SmokeBuster Tool
- ThreatLabz has developed a tool named SmokeBuster to detect, analyze, and remediate infections. SmokeBuster supports 32-bit and 64-bit instances of SmokeLoader and versions 2017-2022. The tool is compatible with Windows 7 to Windows 11. SmokeLoader is a malware downloader that originated in 2011. The malware is primarily designed to deliver second-stage payloads, which include information stealers and ransomware. Despite a major disruption by Operation Endgame in May 2024, SmokeLoader continues to be used by numerous threat groups largely due to numerous cracked versions publicly available on the internet. The last four versions of SmokeLoader contain coding flaws that significantly impact an infected system’s performance.
'Fortune 50' Company Made Record-Breaking $75M Ransomware Payment
A major company made a staggering $75 million ransomware payment to hackers earlier this year, according to cybersecurity vendor Zscaler. Zscaler made the claim in a Tuesday report examining the latest trends in ransomware attacks, which continue to ensnare companies, hospitals, and schools across the country.
New Backdoor, MadMxShell
Beginning in March of 2024, Zscaler ThreatLabz observed a threat actor weaponizing a cluster of domains masquerading as legitimate IP scanner software sites to distribute a previously unseen backdoor. The threat actor registered multiple look-alike domains using a typosquatting technique and leveraged GoogleAds to push these domains to the top of search engine results targeting specific search keywords, thereby luring victims to visit these sites. The newly discovered backdoor uses several techniques such as multiple stages of DLL sideloading, abusing the DNS protocol for communicating with the command-and-control (C2) server, and evading memory forensics security solutions. We named this backdoor “MadMxShell” for its use of DNS MX queries for C2 communication and its very short interval between C2 requests.
