MoonBounce: New malware deployed by APT41 in UEFI firmware

THREAT LEVEL: Red. For a detailed advisory, download the pdf file here. MoonBounce is a new type of malware that hides in the most complex part of an Operating System OS, the Basic Input Output System BIOS chip, and thus persists even after reinstalling your OS or formatting your hard drive...

Chinese Hackers Spotted Using New UEFI Firmware Implant in Targeted Attacks

A previously undocumented firmware implant deployed to maintain stealthy persistence as part of a targeted espionage campaign has been linked to the Chinese-speaking Winnti advanced persistent threat group APT41. Kaspersky, which codenamed the rootkit MoonBounce, characterized the malware as the...

MoonBounce: the dark side of UEFI firmware

What happened? At the end of 2021, we were made aware of a UEFI firmware-level compromise through logs from our Firmware Scanner, which has been integrated into Kaspersky products since the beginning of 2019. Further analysis has shown that a single component within the inspected firmwares image...

SAS 2021: Learning to ChaCha with APT41

Straight from the sunny UK to the stage of SAS-at-Home 2021, John Southworth PwC will be giving some insights about the threat actor APT41, also known as Red Kelpie and Winnti. Starting with APT10 Red Apollo, the presentation will dance you through the malware used by APT41 – the Motnug loader an...

New Study Links Seemingly Disparate Malware Attacks to Chinese Hackers

Chinese cyber espionage group APT41 has been linked to seemingly disparate malware campaigns, according to fresh research that has mapped together additional parts of the group's network infrastructure to hit upon a state-sponsored campaign that takes advantage of COVID-themed phishing lures to...

ShadowPad Malware is Becoming a Favorite Choice of Chinese Espionage Groups

ShadowPad, an infamous Windows backdoor that allows attackers to download further malicious modules or steal data, has been put to use by five different Chinese threat clusters since 2017. "The adoption of ShadowPad significantly reduces the costs of development and maintenance for threat actors,...

Chinese Hackers Believed to be Behind Second Cyberattack on Air India

Even as a massive data breach affecting Air India came to light the previous month, India's flag carrier airline appears to have suffered a separate cyber assault that lasted for a period of at least two months and 26 days, new research has revealed, which attributed the incident with moderate...

Monumental Supply-Chain Attack on Airlines Traced to State Actor

A monster cyberattack on SITA, a global IT provider for 90 percent of the world’s airline industry, is slowly unfurling to reveal the largest supply-chain attack on the airline industry in history. The enormous data breach, estimated to have already impacted 4.5 million passengers, has potentiall...

China’s RedEcho accused of targeting India’s power grids

RedEcho, an advanced persistent threat APT group from China, has attempted to infiltrate the systems behind Indias power grids, according to a threat analysis report from Recorded Future PDF. It appears that what triggered this attempt to gain a foothold in Indias critical power generation and...

Researchers Disclose Undocumented Chinese Malware Used in Recent Attacks

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed a series of attacks by a threat actor of Chinese origin that has targeted organizations in Russia and Hong Kong with malware — including a previously undocumented backdoor. Attributing the campaign to Winnti or APT41, Positive Technologies dated the first...

A week in security (September 14 – 20)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we looked at Fintech industry developments, specifically the differences between Europe and the US, and we analyzed how some charities and the advertising industry are tied together. We also told readers about what companies can do to counter domain name abuse. In...

Chinese Antivirus Firm Was Part of APT41 ‘Supply Chain’ Attack

The U.S. Justice Department this week indicted seven Chinese nationals for a decade-long hacking spree that targeted more than 100 high-tech and online gaming companies. The government alleges the men used malware-laced phishing emails and "supply chain" attacks to steal data from companies and...

APT41 Operatives Indicted as Sophisticated Hacking Activity Continues

UPDATE Five alleged members of the APT41 threat group have been indicted by a federal grand jury, in two separate actions that were unsealed this week. Meanwhile, the Department of Treasury also imposed sanctions on individuals and organizations associated with Iran-linked APT39. APT41 a.k.a...

FBI adds 5 Chinese APT41 hackers to its Cyber's Most Wanted List

The United States government today announced charges against 5 alleged members of a Chinese state-sponsored hacking group and 2 Malaysian hackers that are responsible for hacking more than 100 companies throughout the world. Named as APT41 and also known as 'Barium,' 'Winnti, 'Wicked Panda,' and...

Chinese Hackers Exploit Cisco, Citrix Flaws in Massive Espionage Campaign

Researchers warn that APT41, a notorious China-linked threat group, has targeted more than 75 organizations worldwide in “one of the broadest campaigns by a Chinese cyber-espionage actor observed in recent years.” Between Jan. 20 and March 11, researchers observed APT41 exploiting vulnerabilities...

This Is Not a Test: APT41 Initiates Global Intrusion Campaign Using Multiple Exploits

Beginning this year, FireEye observed Chinese actor APT41 carry out one of the broadest campaigns by a Chinese cyber espionage actor we have observed in recent years. Between January 20 and March 11, FireEye observed APT41 attempt to exploit vulnerabilities in Citrix NetScaler/ADC, Cisco routers,...

Technical Analysis: Hackers Leveraging COVID-19 Pandemic to Launch Phishing Attacks, Fake Apps/Maps, Trojans, Backdoors, Cryptominers, Botnets & Ransomware

The global COVID-19 pandemic is generating a substantial uptick in the production and delivery of Coronavirus themed malware. Due to a rapidly growing number of Indicators of Compromise IOC’s, this report covers the key behaviors by aligning to the MITRE ATT&CK Framework. MITRE ATT&CK launched in...

China-Linked Hackers Spy on Texts With MessageTap Malware

Researchers have discovered a new malware used for cyber-espionage efforts by China-linked threat group APT41. The malware intercepts telecom SMS server traffic and sniffs out certain phone numbers and SMS messages – particularly those with keywords relating to Chinese political dissidents. The...

Chinese Hackers Compromise Telecom Servers to Spy on SMS Messages

A group of Chinese hackers carrying out political espionage for Beijing has been found targeting telecommunications companies with a new piece of malware designed to spy on text messages sent or received by highly targeted individuals. Dubbed "MessageTap," the backdoor malware is a 64-bit ELF dat...

MESSAGETAP: Who’s Reading Your Text Messages?

FireEye Mandiant recently discovered a new malware family used by APT41 a Chinese APT group that is designed to monitor and save SMS traffic from specific phone numbers, IMSI numbers and keywords for subsequent theft. Named MESSAGETAP, the tool was deployed by APT41 in a telecommunications networ...