Android phones can be taken over remotely – update when you can

Android phones are vulnerable to attacks that could allow someone to takeover a device remotely without the device owner needing to do anything. Updates for these vulnerabilities and more are included in Googles Android security bulletin for December. In total, there are patches for 94...

Critical WhatsApp vulnerabilities patched: Check you've updated!

WhatsApp has fixed two remote code execution vulnerabilities in its September update, according to its security advisory. These could have allowed an attacker to remotely access a device and execute commands from afar. These versions of WhatsApp are affected by at least one of the vulnerabilities...

The fake Elon Musk Bitcoin giveaway marathon will NOT make you rich

Today we look at a fakeout which begins with Elon Musk, and ends with a trip to Mars or, if youre really lucky, the Sun. One of the most annoying “features” of Twitter is being added to lists without permission. Its a theoretically useful way to keep track of certain topics. It’s often also used...

Patch now! Microsoft fixes 71 Windows vulnerabilities in October Patch Tuesday

Yesterday we told you about Apple’s latest patches. Today we turn to Microsoft and its Patch Tuesday. Microsoft tends to provide a lot of information around its patches and, so, theres a lot to digest and piece together to give you an overview of the most important ones. In total, Microsoft has...

Securing the managed service provider (MSP)

Managed service providers MSPs have been a boon to midsize enterprise. They allow for offloading technical debt to an agent with the skills and resources to manage it, thereby giving an organization room to focus on growing a business, rather than the particulars of infrastructure. For a long...

How to browse the Internet safely at work

This Safer Internet Day, we teamed up with ethical hacking and web application security company Detectify to provide security tips for both workplace Internet users and web developers. This article is aimed at employees of all levels. If you’re a programmer looking to create secure websites, visi...

4 steps for improving employee trust while securing them

Earlier this month we held our quarterly Cybercrime Tactics and Techniques Q2 2017 webinar. This event gave thousands of security practitioners and leaders a chance to learn about the latest analysis of threats Malwarebytes Labs has seen around the globe. In case you missed it, you can watch an...

Microsoft fixes six critical vulnerabilities in June Patch Tuesday

Its that time of the month again: We're looking at June's Patch Tuesday roundup. Microsoft has released its monthly update, and compared to previous months, its actually not so bad. No actively exploited zero-days and only six critical vulnerabilities. So, well have the luxury of going over those...

VMware patches critical vulnerabilities in Aria Operations for Networks

VMware has released security updates to fix three vulnerabilities in Aria Operations for Networks which could result in information disclosure and remote code execution. The vulnerabilities were found in Aria Operations for Networks which was formerly known as vRealize Network Insight. Users of...

Samba patches critical vulnerability that allows remote code execution as root

Samba developers have patched a vulnerability that allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code as root on affected Samba installations that use the VFS module vfsfruit. Samba is a free software re-implementation of the SMB networking protocol that provides file and print services for variou...

Assessing the security of a portable router: a look inside its hardware, part deux

In part two of our blog assessing the security of a portable router, we will acquire the tools and equipment to make a copy of the firmware on our target router so that we can assess the full firmware. Sometimes, the manufacturer has an updated firmware that is available on their website. It coul...

New LNK attack tied to Higaisa APT discovered

This post was authored by Hossein Jazi and Jérôme Segura On May 29th, we identified an attack that we believe is part of a new campaign from an Advanced Persistent Threat actor known as Higaisa. The Higaisa APT is believed to be tied to the Korean peninsula, and was first disclosed by Tencent...

Trojans, ransomware dominate 2018–2019 education threat landscape

Heading into the new school year, we know educational institutions have a lot to worry about. Teacher assignments. Syllabus development. Gathering supplies. Readying classrooms. But one issue should be worrying school administrators and boards of education more than most: securing their networks...

MegaCortex continues trend of targeted ransomware attacks

MegaCortex is a relatively new ransomware family that continues the 2019 trend of threat actors developing ransomware specifically for targeted attacks on enterprises. While GandCrab apparently shut its doors, several other bespoke, artisanal ransomware families have taken its place, including...

BackupBuddy WordPress plugin vulnerable to exploitation, update now!

Users of WordPress may need to perform an urgent update related to the popular BackupBuddy plugin. BackupBuddy is a plugin which offers backup solutions designed to combat "hacks, malware, user error, deleted files, and running bad commands". Unfortunately, running an older version of BackupBuddy...

Update now! Zyxel patches critical firewall bypass vulnerability

In a security advisory Zyxel has urged customers to update because a security flaw can lead to the circumvention of firewall protection in several Zyxel products. Zyxel is a Taiwanese producer of modems and other networking equipment and its products are sold in over 150 countries. The...

Spectre attacks come back from the dead

Spectre is the name for a whole class of vulnerabilities discovered in January 2018 that affected huge numbers of modern computer processors that rely on a performance feature called speculative execution. Since then, some of the world’s most talented computer scientists from industry and academi...

Smart cities, difficult choices: privacy and security on the grid

All is not well in the land of smart city planning, as the latest major planned development from Google's sister company Sidewalk Labs continues to run into problems in Toronto, Canada. A groundswell of support? Building a city “From the ground up” is apparently no longer a thing: at least some...

A week in security (June 10 – 16)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we revealed to readers the mindset of security pros as to why they lack confidence in their ability to prevent their organizations getting breached. We also reported on Maine Governor Janet Mills implementing the state’s own privacy protections, how Apple can bette...

Update now! Microsoft patches two zero-days

The Microsoft September 2022 Patch Tuesday includes fixes for two publicly disclosed zero-day vulnerabilities, one of which is known to be actively exploited. Five of the 60+ security vulnerabilities were rated as "Critical", and 57 as important. Two vulnerabilities qualify as zero-days, with one...

Patch vCenter Server “right now”, VMWare expects CVE-2021-22005 exploitation within minutes of disclosure

VMware is urging users of vCenter server to patch no fewer than 19 problems affecting its products. These updates fix a variety of security vulnerabilities, but and one of them is particularly nasty. That would be CVE-2021-22005, a critical file upload vulnerability with a CVSS score of 9.8 out o...

A deep dive into Phobos ransomware

Phobos ransomware appeared at the beginning of 2019. It has been noted that this new strain of ransomware is strongly based on the previously known family: Dharma a.k.a. CrySis, and probably distributed by the same group as Dharma. While attribution is by no means conclusive, you can read more...

Everybody and their mother is blocking ads, so why aren’t you?

This post may ruffle a few feathers. But we’re not here to offer advice to publishers on how to best generate revenue for their brand. Rather, we’re here to offer the best advice on how to maintain a safe and secure environment. If you’re not blocking advertisements on your PC and mobile device,...

A WhatsApp bug lets malicious media files spread through group chats

WhatsApp is going through a rough patch. Some users would argue it has been ever since Meta acquired the once widely trusted messaging platform. User sentiment has shifted from “trusted default messenger” to a grudgingly necessary Meta product. Privacy-aware users still see WhatsApp as one of the...

Microsoft patches bug that could have allowed an attacker to revert your computer back to an older, vulnerable version

Microsoft has released a patch for a bug for a "downgrade attack" that was recently revealed by researchers at security conferences Black Hat and Def Con. What does that mean in layman terms? You: Let me check whether my system is fully updated Windows: Sure, all’s well Attacker: Chuckles and...

Google reveals 18 chip vulnerabilities threatening mobile, wearables, vehicles

Googles Project Zero is warning of multiple significant vulnerabilities found across many models of mobile devices including Samsung Galaxy, Google Pixel, Vivo, and several forms of wearable and vehicles using certain types of components. Between late 2022 and early 2023, Project Zero reported 18...

This Steam phish baits you with free Discord Nitro

Weeks ago, we talked about the one effective lure that could get a Discord user to consider clicking on a scam link they were generously given, either by a random user or a legitimate contact who also happened to have fallen for the same ploy: free Discord Nitro subscriptions. And similar to how...

New social engineering toolkit draws inspiration from previous web campaigns

Some of the most common web threats we track have a social engineering component. Perhaps the more popular ones are those encountered via malvertising, or hacked websites that push fraudulent updates. We recently identified a website compromise with a scheme we had not seen before; it's part of a...

Say hello to Baldr, a new stealer on the market

By William Tsing, Vasilios Hioureas, and Jérôme Segura Over the past few months, we have noticed increased activity and development of new stealers. Unlike many banking Trojans that wait for the victim to log into their bank's website, stealers typically operate in grab-and-go mode. This means th...

Browlock flies under the radar with complete obfuscation

Browlocks are the main driving force behind tech support scams, using a combination of malvertising and clever browser locker tricks to fool users. In fact, the effects can be so convincing that people call the rogue Microsoft support number for help because they believe their computer has been...

A week in security (August 27 – September 2)

Last week, we looked at dubious antics in mobile land, a peculiar case of spam on the official Cardi B website, and we deep dived into fileless malware. We also explored the inner workings of Hidden Bee, and gave an explainer of Regex. Other cybersecurity news: Huge data breach affects Chinese...

Insights into your unpatched vulnerabilities

Every day, nearly 70 brand-new vulnerabilities are discovered in software products around the world. That’s almost 25,550 new problems each year, of which roughly 4,250 or every one-in-six will be classified as “critical.” But with little guidance beyond “critical” classifications—and with the...

MOVEit discloses THIRD critical vulnerability

In chess, the threefold repetition rule states that a player may claim a draw if the same position occurs three times during the game. Whether this means that customers of the popular file transfer utility MOVEit Transfer can ask for their money back remains to be seen, but we do hope it signals...

Update now! Google releases emergency patch for Chrome zero-day used in the wild

Google has urged its 3 billion+ users to update to Chrome version 99.0.4844.84 for Mac, Windows, and Linux to mitigate a zero-day that is currently being exploited in the wild. This is in response to a bug reported by an anonymous security researcher last week. The flaw, which is tracked as...

Is it game over for VR advergaming?

We’ve been warning about advergaming—the combination of virtual reality VR and ads—for years on the Labs Blog. I’ve given a few talks on the subject too, and how ad networks will slowly work their way into enclosed spaces formerly reserved for your head. They still might, but thanks to a recent...

EternalPetya – yet another stolen piece in the package?

Since June 27th we have been investigating the outbreak of the new Petya-like malware armed with an infector similar to WannaCry. Since day one, various contradicting theories started popping up. Some believed that this malware is a rip-off of the original Petya, while others think that it is...

Update your OptinMonster WordPress plugin immediately

WordPress, the incredibly popular content management platform, is currently dealing with a nasty plugin bug which allows redirects. What is a WordPress plugin? Like most blogging platforms, WordPress allows you to change up its default functionality. This is done by adding bits of kit called...

Business in the front, party in the back: backdoors in elastic servers expose private data

It seems like every day we read another article about a data breach or leak of cloud storage exposing millions of users' data. The unfortunate truth is that the majority of these leaks require no actual "hacking" on the part of the attacker. Most of the time, this highly confidential data is just...

Apple iOS 13 will better protect user privacy, but more could be done

Last week, Apple introduced several new privacy features to its latest mobile operating system, iOS 13. The Internet, predictably, expressed doubt, questioning Apple’s oversized influence, its exclusive pricing model that puts privacy out of reach for anyone who can’t drop hundreds of dollars on ...

New critical vulnerability discovered in open-source office suites

A great number of attack techniques these days are using Microsoft Office documents to distribute malware. In recent years, there has been serious development on document exploit kit builders, not to mention the myriad of tricks that red-teamers have come up with to bypass security solutions. In...

Assessing the security of a portable router: a look inside its hardware

Network administrators should perform security assessments of hardware that they will provide their users, or particularly paranoid users might want to poke at their devices just to be extra sure. In this blog post, we will demonstrate the techniques used to assess security on a generic portable...

Malicious gaming extensions: a child’s play to infection

Did you ever lend your laptop to a child to play a video game, only to get it back filled with advertisements? Our CEO knows a little bit about that predicament, having unknowingly infected his parents' computer when he was a kid. But times have changed since then. Let us play for you a modern-da...

A week in security (July 03 – July 09)

Last week, we released our second quarter Cybercrime Tactics & Techniques report, where we revealed that ransomware outbreaks were dominant during this quarter. You can read the full report on the post below: Report: Second quarter dominated by ransomware outbreaks Our researchers continue to sha...

700+ education and tech websites hijacked in huge ClickFix malware campaign

Attackers are abusing a critical Ghost Content Management System CMS vulnerability to hijack more than 700 legitimate websites and inject a fake Cloudflare verification step that tricks visitors into running a Windows command that installs malware. These social engineering campaigns—where website...

Update now! Microsoft patches 3 actively exploited zero-days

Another important update round for this months Patch Tuesday. Microsoft has patched a total of 63 vulnerabilities in its operating systems. Five of these vulnerabilities qualify as zero-days, with three listed as being actively exploited. Microsoft considers a vulnerability to be a zero-day if it...

Update now! Apple patches a raft of vulnerabilities

Apple has released security updates for its phones, iPads, Macs, watches and TVs. Updates are available for these products: iPhone XS and later, iPad Pro 12.9-inch 2nd generation and later, iPad Pro 10.5-inch, iPad Pro 11-inch 1st generation and later, iPad Air 3rd generation and later, iPad 6th...

Update now! Patch Tuesday January 2023 includes one actively exploited vulnerability

The first Microsoft Patch Tuesday of 2023 is an important one to start of the year with. In total 98 vulnerabilities were patched, including 11 that were labelled critical and one that is being actively exploited in the wild. This is also the last time we expect to see fixes for Windows 8.1...

Exploits and TrickBot disrupt manufacturing operations

September 2021 saw a huge spike of exploit detections against the manufacturing industry, with a distributed spread between California, Florida, Ohio, and Missouri. This is combined with heavy detections of unseen malware, identified through our AI engine, spiking in May as well as September 2021...

CISA Log4Shell warning: Patch VMware Horizon installations immediately

CISA and the United States Coast Guard Cyber Command CGCYBER are warning that the threat of Log4Shell hasnt gone away. Its being actively exploited and used to target organisations using VMware Horizon and Unified Access Gateway servers. Log4Shell: what is it? Log4Shell was a zero-day vulnerabili...

Another one bites the dust: Avaddon ransomware group shuts down operation

Are you seeing some pattern here? In what could be a called "shocking news" on Friday, BleepingComputer revealed that the gang behind the Avaddon ransomware shut down its operations after releasing more than 2,000 decryption keys to the technology news site. BleepingComputer claimed they received...