UNC4034 slips in a backdoor with trojanized PuTTY

Threat Level Attack Report For a detailed threat advisory, download the pdf file here Summary UNC4034, a North Korean threat actor, uses a fake job posting to trick victims into downloading a trojanized version of PuTTY. When the malicious PuTTY binary is executed on the host, a backdoor named...

java-17-openjdk bug fix update

An update is available for java-17-openjdk. This update affects Rocky Linux 8. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System CVSS base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available for each vulnerability from the CVE list The java-17-openjdk packages provide the OpenJDK 17 Java Runtime...

java-11-openjdk bug fix update

An update is available for java-11-openjdk. This update affects Rocky Linux 8. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System CVSS base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available for each vulnerability from the CVE list The java-11-openjdk packages provide the OpenJDK 11 Java Runtime...

MagicRAT: Lazarus’ latest gateway into victim networks

By Jung soo An, Asheer Malhotra and Vitor Ventura. Cisco Talos has discovered a new remote access trojan RAT we're calling "MagicRAT," developed and operated by the Lazarus APT group, which the U.S. government believes is a North Korean state-sponsored actor. Lazarus deployed MagicRAT after the...

Introducing Qualys Threat Research Thursdays

Welcome to the first edition of the Qualys Research Team’s “Threat Research Thursday” where we collect and curate notable new tools, techniques, procedures, threat intelligence, cybersecurity news, malware attacks, and more. We will endeavor to issue these update reports regularly, as often as...

James Webb telescope images used to hide malware

A rather unique approach to spread malware using the popularity of the James Webb telescope images has been identified by the Securonix threat research team. The malware is being spread by a phishing campaign that includes a Microsoft Office attachment. Similar to traditional Office macros, the...

Hackers Hide Malware in Stunning Images Taken by James Webb Space Telescope

A persistent Golang-based malware campaign dubbed GOWEBBFUSCATOR has leveraged the deep field image taken from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope JWST as a lure to deploy malicious payloads on infected systems. The development, revealed by Securonix, points to the growing adoption of Go among thre...

Cybercrime Groups Increasingly Adopting Sliver Command-and-Control Framework

Nation-state threat actors are increasingly adopting and integrating the Sliver command-and-control C2 framework in their intrusion campaigns as a replacement for Cobalt Strike. "Given Cobalt Strike's popularity as an attack tool, defenses against it have also improved over time," Microsoft...

Researchers Uncover Kimusky Infra Targeting South Korean Politicians and Diplomats

The North Korean nation-state group Kimusky has been linked to a new set of malicious activities directed against political and diplomatic entities located in its southern counterpart since early 2022. Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky codenamed the cluster GoldDragon, with the infection chain...

Kimsuky’s GoldDragon cluster and its C2 operations

Kimsuky also known as Thallium, Black Banshee and Velvet Chollima is a prolific and active threat actor primarily targeting Korea-related entities. Like other sophisticated adversaries, this group also updates its tools very quickly. In early 2022, we observed this group was attacking the media a...

Looking for the ‘Sliver’ lining: Hunting for emerging command-and-control frameworks

Microsoft has observed the Sliver command-and-control C2 framework now being adopted and integrated in intrusion campaigns by nation-state threat actors, cybercrime groups directly supporting ransomware and extortion, and other threat actors to evade detection. We’ve seen these actors use Sliver...

DoNot Team Hackers Updated its Malware Toolkit with Improved Capabilities

The Donot Team threat actor has updated its Jaca Windows malware toolkit with improved capabilities, including a revamped stealer module designed to plunder information from Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox browsers. The improvements also include a new infection chain that incorporates previousl...

RedGuard - C2 Front Flow Control Tool, Can Avoid Blue Teams, AVs, EDRs Check

0x00 Introduction Tool introduction RedGuard is a derivative work of the C2 facility pre-flow control technology. It has a lighter design, efficient flow interaction, and reliable compatibility with go language development. The core problem it solves is also in the face of increasingly complex re...

A Growing Number of Malware Attacks Leveraging Dark Utilities 'C2-as-a-Service'

A nascent service called Dark Utilities has already attracted 3,000 users for its ability to provide command-and-control C2 services with the goal of commandeering compromised systems. "It is marketed as a means to enable remote access, command execution, distributed denial-of-service DDoS attack...

Chinese Hackers Using New Manjusaka Hacking Framework Similar to Cobalt Strike

Researchers have disclosed a new offensive framework referred to as Manjusaka that they call is a "Chinese sibling of Sliver and Cobalt Strike." "A fully functional version of the command-and-control C2, written in Golang with a User Interface in Simplified Chinese, is freely available and can...

Here’s a Simple Script to Detect the Stealthy Nation-State BPFDoor

In this blog, the Qualys Research Team explains the mechanics of a Linux malware variant named BPFdoor. We then demonstrate the efficacy of Qualys Custom Assessment and Remediation to detect it, and Qualys Multi-Vector EDR to protect against it. BPFDoor is a Linux/Unix backdoor that allows threat...

New Linux Malware Framework Lets Attackers Install Rootkit on Targeted Systems

A never-before-seen Linux malware has been dubbed a "Swiss Army Knife" for its modular architecture and its capability to install rootkits. This previously undetected Linux threat, called Lightning Framework by Intezer, is equipped with a plethora of features, making it one of the most intricate...

Hermit spyware is deployed with the help of a victim’s ISP

Googles Threat Analysis Group TAG has revealed a sophisticated spyware activity involving ISPs internet service providers aiding in downloading powerful commercial spyware onto users mobile devices. The spyware, dubbed Hermit, is reported to have government clients much like Pegasus. Italian vend...

Nimc2 - A C2 Fully Written In Nim

nimc2 is a very lightweight C2 written fully in nim implant & server. If you want to give it a try check out the wiki to learn how to install and use nimc2. It's features include: Windows & Linux implant generation TCP socket communication with HTTP communication coming soon Ability to create as...

Chinese Hackers Distributing SMS Bomber Tool with Malware Hidden Inside

A threat cluster with ties to a hacking group called Tropic Trooper has been spotted using a previously undocumented malware coded in Nim language to strike targets as part of a newly discovered campaign. The novel loader, dubbed Nimbda, is "bundled with a Chinese language greyware 'SMS Bomber'...