What we know about the xz Utils backdoor that almost infected the world
Malicious updates made to a ubiquitous tool were a few weeks away from going mainstream.
Website networks in Europe used as tools for Russian information warfare
The Putin regime conducts large-scale propaganda not only through its state media but also through “useful idiots,” who focus on demonizing the US, EU, and NATO and have right- or left-wing views. New “multilingual international media” have emerged that write in a way that suits the Kremlin and spread pro-Russian narratives and disinformation, replacing Russia Today and Sputnik, which have received a ban in Europe.
Infostealers continue to pose threat to macOS users
Jamf Threat Labs dissects ongoing infostealer attacks targeting macOS users. Each with different means of compromising victim’s Macs but with similar aims: to steal sensitive user data.
Vulnerabilities Year-in-Review: 2023
In 2023, threat actors continued to exploit a variety of vulnerabilities — both newly discovered weaknesses and unresolved issues — to carry out sophisticated attacks on global organizations. The number of documented software vulnerabilities continued to rise, and threat actors were quick to capitalize on new vulnerabilities and leverage recent releases of publicly available vulnerability research and exploit code to target entities. However, while there was a high number of vulnerabilities released in the reporting period, only a handful actually were weaponized in attacks. The ones of most interest are those that threat actors use for exploitation. In this report, we’ll analyze the numbers and types of vulnerabilities in 2023 with a view to understanding attack trends and how organizations can better defend themselves.
State of WordPress Security In 2024
This year, we’ve partnered with Sucuri. With both of our data combined, we can cover the entire timeline of security incidents from the vulnerability being found to the point where malware infection gets detected on a vulnerable website. 2023 was another record year of new vulnerabilities being discovered and fixed in the WordPress ecosystem. In 2023, we added 5,948 new vulnerabilities to the Patchstack vulnerability database. That’s 24% more than in 2022.
Claro Company Hit by Trigona Ransomware
Claro Company, the largest telecom operator in Central and South America, disclosed being hit by ransomware. Representatives shared this information in response to the service disruptions in several regions. From the ransom note it becomes clear that the attackers are Trigona ransomware.
Check if you're vulnerable to CVE-2024-3094
CVE-2024-3094 is the new hot one and it’s extremely critical; however, impact should be limited as most normal linux distros are unaffected. Here’s some stuff to know:
xz/liblzma: Bash-stage Obfuscation Explained - gynvael.coldwind//vx.log
esterday Andres Freund emailed oss-security@ informing the community of the discovery of a backdoor in xz/liblzma, which affected OpenSSH server (huge respect for noticing and investigating this). Andres' email is an amazing summary of the whole drama, so I'll skip that. While admittedly most juicy and interesting part is the obfuscated binary with the backdoor, the part that caught my attention – and what this blogpost is about – is the initial part in bash and the simple-but-clever obfuscation methods used there. Note that this isn't a full description of what the bash stages do, but rather a write down of how each stage is obfuscated and extracted.
From OneNote to RansomNote: An Ice Cold Intrusion - The DFIR Report
- In late February 2023, threat actors rode a wave of initial access using Microsoft OneNote files. In this case, we observed a threat actor deliver IcedID using this method. After loading IcedID and establishing persistence, there was no further actions, other than beaconing for over 30 days. The threat actor used Cobalt Strike and AnyDesk to target a file server and a backup server. * The threat actor used FileZilla to exfiltrate data from the network before deploying Nokoyawa ransomware.
Serious security breach hits EU police agency
Disappearance of sensitive files of top law enforcement officials has sparked a crisis at Europol.
AT&T confirms data for 73 million customers leaked on hacker forum
AT&T has finally confirmed it is impacted by a data breach affecting 73 million current and former customers after initially denying the leaked data originated from them.
AT&T says leaked data set impacts about 73 million current, former account holders
Telecom company AT&T(T.N), opens new tab said on Saturday that it is investigating a data set released on the "dark web" about two weeks ago, and said that its preliminary analysis shows it has impacted approximately 7.6 million current account holders and 65.4 million former account holders. The company said the data set appears to be from 2019 or earlier. AT&T said it does not have evidence of unauthorized access to its systems resulting from the incident.
The Darkside of TheMoon
Executive Summary The Black Lotus Labs team at Lumen Technologies has identified a multi-year campaign targeting end-of-life (EoL) small home/small office (SOHO) routers and IoT devices, associated with an updated version of “TheMoon” malware. TheMoon, which emerged in 2014, has been operating quietly while growing to over 40,000 bots from 88 countries in January and
EU bans anonymous crypto payments to hosted wallets
In a recent regulatory development, the European Union (EU) has voted to ban cryptocurrency payments to "hosted wallets" using unidentified self-custody crypto wallets.
Key Lesson from Microsoft's Password Spray Hack: Secure Every Account
In January 2024, Microsoft discovered they'd been the victim of a hack orchestrated by Russian-state hackers Midnight Blizzard (sometimes known as Nobelium). The concerning detail about this case is how easy it was to breach the software giant. It wasn't a highly technical hack that exploited a zero-day vulnerability – the hackers used a simple password spray attack to take control of an old, inactive account. This serves as a stark reminder of the importance of password security and why organizations need to protect every user account.
Details and Lessons Learned From the Ransomware Attack on the British Library
The British Library has shared details on the destructive ransomware attack it experienced in October 2023. Although the attack on the national library of the UK occurred five months ago, the Library’s infrastructure won’t be rebuilt until mid-April 2024, and then the full restoration of systems and data can begin.
Ransomware Diaries: Volume 1
The LockBit ransomware gang is one of the most notorious organized cybercrime syndicates that exists today. The gang is behind attacks targeting private-sector corporations and other high-profile industries worldwide. News and media outlets have documented many LockBit attacks, while security vendors offer technical assessments explaining how each occurred. Although these provide insight into the attacks, I wanted to know more about the human side of the operation to learn about the insights, motivations, and behaviors of the individuals on the other side of the keyboard. To prepare for this project, I spent months developing several online personas and established their credibility over time to gain access to the gang’s operation.
Accidentally Crashing a Botnet
As part of our research into the cryptomining botnet kmsdbot, we rendered it useless.
Schools hit by cyber attack and documents leaked
Confidential details including child passport scans and SEN data is published online, the BBC finds.
Shc Linux Malware Installing CoinMiner
The ASEC analysis team recently discovered that a Linux malware developed with Shc has been installing a CoinMiner. It is presumed that after successful authentication through a dictionary attack on inadequately managed Linux SSH servers, various malware were installed on the target system. Among those installed were the Shc downloader, XMRig CoinMiner installed through the former, and DDoS IRC Bot, developed with Perl.
Cyber attacks set to become ‘uninsurable’, says Zurich chief
The chief executive of one of Europe’s biggest insurance companies has warned that cyber attacks, rather than natural catastrophes, will become “uninsurable” as the disruption from hacks continues to grow.
Twitter in data-protection probe after '400 million' user details up for sale
A watchdog is to investigate Twitter after a hacker claimed to have private details linked to more than 400 million accounts.
Darknet markets generate millions in revenue selling stolen personal data
A handful of markets were responsible for trafficking most of the data.
Vanuatu: Hackers strand Pacific island government for over a week
Vanuatu - an island courted by the US and China - has been stranded offline for over a week.
LockBit ransomware suspect nabbed in Canada, faces charges in the US
Automation features make LockBit one of the more destructive pieces of ransomware. Federal prosecutors on Thursday charged a dual Russian and Canadian national for his alleged participation in a global campaign to spread ransomware known as LockBit. Mikhail Vasiliev, 33, of Bradford, Ontario, Canada, was taken into custody in late October by authorities in Ontario, officials at Interpol said. He is now in custody in Canada awaiting extradition to the US.
Crimson Kingsnake: BEC Group Impersonates…
Recently, we identified a new BEC group leveraging blind third-party impersonation tactics to swindle companies around the world. The group, which we call Crimson Kingsnake, impersonates real attorneys, law firms, and debt recovery services to deceive accounting professionals into quickly paying bogus invoices.
How Vice Society got away with a global ransomware spree | Ars Technica
Vice Society has a superpower that’s allowed it to quietly thrive: Mediocrity.
CVE-2022-41352
On September 25, 2022, CVE-2022-41352 was filed for Zimbra Collaboration Suite. The vulnerability is a remote code execution flaw that arises from unsafe usage…
Man arrested for alleged data breach SMS scam
A Sydney man, 19, has been charged for allegedly attempting to misuse stolen Optus customer data in a text message blackmail scam.
How 3 hours of inaction from Amazon cost cryptocurrency holders $235,000
For 2nd time in 4 years, Amazon loses control of its IP space in BGP hijacking.