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IoT Security Fundamentals: Intercepting and Manipulating Wireless Communications

By Dimitar Kostadinov

Introduction: IoT Manufacturers Favor Convenience over Security Because IoT security is still an afterthought, cybercriminals in general consider smart devices a “low-hanging fruit” – a target easy to compromise and manipulate. Security (and privacy) by design is key for IoT, and probably the only effective way for a smart gadget to protect its communications is […]

The post IoT Security Fundamentals: Intercepting and Manipulating Wireless Communications appeared first on Infosec Resources.


IoT Security Fundamentals: Intercepting and Manipulating Wireless Communications was first posted on September 29, 2020 at 2:14 pm.
©2017 "InfoSec Resources". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at darren.dalasta@infosecinstitute.com

Format String Vulnerabilities Exploitation Case Study

By Srinivas

Introduction: In the previous article of this series, we discussed how format string vulnerabilities can be exploited. This article provides a case study of how format string vulnerabilities can be used to exploit serious vulnerabilities such as Buffer Overflows. We will begin by understanding what stack canaries are and then we will exploit a Buffer […]

The post Format String Vulnerabilities Exploitation Case Study appeared first on Infosec Resources.


Format String Vulnerabilities Exploitation Case Study was first posted on September 29, 2020 at 2:55 pm.
©2017 "InfoSec Resources". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at darren.dalasta@infosecinstitute.com

Fuzzing introduction: Definition, types and tools for cybersecurity pros

By Pedro Tavares

Fuzzing is a black-box software testing technique and consists of finding implementation flaws and bugs by using malformed/semi-malformed payloads via automation. Fuzzing an application is not a matter of simply exploiting a specific point of an application, but also acquiring knowledge and potential crashes that could be explored in-depth through the implementation of crafted payloads […]

The post Fuzzing introduction: Definition, types and tools for cybersecurity pros appeared first on Infosec Resources.


Fuzzing introduction: Definition, types and tools for cybersecurity pros was first posted on September 30, 2020 at 8:01 am.
©2017 "InfoSec Resources". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at darren.dalasta@infosecinstitute.com

Copy-paste compromises

By Jatin Jain

Copy-paste compromises: Introduction and overview Although the concept of copy-paste compromises is not exactly new, there are now several different forms of the attack. In the version of copy-paste compromise that we’ll discuss today, malicious actors use open-source or publicly available exploit code, web shells and other tools to gain information. Recently, Australia has revealed […]

The post Copy-paste compromises appeared first on Infosec Resources.


Copy-paste compromises was first posted on September 30, 2020 at 8:05 am.
©2017 "InfoSec Resources". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at darren.dalasta@infosecinstitute.com

S3 Ep56: Cryptotrading rodent, ransomware hackback, and a Docusign phish [Podcast]

By Paul Ducklin
Latest episode - listen now! Serious security explained with personality in plain English.

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The self-driving smart suitcase… that the person behind you can hijack!

By Paul Ducklin
Apparently, we need a self-driving IoT Bluetooth robot suitcase. Who knew?

How To Tell If Your Smartphone Has Been Hacked

By McAfee

Something’s not right. Maybe your phone is losing its charge way too quickly. Or one day it suddenly starts turning itself off and on again. Perhaps it’s running hot, so hot it’s hard to hold. Likewise, you might see outgoing calls that you never dialed or strange spikes in your data usage. Signs like these could mean that your smartphone’s been hacked. Learn how to protect your smartphone with McAfee Mobile Security

Several signs of a potential smartphone hack can look like a technical issue, at least on the surface. Yet the fact is that these issues may be a symptom of a deeper problem, such as malware installed on your smartphone. Malware can eat up system resources or conflict with other apps and your operating system, all of which can cause your phone to act sluggish or erratically. 

Yet, in a way, that’s good news. Because malware can run inefficiently on your phone and create hiccups both large and small, it can tip you off to its presence. And with all the important information we carry in the palms of our hands nowadays, that’s good news twice over. Knowing the signs, subtle or otherwise can alert you to an otherwise largely invisible problem. 

Hacking software and their symptoms 

Whether hackers physically sneak it onto your phone or by tricking you into installing it via a phony app, a sketchy website, or a phishing attack, hacking software can create problems for you in a couple of ways: 

  • Keylogging: In the hands of a hacker, keylogging works like a stalker by snooping information as you type, tap, and even talk on your phone.  
  • Trojans: Trojans are types of malware that can be disguised in your phone to extract important data, such as credit card account details or personal information. 
  • Cryptominers: Similar to trojans, this software hides on a device. From there, it harnesses the device’s computing power to “mine” cryptocurrencies. While crypto mining is not illegal, “cryptojacking” a device without the owner’s consent is most certainly illegal. 

Some possible signs of hacking software on your phone include: 

Performance issues 

Maybe you’ve seen some of the signs we mentioned earlier. Is your device operating slower, are web pages and apps harder to load, or does your battery never seem to keep a charge? These are all signs that you could have malware running in the background, zapping your phone’s resources. 

Your phone feels like it’s running hot 

Like the performance issues above, malware or mining apps running in the background can burn extra computing power (and data). Aside from sapping performance, malware and mining apps can cause your phone to run hot or even overheat. 

Mystery apps or data 

If you find apps you haven’t downloaded, or calls, texts, and emails that you didn’t send, that’s a red flag. A hacker may have hijacked your phone to send premium-rate calls or messages or to spread malware to your contacts. Similarly, if you see spikes in your data usage, that could be a sign of a hack as well. 

Pop-ups or changes to your screen 

Malware can also be behind spammy pop-ups, changes to your home screen, or bookmarks to suspicious websites. In fact, if you see any configuration changes you didn’t personally make, this is another big clue that your smartphone has been hacked. 

What to do if you’re worried that your phone has been hacked … 

  • Install and run security software on your smartphone if you haven’t already. From there, delete any apps you didn’t download, delete risky texts, and then run your mobile security software again. 
  • If you still have issues, wiping and restoring your phone is an option. Provided you have your photos, contacts, and other vital info backed up in the cloud, it’s a relatively straightforward process. A quick search online can show how to wipe and restore your model of phone. 
  • Lastly, check your accounts and your credit to see if any unauthorized purchases have been made. If so, you can go through the process of freezing those accounts and getting new cards and credentials issued. Further, update your passwords for your accounts with a password that is strong and unique 

Ten tips to prevent your phone from being hacked 

While there are several ways a hacker can get into your phone and steal personal and critical information, here are a few tips to keep that from happening: 

  1. Use comprehensive online protection software on your phone. Over the years, we’ve gotten into the good habit of using this on our computers and laptops. Our phones? Not so much. Installing online protection on your smartphone gives you the first line of defense against attacks, plus several of the additional security features mentioned below. 
  2. Update your phone and its apps. Aside from installing security software, keeping current with updates is a primary way to keep you and your phone safe. Updates can fix vulnerabilities that cybercriminals rely on to pull off their malware-based attacks. Additionally, those updates can help keep your phone and apps running smoothly while also introducing new, helpful features. 
  3. Stay safer on the go with a VPN. One way that crooks can hack their way into your phone is via public Wi-Fi, such as at airports, hotels, and even libraries. These networks are public, meaning that your activities are exposed to others on the network—your banking, your password usage, all of it. One way to make a public network private is with a VPN, which can keep you and all you do protected from others on that Wi-Fi hotspot.  
  4. Use a password manager. Strong, unique passwords offer another primary line of defense. Yet with all the accounts we have floating around, juggling dozens of strong and unique passwords can feel like a task—thus the temptation to use (and re-use) simpler passwords. Hackers love this because one password can be the key to several accounts. Instead, try a password manager that can create those passwords for you and safely store them as well. Comprehensive security software such as McAfee Total Protection will include one. 
  5. Avoid public charging stations. Charging up at a public station seems so simple and safe. However, some hackers have been known to “juice jack” by installing malware into the charging station. While you “juice up,” they “jack” your passwords and personal info. So what to do about power on the road? You can look into a portable power pack that you can charge up ahead of time or run on AA batteries. They’re pretty inexpensive and easy to track down.  
  6. Keep your eyes on your phone. Preventing the actual theft of your phone is important too, as some hacks happen simply because a phone falls into the wrong hands. This is a good case for password or PIN protecting your phone, as well as turning on device tracking so that you can locate your phone or even wipe it remotely if you need to. Apple provides iOS users with a step-by-step guide for remotely wiping devices, and Google offers up a guide for Android users as well.  
  7. Encrypt your phone. Encrypting your cell phone can save you from being hacked and can protect your calls, messages, and critical information. To check if your iPhone is encrypted can go into Touch ID & Passcode, scroll to the bottom, and see if data protection is enabled (typically this is automatic if you have a passcode enabled). Android users have automatic encryption depending on the type of phone. 
  8. Lock your SIM card. Just as you can lock your phone, you can also lock the SIM card that is used to identify you, the owner, and to connect you to your cellular network. By locking it, that keeps your phone from being used on any other network than yours. If you own an iPhone, you can lock it by following these simple directions. For other platforms, check out the manufacturer’s website. 
  9. Turn off your Wi-Fi and Bluetooth when not in use. Think of it as closing an otherwise open door. There are several attacks that a dedicated and well-equipped hacker can make on devices where the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are open and discoverable. Likewise, while not a hack, some retailers will track your location in a store using Bluetooth technology for marketing purposes—so switching it off can protect your privacy in some situations as well. You can easily turn off both from your settings and many phones let you do it from a pulldown menu on your home screen as well. 
  10. Steer clear of third-party app stores. Google Play and Apple’s App Store have measures in place to review and vet apps to help ensure that they are safe and secure. Third-party sites may not have that process in place. In fact, some third-party sites may intentionally host malicious apps as part of a broader scam. Granted, cybercriminals have found ways to work around Google and Apple’s review process, yet the chances of downloading a safe app from them are far greater than anywhere else. Furthermore, both Google and Apple are quick to remove malicious apps once discovered, making their stores that much safer. 

The post How To Tell If Your Smartphone Has Been Hacked appeared first on McAfee Blog.

UK police arrest 7 hacking suspects – have they bust the LAPSUS$ gang?

By Naked Security writer
Seven alleged hackers have been arrested in the UK. But who are they, and which hacking crew are they from?

LAPSUS$ hacks continue despite two hacker suspects in court

By Paul Ducklin
Do you know where in your company to report security anomalies? If you receive such reports, do you have an efficient way to process them?

U.S. Sanctions Cryptocurrency Mixer Blender for Helping North Korea Launder Millions

By Ravie Lakshmanan
The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday moved to sanction virtual currency mixer Blender.io, marking the first time a mixing service has been subjected to economic blockades. The move signals continued efforts on the part of the government to prevent North Korea's Lazarus Group from laundering the funds stolen from the unprecedented hack of Ronin Bridge in late March. The newly imposed sanctions,

Another Set of Joker Trojan-Laced Android Apps Resurfaces on Google Play Store

By Ravie Lakshmanan
A new set of trojanized apps spread via the Google Play Store has been observed distributing the notorious Joker malware on compromised Android devices. Joker, a repeat offender, refers to a class of harmful apps that are used for billing and SMS fraud, while also performing a number of actions of a malicious hacker's choice, such as stealing text messages, contact lists, and device information.

Experts Detail Saintstealer and Prynt Stealer Info-Stealing Malware Families

By Ravie Lakshmanan
Cybersecurity researchers have dissected the inner workings of an information-stealing malware called Saintstealer that's designed to siphon credentials and system information. "After execution, the stealer extracts username, passwords, credit card details, etc.," Cyble researchers said in an analysis last week. "The stealer also steals data from various locations across the system and

New REvil Samples Indicate Ransomware Gang is Back After Months of Inactivity

By Ravie Lakshmanan
The notorious ransomware operation known as REvil (aka Sodin or Sodinokibi) has resumed after six months of inactivity, an analysis of new ransomware samples has revealed. "Analysis of these samples indicates that the developer has access to REvil's source code, reinforcing the likelihood that the threat group has reemerged," researchers from Secureworks Counter Threat Unit (CTU) said in a

E.U. Blames Russia for Cyberattack on KA-SAT Satellite Network Operated by Viasat

By Ravie Lakshmanan
The Five Eyes nations comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.K., and the U.S., along with Ukraine and the European Union, formally pinned Russia for masterminding an attack on an international satellite communication (SATCOM) provider that had "spillover" effects across Europe. The cyber offensive, which took place one hour before the Kremlin's military invasion of Ukraine on February

Bitter APT Hackers Add Bangladesh to Their List of Targets in South Asia

By Ravie Lakshmanan
An espionage-focused threat actor known for targeting China, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia has expanded to set its sights on Bangladeshi government organizations as part of an ongoing campaign that commenced in August 2021. Cybersecurity firm Cisco Talos attributed the activity with moderate confidence to a hacking group dubbed the Bitter APT based on overlaps in the command-and-control (C2)

Hackers Deploy IceApple Exploitation Framework on Hacked MS Exchange Servers

By Ravie Lakshmanan
Researchers have detailed a previously undocumented .NET-based post-exploitation framework called IceApple that has been deployed on Microsoft Exchange server instances to facilitate reconnaissance and data exfiltration. "Suspected to be the work of a state-nexus adversary, IceApple remains under active development, with 18 modules observed in use across a number of enterprise environments, as

Everything We Learned From the LAPSUS$ Attacks

By The Hacker News
In recent months, a cybercriminal gang known as LAPSUS$ has claimed responsibility for a number of high-profile attacks against technology companies, including: T-Mobile (April 23, 2022) Globant  Okta Ubisoft Samsung Nvidia Microsoft Vodafone In addition to these attacks, LAPSUS$ was also able to successfully launch a ransomware attack against the Brazilian Ministry of Health. While

Android and Chrome Users Can Soon Generate Virtual Credit Cards to Protect Real Ones

By Ravie Lakshmanan
Google on Wednesday took to its annual developer conference to announce a host of privacy and security updates, including support for virtual credit cards on Android and Chrome. "When you use autofill to enter your payment details at checkout, virtual cards will add an additional layer of security by replacing your actual card number with a distinct, virtual number," Google's Jen Fitzpatrick 

Iranian Hackers Leveraging BitLocker and DiskCryptor in Ransomware Attacks

By Ravie Lakshmanan
A ransomware group with an Iranian operational connection has been linked to a string of file-encrypting malware attacks targeting organizations in Israel, the U.S., Europe, and Australia. Cybersecurity firm Secureworks attributed the intrusions to a threat actor it tracks under the moniker Cobalt Mirage, which it said is linked to an Iranian hacking crew dubbed Cobalt Illusion (aka APT35,

Google Created 'Open Source Maintenance Crew' to Help Secure Critical Projects

By Ravie Lakshmanan
Google on Thursday announced the creation of a new "Open Source Maintenance Crew" to focus on bolstering the security of critical open source projects. Additionally, the tech giant pointed out Open Source Insights as a tool for analyzing packages and their dependency graphs, using it to determine "whether a vulnerability in a dependency might affect your code." "With this information, developers

Ukrainian Hacker Jailed for 4-Years in U.S. for Selling Access to Hacked Servers

By Ravie Lakshmanan
A 28-year-old Ukrainian national has been sentenced to four years in prison for siphoning thousands of server login credentials and selling them on the dark web for monetary gain as part of a credential theft scheme. Glib Oleksandr Ivanov-Tolpintsev, who pleaded guilty to his offenses earlier this February, was arrested in Poland in October 2020, before being extradited to the U.S. in September

Researchers Warn of "Eternity Project" Malware Service Being Sold via Telegram

By Ravie Lakshmanan
An unidentified threat actor has been linked to an actively in-development malware toolkit called the "Eternity Project" that lets professional and amateur cybercriminals buy stealers, clippers, worms, miners, ransomware, and a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) bot. What makes this malware-as-a-service (MaaS) stand out is that besides using a Telegram channel to communicate updates about the

Fake Clickjacking Bug Bounty Reports: The Key Facts

By The Hacker News
Are you aware of fake clickjacking bug bounty reports? If not, you should be. This article will get you up to speed and help you to stay alert. What are clickjacking bug bounty reports? If we start by breaking up the term into its component parts, a bug bounty is a program offered by an organization, in which individuals are rewarded for finding and reporting software bugs. These programs are

Researchers Find Potential Way to Run Malware on iPhone Even When it's OFF

By Ravie Lakshmanan
A first-of-its-kind security analysis of iOS Find My function has identified a novel attack surface that makes it possible to tamper with the firmware and load malware onto a Bluetooth chip that's executed while an iPhone is "off." The mechanism takes advantage of the fact that wireless chips related to Bluetooth, Near-field communication (NFC), and ultra-wideband (UWB) continue to operate while

Watch Out! Hackers Begin Exploiting Recent Zyxel Firewalls RCE Vulnerability

By Ravie Lakshmanan
Image source: z3r00t The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on Monday added two security flaws, including the recently disclosed remote code execution bug affecting Zyxel firewalls, to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, citing evidence of active exploitation. Tracked as CVE-2022-30525, the vulnerability is rated 9.8 for severity and relates to a command injection flaw

Over 200 Apps on Play Store Caught Spying on Android Users Using Facestealer

By Ravie Lakshmanan
More than 200 Android apps masquerading as fitness, photo editing, and puzzle apps have been observed distributing spyware called Facestealer to siphon user credentials and other valuable information.  "Similar to Joker, another piece of mobile malware, Facestealer changes its code frequently, thus spawning many variants," Trend Micro analysts Cifer Fang, Ford Quin, and Zhengyu Dong said in a

New Sysrv Botnet Variant Hijacking Windows and Linux with Crypto Miners

By Ravie Lakshmanan
Microsoft is warning of a new variant of the srv botnet that's exploiting multiple security flaws in web applications and databases to install coin miners on both Windows and Linux systems. The tech giant, which has called the new version Sysrv-K, is said to weaponize an array of exploits to gain control of web servers. The cryptojacking botnet first emerged in December 2020. "Sysrv-K scans the

Russian Conti Ransomware Gang Threatens to Overthrow New Costa Rican Government

By Ravie Lakshmanan
The notorious Conti ransomware gang, which last month staged an attack on Costa Rican administrative systems, has threatened to "overthrow" the new government of the country. "We are determined to overthrow the government by means of a cyber attack, we have already shown you all the strength and power," the group said on its official website. "We have our insiders in your government. We are also

Microsoft Warns of "Cryware" Info-Stealing Malware Targeting Crypto Wallets

By Ravie Lakshmanan
Microsoft is warning of an emerging threat targeting internet-connected cryptocurrency wallets, signaling a departure in the use of digital coins in cyberattacks. The tech giant dubbed the new threat "cryware," with the attacks resulting in the irreversible theft of virtual currencies by means of fraudulent transfers to an adversary-controlled wallet. "Cryware are information stealers that

U.S. Warns Against North Korean Hackers Posing as IT Freelancers

By Ravie Lakshmanan
Highly skilled software and mobile app developers from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) are posing as "non-DPRK nationals" in hopes of landing freelance employment in an attempt to enable the regime's malicious cyber intrusions. That's according to a joint advisory from the U.S. Department of State, the Department of the Treasury, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

[eBook] Your 90-Day MSSP Plan: How to Improve Margins and Scale-Up Service Delivery

By The Hacker News
To cash in on a thriving market, a managed security service provider (MSSP) must navigate unprecedented competition and complex challenges. The good news is that demand is through the roof. 69% of organizations plan to boost spending on cybersecurity in 2022.  The bad news is that everyone wants a piece of the pie. MSSPs must outshine each other while fending off encroachments by traditional IT

Hackers Gain Fileless Persistence on Targeted SQL Servers Using a Built-in Utility

By Ravie Lakshmanan
Microsoft on Tuesday warned that it recently spotted a malicious campaign targeting SQL Servers that leverages a built-in PowerShell binary to achieve persistence on compromised systems. The intrusions, which leverage brute-force attacks as an initial compromise vector, stand out for their use of the utility "sqlps.exe," the tech giant said in a series of tweets. The ultimate goals of the

Researchers Expose Inner Workings of Billion-Dollar Wizard Spider Cybercrime Gang

By Ravie Lakshmanan
The inner workings of a cybercriminal group known as the Wizard Spider have been exposed, shedding light on its organizational structure and motivations. "Most of Wizard Spider's efforts go into hacking European and U.S. businesses, with a special cracking tool used by some of their attackers to breach high-value targets," Swiss cybersecurity company PRODAFT said in a new report shared with The

Pwn2Own hacking schedule released – Windows and Linux are top targets

By Paul Ducklin
What's better? Disclose early, patch fast? Or dig deep, disclose in full, patch more slowly?

VMware Releases Patches for New Vulnerabilities Affecting Multiple Products

By Ravie Lakshmanan
VMware has issued patches to contain two security flaws impacting Workspace ONE Access, Identity Manager, and vRealize Automation that could be exploited to backdoor enterprise networks. The first of the two flaws, tracked as CVE-2022-22972 (CVSS score: 9.8), concerns an authentication bypass that could enable an actor with network access to the UI to gain administrative access without prior

Web Trackers Caught Intercepting Online Forms Even Before Users Hit Submit

By Ravie Lakshmanan
A new research published by academics from KU Leuven, Radboud University, and the University of Lausanne has revealed that users' email addresses are exfiltrated to tracking, marketing, and analytics domains before such information is submitted and without prior consent. The study involved crawling 2.8 million pages from the top 100 websites, and found that as many as 1,844 websites allowed

New Bluetooth Hack Could Let Attackers Remotely Unlock Smart Locks and Cars

By Ravie Lakshmanan
A novel Bluetooth relay attack can let cybercriminals more easily than ever remotely unlock and operate cars, break open residential smart locks, and breach secure areas. The vulnerability has to do with weaknesses in the current implementation of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), a wireless technology used for authenticating Bluetooth devices that are physically located within a close range. <!--

QNAP Urges Users to Update NAS Devices to Prevent Deadbolt Ransomware Attacks

By Ravie Lakshmanan
Taiwanese network-attached storage (NAS) devices maker QNAP on Thursday warned its customers of a fresh wave of DeadBolt ransomware attacks. The intrusions are said to have targeted TS-x51 series and TS-x53 series appliances running on QTS 4.3.6 and QTS 4.4.1, according to its product security incident response team.  "QNAP urges all NAS users to check and update QTS to the latest version as

Hackers Trick Users with Fake Windows 11 Downloads to Distribute Vidar Malware

By Ravie Lakshmanan
Fraudulent domains masquerading as Microsoft's Windows 11 download portal are attempting to trick users into deploying trojanized installation files to infect systems with the Vidar information stealer malware. "The spoofed sites were created to distribute malicious ISO files which lead to a Vidar info-stealer infection on the endpoint," Zscaler said in a report. "These variants of Vidar malware

Researchers Uncover Rust Supply Chain Attack Targeting Cloud CI Pipelines

By Ravie Lakshmanan
A case of software supply chain attack has been observed in the Rust programming language's crate registry that leveraged typosquatting techniques to publish a rogue library containing malware. Cybersecurity firm SentinelOne dubbed the attack "CrateDepression." Typosquatting attacks take place when an adversary mimics the name of a popular package on a public registry in hopes that developers

Cisco Issues Patch for New IOS XR Zero-Day Vulnerability Exploited in the Wild

By Ravie Lakshmanan
Cisco on Friday rolled out fixes for a medium-severity vulnerability affecting IOS XR Software that it said has been exploited in real-world attacks. Tracked as CVE-2022-20821 (CVSS score: 6.5), the issue relates to an open port vulnerability that could be abused by an unauthenticated, remote attacker to connect to a Redis instance and achieve code execution. "A successful exploit could allow

Researchers Find Backdoor in School Management Plugin for WordPress

By Ravie Lakshmanan
Multiple versions of a WordPress plugin by the name of "School Management Pro" harbored a backdoor that could grant an adversary complete control over vulnerable websites. The issue, spotted in premium versions before 9.9.7, has been assigned the CVE identifier CVE-2022-1609 and is rated 10 out of 10 for severity. The backdoor, which is believed to have existed since version 8.9, enables "an

Chinese "Twisted Panda" Hackers Caught Spying on Russian Defense Institutes

By Ravie Lakshmanan
At least two research institutes located in Russia and a third likely target in Belarus have been at the receiving end of an espionage attack by a Chinese nation-state advanced persistent threat (APT). The attacks, codenamed "Twisted Panda," come in the backdrop of Russia's military invasion of Ukraine, prompting a wide range of threat actors to swiftly adapt their campaigns on the ongoing

New Unpatched Bug Could Let Attackers Steal Money from PayPal Users

By Ravie Lakshmanan
A security researcher claims to have discovered an unpatched vulnerability in PayPal's money transfer service that could allow attackers to trick victims into unknowingly completing attacker-directed transactions with a single click. Clickjacking, also called UI redressing, refers to a technique wherein an unwitting user is tricked into clicking seemingly innocuous webpage elements like buttons

Fronton: Russian IoT Botnet Designed to Run Social Media Disinformation Campaigns

By Ravie Lakshmanan
Fronton, a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) botnet that came to light in March 2020, is much more powerful than previously thought, per the latest research. "Fronton is a system developed for coordinated inauthentic behavior on a massive scale," threat intelligence firm Nisos said in a report published last week. "This system includes a web-based dashboard known as SANA that enables a user

Conti Ransomware Operation Shut Down After Splitting into Smaller Groups

By Ravie Lakshmanan
Even as the operators of Conti threatened to overthrow the Costa Rican government, the notorious cybercrime gang officially took down its attack infrastructure in favor of migrating their malicious cyber activities to other ancillary operations, including Karakurt and BlackByte. "From the negotiations site, chatrooms, messengers to servers and proxy hosts - the Conti brand, not the organization

New Chaos Ransomware Builder Variant "Yashma" Discovered in the Wild

By Ravie Lakshmanan
Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of the latest version of the Chaos ransomware line, dubbed Yashma. "Though Chaos ransomware builder has only been in the wild for a year, Yashma claims to be the sixth version (v6.0) of this malware," BlackBerry research and intelligence team said in a report shared with The Hacker News. Chaos is a customizable ransomware builder that emerged in

SIM-based Authentication Aims to Transform Device Binding Security to End Phishing

By The Hacker News
Let's face it: we all use email, and we all use passwords. Passwords create inherent vulnerability in the system. The success rate of phishing attacks is skyrocketing, and opportunities for the attack have greatly multiplied as lives moved online. All it takes is one password to be compromised for all other users to become victims of a data breach.  To deliver additional security, therefore,

Popular PyPI Package 'ctx' and PHP Library 'phpass' Hijacked to Steal AWS Keys

By Ravie Lakshmanan
Two trojanized Python and PHP packages have been uncovered in what's yet another instance of a software supply chain attack targeting the open source ecosystem. One of the packages in question is "ctx," a Python module available in the PyPi repository. The other involves "phpass," a PHP package that's been forked on GitHub to distribute a rogue update. "In both cases the attacker appears to have

New Zoom Flaws Could Let Attackers Hack Victims Just by Sending them a Message

By Ravie Lakshmanan
Popular video conferencing service Zoom has resolved as many as four security vulnerabilities, which could be exploited to compromise another user over chat by sending specially crafted Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) messages and execute malicious code. Tracked from CVE-2022-22784 through CVE-2022-22787, the issues range between 5.9 and 8.1 in severity. Ivan Fratric of Google

Researchers Find New Malware Attacks Targeting Russian Government Entities

By Ravie Lakshmanan
An unknown advanced persistent threat (APT) group has been linked to a series of spear-phishing attacks targeting Russian government entities since the onset of the Russo-Ukrainian war in late February 2022. "The campaigns [...] are designed to implant a Remote Access Trojan (RAT) that can be used to surveil the computers it infects, and run commands on them remotely," Malwarebytes said in a

How Secrets Lurking in Source Code Lead to Major Breaches

By The Hacker News
If one word could sum up the 2021 infosecurity year (well, actually three), it would be these: "supply chain attack".  A software supply chain attack happens when hackers manipulate the code in third-party software components to compromise the 'downstream' applications that use them. In 2021, we have seen a dramatic rise in such attacks: high profile security incidents like the SolarWinds,

Interpol Arrests Leader of SilverTerrier Cybercrime Gang Behind BEC Attacks

By Ravie Lakshmanan
A year-long international investigation has resulted in the arrest of the suspected head of the SilverTerrier cybercrime group by the Nigeria Police Force. "The suspect is alleged to have run a transnational cybercrime syndicate that launched mass phishing campaigns and business email compromise schemes targeting companies and individual victims," Interpol said in a statement. <!--adsense-->

Tails OS Users Advised Not to Use Tor Browser Until Critical Firefox Bugs are Patched

By Ravie Lakshmanan
The maintainers of the Tails project have issued a warning that the Tor Browser that's bundled with the operating system is unsafe to use for accessing or entering sensitive information. "We recommend that you stop using Tails until the release of 5.1 (May 31) if you use Tor Browser for sensitive information (passwords, private messages, personal information, etc.)," the project said in an
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