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...

Threat Source newsletter (Oct. 15, 2020)

Newsletter compiled by Jon Munshaw.Good afternoon, Talos readers. In our latest entry into our election security series, we’re turning our attention to the professionals who are responsible for securing our elections. After months of research, we’ve compiled a series of recommendations for local,...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Code execution, information disclosure vulnerabilities in F2FS toolset

Vulnerabilities discovered by a Cisco Talos researcher. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Cisco Talos recently discovered multiple code execution and information disclosure vulnerabilities in various functions of the F2FS toolset. F2FS is a filesystem toolset commonly found in embedded devices that creates,...

What to expect when you're electing: How election officials can counter disinformation

By Matthew Olney and the communications and public relations professionals at Cisco. Editor's Note: For more on this topic, sign up for a Cisco Duo webinar on election security on Oct. 15 at 1 p.m. ET here. In our work with our partners in the election security space, the most difficult question...

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: Denial of service in AMD ATIKMDAG.SYS driver

Piotr Bania of Cisco Talos discovered this vulnerability. Blog by Jon Munshaw.Cisco Talos recently discovered a denial-of-service vulnerability in the ATIKMDAG.SYS driver for some AMD graphics cards. An attacker could send the victim a specially crafted D3DKMTCreateAllocation API request to cause...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Information leak 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 carry out a range of malicious actions. Chrome is one of the most popular web browsers currently available to users...

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...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Denial-of-service vulnerabilities in Allen-Bradley Flex I/O

Jared Rittle of Cisco Talos discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Jon Munshaw. The Allen-Bradley Flex input/output system contains multiple denial-of-service vulnerabilities in its ENIP request path data segment. These bugs exist specifically in the 1794-AENT FLEX I/O modular platform. It...

Threat Roundup for October 2 to October 9

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