JavaSith: a Client-Side Framework for Analyzing Potentially Malicious Extensions in Browsers, VS Code, and NPM Packages

Modern software supply chains face an increasing threat from malicious code hidden in trusted components such as browser extensions, IDE extensions, and open-source packages. This paper introduces JavaSith, a novel client-side framework for analyzing potentially malicious extensions in web...

CVE-2022-2417

Insufficient validation in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions from 12.10 prior to 15.0.5, 15.1 prior to 15.1.4, and 15.2 prior to 15.2.1 allows an authenticated and authorised user to import a project that includes branch names which are 40 hexadecimal characters, which could be abused in supply...

Securing CI/CD workflows with Wazuh

Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery/Deployment CI/CD refers to practices that automate how code is developed and released to different environments. CI/CD pipelines are fundamental in modern software development, ensuring code is consistently tested, built, and deployed quickly and...

QUT-DV25: a Dataset for Dynamic Analysis of Next-Gen Software Supply Chain Attacks

Securing software supply chains is a growing challenge due to the inadequacy of existing datasets in capturing the complexity of next-gen attacks, such as multiphase malware execution, remote access activation, and dynamic payload generation. Existing datasets, which rely on metadata inspection a...

Protecting Your Software Supply Chain: Assessing the Risks Before Deployment

Imagine you're considering a new car for your family. Before making a purchase, you evaluate its safety ratings, fuel efficiency, and reliability. You might even take it for a test drive to ensure it meets your needs. The same approach should be applied to software and hardware products before...

The Impact of Supply Chain Attacks on the Global Landscape

Background From the Silk Road’s ancient trade routes to today’s global networks, supply chains have shaped empires, fueled revolutions, and driven economies. Now, in an age of digital transformation, they’ve evolved from logistical backbones into dynamic, tech-driven ecosystems. Powered by digita...

Lazarus Group Spotted Targeting Nuclear Engineers with CookiePlus Malware

The Lazarus Group, an infamous threat actor linked to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea DPRK, has been observed leveraging a "complex infection chain" targeting at least two employees belonging to an unnamed nuclear-related organization within the span of one month in January 2024. The...

Lazarus group evolves its infection chain with old and new malware

Over the past few years, the Lazarus group has been distributing its malicious software by exploiting fake job opportunities targeting employees in various industries, including defense, aerospace, cryptocurrency, and other global sectors. This attack campaign is called the DeathNote campaign and...

Story of the Year: global IT outages and supply chain attacks

A faulty update by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike triggered one of the largest IT outages in history, impacting approximately 8.5 million systems worldwide. This incident serves as a stark reminder of the critical risks posed by global IT disruptions and supply chain weaknesses. With large-scale...

Malicious NPM Packages Target Roblox Users with Data-Stealing Malware

A new campaign has targeted the npm package repository with malicious JavaScript libraries that are designed to infect Roblox users with open-source stealer malware such as Skuld and Blank-Grabber. "This incident highlights the alarming ease with which threat actors can launch supply chain attack...

Chinese Hackers Use CloudScout Toolset to Steal Session Cookies from Cloud Services

A government entity and a religious organization in Taiwan were the target of a China-linked threat actor known as Evasive Panda that infected them with a previously undocumented post-compromise toolset codenamed CloudScout. "The CloudScout toolset is capable of retrieving data from various cloud...

China Accuses U.S. of Fabricating Volt Typhoon to Hide Its Own Hacking Campaigns

China's National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center CVERC has doubled down on claims that the threat actor known as Volt Typhoon is a fabrication of the U.S. and its allies. The agency, in collaboration with the National Engineering Laboratory for Computer Virus Prevention Technology, went ...

Supply Chain Attacks Can Exploit Entry Points in Python, npm, and Open-Source Ecosystems

Cybersecurity researchers have found that entry points could be abused across multiple programming ecosystems like PyPI, npm, Ruby Gems, NuGet, Dart Pub, and Rust Crates to stage software supply chain attacks. "Attackers can leverage these entry points to execute malicious code when specific...

WordPress Mandates Two-Factor Authentication for Plugin and Theme Developers

WordPress.org has announced a new account security measure that will require accounts with capabilities to update plugins and themes to activate two-factor authentication 2FA mandatorily. The enforcement is expected to come into effect starting October 1, 2024. "Accounts with commit access can pu...

New PIXHELL Attack Exploits LCD Screen Noise to Exfiltrate Data from Air-Gapped Computers

A new side-channel attack dubbed PIXHELL could be abused to target air-gapped computers by breaching the "audio gap" and exfiltrating sensitive information by taking advantage of the noise generated by pixels on an LCD screen. "Malware in the air-gap and audio-gap computers generates crafted pixe...

North Korean Threat Actors Deploy COVERTCATCH Malware via LinkedIn Job Scams

Threat actors affiliated with North Korea have been observed leveraging LinkedIn as a way to target developers as part of a fake job recruiting operation. These attacks employ coding tests as a common initial infection vector, Google-owned Mandiant said in a new report about threats faced by the...

WinSCP < 6.3.3 Key Recovery Attack Vulnerability

The version of WinSCP installed on the remote Windows host is prior to 6.3.3. It is, therefore, affected by a key recovery attack vulnerability. In PuTTY 0.68 through 0.80 before 0.81, biased ECDSA nonce generation allows an attacker to recover a user's NIST P-521 secret key via a quick attack in...

China-Linked Hackers Compromise ISP to Deploy Malicious Software Updates

The China-linked threat actor known as Evasive Panda compromised an unnamed internet service provider ISP to push malicious software updates to target companies in mid-2023, highlighting a new level of sophistication associated with the group. Evasive Panda, also known by the names Bronze Highlan...

Paris Olympics 2024: Securing The Games

The Rising Cyber Threats In recent years, the threat of cyberattacks has grown exponentially, affecting the sports sector as well. Major international events like the Olympics are prime targets for cybercriminals, hacktivists, and even nation-states. The reasons are clear: these events attract...

Critical Flaws in CocoaPods Expose iOS and macOS Apps to Supply Chain Attacks

A trio of security flaws has been uncovered in the CocoaPods dependency manager for Swift and Objective-C Cocoa projects that could be exploited to stage software supply chain attacks, putting downstream customers at severe risks. The vulnerabilities allow "any malicious actor to claim ownership...