RustDoor macOS Backdoor Targets Cryptocurrency Firms with Fake Job Offers

Multiple companies operating in the cryptocurrency sector are the target of an ongoing malware campaign that involves a newly discovered Apple macOS backdoor codenamed RustDoor. RustDoor was first documented by Bitdefender last week, describing it as a Rust-based malware capable of harvesting and uploading files, as well as gathering information about the infected machines. It's

DarkMe Malware Targets Traders Using Microsoft SmartScreen Zero-Day Vulnerability

A newly disclosed security flaw in the Microsoft Defender SmartScreen has been exploited as a zero-day by an advanced persistent threat actor called Water Hydra (aka DarkCasino) targeting financial market traders. Trend Micro, which began tracking the campaign in late December 2023, said it entails the exploitation of CVE-2024-21412, a security bypass vulnerability related to Internet

PikaBot Resurfaces with Streamlined Code and Deceptive Tactics

The threat actors behind the PikaBot malware have made significant changes to the malware in what has been described as a case of "devolution." "Although it appears to be in a new development cycle and testing phase, the developers have reduced the complexity of the code by removing advanced obfuscation techniques and changing the network communications," Zscaler ThreatLabz researcher Nikolaos

Ivanti Vulnerability Exploited to Install 'DSLog' Backdoor on 670+ IT Infrastructures

Threat actors are leveraging a recently disclosed security flaw impacting Ivanti Connect Secure, Policy Secure, and ZTA gateways to deploy a backdoor codenamed DSLog on susceptible devices. That's according to findings from Orange Cyberdefense, which said it observed the exploitation of CVE-2024-21893 within hours of the public release of the proof-the-concept (PoC) code. CVE

Alert: New Stealthy "RustDoor" Backdoor Targeting Apple macOS Devices

Apple macOS users are the target of a new Rust-based backdoor that has been operating under the radar since November 2023. The backdoor, codenamed RustDoor by Bitdefender, has been found to impersonate an update for Microsoft Visual Studio and target both Intel and Arm architectures. The exact initial access pathway used to propagate the implant is currently not known, although

Global Coalition and Tech Giants Unite Against Commercial Spyware Abuse

A coalition of dozens of countries, including France, the U.K., and the U.S., along with tech companies such as Google, MDSec, Meta, and Microsoft, have signed a joint agreement to curb the abuse of commercial spyware to commit human rights abuses. The initiative, dubbed the Pall Mall Process, aims to tackle the proliferation and irresponsible use of commercial cyber intrusion tools by

Perfecting the Defense-in-Depth Strategy with Automation

Medieval castles stood as impregnable fortresses for centuries, thanks to their meticulous design. Fast forward to the digital age, and this medieval wisdom still echoes in cybersecurity. Like castles with strategic layouts to withstand attacks, the Defense-in-Depth strategy is the modern counterpart — a multi-layered approach with strategic redundancy and a blend of passive and active security

New CherryLoader Malware Mimics CherryTree to Deploy PrivEsc Exploits

A new Go-based malware loader called CherryLoader has been discovered by threat hunters in the wild to deliver additional payloads onto compromised hosts for follow-on exploitation. Arctic Wolf Labs, which discovered the new attack tool in two recent intrusions, said the loader's icon and name masquerades as the legitimate CherryTree note-taking application to dupe potential victims

52% of Serious Vulnerabilities We Find are Related to Windows 10

We analyzed 2,5 million vulnerabilities we discovered in our customer’s assets. This is what we found. Digging into the data The dataset we analyze here is representative of a subset of clients that subscribe to our vulnerability scanning services. Assets scanned include those reachable across the Internet, as well as those present on internal networks. The data includes findings for network

High-Severity Flaws Uncovered in Bosch Thermostats and Smart Nutrunners

Multiple security vulnerabilities have been disclosed in Bosch BCC100 thermostats and Rexroth NXA015S-36V-B smart nutrunners that, if successfully exploited, could allow attackers to execute arbitrary code on affected systems. Romanian cybersecurity firm Bitdefender, which discovered the flaw in Bosch BCC100 thermostats last August, said the issue could be weaponized by an attacker to

Iranian Hackers Using MuddyC2Go in Telecom Espionage Attacks Across Africa

The Iranian nation-state actor known as MuddyWater has leveraged a newly discovered command-and-control (C2) framework called MuddyC2Go in its attacks on the telecommunications sector in Egypt, Sudan, and Tanzania. The Symantec Threat Hunter Team, part of Broadcom, is tracking the activity under the name Seedworm, which is also tracked under the monikers Boggy Serpens, Cobalt

Hacking the Human Mind: Exploiting Vulnerabilities in the 'First Line of Cyber Defense'

Humans are complex beings with consciousness, emotions, and the capacity to act based on thoughts. In the ever-evolving realm of cybersecurity, humans consistently remain primary targets for attackers. Over the years, these attackers have developed their expertise in exploiting various human qualities, sharpening their skills to manipulate biases and emotional triggers with the objective of

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

Ex-NSA Employee Pleads Guilty to Leaking Classified Data to Russia

A former employee of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has pleaded guilty to charges accusing him of attempting to transmit classified defense information to Russia. Jareh Sebastian Dalke, 31, served as an Information Systems Security Designer for the NSA from June 6, 2022, to July 1, 2022, where he had Top Secret clearance to access sensitive documents. The latest development comes more

Researchers Discover New Sophisticated Toolkit Targeting Apple macOS Systems

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a set of malicious artifacts that they say is part of a sophisticated toolkit targeting Apple macOS systems. "As of now, these samples are still largely undetected and very little information is available about any of them," Bitdefender researchers Andrei Lapusneanu and Bogdan Botezatu said in a preliminary report published on Friday. The Romanian firm's

Buhti Ransomware Gang Switches Tactics, Utilizes Leaked LockBit and Babuk Code

The threat actors behind the nascent Buhti ransomware have eschewed their custom payload in favor of leaked LockBit and Babuk ransomware families to strike Windows and Linux systems. "While the group doesn't develop its own ransomware, it does utilize what appears to be one custom-developed tool, an information stealer designed to search for and archive specified file types," Symantec said in a

Sophisticated DownEx Malware Campaign Targeting Central Asian Governments

Government organizations in Central Asia are the target of a sophisticated espionage campaign that leverages a previously undocumented strain of malware dubbed DownEx. Bitdefender, in a report shared with The Hacker News, said the activity remains active, with evidence likely pointing to the involvement of Russia-based threat actors. The Romanian cybersecurity firm said it first detected the

Chinese Hacker Group Earth Longzhi Resurfaces with Advanced Malware Tactics

A Chinese state-sponsored hacking outfit has resurfaced with a new campaign targeting government, healthcare, technology, and manufacturing entities based in Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines, and Fiji after more than six months of no activity. Trend Micro attributed the intrusion set to a cyber espionage group it tracks under the name Earth Longzhi, which is a subgroup within APT41 (aka HOODOO

What's Wrong with Manufacturing?

In last year's edition of the Security Navigator we noted that the Manufacturing Industry appeared to be totally over-represented in our dataset of Cyber Extortion victims. Neither the number of businesses nor their average revenue particularly stood out to explain this. Manufacturing was also the most represented Industry in our CyberSOC dataset – contributing more Incidents than any other

Honeypot-Factory: The Use of Deception in ICS/OT Environments

The recently published Security Navigator report of Orange Cyberdefense shows there has been a  rapid increase of attacks on industrial control systems (ICS) in the past few years. Looking a bit closer, most of the attacks seem to have spilt over from traditional IT. That's to be expected, as production systems are commonly connected to ordinary corporate networks at this point. Though the data

Security Navigator Research: Some Vulnerabilities Date Back to the Last Millennium

Vulnerability analysis results in Orange Cyberdefenses' Security Navigator show that some vulnerabilities first discovered in 1999 are still found in networks today. This is concerning. Age of VOC findings Our Vulnerability Scans are performed on a recurring basis, which provides us the opportunity to examine the difference between when a scan was performed on an Asset, and when a given finding

Patch Where it Hurts: Effective Vulnerability Management in 2023

A recently published Security Navigator report data shows that businesses are still taking 215 days to patch a reported vulnerability. Even for critical vulnerabilities, it generally takes more than 6 months to patch. Good vulnerability management is not about being fast enough in patching all potential breaches. It's about focusing on the real risk using vulnerability prioritization to correct

Researchers Demonstrate How EDR and Antivirus Can Be Weaponized Against Users

High-severity security vulnerabilities have been disclosed in different endpoint detection and response (EDR) and antivirus (AV) products that could be exploited to turn them into data wipers. "This wiper runs with the permissions of an unprivileged user yet has the ability to wipe almost any file on a system, including system files, and make a computer completely unbootable," SafeBreach Labs

Best Year-End Cybersecurity Deals from Uptycs, SANS Institute, and Bitdefender

Looking to up your cybersecurity game in the new year? Do not just buy electronics this vacation season, improve your cybersecurity! The end of the year is a great time to re-evaluate your cybersecurity strategy and make some important investments in protecting your personal and professional data. Cyber threats are constantly evolving and becoming more sophisticated, so it's important to stay on

Crypto Trading Firm Wintermute Loses $160 Million in Hacking Incident

In what's the latest crypto heist to target the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, hackers have stolen digital assets worth around $160 million from crypto trading firm Wintermute. The hack involved a series of unauthorized transactions that transferred USD Coin, Binance USD, Tether USD, Wrapped ETH, and 66 other cryptocurrencies to the attacker's wallet. The company said that its centralized

U.S. Seizes Cryptocurrency Worth $30 Million Stolen by North Korean Hackers

More than $30 million worth of cryptocurrency plundered by the North Korea-linked Lazarus Group from online video game Axie Infinity has been recovered, marking the first time digital assets stolen by the threat actor have been seized. "The seizures represent approximately 10% of the total funds stolen from Axie Infinity (accounting for price differences between time stolen and seized), and

Microsoft Discover Severe ‘One-Click’ Exploit for TikTok Android App

Microsoft on Wednesday disclosed details of a now-patched "high severity vulnerability" in the TikTok app for Android that could let attackers take over accounts when victims clicked on a malicious link. "Attackers could have leveraged the vulnerability to hijack an account without users' awareness if a targeted user simply clicked a specially crafted link," Dimitrios Valsamaras of the Microsoft

Interested in Reducing Your Risk Profile? Jamf Has a Solution for That

The threat landscape has changed dramatically over the past decade. While cybercriminals continue to look for new ways to gain access to networks and steal sensitive information, the mobile attack surface is also expanding. Mobile devices are not only becoming more powerful but also more vulnerable to cyberattacks, making mobile security an increasingly important concern for enterprises. This

FBI Warns Investors to Take Precautions with Decentralized Financial Platforms

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Monday warned of cyber criminals increasingly exploiting flaws in decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms to plunder cryptocurrency. "The FBI has observed cyber criminals exploiting vulnerabilities in the smart contracts governing DeFi platforms to steal investors' cryptocurrency," the agency said in a notification. Attackers are said to have used

LockBit Ransomware Abuses Windows Defender to Deploy Cobalt Strike Payload

A threat actor associated with the LockBit 3.0 ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation has been observed abusing the Windows Defender command-line tool to decrypt and load Cobalt Strike payloads.  According to a report published by SentinelOne last week, the incident occurred after obtaining initial access via the Log4Shell vulnerability against an unpatched VMware Horizon Server. "Once initial

Malicious IIS Extensions Gaining Popularity Among Cyber Criminals for Persistent Access

Threat actors are increasingly abusing Internet Information Services (IIS) extensions to backdoor servers as a means of establishing a "durable persistence mechanism." That's according to a new warning from the Microsoft 365 Defender Research Team, which said that "IIS backdoors are also harder to detect since they mostly reside in the same directories as legitimate modules used by target