Cobalt Strike Usage Explodes Among Cybercrooks

The use of Cobalt Strike – the legitimate, commercially available tool used by network penetration testers – by cybercrooks has shot through the roof, according to Proofpoint researchers, who say that the tool has now “gone fully mainstream in the crimeware world.” The researchers have tracked a...

Ransomware Attackers Partnering With Cybercrime Groups to Hack High-Profile Targets

As ransomware attacks against critical infrastructure skyrocket, new research shows that threat actors behind such disruptions are increasingly shifting from using email messages as an intrusion route to purchasing access from cybercriminal enterprises that have already infiltrated major targets...

Live Cybersecurity Webinar — Deconstructing Cobalt Strike

Organizations' cybersecurity capabilities have improved over the past decade, mostly out of necessity. As their defenses get better, so do the methods, tactics, and techniques malicious actors devise to penetrate their environments. Instead of the standard virus or trojan, attackers today will...

A week in security (May 31 – June 6)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we looked at an interesting trend in facial recognition technology—hint: its a slow fade, the latest ransomware attacks on JBS and Steamship Authority, Cobalt Strike, a Coronavirus phishing campaign, WhatsApp’s decision to not limit app functionalities for...

US Seizes Domains Used by SolarWinds Hackers in Cyber Espionage Attacks

Days after Microsoft, Secureworks, and Volexity shed light on a new spear-phishing activity unleashed by the Russian hackers who breached SolarWinds IT management software, the U.S. Department of Justice DoJ Tuesday said it intervened to take control of two command-and-control C2 and malware...

Cobalt Strike, a penetration testing tool abused by criminals

If you were to compose a list of tools and software developed by security and privacy defenders that ended up being abused by the bad guys, then Cobalt Strike would unfortunately be near the top of the list. Maybe only Metasploit could give it a run for the first place ranking. Metasploit—probabl...

Sophisticated Spearphishing Campaign Targets Government Organizations, IGOs, and NGOs

Summary This Joint Cybersecurity Advisory uses the MITRE Adversarial Tactics, Techniques, and Common Knowledge ATT &CK® framework, Version 9. See the ATT&CK for Enterprise for all referenced threat actor tactics and techniques. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA and the...

SolarWinds attackers launch new campaign

Nobelium is a synthetic chemical element with the symbol No and atomic number 102. It is named in honor of Alfred Nobel. But it is also the name given to the threat actor that is behind the attacks against SolarWinds, the Sunburst backdoor, TEARDROP malware, GoldMax malware, other related...

Nobelium Phishing Campaign Poses as USAID

The cybercriminal group behind the notorious SolarWinds attack is at it again with a sophisticated mass email campaign aimed at delivering malicious URLs with payloads enabling network persistence so the actors can conduct further nefarious activities. Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center MSTIC...

SolarWinds Hackers Target Think Tanks With New 'NativeZone' Backdoor

Microsoft on Thursday disclosed that the threat actor behind the SolarWinds supply chain hack returned to the threat landscape to target government agencies, think tanks, consultants, and non-governmental organizations located across 24 countries, including the U.S. Some of the entities that were...

Lemon Duck Cryptojacking Botnet Changes Up Tactics

The Lemon Duck cryptocurrency-mining botnet has added the ProxyLogon group of exploits to its bag of tricks, targeting Microsoft Exchange servers. That’s according to researchers at Cisco Talos, who said that the cybercrime group behind Lemon Duck has also added the Cobalt Strike attack framework...

Pystinger - Bypass Firewall For Traffic Forwarding Using Webshell

Pystinger implements SOCK4 proxy and port mapping through webshell. It can be directly used by metasploit-framework, viper, cobalt strike for session online. Pystinger is developed in python, and currently supports three proxy scripts: php, jspx and aspx. Usage Suppose the domain name of the serv...

Buer Malware Tool Rewritten in E-Z Rust Language

A variant of the Buer malware, which is being distributed in emails disguised as DHL support shipping notices, comes with a fresh code rewrite in the popular Rust language and looks like it may be in the process of prepping for rental to other cybercrooks. Join Threatpost for “Fortifying Your...

suricata-rules

This repository contains Suricata IDS Intrusion Detection System rules for detecting various types of malicious activity, including CobaltStrike, crypto miners, and other threats. The rules are designed to identify specific patterns and behaviors associated with these threats. The rules are...

MoveKit - Cobalt Strike Kit For Lateral Movement

Movekit is an extension of built in Cobalt Strike lateral movement by leveraging the executeassembly function with the SharpMove and SharpRDP .NET assemblies. The aggressor script handles payload creation by reading the template files for a specific execution type. IMPORTANT: To use the script a...

IcedID Circulates Via Web Forms, Google URLs

Website contact forms and Google URLs are being used to spread the IcedID trojan, according to researchers at Microsoft. Attackers are using “contact us” forms on websites to send emails targeting organizations with trumped-up legal threats, researchers said. The messages consistently mention a...

AzureC2Relay - An Azure Function That Validates And Relays Cobalt Strike Beacon Traffic By Verifying The Incoming Requests Based On A Cobalt Strike Malleable C2 Profile

AzureC2Relay is an Azure Function that validates and relays Cobalt Strike beacon traffic by verifying the incoming requests based on a Cobalt Strike Malleable C2 profile. Any incoming requests that do not share the profiles user-agent, URI paths, headers, and query parameters, will be redirected ...

Nim-Based Malware Loader Spreads Via Spear-Phishing Emails

The TA800 threat group is distributing a malware loader, which researchers call NimzaLoader, via ongoing, highly-targeted spear-phishing emails. While previous Twitter analysis identified this loader as a mere variant of TA800’s existing BazaLoader malware, new research cites evidence that...

Malware Loader Abuses Google SEO to Expand Payload Delivery

The Gootloader malware loader, previously used for distributing the Gootkit malware family, has undergone what researchers call a “renaissance” when it comes to payload delivery. New research released this week paints Gootloader as an increasingly sophisticated loader framework, which has now...

WdToggle - A Beacon Object File (BOF) For Cobalt Strike Which Uses Direct System Calls To Enable WDigest Credential Caching

A Proof of Concept Cobalt Strike Beacon Object File which uses direct system calls to enable WDigest credential caching and circumvent Credential Guard if enabled. Additional guidance can be found in this blog post: https://outflank.nl/blog/?p=1592 Background This PoC code is based on the followi...