Spoofed addresses and anonymous sending: new Gmail bugs make for easy pickings

Tim Cotten, a software developer from Washington, DC, was responding to a request for help from a female colleague last week, who believed that her Gmail account has been hacked, when he discovered something phishy. The evidence presented was several emails in her Sent folder, purportedly sent by...

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...

Badgelife: A Defcon 26 retrospective

One more year gone, one more Defcon completed. Defcon is the longest-running security conference in existence and one that I have been attending since Defcon 18. It is an opportunity to see and interact in real life with industry peers that would forever remain a digital persona otherwise. It is...

Mobile Menace Monday: Adware MobiDash gets stealthy

The Adware known as MobiDash, detected by Malwarebytes for Android as Android/Adware.MobiDash, is far from a new. However, this ad-displaying nuisance now comes with some additional stealth features. First appearing last spring, these new features are not limited to a single variant of MobiDash...

Myspace vs. Facebook: the good old days?

Many people have fond memories of ye olde Myspace dotte comme, and those rose-splashed spectacles seem to have grown ever larger in light of the recent Facebook happenings. In recent days, I've seen many declaring their love for all things Tom, and how everything was just one huge barrel of laugh...

Expired domain names and malvertising

In Q1 and Q2 of 2017, we noticed a sharp decline in drive-by downloads coming from compromised websites. The campaigns of the past are either gone Pseudo Darkleech or have changed focus EITest using social engineering techniques. Malvertising - which has remained steady and is currently the main...

Joomla! vulnerability is being actively exploited

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA has added a vulnerability for the Joomla! Content Management System CMS to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation. This means that Federal Civilian Executive Branch FCEB agencies need to...

Update your Android devices now! Google patches two actively exploited vulnerabilities

Google has patched 53 vulnerabilities in its Android October security updates, two of which are known to be actively exploited. Google's security bulletin notes that there are indications that these two vulnerabilities may be under limited, targeted exploitation. If your Android phone is at patch...

Ransomware review: May 2023

This article is based on research by Marcelo Rivero, Malwarebytes' ransomware specialist, who monitors information published by ransomware gangs on their Dark Web sites. In this report, "known attacks" are those where the victim didn't pay a ransom. This provides the best overall picture of...

Hertzbleed exposes computers’ secret whispers

Hertzbleed is the name for a vulnerability that can be used to obtain cryptographic keys and other secret data from Intel and AMD CPUs, remotely. It works by monitoring changes in power consumption, which can be deduced by the careful timing of known workloads, thanks to a processor power saving...

The struggle to reduce bug-fixing time is real

There are many reasons why we want a bug fixed as soon as we can, but there are also plenty of reasons why doing it “right now” is not an option. This phenomenon starts at the side of the developers. The average time to fix a bug seems to vary depending on the platform the bug was found in. What ...

New Mac malware raises more questions about Apple’s security patching

Apples reputation on security has been taking a beating lately. As mentioned in some of our previous coverage, security researcher Joshua Long recently shone a light on problems with Apples security patching strategy. His findings showed a shocking number of cases where Apple patched a...

Why Data Privacy Day matters: A Lock and Code special with Mozilla, DuckDuckGo, and EFF

You can read our full-length blog here about the importance of Data Privacy Day and data privacy in general Today is a special day, not just because January 28 marks Data Privacy Day in the United States and in several countries across the world, but because it also marks the return of our hit...

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 ...

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...

A week in security (August 13 – August 19)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we talked about how Process Doppelgänging meets Process Hollowing in the Osiris dropper, provided hints, tips, and links for a safer school year, gave a recap of Black Hat USA 2018, offered some tips for a secure content management system, highlighted a silly...

A week in security (July 23 – July 29)

Last week on Labs, we looked at an adware called MobiDash getting stealthy, a new strain of Mac malware called Proton that was found after two years, and the ‘Hidden Bee’ miner that was delivered via an improved drive-by download toolkit. We also delved into the security improvements expected in...

What’s causing the cybersecurity skills gap?

The proliferation of next-gen technology into mainstream society has been a boon for consumers, entrepreneurs, and business owners alike. Between the rise of mobile computing, the Internet of Things IoT, and modern social media, our society is more connected than ever before. But all of this...

A week in security (May 21 – May 27)

Last week we told you about a Mac cryptominer using XMRig, an overview of Dreamcast related scams, part 1 of decoding Emotet, and what to do about bad coding habits that die hard. We also published the results of our second CrackMe contest. Other news How a pioneer of machine learning became one ...

A week in security (March 12 – March 18)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we took a look at the inner workings of a fileless attack, explored what happened in a zero day ransomware attack aimed at South Koreans, gave you hints and tips for avoiding cold calls, and took a deep dive into the secretive world of GrayKey. Other news The Equif...

Human Factor Podcast: Jenny Radcliffe and Chris Boyd

A little while ago, I was invited to take part in Jenny Radcliffe's Human Factor Podcast. With 44 episodes strong and counting!, Jenny spends an hour or so talking at length with her guests who are professional investigators, security advocates, all-round educators, tireless consultant/conference...

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...

10 tips for safe online shopping on Cyber Monday

Shoppers familiar with the Cyber Monday circus know they’re stepping into the lion’s den. The Internet has always been a lawless place, but it becomes particularly rough during the holiday shopping season. In preparation for the frenzy, cyber villains have crafted a virtual onslaught of social...

Using ILSpy to analyze a small adware file

My curiosity was triggered when the telemetry of our heuristic scanner started showing a multitude of reports about a small file called grandfather.exe, so I went out to grab a copy and have a look at it. As you can probably tell from some of the detection names at Virustotal, this is a MSIL...

SteelCon: Mahkra ni Orroz

I recently gave a talk at Sheffield's SteelCon, a huge security event spread over a few days with no end of interesting activities taking place. My presentation, called Makhra ni Orroz, is a good 45 minutes of non stop talking and pictures and things. It's also a bit different in terms of what I...

A .NET malware abusing legitimate ffmpeg

There is a growing trend among malware authors to incorporate legitimate applications in their malicious package. This time, we analyzed a malware downloading a legitimate ffmpeg. Using this application, this simple spyware written in .NET got a powerful feature. Most of the malware is sufficient...

EternalPetya and the lost Salsa20 key

We have recently been facing a huge outbreak of a new Petya-like malware armed with an infector similar to WannaCry. The research is still in progress, and the full report will be published soon. In this post, we will focus on some new important aspects of the current malware. The low-level attac...

VRChat says reported data breach never happened

A data breach notice has been filed with the Maine Attorney General, saying more than 2.4 million users of VRChat have had their data breached. The question is, was it VRChat who filed the breach notice, or did someone pretending to represent the company post it instead? On Reddit, a VRChat...

A week in security (May 15-21)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Why we should be more open about ransomware attacks Windows 11 is showing its first signs of Rust Update now! Ruckus vulnerability added to CISAs list of actively exploited bugs 3 reasons to use a VPN PharMerica breach impacts almost 6 million people Leaked Babuk...

Law enforcement app SweepWizard leaks data on crime suspects

SweepWizard, an obscure app apparently created by ODIN Intelligence and used by more than 60 law enforcement departments, has a flaw: According to an ethical hacker, a misconfiguration in the app's API application programming interface caused it to unintentionally leak to the open internet a trov...

Sysrv botnet is out to mine Monero on your Windows and Linux servers

In a Twitter thread, the Microsoft Security Intelligence team have revealed new information about the latest versions of the Sysrv botnet. The variant they focused on uses a range of known exploits for vulnerabilities in web apps and databases to install cryptocurrency miners on both Windows and...

The Conti ransomware leaks

On February 27, an individual with insights into the Conti ransomware group started leaking a treasure trove of data beginning with internal chat messages. Conti is responsible for a number of high profile attacks, including one against the Irish Healthcare system which has cost more than $48...

The Clubhouse database “breach” is likely a non-breach. Here’s why.

Before the work week ended last week Friday, a security researcher found a leak of what is claimed to be full phone numbers of users of Clubhouse, the new social media app everyone is talking about and just recently came out of beta. Clubhouse is an audio-only social media platform where, unlike...

A week in security (July 12 – July 18)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: DNS-over-HTTPS takes another small step towards global domination Nope, that isn’t Elon Musk, and he isn’t offering a free Topmist Dust watch either Four in-the-wild exploits, 13 critical patches headline bumper Patch Tuesday Is crypto’s criminal rollercoaster...

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 ...

Child identity theft, part 1: On familiar fraud

In 2013, 30-year-old Axton Betz-Hamilton received an angry phone call from her father two weeks after her mother, Pam, died. "What the hell were you thinking?" he screamed. He had just unearthed a credit card statement in her name that had run over its limit from a box of her mother’s paperwork...

Caution: Misuse of security tools can turn against you

We have a saying in Greece: "They assigned the wolf to watch over the sheep." In a security context, this is a word of caution about making sure the tools we use to keep our information private don't actually cause the data leaks themselves. In this article, I will be talking about some cases tha...

A week in security (November 19 – 25)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we took a look at a devastating business email compromise attack, web skimming antics, and the fresh perils of Deepfakes. We also checked out some Chrome bug issues, and took the deepest of deep dives into DNA testing. Other cybersecurity news Adobe Flash bug—get...

Workplace violence: the forgotten insider threat

Organizations are no stranger to insider threats. In fact, for those who have been around long before the Internet, workplace violence, alongside spying is a problem many businesses have seen before and sought to address. However, the adoption and use of the Internet completely changed the way...

A week in security (June 25 – July 1)

Last week on Labs, we looked at comment moderation duties, Viagra spam on a news-making restaurant's website, and how to manage your child's online presence for Internet safety month. We also looked at a set of big breaches and leaks, as well as malware threats with a World Cup vibe. Other news...

Malware analysis: decoding Emotet, part 2

In part two of our series on decoding Emotet, you can catch up on part 1 here, we'll cover analysis of the PowerShell code. Before we do that, however, it is a good idea to list some of the functions and calls that are used in the code for the execution. System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal: us...

Far Cry 5 download offers: embrace the power of “no”

The recently released Far Cry 5 is a video game where you reclaim Montana from a cult obsessed with the "power of yes" by hitting members over the head with a shovel. It's also one of the biggest sellers for publisher Ubisoft to date, and it stands to reason that many people would like to grab a...

Perspectives on Russian hacking

Russia is an endlessly fascinating subject both in and around infosec. Recent years have shifted attention away from pure malware capabilities, to psyops, social engineering, and an endless slew of mind games designed to destabilize and keep nations ever-so-slightly off balance. Security firms in...

How artificial intelligence and machine learning will impact cybersecurity

Artificial intelligence AI and machine learning ML are hot topics in technology. New use cases and applications are discussed daily—from search results recommendations to smart cars. But what are cybersecurity organizations doing with this tech? What does it take to render additional security out...

OSX.Proton spreading through fake Symantec blog

Sunday night, a series of tweets from security researcher @noarfromspace revealed a new variant of the OSX.Proton malware, spreading in a concerning new method—spoofing security company Symantec's blog. Method of infection The malware is being promoted via a fake Symantec blog site at...

Hansa Market on Dark Web seized by Dutch police

In a simultaneous press conference issued by the Dutch police and US Attorney General Jeff Sessions we learned that the Dark Web market places Alphabay and Hansa market have been seized and shut down by international cooperating authorities. As it turned out Hansa Market was already under control...

Something’s phishy: How to detect phishing attempts

Dear you, It appears you need to update your information. Click here to tell us all your secrets. No really, it's totally safe. We're not going to steal your identity, we swear. If only phishing attempts were that obvious. Instead, these days it's hard to tell a phish apart from a foul, if you...

Update Chrome! Google patches actively exploited zero-day vulnerability

Google has released an update for Chrome which includes four security fixes, including one for a vulnerability that has reportedly already been exploited. The easiest way to update Chrome is to allow it to update automatically, which basically uses the same method as outlined below but does not...

Patch now! First patch Tuesday of 2024 is here

Microsoft has issued patches for 48 security vulnerabilities in the first Patch Tuesday of 2024. With a relatively low number of patches—and only two of them critical—this makes it a relatively quiet month, which is certainly not the norm in January. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures CVE...

Exchange Server security updates updated

Microsoft has re-released the August 2023 Security Updates SUs for Exchange Server. The original release of the SUs, from August 8 2023, had a localization issue with Exchange Server running on a non-English Operating Systems OSes that caused Setup to stop unexpectedly, leaving Exchange services ...