Insights into your unpatched vulnerabilities

Every day, nearly 70 brand-new vulnerabilities are discovered in software products around the world. That’s almost 25,550 new problems each year, of which roughly 4,250 or every one-in-six will be classified as “critical.” But with little guidance beyond “critical” classifications—and with the...

Update now! Microsoft patches 3 actively exploited zero-days

Another important update round for this months Patch Tuesday. Microsoft has patched a total of 63 vulnerabilities in its operating systems. Five of these vulnerabilities qualify as zero-days, with three listed as being actively exploited. Microsoft considers a vulnerability to be a zero-day if it...

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...

Google reveals 18 chip vulnerabilities threatening mobile, wearables, vehicles

Googles Project Zero is warning of multiple significant vulnerabilities found across many models of mobile devices including Samsung Galaxy, Google Pixel, Vivo, and several forms of wearable and vehicles using certain types of components. Between late 2022 and early 2023, Project Zero reported 18...

BackupBuddy WordPress plugin vulnerable to exploitation, update now!

Users of WordPress may need to perform an urgent update related to the popular BackupBuddy plugin. BackupBuddy is a plugin which offers backup solutions designed to combat "hacks, malware, user error, deleted files, and running bad commands". Unfortunately, running an older version of BackupBuddy...

How to protect RDP

You didn’t really think that the ransomware wave was coming to an end, did you? You may be tempted to think so, given the decline in reports about massive ransomware campaigns. Dont be fooled. Over the last five years, one of the primary attack vectors for ransomware attacks has been the Remote...

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...

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...

A week in security (August 27 – September 2)

Last week, we looked at dubious antics in mobile land, a peculiar case of spam on the official Cardi B website, and we deep dived into fileless malware. We also explored the inner workings of Hidden Bee, and gave an explainer of Regex. Other cybersecurity news: Huge data breach affects Chinese...

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...

[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...

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...

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...

Update now! Zyxel patches critical firewall bypass vulnerability

In a security advisory Zyxel has urged customers to update because a security flaw can lead to the circumvention of firewall protection in several Zyxel products. Zyxel is a Taiwanese producer of modems and other networking equipment and its products are sold in over 150 countries. The...

Unusual sign-in activity mail goes phishing for Microsoft account holders

We’ve received an interesting spam email which deliberately or not could get people thinking about the current international crisis. Being on your guard will pay dividends over the coming days and weeks, as more of the below is sure to follow. Unusual sign-in activity detected? The emails subject...

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...

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...

Compromising vital infrastructure: transport and logistics

Back when I was a dispatcher for a courier and trucking company, we used to joke that it only took a few strategically-placed accidents to cause a traffic jam that could completely stop circulation around the city of Rotterdam. Rotterdam is one of the major ports in the world and consequently,...

Update Android now! Google patches three actively exploited zero-days

In Julys update for the Android operating system OS, Google has patched 43 vulnerabilities, three of which are actively exploited zero-day vulnerabilities. The security bulletin notes that there are indications that these three vulnerabilities may be under limited, targeted exploitation. If your...

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...

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...

Another one bites the dust: Avaddon ransomware group shuts down operation

Are you seeing some pattern here? In what could be a called "shocking news" on Friday, BleepingComputer revealed that the gang behind the Avaddon ransomware shut down its operations after releasing more than 2,000 decryption keys to the technology news site. BleepingComputer claimed they received...

SUPERNOVA malware discovered on SolarWinds Orion server

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA has reported finding the SUPERNOVA web shell collecting credentials on a SolarWinds Orion server. These observations were made during an incident response to an Advanced Persistent Threat APT actor’s year-long compromise of an enterprise...

A week in security (February 15 – February 21)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, the spotlight fell on the State of Malware 2021 report, wherein we have seen cyberthreats evolve. We also touched on ransomware, such as Egregor and a tactic known as Remote Desktop Protocol RDP brute forcing that has long been part of the ransomware operators...

How not to buy drugs on the Internet

Disclaimer: This post is satirical in nature and meant to educate on the proliferation of scams, misinformation, and traps set up to trick those engaging in illicit or illegal activities online. Malwarebytes does not condone buying drugs on the Internet. Perhaps you're sitting at work one day whe...

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...

New Kritec Magecart skimmer found on Magento stores

Threat actors often compete for the same resources, and this couldn't be further from the truth when it comes to website compromises. After all, if a vulnerability exists one can expect that it will be exploited more than once. In the past, we have seen such occurrences with Magecart threat actor...

Going dark: encryption and law enforcement

UPDATE, 05/22/2020: In the advent of the EARN IT Act, the debate on government subversion of encryption has reignited. Given that the material conditions of the technology have not changed, and the arguments given in favor of the bill are not novel, we've decided to republish the following blog...

Magecart criminals caught stealing with their poker face on

Earlier in June, we documented how Magecart credit card skimmers were found on Amazon S3. This was an interesting development, since threat actors weren't actively targeting specific e-commerce shops, but rather were indiscriminately injecting any exposed S3 bucket. Ever since then, we've monitor...

6 security concerns to consider when automating your business

Automation is an increasingly-enticing option for businesses, especially when those in operations are in a perpetual cycle of "too much to do and not enough time to do it." When considering an automation strategy, business representatives must be aware of any security risks involved. Here are six...

Google logins: JavaScript now required

Google users: In news that may sound alarming, it is now a requirement for you to enable JavaScript. Why? When your username and password are entered on Google’s sign-in page, Google runs a risk assessment and only allows the sign-in if nothing looks suspicious. Recently, Google went about...

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...

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...

New ESXiArgs encryption routine outmaneuvers recovery methods

In what seems to be a typical arms race where one side responds to counter the progress the other side has made, the ransomware group behind the massive attack on ESXi Virtual Machines VMs has come up with a new variant that can no longer be decrypted with the recovery script released by the...

Flaw in some ManageEngine apps is being actively exploited, says CISA

CISA the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency recently added CVE-2022-35405--a remote code executionRCE vulnerability affecting Zoho ManageEngine PAM360 versions 5500 and earlier, Password Manager Pro versions 12100 and earlier, and Access Manager Plus versions 4302 and earlier--to it...

A week in security (November 25 – December 1)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we discussed why the notion of "data as property" may potentially hurt more than help, homed in on sextortion scammers getting more creative, and explored the possible security risks Americans might face if the US changed to universal healthcare coverage. Other...

How to get your Equifax money and stay safe doing it

UPDATE August 2, 2019: The US Federal Trade Commission has warned consumers that, due to the high number of claims made for a cash payout regarding the Equifax data breach, the actual value that will be paid out might be "far less" than the originally-stated $125. You can read the FTC's full...

Hacker destroys VFEmail service, wipes backups

An email service called VFEmail was essentially put out of business after a hack intended to delete everything in and out of sight. "Yes, @VFEmail is effectively gone. It will likely not return. I never thought anyone would care about my labor of love so much that they’d want to completely and...

Merging Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram: a technical, reputational hurdle

Secure messaging is supposed to be just that—secure. That means no backdoors, strong encryption, private messages staying private, and, for some users, the ability to securely communicate without giving up tons of personal data. So, when news broke that scandal-ridden, online privacy pariah...

Partnerstroka: Large tech support scam operation features latest browser locker

Tech support scams continue to be one of the top consumer threats in 2018, despite actions from security vendors and law enforcement. Scammers are constantly looking for new ways to reel in more victims, going beyond cold calls impersonating Microsoft to rogue tech support ads using the good name...

Fileless malware: getting the lowdown on this insidious threat

Traditionally, malware attacks as we have always known them are files written to disk in one form or another that require execution in order to carry out their malicious scope. Fileless malware, on the other hand, is intended to be memory resident only, ideally leaving no trace after its executio...

Malwarebytes CrackMe 2: try another challenge

Last November, we released the first edition of the Malwarebytes CrackMe. Encouraged by the positive response we received from the security community, we decided to repeat the game, hopefully making it even more interesting and entertaining. As before, the CrackMe is dedicated to malware analysts...

Nigerian scams without the Nigerians

Users in English speaking countries are quite familiar with the Nigerian scam: an important guy in Nigeria needs your help getting his money out of the country and if you assist with some transaction fees, a chunk of his fortune could be yours. But what about non-English speaking countries? What...

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...

Zyxel patches two critical vulnerabilities

Zyxell has released a security advisory for multiple buffer overflow vulnerabilities. Exploitation of these vulnerabilities could allow an unauthenticated attacker to cause denial-of-service DoS conditions and even a remote code execution on the affected Zyxell firewalls. Affected users should...

2K games helpdesk abused to spread RedLine malware

On September 20, 2022, the official Twitter account for 2K Support tweeted an important message from the Customer Support team. The tweet said an unauthorized party illegally accessed the credentials of one of the vendors of the helpdesk platform. The attacker then used that access to send out...

WebNavigator Chromium browser published by search hijackers

A mystery Chromium browser recently made a sudden appearance, and is certainly proving popular. But what is it, and where did it come from? Malwarebytes detects the browser as PUP.Optional.WebNavigator, and we found several clues that this browser was brought to you by a notorious family of searc...

Hat trick for Google as it patches two more zero-days in Chrome

Slightly over a week ago we advised you to update your Chrome browser. That warning came only a week or so after we advised you to update your Chrome browser. Things are getting a bit repetitive round here. Today, we are compelled to repeat that statement as Google has issued patches for two new...

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...

The enemy is us: a look at insider threats

They can go undetected for years. They do their questionable deeds in the background. And, at times, one wonders if they're doing more harm than good. Although this sounds like we're describing some sophisticated PUP you haven’t heard of, we're not. These are the known attributes of insider...