Toward Ending the Domain Wars: Early Detection of Malicious Stockpiled Domains
Using machine learning to target stockpiled malicious domains, the results of our detection pipeline tool highlight campaigns from phishing to scams.
A pernicious potpourri of Python packages in PyPI
The past year has seen over 10,000 downloads of malicious packages hosted on the official Python package repository, ESET research finds.
The evolutionary tale of a persistent Python threat
Since early April 2023, an attacker has been relentlessly deploying hundreds of malicious packages through various usernames, accumulating nearly 75,000 downloads. Our team at Checkmarx’s Supply Chain Security has been on this malicious actor’s trail since early April, documenting each step of its evolution. We have been actively observing an attacker who seems to be evermore refining their craft.
Fake CVE-2023-40477 Proof of Concept Leads to VenomRAT
A phony proof-of-concept (PoC) code for CVE-2023-40477 delivered a payload of VenomRAT. We detail our findings, including an analysis of the malicious code.
An Ongoing Open Source Attack Reveals Roots Dating Back To 2021
Developers in the cryptocurrency sphere are being targeted once again, as yet another threat actor has been exposed. This user has been publishing malicious NPM packages with the purpose of exfiltrating sensitive data such as source code and configuration files from the victim’s machines. The threat actor behind this campaign has been linked to malicious activity dating back to 2021. Since then, they have continuously published malicious code.
Hackers exploit gaping Windows loophole to give their malware kernel access
Microsoft blocks a new batch of system drivers, but the loophole empowering them remains.
Microsoft Revokes Malicious Drivers in Patch Tuesday Culling
In December 2022, Microsoft published their monthly Windows Update packages that included an advisory about malicious drivers, signed by Microsoft and other code-signing authorities, that Sophos X-…
How malicious extensions hide running arbitrary code
Eight malicious extensions still remain in Chrome Web Store. These use some interesting tricks to keep running arbitrary code despite restrictions of Manifest V3.
Malicious VSCode extensions with more than 45K downloads steal PII and enable backdoors - Check Point Blog
Highlights: CloudGuard Spectrals detected malicious extensions on the VSCode marketplace Users installing these extensions were enabling attackers to
Threat Actors Rapidly Adopt Web3 IPFS Technology
Web3 technologies are seeing widespread adoption — including by TAs. We discuss Web3 technology InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), and malicious use of it.
Qakbot mechanizes distribution of malicious OneNote notebooks
A large-scale "QakNote" attack deploys malicious .one files as a novel infection vector
A Noteworthy Threat: How Cybercriminals are Abusing OneNote
Threat actors are taking advantage of Microsoft OneNote's ability to embed files and use social engineering techniques, such as phishing emails and lures inside the OneNote document, to get unsuspecting users to download and open malicious files.
Breaking Down the SEO Poisoning Attack | How Attackers Are Hijacking Search Results
SEO poisoning is gaining momentum as threat actors leverage malicious ads to deliver malware through web browser searches.
OPWNAI : Cybercriminals Starting to Use ChatGPT
At the end of November 2022, OpenAI released ChatGPT, the new interface for its Large Language Model (LLM), which instantly created a flurry of interest in AI and its possible uses. However, ChatGPT has also added some spice to the modern cyber threat landscape as it quickly became apparent that code generation can help less-skilled threat actors effortlessly launch cyberattacks. In Check Point Research’s (CPR) previous blog, we described how ChatGPT successfully conducted a full infection flow, from creating a convincing spear-phishing email to running a reverse shell, capable of accepting commands in English. The question at hand is whether this is just a hypothetical threat or if there are already threat actors using OpenAI technologies for malicious purposes. CPR’s analysis of several major underground hacking communities shows that there are already first instances of cybercriminals using OpenAI to develop malicious tools. As we suspected, some of the cases clearly showed that many cybercriminals using OpenAI have no development skills at all. Although the tools that we present in this report are pretty basic, it’s only a matter of time until more sophisticated threat actors enhance the way they use AI-based tools for bad.
Qakbot mechanizes distribution of malicious OneNote notebooks
A large-scale "QakNote" attack deploys malicious .one files as a novel infection vector
A Noteworthy Threat: How Cybercriminals are Abusing OneNote
Threat actors are taking advantage of Microsoft OneNote's ability to embed files and use social engineering techniques, such as phishing emails and lures inside the OneNote document, to get unsuspecting users to download and open malicious files.
Breaking Down the SEO Poisoning Attack | How Attackers Are Hijacking Search Results
SEO poisoning is gaining momentum as threat actors leverage malicious ads to deliver malware through web browser searches.
OPWNAI : Cybercriminals Starting to Use ChatGPT
At the end of November 2022, OpenAI released ChatGPT, the new interface for its Large Language Model (LLM), which instantly created a flurry of interest in AI and its possible uses. However, ChatGPT has also added some spice to the modern cyber threat landscape as it quickly became apparent that code generation can help less-skilled threat actors effortlessly launch cyberattacks. In Check Point Research’s (CPR) previous blog, we described how ChatGPT successfully conducted a full infection flow, from creating a convincing spear-phishing email to running a reverse shell, capable of accepting commands in English. The question at hand is whether this is just a hypothetical threat or if there are already threat actors using OpenAI technologies for malicious purposes. CPR’s analysis of several major underground hacking communities shows that there are already first instances of cybercriminals using OpenAI to develop malicious tools. As we suspected, some of the cases clearly showed that many cybercriminals using OpenAI have no development skills at all. Although the tools that we present in this report are pretty basic, it’s only a matter of time until more sophisticated threat actors enhance the way they use AI-based tools for bad.