New critical vulnerability discovered in open-source office suites

A great number of attack techniques these days are using Microsoft Office documents to distribute malware. In recent years, there has been serious development on document exploit kit builders, not to mention the myriad of tricks that red-teamers have come up with to bypass security solutions. In...

Malware vaccination tricks: blue pills or red pills

First, let me explain what I mean by malware vaccination tricks. Most of you will have heard about some of these. Vaccination tricks are in fact techniques that use safety checks done by malware against that same malware. The malware checks for the presence of certain files or registry keys as a...

Indiana sues TikTok, describes it as "Chinese Trojan Horse"

On Wednesday, the State of Indiana filed two lawsuits against TikTok, Inc, the company behind the same name app, and its parent company, ByteDance. The first suit alleges TikTok's 12+ rating on the Apple App Store and a "T" for "Teen" rating in the Google Play Store and the Microsoft Store are...

Apple iOS 13 will better protect user privacy, but more could be done

Last week, Apple introduced several new privacy features to its latest mobile operating system, iOS 13. The Internet, predictably, expressed doubt, questioning Apple’s oversized influence, its exclusive pricing model that puts privacy out of reach for anyone who can’t drop hundreds of dollars on ...

Assessing the security of a portable router: a look inside its hardware

Network administrators should perform security assessments of hardware that they will provide their users, or particularly paranoid users might want to poke at their devices just to be extra sure. In this blog post, we will demonstrate the techniques used to assess security on a generic portable...

EternalPetya – yet another stolen piece in the package?

Since June 27th we have been investigating the outbreak of the new Petya-like malware armed with an infector similar to WannaCry. Since day one, various contradicting theories started popping up. Some believed that this malware is a rip-off of the original Petya, while others think that it is...

Update now! May 2023 Patch Tuesday tackles three zero-days

Its that time of the month again: We're looking at May's Patch Tuesday roundup. Microsoft has released its monthly update, and while the total number of patched vulnerabilities is relatively low at 38, among them are three zero-day vulnerabilities. Microsoft classifies a vulnerability as a zero-d...

CISA advises D-Link users to take vulnerable routers offline

On April 4 2022, the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency CISA added CVE-2021-45382 to its known exploited vulnerabilities catalog. But since the affected products have reached end of life EOL, the advice is to disconnect them, if still in use. CISA catalog The CISA catalog of known...

Sodinokibi ransomware gang auctions off stolen data

Is it legal to buy stolen data from criminals? In most countries the answer would be no. But will it lead to a penalty or a fine? That is a different question and I’m afraid some companies and organizations will be inclined to seriously consider the last question even when they know the answer to...

Malwarebytes Labs wins best cybersecurity vendor blog at InfoSec’s European Security Blogger Awards

Infosec Europe is now well underway, and last night was the annual EU Security Blogger Awards, where InfoSecurity Magazine: …recognises the best blogs in the industry as first nominated by peers and then judged by a panel of mostly respected industry experts. Malwarebytes Labs was announced as...

The top six takeaways for user privacy

Last week, Malwarebytes Labs began closing out our data privacy and cybersecurity law blog series, a two-month long exploration spanning five continents, 50 states, just as many data breach notification laws, three non-universal definitions of personal information and personal data, five pending ...

Tackling the shortage in skilled IT staff: whole team security

Is your IT department understaffed, overworked, and are you looking for reinforcements in vain? Maybe these hard-to-hire reinforcements can be hired from within, rather than having to outsource or hire expensive, short-term extra help. While this was usually only done if your own staff was fallin...

A week in security (November 12 – 18)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we found out that TrickBot became a top business threat, so we took a deeper look at what's new with it. With Christmas just around the corner, the Secret Sister scam returned. We also touched on the security and privacy or lack thereof in smart jewelry, air traffi...

A week in security (October 29 – November 4)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we looked at a rogue cryptocurrency app installing backdoors, took a dive into the world of printer security, explored browser privacy tweaks, highlighted a music festival–themed breach, and introduced Malwarebytes for Chromebook. Other cybersecurity news Memory...

A week in security (July 03 – July 09)

Last week, we released our second quarter Cybercrime Tactics & Techniques report, where we revealed that ransomware outbreaks were dominant during this quarter. You can read the full report on the post below: Report: Second quarter dominated by ransomware outbreaks Our researchers continue to sha...

Radiohead’s ransom response shows novel approach for ransomware victims

Last week, British rock band Radiohead thwarted an attempted digital ransom, in which unnamed hackers stole roughly 18 hours of unreleased music dating back to the band’s recording of its studio album OK, Computer, revealing some less-than-ok computer security sorry. Instead of paying a ransom to...

Tomorrowland festival goers affected by data breach

Tomorrowland, a major international music festival, has revealed a data breach potentially affecting around 60,000 attendees. This one is a little different though, as the data accessed without permission isn't recent. In fact, it dates back four years to an event long since come and gone...

Obfuscated Coinhive shortlink reveals larger mining operation

During the past several months, in-browser mining has continued to affect a large number of websites, predominantly relying on Coinhive's infamous API. We documented several campaigns on this blog, in particular Drupalgeddon, where attackers are taking advantage of vulnerabilities in popular...

Stripchat bot spells block

Here at Malwarebytes, we spent a lot of time and effort scouring the Internet looking for malicious websites that we can protect our users from. Sometimes, these websites are pushing malware or some kind of scam. Other times it comes down to bad advertising practices that are used to fool the use...

Truist bank confirms data breach

On Wednesday June 12, 2024, a well-known dark web data broker and cybercriminal acting under the name "Sp1d3r" offered a significant amount of data allegedly stolen from Truist Bank for sale. Truist is a US bank holding company and operates 2,781 branches in 15 states and Washington DC. By assets...

Zero-day deploys remote code execution vulnerability via Word documents

An unpatched zero-day vulnerability is currently being abused in the wild, targeting those with an interest in Ukraine. Microsoft reports that CVE-2023-36884 is tied to reports of: …a series of remote code execution vulnerabilities impacting Windows and Office products. Microsoft is aware of...

Update now! Microsoft patches a whopping 130 vulnerabilities

Its that time of the month again. For the July 2023 Patch Tuesday, Microsoft has issued security updates for 130 vulnerabilities. Nine of the vulnerabilities are rated as critical and four of them are known to be actively exploited. The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency CISA has...

Smart lights vulnerable to "blink and you'll miss it" attack

Over the last couple of years, key parts of our daily lives have been sliding into some form of Internet connectivity. Smartphones and other devices have become necessities. Paying bills? Those systems have moved online. Tax? Online. Wage slips and bank statements? Its paperless time. Welfare...

Playstation 5 hacked—twice!

Over the weekend, hackers revealed that the Playstation 5 PS5, Sony’s latest darling, has been broken into—not just once but twice. Fail0verflow, the hacking group notorious for breaking Playstation consoles, and Andy "TheFlow" Nguyen, a security engineer at Google and widely known in the...

CNA legal filings lift the curtain on a Phoenix CryptoLocker ransomware attack

Two months after fully restoring its systems, CNA Financial, the leading US insurance company that was attacked by a group using Phoenix CryptoLocker ransomware, issued a legal notice of an information security incident to the Consumer Protection Bureau in New Hampshire. You may recall that Phoen...

Zombie email rises from grave after eight years of radio silence

In a novel twist on “What happens to our accounts when we die,” we have “what happens to our abandoned accounts while we're still alive”. In this case, UK ISP TalkTalk kept an old customer’s email account alive some eight years after she closed it—which left it wide open for takeover by spammers...

The lazy person’s guide to cybersecurity: minimum effort for maximum protection

Are you tired of that acquaintance who keeps bugging you with computer questions? Do you avoid visiting certain people because you know you will spend most of the evening cleaning up their machine? My uncle Bob is one of those people. He’s a nice guy, but with computers, he’s not just an accident...

Ryuk ransomware attacks businesses over the holidays

While families gathered for food and merriment on Christmas Eve, most businesses slumbered. Nothing was stirring, not even a mouse—or so they thought. For those at Tribune Publishing and Data Resolution, however, a silent attack was slowly spreading through their networks, encrypting data and...

Liar, liar, pants on fire! Barclays phish claims cards explode

We feel compelled to relay the dire warning from this Barclays snail-mail letter, which we acquired through social media, therefore it must be true. Warning: Barclays debit cards may catch fire! The letter reads as follows: Dear costumer, Many of our bank costumers have reported that their debit...

DEFCON 25

After a few days in Las Vegas and after BlackHat, DEFCON 25 is finally over! It was an amazing time around awesome people. I didn't attend all the talks, but most of the ones I saw were interesting: There's no place like 127.0.0.1 - Achieving reliable DNS rebinding in modern browsers, by Luke...

Update now! Atlassian Confluence vulnerability is being actively exploited

Microsoft Threat Intelligence has revealed that it has been tracking the active exploitation of a vulnerability in Atlassian Confluence software since September 14, 2023. At the time the attacks were first observed the vulnerability was a zero-day, meaning that no update was available, so defende...

New Mac cryptominer Malwarebytes detects as Bird Miner runs by emulating Linux

A new Mac cryptocurrency miner Malwarebytes detects as Bird Miner has been found in a cracked installer for the high-end music production software Ableton Live. The software is used as an instrument for live performances by DJs, as well as a tool for composing, recording, mixing, and mastering. A...

What does ‘consent to tracking’ really mean?

Thanks to Jerome Boursier for contributions. Post GDPR, many social media platforms will ask end users to consent to some form of tracking as a condition of using the service. It's easy to make assumptions as to what that means, especially when the actual terms of service or data policy for the...

Malwarebytes is a champion of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month

October is here. For most of us in the US cybersecurity industry, it’s the month when we commemorate National Cybersecurity Awareness Month NCSAM. For those who are unfamiliar with this campaign, NCSAM generally aims at driving awareness for safe Internet use, whether you're a regular consumer or...

Active Nitrogen campaign delivered via malicious ads for PuTTY, FileZilla

In the past couple of weeks, we have observed an ongoing campaign targeting system administrators with fraudulent ads for popular system utilities. The malicious ads are displayed as sponsored results on Googles search engine page and localized to North America. Victims are tricked into downloadi...

Urgent update for macOS and iOS! Two actively exploited zero-days fixed

Apple has released emergency security updates to fix two zero-day vulnerabilities previously exploited by attackers to hack iPhones, iPads, or Macs. Publicly disclosed computer security flaws are listed in the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures CVE database. Its goal is to make it easier to sha...

Update now! Cisco fixes several vulnerabilities

Cisco has released a security advisory about two vulnerabilities in the API and web-based management interfaces of Cisco Expressway Series and Cisco TelePresence Video Communication Server VCS. The flaws could allow an authenticated, remote attacker with read/write privileges to the application t...

What should a US federal data privacy law ideally include?

In the constant David-and-Goliath struggle between digital privacy advocates and corporate privacy invaders, the question of how to legally protect Americans with a comprehensive, federal data privacy law provides conflicting answers. Advocates want protections, which Big Tech interprets as...

What to do when you discover a data breach

Your cell phone goes off in the middle of your well-deserved sleep and you try to find it before your partner wakes up as well. “What could be wrong? Why would they page me in the middle of the night?” More asleep than awake, you stumble down the stairs and call the number on the screen, which yo...

Something else is phishy: How to detect phishing attempts on mobile

In a report published in 2011, IBM revealed that mobile users are three times more likely to fall for phishing scams compared to desktop users. This claim was based on accessed log files found on Web servers used to host websites involved in phishing campaigns. Almost a decade later, we continue ...

Compromising vital infrastructure: air traffic control

While most of us know that flying is the safest mode of transport, we still feel that sigh of relief when the plane has made its landing on the runway and we can text our loved ones that we have arrived safe and sound. Accidents may be rare, but they're often shocking and horrific and accompanied...

A week in security (September 30 – October 6)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, Malwarebytes renewed its pledge to fight stalkerware for National Cybersecurity Awareness NCSA and Domestic Violence Awareness Month. We also looked into what security orchestration is and reported about partnering with security firm, HYAS, to determine the...

How much personalization is too much?

This story originally ran in The Parallax on January 25, 2019, and was written by Dan Tynan. In 2012, when Target used data analytics to identify customers who were expecting a baby, then mailed them coupons for maternity clothing and nursery furniture, it inadvertently revealed a teenage girl’s...

Labs report: Malicious AI is coming—is the security world ready?

Imagine a world in which artificial intelligence has gone rogue—the robots have revolted against their masters and have now enslaved all of humanity. There's no more natural beauty in the world and everything is awful. Get that out of your system? Good. The reality of malicious AI, at least in th...

Business email compromise scam costs Pathé $21.5 million

Recently released court documents show that European-based cinema chain Pathé lost a small fortune to a business email compromise BEC scam in March 2018. How much? An astonishing US$21.5 million roughly 19 million euros. The attack, which ran for about a month, cost the company 10 percent of its...

[updated] Important update! iPhones, Macs, and more vulnerable to zero-day bug

On Monday, Apple released a long list of patched vulnerabilities to its software, including a new zero-day flaw affecting Macs and iPhones. The company revealed it's aware that threat actors may have been actively exploiting this vulnerability, which is tracked as CVE-2022-32917. As it's a...

QNAP customers urged to disable AFP to protect against severe vulnerabilities

MacOS users that have a network-attached storage NAS device made by QNAP are being advised to disable the Apple Filing Protocol AFP on their devices until some severe vulnerabilities have been fixed. But QNAP is not the only vendor that needed to fix these vulnerabilities. Others have already don...

5 simple steps to securing your remote employees

As remote working has become standard practice, employees are working from anywhere and using any device they can to get the job done. That means repeated connections to unsecured public Wi-Fi networks—at a coffee shop or juice bar, for example—and higher risks for data leaks from lost, misplaced...

QR code scam can clean out your bank account

“Excuse me sir, can I ask you for a favor? I want to pay for parking my car in this spot, but there are no machines around that accept cash. If I give you five dollars in cash, can you pay the parking for me? All you need to do is scan this QR code with your banking app.” Of course, John felt the...

No man’s land: How a Magecart group is running a web skimming operation from a war zone

Our Threat Intelligence team has been monitoring the activities of a number of threat actors involved in the theft of credit card data. Often referred to under the Magecart moniker, these groups use simple pieces of JavaScript code skimmers typically injected into compromised e-commerce websites ...