity cluster under the name Starry Addax, describing it as primarily singling out activists associated with

Researchers Discover LG Smart TV Vulnerabilities Allowing Root Access

Multiple security vulnerabilities have been disclosed in LG webOS running on its smart televisions that could be exploited to bypass authorization and gain root access on the devices. The findings come from Romanian cybersecurity firm Bitdefender, which discovered and reported the flaws in November 2023. The issues were fixed by LG as part of updates released on March 22, 2024. The

CL0P's Ransomware Rampage - Security Measures for 2024

2023 CL0P Growth  Emerging in early 2019, CL0P was first introduced as a more advanced version of its predecessor the ‘CryptoMix’ ransomware, brought about by its owner CL0P ransomware, a cybercrime organisation. Over the years the group remained active with significant campaigns throughout 2020 to 2022. But in 2023 the CL0P ransomware gang took itself to new heights and became one of the

Attackers Using Obfuscation Tools to Deliver Multi-Stage Malware via Invoice Phishing

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered an intricate multi-stage attack that leverages invoice-themed phishing decoys to deliver a wide range of malware such as Venom RAT, Remcos RAT, XWorm, NanoCore RAT, and a stealer that targets crypto wallets. The email messages come with Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file attachments that, when clicked, activate the infection sequence, Fortinet

Critical Flaws Leave 92,000 D-Link NAS Devices Vulnerable to Malware Attacks

Threat actors are actively scanning and exploiting a pair of security flaws that are said to affect as many as 92,000 internet-exposed D-Link network-attached storage (NAS) devices. Tracked as CVE-2024-3272 (CVSS score: 9.8) and CVE-2024-3273 (CVSS score: 7.3), the vulnerabilities impact legacy D-Link products that have reached end-of-life (EoL) status. D-Link, in

Google Chrome Adds V8 Sandbox - A New Defense Against Browser Attacks

Google has announced support for what's called a V8 Sandbox in the Chrome web browser in an effort to address memory corruption issues. The sandbox, according to V8 security technical lead Samuel Groß, aims to prevent "memory corruption in V8 from spreading within the host process." The search behemoth has described V8 Sandbox as a lightweight, in-process sandbox

Watch Out for 'Latrodectus' - This Malware Could Be In Your Inbox

Threat hunters have discovered a new malware called Latrodectus that has been distributed as part of email phishing campaigns since at least late November 2023. "Latrodectus is an up-and-coming downloader with various sandbox evasion functionality," researchers from Proofpoint and Team Cymru said in a joint analysis published last week, adding it's designed to retrieve

The Drop in Ransomware Attacks in 2024 and What it Means

The ransomware industry surged in 2023 as it saw an alarming 55.5% increase in victims worldwide, reaching a staggering 5,070. But 2024 is starting off showing a very different picture. While the numbers skyrocketed in Q4 2023 with 1309 cases, in Q1 2024, the ransomware industry was down to 1,048 cases. This is a 22% decrease in ransomware attacks compared to Q4 2023. Figure

Cybercriminals Targeting Latin America with Sophisticated Phishing Scheme

A new phishing campaign has set its eyes on the Latin American region to deliver malicious payloads to Windows systems. "The phishing email contained a ZIP file attachment that when extracted reveals an HTML file that leads to a malicious file download posing as an invoice," Trustwave SpiderLabs researcher Karla Agregado said. The email message, the company said, originates from an email

Google Sues App Developers Over Fake Crypto Investment App Scam

Google has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. against two app developers for allegedly engaging in an "international online consumer investment fraud scheme" that tricked users into downloading bogus Android apps from the Google Play Store and other sources and stealing their funds under the guise of promising higher returns. The individuals in question are Yunfeng Sun (aka Alphonse Sun) and Hongnam

Hackers Exploit Magento Bug to Steal Payment Data from E-commerce Websites

Threat actors have been found exploiting a critical flaw in Magento to inject a persistent backdoor into e-commerce websites. The attack leverages CVE-2024-20720 (CVSS score: 9.1), which has been described by Adobe as a case of "improper neutralization of special elements" that could pave the way for arbitrary code execution. It was addressed by the company as part of

AI-as-a-Service Providers Vulnerable to PrivEsc and Cross-Tenant Attacks

New research has found that artificial intelligence (AI)-as-a-service providers such as Hugging Face are susceptible to two critical risks that could allow threat actors to escalate privileges, gain cross-tenant access to other customers' models, and even take over the continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines. "Malicious models represent a major risk to AI systems,

CISO Perspectives on Complying with Cybersecurity Regulations

Compliance requirements are meant to increase cybersecurity transparency and accountability. As cyber threats increase, so do the number of compliance frameworks and the specificity of the security controls, policies, and activities they include. For CISOs and their teams, that means compliance is a time-consuming, high-stakes process that demands strong organizational and

From PDFs to Payload: Bogus Adobe Acrobat Reader Installers Distribute Byakugan Malware

Bogus installers for Adobe Acrobat Reader are being used to distribute a new multi-functional malware dubbed Byakugan. The starting point of the attack is a PDF file written in Portuguese that, when opened, shows a blurred image and asks the victim to click on a link to download the Reader application to view the content. According to Fortinet FortiGuard Labs, clicking the URL

New Wave of JSOutProx Malware Targeting Financial Firms in APAC and MENA

Financial organizations in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) and Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are being targeted by a new version of an "evolving threat" called JSOutProx. "JSOutProx is a sophisticated attack framework utilizing both JavaScript and .NET," Resecurity said in a technical report published this week. "It employs the .NET (de)serialization feature to interact with a core

Researchers Identify Multiple China Hacker Groups Exploiting Ivanti Security Flaws

Multiple China-nexus threat actors have been linked to the zero-day exploitation of three security flaws impacting Ivanti appliances (CVE-2023-46805, CVE-2024-21887, and CVE-2024-21893). The clusters are being tracked by Mandiant under the uncategorized monikers UNC5221, UNC5266, UNC5291, UNC5325, UNC5330, and UNC5337. Also previously linked to the exploitation spree is a Chinese

Vietnam-Based Hackers Steal Financial Data Across Asia with Malware

A suspected Vietnamese-origin threat actor has been observed targeting victims in several Asian and Southeast Asian countries with malware designed to harvest valuable data since at least May 2023. Cisco Talos is tracking the cluster under the name CoralRaider, describing it as financially motivated. Targets of the campaign include India, China, South Korea, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia,

New Phishing Campaign Targets Oil & Gas with Evolved Data-Stealing Malware

An updated version of an information-stealing malware called Rhadamanthys is being used in phishing campaigns targeting the oil and gas sector. "The phishing emails use a unique vehicle incident lure and, in later stages of the infection chain, spoof the Federal Bureau of Transportation in a PDF that mentions a significant fine for the incident," Cofense researcher Dylan Duncan said. The

Considerations for Operational Technology Cybersecurity

Operational Technology (OT) refers to the hardware and software used to change, monitor, or control the enterprise's physical devices, processes, and events. Unlike traditional Information Technology (IT) systems, OT systems directly impact the physical world. This unique characteristic of OT brings additional cybersecurity considerations not typically present in conventional IT security

New HTTP/2 Vulnerability Exposes Web Servers to DoS Attacks

New research has found that the CONTINUATION frame in the HTTP/2 protocol can be exploited to conduct denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. The technique has been codenamed HTTP/2 CONTINUATION Flood by security researcher Bartek Nowotarski, who reported the issue to the CERT Coordination Center (CERT/CC) on January 25, 2024. "Many HTTP/2 implementations do not properly limit or sanitize the

Ivanti Rushes Patches for 4 New Flaws in Connect Secure and Policy Secure

Ivanti has released security updates to address four security flaws impacting Connect Secure and Policy Secure Gateways that could result in code execution and denial-of-service (DoS). The list of flaws is as follows - CVE-2024-21894 (CVSS score: 8.2) - A heap overflow vulnerability in the IPSec component of Ivanti Connect Secure (9.x, 22.x) and Ivanti Policy Secure allows an

Google Warns: Android Zero-Day Flaws in Pixel Phones Exploited by Forensic Companies

Google has disclosed that two Android security flaws impacting its Pixel smartphones have been exploited in the wild by forensic companies. The high-severity zero-day vulnerabilities are as follows - CVE-2024-29745 - An information disclosure flaw in the bootloader component CVE-2024-29748 - A privilege escalation flaw in the firmware component "There are indications that the [

U.S. Cyber Safety Board Slams Microsoft Over Breach by China-Based Hackers

The U.S. Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB) has criticized Microsoft for a series of security lapses that led to the breach of nearly two dozen companies across Europe and the U.S. by a China-based nation-state group called Storm-0558 last year. The findings, released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Tuesday, found that the intrusion was preventable, and that it became successful

Google Chrome Beta Tests New DBSC Protection Against Cookie-Stealing Attacks

Google on Tuesday said it's piloting a new feature in Chrome called Device Bound Session Credentials (DBSC) to help protect users against session cookie theft by malware. The prototype – currently tested against "some" Google Account users running Chrome Beta – is built with an aim to make it an open web standard, the tech giant's Chromium team said. "By binding authentication sessions to the

Attack Surface Management vs. Vulnerability Management

Attack surface management (ASM) and vulnerability management (VM) are often confused, and while they overlap, they’re not the same. The main difference between attack surface management and vulnerability management is in their scope: vulnerability management checks a list of known assets, while attack surface management assumes you have unknown assets and so begins with discovery. Let’s look at

Mispadu Trojan Targets Europe, Thousands of Credentials Compromised

The banking trojan known as Mispadu has expanded its focus beyond Latin America (LATAM) and Spanish-speaking individuals to target users in Italy, Poland, and Sweden. Targets of the ongoing campaign include entities spanning finance, services, motor vehicle manufacturing, law firms, and commercial facilities, according to Morphisec. "Despite the geographic expansion, Mexico remains the

Critical Security Flaw Found in Popular LayerSlider WordPress Plugin

A critical security flaw impacting the LayerSlider plugin for WordPress could be abused to extract sensitive information from databases, such as password hashes. The flaw, designated as CVE-2024-2879, carries a CVSS score of 9.8 out of a maximum of 10.0. It has been described as a case of SQL injection impacting versions from 7.9.11 through 7.10.0. The issue has been addressed in version

Malicious Code in XZ Utils for Linux Systems Enables Remote Code Execution

The malicious code inserted into the open-source library XZ Utils, a widely used package present in major Linux distributions, is also capable of facilitating remote code execution, a new analysis has revealed. The audacious supply chain compromise, tracked as CVE-2024-3094 (CVSS score: 10.0), came to light last week when Microsoft engineer and PostgreSQL developer Andres Freund

China-linked Hackers Deploy New 'UNAPIMON' Malware for Stealthy Operations

A threat activity cluster tracked as Earth Freybug has been observed using a new malware called UNAPIMON to fly under the radar. "Earth Freybug is a cyberthreat group that has been active since at least 2012 that focuses on espionage and financially motivated activities," Trend Micro security researcher Christopher So said in a report published today. "It has been observed to

Harnessing the Power of CTEM for Cloud Security

Cloud solutions are more mainstream – and therefore more exposed – than ever before. In 2023 alone, a staggering 82% of data breaches were against public, private, or hybrid cloud environments. What’s more, nearly 40% of breaches spanned multiple cloud environments. The average cost of a cloud breach was above the overall average, at $4.75 million. In a time where cloud has become the de facto

Google to Delete Billions of Browsing Records in 'Incognito Mode' Privacy Lawsuit Settlement

Google has agreed to purge billions of data records reflecting users' browsing activities to settle a class action lawsuit that claimed the search giant tracked them without their knowledge or consent in its Chrome browser. The class action, filed in 2020, alleged the company misled users by tracking their internet browsing activity who thought that it remained private when using the "

Massive Phishing Campaign Strikes Latin America: Venom RAT Targeting Multiple Sectors

The threat actor known as TA558 has been attributed to a new massive phishing campaign that targets a wide range of sectors in Latin America with the goal of deploying Venom RAT. The attacks primarily singled out hotel, travel, trading, financial, manufacturing, industrial, and government verticals in Spain, Mexico, the United States, Colombia, Portugal, Brazil, Dominican Republic, and

Indian Government Rescues 250 Citizens Forced into Cybercrime in Cambodia

The Indian government said it has rescued and repatriated about 250 citizens in Cambodia who were held captive and coerced into running cyber scams. The Indian nationals "were lured with employment opportunities to that country but were forced to undertake illegal cyber work," the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement, adding it had rescued 75 people in the past three

Detecting Windows-based Malware Through Better Visibility

Despite a plethora of available security solutions, more and more organizations fall victim to Ransomware and other threats. These continued threats aren't just an inconvenience that hurt businesses and end users - they damage the economy, endanger lives, destroy businesses and put national security at risk. But if that wasn’t enough – North Korea appears to be using revenue from cyber

Malicious Apps Caught Secretly Turning Android Phones into Proxies for Cybercriminals

Several malicious Android apps that turn mobile devices running the operating system into residential proxies (RESIPs) for other threat actors have been observed on the Google Play Store. The findings come from HUMAN's Satori Threat Intelligence team, which said the cluster of VPN apps came fitted with a Golang library that transformed the user's device into a proxy node without their knowledge.

Vultur Android Banking Trojan Returns with Upgraded Remote Control Capabilities

The Android banking trojan known as Vultur has resurfaced with a suite of new features and improved anti-analysis and detection evasion techniques, enabling its operators to remotely interact with a mobile device and harvest sensitive data. "Vultur has also started masquerading more of its malicious activity by encrypting its C2 communication, using multiple encrypted payloads that are decrypted

Hackers Target macOS Users with Malicious Ads Spreading Stealer Malware

Malicious ads and bogus websites are acting as a conduit to deliver two different stealer malware, including Atomic Stealer, targeting Apple macOS users. The ongoing infostealer attacks targeting macOS users may have adopted different methods to compromise victims' Macs, but operate with the end goal of stealing sensitive data, Jamf Threat Labs said in a report published Friday. One

Urgent: Secret Backdoor Found in XZ Utils Library, Impacts Major Linux Distros

Red Hat on Friday released an "urgent security alert" warning that two versions of a popular data compression library called XZ Utils (previously LZMA Utils) have been backdoored with malicious code designed to allow unauthorized remote access. The software supply chain compromise, tracked as CVE-2024-3094, has a CVSS score of 10.0, indicating maximum severity. It impacts XZ Utils

Dormakaba Locks Used in Millions of Hotel Rooms Could Be Cracked in Seconds

Security vulnerabilities discovered in Dormakaba's Saflok electronic RFID locks used in hotels could be weaponized by threat actors to forge keycards and stealthily slip into locked rooms. The shortcomings have been collectively named Unsaflok by researchers Lennert Wouters, Ian Carroll, rqu, BusesCanFly, Sam Curry, sshell, and Will Caruana. They were reported to the Zurich-based

TheMoon Botnet Resurfaces, Exploiting EoL Devices to Power Criminal Proxy

A botnet previously considered to be rendered inert has been observed enslaving end-of-life (EoL) small home/small office (SOHO) routers and IoT devices to fuel a criminal proxy service called Faceless. "TheMoon, which emerged in 2014, has been operating quietly while growing to over 40,000 bots from 88 countries in January and February of 2024," the Black Lotus Labs team at Lumen