Vulnerability Spotlight: Denial-of-service vulnerability in Rockwell Automation RSLinx

Alexander Perez-Palma of Cisco Talos discovered this vulnerability. Blog by Jon Munshaw.Cisco Talos recently discovered a denial-of-service vulnerability in the Ethernet/IP server functionality of Rockwell Automation RSLinx Classic. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending the targ...

A Deep Dive into Lokibot Infection Chain

By Irshad Muhammad, with contributions from Holger Unterbrink. News summary Lokibot is one of the most well-known information stealers on the malware landscape. In this post, we'll provide a technical breakdown of one of the latest Lokibot campaigns.Talos also has a new script to unpack the...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Multiple vulnerabilities in SoftMaker Office TextMaker

A Cisco Talos team member discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Cisco Talos recently discovered multiple vulnerabilities in SoftMaker's TextMaker software. A user could trigger these vulnerabilities by opening an attacker-created, malicious document. An adversary could use these...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Multiple vulnerabilities in Genivia gSOAP

A Cisco Talos team member discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Cisco Talos recently discovered multiple vulnerabilities in various Genivia gSOAP toolkit plugins. These vulnerabilities could allow an attacker to carry out a variety of malicious activities, including causing a...

Threat Advisory: SolarWinds supply chain attack

Update 12/21: IOC section updated to include new information and associated stage. Update 12/18: We have been able to verify the name server for the DGA domain was updated as far back as late February. Compromised binaries appear to have been available on the SolarWinds website until very recentl...

Talos Vulnerability Discovery Year in Review — 2020

While major attacks like ransomware and COVID-19-themed campaigns made headlines across the globe this year, many attacks were prevented through simple practices of finding, disclosing and patching vulnerabilities. Cisco Talos' Systems Vulnerability Research Team discovered 231 vulnerabilities th...

2020: The year in malware

By Jon Munshaw. Nothing was normal in 2020. Our ideas of working from offices, in-person meetings, hands-on learning and basically everything else was thrown into disarray early in the year. Since then, we defenders have had to adapt. But so have workers around the globe, and those IT and securit...

Threat Roundup for December 11 to December 18

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Dec. 11 and Dec. 18. 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 (Dec. 17, 2020)

Newsletter compiled by Jon Munshaw. Good afternoon, Talos readers. This will be our last Threat Source newsletter of the year. We’ll be on a few-week break for the holidays until Jan. 7. Of course, all anyone wants to talk about this week is the SolarWinds supply chain attack. There are still man...

Talos tools of the trade

By Andrea Marcelli and Holger Unterbrink. If you're looking for something to keep you busy while we're all stuck inside during the holidays, Cisco Talos has a few tools for you you can play with in the coming days and weeks. We recently updated GhIDA to work with the latest version of IDA and we...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Multiple vulnerabilities in NZXT computer monitoring software

Carl Hurd of Cisco Talos discovered this vulnerability. Blog by Jon Munshaw. NZXT’s CAM computer monitoring software contains multiple vulnerabilities an attacker could use to carry out a range of malicious actions. CAM provides users information on their machines, such as fan speeds, temperature...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Two vulnerabilities in Lantronix XPort EDGE

Kelly Leuschner of Cisco Talos discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Jon Munshaw.Executive summary Cisco Talos recently discovered two vulnerabilities in the Web Manager functionality of Lantronix XPort EDGE. The XPort EDGE is a next-generation wired Ethernet gateway for providing secure...

FireEye Breach Detection Guidance

Update 12/14: Cisco Talos has implemented additional blocks in relation to the supply chain attack on SolarWinds® Orion® Platform. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has issued Emergency Directive 21-01 due to this campaign. Talos is continuing to investigate this matter. I...

Threat Roundup for December 4 to December 11

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Dec. 4 and Dec. 11. 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 (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. #97: Getting to better security outcomes (feat. Wendy Nather)

Beers with Talos BWT Podcast episode No. 97 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 Nov. 24, 2020 – On this episode, Mitch and Matt are...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Multiple vulnerabilities in Foxit PDF Reader JavaScript engine

Aleksandar Nikolic of Cisco Talos discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Jon Munshaw.Executive summary Cisco Talos recently discovered multiple vulnerabilities in Foxit PDF Reader’s JavaScript engine. Foxit PDF Reader is a commonly used PDF reader that contains many features, including the...

Quarterly Report: Incident Response trends from Fall 2020

By David Liebenberg and Caitlin Huey. For the sixth quarter in a row, Cisco Talos Incident Response CTIR observed ransomware dominating the threat landscape. However, for the first quarter since we began compiling these reports, no engagements that were closed out involved the ransomware Ryuk...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Remote code execution vulnerabilities in Schneider Electric EcoStruxure

Alexander Perez-Palma and Jared Rittle of Cisco Talos discovered this vulnerability. Blog by Jon Munshaw.Cisco Talos recently discovered two code execution vulnerabilities in Schneider Electric EcoStruxure. An attacker could exploit these vulnerabilities by sending the victim a specially crafted...

Microsoft Patch Tuesday (Dec. 2020) — Snort rules and notable vulnerabilities

By Jon Munshaw, with contributions from Bill Largent. Microsoft released its monthly security update Tuesday, disclosing 58 vulnerabilities across its suite of products, the lowest number of vulnerabilities in any Patch Tuesday since January. There are only 10 critical vulnerabilities as part of...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Code execution vulnerability in Microsoft Excel

Marcin “Icewall” Noga of Cisco Talos discovered this vulnerability. Blog by Jon Munshaw.Cisco Talos recently discovered a code execution vulnerability in some versions of Microsoft Excel. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by tricking the victim into opening a specially crafted XLS file...

Xanthe - Docker aware miner

By Vanja Svajcer and Adam Pridgen, Cisco Incident Command NEWS SUMMARY Ransomware attacks and big-game hunting making the headlines, but adversaries use plenty of other methods to monetize their efforts in less intrusive ways.Cisco Talos recently discovered a cryptocurrency-mining botnet attack...

Threat Roundup for November 27 to December 4

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Nov. 27 and Dec. 4. 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 (Dec. 3, 2020)

Newsletter compiled by Jon Munshaw. Good afternoon, Talos readers. While ransomware has made all the headlines this year, that doesn’t mean cryptocurrency miners are going anywhere. We recently discovered a new actor we’re calling “Xanthe” that’s mining Monero on targets’ machines. The main...

Vulnerability Spotlight: DoS, code execution vulnerabilities in EIP Stack Group OpENer

Martin Zeiser and Jared Rittle of Cisco Talos discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Jon Munshaw.Executive summary Cisco Talos recently discovered two vulnerabilities in the Ethernet/IP function of EIP Stack Group OpENer. OpENer is an Ethernet/IP stack for I/O adapter devices. It supports...

Threat Source newsletter (Nov. 19, 2020)

Newsletter compiled by Jon Munshaw. Good afternoon, Talos readers. In case you hadn’t already realized, Snort somehow became a meme this week, so that was fun. As 2020 finally...or already...I can’t decide which comes to an end, we’re going to start doing a look back at the year that was in...

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...

Threat Roundup for November 13 to November 20

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

Vulnerability Spotlight: Multiple vulnerabilities in WebKit

Marcin “Icewall” Noga of Cisco Talos discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Jon Munshaw.Executive summary The WebKit browser engine contains multiple vulnerabilities in various functions of the software. A malicious web page code could trigger multiple use-after-free errors, which could lead t...

Back from vacation: Analyzing Emotet’s activity in 2020

By Nick Biasini, Edmund Brumaghin, and Jaeson Schultz. Emotet is one of the most heavily distributed malware families today. Cisco Talos observes large quantities of Emotet emails being sent to individuals and organizations around the world on an almost daily basis. These emails are typically sen...

Nibiru ransomware variant decryptor

Nikhil Hegde developed this tool. Weak encryptionThe Nibiru ransomware is a .NET-based malware family. It traverses directories in the local disks, encrypts files with Rijndael-256 and gives them a .Nibiru extension. Rijndael-256 is a secure encryption algorithm. However, Nibiru uses a hard-coded...

CRAT wants to plunder your endpoints

By Asheer Malhotra. Cisco Talos has observed a new version of a remote access trojan RAT family known as CRAT.Apart from the prebuilt RAT capabilities, the malware can download and deploy additional malicious plugins on the infected endpoint.One of the plugins is a ransomware known as "Hansom."CR...

Threat Roundup for November 6 to November 13

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

Vulnerability Spotlight: Multiple vulnerabilities in Pixar OpenUSD affects some versions of macOS

Aleksandar Nikolic of Cisco Talos discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Aleksandar Nikolic and Jon Munshaw. Pixar OpenUSD contains multiple vulnerabilities that attackers could exploit to carry out a variety of malicious actions. OpenUSD stands for “Open Universal Scene Descriptor.” Pixar use...

Threat Source newsletter (Nov. 12, 2020)

Newsletter compiled by Jon Munshaw. Good afternoon, Talos readers. We’re back after a few-week hiatus! And to celebrate, we just dropped some new research on the CRAT trojan that’s bringing some ransomware friends along with it. This blog post has all the details of this threat along with what yo...

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

By Jon Munshaw, with contributions from Joe Marshall. Microsoft released its monthly security update Tuesday, disclosing just over 110 vulnerabilities across its products. This is a slight jump from last month when Microsoft disclosed one of their lowest vulnerability totals in months. Eighteen o...

Threat Roundup for October 30 to November 6

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Oct. 30 and Nov. 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 characteristics,...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Multiple JavaScript vulnerabilities in Adobe Acrobat Reader

Aleksandar Nikolic of Cisco Talos discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Joe Marshall Cisco Talos recently discovered an heap buffer overflow and a use after free vulnerability in Adobe Acrobat Reader. Adobe Acrobat Reader is one of the most popular and feature-rich PDF readers on the market. ...

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...

Threat Roundup for October 23 to October 30

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Oct. 23 and Oct. 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 characteristics...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Multiple vulnerabilities in Synology SRM (Synology Router Manager)

Claudio Bozzato of Cisco Talos discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Claudio Bozzato and Jon Munshaw. Cisco Talos recently discovered multiple remote vulnerabilities in software that helps power Synology routers. The bugs exist in Synology Router Manager SRM — a Linux-based operating system f...

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...

DoNot’s Firestarter abuses Google Firebase Cloud Messaging to spread

By Warren Mercer, Paul Rascagneres and Vitor Ventura. The newly discovered Firestarter malware uses Google Firebase Cloud Messaging to notify its authors of the final payload location.Even if the command and control C2 is taken down, the DoNot team can still redirect the malware to another C2 usi...

Vulnerability Spotlight: A deep dive into WAGO’s cloud connectivity and the vulnerabilities that arise

Report and research by Kelly Leuschner. WAGO makes several programmable automation controllers that are used in many industries including automotive, rail, power engineering, manufacturing and building management. Cisco Talos discovered 41 vulnerabilities in their PFC200 and PFC100 controllers. I...

Threat Roundup for October 16 to October 23

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Oct. 16 and Oct. 23. 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...

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...

What to expect when you’re electing: A recap

We’re roughly two weeks out from Election Day in America, although millions of early and mail-in votes have already been cast. In the coming days, there’s sure to be a flurry of news stories about disinformation, allegations of voter fraud, the back-and-forth between parties and talks of when the...

Dynamic Data Resolver - Version 1.0.1 beta

By Holger Unterbrink. Cisco Talos is releasing a new beta version of Dynamic Data Resolver DDR today. This release comes with a new architecture for samples using multi-threading. The process and thread tracing has been completely reimplemented. We also fixed a few bugs and memory leaks. Another...

Threat Roundup for October 9 to October 16

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

Beers with Talos ep. #94: Nigel is marching on, victorious and glorious

Beers with Talos BWT Podcast episode No. 94 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 Sept. 25, 2020 Today is Nigel’s last episode as a...