Researchers Detail Techniques LockBit Ransomware Using to Infect its Targets

LockBit ransomware attacks are constantly evolving by making use of a wide range of techniques to infect targets while also taking steps to disable endpoint security solutions. "The affiliates that use LockBit's services conduct their attacks according to their preference and use different tools...

Microsoft Temporarily Rolls Back Plan to Block Office VBA Macros by Default

Five months after announcing plans to disable Visual Basic for Applications VBA macros by default in the Office productivity suite, Microsoft appears to have rolled back its plans. "Based on feedback received, a rollback has started," Microsoft employee Angela Robertson said in a July 6 comment...

Why Developers Hate Changing Language Versions

Progress powers technology forward. But progress also has a cost: by adding new capabilities and features, the developer community is constantly adjusting the building blocks. That includes the fundamental languages used to code technology solutions. When the building blocks change, the code behi...

Experts Uncover 350 Browser Extension Variants Used in ABCsoup Adware Campaign

A malicious browser extension with 350 variants is masquerading as a Google Translate add-on as part of an adware campaign targeting Russian users of Google Chrome, Opera, and Mozilla Firefox browsers. Mobile security firm Zimperium dubbed the malware family ABCsoup, stating the "extensions are...

TrickBot Gang Shifted its Focus on "Systematically" Targeting Ukraine

In what's being described as an "unprecedented" twist, the operators of the TrickBot malware have resorted to systematically targeting Ukraine since the onset of the war in late February 2022. The group is believed to have orchestrated at least six phishing campaigns aimed at targets that align...

North Korean Maui Ransomware Actively Targeting U.S. Healthcare Organizations

In a new joint cybersecurity advisory, U.S. cybersecurity and intelligence agencies have warned about the use of Maui ransomware by North Korean government-backed hackers to target the healthcare sector since at least May 2021. "North Korean state-sponsored cyber actors used Maui ransomware in...

Over 1,200 NPM Packages Found Involved in "CuteBoi" Cryptomining Campaign

Researchers have disclosed what they say could be an attempt to kick-off a new large-scale cryptocurrency mining campaign targeting the NPM JavaScript package repository. The malicious activity, attributed to a software supply chain threat actor dubbed CuteBoi, involves an array of 1,283 rogue...

Apple's New "Lockdown Mode" Protects iPhone, iPad, and Mac Against Spyware

Apple on Wednesday announced it plans to introduce an enhanced security setting called Lockdown Mode in iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS Ventura to safeguard high-risk users against "highly targeted cyberattacks." The "extreme, optional protection" feature, now available for preview in beta versions ...

The Age of Collaborative Security: What Tens of Thousands of Machines Witness

Disclaimer: This article is meant to give insight into cyber threats as seen by the community of users of CrowdSec. What can tens of thousands of machines tell us about illegal hacker activities? Do you remember that scene in Batman - The Dark Knight, where Batman uses a system that aggregates...

Researchers Warn of New OrBit Linux Malware That Hijacks Execution Flow

Cybersecurity researchers have taken the wraps off a new and entirely undetected Linux threat dubbed OrBit, signally a growing trend of malware attacks geared towards the popular operating system. The malware gets its name from one of the filenames that's utilized to temporarily store the output ...

Cisco and Fortinet Release Security Patches for Multiple Products

Cisco on Wednesday rolled out patches for 10 security flaws spanning multiple products, one of which is rated Critical in severity and could be weaponized to conduct absolute path traversal attacks. The issues, tracked as CVE-2022-20812 and CVE-2022-20813, affect Cisco Expressway Series and Cisco...

NIST Announces First Four Quantum-Resistant Cryptographic Algorithms

The U.S. Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology NIST has chosen the first set of quantum-resistant encryption algorithms that are designed to "withstand the assault of a future quantum computer." The post-quantum cryptography PQC technologies include the...

OpenSSL Releases Patch for High-Severity Bug that Could Lead to RCE Attacks

The maintainers of the OpenSSL project have released patches to address a high-severity bug in the cryptographic library that could potentially lead to remote code execution under certain scenarios. The issue, now assigned the identifier CVE-2022-2274, has been described as a case of heap memory...

Hackers Abusing BRc4 Red Team Penetration Tool in Attacks to Evade Detection

Malicious actors have been observed abusing legitimate adversary simulation software in their attacks in an attempt to stay under the radar and evade detection. Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 said a malware sample uploaded to the VirusTotal database on May 19, 2022, contained a payload associated wit...

The End of False Positives for Web and API Security Scanning?

July may positively disrupt and adrenalize the old-fashioned Dynamic Application Security Scanning DAST market, despite the coming holiday season. The pathbreaking innovation comes from ImmuniWeb, a global application security company, well known for, among other things, its free Community Editio...

Bitter APT Hackers Continue to Target Bangladesh Military Entities

Military entities located in Bangladesh continue to be at the receiving end of sustained cyberattacks by an advanced persistent threat tracked as Bitter. "Through malicious document files and intermediate malware stages the threat actors conduct espionage by deploying Remote Access Trojans,"...

Hive Ransomware Upgrades to Rust for More Sophisticated Encryption Method

The operators of the Hive ransomware-as-a-service RaaS scheme have overhauled their file-encrypting software to fully migrate to Rust and adopt a more sophisticated encryption method. "With its latest variant carrying several major upgrades, Hive also proves it's one of the fastest evolving...

Researchers Uncover Malicious NPM Packages Stealing Data from Apps and Web Forms

A widespread software supply chain attack has targeted the NPM package manager at least since December 2021 with rogue modules designed to steal data entered in forms by users on websites that include them. The coordinated attack, dubbed IconBurst by ReversingLabs, involves no fewer than two doze...

Pro-China Group Uses Dragonbridge Campaign to Target Rare Earth Mining Companies

A pro-China influence campaign singled out rare earth mining companies in Australia, Canada, and the U.S. with negative messaging in an unsuccessful attempt to manipulate public discourse to China's benefit. Targeted firms included Australia's Lynas Rare Earths Ltd, Canada's Appia Rare Earths &...

As New Clues Emerges, Experts Wonder: Is REvil Back?

Change is a part of life, and nothing stays the same for too long, even with hacking groups, which are at their most dangerous when working in complete silence. The notorious REvil ransomware gang, linked to the infamous JBS and Kaseya, has resurfaced three months after the arrest of its members ...

Researchers Share Techniques to Uncover Anonymized Ransomware Sites on Dark Web

Cybersecurity researchers have detailed the various measures ransomware actors have taken to obscure their true identity online as well as the hosting location of their web server infrastructure. "Most ransomware operators use hosting providers outside their country of origin such as Sweden,...

Update Google Chrome Browser to Patch New Zero-Day Exploit Detected in the Wild

Google on Monday shipped security updates to address a high-severity zero-day vulnerability in its Chrome web browser that it said is being exploited in the wild. The shortcoming, tracked as CVE-2022-2294, relates to a heap overflow flaw in the WebRTC component that provides real-time audio and...

Ukrainian Authorities Arrested Phishing Gang That Stole 100 Million UAH

The Cyber Police of Ukraine last week disclosed that it apprehended nine members of a criminal gang that embezzled 100 million hryvnias via hundreds of phishing sites that claimed to offer financial assistance to Ukrainian citizens as part of a campaign aimed at capitalizing on the ongoing...

Some Worms Use Their Powers for Good

Gardeners know that worms are good. Cybersecurity professionals know that worms are bad. Very bad. In fact, worms are literally the most devasting force for evil known to the computing world. The MyDoom worm holds the dubious position of most costly computer malware ever – responsible for some $5...

HackerOne Employee Caught Stealing Vulnerability Reports for Personal Gains

Vulnerability coordination and bug bounty platform HackerOne on Friday disclosed that a former employee at the firm improperly accessed security reports submitted to it for personal gain. "The person anonymously disclosed this vulnerability information outside the HackerOne platform with the goal...

TikTok Assures U.S. Lawmakers it's Working to Safeguard User Data From Chinese Staff

Following heightened worries that U.S. users' data had been accessed by TikTok engineers in China between September 2021 and January 2022, the company sought to assuage U.S. lawmakers that it's taking steps to "strengthen data security." The admission that some China-based employees can access...

Microsoft Warns About Evolving Capabilities of Toll Fraud Android Malware Apps

Microsoft has detailed the evolving capabilities of toll fraud malware apps on Android, pointing out its "complex multi-step attack flow" and an improved mechanism to evade security analysis. Toll fraud belongs to a category of billing fraud wherein malicious mobile applications come with hidden...

Google Improves Its Password Manager to Boost Security Across All Platforms

Google on Thursday announced a slew of improvements to its password manager service aimed at creating a more consistent look and feel across different platforms. Central to the changes is a "simplified and unified management experience that's the same in Chrome and Android settings," Ali Sarraf,...

New 'SessionManager' Backdoor Targeting Microsoft IIS Servers in the Wild

A newly discovered malware has been put to use in the wild at least since March 2021 to backdoor Microsoft Exchange servers belonging to a wide range of entities worldwide, with infections lingering in 20 organizations as of June 2022. Dubbed SessionManager, the malicious tool masquerades as a...

Solving the indirect vulnerability enigma - fixing indirect vulnerabilities without breaking your dependency tree

Fixing indirect vulnerabilities is one of those complex, tedious and, quite frankly, boring tasks that no one really wants to touch. No one except for Debricked, it seems. Sure, there are lots of ways to do it manually, but can it be done automatically with minimal risk of breaking changes? The...

Amazon Quietly Patches 'High Severity' Vulnerability in Android Photos App

Amazon, in December 2021, patched a high severity vulnerability affecting its Photos app for Android that could have been exploited to steal a user's access tokens. "The Amazon access token is used to authenticate the user across multiple Amazon APIs, some of which contain personal data such as...

Microsoft Warns of Cryptomining Malware Campaign Targeting Linux Servers

A cloud threat actor group tracked as 8220 has updated its malware toolset to breach Linux servers with the goal of installing crypto miners as part of a long-running campaign. "The updates include the deployment of new versions of a crypto miner and an IRC bot," Microsoft Security Intelligence...

Google Blocks Dozens of Malicious Domains Operated by Hack-for-Hire Groups

Google's Threat Analysis Group TAG on Thursday disclosed it had acted to block as many as 36 malicious domains operated by hack-for-hire groups from India, Russia, and the U.A.E. In a manner analogous to the surveillanceware ecosystem, hack-for-hire firms equip their clients with capabilities to...

U.S. FCC Commissioner Asks Apple and Google to Remove TikTok from App Stores

One of the commissioners of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission FCC has renewed calls asking for Apple and Google to boot the popular video-sharing platform TikTok from their app stores citing "its pattern of surreptitious data practices." "It is clear that TikTok poses an unacceptable...

What is Shadow IT and why is it so risky?

Shadow IT refers to the practice of users deploying unauthorized technology resources in order to circumvent their IT department. Users may resort to using shadow IT practices when they feel that existing IT policies are too restrictive or get in the way of them being able to do their jobs...

Ex-Canadian Government Employee Pleads Guilty Over NetWalker Ransomware Attacks

A former Canadian government employee this week agreed to plead guilty in the U.S. to charges related to his involvement with the NetWalker ransomware syndicate. Sebastien Vachon-Desjardins, who was extradited to the U.S. on March 10, 2022, is accused of conspiracy to commit computer fraud and wi...

North Korean Hackers Suspected to be Behind $100M Horizon Bridge Hack

The notorious North Korea-backed hacking collective Lazarus Group is suspected to be behind the recent $100 million altcoin theft from Harmony Horizon Bridge, citing similarities to the Ronin bridge attack in March 2022. The finding comes as Harmony confirmed that its Horizon Bridge, a platform...

New YTStealer Malware Aims to Hijack Accounts of YouTube Content Creators

Cybersecurity researchers have documented a new information-stealing malware that targets YouTube content creators by plundering their authentication cookies. Dubbed "YTStealer" by Intezer, the malicious tool is likely believed to be sold as a service on the dark web, with it distributed using fa...

New UnRAR Vulnerability Could Let Attackers Hack Zimbra Webmail Servers

A new security vulnerability has been disclosed in RARlab's UnRAR utility that, if successfully exploited, could permit a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on a system that relies on the binary. The flaw, assigned the identifier CVE-2022-30333, relates to a path traversal vulnerability in...

New 'FabricScape' Bug in Microsoft Azure Service Fabric Impacts Linux Workloads

Cybersecurity researchers from Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 disclosed details of a new security flaw affecting Microsoft's Service Fabric that could be exploited to obtain elevated permissions and seize control of all nodes in a cluster. The issue, which has been dubbed FabricScape CVE-2022-30137,...

CISA Warns of Active Exploitation of 'PwnKit' Linux Vulnerability in the Wild

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA this week moved to add a Linux vulnerability dubbed PwnKit to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, citing evidence of active exploitation. The issue, tracked as CVE-2021-4034 CVSS score: 7.8, came to light in January 2022 and...

ZuoRAT Malware Hijacking Home-Office Routers to Spy on Targeted Networks

A never-before-seen remote access trojan dubbed ZuoRAT has been singling out small office/home office SOHO routers as part of a sophisticated campaign targeting North American and European networks. The malware "grants the actor the ability to pivot into the local network and gain access to...

APT Hackers Targeting Industrial Control Systems with ShadowPad Backdoor

Entities located in Afghanistan, Malaysia, and Pakistan are in the crosshairs of an attack campaign that targets unpatched Microsoft Exchange Servers as an initial access vector to deploy the ShadowPad malware. Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky, which first detected the activity in mid-October...

Overview of Top Mobile Security Threats in 2022

Your smartphone is your daily companion. The chances are that most of our activities rely on them, from ordering food to booking medical appointments. However, the threat landscape always reminds us how vulnerable smartphones can be. Consider the recent discovery by Oversecured, a security startu...

OpenSSL to Release Security Patch for Remote Memory Corruption Vulnerability

The latest version of the OpenSSL library has been discovered as susceptible to a remote memory-corruption vulnerability on select systems. The issue has been identified in OpenSSL version 3.0.4, which was released on June 21, 2022, and impacts x64 systems with the AVX-512 instruction set. OpenSS...

New Android Banking Trojan 'Revive' Targeting Users of Spanish Financial Services

A previously unknown Android banking trojan has been discovered in the wild, targeting users of the Spanish financial services company BBVA. Said to be in its early stages of development, the malware — dubbed Revive by Italian cybersecurity firm Cleafy — was first observed on June 15, 2022 and...

Cybersecurity Experts Warn of Emerging Threat of "Black Basta" Ransomware

The Black Basta ransomware-as-a-service RaaS syndicate has amassed nearly 50 victims in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand within two months of its emergence in the wild, making it a prominent threat in a short window. "Black Basta has been observed targeting a range of...

Critical Security Flaws Identified in CODESYS ICS Automation Software

CODESYS has released patches to address as many as 11 security flaws that, if successfully exploited, could result in information disclosure and a denial-of-service DoS condition, among others. "These vulnerabilities are simple to exploit, and they can be successfully exploited to cause...

What Are Shadow IDs, and How Are They Crucial in 2022?

Just before last Christmas, in a first-of-a-kind case, JPMorgan was fined $200M for employees using non-sanctioned applications for communicating about financial strategy. No mention of insider trading, naked shorting, or any malevolence. Just employees circumventing regulation using, well, Shado...

Italy Data Protection Authority Warns Websites Against Use of Google Analytics

Following the footsteps of Austria and France, the Italian Data Protection Authority has become the latest regulator to find the use of Google Analytics to be non-compliant with E.U. data protection regulations. The Garante per la Protezione dei Dati Personali, in a press release published last...