The End of an Era: Microsoft Phases Out VBScript for JavaScript and PowerShell

Microsoft on Wednesday outlined its plans to deprecate Visual Basic Script (VBScript) in the second half of 2024 in favor of more advanced alternatives such as JavaScript and PowerShell. "Technology has advanced over the years, giving rise to more powerful and versatile scripting languages such as JavaScript and PowerShell," Microsoft Program Manager Naveen Shankar said. "These languages

GHOSTENGINE Exploits Vulnerable Drivers to Disable EDRs in Cryptojacking Attack

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new cryptojacking campaign that employs vulnerable drivers to disable known security solutions (EDRs) and thwart detection in what's called a Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver (BYOVD) attack. Elastic Security Labs is tracking the campaign under the name REF4578 and the primary payload as GHOSTENGINE. Previous research from Chinese

MS Exchange Server Flaws Exploited to Deploy Keylogger in Targeted Attacks

An unknown threat actor is exploiting known security flaws in Microsoft Exchange Server to deploy a keylogger malware in attacks targeting entities in Africa and the Middle East. Russian cybersecurity firm Positive Technologies said it identified over 30 victims spanning government agencies, banks, IT companies, and educational institutions. The first-ever compromise dates back to 2021. "This

Malware Delivery via Cloud Services Exploits Unicode Trick to Deceive Users

A new attack campaign dubbed CLOUD#REVERSER has been observed leveraging legitimate cloud storage services like Google Drive and Dropbox to stage malicious payloads. "The VBScript and PowerShell scripts in the CLOUD#REVERSER inherently involves command-and-control-like activities by using Google Drive and Dropbox as staging platforms to manage file uploads and downloads," Securonix

FIN7 Hacker Group Leverages Malicious Google Ads to Deliver NetSupport RAT

The financially motivated threat actor known as FIN7 has been observed leveraging malicious Google ads spoofing legitimate brands as a means to deliver MSIX installers that culminate in the deployment of NetSupport RAT. "The threat actors used malicious websites to impersonate well-known brands, including AnyDesk, WinSCP, BlackRock, Asana, Concur, The Wall

China-Linked Hackers Used ROOTROT Webshell in MITRE Network Intrusion

The MITRE Corporation has offered more details into the recently disclosed cyber attack, stating that the first evidence of the intrusion now dates back to December 31, 2023. The attack, which came to light last month, singled out MITRE's Networked Experimentation, Research, and Virtualization Environment (NERVE) through the exploitation of two Ivanti Connect Secure zero-day

CoralRaider Malware Campaign Exploits CDN Cache to Spread Info-Stealers

A new ongoing malware campaign has been observed distributing three different stealers, such as CryptBot, LummaC2, and Rhadamanthys hosted on Content Delivery Network (CDN) cache domains since at least February 2024. Cisco Talos has attributed the activity with moderate confidence to a threat actor tracked as CoralRaider, a suspected Vietnamese-origin

Critical Atlassian Flaw Exploited to Deploy Linux Variant of Cerber Ransomware

Threat actors are exploiting unpatched Atlassian servers to deploy a Linux variant of Cerber (aka C3RB3R) ransomware. The attacks leverage CVE-2023-22518 (CVSS score: 9.1), a critical security vulnerability impacting the Atlassian Confluence Data Center and Server that allows an unauthenticated attacker to reset Confluence and create an administrator account. Armed with this access, a

Hackers Exploit Fortinet Flaw, Deploy ScreenConnect, Metasploit in New Campaign

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new campaign that's exploiting a recently disclosed security flaw in Fortinet FortiClient EMS devices to deliver ScreenConnect and Metasploit Powerfun payloads. The activity entails the exploitation of CVE-2023-48788 (CVSS score: 9.3), a critical SQL injection flaw that could permit an unauthenticated attacker to execute unauthorized code or

Popular Rust Crate liblzma-sys Compromised with XZ Utils Backdoor Files

"Test files" associated with the XZ Utils backdoor have made their way to a Rust crate known as liblzma-sys, new findings from Phylum reveal. liblzma-sys, which has been downloaded over 21,000 times to date, provides Rust developers with bindings to the liblzma implementation, an underlying library that is part of the XZ Utils data compression software. The

TA547 Phishing Attack Hits German Firms with Rhadamanthys Stealer

A threat actor tracked as TA547 has targeted dozens of German organizations with an information stealer called Rhadamanthys as part of an invoice-themed phishing campaign. "This is the first time researchers observed TA547 use Rhadamanthys, an information stealer that is used by multiple cybercriminal threat actors," Proofpoint said. "Additionally, the actor appeared to

Malicious Code in XZ Utils for Linux Systems Enables Remote Code Execution

The malicious code inserted into the open-source library XZ Utils, a widely used package present in major Linux distributions, is also capable of facilitating remote code execution, a new analysis has revealed. The audacious supply chain compromise, tracked as CVE-2024-3094 (CVSS score: 10.0), came to light last week when Microsoft engineer and PostgreSQL developer Andres Freund

Critical Unpatched Ray AI Platform Vulnerability Exploited for Cryptocurrency Mining

Cybersecurity researchers are warning that threat actors are actively exploiting a "disputed" and unpatched vulnerability in an open-source artificial intelligence (AI) platform called Anyscale Ray to hijack computing power for illicit cryptocurrency mining. "This vulnerability allows attackers to take over the companies' computing power and leak sensitive data," Oligo Security researchers Avi

AndroxGh0st Malware Targets Laravel Apps to Steal Cloud Credentials

Cybersecurity researchers have shed light on a tool referred to as AndroxGh0st that's used to target Laravel applications and steal sensitive data. "It works by scanning and taking out important information from .env files, revealing login details linked to AWS and Twilio," Juniper Threat Labs researcher Kashinath T Pattan said. "Classified as an SMTP cracker, it exploits SMTP

New DEEP#GOSU Malware Campaign Targets Windows Users with Advanced Tactics

A new elaborate attack campaign has been observed employing PowerShell and VBScript malware to infect Windows systems and harvest sensitive information. Cybersecurity company Securonix, which dubbed the campaign DEEP#GOSU, said it's likely associated with the North Korean state-sponsored group tracked as Kimsuky (aka Emerald Sleet, Springtail, or Velvet Chollima). "The malware payloads used in

Fortra Patches Critical RCE Vulnerability in FileCatalyst Transfer Tool

Fortra has released details of a now-patched critical security flaw impacting its FileCatalyst file transfer solution that could allow unauthenticated attackers to gain remote code execution on susceptible servers. Tracked as CVE-2024-25153, the shortcoming carries a CVSS score of 9.8 out of a maximum of 10. "A directory traversal within the 'ftpservlet' of the FileCatalyst Workflow

Hackers Using Sneaky HTML Smuggling to Deliver Malware via Fake Google Sites

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new malware campaign that leverages bogus Google Sites pages and HTML smuggling to distribute a commercial malware called AZORult in order to facilitate information theft. "It uses an unorthodox HTML smuggling technique where the malicious payload is embedded in a separate JSON file hosted on an external website," Netskope Threat Labs

BianLian Threat Actors Exploiting JetBrains TeamCity Flaws in Ransomware Attacks

The threat actors behind the BianLian ransomware have been observed exploiting security flaws in JetBrains TeamCity software to conduct their extortion-only attacks. According to a new report from GuidePoint Security, which responded to a recent intrusion, the incident "began with the exploitation of a TeamCity server which resulted in the deployment of a PowerShell implementation of

Watch Out for Spoofed Zoom, Skype, Google Meet Sites Delivering Malware

Threat actors have been leveraging fake websites advertising popular video conferencing software such as Google Meet, Skype, and Zoom to deliver a variety of malware targeting both Android and Windows users since December 2023. “The threat actor is distributing Remote Access Trojans (RATs) including SpyNote RAT for Android platforms, and NjRAT and DCRat for Windows

Over 100 Malicious AI/ML Models Found on Hugging Face Platform

As many as 100 malicious artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) models have been discovered in the Hugging Face platform. These include instances where loading a pickle file leads to code execution, software supply chain security firm JFrog said. "The model's payload grants the attacker a shell on the compromised machine, enabling them to gain full control over victims'

New IDAT Loader Attacks Using Steganography to Deploy Remcos RAT

Ukrainian entities based in Finland have been targeted as part of a malicious campaign distributing a commercial remote access trojan known as Remcos RAT using a malware loader called IDAT Loader. The attack has been attributed to a threat actor tracked by the Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT-UA) under the moniker UAC-0184. "The attack, as part of the IDAT Loader, used

Russian Turla Hackers Target Polish NGOs with New TinyTurla-NG Backdoor

The Russia-linked threat actor known as Turla has been observed using a new backdoor called TinyTurla-NG as part of a three-month-long campaign targeting Polish non-governmental organizations in December 2023. "TinyTurla-NG, just like TinyTurla, is a small 'last chance' backdoor that is left behind to be used when all other unauthorized access/backdoor mechanisms have failed or been

Bumblebee Malware Returns with New Tricks, Targeting U.S. Businesses

The infamous malware loader and initial access broker known as Bumblebee has resurfaced after a four-month absence as part of a new phishing campaign observed in February 2024. Enterprise security firm Proofpoint said the activity targets organizations in the U.S. with voicemail-themed lures containing links to OneDrive URLs. "The URLs led to a Word file with names such as "

Ivanti Vulnerability Exploited to Install 'DSLog' Backdoor on 670+ IT Infrastructures

Threat actors are leveraging a recently disclosed security flaw impacting Ivanti Connect Secure, Policy Secure, and ZTA gateways to deploy a backdoor codenamed DSLog on susceptible devices. That's according to findings from Orange Cyberdefense, which said it observed the exploitation of CVE-2024-21893 within hours of the public release of the proof-the-concept (PoC) code. CVE

Kimsuky's New Golang Stealer 'Troll' and 'GoBear' Backdoor Target South Korea

The North Korea-linked nation-state actor known as Kimsuky is suspected of using a previously undocumented Golang-based information stealer called Troll Stealer. The malware steals "SSH, FileZilla, C drive files/directories, browsers, system information, [and] screen captures" from infected systems, South Korean cybersecurity company S2W said in a new technical report. Troll

Recent SSRF Flaw in Ivanti VPN Products Undergoes Mass Exploitation

A recently disclosed server-side request forgery (SSRF) vulnerability impacting Ivanti Connect Secure and Policy Secure products has come under mass exploitation. The Shadowserver Foundation said it observed exploitation attempts originating from more than 170 unique IP addresses that aim to establish a reverse shell, among others. The attacks exploit CVE-2024-21893 (CVSS

FritzFrog Returns with Log4Shell and PwnKit, Spreading Malware Inside Your Network

The threat actor behind a peer-to-peer (P2P) botnet known as FritzFrog has made a return with a new variant that leverages the Log4Shell vulnerability to propagate internally within an already compromised network. "The vulnerability is exploited in a brute-force manner that attempts to target as many vulnerable Java applications as possible," web infrastructure and security

Italian Businesses Hit by Weaponized USBs Spreading Cryptojacking Malware

A financially motivated threat actor known as UNC4990 is leveraging weaponized USB devices as an initial infection vector to target organizations in Italy. Google-owned Mandiant said the attacks single out multiple industries, including health, transportation, construction, and logistics. "UNC4990 operations generally involve widespread USB infection followed by the deployment of the

LODEINFO Fileless Malware Evolves with Anti-Analysis and Remote Code Tricks

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered an updated version of a backdoor called LODEINFO that's distributed via spear-phishing attacks. The findings come from Japanese company ITOCHU Cyber & Intelligence, which said the malware "has been updated with new features, as well as changes to the anti-analysis (analysis avoidance) techniques." LODEINFO (versions 0.6.6 and 0.6.7

CISA Issues Emergency Directive to Federal Agencies on Ivanti Zero-Day Exploits

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Friday issued an emergency directive urging Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies to implement mitigations against two actively exploited zero-day flaws in Ivanti Connect Secure (ICS) and Ivanti Policy Secure (IPS) products. The development arrives as the vulnerabilities – an authentication bypass

New PoC Exploit for Apache OfBiz Vulnerability Poses Risk to ERP Systems

Cybersecurity researchers have developed a proof-of-concept (PoC) code that exploits a recently disclosed critical flaw in the Apache OfBiz open-source Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to execute a memory-resident payload. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2023-51467 (CVSS score: 9.8), a bypass for another severe shortcoming in the same software (CVE-

Chinese Hackers Exploit Zero-Day Flaws in Ivanti Connect Secure and Policy Secure

A pair of zero-day flaws identified in Ivanti Connect Secure (ICS) and Policy Secure have been chained by suspected China-linked nation-state actors to breach less than 10 customers. Cybersecurity firm Volexity, which identified the activity on the network of one of its customers in the second week of December 2023, attributed it to a hacking group it tracks under the name UTA0178

New Terrapin Flaw Could Let Attackers Downgrade SSH Protocol Security

Security researchers from Ruhr University Bochum have discovered a vulnerability in the Secure Shell (SSH) cryptographic network protocol that could allow an attacker to downgrade the connection's security by breaking the integrity of the secure channel. Called Terrapin (CVE-2023-48795, CVSS score: 5.9), the exploit has been described as the "first ever practically exploitable prefix

CERT-UA Uncovers New Malware Wave Distributing OCEANMAP, MASEPIE, STEELHOOK

The Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT-UA) has warned of a new phishing campaign orchestrated by the Russia-linked APT28 group to deploy previously undocumented malware such as OCEANMAP, MASEPIE, and STEELHOOK to harvest sensitive information. The activity, which was detected by the agency between December 15 and 25, 2023, targeted Ukrainian

Rogue WordPress Plugin Exposes E-Commerce Sites to Credit Card Theft

Threat hunters have discovered a rogue WordPress plugin that's capable of creating bogus administrator users and injecting malicious JavaScript code to steal credit card information. The skimming activity is part of a Magecart campaign targeting e-commerce websites, according to Sucuri. "As with many other malicious or fake WordPress plugins it contains some deceptive information at

Iranian Hackers Using MuddyC2Go in Telecom Espionage Attacks Across Africa

The Iranian nation-state actor known as MuddyWater has leveraged a newly discovered command-and-control (C2) framework called MuddyC2Go in its attacks on the telecommunications sector in Egypt, Sudan, and Tanzania. The Symantec Threat Hunter Team, part of Broadcom, is tracking the activity under the name Seedworm, which is also tracked under the monikers Boggy Serpens, Cobalt

Hackers Exploited ColdFusion Vulnerability to Breach Federal Agency Servers

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warned of active exploitation of a high-severity Adobe ColdFusion vulnerability by unidentified threat actors to gain initial access to government servers. "The vulnerability in ColdFusion (CVE-2023-26360) presents as an improper access control issue and exploitation of this CVE can result in arbitrary code execution,"

New Threat Actor 'AeroBlade' Emerges in Espionage Attack on U.S. Aerospace

A previously undocumented threat actor has been linked to a cyber attack targeting an aerospace organization in the U.S. as part of what's suspected to be a cyber espionage mission. The BlackBerry Threat Research and Intelligence team is tracking the activity cluster as AeroBlade. Its origin is currently unknown and it's not clear if the attack was successful. "The actor used spear-phishing

Microsoft Warns of Kremlin-Backed APT28 Exploiting Critical Outlook Vulnerability

Microsoft on Monday said it detected Kremlin-backed nation-state activity exploiting a now-patched critical security flaw in its Outlook email service to gain unauthorized access to victims' accounts within Exchange servers. The tech giant attributed the intrusions to a threat actor it called Forest Blizzard (formerly Strontium), which is also widely tracked under the

New BLUFFS Bluetooth Attack Expose Devices to Adversary-in-the-Middle Attacks

New research has unearthed multiple novel attacks that break Bluetooth Classic's forward secrecy and future secrecy guarantees, resulting in adversary-in-the-middle (AitM) scenarios between two already connected peers. The issues, collectively named BLUFFS, impact Bluetooth Core Specification 4.2 through 5.4. They are tracked under the identifier CVE-2023-24023 (CVSS score: 6.8)

New 'HrServ.dll' Web Shell Detected in APT Attack Targeting Afghan Government

An unspecified government entity in Afghanistan was targeted by a previously undocumented web shell called HrServ in what’s suspected to be an advanced persistent threat (APT) attack. The web shell, a dynamic-link library (DLL) named “hrserv.dll,” exhibits “sophisticated features such as custom encoding methods for client communication and in-memory execution,” Kaspersky security

Mirai-based Botnet Exploiting Zero-Day Bugs in Routers and NVRs for Massive DDoS Attacks

An active malware campaign is leveraging two zero-day vulnerabilities with remote code execution (RCE) functionality to rope routers and video recorders into a Mirai-based distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) botnet. “The payload targets routers and network video recorder (NVR) devices with default admin credentials and installs Mirai variants when successful,” Akamai said in an advisory

Vietnamese Hackers Using New Delphi-Powered Malware to Target Indian Marketers

The Vietnamese threat actors behind the Ducktail stealer malware have been linked to a new campaign that ran between March and early October 2023, targeting marketing professionals in India with an aim to hijack Facebook business accounts. "An important feature that sets it apart is that, unlike previous campaigns, which relied on .NET applications, this one used Delphi as the programming

Alert: 'Effluence' Backdoor Persists Despite Patching Atlassian Confluence Servers

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a stealthy backdoor named Effluence that's deployed following the successful exploitation of a recently disclosed security flaw in Atlassian Confluence Data Center and Server. "The malware acts as a persistent backdoor and is not remediated by applying patches to Confluence," Aon's Stroz Friedberg Incident Response Services said in an analysis published

StripedFly Malware Operated Unnoticed for 5 Years, Infecting 1 Million Devices

An advanced strain of malware masquerading as a cryptocurrency miner has managed to fly the radar for over five years, infecting no less than one million devices around the world in the process. That's according to findings from Kaspersky, which has codenamed the threat StripedFly, describing it as an "intricate modular framework that supports both Linux and Windows." The Russian cybersecurity

Cybercriminals Using PowerShell to Steal NTLMv2 Hashes from Compromised Windows

A new cyber attack campaign is leveraging the PowerShell script associated with a legitimate red teaming tool to plunder NTLMv2 hashes from compromised Windows systems primarily located in Australia, Poland, and Belgium. The activity has been codenamed Steal-It by Zscaler ThreatLabz. "In this campaign, the threat actors steal and exfiltrate NTLMv2 hashes using customized versions of Nishang's 

Experts Uncover Weaknesses in PowerShell Gallery Enabling Supply Chain Attacks

Active flaws in the PowerShell Gallery could be weaponized by threat actors to pull off supply chain attacks against the registry's users. "These flaws make typosquatting attacks inevitable in this registry, while also making it extremely difficult for users to identify the true owner of a package," Aqua security researchers Mor Weinberger, Yakir Kadkoda, and Ilay Goldman said in a report shared

Stealth Soldier: A New Custom Backdoor Targets North Africa with Espionage Attacks

A new custom backdoor dubbed Stealth Soldier has been deployed as part of a set of highly-targeted espionage attacks in North Africa. "Stealth Soldier malware is an undocumented backdoor that primarily operates surveillance functions such as file exfiltration, screen and microphone recording, keystroke logging and stealing browser information," cybersecurity company Check Point said in a

New PowerDrop Malware Targeting U.S. Aerospace Industry

An unknown threat actor has been observed targeting the U.S. aerospace industry with a new PowerShell-based malware called PowerDrop. "PowerDrop uses advanced techniques to evade detection such as deception, encoding, and encryption," according to Adlumin, which found the malware implanted in an unnamed domestic aerospace defense contractor in May 2023. "The name is derived from the tool,

New PowerExchange Backdoor Used in Iranian Cyber Attack on UAE Government

An unnamed government entity associated with the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) was targeted by a likely Iranian threat actor to breach the victim's Microsoft Exchange Server with a "simple yet effective" backdoor dubbed PowerExchange. According to a new report from Fortinet FortiGuard Labs, the intrusion relied on email phishing as an initial access pathway, leading to the execution of a .NET

XWorm Malware Exploits Follina Vulnerability in New Wave of Attacks

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered an ongoing phishing campaign that makes use of a unique attack chain to deliver the XWorm malware on targeted systems. Securonix, which is tracking the activity cluster under the name MEME#4CHAN, said some of the attacks have primarily targeted manufacturing firms and healthcare clinics located in Germany. "The attack campaign has been leveraging rather

New Ransomware Strain 'CACTUS' Exploits VPN Flaws to Infiltrate Networks

Cybersecurity researchers have shed light on a new ransomware strain called CACTUS that has been found to leverage known flaws in VPN appliances to obtain initial access to targeted networks. "Once inside the network, CACTUS actors attempt to enumerate local and network user accounts in addition to reachable endpoints before creating new user accounts and leveraging custom scripts to automate

Hackers Using Self-Extracting Archives Exploit for Stealthy Backdoor Attacks

An unknown threat actor used a malicious self-extracting archive (SFX) file in an attempt to establish persistent backdoor access to a victim's environment, new findings from CrowdStrike show. SFX files are capable of extracting the data contained within them without the need for dedicated software to display the file contents. It achieves this by including a decompressor stub, a piece of code

Rogue NuGet Packages Infect .NET Developers with Crypto-Stealing Malware

The NuGet repository is the target of a new "sophisticated and highly-malicious attack" aiming to infect .NET developer systems with cryptocurrency stealer malware. The 13 rogue packages, which were downloaded more than 160,000 times over the past month, have since been taken down. "The packages contained a PowerShell script that would execute upon installation and trigger a download of a '

New 'Bad Magic' Cyber Threat Disrupts Ukraine's Key Sectors Amid War

Amid the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, government, agriculture, and transportation organizations located in Donetsk, Lugansk, and Crimea have been attacked as part of an active campaign that drops a previously unseen, modular framework dubbed CommonMagic. "Although the initial vector of compromise is unclear, the details of the next stage imply the use of spear phishing or similar

New ShellBot DDoS Malware Variants Targeting Poorly Managed Linux Servers

Poorly managed Linux SSH servers are being targeted as part of a new campaign that deploys different variants of a malware called ShellBot. "ShellBot, also known as PerlBot, is a DDoS Bot malware developed in Perl and characteristically uses IRC protocol to communicate with the C&C server," AhnLab Security Emergency response Center (ASEC) said in a report. ShellBot is installed on servers that

BATLOADER Malware Uses Google Ads to Deliver Vidar Stealer and Ursnif Payloads

The malware downloader known as BATLOADER has been observed abusing Google Ads to deliver secondary payloads like Vidar Stealer and Ursnif. According to cybersecurity company eSentire, the malicious ads are used to spoof a wide range of legitimate apps and services such as Adobe, OpenAPI's ChatGPT, Spotify, Tableau, and Zoom. BATLOADER, as the name suggests, is a loader that's responsible for

Researchers Uncover New Bugs in Popular ImageMagick Image Processing Utility

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of two security flaws in the open source ImageMagick software that could potentially lead to a denial-of-service (DoS) and information disclosure. The two issues, which were identified by Latin American cybersecurity firm Metabase Q in version 7.1.0-49, were addressed in ImageMagick version 7.1.0-52, released in November 2022. <!--adsense--> A

Researchers Uncover Packer Used by Several Malware to Evade Detection for 6 Years

A shellcode-based packer dubbed TrickGate has been successfully operating without attracting notice for over six years, while enabling threat actors to deploy a wide range of malware such as TrickBot, Emotet, AZORult, Agent Tesla, FormBook, Cerber, Maze, and REvil over the years. "TrickGate managed to stay under the radar for years because it is transformative – it undergoes changes periodically

Microsoft Urges Customers to Secure On-Premises Exchange Servers

Microsoft is urging customers to keep their Exchange servers updated as well as take steps to bolster the environment, such as enabling Windows Extended Protection and configuring certificate-based signing of PowerShell serialization payloads. "Attackers looking to exploit unpatched Exchange servers are not going to go away," the tech giant's Exchange Team said in a post. "There are too many