Albabat, Kasseika, Kuiper: New Ransomware Gangs Rise with Rust and Golang

Cybersecurity researchers have detected in the wild yet another variant of the Phobos ransomware family known as Faust. Fortinet FortiGuard Labs, which detailed the latest iteration of the ransomware, said it's being propagated by means of an infection that delivers a Microsoft Excel document (.XLAM) containing a VBA script. "The attackers utilized the Gitea service to store several files

LODEINFO Fileless Malware Evolves with Anti-Analysis and Remote Code Tricks

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered an updated version of a backdoor called LODEINFO that's distributed via spear-phishing attacks. The findings come from Japanese company ITOCHU Cyber & Intelligence, which said the malware "has been updated with new features, as well as changes to the anti-analysis (analysis avoidance) techniques." LODEINFO (versions 0.6.6 and 0.6.7

APT Hackers Turn to Malicious Excel Add-ins as Initial Intrusion Vector

Microsoft's decision to block Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macros by default for Office files downloaded from the internet has led many threat actors to improvise their attack chains in recent months. Now according to Cisco Talos, advanced persistent threat (APT) actors and commodity malware families alike are increasingly using Excel add-in (.XLL) files as an initial intrusion vector.

Hackers Hide Malware in Stunning Images Taken by James Webb Space Telescope

A persistent Golang-based malware campaign dubbed GO#WEBBFUSCATOR has leveraged the deep field image taken from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) as a lure to deploy malicious payloads on infected systems. The development, revealed by Securonix, points to the growing adoption of Go among threat actors, given the programming language's cross-platform support, effectively allowing the

Hackers Opting New Attack Methods After Microsoft Blocked Macros by Default

With Microsoft taking steps to block Excel 4.0 (XLM or XL4) and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macros by default across Office apps, malicious actors are responding by refining their tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs). "The use of VBA and XL4 Macros decreased approximately 66% from October 2021 through June 2022," Proofpoint said in a report shared with The Hacker News, calling it "

LibreOffice Releases Software Update to Patch 3 New Vulnerabilities

The team behind LibreOffice has released security updates to fix three security flaws in the productivity software, one of which could be exploited to achieve arbitrary code execution on affected systems. Tracked as CVE-2022-26305, the issue has been described as a case of improper certificate validation when checking whether a macro is signed by a trusted author, leading to the execution of

Office macro security: on-again-off-again feature now BACK ON AGAIN!

20 years to turn it on, then 20 weeks to turn it off, then just 2 weeks to turn it back on again. That's progress!

Microsoft Resumes Blocking Office VBA Macros by Default After 'Temporary Pause'

Microsoft has officially resumed blocking Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macros by default across Office apps, weeks after temporarily announcing plans to roll back the change. "Based on our review of customer feedback, we've made updates to both our end user and our IT admin documentation to make clearer what options you have for different scenarios," the company said in an update on July

S3 Ep91: CodeRed, OpenSSL, Java bugs, Office macros [Audio + Text]

Latest episode - listen now! Great discussion, technical content, solid advice... all covered in plain English.

That didn’t last! Microsoft turns off the Office security it just turned on

An Office anti-malware setting that took more than 20 years to arrive... and fewer than 20 weeks to vanish again.

Hackers Exploiting Follina Bug to Deploy Rozena Backdoor

A newly observed phishing campaign is leveraging the recently disclosed Follina security vulnerability to distribute a previously undocumented backdoor on Windows systems. "Rozena is a backdoor malware that is capable of injecting a remote shell connection back to the attacker's machine," Fortinet FortiGuard Labs researcher Cara Lin said in a report this week. Tracked as CVE-2022-30190, the

Microsoft Temporarily Rolls Back Plan to Block Office VBA Macros by Default

Five months after announcing plans to disable Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macros by default in the Office productivity suite, Microsoft appears to have rolled back its plans. "Based on feedback received, a rollback has started," Microsoft employee Angela Robertson said in a July 6 comment. "An update about the rollback is in progress. I apologize for any inconvenience of the rollback

At last! Office macros from the internet to be blocked by default

It's been a long time coming, and we're not there yet, but at least Microsoft Office will be a bit safer against macro malware...