* 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.

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.

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.

We discovered an active campaign targeting Eastern Europeans in the cryptocurrency industry using fake job lures.

As part of our research into the cryptomining botnet kmsdbot, we rendered it useless.

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.

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…

The Wi-Peep exploit allows an attacker to covertly locate all of the Wi-Fi-enabled devices in a building quickly using inexpensive hardware.

Black Basta operational TTPs are described here in full detail, revealing previously unknown tools and techniques and a link to FIN7.

Understanding banking Trojan techniques can help detect other activities of financially motivated threat groups.

Our blog entry provides a look at an attack involving the LV ransomware on a Jordan-based company from an intrusion analysis standpoint

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.

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.

BianLian is a financially motivated threat actor that targets a wide range of industries. It uses the exotic programming language “Go” to encrypt files with unusual speed.

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

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.

ESET researchers analyzed previously undocumented custom backdoors and cyberespionage tools deployed in Israel by the POLONIUM APT group.

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.

This post explores some of the TTPs employed by a threat actor who was observed deploying ShadowPad during an incident response engagement.

New research shows how third-party apps could be exploited to infiltrate these sensitive workplace tools.

In June 2022, FortiGuard Labs encountered IoT malware samples with SSH-related strings, something not often seen in other IoT threat campaigns. What piqued our interest more was the size of the code referencing these strings in relation to the code used for DDoS attacks, which usually comprises most of the code in other variants.

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.

We compare the targeting and business models of the Conti and LockBit ransomware groups using data analysis approaches. This will be presented in full at the 34th Annual FIRST Conference on June 27, 2022.

Since the last quarter of 2020 MuddyWater has mantained a “long-term” infection campaign targeting Middle East countries. We have gathered samples from November 2020 to January 2022, and due to the recent samples found, it seems that this campaign might still be currently active. The latest campaigns of the Muddy Water threat group, allegedly sponsored by the Iranian government and linked to the Iranian revolutionary guard (the main armed forces of the Iranian government), could be framed within the dynamics of maintaining Iran’s regional sovereignty.

Attacker targets bugs in a popular web application graphical interface development tool.

A group of academic researchers from the University of Hamburg in Germany has discovered that mobile devices leak identifying information about their owners via Wi-Fi probe requests.

The Lyceum APT group is targeting Middle East organizations with DNS hijacking attack using a new .NET-based malware.