Hackers can take over accounts you haven’t even created yet

Account hijacking has sadly become a regular, everyday occurrence. But when it comes to hijacking accounts before they are even created? Thats something youd never think possible—but it is. Two security researchers, Avinash Sudhodanan and Andrew Paverd, call this new class of attack a...

Google launches Chrome 99, fixes 28 vulnerabilities

The Chrome team announced the promotion of Chrome 99 to the stable channel for Windows, Mac and Linux on March 1, 2022. This will roll out over the coming days/weeks. In the desktop version, a total of 28 vulnerabilities were closed. Of these, 11 were classified as high, 15 as medium and two as...

Wanted! US offers $10m bounty for ransomware kingpins

The US State Department is offering a massive $10 million reward if you can help bring DarkSide to justice. The U.S. Department of State announces a reward offer of up to $10,000,000 for information leading to the identification or location of any individuals who holds a key leadership position i...

What special needs kids need to stay safe online

Online safety is hard enough for most adults. We reuse weak passwords, we click on suspicious links, and we love to share sensitive information that should be kept private and secure. Just go back a few months to watch adults gleefully sharing photos of their vaccine cards. The consequences of...

BlackMatter, a new ransomware group, claims link to DarkSide, REvil

Theres a new ransomware gang in town—and, frankly, were not at all surprised. After DarkSide disappeared—coincidentally, immediately after Colonial Pipeline gave in to the groups ransom demand of roughly $5M USD worth in Bitcoin—a new ransomware group who calls themselves BlackMatter surfaced on...

Would real identities make social media safer?

“Use real identities to reduce abuse online” is a talking point youve almost certainly seen down the years. It also seems to come around like clockwork every other month, and is currently a hot topic in the UK after prominent journalists / media personalities raised the issue. It’s an interesting...

Deep learning: An explanation and a peek into the future

Deep learning is one of the most advanced forms of machine learning, and is showing new developments in many industries. In this article, well explain the concept and give some examples of the latest and greatest ways its being used. What is deep learning? There have been many attempts at creatin...

A week in security (February 11 – 17)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs we discussed the return of the Sextortion Bitcoin scams, we gave you an early overview of the exploit kits in the winter of 2019, we talked about the destruction of VFEmail service, for consumers we discussed whether you should remove yourself from social media, for...

Green card scams: preying on the desperate

Thanks to @nullcookies for providing leads. Most online scams depend on two things for success: a broken or otherwise onerous process to deal with a legitimate entity, and a desperate target population. With immigration, there are many, many burdensome processes to navigate, and most applicants...

Can search extensions keep your searches private?

One of the most common things most of us do on the Internet is search, whether we are looking up the price of the latest gadget or we need to find the address of that great restaurant recommended by a friend. The dizzying number of Google search queries per second more than 40,000, on average tel...

A week in security (April 09 – April 15)

Last week, we took a look at a malware-campaign called FakeUpdates, methods to use secure instant messaging, the inner workings of a decryption tool, and some Facebook spam campaigns. We also published our first quarterly Malwarebytes Labs CTNT report of 2018. Other news A security researcher...

Malicious cryptomining and the blacklist conundrum

When Coinhive first came out in September of 2017, it was fairly easy to identify websites using browser miners by looking for a few lines referencing the Coinhive API within the HTML source code. Because this was a new phenomenon, even bad actors didn't have to hide their intentions, and...

The digital entropy of death: link rot

Hot on the heels of a grim blog about digital death comes…another blog about digital death. Except in this case, the recently deceased would be the links that tie the web together, otherwise known as link rot. Link rot is a weird thing. Say I blog for Puppy Chow and I write an article about the...

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...

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...

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...

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...

KeePass vulnerability allows attackers to access the master password

KeePass is a free open source password manager, which helps you to manage your passwords and stores them in encrypted form. In fact, KeePass encrypts the whole database, i.e. not only your passwords, but also your user names, URLs, notes, etc. That encrypted database can only be opened with the...

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 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 ...

Update now! Chrome patches actively exploited zero-day vulnerability

Google has released an update for its Chrome browser that includes eleven security fixes, one of which has been reportedly exploited in the wild. The vulnerability that is reported as being exploited in the wild has been assigned CVE-2022-0609. CVE-2022-0609 The vulnerability is described as a...

Kaseya Unitrends has unpatched vulnerabilities that could help attackers expand a breach

It must not be easy to work at Kaseya right now. While they are working as hard as they can to help customers, and customers of their customers, recover from the REvil ransomware attack at the beginning of July, a new vulnerability in their software has been disclosed. As a sidenote, Kaseya...

Discord users tempted by bots offering “free Nitro games”

The last few weeks have seen multiple instances of problematic bots appearing in Discord channels. They bring tidings of gifts, but the reality is quite a bit different. Given so many more young kids and teens are at home during the current global lockdown, they may well see this scam bouncing...

Fintech security: the challenges and fails of a new era

"I have no idea how this app from my bank works, and I don't trust what I don't understand." Josh is not an old curmudgeon or luddite. He's 42 with a decent understanding of technology. Nevertheless, the changes in fintech have come too fast for him. It's not that he doesn't trust his bank. He...

Labs Cybercrime Tactics and Techniques report finds businesses hit with 235 percent more threats in Q1

The Malwarebytes Labs Cybercrime Tactics and Techniques Q1 2019 report found businesses at the butt end of a bad joke. In just one year, threats aimed at corporate targets have increased by 235 percent, with Trojans, such as Emotet, and ransomware in particular revving up in the first quarter...

A week in security (July 2 – July 8)

Last week, we tracked back a large mining operation from their Coinhive shortlink, we took a look at online project management tools, we described a new macro-less technique to distribute malware, and talked about a Mac malware that targets crypto-mining users. Other news: Huawei enterprise comms...

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...

VPNFilter malware still making waves

Last month, a piece of malware called VPNFilter caused chaos for owners of MikroTik, Lynksys, TP-Link, and Netgear equipment. Roughly 500,000 devices worldwide fell victim, with the unwanted parasite able to listen to traffic, steal credentials, damage devices, and more. Until patches started to...

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...

BlueBorne – Bluetooth’s airborne influenza

Armis Labs has discovered a new attack vector that targets any device that has Bluetooth capability. This includes mobile, desktop, and IoT — roughly accounting for 8.2 billion devices. All operating systems are susceptible — Android, iOS, Windows, and Linux. Dubbed BlueBorne, it exposes several...

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...

Stolen Nvidia certificates used to sign malware—here’s what to do

As we wrote on March 3, 2022 Nvidia, was recently attacked by the LAPSUS$ ransomware group. The ensuing data leak included two of NVIDIA’s code signing certificates. Those certificates are now being used to sign malware. Leaked signing certificates from major vendors like Nvidia come with huge...

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...

q-logger skimmer keeps Magecart attacks going

This blog post was authored by Jérôme Segura Although global e-commerce is continuing to grow rapidly, it seems as though Magecart attacks via digital skimmers have not followed the same trend. This is certainly true if we only look at recent newsworthy attacks; indeed when a victim is a large...

HP OMEN users, update your driver now!

HP has released a patch to fix a flaw in the HP OMEN driver. As far as we know the flaw isnt being actively exploited, but its worth applying the patch as soon as you can. The flaw, the fix The driver vulnerability, which is tracked as CVE-2021-3437, was found by Kasif Dekel, a senior security...

The npm netmask vulnerability explained so you can actually understand it

The popular npm netmask library recently encountered a serious problem, explained as follows: The npm netmask package incorrectly evaluates individual ipv4 octets that contain octal strings as left-stripped integers, leading to an inordinate attack surface on hundreds of thousands of projects tha...

A week in security (January 18 – January 24)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we looked at changes to WhatsApp’s privacy policy, we provided information about Malwarebytes being targeted by the same threat actor that was implicated in the SolarWinds breach, we told the story of ZeroLogon, looked at the pros and cons of Zoom watermarking,...

Misleading cybersecurity lessons from pop culture: how Hollywood teaches to hack

In pop culture, cybercrimes are often portrayed as mysterious and unrealistic. Hackers are enigmatic and have extraordinary tech abilities. They can discover top secrets in a short time and type at breakneck speed to hack into a database. In real life, though, hacking is not that straightforward...

How to protect against stalkerware, a murky but dangerous mobile threat

Last week, we pledged that—in honor of National Cybersecurity Awareness and Domestic Violence Awareness months—we would continue the fight against the online scourge known as stalkerware, or applications used to track and spy on victims without their knowing consent. We told readers that, despite...

Explained: like-farming

Like-farming, aka like-harvesting, is a method used by commercial parties and scammers alike to raise the popularity of a site or domain. The ultimate dream of every like-farmer is for his post to go viral by accumulating as many likes and shares as possible from all over the world. Like-farmers...

A week in security (June 18 – June 24)

Last week, we took a deep dive into SamSam ransomware, looked at ways how to identify and delete malicious emails, recognized that there are now risks affecting job recruitment portals, analyzed a malicious Android app banking on the popularity of Fortnite, and identified causes and solutions for...

Internet Safety Month: How to protect your child’s privacy online

June marks the beginning of summer. It is also National Internet Safety Month. This is the perfect time to remind vacationers that while it is essential to check that everything you need is packed and ready for a trip, it is equally vital for the family to take steps in securing their devices and...

Securing financial data of the future: behavioral biometrics explained

Some of us would be pretty excited about a brave, new passwordless world. Gone would be the days of having to write down 27 passwords and post them beside monitor screens. Or having to yell them out loud to a colleague on the other side of the room. For banks and other financial institutions, 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...

Encryption 101: a malware analyst’s primer

While most in the security industry know what encryption is, many lack a basic understanding of how it is used in malware—especially ransomware. Because of this, we thought it would be beneficial to do an introductory primer on encryption mechanisms and how they are exploited for malicious...

Mac malware OSX.Proton strikes again

The hackers responsible for the Mac malware OSX.Proton have struck again, this time infecting a copy of the Elmedia Player app that was being distributed from the official Eltima website. At this time, it is still unknown how long their website was providing the hijacked app. Proton was silently...

Solution Corner: Malwarebytes for Mac

Mac users have been told for years: Macs don't get viruses. Even Apple said so, in their famous Get a Mac ads that aired a decade ago. Wow, that's so cool! It's good to know we're all safe. Now, on a different topic, can you tell me why Safari is going to a Russian search engine instead of Google...

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...

CISA: You've got two weeks to patch Citrix NetScaler vulnerability CVE-2023-3519

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA has added a critical unauthenticated remote code execution RCE vulnerability in Citrix NetScaler ADC and Citrix NetScaler Gateway to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation. This means that...