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...

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...

Malware analysis: decoding Emotet, part 1

Emotet Banking Trojan malware has been around for quite some time now. As such, infosec researchers have made several attempts to develop tools to de-obfuscate and even decrypt the AES-encrypted code belonging to this malware. The problem with these tools is that they target active versions of th...

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

[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...

[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...

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...

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...

Fake Flipper Zero websites look to cause a big splash

Security researchers are advised to be on the lookout for scammers targeting their interest in the latest hard to obtain security testing tools. Flipper Zero, a slick looking portable multi-tool which frequently makes its way into the news, is one of the hottest pieces of kit around for security...

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...

Safe Connections Act could help domestic abuse survivors take control of their digital lives

A bill introduced in the US Senate could help domestic abuse and sex trafficking survivors—including those tracked by stalkerware-type applications—regain digital independence through swift, shared phone plan termination and the extension of mobile phone plan subsidies. Titled the Safe Connection...

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...

All this EternalPetya stuff makes me WannaCry

Another week goes by and yet again we have another ransomware outbreak initially dropped by a malicious software update and eventually spreading within internal networks using several methods - including EternalBlue - the leaked exploit from the ShadowBrokers group. Security researchers can’t see...

Will pay-for-privacy be the new normal?

Privacy is a human right, and online privacy should be no exception. Yet, as the US considers new laws to protect individuals’ online data, at least two proposals—one statewide law that can still be amended and one federal draft bill that has yet to be introduced—include an unwelcome bargain:...

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...

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...

Warning for WordPress admins: uninstall the Modern WPBakery plugin immediately!

WordPress admins are being warned to remove a buggy plugin or risk a total site takeover. This particular threat relates to a plugin which is no longer in use: Modern WPBakery page builder addons. The vulnerability in the plugin, known as CVE-2021-24284, allows "unauthenticated arbitrary file...

Meet Extenbro, a new DNS-changer Trojan protecting adware

Recently, we uncovered a new DNS-changer called Extenbro that comes with an adware bundler. These DNS-changers block access to security-related sites, so the adware victims can’t download and install security software to get rid of the pests. From our viewpoint, this might be like sending in an...

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...

Update now! Microsoft fixes two zero-days in August's Patch Tuesday

Microsoft has published fixes for 141 separate vulnerabilities in its batch of August updates, fixing a total of 118 CVEs in multiple products. This is a new monthly record if you look at the CVE count. Publicly disclosed computer security flaws are listed in the Common Vulnerabilities and...

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...

Parental monitoring apps: How do they differ from stalkerware?

In late June, Malwarebytes revived its long-running campaign against a vicious type of malware in use today. This malware peers into text messages. It pinpoints victims’ movements across locations. It reveals browsing and search history. Often hidden from users, it removes their expectation of,...

Zoom zero-day discovery makes calls safer, hackers $200,000 richer

Two Dutch white-hat security specialists entered the annual computer hacking contest Pwn2Own, managed to find a Remote Code Execution RCE flaw in Zoom and are $200,000 USD better off than they were before. Pwn2Own Pwn2Own is a high profile event organized by the Zero Day Initiative that challenge...

Should you delete yourself from social media?

You're feeling like you've had enough. All the recent news—from Facebook's Cambridge Analytica snafu to various abuses of Twitter vulnerabilities—has you wondering: Should I delete myself from social media? Social networking does have its positive aspects. You can stay in touch with distant or no...

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...

[updated]Two new Exchange Server zero-days in the wild

Microsoft has issued some customer guidance as it investigates yes, more reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server, affecting the 2013, 2016, and 2019 versions of the software. The company says it "is aware of limited targeted attacks using the two vulnerabilities to get into users...

Thief pulls off colossal, $600m crypto-robbery …and gives the money back

The largest crypto-robbery in history is rapidly turning into the most bizarre as well. Lets start at the beginning… In an apparent scream for mercy, 21 hours ago the Poly Network Team reached out via Twitter to “hackers” that had managed to transfer roughly $600 million in digital tokens out of...

15,000 webcams vulnerable to attack: how to protect against webcam hacking

Webcams may have been around for a long time, but that doesn’t mean we know what we’re doing with them. Webcam hacking has been around for equally as long, yet new research from Wizcase indicates that more than 15,000 private, web-connected cameras are exposed and readily accessible to the genera...