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).
Condi DDoS Botnet Spreads via TP-Link's CVE-2023-1389
FortiGuard Labs encountered recent samples of a DDoS-as-a-service botnet calling itself Condi. It attempted to spread by exploiting TP-Link Archer AX21 (AX1800) routers vulnerable to CVE-2023-1389, which was disclosed in mid-March of this year. Read more.
New Magecart-Style Campaign Abusing Legitimate Websites to Attack Others | Akamai
Akamai researchers have identified a new Magecart-style skimmer campaign that hides behind legitimate website domains to steal PII and credit card information.
New macOS vulnerability, Migraine, could bypass System Integrity Protection | Microsoft Security Blog
A new vulnerability, which we refer to as “Migraine” for its involvement with macOS migration, could allow an attacker with root access to automatically bypass System Integrity Protection (SIP) in macOS and perform arbitrary operations on a device
EDR bypassing via memory manipulation techniques | WithSecure™ Labs
Endpoint Detection & Response systems (EDR), delivered by in-house teams or as part of a managed service, are a feature of modern intrusion detection and remediation operations. This success is a problem for attackers, and malicious actors have worked to find new ways to evade EDR detection capabilities. PDF Document
What if we had the SockPuppet vulnerability in iOS 16?
The next post in our XNU memory safety series examines how our hardened kernel allocator performs in the real world against a previously patched but powerful UAF software vulnerability. In this detailed analysis, we find out what might happen if SockPuppet were to meet kalloc_type in iOS 16.
BlackCat Ransomware Deploys New Signed Kernel Driver
In this blog post, we will provide details on a BlackCat ransomware incident that occurred in February 2023, where we observed a new capability, mainly used for the defense evasion phase.
This blog post seeks to draw out some high-level trends and anomalies based on our ongoing tracking of QakBot command and control (C2) infrastructure. By looking at the data with a broader scope, we hope to supplement other research into this particular threat family, which in general focuses on specific infrastructure elements; e.g., daily alerting on active C2 servers.
The malware threat landscape: NodeStealer, DuckTail, and more
We’re sharing our latest research and analysis into malware campaigns that are targeting online businesses — including newer malware posing as AI tools.
FIN7 tradecraft seen in attacks against Veeam backup servers
WithSecure Intelligence identified attacks which occurred in late March 2023 against internet-facing servers running Veeam Backup & Replication software. Our research indicates that the intrusion set used in these attacks has overlaps with those attributed to the FIN7 activity group. It is likely that initial access & execution was achieved through a recently patched Veeam Backup & Replication vulnerability, CVE-2023-27532.
Rorschach – A New Sophisticated and Fast Ransomware
Check Point Research (CPR) and Check Point Incident Response Team (CPIRT) encountered a previously unnamed ransomware strain, we dubbed Rorschach, deployed against a US-based company. Rorschach ransomware appears to be unique, sharing no overlaps that could easily attribute it to any known ransomware strain. In addition, it does not bear any kind of branding which is a common practice among ransomware groups. * The ransomware is partly autonomous, carrying out tasks that are usually manually performed during enterprise-wide ransomware deployment, such as creating a domain group policy (GPO). In the past, similar functionality was linked to LockBit 2.0. * The ransomware is highly customizable and contains technically unique features, such as the use of direct syscalls, rarely observed in ransomware. Moreover, due to different implementation methods, Rorschach is one of the fastest ransomware observed, by the speed of encryption. * The ransomware was deployed using DLL side-loading of a Cortex XDR Dump Service Tool, a signed commercial security product, a loading method which is not commonly used to load ransomware. The vulnerability was properly reported to Palo Alto Networks.
In this blog entry, we provide technical details and analysis on the 3CX attacks as they happen. We also discuss available solutions which security teams can maximize for early detection and mitigate the impact of 3CX attacks.
New OpcJacker Malware Distributed via Fake VPN Malvertising
We discovered a new malware, which we named “OpcJacker” (due to its opcode configuration design and its cryptocurrency hijacking ability), that has been distributed in the wild since the second half of 2022.
Shining Light on Dark Power: Yet Another Ransomware Gang
Another day, another ransomware gang. The Dark Power ransomware gang is new on the block, and is trying to make a name for itself. This blog dives into the specifics of the ransomware used by the gang, as well as some information regarding their victim naming and shaming website, filled with non-paying victims and stolen data.
In 2018, EFF along with researchers from Lookout Security published a report describing the Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) we dubbed "Dark Caracal." Now we have uncovered a new Dark Caracal campaign operating since March of 2022, with hundreds of infections across more than a dozen countries. In this report we will present evidence that the cyber mercenary group Dark Caracal is still active and continues to be focused on Latin America, as was reported last year. We have discovered that Dark Caracal, using the Bandook spyware, is currently infecting over 700 computers in Central and South America, primarily in The Dominican Republic and Venezuela.
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.
Supply Chain Vulnerabilities Put Server Ecosystem At Risk
BMC&C Eclypsium Research has discovered and reported 3 vulnerabilities in American Megatrends, Inc. (AMI) MegaRAC Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) software. We are referring to these vulnerabilities collectively as BMC&C. MegaRAC BMC is widely used by many leading server manufacturers to provide “lights-out” management capabilities for their server products. Server manufacturers…
Unattributed RomCom Threat Actor Spoofing Popular Apps Now Hits Ukrainian Militaries
Threat actor RomCom RAT is now targeting Ukrainian military institutions. Known to deploy spoofed versions of popular software Advanced IP Scanner, once exposed, RomCom RAT switched to PDF Filler, another popular application, which indicates the group behind it is actively developing new capabilities.
Domestic Kitten campaign spying on Iranian citizens with new FurBall malware
ESET researchers recently identified a new version of the Android malware FurBall being used in a Domestic Kitten campaign conducted by the APT-C-50 group. The Domestic Kitten campaign is known to conduct mobile surveillance operations against Iranian citizens and this new FurBall version is no different in its targeting. Since June 2021, it has been distributed as a translation app via a copycat of an Iranian website that provides translated articles, journals, and books. The malicious app was uploaded to VirusTotal where it triggered one of our YARA rules (used to classify and identify malware samples), which gave us the opportunity to analyze it.
See how this tool—created by a sophisticated and seemingly unknown threat actor—uses the unique approach of disguising itself as part of a Windows update.
There are many security solutions available today that rely on the Extended Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF) features of the Linux kernel to monitor kernel functions. Such a paradigm shift in the latest monitoring technologies is being driven by a variety of reasons
Black Basta Ransomware Gang Infiltrates networks via QAKBOT, Brute Ratel, and Cobalt Strike
We analyzed a QAKBOT-related case leading to a Brute Ratel C4 and Cobalt Strike payload that can be attributed to the threat actors behind the Black Basta ransomware.
The Majority of PostgreSQL Servers on the Internet are Insecure
At most 15% of the approximately 820,000 PostgreSQL servers listening on the Internet require encryption. In fact, only 36% even support encryption. This puts PostgreSQL servers well behind the rest of the Internet in terms of security. In comparison, according to Google, over 96% of page loads in Chrome on a Mac are encrypted. The top 100 websites support encryption, and 97 of those default to encryption.
