Threat Roundup for May 27 to June 3

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between May 27 and June 3. 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 Advisory: Atlassian Confluence zero-day vulnerability under active exploitation

Cisco Talos is monitoring reports of an actively exploited zero-day vulnerability in Confluence Data Center and Server. Confluence is a Java-based corporate Wiki employed by numerous enterprises. At this time, it is confirmed that all supported versions of Confluence are affected by this... This ...

Threat Source newsletter (June 9, 2022) — Get ready for Cisco Live

By Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. Another week, another conference. We’re heading a few miles southeast from San Francisco to Las Vegas for Cisco Live. I hope everyone had a safe, healthy and enjoyable RSA, but the fun isn’t over just... This is only...

Talos EMEA monthly update: Business email compromise

The latest edition of the Talos EMEA Monthly Update is available now on Cisco.com and Cisco's YouTube page. You can also view the episode in its entirety above. For June, Hazel and Martin got together to discuss business email compromise. BEC has quickly become the most lucrative attack vector...

Threat Advisory: Zero-day vulnerability in Microsoft diagnostic tool MSDT could lead to code execution

A recently discovered zero-day vulnerability in the Microsoft Windows Support Diagnostic Tool MSDT made headlines over the past few days. CVE-2022-30190, also known under the name "Follina," exists when MSDT is called using the URL protocol from an application, such as Microsoft Office,...

Threat Source newsletter (June 2, 2022) — An RSA Conference primer

By Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. Many of you readers may be gearing up for a West Coast swing over the next few weeks through San Francisco and Las Vegas for RSA and Cisco Live, respectively. And we’re right behind you! Talos... This is only the...

Researcher Spotlight: Martin Lee, EMEAR lead, Talos Strategic Communications

Who knew you could connect Moses to threat intelligence? By Jon Munshaw. When the security community usually thinks about the origins of cybersecurity and threat intelligence, the conversation may quickly center around the codebreakers in World War II or the Creeper software developed... This is...

Threat Roundup for May 20 to May 27

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between May 20 and May 27. 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 (May 26, 2022) — BlackByte adds itself to the grocery list of big game hunters

By Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. Given the recent tragedies in the U.S., I don’t feel it’s appropriate to open by being nostalgic or trying to be witty — let’s just stick to some security news this week. The one big... This is only the beginning!...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Vulnerabilities in Open Automation Software Platform could lead to information disclosure, denial of service

Jared Rittle of Cisco Talos discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Cisco Talos recently discovered eight vulnerabilities in the Open Automation Software Platform that could allow an adversary to carry out a variety of malicious actions, including improperly authenticating into...

Threat Roundup for May 13 to May 20

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between May 13 and May 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 characteristics,...

The BlackByte ransomware group is striking users all over the globe

News summary Cisco Talos has been monitoring the BlackByte Ransomware Group for several months, infecting victims all over the world, from North America to Colombia, Netherlands, China, Mexico and Vietnam.The FBI released a joint cybersecurity advisory in February 2022 warning about this group,...

Threat Source newsletter (May 19, 2022) — Why I'm missing the days of iPods and LimeWire

By Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. I will openly admit that I still own a “classic” iPod — the giant brick that weighed down my skinny jeans in high school and did nothing except play music. There are dozens of hours of music on there that I... This is...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Multiple memory corruption vulnerabilities in NVIDIA GPU driver

Piotr Bania of Cisco Talos discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Cisco Talos recently discovered four vulnerabilities in the NVIDIA D3D10 driver for graphics cards that could allow an attacker to corrupt memory and write arbitrary memory on the card. NVIDIA graphics... This is on...

Ransomware: How executives should prepare given the current threat landscape

By Nate Pors. Top executives are increasingly dreading the phone call from their fellow employees notifying them that their company has been hit by a cyber attack. Nearly every week in 2021 and early 2022, a prominent organization has been in the media spotlight as their public relations team...

Threat Roundup for May 6 to May 13

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between May 6 and May 13. 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,...

EMEAR Monthly Talos Update: Wiper malware

Cisco Talos and Cisco Secure are launching a new video series to fill you in on the latest cybersecurity trends. We’re thrilled to launch our first video in the new Talos Threat Update series, which you can watch above or over at this link, where Martin Lee and Hazel Burton talk about wiper... Th...

Threat Source newsletter (May 12, 2022) — Mandatory MFA adoption is great, but is it too late?

By Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. Mandatory multi-factor authentication is all the rage nowadays. GitHub just announced that all contributors would have to enroll in MFA by 2023 to log into their accounts. And Google announced as part of... This is on...

Vulnerability Spotlight: How an attacker could chain several vulnerabilities in an industrial wireless router to gain root access

Francesco Benvenuto of Cisco Talos discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Francesco Benvenuto and Jon Munshaw. Cisco Talos recently discovered several vulnerabilities in InHand Networks’ InRouter302 that could allow an attacker to escalate their privileges on the targeted device from a... This...

Bitter APT adds Bangladesh to their targets

Cisco Talos has observed an ongoing malicious campaign since August 2021 from the Bitter APT group that appears to target users in Bangladesh, a change from the attackers' usual victims.As part of this, there's a new trojan based on Apost Talos is calling "ZxxZ," that, among other... This is only...

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 Advisory: Critical F5 BIG-IP Vulnerability

Summary A recently disclosed vulnerability in F5 Networks' BIG-IP could allow an unauthenticated attacker to access the BIG-IP system to execute arbitrary system commands, create and delete files, disable services and could lead to additional malicious activity. This vulnerability, tracked as...

Microsoft Patch Tuesday for May 2022 — Snort rules and prominent vulnerabilities

By Jon Munshaw, with contributions from Jaeson Schultz. Microsoft returned to its normal monthly patching volume in May, disclosing and fixing 74 vulnerabilities as part of the company’s latest security update. This month’s Patch Tuesday includes seven critical vulnerabilities after Microsoft...

Threat Source newsletter (May 5, 2022) — Emotet is using up all of its nine lives

By Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. Emotet made headlines last week for being “back” after a major international law enforcement takedown last year. But I’m here to argue that Emotet never left, and honestly, I’m not sure it ever... This is only the...

Mustang Panda deploys a new wave of malware targeting Europe

By Jung soo An, Asheer Malhotra and Justin Thattil, with contributions from Aliza Berk and Kendall McKay. In February 2022, corresponding roughly with the start of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, Cisco Talos began observing the China-based threat actor Mustang Panda conducting phishing...

Threat Roundup for April 29 to May 6

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between April 29 and May 6. 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...

Conti and Hive ransomware operations: What we learned from these groups' victim chats

As part of Cisco Talos’ continuous efforts to learn more about the current ransomware landscape, we recently examined a trove of chat logs between the Conti and Hive ransomware gangs and their victims. Ransomware-as-a-service groups have exploded in popularity over the past few years, with these...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Two vulnerabilities in Accusoft ImageGear could lead to DoS, arbitrary free

Emmanuel Tacheau of Cisco Talos discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Cisco Talos recently discovered two new vulnerabilities in Accusoft ImageGear. The ImageGear library is a document-imaging developer toolkit that allows users to create, edit, annotate and convert... This is on...

Threat Roundup for April 22 to April 29

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between April 22 and April 29. 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... This is on...

Threat Source newsletter (April 28, 2022) — The 2022 Cybersecurity Mock Draft

By Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter that’s going to be a little different, but bear with me. In honor of the NFL Draft starting this evening — an event that Cisco is helping to secure — I thought it’d be appropriate to look at building a... This is only...

Quarterly Report: Incident Response trends in Q1 2022

Ransomware continues as the top threat, while a novel increase in APT activity emerges By Caitlin Huey. Ransomware was still the top threat Cisco Talos Incident Response CTIR saw in active engagements this quarter, continuing a trend that started in 2020. As mentioned in the 2021... This is only...

Researcher Spotlight: Liz Waddell, CTIR practice lead

How this Talos team member’s love of true crime led to a life in cybersecurity By Jon Munshaw. Liz Waddell is usually there on someone’s worst day of their professional lives. Chief technology officers and chief information security officers can hope all they want that the... This is only the...

Threat Roundup for April 15 to April 22

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between April 15 and April 22. 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... This is on...

Threat Source newsletter (April 14, 2022) — It's Tax Day, and you know what that means

By Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. The deadline to file taxes in the United States is Monday. That means a few things: everyone should probably make sure their liquor cabinet is fully stocked, your spam filters are all turned on in your email... This i...

Threat Source newsletter (April 21, 2022) — Sideloading apps is as safe as you make it

By Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. If you pay attention to the video game community as much as I do, you’ve been closely following the ongoing legal battle between Apple and Epic over the sale of “Fortnite” on the Apple App Store. I promise... This is...

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...

Beers with Talos, Ep. #120: How attackers are finding ways around MFA

Beers with Talos BWT Podcast episode No. 120 is now available. Download this episode and subscribe to Beers with Talos: Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify StitcherRecorded April 6, 2022 If iTunes and Google Play aren't your thing, click here. The trend of... This is only the beginning! Please...

Threat Roundup for April 8 to April 15

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between April 8 and April 15. 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 Source newsletter (April 7, 2022) — More money for cybersecurity still doesn't solve the skills gap problem

By Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. U.S. President Joe Biden’s proposed budget would include an 11 percent increase in the federal government’s IT budget, including a total of $10.9 billion for cybersecurity. On the surface — this is all... This is only...

Microsoft Patch Tuesday includes most vulnerabilities since Sept. 2020

By Jon Munshaw and Nick Biasini. Microsoft released its latest security update Tuesday, disclosing more than 140 vulnerabilities across its array of products. This is a departure from past Patch Tuesdays this year, which have only featured a few dozen vulnerabilities, and is the largest... This i...

Threat Spotlight: "Haskers Gang" Introduces New ZingoStealer

Update 04/14/22: Following the initial publication of this blog, we observed a new post in the Haskers Gang Telegram channel announcing that ownership of the ZingoStealer project is being transferred to a new threat actor. We also observed the malware author offering to sell the source code for...

Threat Roundup for April 1 to April 8

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between April 1 and April 8. 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 Spotlight: AsyncRAT campaigns feature new version of 3LOSH crypter

By Edmund Brumaghin, with contributions from Alex Karkins. Ongoing malware distribution campaigns are using ISO disk images to deliver AsyncRAT, LimeRAT and other commodity malware to victims.The infections leverage process injection to evade detection by endpoint security software.These...

Threat Advisory: Spring4Shell

UPDATE, APRIL 4, 2022: The Kenna Risk Score for CVE-2022-22965 is currently at maximum 100. This is an exceptionally rare score, of which only 415 out of 184,000 CVEs or 0.22 percent have achieved, reflecting the severity and potential effects of this vulnerability. To get a risk score this high...

Threat Roundup for March 25 to April 1

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between March 25 and April 1. 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...

Beers with Talos, Ep. #119: If it walks like a BlackCat, smells like a BlackCat...

Beers with Talos BWT Podcast episode No. 119 is now available. Download this episode and subscribe to Beers with Talos: Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify StitcherRecorded March 25, 2022. If iTunes and Google Play aren't your thing, click here. We're... This is only the beginning! Please visi...

On the Radar: Is 2022 the year encryption is doomed?

By Martin Lee. Quantum technology in development by the world’s superpowers will render many current encryption algorithms obsolete overnight. When it becomes available, whoever controls this technology will be able to read almost any encrypted data or message they wish. Organizations need... Thi...

Threat Source newsletter (March 31, 2022) — Is "Fortnite" a Metaverse?

By Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. By now, anyone on the internet has pondered the question: “Is a hot dog a sandwich?” My two cents: Yes, absolutely. Now as we move into the new internet age and onto Web 3.0 and NFTs instead of... This is only the...

Transparent Tribe campaign uses new bespoke malware to target Indian government officials

By Asheer Malhotra and Justin Thattil with contributions from Kendall McKay. Cisco Talos has observed a new Transparent Tribe campaign targeting Indian government and military entities. While the actors are infecting victims with CrimsonRAT, their well-known malware of choice, they are also...

Threat Roundup for March 18 to March 25

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between March 18 and March 25. 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... This is on...