Escalating China-Taiwan Tensions Fuel Alarming Surge in Cyber Attacks

The rising geopolitical tensions between China and Taiwan in recent months have sparked a noticeable uptick in cyber attacks on the East Asian island country. "From malicious emails and URLs to malware, the strain between China's claim of Taiwan as part of its territory and Taiwan's maintained...

Researchers Uncover Powerful Backdoor and Custom Implant in Year-Long Cyber Campaign

Government, aviation, education, and telecom sectors located in South and Southeast Asia have come under the radar of a new hacking group as part of a highly-targeted campaign that commenced in mid-2022 and continued into the first quarter of 2023. Symantec, by Broadcom Software, is tracking the...

Daggerfly Cyberattack Campaign Hits African Telecom Services Providers

Telecommunication services providers in Africa are the target of a new campaign orchestrated by a China-linked threat actor at least since November 2022. The intrusions have been pinned on a hacking crew tracked by Symantec as Daggerfly, and which is also monitored by the broader cybersecurity...

Daggerfly Cyberattack Campaign Hits African Telecom Services Providers

Telecommunication services providers in Africa are the target of a new campaign orchestrated by a China-linked threat actor at least since November 2022. The intrusions have been pinned on a hacking crew tracked by Symantec as Daggerfly , and which is also monitored by the broader cybersecurity...

Chinese RedGolf Group Targeting Windows and Linux Systems with KEYPLUG Backdoor

A Chinese state-sponsored threat activity group tracked as RedGolf has been attributed to the use of a custom Windows and Linux backdoor called KEYPLUG. "RedGolf is a particularly prolific Chinese state-sponsored threat actor group that has likely been active for many years against a wide range o...

Hackers Exploiting Remote Desktop Software Flaws to Deploy PlugX Malware

Security vulnerabilities in remote desktop programs such as Sunlogin and AweSun are being exploited by threat actors to deploy the PlugX malware. AhnLab Security Emergency Response Center ASEC, in a new analysis, said it marks the continued abuse of the flaws to deliver a variety of payloads on...

Hackers Exploiting Remote Desktop Software Flaws to Deploy PlugX Malware

Security vulnerabilities in remote desktop programs such as Sunlogin and AweSun are being exploited by threat actors to deploy the PlugX malware. AhnLab Security Emergency Response Center ASEC, in a new analysis, said it marks the continued abuse of the flaws to deliver a variety of payloads on...

Chinese Hackers Targeting European Entities with New MQsTTang Backdoor

The China-aligned Mustang Panda actor has been observed using a hitherto unseen custom backdoor called MQsTTang as part of an ongoing social engineering campaign that commenced in January 2023. "Unlike most of the group's malware, MQsTTang doesn't seem to be based on existing families or publicly...

Chinese Hackers Targeting European Entities with New MQsTTang Backdoor

The China-aligned Mustang Panda actor has been observed using a hitherto unseen custom backdoor called MQsTTang as part of an ongoing social engineering campaign that commenced in January 2023. "Unlike most of the group's malware, MQsTTang doesn't seem to be based on existing families or publicly...

SysUpdate Malware Strikes Again with Linux Version and New Evasion Tactics

The threat actor known as Lucky Mouse has developed a Linux version of a malware toolkit called SysUpdate, expanding on its ability to target devices running the operating system. The oldest version of the updated artifact dates back to July 2022, with the malware incorporating new features...

PlugX Trojan Disguised as Legitimate Windows Debugger Tool in Latest Attacks

The PlugX remote access trojan has been observed masquerading as an open source Windows debugger tool called x64dbg in an attempt to circumvent security protections and gain control of a target system. "This file is a legitimate open-source debugger tool for Windows that is generally used to...

PlugX Trojan Disguised as Legitimate Windows Debugger Tool in Latest Attacks

The PlugX remote access trojan has been observed masquerading as an open source Windows debugger tool called x64dbg in an attempt to circumvent security protections and gain control of a target system. "This file is a legitimate open-source debugger tool for Windows that is generally used to...

Investigating the PlugX Trojan Disguised as a Legitimate Windows Debugger Tool

Trend Micro’s Managed Extended Detection and Response MxDR team discovered that a file called x32dbg.exe was used to sideload a malicious DLL we identified as a variant of PlugX...

Actors, Threats and Vulnerabilities 6 February to 12 February 2023

For a detailed threat digest, download the pdf file here Summary For a detailed threat digest, download the pdf file here Hive Pro identified three active actors over the past week. The first, OilRig, is a well-known threat actor known for its information theft and espionage activities. The secon...

Evasion Techniques Uncovered: An Analysis of APT Methods

By Christiaan Beek, with special thanks to Matt Green DLL search order hijacking is a technique used by attackers to elevate privileges on the compromised system, evade restrictions, and/or establish persistence on the system. The Windows operating system uses a common method to look for required...

Mustang Panda APT targets Europe with customized PlugX malware

Threat Level Actor Report For a detailed threat advisory, download the pdf file here Summary The Mustang Panda APT group has been targeting government and public sector organizations across Asia and Europe since at least 2019. Recently, the group has shifted from using archive files to using...

PlugX Malware Sneaks Onto Windows PCs Through USB Devices

By Deeba Ahmed The new variant stood out among other malware because it can infect any attached removable USB device, e.g., floppy, flash, thumb drives, and any system the removable device is plugged into later. This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: PlugX Malware Sneaks Onto...

Researchers Discover New PlugX Malware Variant Spreading via Removable USB Devices

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a PlugX sample that employs sneaky methods to infect attached removable USB media devices in order to propagate the malware to additional systems. "This PlugX variant is wormable and infects USB devices in such a way that it conceals itself from the Window...

Researchers Discover New PlugX Malware Variant Spreading via Removable USB Devices

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a PlugX sample that employs sneaky methods to infect attached removable USB media devices in order to propagate the malware to additional systems. "This PlugX variant is wormable and infects USB devices in such a way that it conceals itself from the Window...

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...