Vulnerability Spotlight: Information disclosure vulnerability in Microsoft Media Foundation

Marcin “Icewall” Noga of Cisco Talos discovered this vulnerability. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Microsoft Media Foundation contains an information disclosure vulnerability that could allow an attacker to eventually remotely execute code on the victim machine. Media Foundation is a COM-based multimedia...

AZORult brings friends to the party

By Vanja Svajcer. NEWS SUMMARY We are used to ransomware attacks and big game hunting making the headlines, but there is an undercurrent of other attack types that allow attackers to monetize their efforts in a less intrusive way.Here, we discuss a multi-pronged cyber criminal attack using a numb...

Beers with Talos Ep. #76: When security hits home (and stays)

Beers with Talos BWT Podcast episode No. 76 is now available. Download this episode and subscribe to Beers with Talos: If iTunes and Google Play aren't your thing, click here. Recorded March 27, 2020 Our goal is always to talk to you about what's on our minds. Right now, we are pretty sure we all...

Threat Roundup for March 27 to April 3

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between March 27 and April 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 characteristic...

Threat Source newsletter (April 2, 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. As long as COVID-19 is in the headlines which is going to be a long time actors are going to try and capitalize. We fully expect to see ...

Trickbot: A primer

By Chris Neal Executive Summary Trickbot remains one of the most sophisticated banking trojans in the landscape while constantly evolving.Highly modular, Trickbot can adapt to different environments with the help of its various modules.The group behind Trickbot has expanded their activities beyon...

COVID-19 relief package provides another platform for bad actors

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic continues to yield new subject matter that bad actors can turn into fodder for enticing victims into clicking on malicious links and attachments. On March 27, the CARES Act was signed into law by the President, enacting a wide range of stimulus packages designed to a...

Threat Update: COVID-19

Executive Summary The COVID-19 pandemic is changing everyday life for workers across the globe. Cisco Talos continues to see attackers take advantage of the coronavirus situation to lure unsuspecting users into various pitfalls such as phishing, fraud, and disinformation campaigns. Talos has not...

Threat Roundup for March 20 to March 27

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

Threat Source newsletter (March 26, 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. Just because we’re all still working from home doesn’t mean you can stop patching. We’ve been busy this week with a new wave of...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Intel Raid Web Console 3 denial-of-service bugs

Geoff Serrao of Cisco Talos discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Cisco Talos recently discovered two denial-of-service vulnerabilities in the web API functionality of Intel RAID Web Console 3. The Raid Web Console is a web-based application that provides several configuration...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Multiple vulnerabilities in Videolabs libmicrodns

Claudio Bozzato of Cisco Talos discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Jon Munshaw. A specific library in the Videolabs family of software contains multiple vulnerabilities that could lead to denial of service and code execution. Videolabs is a company founded by VideoLAN members and is the...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Denial-of-service vulnerability in GStreamer

Peter Wang of Cisco ASIG discovered this vulnerability. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Cisco Talos recently discovered a denial-of-service vulnerability in GStreamer, a pipeline-based multimedia framework. GStreamer contains gst-rtsp-server, an open-source library that allows the user to build RTSP servers...

Threat Roundup for March 13 to March 20

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

Beers with Talos Ep. #75: Now That Coronavirus Made a Global WFH Policy...

Beers with Talos BWT Podcast episode No. 74 is now available. Download this episode and subscribe to Beers with Talos: If iTunes and Google Play aren't your thing, click here. Recorded March 13, 2020 Of course, we have to talk about the implications of coronavirus. It's affecting the way business...

Threat Source newsletter (March 19, 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 hope everyone is staying home if possible and staying safe. Unfortunately, the bad guys aren’t going anywhere, so we’re still pluggin...

Threat Roundup for March 6 to March 13

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

Beers with Talos Ep. #74: Impacting civil society

Beers with Talos BWT Podcast episode No. 74 is now available. Download this episode and subscribe to Beers with Talos: If iTunes and Google Play aren't your thing, click here. Recorded March 2, 2020 We open up the show with a sugary sweet poem before talking about RSA and our annual trip through...

Threat Source newsletter (March 12, 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. Obviously, COVID-19 is dominating headlines everywhere, and for good reason. We hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy and...

Microsoft Patch Tuesday — March 2020: Vulnerability disclosures and Snort coverage

By Jon Munshaw and Vitor Ventura. Update March 12, 2020: Microsoft released an out-of-band patch for CVE-2020-0796, a code execution vulnerability SMB client and server for Windows. An unauthenticated attacker could exploit this vulnerability to execute remote code. Snort rules 53425 - 53428...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Information disclosure in Windows 10 Kernel

Marcin Towalski of Cisco Talos discovered this vulnerability. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Cisco Talos recently discovered an information disclosure vulnerability in the Windows 10 kernel. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by tricking the victim into opening a specially crafted executable,...

Bisonal: 10 years of play

By Warren Mercer, Paul Rascagneres and Vitor Ventura. Update 06/03/20: added samples from 2020. Executive summary Security researchers detected and exposed the Bisonal malware over the past 10 years. But the Tonto team, the threat actor behind it, didn't stop.The victimology didn't change over...

Vulnerability Spotlight: WAGO products contain remote code execution, other vulnerabilities

Patrick DeSantis, Carl Hurd, Kelly Leuschner and Lilith --; of Cisco Talos discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Cisco Talos recently discovered several vulnerabilities in multiple products from the company WAGO. WAGO produces a line of automation software called “e!COCKPIT,” an...

Threat Roundup for February 28 to March 6

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Feb. 28 and March 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...

Threat Source newsletter (March 5, 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. Sure, all anyone wants to talk about is coronavirus. But what about cyber security? We’ve still got cool stuff, like this huge write-up ...

Video: What defenders can learn from past ransomware attacks

The Cisco Talos Incident Response "Stories from the Field" video series returns with another entry from Matt Aubert. This time, Matt discusses ransomware infections he's seen in real-time, and shares what defenders can learn from others' mistakes and recovery. Is it ever smart to pay attackers'...

Threat Roundup for February 21 to February 28

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Feb. 21 and Feb. 28. 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 (Feb. 27, 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 know we’ve kept you waiting for a while, but the new Snort Resources page is finally here. We’ve got new and improved documentation,...

New Research Paper: Prevalence and impact of low-entropy packing schemes in the malware ecosystem

Detection of malware is a constant battle between the technologies designed to detect and prevent malware and the authors creating them. One common technique adversaries leverage is packing binaries. Packing an executable is similar to applying compression or encryption and can inhibit the abilit...

Beers with Talos Ep. #73: Feature ownership, vuln advisories and fancy audio FX

Beers with Talos BWT Podcast episode No. 73 is now available. Download this episode and subscribe to Beers with Talos: If iTunes and Google Play aren't your thing, click here. Recorded Feb. 19, 2020 Craig made an oopsie. Pardon his echo-chamber reverb. We had no idea until he sent in his audio fo...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Multiple vulnerabilities in Moxa AWK-3131A

Jared Rittle and Carl Hurd of Cisco Talos discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Jon Munshaw. The Moxa AWK-3131A networking device contains several different vulnerabilities that an attacker could exploit to carry out malicious activities in an industrial environment. The AWK-3131A is a wirele...

Threat Roundup for February 14 to February 21

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Feb. 14 and Feb. 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 Source newsletter (Feb. 20, 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’ve got more ways than ever for you to get Talos content. We continue to grow our YouTube page with the second entry in the “Stories...

ObliqueRAT: New RAT hits victims' endpoints via malicious documents

By Asheer Malhotra. Cisco Talos has observed a malware campaign that utilizes malicious Microsoft Office documents maldocs to spread a remote access trojan RAT we're calling "ObliqueRAT." These maldocs use malicious macros to deliver the second stage RAT payload. This campaign appears to target...

Cisco Talos Incident Response "Stories from the Field" #2: When do lawyers get involved?

The second video in our "Stories in the Field" series from Cisco Talos Incident Response is here, with Matt Aubert talking about lawyers. While getting a general counsel involved may seem like an arduous process for many incident response teams, Matt Aubert argues in this video that in his...

Building a bypass with MSBuild

By Vanja Svajcer. NEWS SUMMARY Living-off-the-land binaries LoLBins continue to pose a risk to security defenders. We analyze the usage of the Microsoft Build Engine by attackers and red team personnel. These threats demonstrate techniques T1127 Trusted Developer Utilities and T1500 Compile After...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Memory corruption, DoS vulnerabilities in CoTURN

Aleksandar Nikolic of Cisco Talos discovered this vulnerability. Blog by Jon Munshaw. CoTURN contains denial-of-service and memory corruption vulnerabilities in the way its web server parses POST requests. CoTURN is a TURN server implementation that can be used as a general- purpose network traff...

Beers with Talos Ep. #72: Getting to Patch Day - Understanding Vulnerability Risks and Options

Beers with Talos BWT Podcast episode No. 72 is now available. Download this episode and subscribe to Beers with Talos: If iTunes and Google Play aren't your thing, click here. Recorded Jan. 31, 2020 When a vulnerability is released, regardless if it has a website and logo or not, we need to...

Threat Roundup for February 7 to February 14

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Feb. 7 and Feb. 14. 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 actors attempt to capitalize on coronavirus outbreak

By Nick Biasini and Edmund Brumaghin. Coronavirus is dominating the news and threat actors are taking advantage. Cisco Talos has found multiple malware families being distributed with Coronavirus lures and themes. This includes emotet and several RAT variants. Executive Summary Using the news to...

Threat Source newsletter (Feb. 13, 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. This month’s Microsoft Patch Tuesday was particularly hefty, with the company disclosing nearly 100 vulnerabilities — three of which Tal...

Microsoft Patch Tuesday — Feb. 2020: Vulnerability disclosures and Snort coverage

By Jon Munshaw. Microsoft released its monthly security update today, disclosing vulnerabilities across many of its products and releasing corresponding updates. This month's Patch Tuesday covers 98 vulnerabilities, 12 of which are considered critical and 84 that are considered important. There a...

Loda RAT Grows Up

By Chris Neal. Over the past several months, Cisco Talos has observed a malware campaign that utilizes websites hosting a new version of Loda, a remote access trojan RAT written in AutoIT. These websites also host malicious documents that begin a multi-stage infection chain which ultimately serve...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Remote code execution vulnerability in Apple Safari

Marcin Towalski of Cisco Talos discovered this vulnerability. Blog by Jon Munshaw. The Apple Safari web browser contains a remote code execution vulnerability in its Fonts feature. If a user were to open a malicious web page in Safari, they could trigger a type confusion, resulting in memory...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Use-after-free vulnerability in Windows 10 win32kbase

Marcin Towalski of Cisco Talos discovered this vulnerability. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Cisco Talos is releasing the details of a use-after-free vulnerability in Windows 10. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to gain the ability to execute arbitrary code in the kernel context. Microsoft...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Code execution vulnerability in Microsoft Media Foundation

Marcin Noga of Cisco Talos discovered this vulnerability. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Microsoft Media Foundation’s framework contains a code execution vulnerability. This specific bug lies in Media Foundations’ MPEG4 DLL. An attacker could provide a user with a specially crafted ASF file to exploit this...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Code execution vulnerability in Microsoft Excel

Marcin Noga of Cisco Talos discovered this vulnerability. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Microsoft Excel contains a code execution vulnerability. This specific bug lies in the component of Excel that handles the Microsoft Office HTML and XML file types, first introduced in Office 2000. Microsoft disclosed...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Information leak vulnerability in Adobe Acrobat Reader’s JavaScript function

Aleksandar Nikolic of Cisco Talos discovered this vulnerability. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Cisco Talos recently discovered an information leak vulnerability in Adobe Acrobat Reader. Acrobat supports a number of features, including the ability to process embedded JavaScript. An attacker could trigger...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Accusoft ImageGear library code execution vulnerabilities

Emmanuel Tacheau of Cisco Talos discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Cisco Talos recently discovered three code execution vulnerabilities in Accusoft ImageGear. The ImageGear library is a document-imaging developer toolkit to assist users with image conversion, creation, editing...

Introducing Cisco Talos Incident Response: Stories from the Field

By Jon Munshaw. As another way of bringing our boots-on-the-ground intelligence to defenders, customers and users, we are introducing a new video series called "Cisco Talos Incident Response: Stories from the Field." In each entry, a CTIR team member will cover one specific incident or lesson tha...