Has Facebook leaked your phone number?

Unless you keep your social media at a pole’s distance, you have probably heard that an absolutely enormous dataset—containing over 500 million phone numbers—has been made public. These phone numbers have been in the hands of some cybercriminals since 2019 due to a vulnerability in Facebook that...

Has two-factor authentication been defeated? A spotlight on 2FA’s latest challenge

Multiple news reports about the defeat of two-factor authentication 2FA have been making rounds lately. In November 2018, our friends at ESET discovered a purported Android battery utility tool called “Optimization Android” from a third-party app store. This app was designed to steal money from a...

Own an older iPhone? Check you're on the latest version to avoid this bug

In December, 2022, we warned our readers about an actively exploited vulnerability in Apples WebKit. Back then we wondered why Apple specifically stated that the issue may have been actively exploited against versions of iOS released before iOS 15.1. At the time, our resident Apple expert Thomas...

Update now! Apple patches another actively used zero-day

Apple has released patches for iOS 15.3, iPadOS 15.3, and macOS Monterey 12.2 and is urging users to update. The most significant reasons are two actively exploited zero-day vulnerabilities, one of which has a publicly disclosed Proof-of-Concept PoC. Using this vulnerability, designated...

After Log4j, December’s Patch Tuesday has snuck up on us

For anyone about to sit back after checking their environment for the Log4j vulnerabilities and applying patches where needed, here are some more things that need patching. Microsoft In 2021’s final Patch Tuesday, Microsoft included a total of 67 fixes for security vulnerabilities. The total set ...

Study explores clickjacking problem across top Alexa-ranked websites

Clickjacking has been around for a long time, working hand-in-hand with the unwitting person doing the clicking to send them to parts unknown—often at the expense of site owners. Scammers achieve this by hiding the page object the victim thinks they’re clicking on under a layer or layers of...

How to block ads like a pro

In part one of this series, we had a look at a few reasons why you should be blocking online advertisements on your network and devices. From malvertising attacks and privacy-invading tracking systems to just being an outright annoyance, online ads and trackers are a nuisance that provides an...

Update your LearnPress plugins now!

Its time for a reminder to ensure all of your WordPress plugins are fully up to date or removed, if you don't need them. Bleeping Computer reports that as many as 75,000 WordPress sites may be open to several flaws in a plugin called LearnPress. Worse, the update tally for users of the plugin isn...

Update now! VMWare patches critical vulnerabilities in several products

In a new critical security advisory, VMSA-2022-0021, VMWare describes multiple vulnerabilities in several of its products, one of which has a CVSS score of 9.8. Exploiting these vulnerabilities would enable a threat actor with network access to bypass authentication and execute code remotely...

Trojan Source: Hiding malicious code in plain sight

Researchers at the University of Cambridge, UK, have released details of a cunning and insidious new class of software vulnerability that allows attackers to hide code in plain sight, within the source code of computer programs. The techniques demonstrated by the researchers could be used to pois...

SonicWall warns users to patch critical vulnerability “as soon as possible”

SonicWall has issued a security notice about its SMA 100 series of appliances. The vulnerability could potentially allow a remote unauthenticated attacker the ability to delete arbitrary files from a SMA 100 series appliance and gain administrator access to the device. SonicWall SonicWall is a...

What role does data destruction play in cybersecurity?

When organization leaders think about cybersecurity, it's usually about which tools and practices they need to add to their stack—email protection, firewalls, network and endpoint security, employee awareness training, AI and machine-learning technology—you get the idea. What's not often consider...

Research claims Google Pixel phones share 20 times more data than iPhones

If youre an Android phone user, now might be a good time to invest in a good pair of ear plugs. Fans of iPhones arent known for being shy when it comes to telling Android users that Apple products are superior, and things may be about to get worse, thanks to a new research paper pdf. Researchers ...

VMWare vulnerabilities are actively being exploited, CISA warns

The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency has issued an Emergency Directive ED 22-03 and released a Cybersecurity Advisory CSA about ongoing, and expected exploitation of multiple vulnerabilities in several VMware products. Chaining unpatched VMware vulnerabilities The title of the...

Working from home? You’re probably being spied on

One year ago, as countless employees settled into new routines for working from home WFH, a Reddit user shared a video online of a strange contraption: A wire coat hanger bent out of shape, one side gripping an external USB mouse, the other side latched onto an oscillating fan. As the fan swished...

RDP abused for DDoS attacks

We have talked about RDP many times before. It has been a popular target for brute force attacks for a long time, but attackers have now found a new way to abuse it. Remote access has become more important during the pandemic, with as many people as possible try to work from home. Which makes it...

Explained: YARA rules

YARA rules are a way of identifying malware or other files by creating rules that look for certain characteristics. YARA was originally developed by Victor Alvarez of Virustotal and is mainly used in malware research and detection. It was developed with the idea to describe patterns that identify...

Week in Security (August 7 – August 13)

Last week, we explained how security certificates work and how malware authors have used them to block security software from being downloaded and executed. We also showed how the Magnitude exploit kit is spreading a Cerber ransomware variant that uses binary padding in an attempt to get skipped,...

Knowing when it’s worth the risk: riskware explained

If there’s one thing I like more than trivia quizzes, it’s quotes. Positive, inspirational, and motivational quotes. Quotes that impart a degree of ancient wisdom, or those that make you stop and consider. Reading them melts our fears, sorrows, and feelings of inadequacy away. Some of the most...

Researchers go hunting for Netflix’s Bandersnatch

A new research paper from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras explains how popular Netflix interactive show Bandersnatch could fall victim to a side-channel attack. In 2016, Netflix began adding TLS Transport Layer Security to their video content to ensure strangers couldn’t eavesdrop on...

Spectre, Google, and the Universal Read Gadget

Spectre, a seemingly never ending menace to processors, is back in the limelight once again thanks to the Universal Read Gadget. First seen at the start of 2018, Spectre emerged alongside Meltdown as a major potential threat to people’s system security. Meltdown and Spectre Meltdown targeted Inte...

TrickBot comes with new tricks – attacking Outlook and browsing data

Last year we reported about a new modular malware using a network protocol similar to Dyreza - you can read about it here. The malware was not very stealthy and some parts were looking to be under development, but we noticed its potential and capability to be easily extended. Indeed, authors of...

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...

GoAnywhere zero-day opened door to Clop ransomware

A semi-active ransomware group has claimed it is behind a string of attacks which have taken advantage of a zero-day vulnerability in GoAywhere MFT. The Russian-linked Clop ransomware group says it was able to remotely attack private systems using exposed GoAnywhere MFT administration consoles...

Update now! Microsoft releases patches, including one for actively exploited zero-day

Microsoft has released patches for 74 security problems, including fixes for seven “critical” vulnerabilities, and an actively exploited zero-day vulnerability that affects all supported versions of Windows. First, well look at the actively exploited zero-day. Then well discuss two zero-days that...

Fake Instagram assistance apps found on Google Play are stealing passwords

We all want those Instagram likes and followers. Many apps on Google Play claim they can assist you with that effort. But what if the app that’s supposed to be helping you is also stealing your username and password? As a matter of fact, that’s exactly what we found in three fake Instagram...

Advanced tools: Process Hacker

Process Hacker is a very valuable tool for advanced users. It can help them to troubleshoot problems or learn more about specific processes that are running on a certain system. It can help identify malicious processes and tell us more about what they are trying to do. Background information...

Update now! Emergency fix for Google Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine zero-day flaw released

On Friday, December 2, Google rolled out an out-of-band patch for an actively exploited zero-day vulnerability in its V8 JavaScript engine. The flaw could allow attackers to cause a system crash or execute potentially malicious code. That means you'll want to update Chrome to patch against this...

Netflix scam warning

Always be on your toes While we are used to receiving scam attempts pretending to be from banks, online shops, credit card companies, and international courier services that does not mean all the other emails are safe. Far from it. To demonstrate this point we will show you a scam aimed at Netfli...

Inside the Kronos malware – part 1

Recently, a researcher nicknamed MalwareTech famous from stopping the WannaCry ransomware got arrested for his alleged contribution to creating the Kronos banking malware. We are still not having a clear picture whether the allegations are true or not - but let's have a look at Kronos itself...

Associated Press, ESPN, CBS among top sites serving fake virus alerts

ScamClub is a threat actor whos been involved in malvertising activities since 2018. Chances are you probably ran into one of their online scams on your mobile device. Confiant, the firm that has tracked ScamClub for years, released a comprehensive report in September while also disrupting their...

Time to uninstall! Abandoned Android apps pack a vulnerability punch

Synopsis has published an advisory warning of multiple vulnerabilities across three different Android remote mouse and keyboard apps with a combined install count of about two million. The apps are at risk from remote code execution RCE, and theres no sign of a fix coming anytime, ever. Bleeping...

SUPERNOVA malware discovered on SolarWinds Orion server

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA has reported finding the SUPERNOVA web shell collecting credentials on a SolarWinds Orion server. These observations were made during an incident response to an Advanced Persistent Threat APT actor’s year-long compromise of an enterprise...

Malwarebytes’ 2019 security predictions

Every year, we at Malwarebytes Labs like to stare into our crystal ball and foretell the future of malware. Okay, maybe we don't have a crystal ball, but we do have years and years of experience in observing trends and sensing shifts in patterns. When it comes to security, though, we can only kno...

Explained: digital forensics

What is it? Digital forensics is a modern day field of forensic science, which deals with the recovery and investigation of material found in digital devices. When needed, this is often because of a cyber crime, whether suspected or established. The most common reasons for performing digital...

Joomla! patches XSS flaws that could lead to remote code execution

On February 20, Joomla! posted details about four vulnerabilities it had fixed in its Content Management System CMS, and one in the Joomla! Framework that affects the CMS. Joomla! is an open-source CMS that’s been around since 2005, and has been one of the most popular CMS platforms by market sha...

Update now: Critical flaw in VMWare Fusion and VMWare Workstation

Four vulnerabilities in virtualisation software have been fixed by VMware, including two which were exploited at the 20223 Pwn2Own contest. Three have been given the severity rating "Important", with the last CVE-2023-20869 is classed as "Critical". Success! @starlabssg used an uninitialized...

URI spoofing flaw could phish WhatsApp, Signal, Instagram, and iMessage users

Update: We were informed by Sick Codes that, although Signal already has a fix for this URI flaw here, it hasnt been pushed out to market yet. Well further update this post once there is new development. Theres a flaw in the way many of the worlds most popular messaging and email platforms—such a...

Mobile Menace Monday: Android Trojan raises xHelper

Back in May, we classified what we believed was just another generic Android/Trojan.Dropper, and moved on. We didn’t give this particular mobile malware much thought until months later, when we started noticing it had climbed onto our top 10 list of most detected mobile malware. Henceforth, we fe...

Android vulnerabilities could allow arbitrary code execution

Several vulnerabilities have been patched in the Google Android operating system OS, the most severe of which could allow for arbitrary code execution. None of the vulnerabilities have been spotted in the wild. Operating systems contain and manage all the programs and applications that a computer...

A week in security (March 1 – 7)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, our podcast featured Eva Galperin who talked to us about defending online anonymity and speech. We wrote about how Ryuk ransomware has developed a worm-like capability, how Exchange servers are attacked by Hafnium zero-days, 21 million free VPN users’ data was...

Hat trick for Google as it patches two more zero-days in Chrome

Slightly over a week ago we advised you to update your Chrome browser. That warning came only a week or so after we advised you to update your Chrome browser. Things are getting a bit repetitive round here. Today, we are compelled to repeat that statement as Google has issued patches for two new...

Max Schrems: lawyer, regulator, international man of privacy

Almost one decade ago, disparate efforts began in the European Union to change the way the world thinks about online privacy. One effort focused on legislation, pulling together lawmakers from 28 member-states to discuss, draft, and deploy a sweeping set of provisions that, today, has altered how...

[Updated, again] Apache fixes zero-day vulnerability in HTTP Server

The Apache HTTP Server 2.4.49 is vulnerable to a flaw that allows attackers to use a path traversal attack to map URLs to files outside the expected document root. If files outside of the document root are not protected by "require all denied" these requests can succeed. This issue is known to be...

FormBook spam campaign targets citizens of Ukraine️

Our Threat Intelligence team has been closely monitoring cyber threats related to the war in Ukraine. Today, we discovered a malicious spam campaign dropping the Formbook stealer specifically targeting Ukrainians. Formbook is part of a long-running malspam operation that we observe on a regular...

VPN Android apps: What you should know

Months ago, we told readers about the importance of using a VPN on their iPhones, and while those lessons do apply to Android devices—a VPN for Android will encrypt your Android’s web activity and app traffic, and it will stop your mobile carrier from monetizing your data—Android users should...

Nextdoor neighborhood app sends letters on its users’ behalf

Dutch police departments and consumer organizations issued warnings about the use of the Nextdoor neighborhood app because people received letters yes, as in snail-mail pretending to come from someone in their neighborhood, which the alleged senders did not send or deliver. So, everyone figured...

Movie stream ebooks gun for John Wick 3 on Kindle store

We discovered a novel spam campaign over the weekend, targeting fans of John Wick on the Amazon Kindle store. The scam itself involves paying for what appears to be the upcoming third movie, turns into a bogus ebook, and goes on to hyperlink potential victims to a collection of third-party...

What’s new in TrickBot? Deobfuscating elements

Trojan.TrickBot has been present in the threat landscape from quite a while. We wrote about its first version in October 2016. From the beginning, it was a well organized modular malware, written by developers with mature skills. It is often called a banker, however its modular structure allows t...

Google Pixel: Cropped or edited images can be recovered

Most of us have a camera on us at all times, and so photo taking and image sharing has become almost ubiquitous. But when sharing an image, you want to have control over what you share. And that might lead you to crop images, or redact parts of them. Maybe you cropped out a person that didn't wan...