1012 matches found
Assessing the Y, and How, of the XZ Utils incident
High-end APT groups perform highly interesting social engineering campaigns in order to penetrate well-protected targets. For example, carefully constructed forum responses on precision targeted accounts and follow-up "out-of-band" interactions regarding underground rail system simulator software...
ToddyCat is making holes in your infrastructure
We continue covering the activities of the APT group ToddyCat. In our previous article, we described tools for collecting and exfiltrating files LoFiSe and PcExter. This time, we have investigated how attackers obtain constant access to compromised infrastructure, what information on the hosts th...
DuneQuixote campaign targets Middle Eastern entities with “CR4T” malware
Introduction In February 2024, we discovered a new malware campaign targeting government entities in the Middle East. We dubbed it "DuneQuixote"; and our investigation uncovered over 30 DuneQuixote dropper samples actively employed in the campaign. These droppers, which exist in two versions –...
SoumniBot: the new Android banker’s unique techniques
The creators of widespread malware programs often employ various tools that hinder code detection and analysis, and Android malware is no exception. As an example of this, droppers, such as Badpack and Hqwar, designed for stealthily delivering Trojan bankers or spyware to smartphones, are very...
Using the LockBit builder to generate targeted ransomware
The previous Kaspersky research focused on a detailed analysis of the LockBit 3.0 builder leaked in 2022. Since then, attackers have been able to generate customized versions of the threat according to their needs. This opens up numerous possibilities for malicious actors to make their attacks mo...
XZ backdoor story – Initial analysis
On March 29, 2024, a single message on the Openwall OSS-security mailing list marked an important discovery for the information security, open source and Linux communities: the discovery of a malicious backdoor in XZ. XZ is a compression utility integrated into many popular distributions of Linux...
DinodasRAT Linux implant targeting entities worldwide
DinodasRAT, also known as XDealer, is a multi-platform backdoor written in C++ that offers a range of capabilities. This RAT allows the malicious actor to surveil and harvest sensitive data from a targets computer. A Windows version of this RAT was used in attacks against government entities in...
Android malware, Android malware and more Android malware
Introduction Malware for mobile devices is something we come across very often. In 2023, our technologies blocked 33.8 million malware, adware, and riskware attacks on mobile devices. One of 2023s most resonant attacks was Operation Triangulation, targeting iOS, but that was rather a unique case...
Threat landscape for industrial automation systems. H2 2023
Global statistics across all threats In the second half of 2023, the percentage of ICS computers on which malicious objects were blocked decreased by 2.1 pp to 31.9%. Percentage of ICS computers on which malicious objects were blocked, by half year Selected industries In H2 2023, building...
A patched Windows attack surface is still exploitable
On August 8, 2023, Microsoft finally released a kernel patch for a class of vulnerabilities affecting Microsoft Windows since 2015. The vulnerabilities lead to elevation of privilege EoP, which allows an account with user rights to gain SYSTEM privileges on a vulnerable host. The root cause of th...
What’s in your notepad? Infected text editors target Chinese users
"Malvertising" is a popular way of attracting victims to malicious sites: an advertisement block is placed at the top of the search results, increasing the likelihood of users clicking the link. Sites at the top of search results also tend to be more trusted by users. A year ago, our experts...
The State of Stalkerware in 2023–2024
The State of Stalkerware in 2023 PDF The annual Kaspersky State of Stalkerware report aims to contribute to awareness and a better understanding of how people around the world are impacted by digital stalking. Stalkerware is commercially available software that can be discreetly installed on...
Top 10 web application vulnerabilities in 2021–2023
To help companies with navigating the world of web application vulnerabilities and securing their own web applications, the Open Web Application Security Project OWASP online community created the OWASP Top Ten. As we followed their rankings, we noticed that the way we ranked major vulnerabilitie...
Spam and phishing in 2023
The year in figures 45.60% of all email sent worldwide and 46.59% of all email sent in the Runet the Russian web segment was spam 31.45% of all spam email was sent from Russia Kaspersky Mail Anti-Virus blocked 135,980,457 malicious email attachments Our Anti-Phishing system thwarted 709,590,011...
Network tunneling with… QEMU?
Cyberattackers tend to give preference to legitimate tools when taking various attack steps, as these help them evade detection systems while keeping malware development costs down to a minimum. Network scanning, capturing a process memory dump, exfiltrating data, running files remotely, and even...
An educational robot security research
In the modern world, we are surrounded by a multitude of smart devices that simplify our daily lives: smart speakers, robotic vacuum cleaners, automatic pet feeders and even entire smart homes. Toy manufacturers are striving to keep up with these trends, releasing more and more models that can al...
The mobile malware threat landscape in 2023
The figures above are based on detection statistics received from Kaspersky users who consented to sharing usage data with Kaspersky Security Network. The data for years preceding 2023 may differ from that published previously, as the calculation methodology was refined, and the data was...
Coyote: A multi-stage banking Trojan abusing the Squirrel installer
The developers of banking Trojan malware are constantly looking for inventive ways to distribute theirs implants and infect victims. In a recent investigation, we encountered a new malware that specifically targets users of more than 60 banking institutions, mainly from Brazil. What caught our...
ICS and OT threat predictions for 2024
We do not expect rapid changes in the industrial cyberthreat landscape in 2024. Most of the below-described trends have been observed before, many for some years. However, some of them have reached a critical mass of creeping changes, which could lead to a qualitative shift in the threat landscap...
Privacy predictions for 2024
In our previous privacy predictions piece, we outlined trends for 2023. As expected, there was a notable increase in the adoption of digital IDs to replace paper documents. For example, California expanded a pilot program for digital drivers licenses, and Russia introduced laws enabling...
Cracked software beats gold: new macOS backdoor stealing cryptowallets
A month ago, we discovered some cracked apps circulating on pirating websites and infected with a Trojan proxy. The malicious actors repackaged pre-cracked applications as PKG files with an embedded Trojan proxy and a post-install script initiating the infection. We recently caught sight of a new...
Dark web threats and dark market predictions for 2024
An overview of last years predictions 1. Increase in personal data leaks; corporate email at risk A data leakage is a broad term encompassing various types of information that become publicly available, or published for sale on the dark web or other shadow web sites. Leaked information may includ...
A lightweight method to detect potential iOS malware
Introduction In the ever-evolving landscape of mobile security, hunting for malware in the iOS ecosystem is akin to navigating a labyrinth with invisible walls. Imagine having a digital compass that not only guides you through this maze, but also reveals the hidden mechanisms of iOS malware...
Operation Triangulation: The last (hardware) mystery
Today, on December 27, 2023, we Boris Larin, Leonid Bezvershenko, and Georgy Kucherin delivered a presentation, titled, "Operation Triangulation: What You Get When Attack iPhones of Researchers", at the 37th Chaos Communication Congress 37C3, held at Congress Center Hamburg. The presentation...
Windows CLFS and five exploits used by ransomware operators (Exploit #4 – CVE-2023-23376)
This is part five of our study about the Common Log File System CLFS and five vulnerabilities in this Windows OS component that have been used in ransomware attacks throughout the year. Please read the previous parts first if you havent already. You can skip to the other parts using this table of...
Windows CLFS and five exploits used by ransomware operators (Exploit #3 – October 2022)
This is part four of our study about the Common Log File System CLFS and five vulnerabilities in this Windows OS component that have been used in ransomware attacks throughout the year. Please read the previous parts first if you havent already. You can skip to the other parts using this table of...
Windows CLFS and five exploits used by ransomware operators (Exploit #2 – September 2022)
This is the third part of our study about the Common Log File System CLFS and five vulnerabilities in this Windows OS component that have been used in ransomware attacks throughout the year. Please read the previous parts first if you havent already. You can skip to the other parts using this tab...
Windows CLFS and five exploits used by ransomware operators
In April 2023, we published a blog post about a zero-day exploit we discovered in ransomware attacks that was patched as CVE-2023-28252 after we promptly reported it to Microsoft. In that blog post, we mentioned that the zero-day exploit we discovered was very similar to other Microsoft Windows...
Windows CLFS and five exploits used by ransomware operators (Exploit #1 – CVE-2022-24521)
This is the second part of our study about the Common Log File System CLFS and five vulnerabilities in this Windows OS component that have been used in ransomware attacks throughout the year. Please read the previous part first if you havent already. You can skip to the other parts using this tab...
Windows CLFS and five exploits used by ransomware operators (Exploit #5 – CVE-2023-28252)
This is part six of our study about the Common Log File System CLFS and five vulnerabilities in this Windows OS component that have been used in ransomware attacks throughout the year. Please read the previous parts first if you havent already. You can go to other parts using this table of...
Unveiling NKAbuse: a new multiplatform threat abusing the NKN protocol
During an incident response performed by Kasperskys Global Emergency Response Team GERT and GReAT, we uncovered a novel multiplatform threat named "NKAbuse". The malware utilizes NKN technology for data exchange between peers, functioning as a potent implant, and equipped with both flooder and...
FakeSG campaign, Akira ransomware and AMOS macOS stealer
Introduction The crimeware landscape is diverse. Cybercriminals try to capitalize on their victims in every possible way by distributing various types of malware designed for different platforms. In recent months, we have written private reports on a wide range of topics, such as new cross-platfo...
What to do if your company was mentioned on Darknet?
Every year is abundant with major data leaks, biggest data breaches and hacks drawing massive media attention such as Medibank and Optus data breach, Twitter data breach, and Uber and Rockstar compromise in 2022 and in T-Mobile, MailChimp and OpenAI in 2023. But are we really conscious of the tru...
Story of the year: the impact of AI on cybersecurity
In the whirlwind of technological advancements and societal transformations, the term "AI" has undoubtedly etched itself into the forefront of global discourse. Over the past twelve months, this abbreviation has resonated across innumerable headlines, business surveys and tech reports, firmly...
New macOS Trojan-Proxy piggybacking on cracked software
Illegally distributed software historically has served as a way to sneak malware onto victims devices. Oftentimes, users are not willing to pay for software tools they need, so they go searching the Web for a "free lunch". They are an excellent target for cybercriminals who realize that an...
BlueNoroff: new Trojan attacking macOS users
We recently discovered a new variety of malicious loader that targets macOS, presumably linked to the BlueNoroff APT gang and its ongoing campaign known as RustBucket. The threat actor is known to attack financial organizations, particularly companies, whose activity is in any way related to...
Kaspersky Security Bulletin 2023. Statistics
All statistics in this report come from the Kaspersky Security Network KSN global cloud service, which receives information from components in our security solutions. The data was obtained from users who had given their consent to it being sent to KSN. Millions of Kaspersky users around the globe...
IT threat evolution in Q3 2023. Mobile statistics
IT threat evolution in Q3 2023 IT threat evolution in Q3 2023. Non-mobile statistics IT threat evolution in Q3 2023. Mobile statistics These statistics are based on detection verdicts of Kaspersky products received from users who consented to providing statistical data. Quarterly figures Accordin...
IT threat evolution Q3 2023
IT threat evolution in Q3 2023 IT threat evolution in Q3 2023. Non-mobile statistics IT threat evolution in Q3 2023. Mobile statistics Targeted attacks Unknown threat actor targets power generator with DroxiDat and Cobalt Strike Earlier this year, we reported on a new variant of SystemBC called...
IT threat evolution in Q3 2023. Non-mobile statistics
IT threat evolution in Q3 2023 IT threat evolution in Q3 2023. Non-mobile statistics IT threat evolution in Q3 2023. Mobile statistics These statistics are based on detection verdicts of Kaspersky products and services received from users who consented to providing statistical data. Quarterly...
Consumer cyberthreats: predictions for 2024
In our previous summary of consumer predictions, we delved into tactics that we expected scammers and cybercriminals to use in 2023. As anticipated, they capitalized on major events and cultural crazes, using tricks that ranged from fake Barbie doll deals to exploiting the buzz around long-awaite...
HrServ – Previously unknown web shell used in APT attack
Introduction In the course of our routine investigation, we discovered a DLL file, identified as hrserv.dll, which is a previously unknown web shell exhibiting sophisticated features such as custom encoding methods for client communication and in-memory execution. Our analysis of the sample led t...
Crimeware and financial cyberthreats in 2024
At Kaspersky, we constantly monitor the financial cyberthreat landscape, which includes threats to financial institutions, such as banks, and financially motivated threats, such as ransomware, that target a broader range of industries. As part of our Kaspersky Security Bulletin, we try to predict...
The dark side of Black Friday: decoding cyberthreats around the year’s biggest shopping season
As the annual Black Friday approaches, the digital landscape experiences an unprecedented surge in e-commerce and online shopping activity. Major sales aside, e-commerce is still a huge market. In 2022, global e-commerce retail revenue was estimated to reach $5.7 trillion worldwide, marking nearl...
Advanced threat predictions for 2024
Advanced persistent threats APTs are the most dangerous threats, as they employ complex tools and techniques, and often are highly targeted and hard to detect. Amid the global crisis and escalating geopolitical confrontations, these sophisticated cyberattacks are even more dangerous, as there is...
Ducktail fashion week
Ducktail is a malware family that has been active since the second half of 2021 and aims to steal Facebook business accounts. WithSecure and GridinSoft have covered Ducktail attacks: the infostealer spread under the guise of documents relating to well-known companies and brands projects and...
Modern Asian APT groups’ tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs)
Almost every quarter, someone publishes major research focusing on campaigns or incidents that involve Asian APT groups. These campaigns and incidents target various organizations from a multitude of industries. Likewise, the geographic location of victims is not limited to just one region. This...
Gaming-related cyberthreats in 2023: Minecrafters targeted the most
Introduction and trends The gaming industry continues growing. The Newzoo report for 2023 reveals that two in five — more than three billion — across the globe are gamers, which is 6.3 percent more than last year. Globally, gaming revenue amounts to an estimated US$242.39 billion, with almost hal...
WhatsApp spy mod spreads through Telegram, attacks Arabic-speaking users
It is not rare that users of popular instant messaging services find the official client apps to be lacking in functionality. To address that problem, third-party developers come up with mods that offer sought-after features besides aesthetic upgrades. Unfortunately, some of these mods contain...
A cascade of compromise: unveiling Lazarus’ new campaign
Earlier this year, a software vendor was compromised by the Lazarus malware delivered through unpatched legitimate software. Whats remarkable is that these software vulnerabilities were not new, and despite warnings and patches from the vendor, many of the vendors systems continued to use the...