Marriott breach impacts 500 million customers: here’s what to do about it

Today Marriott disclosed a large-scale data breach impacting up to 500 million customers who have stayed at a Starwood-branded hotel within the last four years. While details of the breach are still sparse, Marriott stated that there was unauthorized access to a database tied to customer...

What DNA testing kit companies are really doing with your data

Sarah hovered over the mailbox, envelope in hand. She knew as soon as she mailed off her DNA sample, there’d be no turning back. She ran through the information she looked up on 23andMe’s website one more time: the privacy policy, the research parameters, the option to learn about potential healt...

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...

Please don’t buy this: smart toys

Smart toys attempt to offer what a lot of us imagined as kids—a toy that we can not only play with, but one that plays back. Many models offer voice recognition, facial expressions, hundreds of words and phrases, reaction to touch and impact, and even the ability to learn and retain new...

Black Hat USA 2017 Recap

What do you get when you put hackers, gambling, and dogs together? Black Hat USA 2017 …and a random zoo conference happening next door. Last week, we wrapped up another successful trip to Las Vegas for Black Hat. For those of you who couldn’t make it or had too much Vegas fun and need a reminder ...

CISA sets two week window for patching serious vulnerabilities

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA has issued binding directive 22-01 titled Reducing the Significant Risk of Known Exploited Vulnerabilities. This directive applies to all software and hardware found on federal information systems managed on agency premises or hosted by...

Likely lead generation scam targets potential Malwarebytes MSP partners

Recently, Malwarebytes discovered a potential lead generation scam targeting companies that are interested in our Malwarebtyes Managed Service Provider MSP Program. In the scam, an individual who used the name “Jenny” aggressively contacted potential MSP partners claiming to represent Malwarebyte...

Credit card skimmer targets ASP.NET sites

Update: 2020-07-09 A reader contacted us with information about this series of attacks on .NET sites. There is a known vulnerability CVE-2017-9248 for Telerik UI for ASP.NET that is being exploited. An attacker can upload .aspx web shells and get remote code execution. This Telerik page offers...

A week in security (July 22 – 28)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we offered an extensive analysis into the Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 investigation, updated users on the newest feature set to AdwCleaner 7.4.0 it now detects pre-installed software, and provided a deep dive into Phobos ransomware. We also broke down the latest...

Changing California’s privacy law: A snapshot at the support and opposition

This month, the corporate-backed, legislative battle against California privacy met a blockade, as one Senate committee voted down and negotiated changes to several bills that, as originally written, could have weakened the state’s data privacy law, the California Consumer Privacy Act. Though the...

A week in security (May 20 – 26)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we took a look at a skimmer pretending to be a payment service provider, gave an overview of what riskware is, took a deep dive into concerns about PACS leaks, and dug around in the land of “These Governments said fix it…hurry up”. Other cybersecurity news Changes...

Google Chrome announces plans to improve URL display, website identity

“Unreadable gobbledygook” is one way to describe URLs today as we know them, and Google has been attempting to redo their look for years. In their latest move to improve how Chrome—and of course, how the company hopes other browsers would follow suit—displays the URL in its omnibox the address ba...

Using the blockchain to create secure backups

“Oh no! I’ve got a ransomware notice on my workstation. How did this happen?” “Let’s figure that out later. First, apply the backup from a few minutes ago, so we can continue to work.” Now that wasn't so painful, was it? Having a rollback solution or a recent backup could make this ideal post...

A week in security (December 17 – 23)

Last week on Labs we looked at Fuchsia OS as a possible alternative for Android, explained all the reasons why cybercriminals want to hack your phone, discussed a flaw in Twitter form that may have been abused by nation states, gave you a Christmas tech scams roundup, revealed why many online...

SamSam ransomware: controlled distribution for an elusive malware

SamSam ransomware has been involved in some high profile attacks recently, and remains a somewhat elusive malware. In its time being active, SamSam has gone through a slight evolution, adding more features and alterations into the mix. These changes do not necessarily make the ransomware more...

Plugging a virtual leak: insecure VR app exposes customer data

I've been giving talks on the possible problems raised by virtual/augmented/mixed reality for a while now, and sure enough, we have what may be one of the first potentially major security issues thrown up by an in-the-wild application. Until a recent fix was applied, users of the pornography app...

Citrix Bleed widely exploited, warn government agencies

In a joint cybersecurity advisory, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI, along with other international agencies, warn that ransomware gangs are actively exploiting the Citrix Bleed vulnerability. Affiliates of at least two ransomwa...

Exim finally fixes 3 out of 6 vulnerabilities

Exim is a message transfer agent MTA originally developed at the University of Cambridge for use on Unix systems connected to the internet, and is freely available under the terms of the GNU General Public Licence. Even though the name may be new to you, a Shodan search revealed 3.5 million serve...

Adobe ColdFusion vulnerability exploited in the wild

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA has added a critical Adobe ColdFusion vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation. This means that Federal Civilian Executive Branch FCEB agencies need to remediate this...

Bad rhythm: Janet Jackson song resonates poorly with some old hard drives

Janet Jacksons Rhythm Nation music video would have caused quite the commotion back in the old Windows XP days. If youre still running a certain model of an OEM hard drive from the Windows XP days, you may still be liable to experience the same thing today. However, said commotion was not solely...

Lazarus APT conceals malicious code within BMP image to drop its RAT

This blog was authored by Hossein Jazi Lazarus APT is one of the most sophisticated North Korean Threat Actors that has been active since at least 2009. This actor is known to target the U.S., South Korea, Japan and several other countries. In one of their most recent campaigns Lazarus used a...

Malvertising campaigns come back in full swing

Malvertising campaigns leading to exploit kits are nowhere near as common these days. Indeed, a number of threat actors have moved on to other delivery methods instead of relying on drive-by downloads. However, occasionally we see spikes in activity that are noticeable enough that they highlight ...

Not us, YOU: vendor email compromise explained

Silent Starling, an online organized criminal group hailing from West Africa, seem to have reminded SMBs and enterprises alike the perils of business email compromise BEC scams once more. This time, they've advanced BEC into a more potent modality by widening the scope of its potential targets an...

A week in security (February 18 – 24)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we explored the world of crack hunting, gave you a 101 on the world of bots and their threats and advantages, and took a look at some clever phishing scams. We also explained how a Mac fends off malware, posted a handy “lazy person's guide to cybersecurity,” and du...

2018: The year of the data breach tsunami

It’s tough to remember all of the data breaches that happened in 2018. But when you look at the largest and most impactful ones that were reported throughout the year, it paints a grim picture about the state of data security today. The consequences of major companies leaking sensitive data are...

Mac cryptocurrency ticker app installs backdoors

An astute contributor to our forums going by the handle 1vladimir noticed that an app named CoinTicker was exhibiting some fishy behavior over the weekend. It seems that the app is covertly installing not just one but two different backdoors. Behaviors The CoinTicker app, on the surface, appears ...

A week in security (September 3 – 9)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we looked at spyware going mainstream, how the popular game Fortnite sparks security concerns for Android users, and how certain Mac App Store apps are stealing user data. Other cybersecurity news: Microsoft announced Windows 7 Extended Security Updates in a blog...

A proxyjacking campaign is looking for vulnerable SSH servers

A researcher at Akamai has posted a blog about a worrying new trend--proxyjacking--where criminals sell your bandwidth to a third-party proxy service. To understand how proxyjacking works, well need to explain a few things. There are several legitimate services that pay users to share their surpl...

Timely patching is good, but sometimes it's not enough

Ransomware gangs have shown that they can play a long game, so it shouldnt come as a surprise to learn of one prepared to wait months to make use of a compromised system. S-RMs Incident Response team shared details of a campaign attributed to the Lorenz ransomware group that exploited a specific...

Update now! Chrome patches critical RCE vulnerability in Safe Browsing

Google has issued an update for the Chrome browser which includes 26 security fixes. What stands out is that one of these fixes is rated as "critical". The critical vulnerability is a use after free bug in the Safe Browsing feature. The Stable channel has been updated to 97.0.4692.99 for Windows,...

Update now! Chrome fixes more security issues

For the third time in a month Google has issued an update to patch for several security issues. This time the update patches 19 vulnerabilities, of which 5 are classified as “high” risk vulnerabilities. In an update announcement for Chrome 95.0.4638.54, Google specifies the 16 vulnerabilities tha...

A week in security (October 26 – November 1)

We had a very busy week at Malwarebytes Labs. We offered advice on Googles patch for an actively exploited zero-day bug that affects Chrome users, our podcast talked about finding consumer value in Cybersecurity Awareness Month with Jamie Court, we provided guidance about keeping ransomware cash...

The best test for an EDR solution is one that works for you

Since its inception, the endpoint detection and response EDR market has evolved rapidly with new innovations to better address the cyber landscape and meet customers’ needs for an effective and simple solution that just works. But finding something that just works means something quite different...

Hyperlink auditing: where has my option to disable it gone?

There is a relatively old method that might be gaining traction to follow users around on the world wide web. Most Internet users are aware of the fact that they are being tracked in several ways. And awareness is a good start. In a state of awareness, you can adjust your behavior accordingly, an...

New research finds hospitals are easy targets for phishing attacks

New research from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston finds hospital employees are extremely vulnerable to phishing attacks. The study highlights just how effective phishing remains as a tactic—the need for defense against and awareness of email scams is more critical than ever. The research w...

A week in security (December 31, 2018 – January 6, 2019)

Last week on Labs, we looked back at 2018 as the year of data breaches, homed in on pre-installed malware on mobile devices, and profiled a malicious duo, Vidar and GandCrab. Other cybersecurity news 2019's first data breach: It took less than 24 hours. An unauthorized third-party downloaded 30,0...

Encryption 101: decryption tool code walkthrough

We have reached the final installment of our Encryption 101 series. In the prior post, we walked through, in detail, the thought process while looking at the Princess Locker ransomware. We talked about the specific ways to narrow down the analysis toward the encryption portions, the weaknesses in...

Fancy Bear known to be exploiting vulnerability in Cisco routers

In a joint advisory, the UK National Cyber Security Centre NCSC, the National Security Agency NSA, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI have released information about APT28s exploitation of Cisco routers in 2021. Now please dont st...

Nigerian Tesla: 419 scammer gone malware distributor unmasked

Agent Tesla is a well-known data stealer written in .NET that has been active since 2014 and is perhaps one of the most popular payloads observed in malspam campaigns. While looking for threats targeting Ukraine, we identified a group we call "Nigerian Tesla" that has been dabbling into phishing...

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...

A week in security (Sept 20 – Sept 26)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs Freedom Hosting operator gets 27 years for hosting dark web abuse sites Microsoft makes a bold move towards a password-less future New Mac malware masquerades as iTerm2, remote desktop and other apps Internet safety tips for kids and teens: a comprehensive guide for...

What to do when you receive an extortion email

In the last few weeks, there has been an upswing in people receiving threatening, extortion email messages, demanding payment to avoid release of sensitive information. Most of the time, these emails are what we call "sextortion" emails, as they claim that malware on your computer has captured...

Social Security Number scammers are at it again

The Federal Trade Commission FTC once again sounded the alarm in mid-December about the latest Social Security Number SSN scam that continues to affect thousands of Americans. While most of us were only able to read about this type of scam in the past, the FTC now has an audio recording of an SSN...

Deepfakes FakeApp tool (briefly) includes cryptominer

A few weeks ago, we took a look at a forum dedicated to Deepfake clips where the site was pushing Coinhive mining scripts in the website's HTML code. As it turns out, there's been another mining blow-out in the form of one of the apps used to make the fakes. That's right—a tool designed to push...

Microsoft gives Apple a migraine

On May 18, 2023, Apple published security content for macOS Ventura 13.4, macOS Monterey 12.6.6, and macOS Big Sur 11.7.7 that addressed a logic issue in libxpc. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures CVE database lists publicly disclosed computer security flaws. The CVE we are going to discuss...

Critical OpenSSL fix due Nov 1—what you need to know

A fix for a critical issue in OpenSSL is on the way, announced in advance of its release on November 1, 2022, in a four hour window between 13:00 UTC and 17:00 UTC. The release, version 3.0.7, will address a critical vulnerability for all versions of the software starting with a 3. Versions...

Update now! Netgear vulnerability patched

Netgear has released a fix for a vulnerability on several of their product models. The affected product models include extenders, routers, air cards, and modems. The vulnerability was discovered by researchers at GRIMM, but prior to the planned disclosure date, Netgear released a patch that fixed...

Credit card skimmer masquerades as favicon

Malware authors are notorious for their deceptive attempts at staying one step ahead of defenders. As their schemes get exposed, they always need to go back to their bag of tricks to pull out a new one. When it comes to online credit card skimmers, we have already seen a number of evasion...

Threat spotlight: RobbinHood ransomware takes the driver’s seat

Despite their name, the RobbinHood cybercriminal gang is not stealing from the rich to give to the poor. Instead, these ransomware developers are more like big game hunters—attacking enterprise organizations and critical infrastructure and keeping all the spoils for themselves. In 2019, the...

A week in security (June 3 – 9)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we rounded up some leaks and breaches, reported about Magecart skimmers found on Amazon CloudFront CDN, proudly announced we were awarded as Best Cybersecurity Vendor Blog at the annual EU Security Blogger Awards, discussed how Maine inches closer to shutting down...