APTs and COVID-19: How advanced persistent threats use the coronavirus as a lure

The coronavirus COVID-19 has become a global pandemic, and this is a golden time for attackers to take advantage of our collective fear to increase the likelihood of successful attack. True to form, they've been doing just that: performing spam and spear phishing campaigns using coronavirus as a...

Threat spotlight: Phobos ransomware lives up to its name

Ransomware has struck dead on organizations since it became a mainstream tool in cybercriminals' belts years ago. From massive WannaCry outbreaks in 2017 to industry-focused attacks by Ryuk in 2019, ransomware's got its hooks in global businesses and shows no signs of stopping. That includes a...

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...

Hackers snab emails and more in Microsoft Outlook, Hotmail, and MSN compromise

Long-time users of certain Microsoft products, such as Hotmail, MSN, and Outlook found they may be wrapped up in a hack grabbing snippets of email information, and in some cases, a little bit more. Microsoft email services have been around forever in Internet time. Yet, many users still have a fe...

Explained: Payment Service Directive 2 (PSD2)

Payment Service Directive 2 PSD2 is the implementation of a European guideline designed to further harmonize money transfers inside the EU. The ultimate goal of this directive is to simplify payments across borders so that it's as easy as transferring money within the same country. Since the EU w...

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...

Did my comment on your blog get lost?

If you ever feel bad about your job because of mindless tasks you must perform day after day, or if you're bothered by the fact that your chosen work pays crap, produces nothing useful, and helps no one: have a look at blog comment spammers and breathe a sigh of relief. They make almost any job...

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...

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...

Why emerging APAC markets are prime targets for the malware of the future

In many ways, Asia has led the way in technological development. Robotics, video games, dizzyingly fast Internet speeds. But when it comes to cybersecurity, several APAC countries, especially those in emerging markets, are severely lacking. And while, according to the 2017 State of Malware Report...

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...

WhatsApp cryptocurrency scam goes for the cash prize

This weekend a scammer tried his luck by reaching out to me on WhatsApp. It’s not that I don’t appreciate it, but trust me, it’s bad for your business. I received one message from a number hailing from the Togolese Republic. WhatsApp message from an unknow sender “Jay, your financial account has...

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...

Ransomware review: February 2023

This article is based on research by Marcelo Rivero, Malwarebytes' ransomware specialist, who builds a monthly picture of ransomware activity by monitoring the information published by ransomware gangs on their Dark Web leak sites. This information represents victims who were successfully attacke...

A week in security (Nov 8 – Nov 14)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs Multiple video games break after domain name snafu How to remove adware on an Android phone Smart TV adverts put a wrinkle in your programming Are cybercriminals turning away from the US and targeting Europe instead? Patch now! Microsoft plugs actively exploited...

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...

Website misconfigurations and other errors to avoid

Website owners, listen up: There are lots of things you shouldn’t do with your site, and many more you should avoid with the domains you’re responsible for. Insider malice, bad luck, and the stars aligning in impossible ways can all give your online portfolio a bad hair day. However, if you want ...

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...

Billion-dollar search engine industry attracts vultures, shady advertisers, and cybercriminals

Search engines make money by showing users sponsored advertisements—a lot of money. This attracts attention, competition, and plenty who want a piece of the action without doing the actual work or considering the impact to those on the other end of the search bar. Because in the search business,...

New Facebook ad reporting tool launches in UK

Last year, well-known consumer advice expert Martin Lewis decided to take Facebook to court for defamation. The cause? Multiple bogus adverts placed on the social network featuring his likeness, appearing via the ad network Outbrain. As a trusted face in consumer causes, scammers bolting Lewis'...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Explained: user agent

If you are the kind of person that uses different browsers or different devices to access websites, you may have noticed that many sites can look quite different depending on which browser you are using. When your browser sends a request to a website, it identifies itself with the user agent stri...

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...

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...

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...

Colonial Pipeline attack expected to trigger imminent hardening of cybersecurity rules for federal agencies

UPDATE 04:23 pm Pacific Time, May 12: On Wednesday, President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order that broadly directs the Commerce Department to create cybersecurity standards for companies that sell software to the federal government. The Order comes in the immediate aftermath of a ransomware...

Clop targets execs, ransomware tactics get another new twist

Ransomware peddlers have come up with yet another devious twist on the recent trend for data exfiltration. After interviewing several victims of the Clop ransomware, ZDNet discovered that its operators appear to be systematically targeting the workstations of executives. After all, the top manage...

Cyber tips for safe online dating: How to avoid privacy gaffs, exploits, and scams

Research and reporting on this article were conducted by Labs writers Chris Boyd and David Ruiz. Dating apps have been mainstream for a long time now, with nearly every possible dating scene covered—casual, long-term, gay, poly, of the Jewish faith, interested only in farmers—whatever you're...

New version of IcedID Trojan uses steganographic payloads

This blog post was authored by @hasherezade, with contributions from @siriurz and Jérôme Segura. Security firm Proofpoint recently published a report about a series of malspam campaigns they attribute to a threat actor called TA2101. Originally targeting German and Italian users with Cobalt Strik...

A week in security (January 21 – 27)

Last week on the Malwarebytes Labs blog, we took a look at Modlishka, the latest hurdle in two-factor authentication 2FA, the potential for abuse of push notifications, a malware-phishing combo by the name of CryTekk ransomware, and why we detect PUPs, but enforce the power of users' choice. We...

Mobile Menace Monday: FakeGift is the gift that keeps on frustrating

Last spring, we found yet another piece of riskware on Google Play we call Android/PUP.Riskware.FakeGift. Based on Hindi characters found in the code, we can assume it originates from India. With over 50,000 installs before being removed from Google Play, FakeGift apparently kept on...

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...

5 cybersecurity questions retailers must ask to protect their businesses

The Target breach in 2013 may not be the biggest retail breach in history, but for many retailers, it was their watershed moment. Point-of-sale PoS terminals were compromised for more than two weeks. 40 million card details and 70 million records of personal information swiped—part of which was...

Encryption 101: Decryptor’s thought process

In the previous parts 1, 2 and 3 of this series, we covered the basics of encryption, walked through a live example of a ransomware in detail, and talked about encryption weaknesses. In this part of the encryption 101 series, we will begin wrapping it up by going into detail on a ransomware with...

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...

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...

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...

Explained: Fuzzing for security

Fuzzing, or fuzz testing, is defined as an automated software testing method that uses a wide range of invalid and unexpected data as input to find flaws in the software undergoing the test. The flaws do not necessarily have to be security vulnerabilities. Fuzzing can also bring other undesirable...

Insecure password leads to Mangatoon data breach

The hugely popular Manga comics platform Mangatoon has fallen victim to a data breach. No fewer than 23 million user accounts could be at risk, thanks to a poorly secured database. Worse still, Mangatoon doesnt seem to be responding to messages from the breacher, or people notifying it that the...

[updated]QNAP update stops Deadbolt ransomware, annoys some users, starts debate

Earlier this week 25 January, 2022 news broke that a ransomware group was targeting QNAP Network Attached Storage NAS devices. The threat actors claimed the attack was based on a zero-day vulnerability specific to the devices. Today QNAP® Systems, Inc. QNAP pushed out an automatic, forced, update...

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...

Ransomware: Why do backups fail when you need them most?

Its widely known, and endlessly repeated, that the last, best line of defence against the potentially devastating effects of a ransomware attack is your backups. So why do we keep hearing things like this: Were also feeling relatively confident, we have a very good backup system … and then we fin...

Patch now! Netgear fixes serious smart switch vulnerabilities

In a security advisory, NetGear has announced it has fixed three vulnerabilities in firmware updates for several network devices. Most of the affected products are smart switches, some of them with cloud management capabilities that allow for configuring and monitoring them over the web. One of t...

A week in security (August 16 – August 22)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Podcast: Katie Moussouris hacked Clubhouse. Her emails went unanswered for weeks. How to troubleshoot hardware problems that look like malware problems. Analysts “strongly believe” the Russian state colludes with ransomware gangs. macOS 11’s hidden security...

The 3 biggest threats reaching for your antivirus software’s off switch

Having antivirus AV software on your computer is a staple. Modern antivirus offers layered protection—a cybersecurity approach that uses multiple techniques in one package to keep you safe if you download a malicious file from the Internet, find yourself worrying after clicking a link on a direct...