Microsoft Finds Critical Bugs in Pre-Installed Apps on Millions of Android Devices

Four high severity vulnerabilities have been disclosed in a framework used by pre-installed Android System apps with millions of downloads. The issues, now fixed by its Israeli developer MCE Systems, could have potentially allowed threat actors to stage remote and local attacks or be abused as vectors to obtain sensitive information by taking advantage of their extensive system privileges. "As

New York Man Sentenced to 4 Years in Transnational Cybercrime Scheme

A 37-year-old man from New York has been sentenced to four years in prison for buying stolen credit card information and working in cahoots with a cybercrime cartel known as the Infraud Organization. John Telusma, who went by the alias "Peterelliot," had previously pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy on October 13, 2021. He joined the gang in August 2011 and remained a member

FBI Warns About Hackers Selling VPN Credentials for U.S. College Networks

Network credentials and virtual private network (VPN) access for colleges and universities based in the U.S. are being advertised for sale on underground and public criminal marketplaces. "This exposure of sensitive credential and network access information, especially privileged user accounts, could lead to subsequent cyber attacks against individual users or affiliated organizations," the U.S.

New 'GoodWill' Ransomware Forces Victims to Donate Money and Clothes to the Poor

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed a new ransomware strain called GoodWill that compels victims into donating for social causes and provide financial assistance to people in need. "The ransomware group propagates very unusual demands in exchange for the decryption key," researchers from CloudSEK said in a report published last week. "The Robin Hood-like group claims to be interested in

Watch Out! Researchers Spot New Microsoft Office Zero-Day Exploit in the Wild

Cybersecurity researchers are calling attention to a zero-day flaw in Microsoft Office that could be abused to achieve arbitrary code execution on affected Windows systems. The vulnerability came to light after an independent cybersecurity research team known as nao_sec uncovered a Word document ("05-2022-0438.doc") that was uploaded to VirusTotal from an IP address in Belarus. "It uses Word's

EnemyBot Linux Botnet Now Exploits Web Server, Android and CMS Vulnerabilities

A nascent Linux-based botnet named Enemybot has expanded its capabilities to include recently disclosed security vulnerabilities in its arsenal to target web servers, Android devices, and content management systems (CMS). "The malware is rapidly adopting one-day vulnerabilities as part of its exploitation capabilities," AT&T Alien Labs said in a technical write-up published last week. "Services

Is 3rd Party App Access the New Executable File?

It's no secret that 3rd party apps can boost productivity, enable remote and hybrid work and are overall, essential in building and scaling a company's work processes.  An innocuous process much like clicking on an attachment was in the earlier days of email, people don't think twice when connecting an app they need with their Google workspace or M365 environment, etc. Simple actions that users

Microsoft Releases Workarounds for Office Vulnerability Under Active Exploitation

Microsoft on Monday published guidance for a newly discovered zero-day security flaw in its Office productivity suite that could be exploited to achieve code execution on affected systems. The weakness, now assigned the identifier CVE-2022-30190, is rated 7.8 out of 10 for severity on the CVSS vulnerability scoring system. Microsoft Office versions Office 2013, Office 2016, Office 2019, and

Interpol Nabs 3 Nigerian Scammers Behind Malware-based Attacks

Interpol on Monday announced the arrest of three suspected global scammers in Nigeria for using remote access trojans (RATs) such as Agent Tesla to facilitate malware-enabled cyber fraud. "The men are thought to have used the RAT to reroute financial transactions, stealing confidential online connection details from corporate organizations, including oil and gas companies in South East Asia, the

Learn Raspberry Pi and Arduino with 9 Online Developer Training Courses

This is an exciting time for the Internet of Things. According to Deloitte research, the average U.S. household now has 25 connected devices — and new products are being launched every day. This rush of demand means that many tech companies are looking for developers with IoT knowledge. And even if you don’t want to specialize in this field, the programming skills are transferable. Featuring

SideWinder Hackers Launched Over a 1,000 Cyber Attacks Over the Past 2 Years

An "aggressive" advanced persistent threat (APT) group known as SideWinder has been linked to over 1,000 new attacks since April 2020. "Some of the main characteristics of this threat actor that make it stand out among the others, are the sheer number, high frequency and persistence of their attacks and the large collection of encrypted and obfuscated malicious components used in their

Latest Mobile Malware Report Suggests On-Device Fraud is on the Rise

An analysis of the mobile threat landscape in 2022 shows that Spain and Turkey are the most targeted countries for malware campaigns, even as a mix of new and existing banking trojans are increasingly targeting Android devices to conduct on-device fraud (ODF). Other frequently targeted countries include Poland, Australia, the U.S., Germany, the U.K., Italy, France, and Portugal. "The most

Chinese Hackers Begin Exploiting Latest Microsoft Office Zero-Day Vulnerability

An advanced persistent threat (APT) actor aligned with Chinese state interests has been observed weaponizing the new zero-day flaw in Microsoft Office to achieve code execution on affected systems. "TA413 CN APT spotted [in-the-wild] exploiting the Follina zero-day using URLs to deliver ZIP archives which contain Word Documents that use the technique," enterprise security firm Proofpoint said in

New XLoader Botnet Version Using Probability Theory to Hide its C&C Servers

An enhanced version of the XLoader malware has been spotted adopting a probability-based approach to camouflage its command-and-control (C&C) infrastructure, according to the latest research. "Now it is significantly harder to separate the wheat from the chaff and discover the real C&C servers among thousands of legitimate domains used by Xloader as a smokescreen," Israeli cybersecurity company

YODA Tool Found ~47,000 Malicious WordPress Plugins Installed in Over 24,000 Sites

As many as 47,337 malicious plugins have been uncovered on 24,931 unique websites, out of which 3,685 plugins were sold on legitimate marketplaces, netting the attackers $41,500 in illegal revenues. The findings come from a new tool called YODA that aims to detect rogue WordPress plugins and track down their origin, according to an 8-year-long study conducted by a group of researchers from the

FluBot Android Spyware Taken Down in Global Law Enforcement Operation

An international law enforcement operation involving 11 countries has culminated in the takedown of a notorious mobile malware threat called FluBot. "This Android malware has been spreading aggressively through SMS, stealing passwords, online banking details and other sensitive information from infected smartphones across the world," Europol said in a statement. <!--adsense--> The "complex

New Unpatched Horde Webmail Bug Lets Hackers Take Over Server by Sending Email

A new unpatched security vulnerability has been disclosed in the open-source Horde Webmail client that could be exploited to achieve remote code execution on the email server simply by sending a specially crafted email to a victim. "Once the email is viewed, the attacker can silently take over the complete mail server without any further user interaction," SonarSource said in a report shared

DOJ Seizes 3 Web Domains Used to Sell Stolen Data and DDoS Services

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Wednesday announced the seizure of three domains used by cybercriminals to trade stolen personal information and facilitate distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks for hire. This includes weleakinfo[.]to, ipstress[.]in, and ovh-booter[.]com, the first of which allowed its users to traffic hacked personal data and offered a searchable database

SideWinder Hackers Use Fake Android VPN Apps to Target Pakistani Entities

The threat actor known as SideWinder has added a new custom tool to its arsenal of malware that's being used in phishing attacks against Pakistani public and private sector entities. "Phishing links in emails or posts that mimic legitimate notifications and services of government agencies and organizations in Pakistan are primary attack vectors of the gang," Singapore-headquartered cybersecurity

Critical UNISOC Chip Vulnerability Affects Millions of Android Smartphones

A critical security flaw has been uncovered in UNISOC's smartphone chipset that could be potentially weaponized to disrupt a smartphone's radio communications through a malformed packet. "Left unpatched, a hacker or a military unit can leverage such a vulnerability to neutralize communications in a specific location," Israeli cybersecurity company Check Point said in a report shared with The

ExpressVPN Removes Servers in India After Refusing to Comply with Government Order

Virtual Private Network (VPN) provider ExpressVPN on Thursday announced that it's removing Indian-based VPN servers in response to a new cybersecurity directive issued by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In). "Rest assured, our users will still be able to connect to VPN servers that will give them Indian IP addresses and allow them to access the internet as if they were located

Researchers Demonstrate Ransomware for IoT Devices That Targets IT and OT Networks

As ransomware infections have evolved from purely encrypting data to schemes such as double and triple extortion, a new attack vector is likely to set the stage for future campaigns. Called Ransomware for IoT or R4IoT by Forescout, it's a "novel, proof-of-concept ransomware that exploits an IoT device to gain access and move laterally in an IT [information technology] network and impact the OT [

Conti Leaks Reveal Ransomware Gang's Interest in Firmware-based Attacks

An analysis of leaked chats from the notorious Conti ransomware group earlier this year has revealed that the syndicate has been working on a set of firmware attack techniques that could offer a path to accessing privileged code on compromised devices. "Control over firmware gives attackers virtually unmatched powers both to directly cause damage and to enable other long-term strategic goals,"

Threat Detection Software: A Deep Dive

As the threat landscape evolves and multiplies with more advanced attacks than ever, defending against these modern cyber threats is a monumental challenge for almost any organization.  Threat detection is about an organization’s ability to accurately identify threats, be it to the network, an endpoint, another asset or an application – including cloud infrastructure and assets. At scale, threat

Hackers Exploiting Unpatched Critical Atlassian Confluence Zero-Day Vulnerability

Atlassian has warned of a critical unpatched remote code execution vulnerability impacting Confluence Server and Data Center products that it said is being actively exploited in the wild. The Australian software company credited cybersecurity firm Volexity for identifying the flaw, which is being tracked as CVE-2022-26134. "Atlassian has been made aware of current active exploitation of a

Microsoft Blocks Iran-linked Lebanese Hackers Targeting Israeli Companies

Microsoft on Thursday said it took steps to disable malicious activity stemming from abuse of OneDrive by a previously undocumented threat actor it tracks under the chemical element-themed moniker Polonium. In addition to removing the offending accounts created by the Lebanon-based activity group, the tech giant's Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) said it suspended over 20 malicious OneDrive

Researchers Uncover Malware Controlling Thousands of Sites in Parrot TDS Network

The Parrot traffic direction system (TDS) that came to light earlier this year has had a larger impact than previously thought, according to new research. Sucuri, which has been tracking the same campaign since February 2019 under the name "NDSW/NDSX," said that "the malware was one of the top infections" detected in 2021, accounting for more than 61,000 websites. Parrot TDS was documented in

Chinese LuoYu Hackers Using Man-on-the-Side Attacks to Deploy WinDealer Backdoor

An "extremely sophisticated" Chinese-speaking advanced persistent threat (APT) actor dubbed LuoYu has been observed using a malicious Windows tool called WinDealer that's delivered by means of man-on-the-side attacks. "This groundbreaking development allows the actor to modify network traffic in-transit to insert malicious payloads," Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky said in a new report.

GitLab Issues Security Patch for Critical Account Takeover Vulnerability

GitLab has moved to address a critical security flaw in its service that, if successfully exploited, could result in an account takeover. Tracked as CVE-2022-1680, the issue has a CVSS severity score of 9.9 and was discovered internally by the company. The security flaw affects all versions of GitLab Enterprise Edition (EE) starting from 11.10 before 14.9.5, all versions starting from 14.10

Atlassian Releases Patch for Confluence Zero-Day Flaw Exploited in the Wild

Atlassian on Friday rolled out fixes to address a critical security flaw affecting its Confluence Server and Data Center products that have come under active exploitation by threat actors to achieve remote code execution. Tracked as CVE-2022-26134, the issue is similar to CVE-2021-26084 — another security flaw the Australian software company patched in August 2021. Both relate to a case of

State-Backed Hackers Exploit Microsoft 'Follina' Bug to Target Entities in Europe and U.S

A suspected state-aligned threat actor has been attributed to a new set of attacks exploiting the Microsoft Office "Follina" vulnerability to target government entities in Europe and the U.S. Enterprise security firm Proofpoint said it blocked attempts at exploiting the remote code execution flaw, which is being tracked as CVE-2022-30190 (CVSS score: 7.8). No less than 1,000 phishing messages

CISA Warned About Critical Vulnerabilities in Illumina's DNA Sequencing Devices

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have issued an advisory about critical security vulnerabilities in Illumina's next-generation sequencing (NGS) software. Three of the flaws are rated 10 out of 10 for severity on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS), with two others having severity ratings of 9.1 and 7.4. The issues

Microsoft Seizes 41 Domains Used in Spear-Phishing Attacks by Bohrium Hackers

Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) last week disclosed that it had taken legal proceedings against an Iranian threat actor dubbed Bohrium in connection with a spear-phishing operation. The adversarial collective is said to have targeted entities in tech, transportation, government, and education sectors located in the U.S., Middle East, and India. <!--adsense--> "Bohrium actors create fake

Be Proactive! Shift Security Validation Left

"Shifting (security)" left approach in Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) means starting security earlier in the process. As organizations realized that software never comes out perfectly and are riddled with many exploitable holes, bugs, and business logic vulnerabilities that require going back to fix and patch, they understood that building secure software requires incorporating and

Unpatched Critical Flaws Disclosed in U-Boot Bootloader for Embedded Devices

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed two unpatched security vulnerabilities in the open-source U-Boot boot loader. The issues, which were uncovered in the IP defragmentation algorithm implemented in U-Boot by NCC Group, could be abused to achieve arbitrary out-of-bounds write and denial-of-service (DoS). U-Boot is a boot loader used in Linux-based embedded systems such as ChromeOS as well as

10 Most Prolific Banking Trojans Targeting Hundreds of Financial Apps with Over a Billion Users

10 of the most prolific mobile banking trojans have set their eyes on 639 financial applications that are available on the Google Play Store and have been cumulatively downloaded over 1.01 billion times. Some of the most targeted apps include Walmart-backed PhonePe, Binance, Cash App, Garanti BBVA Mobile, La Banque Postale, Ma Banque, Caf - Mon Compte, Postepay, and BBVA México. These apps alone

Apple's New Feature Will Install Security Updates Automatically Without Full OS Update

Apple has introduced a Rapid Security Response feature in iOS 16 and macOS Ventura that's designed to deploy security fixes without the need for a full operating system version update. "macOS security gets even stronger with new tools that make the Mac more resistant to attack, including Rapid Security Response that works in between normal updates to easily keep security up to date without a

Researchers Warn of Spam Campaign Targeting Victims with SVCReady Malware

A new wave of phishing campaigns has been observed spreading a previously documented malware called SVCReady. "The malware is notable for the unusual way it is delivered to target PCs — using shellcode hidden in the properties of Microsoft Office documents," Patrick Schläpfer, a threat analyst at HP, said in a technical write-up. SVCReady is said to be in its early stage of development, with the

Hacking Scenarios: How Hackers Choose Their Victims

Enforcing the "double-extortion" technique aka pay-now-or-get-breached emerged as a head-turner last year.  May 6th, 2022 is a recent example. The State Department said the Conti strain of ransomware was the most costly in terms of payments made by victims as of January. Conti, a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) program, is one of the most notorious ransomware groups and has been responsible for

Evil Corp Cybercrime Group Shifts to LockBit Ransomware to Evade Sanctions

The threat cluster dubbed UNC2165, which shares numerous overlaps with a Russia-based cybercrime group known as Evil Corp, has been linked to multiple LockBit ransomware intrusions in what's seen as an attempt by the latter to get around sanctions imposed by the U.S. Treasury in December 2019. "These actors have shifted away from using exclusive ransomware variants to LockBit — a well-known

FBI Seizes 'SSNDOB' ID Theft Service for Selling Personal Info of 24 Million People

An illicit online marketplace known as SSNDOB was taken down in operation led by U.S. law enforcement agencies, the Department of Justice (DoJ) announced Tuesday. SSNDOB trafficked in personal information such as names, dates of birth, credit card numbers, and Social Security numbers of about 24 million individuals in the U.S., generating its operators $19 million in sales revenue. The action

U.S. Agencies Warn About Chinese Hackers Targeting Telecoms and Network Service Providers

U.S. cybersecurity and intelligence agencies have warned about China-based state-sponsored cyber actors leveraging network vulnerabilities to exploit public and private sector organizations since at least 2020. The widespread intrusion campaigns aim to exploit publicly identified security flaws in network devices such as Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) routers and Network Attached Storage (NAS)

Researchers Warn of Unpatched "DogWalk" Microsoft Windows Vulnerability

An unofficial security patch has been made available for a new Windows zero-day vulnerability in the Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool (MSDT), even as the Follina flaw continues to be exploited in the wild. The issue — referenced as DogWalk — relates to a path traversal flaw that can be exploited to stash a malicious executable file to the Windows Startup folder when a potential target opens a

New Emotet Variant Stealing Users' Credit Card Information from Google Chrome

Image Source: Toptal The notorious Emotet malware has turned to deploy a new module designed to siphon credit card information stored in the Chrome web browser. The credit card stealer, which exclusively singles out Chrome, has the ability to exfiltrate the collected information to different remote command-and-control (C2) servers, according to enterprise security company Proofpoint, which

A Decade-Long Chinese Espionage Campaign Targets Southeast Asia and Australia

A previously undocumented Chinese-speaking advanced persistent threat (APT) actor dubbed Aoqin Dragon has been linked to a string of espionage-oriented attacks aimed at government, education, and telecom entities chiefly in Southeast Asia and Australia dating as far back as 2013. "Aoqin Dragon seeks initial access primarily through document exploits and the use of fake removable devices,"

Even the Most Advanced Threats Rely on Unpatched Systems

Common cybercriminals are a menace, there's no doubt about it – from bedroom hackers through to ransomware groups, cybercriminals are causing a lot of damage. But both the tools used and the threat posed by common cybercriminals pale in comparison to the tools used by more professional groups such as the famous hacking groups and state-sponsored groups. In fact, these tools can prove almost

Symbiote: A Stealthy Linux Malware Targeting Latin American Financial Sector

Cybersecurity researchers have taken the wraps off what they call a "nearly-impossible-to-detect" Linux malware that could be weaponized to backdoor infected systems. Dubbed Symbiote by threat intelligence firms BlackBerry and Intezer, the stealthy malware is so named for its ability to conceal itself within running processes and network traffic and drain a victim's resources like a parasite.

New Privacy Framework for IoT Devices Gives Users Control Over Data Sharing

A newly designed privacy-sensitive architecture aims to enable developers to create smart home apps in a manner that addresses data sharing concerns and puts users in control over their personal information.  Dubbed Peekaboo by researchers from Carnegie Mellon University, the system "leverages an in-home hub to pre-process and minimize outgoing data in a structured and enforceable manner before

Researchers Disclose Critical Flaws in Industrial Access Control System from Carrier

As many as eight zero-day vulnerabilities have been disclosed in Carrier's LenelS2 HID Mercury access control system that's used widely in healthcare, education, transportation, and government facilities. "The vulnerabilities uncovered allowed us to demonstrate the ability to remotely unlock and lock doors, subvert alarms and undermine logging and notification systems," Trellix security

Researchers Detail How Cyber Criminals Targeting Cryptocurrency Users

Cybercriminals are impersonating popular crypto platforms such as Binance, Celo, and Trust Wallet with spoofed emails and fake login pages in an attempt to steal login details and deceptively transfer virtual funds. "As cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) become more mainstream, and capture headlines for their volatility, there is a greater likelihood of more individuals falling victim

Researchers Find Bluetooth Signals Can be Fingerprinted to Track Smartphones

A new research undertaken by a group of academics from the University of California San Diego has revealed for the first time that Bluetooth signals can be fingerprinted to track smartphones (and therefore, individuals). The identification, at its core, hinges on imperfections in the Bluetooth chipset hardware introduced during the manufacturing process, resulting in a "unique physical-layer

MIT Researchers Discover New Flaw in Apple M1 CPUs That Can't Be Patched

A novel hardware attack dubbed PACMAN has been demonstrated against Apple's M1 processor chipsets, potentially arming a malicious actor with the capability to gain arbitrary code execution on macOS systems. It leverages "speculative execution attacks to bypass an important memory protection mechanism, ARM Pointer Authentication, a security feature that is used to enforce pointer integrity," MIT

Iranian Hackers Spotted Using a new DNS Hijacking Malware in Recent Attacks

The Iranian state-sponsored threat actor tracked under the moniker Lyceum has turned to using a new custom .NET-based backdoor in recent campaigns directed against the Middle East. "The new malware is a .NET based DNS Backdoor which is a customized version of the open source tool 'DIG.net,'" Zscaler ThreatLabz researchers Niraj Shivtarkar and Avinash Kumar said in a report published last week. "

HelloXD Ransomware Installing Backdoor on Targeted Windows and Linux Systems

Windows and Linux systems are being targeted by a ransomware variant called HelloXD, with the infections also involving the deployment of a backdoor to facilitate persistent remote access to infected hosts. "Unlike other ransomware groups, this ransomware family doesn't have an active leak site; instead it prefers to direct the impacted victim to negotiations through Tox chat and onion-based

Quick and Simple: BPFDoor Explained

BPFDoor isn't new to the cyberattack game — in fact, it's gone undetected for years — but PwC researchers discovered the piece of malware in 2021. Subsequently, the cybersecurity community is learning more about the stealthy nature of malware, how it works, and how it can be prevented. What's BPFDoor? BPFDoor is a piece of malware associated with China-based threat actor Red Menshen that has hit

Researchers Disclose Rooting Backdoor in Mitel IP Phones for Businesses

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of two medium-security flaws in Mitel 6800/6900 desk phones that, if successfully exploited, could allow an attacker to gain root privileges on the devices. Tracked as CVE-2022-29854 and CVE-2022-29855 (CVSS score: 6.8), the access control issues were discovered by German penetration testing firm SySS, following which patches were shipped in May

Chinese 'Gallium' Hackers Using New PingPull Malware in Cyberespionage Attacks

A Chinese advanced persistent threat (APT) known as Gallium has been observed using a previously undocumented remote access trojan in its espionage attacks targeting companies operating in Southeast Asia, Europe, and Africa. Called PingPull, the "difficult-to-detect" backdoor is notable for its use of the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) for command-and-control (C2) communications,

Chinese Hackers Distribute Backdoored Web3 Wallets for iOS and Android Users

A technically sophisticated threat actor known as SeaFlower has been targeting Android and iOS users as part of an extensive campaign that mimics official cryptocurrency wallet websites intending to distribute backdoored apps that drain victims' funds. Said to be first discovered in March 2022, the cluster of activity "hint[s] to a strong relationship with a Chinese-speaking entity yet to be

Researchers Detail PureCrypter Loader Cyber Criminals Using to Distribute Malware

Cybersecurity researchers have detailed the workings of a fully-featured malware loader dubbed PureCrypter that's being purchased by cyber criminals to deliver remote access trojans (RATs) and information stealers. "The loader is a .NET executable obfuscated with SmartAssembly and makes use of compression, encryption, and obfuscation to evade antivirus software products," Zscaler's Romain Dumont

New Syslogk Linux Rootkit Lets Attackers Remotely Command It Using "Magic Packets"

A new covert Linux kernel rootkit named Syslogk has been spotted under development in the wild and cloaking a malicious payload that can be remotely commandeered by an adversary using a magic network traffic packet. "The Syslogk rootkit is heavily based on Adore-Ng but incorporates new functionalities making the user-mode application and the kernel rootkit hard to detect," Avast security