Iranian Government Entities Under Attack by New Wave of BackdoorDiplomacy Attacks

The threat actor known as BackdoorDiplomacy has been linked to a new wave of attacks targeting Iranian government entities between July and late December 2022. Palo Alto Networks Unit 42, which is tracking the activity under its constellation-themed moniker Playful Taurus, said it observed the...

WordPress Panda Pods Repeater Field Plugin < 1.5.4 is vulnerable to Cross Site Scripting (XSS)

Software Panda Pods Repeater Field Type Plugin Vulnerable versions 1.5.4 Fixed in 1.5.4 OWASP Top 10 A7: Cross-Site Scripting XSS Classification Cross Site Scripting XSS CVE CVE-2022-4306 Patch priority Medium CVSS severity Medium 7.1 Developer Claim ownership PSID 3af98eaf0325 Credits cydave...

Chinese Hackers Using Russo-Ukrainian War Decoys to Target APAC and European Entities

The China-linked nation-state hacking group referred to as Mustang Panda is using lures related to the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War to attack entities in Europe and the Asia Pacific. That's according to the BlackBerry Research and Intelligence Team, which analyzed a RAR archive file titled...

Chinese 'Mustang Panda' Hackers Actively Targeting Governments Worldwide

A notorious advanced persistent threat actor known as Mustang Panda has been linked to a spate of spear-phishing attacks targeting government, education, and research sectors across the world. The primary targets of the intrusions from May to October 2022 included counties in the Asia Pacific...

Chinese Hackers Using New Stealthy Infection Chain to Deploy LODEINFO Malware

The Chinese state-sponsored threat actor known as Stone Panda has been observed employing a new stealthy infection chain in its attacks aimed at Japanese entities. Targets include media, diplomatic, governmental and public sector organizations, and think-tanks in Japan, according to twin reports...

Chinese "Twisted Panda" Hackers Caught Spying on Russian Defense Institutes

At least two research institutes located in Russia and a third likely target in Belarus have been at the receiving end of an espionage attack by a Chinese nation-state advanced persistent threat APT. The attacks, codenamed "Twisted Panda," come in the backdrop of Russia's military invasion of...

Mustang Panda deploys a new wave of malware targeting Europe

By Jung soo An, Asheer Malhotra and Justin Thattil, with contributions from Aliza Berk and Kendall McKay. In February 2022, corresponding roughly with the start of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, Cisco Talos began observing the China-based threat actor Mustang Panda conducting phishing...

Experts Uncover New Espionage Attacks by Chinese 'Mustang Panda' Hackers

The China-based threat actor known as Mustang Panda has been observed refining and retooling its tactics and malware to strike entities located in Asia, the European Union, Russia, and the U.S. "Mustang Panda is a highly motivated APT group relying primarily on the use of topical lures and social...

Ukraine War Themed Files Become the Lure of Choice for a Wide Range of Hackers

A growing number of threat actors are using the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war as a lure in various phishing and malware campaigns, even as critical infrastructure entities continue to be heavily targeted. "Government-backed actors from China, Iran, North Korea and Russia, as well as various...

State-backed hacking group from China is targeting the Russian military

In an unexpected turn of events, research has surfaced about a Chinese APT advanced persistent threat group targeting the Russian military in recent cyberattacks. Tracked as Bronze President, Mustang Panda, RedDelta, and TA416, the group has focused mainly on Southeast Asian targets—and more...

Chinese Hackers Caught Exploiting Popular Antivirus Products to Target Telecom Sector

A Chinese-aligned cyberespionage group has been observed striking the telecommunication sector in Central Asia with versions of malware such as ShadowPad and PlugX. Cybersecurity firm SentinelOne tied the intrusions to an actor it tracks under the name "Moshen Dragon," with tactical overlaps...

Chinese "Override Panda" Hackers Resurface With New Espionage Attacks

A Chinese state-sponsored espionage group known as Override Panda has resurfaced in recent weeks with a new phishing attack with the goal of stealing sensitive information. "The Chinese APT used a spear-phishing email to deliver a beacon of a Red Team framework known as 'Viper,'" Cluster25 said i...

Chinese Hackers Targeting Russian Military Personnel with Updated PlugX Malware

A China-linked government-sponsored threat actor observed striking European diplomatic entities in March may have been targeting Russian government officials with an updated version of a remote access trojan called PlugX. Secureworks attributed the attempted intrusions to a threat actor it tracks...

Millions of Java Apps Remain Vulnerable to Log4Shell

Four months after the discovery of the zero-day Log4Shell critical flaw, millions of Java applications still remain vulnerable to compromise, researchers have found. Rezilion expected that due to the “massive amount of media coverage” the bug unsurprisingly received, the majority of applications...

Deep Panda deploys new rootkit “Fire Chili” by exploiting Log4shell in VMware horizon

THREAT LEVEL: Red For a detailed advisory, download the pdf file here Deep Panda, a Chinese APT group, took advantage of the well-known Log4Shell vulnerability in VMware Horizon servers to deploy a backdoor, rootkit, and steal sensitive data. This threat actor is primarily targeting firms in the...

Chinese Hackers Target VMware Horizon Servers with Log4Shell to Deploy Rootkit

A Chinese advanced persistent threat tracked as Deep Panda has been observed exploiting the Log4Shell vulnerability in VMware Horizon servers to deploy a backdoor and a novel rootkit on infected machines with the goal of stealing sensitive data. "The nature of targeting was opportunistic insofar...

Hackers Increasingly Using 'Browser-in-the-Browser' Technique in Ukraine Related Attacks

A Belarusian threat actor known as Ghostwriter aka UNC1151 has been spotted leveraging the recently disclosed browser-in-the-browser BitB technique as part of their credential phishing campaigns exploiting the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian conflict. The method, which masquerades as a legitimate domain ...

Chinese APT Combines Fresh Hodur RAT with Complex Anti-Detection

The Chinese advanced persistent threat APT Mustang Panda a.k.a. Temp.Hex, HoneyMyte, TA416 or RedDelta has upgraded its espionage campaign against diplomatic missions, research entities and internet service providers ISPs – largely in and around Southeast Asia. For one thing, the APT has deployed...

Chinese 'Mustang Panda' Hackers Spotted Deploying New 'Hodur' Malware

A China-based advanced persistent threat APT known as Mustang Panda has been linked to an ongoing cyber espionage campaign using a previously undocumented variant of the PlugX remote access trojan on infected machines. Slovak cybersecurity firm ESET dubbed the new version Hodur, owing to its...

Weekly Threat Digest: 7 – 13 March 2022

For a detailed threat digest, download the pdf file here Published Vulnerabilities Interesting Vulnerabilities Active Threat Groups Targeted Countries Targeted Industries ATT&CK TTPs 538 16 3 42 19 89 The second week of March 2022 witnessed the discovery of 538 vulnerabilities out of which 16...