Was threat actor KAX17 de-anonymizing the Tor network?

A mysterious threat actor has run thousands of malicious servers in entry, middle, and exit positions of the Tor network. Tracked as KAX17, the threat actor ran at its peak more than 900 malicious servers part of the Tor network, which typically tends to hover around a daily total of up to...

Twitter says it out loud: Removing anonymity will not stop online abuse

An investigation by Twitter into racist tweets levied against three Black players on the English football team following the national hopefuls’ loss against Italy last month revealed that anonymity played almost no role in whether users posted abusive comments from their accounts. The analysis,...

[update]Two year old vulnerability used in ransomware attack against VMware ESXi

On Friday and over the weekend, several Computer Emergency Response Teams CERTs sounded the alarm about an ongoing large scale ransomware attack on VMware ESXi virtual machines. With some discrepancies between Shodan queries from various researchers, most agree that an estimated 500 entities were...

Millions of Arris routers are vulnerable to path traversal attacks

Security researcher Derek Abdine has published an advisory about vulnerabilities that exist in the MIT-licensed muhttpd web server. This web server is present in Arris firmware which can be found in several router models. muhttpd web server muhttpd mu HTTP deamon is a simple but complete web serv...

Healthcare service faces test of willpower with Ransomware authors

Healthcare and ransomware are in the news in a big way. Data leaks are inevitable, but those are typically associated with accidents by the general public. Possibly the most malicious type of data spillage is when people compromising said data decide to do the spilling. It’s one thing to...

Talking Emotet’s takedown with Adam Kujawa: Lock and Code S02E02

This week on Lock and Code, we discuss the top security headlines generated right here on Labs and around the Internet. In addition, we talk to Adam Kujawa, security evangelist and director of Malwarebytes Labs, about Emotet, the former public enemy No. 1 in the cybercrime world. What began in 20...

Ryuk ransomware develops worm-like capability

The French governments computer emergency readiness team, thats part of the National Cybersecurity Agency of France, or ANSSI, has discovered a Ryuk variant that has worm-like capabilities during an incident response. For those unacquainted with Ryuk, it is a type of ransomware that is used in...

How security orchestration improves detection and response

Working together in perfect harmony like the wind and percussion sections of a symphony orchestra requires both rigorous practice and a skilled conductor. Wouldn’t it be great if our cybersecurity solutions did the same to better protect organizations? The methods and tools used to accomplish thi...

Analyzing a new stealer written in Golang

Golang Go is a relatively new programming language, and it is not common to find malware written in it. However, new variants written in Go are slowly emerging, presenting a challenge to malware analysts. Applications written in this language are bulky and look much different under a debugger fro...

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...

Hidden Bee: Let’s go down the rabbit hole

Some time ago, we discussed the interesting malware, Hidden Bee. It is a Chinese miner, composed of userland components, as well as of a bootkit part. One of its unique features is a custom format used for some of the high-level elements this format was featured in my recent presentation at SAS...

Google Chrome zero-day: Now is the time to update and restart your browser

Update 2019-03-21 A proof of concept for CVE-2019-5786 was published by Exodus Intel. In our earlier post we exercised caution before claiming we would have blocked this zero-day, but we can now say with confidence that an older version of Malwarebytes 1.12.1.122 would have mitigated this attack:...

A week in security (September 24 – 30)

Last week on Labs was a busy one. We discussed how SMS phishing attacks target the job market, issued a warning for TV Licensing phishes, commented on how Apple confused Safari users with recent changes to how OSX handles browser extensions, and elaborated on holes found in Mojave’s privacy...

Oracle releases massive Critical Patch Update containing 520 security patches

Oracle has issued a Critical Patch Update which contains 520 new security patches across various product families. A few of these updates may need your urgent attention if you are a user of the affected product. Publicly disclosed computer security flaws are listed in the Common Vulnerabilities a...

Update vRealize now! VMware patches critical RCE vulnerabilities

VMware has issued a security advisory for vRealize Log Insight that covers four vulnerabilities reported privately by the Zero Day Initiative ZDI. Two of these vulnerabilities are rated as critical. The issues have been fixed on vRealize Log Insight 8.10.2, so users should upgrade to the latest...

Update now—July Patch Tuesday patches include fix for exploited zero-day

It’s time to triage a lot of patching again. Microsoft’s July Patch Tuesday includes an actively exploited local privilege escalation vulnerability in the Windows Client/Server Runtime Subsystem CSRSS. This vulnerability immediately made it to the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency CI...

IoT forecast: Running antivirus on your smart device?

In 2016, threat actors pulled off a basic but devastating botnet attack that harnessed the power of the Internet of Things IoT. After gathering a list of 61 default username and password combinations for IoT devices, threat actors scanned the Internet for open Telnet ports and, when they found a...

Google reminds website owners to move to HTTPS before October deadline

With the release of Chrome v62 in less than 3 months, Google will begin marking non-HTTPS pages with text input fields—like contact forms and search bars—and all HTTP websites viewed in Incognito mode as "NOT SECURE" in the address bar. The company has started sending out warning emails to web...

What SMBs can do to protect against Log4Shell attacks

As you may already know, the business, tech, and cybersecurity industries have been buzzing about Log4Shell CVE-2021-44228, aka Logjam, the latest software flaw in an earlier version of the Apache Log4j logging utility. As the name suggests, a logger is a piece of software that logs every event...

[updated] Patch now! PrintNightmare over, MSHTML fixed, a new horror appears … OMIGOD

The September 2021 Patch Tuesday could be remembered as the final patching attempt in the PrintNightmare… nightmare. The ease with which the vulnerabilities shrugged off the August patches doesn’t look to get a rerun. So far we haven’t seen any indications that this patch is so easy to circumvent...

Falsifying and weaponizing certified PDFs

The Portable Document Format PDF file type is one of the most common file formats in use today. Its value comes from the fact that PDFs always print the same way, and that PDFs are supposed to be read-only unlike a Word document, say, which is designed to be easy to edit. This immutability can be...

Royal Mail phish deploys evasion tricks to avoid analysis

Royal Mail phish scams are still in circulation, slowly upgrading their capabilities with evasion tools deployed in far more sophisticated malware attacks. Often, the quality of sites we see varies greatly. Many fake Royal Mail pages are cookie-cutter efforts existing on borrowed time. The...

The strangest cybersecurity events of 2020: a look back

This year is finally coming to an end, and it only took us about eight consecutive months of March to get here. There is a ton to talk about, and that’s without even discussing the literal global pandemic. You see, 2020s news stories were the pressure-cooker product of mania, chaos, and the...

WhatsApp fix goes live after targeted attack on human rights lawyer

If you use WhatsApp, you’ll want to update both app and device as soon as possible due to a freshly-discovered exploit. The vulnerability was found in Google Android, Apple iOS, and Microsoft Windows Phone builds of the app. Unlike many mobile attacks, potential victims aren’t required to install...

Magniber ransomware: exclusively for South Koreans

The Magnitude exploit kit has been pretty consistent over the last few months, dropping the same payload—namely, the Cerber ransomware—and targeting a few select countries in Asia. Strangely, Magnitude EK disappeared in late September, and for a while we wondered whether this was yet another...

The Hidden Bee infection chain, part 1: the stegano pack

About a year ago, we described the Hidden Bee miner delivered by the Underminer Exploit Kit. Hidden Bee has a complex and multi-layered internal structure that is unusual among cybercrime toolkits, making it an interesting phenomenon on the threat landscape. That's why we're dedicating a series o...

New Mac ransomware spreading through piracy

Editor’s note: The original name for the malware, EvilQuest, has been changed due to a legitimate game of the same name from 2012. The new name, ThiefQuest, is also more fitting for our updated understanding of the malware. A Twitter user going by the handle @beatsballert messaged me yesterday...

Cybersecurity for journalists: How to defeat threat actors and defend freedom of the press

When you’re a journalist or work for the press, there may be times when you need to take extra cybersecurity precautions—more so than your Average Joe. Whether a reporter is trying to crowd-source information without revealing their story or operating in a country where freedom of the press is a...

RMM software: What is it and do you need it?

As cybersecurity products evolve to better protect against new forms of malware, trickier evasion techniques, and more organized cybercrime campaigns, the practice of cybersecurity evolves, too, providing simple, streamlined methods to manage hundreds of endpoints through one tool: RMM software...

Update Android now! Two critical vulnerabilities patched

The March security updates for Android include fixes for two critical remote code execution RCE vulnerabilities impacting Android systems running versions 11, 12, 12L, and 13. Users should update as soon as they can. The March 2023 Android Security Bulletin contains the details of the security...

Update now! October patch Tuesday fixes actively used zero-day...but not the one you expected

Microsoft fixed 84 vulnerabilities in its October 2022 Patch Tuesday updates. Thirteen of them received the classification 'Critical'. Among them are a zero-day vulnerability that's being actively exploited, and another that hasnt been spotted in the wild yet. The bad news is that the much-desire...

Steam users: Don’t fall for the “I accidentally reported you” scam

Suppose that, out of the blue, a Steam user tells you theyve accidentally reported you for something you didn’t do, like making an illegal purchase, and that your Steam account is going to be suspended. They ask you to message a Steam admin, whose profile they kindly provide, to help you sort out...

Update now! Chrome patches zero-day that was exploited in the wild

A Chrome patch has been issued with an advisory stating that the Stable channel has been updated to 88.0.4324.150 for Windows, Mac and Linux. The only noteworthy thing about this update is a patch for a zero-day vulnerability that has been actively exploited in the wild. But that one looks to be...

Video game portrayals of hacking: NITE Team 4

Note: The developers of NITE Team 4 granted the blog author access to the game plus DLC content. A little while ago, an online acquaintance of mine asked if a new video game based on hacking called NITE Team 4 was in any way realistic, or “doable” in terms of the types of hacking it portrayed...

Plugin vulnerabilities exploited in traffic monetization schemes

In their Website Hack Trend Report, web security company Sucuri noted that WordPress infections rose to 90 percent in 2018. One aspect of Content Management System CMS infections that is sometimes overlooked is that attackers not only go after the CMSes themselves—WordPress, Drupal, etc.—but also...

Electrum Bitcoin wallets under siege

By Adam Thomas and Jérôme Segura, with additional contributions from Vasilios Hioueras and S!Ri Since at least late December 2018, many users of the popular Electrum Bitcoin wallet have fallen victim to a series of phishing attacks, which we estimate netted crooks well over 771 Bitcoins—an amount...

Zero-day vulnerabilities in Chrome and Android exploited by commercial spyware

The Google Threat Analysis Group TAG has revealed that of the nine zero-day vulnerabilities affecting Chrome, Android, Apple and Microsoft that it reported in 2021, five were in use by a single commercial surveillance company. Did I hear someone say Pegasus? An educated guess, but wrong in this...

Cisco Small Business routers vulnerable to remote attacks, won’t get a patch

In a security advisory, Cisco has informed users that a vulnerability in the Universal Plug-and-Play UPnP service of Cisco Small Business RV110W, RV130, RV130W, and RV215W routers could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to execute arbitrary code or cause an affected device to restart...

Godfather Android banking malware is on the rise

Researchers at Cyble Research & Intelligence Labs CRIL have found a new version of the Android banking Trojan called Godfather. The new version of Godfather uses an icon and name similar to a legitimate application named MYT Music, which is hosted on the Google Play Store with over 10 million...

Realtek-based routers, smart devices are being gobbled up by a voracious botnet

A few weeks ago we blogged about a vulnerability in home routers that was weaponized by the Mirai botnet just two days after disclosure. Mirai hoovers up vulnerable Internet of Things IoT devices and adds them to its network of zombie devices, which can then be used to launch huge Distributed...

How to send an anonymous email

Sometimes readers ask us how to send an anonymous email or how criminals and scammers manage to send anonymous emails. Since this is not an easy question to answer, because, for starters, there are several ways to interpret the question, I’ll try to give you some information here. Interpret the...

Threat spotlight: DarkSide, the ransomware used in the Colonial Pipeline attack

Late last week, the business network systems of Colonial Pipeline, the biggest supplier of fuels on the East Coast of the United States, were compromised due to a ransomware attack, forcing the company to temporarily shut down its operations while investigations are underway. Monday morning,...

A week in security (July 1 – 7)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we explained what to do when you find stalkerware, how cooperating apps and automatic permissions are setting you up for failure, and why you should steer clear of Bitcoin Cash generators. Other cybersecurity news: A former Chief Information Officer CIO of Equifax...

Iranian hacking group uses compromised email accounts to distribute MSP remote access tool

Researchers have uncovered a new campaign by hacking group MuddyWater, aka Static Kitten, in which a legitimate remote access tool is sent to targets from a compromised email account. The targets in this campaign are reportedly in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Oman, Qatar,...

Update now! Apple patches two zero-day vulnerabilities that may have been actively exploited

Apple has released security updates for macOS Monterey 12.3.1, iOS 15.4.1, iPadOS 15.4.1, tvOS 15.4.1, and watchOS 8.5.1. The update patches two vulnerabilities about which the advisory states that Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited for both vulnerabilitie...

The Malwarebytes 2021 State of Malware report: Lock and Code S02E04

This week on Lock and Code, we discuss the top security headlines generated right here on Labs. In addition, we tune in to a special presentation from Adam Kujawa about the 2021 State of Malware report, which analyzed the top cybercrime goals of 2020 amidst the global pandemic. If you just pay...

Skimmer acts as payment service provider via rogue iframe

Criminals continue to target online stores to steal payment details from unaware customers at a rapid pace. There are many different ways to go about it, from hacking the shopping site itself, to compromising its supply-chain. A number of online merchants externalize the payment process to a...

New Flash Player zero-day comes inside Office document

Update 2018-02-06: Adobe has released a patch for this vulnerability. More information is available here. We tested this zero-day with a proof-of concept that was made available. Rather than launching it from within Office, we turned it into a drive-by download attack. The animation below shows...

Software renewal scammers unmasked

Weve been tracking a fraudulent scheme involving renewal notifications for several months now. It came to our attention because the Malwarebytes brand as well as other popular names were being used to send fake invoices via email. The concept is simple but effective. You receive an invoice for a...

How to solve the Malwarebytes CrackMe: a step-by-step tutorial

The topic of this post is a Malwarebytes CrackMe—an exercise in malware analysis that I recently created. First, the challenge was created to serve internal purposes, but then it was released to the community on Twitter and triggered a lot of positive response. Thanks to all of you who sent in yo...