Overview of Petya, a rapid cyberattack

In the first blog post of this 3-part series, we introduced what rapid cyberattacks are and illustrated how they are different in terms of execution and outcome. Next, we will go into some more details on the Petya aka NotPetya attack. How Petya worked The Petya attack chain is well understood,...

Mac malware OSX.Proton strikes again

The hackers responsible for the Mac malware OSX.Proton have struck again, this time infecting a copy of the Elmedia Player app that was being distributed from the official Eltima website. At this time, it is still unknown how long their website was providing the hijacked app. Proton was silently...

CCleaner Command and Control Causes Concern

This post was authored by Edmund Brumaghin, Earl Carter, Warren Mercer, Matthew Molyett, Matthew Olney, Paul Rascagneres and Craig Williams.Note: This blog post discusses active research by Talos into a new threat. This information should be considered preliminary and will be updated as research...

Beers with Talos EP 13:A Vast CCleanup, Strutting Your Stuff, and the Ex$ploit Economy

Beers with Talos BWT Podcast Episode 13 is now available. Download this episode and subscribe to Beers with Talos:If iTunes and Google Play aren't your thing: a href="ht...

Malware That Can’t Clean Its Tracks: CCleaner and Ongoing Supply-Chain Attacks

A new malware compromise identified this week was using malware officially signed and provided by its software manufacturer for public download by millions of people. It’s a move that started the week for many organizations in a state of worry. This week, the Cisco Talos research team disclosed...

[Updated] Infected CCleaner downloads from official servers

Update 9/19/2017: Avast posted a clarification explaining what happened and giving a timeline of the events. One point we should take note of is that the breach preceded the take-over of Piriform by Avast. Users that are unsure whether they were affected by this and whether their data may have be...

Warning: CCleaner Hacked to Distribute Malware; Over 2.3 Million Users Infected

If you have downloaded or updated CCleaner application on your computer between August 15 and September 12 of this year from its official website, then pay attention—your computer has been compromised. CCleaner is a popular application with over 2 billion downloads, created by Piriform and recent...

Back to Basics: Worm Defense in the Ransomware Age

This post was authored by Edmund Brumaghin "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George SantayanaThe PrequelIn March 2017, Microsoft released a security update for various versions of Windows, which addressed a remote code execution vulnerability affecting a protocol...

Backdoor Found in Popular Server Management Software used by Hundreds of Companies

Cyber criminals are becoming more adept, innovative, and stealthy with each passing day. They are now adopting more clandestine techniques that come with limitless attack vectors and are harder to detect. Recently, cyber crooks managed to infiltrate the update mechanism for a popular server...