IDA-minsc Wins Second Place in Hex-Rays Plugins Contest

Introduction Ali Rizvi-Santiago of Cisco Talos recently tied for second place in the IDA plugin contest with a plugin named "IDA-minsc." IDA is a multi-processor disassembler and debugger created by the company Hex-Rays and this year there were a total of four winners with nine submissions total...

Beers with Talos EP 37: Snort 3 Beta Uses Multithreading. It’s Super Effective!

Beers with Talos BWT Podcast Ep. 37 is now available. Download this episode and subscribe to Beers with Talos: If iTunes and Google Play aren't your thing: www.talosintelligence.com/podcast. Ep. 37 show notes: Recorded Sept. 7, 2018 — We have Joel back this week and he is very happy to have himse...

Threat Roundup for July 20-27

Today, as we do every week, Talos is giving you a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we’ve observed this week — covering the dates between July 20 and 27. As with previous roundups, this post isn’t meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, we will summarize the threats we’ve observed by...

UAT-7237 targets Taiwanese web hosting infrastructure

Cisco Talos discovered UAT-7237, a Chinese-speaking advanced persistent threat APT group active since at least 2022, which has significant overlaps with UAT-5918. UAT-7237 conducted a recent intrusion targeting web infrastructure entities within Taiwan and relies heavily on the use of open-source...

Microsoft Patch Tuesday for February 2025 — Snort rules and prominent vulnerabilities

Microsoft has released its monthly security update for February of 2025 which includes 63 vulnerabilities affecting a range of products, including 4 that Microsoft marked as "critical" and one marked as "moderate." There are two notable "critical" vulnerabilities. The first is CVE-2025-21376, whi...

Vulnerability in Acrobat Reader could lead to remote code execution; Microsoft patches information disclosure issue in Windows API

Cisco Talos' Vulnerability Research team discovered two vulnerabilities have been disclosed and fixed over the past few weeks. Talos discovered a time-of-check time-of-use vulnerability in Adobe Acrobat Reader, one of the most popular PDF readers currently available, and an information disclosure...

DragonRank, a Chinese-speaking SEO manipulator service provider

Key Takeaways Cisco Talos is disclosing a new threat called "DragonRank" that primarily targets countries in Asia and a few in Europe, operating PlugX and BadIIS for search engine optimization SEO rank manipulation. DragonRank exploits targets' web application services to deploy a web shell and...

What’s the deal with the massive backlog of vulnerabilities at the NVD?

The National Vulnerability Database is usually the single source of truth for all things related to security vulnerabilities. But now, theyre facing an uphill battle against a massive backlog of vulnerabilities, some of which are still waiting to be analyzed, and others that still have an...

Exploring malicious Windows drivers (Part 1): Introduction to the kernel and drivers

Drivers have long been of interest to threat actors, whether they are exploiting vulnerable drivers or creating malicious ones. Malicious drivers are difficult to detect and successfully leveraging one can give an attacker full access to a system. Real-world examples can be found in our previous...

What is NIS2, and how can you best prepare for the new cybersecurity requirements in the EU?

NIS2 is a European directive that includes new measures to ensure that organizations operating in the European Union EU have a high common level of network and infrastructure security. The "directive" outlines the goals all EU member states must achieve. However, each country will implement it in...

How looking at decades of spam led Jaeson Schultz from Y2K to the metaverse and cryptocurrency

At this point in his career, Jaeson Schultz has seen nearly every type of online scam there is to see. From fake bomb threats at schools, to "sextortion" campaigns, cryptocurrency mining, metaverse and more of the 2010s, to the earliest type of spam emails in the 1990s that promised to protect...

How to instrument system applications on Android stock images

By Vitor Ventura This post is the result of research presented at Recon Montreal 2022. Two slide decks are provided along with this research . One is the presentation showing the whole process and how to do it on Google Play Protect services. The other one is a workshop on how to do it on an...

Gamaredon APT targets Ukrainian government agencies in new campaign

By Asheer Malhotra and Guilherme Venere. Cisco Talos recently identified a new, ongoing campaign attributed to the Russia-linked Gamaredon APT that infects Ukrainian users with information-stealing malware. The adversary is using phishing documents containing lures related to the Russian invasion...

Ukraine war spotlights agriculture sector's vulnerability to cyber attack

By Joe Marshall. The war in Ukraine has caused massive problems for global food supplies, underscoring the high impact of disruptive events to agriculture entities and related organizations. The challenges to the Ukrainian agriculture sector imposed by the war--and global ripple effects--have bee...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Code execution vulnerabilities in Nitro Pro PDF

A Cisco Talos team member discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Cisco Talos recently discovered multiple vulnerabilities in the Nitro Pro PDF reader that could allow an attacker to execute code in the context of the application. Nitro Pro PDF is part of Nitro Software’s... This i...

Beers with Talos, Ep. #106: Is more than executive action in order?

Beers with Talos BWT Podcast episode No. 106 is now available. Download this episode and subscribe to Beers with Talos: Apple Podcasts Google PodcastsSpotify StitcherIf iTunes and Google Play aren't your thing, click here. By Mitch Neff. Recorded May 20, 2021. Craig wins... This is only the...

Masslogger campaigns exfiltrates user credentials

By Vanja Svajcer. News summary As protection techniques develop, attackers are finding it harder to successfully attack their targets and must find creative ways to succeed. Cisco Talos recently discovered a campaign utilizing a variant of the Masslogger trojan designed to retrieve and exfiltrate...

Beers with Talos ep. #95: Election 2020 – Advice for voters and election officials

Beers with Talos BWT Podcast episode No. 95 is now available. Download this episode and subscribe to Beers with Talos:Apple Podcasts Google PodcastsSpotify StitcherIf iTunes and Google Play aren't your thing, click here. By Mitch Neff. Recorded Oct. 9, 2020 We are running a short bench today afte...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Code execution vulnerability in Google Chrome WebGL

Marcin Towalski of Cisco Talos discovered this vulnerability. Blog by Jon Munshaw. The Google Chrome web browser contains a vulnerability that could be exploited by an adversary to gain the ability to execute code on the victim machine. Chrome is one of the most popular web browsers currently...

Lemon Duck brings cryptocurrency miners back into the spotlight

By Vanja Svajcer, with contributions from Caitlin Huey. We are used to ransomware attacks and big-game hunting making headlines, but there are still methods adversaries use to monetize their efforts in less intrusive ways.Cisco Talos recently recorded increased activity of the Lemon Duck...

90 days, 16 bugs, and an Azure Sphere Challenge

Cisco Talos reports 16 vulnerabilities in Microsoft Azure Sphere's sponsored research challenge. By Claudio Bozzato, Lilith --; and Dave McDaniel. On May 15, 2020, Microsoft kicked off the Azure Sphere Security Research Challenge, a three-month initiative aimed at finding bugs in Azure Sphere...

Beers with Talos Ep. #89: What to do when you're the pwnd one

Beers with Talos BWT Podcast episode No. 89 is now available. Download this episode and subscribe to Beers with Talos:Apple Podcasts Google PodcastsSpotify StitcherIf iTunes and Google Play aren't your thing, click here. By Mitch Neff. Recorded July 17, 2020 The gang's all back this week, and we...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Multiple vulnerabilities in Siemens LOGO! PLC

Alexander Perez-Palma of Cisco Talos and Emanuel Almeida of Cisco Systems discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Cisco researchers recently discovered several vulnerabilities in the Siemens LOGO! PLC. The LOGO! allows users to control various automation projects, such as industria...

Threat Source newsletter for May 28, 2020

Newsletter compiled by Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s Threat Source newsletter — the perfect place to get caught up on all things Talos from the past week. We need to start things off by wishing a Happy Birthday to Beers with Talos! The first episode was released on May 12, 2017. To celebrat...

Beers with Talos Ep. #81: "The In-Between," Vol. 3

Beers with Talos BWT Podcast episode No. 81 is now available. Download this episode and subscribe to Beers with Talos: If iTunes and Google Play aren't your thing, click here. Recorded May 1, 2020 Sammi is back and the rest of the crew is here to hang out and chat. As is The In-Between Way — we...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Remote code execution vulnerabilities in Adobe Acrobat Reader

Aleksandar Nikolic of Cisco Talos discovered this vulnerability. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Cisco Talos recently discovered two remote code execution vulnerabilities in Adobe Acrobat Reader. Acrobat supports a number of features, including the ability to process embedded JavaScript. These flaws...

Threat Source newsletter for April 16, 2020

Newsletter compiled by Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s Threat Source newsletter — the perfect place to get caught up on all things Talos from the past week. It’s what — week 5 of this quarantine in the U.S.? Week 6? We’ve lost count. And so did the Beers with Talos guys. But lucky for you, th...

Beers with Talos Ep. #77: Quittin’ Time, Vol. 1 — Tigers and tales of the in-between

Beers with Talos BWT Podcast episode No. 77 is now available. Download this episode and subscribe to Beers with Talos: If iTunes and Google Play aren't your thing, click here. Recorded April 3, 2020 We’re kinda bored. We figured you are too. So we decided to get together between normal recordings...

Quarterly Report: Incident Response trends in fall 2019

By David Liebenberg and Kendall McKay. While many Cisco Talos Incident Response CTIR engagements have shown similar patterns over the past two quarters, we’re seeing a dangerous trend emerge this winter. Threat actors are increasingly combining the exfiltration of sensitive data along with data...

Beers with Talos Ep. #69: 2019 Threat Recap - RATs, Turtles, and Worms, Oh My!

By Mitch Neff. Beers with Talos BWT Podcast episode No. 69 is now available. Download this episode and subscribe to Beers with Talos: If iTunes and Google Play aren't your thing, click here. Recorded Dec. 20, 2019 In a shorter year-end EP, we take both a look back and a look forward. It seems...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Remote code execution vulnerability in Antenna House Rainbow PDF Office Server Document Converter

Emmanuel Tacheau of Cisco Talos discovered this vulnerability. Executive summary Antenna House Rainbow PDF Office Server Document Converter contains a heap overflow vulnerability that could allow an attacker to remotely execute code on the victim machine. Rainbow PDF is a software solution that...

Beers with Talos EP 35: Live from the RiRa at Black Hat

Beers with Talos BWT Podcast Ep. 35 is now available. Download this episode and subscribe to Beers with Talos: If iTunes and Google Play aren't your thing: www.talosintelligence.com/podcast. Ep. 35 show notes: Recorded Aug. 8, 2018 — We decided to broadcast while we were all together at Black Hat...

Threat Roundup for May 04 - 11

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between May 4 and May 11. As with previous round-ups, this post isn't meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats we've observed by highlighting key behavioral characteristics,...

Talos Quarterly Threat Briefing - Winter 2018

Date: Tuesday, February 27, 2018 Time: 1:00pm ET/10:00am PT Topic: Miners, Malspam, and Meltdowns Recording available here: Space is limited for this event, so be sure to save your spot. Following the webinar, the video will also be made available here. In this edition of the Talos Quarterly Thre...

This Holiday Season - Buy One IoT Device, Get Free CVEs

As the Internet of Things gains steam and continues to develop, so are adversaries and the threats affecting these systems. Companies throughout the world are busy deploying low cost Internet-connected computing devices aka the Internet of Things to solve business problems and improve our lives. ...

A (somewhat) complete timeline of Talos’ history

A lot has happened in Talos 10 years of existence. And to celebrate our birthday, we wanted to look back on some of the major moments in Talos history. Heres an overview of some of the major events, cyber attacks, research breakthroughs and more that truly make Talos Talos. We hope this walk down...

Unveiling SpiceRAT: SneakyChef's latest tool targeting EMEA and Asia

Cisco Talos discovered a new remote access trojan RAT dubbed SpiceRAT, used by the threat actor SneakyChef in a recent campaign targeting government agencies in EMEA and Asia. We observed that SneakyChef launched a phishing campaign, sending emails delivering SugarGh0st and SpiceRAT with the same...

DarkGate switches up its tactics with new payload, email templates

This post was authored by Kalpesh Mantri. Cisco Talos is actively tracking a recent increase in activity from malicious email campaigns containing a suspicious Microsoft Excel attachment that, when opened, infected the victims system with the DarkGate malware. These campaigns, active since the...

TikTok’s latest actions to combat misinformation shows it’s not just a U.S. problem

When we talk about the term "fake news," most people likely picture a certain person who made the term infamous. And when we talk about misinformation and disinformation, many will remember the "Russian troll farms" that popped up during the 2016 U.S. presidential election and were unmasked and...

Project PowerUp – Helping to keep the lights on in Ukraine in the face of electronic warfare

As Russias invasion of Ukraine entered its first winter in late 2022, nearly half of Ukraines energy infrastructure had been destroyed, leaving millions without power. The resulting energy deficit has exacerbated something that hasnt had much media attention: The effects of electronic GPS jammers...

Years into these games’ histories, attackers are still creating “Fortnite” and “Roblox”-related scams

Welcome to this weeks edition of the Threat Source newsletter. I have no idea how "Fortnite" keeps coming up in this newsletter, but here we are again. Even though the game/metaverse has never been bigger, it had been a while since I had heard about "V-Bucks" scams. V-Bucks are the in-game virtua...

".Zip" top-level domains draw potential for information leaks

Googles recent offering of the ".zip" top-level domain TLD has led security researchers and likely threat actors to register numerous domains for red teaming and phishing attacks, respectively, causing new challenges for organizations and cybersecurity professionals. As a result of user...

Threat Round up for February 10 to February 17

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats weve observed between Feb. 10 and Feb. 17. As with previous roundups, this post isnt meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats weve observed by highlighting key behavioral characteristics,...

Threat Roundup for October 14 to October 21

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Oct. 14 and Oct. 21. As with previous roundups, this post isn't meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats we've observed by highlighting key behavioral characteristics...

Threat Roundup for September 23 to September 30

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Sept. 23 and Sept. 30. As with previous roundups, this post isn't meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats we've observed by highlighting key behavioral...

Threat Roundup for August 19 to August 26

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Aug. 19 and Aug. 26. As with previous roundups, this post isn't meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats we've observed by highlighting key behavioral characteristics...

Talos Incident Response added to German BSI Advanced Persistent Threat response list

Cisco Talos Incident Response is now listed as an approved vendor on the Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik BSI Advanced Persistent Threat APT response service providers list. Talos Incident Response successfully demonstrated to the BSI, through a review of our processes and a...

Threat Roundup for August 13 to August 20

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Aug. 13 and Aug. 20. As with previous roundups, this post isn't meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats we've observed by highlighting key behavioral...

Threat Roundup for June 25 to July 2

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between June 25 and July 2. As with previous roundups, this post isn't meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats we've observed by highlighting key behavioral...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Remote code execution vulnerability in WebKit WebAudio API

Marcin “Icewall” Noga of Cisco Talos discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Jon Munshaw. The WebKit browser engine contains a remote code execution vulnerability in its WebAudio API interface. A malicious web page code could trigger a use-after-free error, which could lead to arbitrary code...