LilacSquid: The stealthy trilogy of PurpleInk, InkBox and InkLoader
Multiple TTPs utilized in this campaign bear some overlap with North Korean APT groups.
From Origins to Operations: Understanding Black Basta Ransomware
Explore the rise of Black Basta as a top ransomware threat, their sophisticated tactics, notable attacks, and future implications for cybersecurity.
A Catalog of Hazardous AV Sites – A Tale of Malware Hosting
In mid-April 2024, Trellix Advanced Research Center team members observed multiple fake AV sites hosting highly sophisticated malicious files such as APK, EXE and Inno setup installer that includes Spy and Stealer capabilities. Hosting malicious software through sites which look legitimate is predatory to general consumers, especially those who look to protect their devices from cyber-attacks. The hosted websites made to look legitimate are listed below.
When privacy expires: how I got access to tons of sensitive citizen data after buying cheap domains
Cybersecurity has always been transient: what is deemed to be secure today, may be considered easily hackable tomorrow. Domain names in web and e-mail addresses, such as info@inti.io, are leased in time. This means that if nobody thinks of renewing them after they expire, they will be put up for sale. It made me wonder what would happen to the graveyard of cloud accounts attached to the e-mail addresses that once belonged to these expired domains.
CVE-2023-34992: Fortinet FortiSIEM Command Injection Deep-Dive
CVE-2023-34992 Fortinet FortiSIEM Command Injection Deep-Dive and Indicators of Compromise. This blog details a command injection vulnerability which allows an unauthenticated attacker to access the FortiSIEM server as root to execute arbitrary commands.
Leveraging DNS Tunneling for Tracking and Scanning
This article presents a case study on new applications of domain name system (DNS) tunneling we have found in the wild. These techniques expand beyond DNS tunneling only for command and control (C2) and virtual private network (VPN) purposes. Malicious actors occasionally employ DNS tunneling as a covert communications channel, because it can bypass conventional network firewalls. This allows C2 traffic and data exfiltration that can remain hidden from some traditional detection methods.
New “Goldoon” Botnet Targeting D-Link Devices
FortiGuard Labs discovered the new botnet “Goldoon” targeting D-Link devices through related vulnerability CVE-2015-2051.
GuptiMiner: Hijacking Antivirus Updates for Distributing Backdoors and Casual Mining - Avast Threat Labs
Avast discovered and analyzed GuptiMiner, a malware campaign hijacking an eScan antivirus update mechanism to distribute backdoors and coinminers.
Automating Pikabot’s String Deobfuscation
ThreatLabz created an IDA plugin to automate the deobfuscation of Pikabot’s strings.
World-first “Cybercrime Index” ranks countries by cybercrime threat
Following three years of intensive research, an international team of researchers have compiled the first ever ‘World Cybercrime Index’, which identifies the globe’s key cybercrime hotspots by ranking the most significant sources of cybercrime at a national level.
Accidentally Crashing a Botnet
As part of our research into the cryptomining botnet kmsdbot, we rendered it useless.
Flubot: the evolution of a notorious Android Banking Malware
Flubot is an Android based malware that has been distributed in the past 1.5 years in Europe, Asia and Oceania affecting thousands of devices of mostly unsuspecting victims. Like the majority of Android banking malware, Flubot abuses Accessibility Permissions and Services in order to steal the victim’s credentials, by detecting when the official banking application is open to show a fake web injection, a phishing website similar to the login form of the banking application. An important part of the popularity of Flubot is due to the distribution strategy used in its campaigns, since it has been using the infected devices to send text messages, luring new victims into installing the malware from a fake website. In this article we detail its development over time and recent developments regarding its disappearance, including new features and distribution campaigns.
Microsoft Diagnostic Tool "DogWalk" Package Path Traversal Gets Free Micropatches (0day/WontFix)
With the "Follina" / CVE-2022-30190 0day still hot, i.e., still waiting for an official fix while apparently already getting exploited by nation-backed attackers, another related unfixed vulnerability in Microsoft's Diagnostic Tool (MSDT) bubbled to the surface. In January 2020, security researcher Imre Rad published an article titled "The trouble with Microsoft’s Troubleshooters," describing a method for having a malicious executable file being saved to user's Startup folder, where it would subsequently get executed upon user's next login. What the user has to do for this to happen is open a "diagcab" file...
Analysis and Attribution of the Eternity Ransomware: Timeline and Emergence of the Eternity Group
XVigil discovered a financially motivated threat actor group, dubbed Eternity group, actively operating on the internet, selling worms, stealers, DDoS tools, and ransomware builders.
Large-scale Analysis of DNS-based Tracking Evasion - broad data leaks included?
User tracking technologies are ubiquitous on the web. In recent times web browsers try to fight abuses. This led to an arms race where new tracking and anti-tracking measures are being developed. The use of one of such evasion techniques, the CNAME cloaking technique is recently quickly gaining popularity. Our evidence indicates that the use of the CNAME scheme threatens web security and privacy systematically and in general
Exploiting an Unbounded memcpy in Parallels Desktop
This post details the development of a guest-to-host virtualization escape for Parallels Desktop on macOS, as used in our successful Pwn2Own 2021 entry. Give...
Multi-factor Authentication to Generate $27 Billion Globally for Mobile Operators in 2022, Juniper Research Study Finds
A new study by Juniper Research has found operators will generate $27 billion from the termination of SMS messages related to multi-factor authentication in 2022; an increase from $25 billion in 2021. The research predicts this 5% growth will be driven by increased pressure on digital service providers to offer secure authentication that reduces risk of data breaches and protects user identity. Multi-factor authentication combines multiple credentials to verify a user or transaction. This includes sending an SMS that contains a one‑time password or code to a user’s unique phone number.
Raccoon Stealer: “Trash panda” abuses Telegram
We recently came across a stealer, called Raccoon Stealer, a name given to it by its author. Raccoon Stealer uses the Telegram infrastructure to store and update actual C&C addresses. Raccoon Stealer is a password stealer capable of stealing not just passwords, but various types of data, including: Cookies, saved logins and forms data from […]
Iranian linked conglomerate MuddyWater comprised of regionally focused subgroups
Cisco Talos has observed new cyber attacks targeting Turkey and other Asian countries we believe with high confidence are from groups operating under the MuddyWater umbrella of APT groups. U.S. Cyber Command recently connected MuddyWater to Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS).
Muddled Libra’s Evolution to the Cloud
Unit 42 researchers have discovered that the Muddled Libra group now actively targets software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications and cloud service provider (CSP) environments. Organizations often store a variety of data in SaaS applications and use services from CSPs. The threat actors have begun attempting to leverage some of this data to assist with their attack progression, and to use for extortion when trying to monetize their work.
Bringing process injection into view(s): exploiting all macOS apps using nib files · Sector 7
In a previous blog post we described a process injection vulnerability affecting all AppKit-based macOS applications. This research was presented at Black Hat USA 2022, DEF CON 30 and Objective by the Sea v5. This vulnerability was actually the second universal process injection vulnerability we reported to Apple, but it was fixed earlier than the first. Because it shared some parts of the exploit chain with the first one, there were a few steps we had to skip in the earlier post and the presentations. Now that the first vulnerability has been fixed in macOS 13.0 (Ventura) and improved in macOS 14.0 (Sonoma), we can detail the first one and thereby fill in the blanks of the previous post. This vulnerability was independently found by Adam Chester and written up here under the name “DirtyNIB”. While the exploit chain demonstrated by Adam shares a lot of similarity to ours, our attacks trigger automatically and do not require a user to click a button, making them a lot more stealthy. Therefore we decided to publish our own version of this write-up as well.
Unveiling the Fallout: Operation Cronos' Impact on LockBit Following Landmark Disruption
- On Feb. 19, 2024, Operation Cronos, a targeted law enforcement action, caused outages on LockBit-affiliated platforms, significantly disrupting the notorious ransomware group's operations. LockBit’s downtime was quickly followed by a takeover of its leak site by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), spotlighting the concerted international effort against cybercrime. Authorities leveraged the compromised LockBit leak site to distribute information about the group and its operations, announce arrests, sanctions, cryptocurrency seizure, and more. This demonstrated support for affected businesses and cast doubt on LockBit's promises regarding data deletion post-ransom payment — emphasizing that paying ransoms is not the best course of action. Trend Micro analyzed LockBit-NG-Dev, an in-development version of the ransomware. Key findings indicated a shift to a .NET core, which allows it to be more platform-agnostic and emphasizes the need for new security detection techniques. The leak of LockBit's back-end information offered a glimpse into its internal workings and disclosed affiliate identities and victim data, potentially leading to a drop in trust and collaboration within the cybercriminal network. The sentiments of the cybercrime community to LockBit's disruption ranged from satisfaction to speculation about the group’s future, hinting at the significant impact of the incident on the ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) industry. Businesses can expect shifts in RaaS tactics and should enhance preparedness against potential reformations of the disrupted group and its affiliates. Contrary to what the group themselves have stated, activities observed post-disruption would indicate that Operation Chronos has a significant impact on the group’s activities.
Accidentally Crashing a Botnet
As part of our research into the cryptomining botnet kmsdbot, we rendered it useless.
Flubot: the evolution of a notorious Android Banking Malware
Flubot is an Android based malware that has been distributed in the past 1.5 years in Europe, Asia and Oceania affecting thousands of devices of mostly unsuspecting victims. Like the majority of Android banking malware, Flubot abuses Accessibility Permissions and Services in order to steal the victim’s credentials, by detecting when the official banking application is open to show a fake web injection, a phishing website similar to the login form of the banking application. An important part of the popularity of Flubot is due to the distribution strategy used in its campaigns, since it has been using the infected devices to send text messages, luring new victims into installing the malware from a fake website. In this article we detail its development over time and recent developments regarding its disappearance, including new features and distribution campaigns.
Microsoft Diagnostic Tool "DogWalk" Package Path Traversal Gets Free Micropatches (0day/WontFix)
With the "Follina" / CVE-2022-30190 0day still hot, i.e., still waiting for an official fix while apparently already getting exploited by nation-backed attackers, another related unfixed vulnerability in Microsoft's Diagnostic Tool (MSDT) bubbled to the surface. In January 2020, security researcher Imre Rad published an article titled "The trouble with Microsoft’s Troubleshooters," describing a method for having a malicious executable file being saved to user's Startup folder, where it would subsequently get executed upon user's next login. What the user has to do for this to happen is open a "diagcab" file...
Analysis and Attribution of the Eternity Ransomware: Timeline and Emergence of the Eternity Group
XVigil discovered a financially motivated threat actor group, dubbed Eternity group, actively operating on the internet, selling worms, stealers, DDoS tools, and ransomware builders.
Large-scale Analysis of DNS-based Tracking Evasion - broad data leaks included?
User tracking technologies are ubiquitous on the web. In recent times web browsers try to fight abuses. This led to an arms race where new tracking and anti-tracking measures are being developed. The use of one of such evasion techniques, the CNAME cloaking technique is recently quickly gaining popularity. Our evidence indicates that the use of the CNAME scheme threatens web security and privacy systematically and in general
Exploiting an Unbounded memcpy in Parallels Desktop
This post details the development of a guest-to-host virtualization escape for Parallels Desktop on macOS, as used in our successful Pwn2Own 2021 entry. Give...
Multi-factor Authentication to Generate $27 Billion Globally for Mobile Operators in 2022, Juniper Research Study Finds
A new study by Juniper Research has found operators will generate $27 billion from the termination of SMS messages related to multi-factor authentication in 2022; an increase from $25 billion in 2021. The research predicts this 5% growth will be driven by increased pressure on digital service providers to offer secure authentication that reduces risk of data breaches and protects user identity. Multi-factor authentication combines multiple credentials to verify a user or transaction. This includes sending an SMS that contains a one‑time password or code to a user’s unique phone number.
Raccoon Stealer: “Trash panda” abuses Telegram
We recently came across a stealer, called Raccoon Stealer, a name given to it by its author. Raccoon Stealer uses the Telegram infrastructure to store and update actual C&C addresses. Raccoon Stealer is a password stealer capable of stealing not just passwords, but various types of data, including: Cookies, saved logins and forms data from […]