New phishing-as-a-service tool “Greatness” already seen in the wild

A previously unreported phishing-as-a-service PaaS offering named "Greatness" has been used in several phishing campaigns since at least mid-2022. Greatness incorporates features seen in some of the most advanced PaaS offerings, such as multi-factor authentication MFA bypass, IP filtering and...

Emotet resumes spam operations, switches to OneNote

Emotet resumed spamming operations on March 7, 2023, after a months-long hiatus. Initially leveraging heavily padded Microsoft Word documents to attempt to evade sandbox analysis and endpoint protection, the botnets switched to distributing malicious OneNote documents on March 16. Since returning...

2022 Year in Review: Threat Landscape Livestream Replay

Did you miss our livestream covering the threat landscape section in the Cisco Talos Year in Review report? Join host Hazel Burton and special guests Caitlin Huey, Nick Biasini, and Tucker Favreau as they discuss Talos findings and experiences monitoring the threat landscape in 2022. Visit the Ye...

Quarterly Report: Incident Response Trends in Q4 2022

Syncro, a remote management and monitoring tool, emerges as an increasingly common tool for adversaries. By Caitlin Huey. Ransomware continued to be a top threat Cisco Talos Incident Response Talos IR responded to this quarter, with appearances from both previously seen and newly observed...

Talos Takes Ep. 122: Year in Review & Ukraine Activities

In this episode of Talos Takes we are joined by Kendall McKay to discuss the recently released year in review report and dig deep on our activities in Ukraine. The year in review covers a vast amount of data and intel sources to identify some of the key trends we observed in 2022. Our activities ...

Threat Source newsletter (Dec. 8, 2022): Your uncle clicked every link

Welcome to this weeks edition of the Threat Source newsletter. As we hurtle toward the end of another year I get that tightness in my chest - that feeling that I think most, if not all, Threat Source readers get at this time of year. Thats right, its once again the time of year when no matter wha...

Threat Source newsletter (Nov. 10, 2022): Vulnerability research, movies in class, and Emotet once again

Welcome to this weeks edition of the Threat Source newsletter. Tuesday was an absolute hammer for the infosec community. Not only did we have the US elections but we had Emotet returning and a regular Microsoft Tuesday release. That release always leads me to think about the bug hunting ecosystem...

Researcher Spotlight: Globetrotting with Yuri Kramarz

From the World Cup in Qatar to robotics manufacturing in east Asia, this incident responder combines experience from multiple arenas By Jon Munshaw. Yuri “Jerzy” Kramarz helped secure everything from the businesses supporting the upcoming World Cup in Qatar to the Black Hat security conference an...

MagicRAT: Lazarus’ latest gateway into victim networks

By Jung soo An, Asheer Malhotra and Vitor Ventura. Cisco Talos has discovered a new remote access trojan RAT we're calling "MagicRAT," developed and operated by the Lazarus APT group, which the U.S. government believes is a North Korean state-sponsored actor. Lazarus deployed MagicRAT after the...

TeamTNT targeting AWS, Alibaba

By Darin Smith.TeamTNT is actively modifying its scripts after they were made public by security researchers.These scripts primarily target Amazon Web Services, but can also run in on-premise, container, or other forms of Linux instances.The group's payloads include credential stealers,... This i...

Threat Source Newsletter (Nov. 18, 2021)

Newsletter compiled by Jon Munshaw.Good afternoon, Talos readers. This is our last newsletter before Thanksgiving in the U.S. next week, so now's as good of a time as any to remind you: If a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is. To prep online shoppers for the upcoming... This is only t...

Attackers use domain fronting technique to target Myanmar with Cobalt Strike

By Chetan Raghuprasad, Vanja Svajcer and Asheer Malhotra. News Summary Cisco Talos discovered a new malicious campaign using a leaked version of Cobalt Strike in September 2021. This shows that Cobalt Strike, although it was originally created as a legitimate tool, continues to be something... Th...

Cisco Talos finds 10 vulnerabilities in Azure Sphere’s Linux kernel, Security Monitor and Pluton

By Claudio Bozzato and Lilith --;. Following our previous engagements see blog posts 1, 2, 3 and 4 with Microsoft's Azure Sphere IoT platform, we decided to take another look at the device, without all the rush and commotion that normally entails a hacking challenge. Today, we’re... This is only...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Remote code execution vulnerabilities in Cosori smart air fryer

Dave McDaniel of Cisco Talos discovered this vulnerability. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Cisco Talos recently discovered two code execution vulnerabilities in the Cosori smart air fryer. The Cosori Smart Air Fryer is a WiFi-enabled kitchen appliance that cooks food with a variety of... This is only the...

Threat Roundup for April 9 to April 16

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between April 9 and April 16. 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...

Talos Takes Ep. #44: A roundtable discussion on SolarWinds

The latest episode of Talos Takes is available now. Download this episode and subscribe to Talos Takes using the buttons below, or visit the Talos Takes page. Welcome to the first-ever XL edition of Talos Takes. This one is a little longer than usual, but we promise you it’s worth it. We recently...

ObliqueRAT returns with new campaign using hijacked websites

By Asheer Malhotra. Cisco Talos has observed another malware campaign that utilizes malicious Microsoft Office documents maldocs to spread the remote access trojan RAT ObliqueRAT. This campaign targets organizations in South Asia.ObliqueRAT has been linked to the Transparent Tribe APT group in th...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Multiple vulnerabilities in SoftMaker Office PlanMaker

Discovered by a Cisco Talos researcher. Blog by Jon Munshaw. SoftMaker's Office PlanMaker contains multiple vulnerabilities that could allow an adversary to cause a variety of malicious conditions in the software. SoftMaker's flagship product, SoftMaker Office, is supported on a variety of...

Threat Source newsletter (Dec. 10, 2020)

Newsletter compiled by Jon Munshaw. Good afternoon, Talos readers. Cyber security firm FireEye recently disclosed an incident that was reported to have resulted in the inadvertent disclosure of various internally developed offensive security tools OSTs that were used across FireEye red-team...

Beers with Talos Ep. #96: The boogeyman and QR codes

Beers with Talos BWT Podcast episode No. 96 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. We got delayed with Thanksgiving and PTO, but here is a...

Cisco Talos Advisory on Adversaries Targeting the Healthcare and Public Health Sector

BackgroundCisco Talos has become aware that an adversary is leveraging Trickbot banking trojan and Ryuk ransomware to target U.S. hospitals and healthcare providers at an increasing rate. Security journalists reported on October 28, 2020 that the adversary was preparing to encrypt systems at...

Microsoft Patch Tuesday for Oct. 2020 — Snort rules and prominent vulnerabilities

By Jon Munshaw, with contributions from Alex McDonnell and Nick Biasini. Microsoft released its monthly security update Tuesday, disclosing just under 100 vulnerabilities across its array of products. Fourteen of the vulnerabilities are considered “critical" while the vast remainder are ranked as...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Remote code execution vulnerability Apple Safari

Marcin "Icewall" Noga of Cisco Talos discovered this vulnerability. Blog by Jon Munshaw. The Apple Safari web browser contains a remote code execution vulnerability in its Webkit feature. Specifically, an attacker could trigger a use-after-free condition in WebCore, the DOM-rendering system for...

Roundtable video: Disinformation and election security

By Jon Munshaw. In our continued coverage of election security, we decided to sit down with four Talos and Cisco researchers to discuss disinformation. As we outlined in our recent research paper, disinformation is one of the cornerstones of threat actors' efforts to disrupt the American election...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Use-after-free vulnerability in Google Chrome WebGL could lead to code execution

Marcin Towalski of Cisco Talos discovered this vulnerability. Blog by Jon Munshaw. The Google Chrome web browser contains a use-after-free vulnerability in its WebGL component that could allow a user to execute arbitrary code in the context of the browser process. This vulnerability specifically...

Threat Roundup for June 5 to June 12

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between June 5 and June 12. 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,...

Quarterly report: Incident Response trends in Summer 2020

By David Liebenberg and Caitlin Huey. For the fourth quarter in a row, Ryuk dominated the threat landscape in incident response. As we mentioned in last quarter’s report, Ryuk has shifted from relying on commodity trojans to using living-off-the-land tools. This has led to a decrease in...

Threat Source newsletter for May 7, 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. With all of us working from home, Beers with Talos episodes are coming out faster than ever. This week, we have an actual episode with...

Threat Roundup for April 10 to April 17

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between April 10 and April 17. 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...

Malicious MDM: Let's Hide This App

This blog post is authored by Warren Mercer and Paul Rascagneres with contributions from Nick Biasini Summary Since our initial discovery of a malicious mobile device management MDM platform that was loading fake applications onto smartphones, we have gained greater insight into the attacker's...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Computerinsel Photoline Multiple Vulnerabilities

Vulnerabilities discovered by Tyler Bohan from Talos Overview Today, Cisco Talos is disclosing several vulnerabilities in Computerinsel Photoline. Photoline is an image-processing tool used to modify and edit images, as well as other graphic-related material. This product has a sizable user base...

Vulnerability Spotlight: TALOS-2018-0523-24 - Multiple Vulnerabilities in Pixars Renderman application

Vulnerabilities discovered by Tyler Bohan from Talos Overview Talos is disclosing two denial-of-service vulnerabilities in Pixar’s Renderman application. Renderman is a rendering application used in animation and film production. It is widely used for advanced rendering and shading in many...

Threat Round Up for Feb 2 - Feb 9

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between February 2 and February 9. 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 behavior...

Threat Round Up for Oct 20 - Oct 27

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between October 20 and October 27. 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 behavior...

Threat Round-up for Aug 11 - Aug 18

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between August 11 and August 18. 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 behavior...

Beers with Talos Podcast Now Available

The first episodes of Beers with Talos are now available on iTunes and directly on talosintelligence.com/podcasts.When Talos decided to make a threat intelligence podcast, we wanted to make it different than your typical buttoned down, subdued security podcast. The BWT crew: Craig, Joel, a...

From the field to the report and back again: How incident responders can use the Year in Review

Every year, Cisco Talos publishes Year in Review, a comprehensive look at the previous year's threat landscape. It's drawn from an enormous volume of telemetry, such as endpoint detections, network traffic, email data, and boots-on-the-ground Cisco Talos Incident Response Talos IR engagements. As...

ToolShell: Details of CVEs affecting SharePoint servers

Update 2025/07/22: Microsoft has released a security update for Sharepoint Enterprise Server 2016. The update, with the ID KB5002760, is available in the following link . Cisco Talos is aware of the ongoing exploitation of CVE-2025-53770 and CVE-2025-53771 in the wild. These are path traversal...

Unwrapping the emerging Interlock ransomware attack

Cisco Talos Incident Response Talos IR recently observed an attacker conducting big-game hunting and double extortion attacks using the relatively new Interlock ransomware. Our analysis uncovered that the attacker used multiple components in the delivery chain including a Remote Access Tool RAT...

Astaroth, Mekotio & Ousaban abusing Google Cloud Run in LATAM-focused malware campaigns

Google Cloud Run is currently being abused in high-volume malware distribution campaigns, spreading several banking trojans such as Astaroth aka Guildma, Mekotio and Ousaban to targets across Latin America and Europe. The volume of emails associated with these campaigns has significantly increase...

Intellexa and Cytrox: From fixer-upper to Intel Agency-grade spyware

By Mike Gentile, Asheer Malhotra and Vitor Ventura. Editors note: This blog post is a public version of a talk presented at LabsCon 2023 on Sept. 22, 2023. You can watch a recording of the talk here. Some of the intelligence presented at LabsCon was later confirmed by an Amnesty International blo...

ICS protocol coverage using Snort 3 service inspectors

With more devices on operational technology OT networks now getting connected to wide-reaching IT networks, it is more important than ever to have effective detection capabilities for ICS protocols. However, there are a few issues that usually arise when creating detection for ICS protocol traffi...

What's in a name? Strange behaviors at top-level domains creates uncertainty in DNS

Google introduced the new ".zip" Top Level Domain TLD on May 3, 2023, igniting a firestorm of controversy as security organizations warned against the confusion that was certain to occur. When clicking on a name that ends in ".zip" are people intending to open an archive file or an internet URL?...

Threat Roundup for March 31 to April 7

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats weve observed between March 31 and April 7. 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,...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Buffer overflow vulnerability in ADMesh library

Francesco Benvenuto of Cisco Talos discovered this vulnerability. Cisco Talos recently discovered an improper array index validation vulnerability in a functionality of the ADMesh library. ADMesh is a C library used to process 3-D triangular meshes. Talos found an improper array index validation...

Threat Round up for February 17 to February 24

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats weve observed between Feb. 17 and Feb. 24. 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,...

Beyond the basics: Implementing an active defense

Active defense a key approach to protecting against major threats Having an active defense posture, where the defenders actively use threat intelligence and their own environment telemetry to uncover potential compromises, is the next stage in the cyber security maturity road. Instead of waiting...

Threat Spotlight: Cyber Criminal Adoption of IPFS for Phishing, Malware Campaigns

The InterPlanetary File System IPFS is an emerging Web3 technology that is currently seeing widespread abuse by threat actors. Cisco Talos has observed multiple ongoing campaigns that leverage the IPFS network to host their malware payloads and phishing kit infrastructure while facilitating other...

Threat Roundup for September 30 to October 7

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Sept. 30 and Oct. 7. 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 Source newsletter (Sept. 29, 2022) — Personal health apps are currently under a spotlight, but their warning signs have always been there

By Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. I’ve spent the past few months with my colleague Ashlee Benge looking at personal health apps’ privacy policies. We found several instances of apps that carry sensitive information stating they would share certain...