Mobile Menace Monday: Dark Android Q rises

Android Q, the upcoming 10th major release of the Android mobile operating system, was developed by Google with three major themes in mind: innovation, security, and privacy. Today, we are going to focus mostly on security and privacy, although there are still many potential changes and updates o...

The top six takeaways for corporate data privacy compliance

For nearly two months, Malwarebytes Labs has led readers on a journey through data privacy laws around the world, exploring the nuances between “personal information” and “personal data,” as well as between data breach notification laws in Florida, Utah, California, and Iowa. We explored the risk...

This online quiz is now confirmed to be a phishing scam

Ah, online quizzes. Many of us know that they can be somewhat dodgy and nonsense, really—but that doesn’t stop us from clicking the “Start quiz” button anyway. Besides, you have time to kill, and there are only three questions to answer, right? The right kind of wrong Phishing attacks don’t alway...

A week in security (November 26 – December 2)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we took a look at our cybersecurity predictions for 2019, we explained why Malwarebytes participated in AV testing and how we took part in an joint take down of massive ad fraud botnets, warned that ESTA registration websites still lurk in paid ads on Google,...

TrickBot takes over as top business threat

Last quarter brought with it a maddening number of political ads, shocking and divisive news stories on climate change and gun laws, and mosquitoes. We hate mosquitoes. In related unpleasant news, it also apparently ushered in an era of banking Trojans that, as of this moment, shows no signs of...

Fortnite gamers targeted by data theft malware

The new season of the incredibly popular video game Fortnite is upon us, and so too are the scams. It’s no surprise that con artists would jump on this bandwagon, eager to peddle their fakeouts. Only this time, scammers had something a little more dangerous in mind than your typical low-level...

Fortnite’s Google Play rebuff sparks security concerns for Android users

There's been no small outbreak of chaos in mobile land recently, all because of an astonishingly popular game called Fortnite. Here's the thing: people refer to Android as "open platform," saying that, in theory, you can do what you want with it. In practice, you buy an Android phone and then...

Major data breaches at Adidas, Ticketmaster pummel web users

There's been a number of data breaches and accidental data exposures coming to light in the last few days, and no matter where in the world you happen to be located, you'll want to do some due diligence and see if you've been affected. These aren't small fishes being preyed upon by black hats;...

Encryption 101: ShiOne ransomware case study

In part one of this series, Encryption 101: a malware analyst's primer, we introduced some of the basic encryption concepts used in malware. If you haven't read it, we suggest going back for a review, as it's necessary in order to be able to fully follow part two, our case study. In this study, w...

Learning PowerShell: some basic commands

My first Powershell script The first PowerShell script I wrote see below was a quick fix to remove certificates from the “Untrusted” registry key after a Vonteera infection. After some initial commands, this script basically loops back for every certificate that doesn’t belong under a certain key...

Patch now! Ivanti Endpoint Manager Mobile Authentication vulnerability used in the wild

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA added one new vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog affecting Ivanti Endpoint Manager Mobile, based on evidence of active exploitation. All Federal Civilian Executive Branch FCEB agencies must remediate this...

Update now! Google releases emergency patch for Chrome zero-day used in the wild

Google has urged its 3 billion+ users to update to Chrome version 99.0.4844.84 for Mac, Windows, and Linux to mitigate a zero-day that is currently being exploited in the wild. This is in response to a bug reported by an anonymous security researcher last week. The flaw, which is tracked as...

A week in security (November 4 – November 10)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we announced the launch of Malwarebytes 4.0, tackled data privacy legislation, and explored some of the ways robocalls come gunning for your data and your money. We also laid out the steps involved in popular vendor email compromise attacks. Other cybersecurity new...

Governments increasingly eye social media meltdown

These are trying times for social networks, with endless reports of harassment and abuse not being tackled and many users leaving platforms forever. The major sites such as Facebook and Twitter do what they can, but sheer userbase volume and erroneous automated feedback leave people cold. Bugs su...

A week in security (February 25 – March 3)

Last week, we delved into the realm of K-12 schools and security, explored the world of compromised websites and Golang bruteforcers, and examined the possible realms of pay for privacy. We also looked at identity management solutions, Google’s Universal Read Gadget, and did the deepest of dives...

A week in security (January 28 – February 3)

Last week, we ran another in our interview with a malware hunter series, explained a FaceTime vulnerability, and took a deep dive into a new stealer. We also threw some light on a Houzz data breach, and what exactly happened between Apple and Facebook. Other cybersecurity news Kwik Fit hit by...

Mobile Menace Monday: Is Fuchsia OS the end of Android?

It’s no secret that every year Google announces a new Android version. This time though, recent Google documents state that the next major Android version will be Android Q and not Android 9.1 Pie. In parallel, Google is also developing an operating system called Fuchsia that’s supposedly going t...

Humble Bundle alerts customers to subscription reveal bug

You’ll want to check your mailbox if you have a Humble Bundle account, as they’re notifying some customers of a bug used to gather subscriber information. Click to enlarge The mail reads as follows: Hello, Last week, we discovered someone using a bug in our code to access limited non-personal...

Sextortion emails: They’re probably not watching you

Back in July, Krebs on Security reported on a rather novel scam, where the threat actor would use credentials from old data dumps to suggest that they had directly hacked the victim and obtained the victim's presumably sensitive browser history. Stolen credentials aside, sex-based extortion scams...

Microsoft Patch Tuesday March 2024 includes critical Hyper-V flaws

The March 2024 Patch Tuesday update includes patches for 61 Microsoft vulnerabilities. Only two of the vulnerabilities are rated critical and both of these are found in Windows Hyper-V. Hyper-V is a hardware virtualization product that allows you to run multiple operating systems as virtual...

Update now! Microsoft fixes two zero-days on February Patch Tuesday

Microsoft has issued patches for 73 security vulnerabilities in its February 2024 Patch Tuesday. Among these vulnerabilities are two zero-days that are reportedly being used in the wild. The two zero-day vulnerabilities have already been added to the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency...

Update now! Ruckus vulnerability added to CISA’s list of actively exploited bugs

Along with six older vulnerabilities, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency CISA has added a vulnerability in multiple Ruckus wireless products to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog. This means that Federal Civilian Executive Branch FCEB agencies need to remediate these...

Oracle WebLogic Server vulnerability added to CISA list as “known to be exploited”

On May 1, 2023 the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA added three new vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation. This means that Federal Civilian Executive Branch FCEB agencies are obliged to remediate the...

Update now! Microsoft patches two zero-days

The Microsoft September 2022 Patch Tuesday includes fixes for two publicly disclosed zero-day vulnerabilities, one of which is known to be actively exploited. Five of the 60+ security vulnerabilities were rated as "Critical", and 57 as important. Two vulnerabilities qualify as zero-days, with one...

Your HP Support Assistant needs an update!

HP has issued a new version of its HP Support Assistant tool. Users of HP Support Assistant versions earlier than 9.11 and Fusion versions earlier than 1.38.2601.0 are affected by a high severity vulnerability. According to HP it is possible for an attacker to exploit a dynamic-link library DLL...

General Motors suffers credential stuffing attack

American car manufacturer General Motors GM says it experienced a credential stuffing attack last month. During the attack customer information and reward points were stolen. The subject of the attack was an online platform, run by GM, to help owners of Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac vehicle...

Update now! Apple patches zero-day vulnerability affecting Macs, Apple Watch, and Apple TV

Apple has released security updates for a zero-day vulnerability that affects multiple products, including Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV. The flaw is an out-of-bounds write issue—tracked as CVE-2022-22675—in AppleAVD, a decoder that handles specific media files. An out-of-bounds write or read fl...

FoggyWeb, analysis of a Nobelium backdoor

Microsofts Threat Intelligence Center has been analyzing a custom-built backdoor that has been used by the Nobelium group since April 2021. Nobelium is the name given to the threat actor behind the attacks against SolarWinds, the Sunburst backdoor, TEARDROP malware, GoldMax malware, and other...

Task Force delivers strategic plan to address global ransomware problem

The Ransomware Task Force RTF, a think tank composed of more than 60 volunteer experts who represent organizations encompassing industries and governments, has recently pushed out a comprehensive and strategic plan for tackling the increasing threat and evolution of ransomware. The report, entitl...

Breaking free from the VirusTotal silo: Lock and Code S02E07

This week on Lock and Code, we speak to Malwarebytes Chief Information Security Officer John Donovan about the flaws in using VirusTotal as the one source of truth when evaluating whether or not a cybersecurity tool actually works. Its a practice that is surprisingly common. Weeks ago, Malwarebyt...

Search hijackers change Chrome policy to remote administration

The latest type of installer in the saga of search hijacking changes a Chrome policy which tells users it can’t be removed because the browser is managed from the outside. As you can imagine, that has freaked out quite a few Chrome users. We have talked about the search hijacker’s business model ...

Explained: edge computing

Edge computing may seem like a foreign and future-facing term. Yet its applications are widespread and diverse, with the ability to transform the way we store, use, and share data and programs online. The implications of edge computing are far-reaching, trickling down from software development an...

Stalkerware’s legal enforcement problem

Content warning: This piece contains brief descriptions of domestic violence and assault against women and children. In the past five years, only two stalkerware developers, both of whom designed, marketed, and sold tools favored by domestic abusers to pry into victims’ private lives, have faced...

The lucrative business of Bitcoin sextortion scams (updated)

Update 2019-09-04: A new wave of sextortion emails purporting to have originated from a group of hackers called ChaosCC—a play on the legitimate European white hat hacking community, Chaos Computer Club CCC—has recently caught the attention of the security world. Below is a sample email we captur...

Malware targeting industrial plants: a threat to physical security

We live in a world where more and more manufacturing processes are controlled by computers that send instructions to robots. This might sound like a safe and efficient way of work, as it rules out human error, but what happens when a threat actor decides to target production servers? Consider the...

A week in security (March 18 – 24)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we touched on the susceptibility of hospitals against phishing attacks, password reuse, the risk of interactive TV shows to side-channel attacks, and Facebook's new and out-of-character plan to promote privacy in the platform. Other cybersecurity news A study...

Avoid these Doctor Who Series 11 scams

The new season of Doctor Who has finally landed on television screens around the world, and we’ve started to see the first few signs of spam and other assorted nonsense lumbering online. A rash of YouTube accounts claiming to offer up the new series are making the rounds, all of which generally...

Introducing: Malwarebytes Browser Extension

Are you tired of all the unwanted content the world wide web offers up, whether you like it or not? It is our privilege to introduce you to the Malwarebytes Browser Extension BETA. Or, better said, the Malwarebytes Browser Extensions, because we have one for Firefox and one for Chrome. Introducti...

A primer: How to stay safe on Amazon Prime Day

Bank card—check! Shopping list—check! Lumbar back support pillow—check! Noise canceling headphones—check! And, of course, coffee—check! If you’re an Amazon shopper, then you know by now that Prime Day is nigh! And if you’re one of the many who dreads bidding the weekend goodbye, this is probably...

Avzhan DDoS bot dropped by Chinese drive-by attack

The Avzhan DDoS bot has been known since 2010, but recently we saw it in wild again, being dropped by a Chinese drive-by attack. In this post, we'll take a deep dive into its functionality and compare the sample we captured with the one described in the past. Analyzed sample...

Disdain exploit kit and a side of social engineering deliver Neutrino Bot

Today we picked up new activity from an exploit kit that was first discovered back in August of this year. The Disdain exploit kit, simply identified by a string of the same name found in its source code, is being distributed again after a short interruption via malvertising chains. Disdain EK...

Analyzing malware by API calls

Over the last quarter, we've seen an increase in malware using packers, crypters, and protectors—all methods used to obfuscate malicious code from systems or programs attempting to identify it. These packers make it very hard, or next to impossible to perform static analysis. The growing number o...

Fake Claude site installs malware that gives attackers access to your computer

Claude’s rapid growth—nearly 290 million web visits per month—has made it an attractive target for attackers, and this campaign shows how easy it is to fall for a fake site. We discovered a fake website impersonating Anthropic’s Claude to serve a trojanized installer. The domain mimics Claude's...

Fake funeral “live stream” scams target grieving users on Facebook

Some scammers have the morals of an alley cat. But some sink even lower. Over the last few months, Malwarebytes Labs has discovered scammers active on Facebook that prey on bereaved people by using stolen images and phony funeral live stream links to steal money and/or credit card details. These...

Microsoft Exchange vulnerability actively exploited

As it turns out, there was another actively exploited vulnerability included in Microsoft’s patch Tuesday updates for February. When Microsoft said in its update guide for CVE-2024-21410 that the vulnerability was likely to be exploited by attackers, they weren’t kidding. Soon after they changed...

Adobe Coldfusion vulnerability used in attacks on government servers

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA put out a Cybersecurity Advisory CSA to alert government agencies about cybercriminals using a vulnerability in Adobe Coldfusion to gain initial access to servers. Adobe ColdFusion is a platform for building and deploying web and mobile...

MOVEit discloses THIRD critical vulnerability

In chess, the threefold repetition rule states that a player may claim a draw if the same position occurs three times during the game. Whether this means that customers of the popular file transfer utility MOVEit Transfer can ask for their money back remains to be seen, but we do hope it signals...

A week in security (December 21- December 27)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs we warned our readers about not so festive social media scams, how Emotet returned just in time for Christmas, we tried out some free online games your kids are playing and here’s what happened, and our VideoBytes episode talked about what penetration testing tools...

QR code scams are making a comeback

Just when we thought the QR code was on its way out, the pandemic has led to a return of the scannable shortcut. COVID-19 has meant finding a digital equivalent to things normally handed out physically, like menus, tour guides, and other paperwork, and many organizations have adopted the QR code ...

Rocket Loader skimmer impersonates CloudFlare library in clever scheme

Update: The digital certificate issued for https.ps has been revoked by GlobalSign. Fraudsters are known for using social engineering tricks to dupe their victims, often times by impersonating authority figures to instill trust. In a recent blog post, we noted how criminals behind Magecart skimme...