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).
Using AI to Automatically Jailbreak GPT-4 and Other LLMs in Under a Minute
It’s been one year since the launch of ChatGPT, and since that time, the market has seen astonishing advancement of large language models (LLMs). Despite the pace of development continuing to outpace model security, enterprises are beginning to deploy LLM-powered applications. Many rely on guardrails implemented by model developers to prevent LLMs from responding to sensitive prompts. However, even with the considerable time and effort spent by the likes of OpenAI, Google, and Meta, these guardrails are not resilient enough to protect enterprises and their users today. Concerns surrounding model risk, biases, and potential adversarial exploits have come to the forefront.
Akamai SIRT has uncovered two zero-day vulnerabilities that are being actively exploited to spread a Mirai variant in the wild. Read on for details and mitigation.
ESET research shares insights about groups operating Telekopye, Telegram bots that scam people in online marketplaces, their internal onboarding process, different tricks of trade that Neanderthals use, and more.
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.
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.
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).
Uncovering thousands of unique secrets in PyPI packages
Security Researcher Tom Forbes worked with the GitGuardian team to analyze all the code committed to PyPi packages and surfaced thousands of hardcoded credentials.
A Closer Look at ChatGPT's Role in Automated Malware Creation
As the use of ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence (AI) technologies becomes more widespread, it is important to consider the possible risks associated with their use. One of the main concerns surrounding these technologies is the potential for malicious use, such as in the development of malware or other harmful software. Our recent reports discussed how cybercriminals are misusing the large language model’s (LLM) advanced capabilities: We discussed how ChatGPT can be abused to scale manual and time-consuming processes in cybercriminals’ attack chains in virtual kidnapping schemes. We also reported on how this tool can be used to automate certain processes in harpoon whaling attacks to discover “signals” or target categories.
Raising Online Defenses Through Transparency and Collaboration | Meta
We're sharing a look into our defense strategy and the latest news on how we build it into our products. A recent study shows that de-platforming hate networks reduces consumption and production of hateful content on Facebook and diminishes the ability of these hate networks to operate online. We’re sharing new threat research on two of the largest known covert influence operations in the world from China and Russia, targeting 50+ apps and countries, including the US. * We added new transparency features to Threads, including state-controlled media labels to help people know exactly who they interact with on the new app.
Researchers watched 100 hours of hackers hacking honeypot computers
Imagine being able to sit behind a hacker and observe them take control of a computer and play around with it. That’s pretty much what two security researchers did thanks to a large network of computers set up as a honeypot for hackers. The researchers deployed several Windows servers deliberately exposed on the internet, set up with Remote Desktop Protocol, or RDP, meaning that hackers could remotely control the compromised servers as if they were regular users, being able to type and click around.
Midnight Blizzard conducts targeted social engineering over Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Threat Intelligence has identified highly targeted social engineering attacks using credential theft phishing lures sent as Microsoft Teams chats by the threat actor that Microsoft tracks as Midnight Blizzard (previously tracked as NOBELIUM).
Chinese Threat Actors Targeting Europe in SmugX Campaign
In the last couple of months, Check Point Research (CPR) has been tracking the activity of a Chinese threat actor targeting Foreign Affairs ministries and embassies in Europe. Combined with other Chinese activity previously reported by Check Point Research, this represents a larger trend within the Chinese ecosystem, pointing to a shift to targeting European entities, with a focus on their foreign policy. The activity described in this report, utilizes HTML Smuggling to target governmental entities in Eastern Europe. This specific campaign has been active since at least December 2022, and is likely a direct continuation of a previously reported campaign attributed to RedDelta (and also to Mustang Panda, to some extent).
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.
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.
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 […]
