Indian National Pleads Guilty to $37 Million Cryptocurrency Theft Scheme

An Indian national has pleaded guilty in the U.S. over charges of stealing more than $37 million by setting up a website that impersonated the Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange platform. Chirag Tomar, 30, pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He was arrested on December 20, 2023, upon entering the country. "Tomar and

Researchers Warn of CatDDoS Botnet and DNSBomb DDoS Attack Technique

The threat actors behind the CatDDoS malware botnet have exploited over 80 known security flaws in various software over the past three months to infiltrate vulnerable devices and co-opt them into a botnet for conducting distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. "CatDDoS-related gangs' samples have used a large number of known vulnerabilities to deliver samples," the QiAnXin XLab team 

WordPress Plugin Exploited to Steal Credit Card Data from E-commerce Sites

Unknown threat actors are abusing lesser-known code snippet plugins for WordPress to insert malicious PHP code in victim sites that are capable of harvesting credit card data. The campaign, observed by Sucuri on May 11, 2024, entails the abuse of a WordPress plugin called Dessky Snippets, which allows users to add custom PHP code. It has over 200 active installations.

Report: The Dark Side of Phishing Protection

The transition to the cloud, poor password hygiene and the evolution in webpage technologies have all enabled the rise in phishing attacks. But despite sincere efforts by security stakeholders to mitigate them - through email protection, firewall rules and employee education - phishing attacks are still a very risky attack vector. A new report by LayerX explores the state of

New Tricks in the Phishing Playbook: Cloudflare Workers, HTML Smuggling, GenAI

Cybersecurity researchers are alerting of phishing campaigns that abuse Cloudflare Workers to serve phishing sites that are used to harvest users' credentials associated with Microsoft, Gmail, Yahoo!, and cPanel Webmail. The attack method, called transparent phishing or adversary-in-the-middle (AitM) phishing, "uses Cloudflare Workers to act as a reverse proxy server for a

Hackers Created Rogue VMs to Evade Detection in Recent MITRE Cyber Attack

The MITRE Corporation has revealed that the cyber attack targeting the not-for-profit company towards late December 2023 by exploiting zero-day flaws in Ivanti Connect Secure (ICS) involved the threat actor creating rogue virtual machines (VMs) within its VMware environment. "The adversary created their own rogue VMs within the VMware environment, leveraging compromised vCenter Server access,"

JAVS Courtroom Recording Software Backdoored - Deploys RustDoor Malware

Malicious actors have backdoored the installer associated with courtroom video recording software developed by Justice AV Solutions (JAVS) to deliver malware that's associated with a known implant called RustDoor. The software supply chain attack, tracked as CVE-2024-4978 (CVSS score: 8.7), impacts JAVS Viewer v8.3.7, a component of the JAVS Suite 8 that allows users to create,

New Frontiers, Old Tactics: Chinese Espionage Group Targets Africa & Caribbean Govts

The China-linked threat actor known as Sharp Panda has expanded their targeting to include governmental organizations in Africa and the Caribbean as part of an ongoing cyber espionage campaign. "The campaign adopts Cobalt Strike Beacon as the payload, enabling backdoor functionalities like C2 communication and command execution while minimizing the exposure of their custom tools," Check Point

Researchers Warn of Chinese-Aligned Hackers Targeting South China Sea Countries

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a previously undocumented threat group called Unfading Sea Haze that's believed to have been active since 2018. The intrusion singled out high-level organizations in South China Sea countries, particularly military and government targets, Bitdefender said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "The investigation revealed a troubling

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

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

"Linguistic Lumberjack" Vulnerability Discovered in Popular Logging Utility Fluent Bit

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a critical security flaw in a popular logging and metrics utility called Fluent Bit that could be exploited to achieve denial-of-service (DoS), information disclosure, or remote code execution. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-4323, has been codenamed Linguistic Lumberjack by Tenable Research. It impacts versions from 2.0.7 through

Latrodectus Malware Loader Emerges as IcedID's Successor in Phishing Campaigns

Cybersecurity researchers have observed a spike in email phishing campaigns starting early March 2024 that delivers Latrodectus, a nascent malware loader believed to be the successor to the IcedID malware. "These campaigns typically involve a recognizable infection chain involving oversized JavaScript files that utilize WMI's ability to invoke msiexec.exe and install a remotely-hosted MSI

Grandoreiro Banking Trojan Resurfaces, Targeting Over 1,500 Banks Worldwide

The threat actors behind the Windows-based Grandoreiro banking trojan have returned in a global campaign since March 2024 following a law enforcement takedown in January. The large-scale phishing attacks, likely facilitated by other cybercriminals via a malware-as-a-service (MaaS) model, target over 1,500 banks across the world, spanning more than 60 countries in Central and South

New XM Cyber Research: 80% of Exposures from Misconfigurations, Less Than 1% from CVEs

A new report from XM Cyber has found – among other insights - a dramatic gap between where most organizations focus their security efforts, and where the most serious threats actually reside. The new report, Navigating the Paths of Risk: The State of Exposure Management in 2024, is based on hundreds of thousands of attack path assessments conducted by the XM Cyber

Cybercriminals Exploiting Microsoft’s Quick Assist Feature in Ransomware Attacks

The Microsoft Threat Intelligence team said it has observed a threat actor it tracks under the name Storm-1811 abusing the client management tool Quick Assist to target users in social engineering attacks. "Storm-1811 is a financially motivated cybercriminal group known to deploy Black Basta ransomware," the company said in a report published on May 15, 2024. The

FBI Seizes BreachForums Again, Urges Users to Report Criminal Activity

Law enforcement agencies have officially seized control of the notorious BreachForums platform, an online bazaar known for peddling stolen data, for the second time within a year. The website ("breachforums[.]st") has been replaced by a seizure banner stating the clearnet cybercrime forum is under the control of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).  The operation is the

Microsoft Patches 61 Flaws, Including Two Actively Exploited Zero-Days

Microsoft has addressed a total of 61 new security flaws in its software as part of its Patch Tuesday updates for May 2024, including two zero-days which have been actively exploited in the wild. Of the 61 flaws, one is rated Critical, 59 are rated Important, and one is rated Moderate in severity. This is in addition to 30 vulnerabilities&

The 2024 Browser Security Report Uncovers How Every Web Session Could be a Security Minefield

With the browser becoming the most prevalent workspace in the enterprise, it is also turning into a popular attack vector for cyber attackers. From account takeovers to malicious extensions to phishing attacks, the browser is a means for stealing sensitive data and accessing organizational systems. Security leaders who are planning their security architecture

Black Basta Ransomware Strikes 500+ Entities Across North America, Europe, and Australia

The Black Basta ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation has targeted more than 500 private industry and critical infrastructure entities in North America, Europe, and Australia since its emergence in April 2022. In a joint advisory published by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS

Malicious Python Package Hides Sliver C2 Framework in Fake Requests Library Logo

Cybersecurity researchers have identified a malicious Python package that purports to be an offshoot of the popular requests library and has been found concealing a Golang-version of the Sliver command-and-control (C2) framework within a PNG image of the project's logo.  The package employing this steganographic trickery is requests-darwin-lite, which has been

Kremlin-Backed APT28 Targets Polish Institutions in Large-Scale Malware Campaign

Polish government institutions have been targeted as part of a large-scale malware campaign orchestrated by a Russia-linked nation-state actor called APT28. "The campaign sent emails with content intended to arouse the recipient's interest and persuade him to click on the link," the computer emergency response team, CERT Polska, said in a Wednesday bulletin. Clicking on the link

A SaaS Security Challenge: Getting Permissions All in One Place 

Permissions in SaaS platforms like Salesforce, Workday, and Microsoft 365 are remarkably precise. They spell out exactly which users have access to which data sets. The terminology differs between apps, but each user’s base permission is determined by their role, while additional permissions may be granted based on tasks or projects they are involved with. Layered on top of

Hijack Loader Malware Employs Process Hollowing, UAC Bypass in Latest Version

A newer version of a malware loader called Hijack Loader has been observed incorporating an updated set of anti-analysis techniques to fly under the radar. "These enhancements aim to increase the malware's stealthiness, thereby remaining undetected for longer periods of time," Zscaler ThreatLabz researcher Muhammed Irfan V A said in a technical report. "Hijack

It Costs How Much?!? The Financial Pitfalls of Cyberattacks on SMBs

Cybercriminals are vipers. They’re like snakes in the grass, hiding behind their keyboards, waiting to strike. And if you're a small- and medium-sized business (SMB), your organization is the ideal lair for these serpents to slither into.  With cybercriminals becoming more sophisticated, SMBs like you must do more to protect themselves. But at what price? That’s the daunting question

Microsoft Outlook Flaw Exploited by Russia's APT28 to Hack Czech, German Entities

Czechia and Germany on Friday revealed that they were the target of a long-term cyber espionage campaign conducted by the Russia-linked nation-state actor known as APT28, drawing condemnation from the European Union (E.U.), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the U.K., and the U.S. The Czech Republic's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), in a statement, said some unnamed

Expert-Led Webinar - Uncovering Latest DDoS Tactics and Learn How to Fight Back

In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, the threat of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks looms more significant than ever. As these cyber threats grow in sophistication, understanding and countering them becomes crucial for any business seeking to protect its online presence. To address this urgent need, we are thrilled to announce our upcoming webinar, "Uncovering Contemporary

Dropbox Discloses Breach of Digital Signature Service Affecting All Users

Cloud storage services provider Dropbox on Wednesday disclosed that Dropbox Sign (formerly HelloSign) was breached by unidentified threat actors, who accessed emails, usernames, and general account settings associated with all users of the digital signature product. The company, in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), said it became aware of the "

CISA Warns of Active Exploitation of Severe GitLab Password Reset Vulnerability

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has added a critical flaw impacting GitLab to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, owing to active exploitation in the wild. Tracked as CVE-2023-7028 (CVSS score: 10.0), the maximum severity vulnerability could facilitate account takeover by sending password reset emails to an unverified email

Android Malware Wpeeper Uses Compromised WordPress Sites to Hide C2 Servers

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a previously undocumented malware targeting Android devices that uses compromised WordPress sites as relays for its actual command-and-control (C2) servers for detection evasion. The malware, codenamed Wpeeper, is an ELF binary that leverages the HTTPS protocol to secure its C2 communications. "Wpeeper is a typical backdoor Trojan for Android

ZLoader Malware Evolves with Anti-Analysis Trick from Zeus Banking Trojan

The authors behind the resurfaced ZLoader malware have added a feature that was originally present in the Zeus banking trojan that it's based on, indicating that it's being actively developed. "The latest version, 2.4.1.0, introduces a feature to prevent execution on machines that differ from the original infection," Zscaler ThreatLabz researcher Santiago

Millions of Malicious 'Imageless' Containers Planted on Docker Hub Over 5 Years

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered multiple campaigns targeting Docker Hub by planting millions of malicious "imageless" containers over the past five years, once again underscoring how open-source registries could pave the way for supply chain attacks. "Over four million of the repositories in Docker Hub are imageless and have no content except for the repository

U.S. Government Releases New AI Security Guidelines for Critical Infrastructure

The U.S. government has unveiled new security guidelines aimed at bolstering critical infrastructure against artificial intelligence (AI)-related threats. "These guidelines are informed by the whole-of-government effort to assess AI risks across all sixteen critical infrastructure sectors, and address threats both to and from, and involving AI systems," the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)&

New U.K. Law Bans Default Passwords on Smart Devices Starting April 2024

The U.K. National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is calling on manufacturers of smart devices to comply with new legislation that prohibits them from using default passwords, effective April 29, 2024. "The law, known as the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure act (or PSTI act), will help consumers to choose smart devices that have been designed to

New R Programming Vulnerability Exposes Projects to Supply Chain Attacks

A security vulnerability has been discovered in the R programming language that could be exploited by a threat actor to create a malicious RDS (R Data Serialization) file such that it results in code execution when loaded and referenced. The flaw, assigned the CVE identifier CVE-2024-27322 (CVSS score: 8.8), "involves the use of promise objects and lazy evaluation in R," AI application

Navigating the Threat Landscape: Understanding Exposure Management, Pentesting, Red Teaming and RBVM

It comes as no surprise that today's cyber threats are orders of magnitude more complex than those of the past. And the ever-evolving tactics that attackers use demand the adoption of better, more holistic and consolidated ways to meet this non-stop challenge. Security teams constantly look for ways to reduce risk while improving security posture, but many

Sandbox Escape Vulnerabilities in Judge0 Expose Systems to Complete Takeover

Multiple critical security flaws have been disclosed in the Judge0 open-source online code execution system that could be exploited to obtain code execution on the target system. The three flaws, all critical in nature, allow an "adversary with sufficient access to perform a sandbox escape and obtain root permissions on the host machine," Australian

Okta Warns of Unprecedented Surge in Proxy-Driven Credential Stuffing Attacks

Identity and access management (IAM) services provider Okta has warned of a spike in the "frequency and scale" of credential stuffing attacks aimed at online services. These unprecedented attacks, observed over the last month, are said to be facilitated by "the broad availability of residential proxy services, lists of previously stolen credentials ('combo lists'), and scripting tools," the

Severe Flaws Disclosed in Brocade SANnav SAN Management Software

Several security vulnerabilities disclosed in Brocade SANnav storage area network (SAN) management application could be exploited to compromise susceptible appliances. The 18 flaws impact all versions up to and including 2.3.0, according to independent security researcher Pierre Barre, who discovered and reported them. The issues range from incorrect firewall rules,

Hackers Exploiting WP-Automatic Plugin Bug to Create Admin Accounts on WordPress Sites

Threat actors are attempting to actively exploit a critical security flaw in the ValvePress Automatic plugin for WordPress that could allow site takeovers. The shortcoming, tracked as CVE-2024-27956, carries a CVSS score of 9.9 out of a maximum of 10. It impacts all versions of the plugin prior to 3.92.0. The issue has been resolved in version 3.92.1 released on February 27, 2024,

Network Threats: A Step-by-Step Attack Demonstration

Follow this real-life network attack simulation, covering 6 steps from Initial Access to Data Exfiltration. See how attackers remain undetected with the simplest tools and why you need multiple choke points in your defense strategy. Surprisingly, most network attacks are not exceptionally sophisticated, technologically advanced, or reliant on zero-day tools that exploit

State-Sponsored Hackers Exploit Two Cisco Zero-Day Vulnerabilities for Espionage

A new malware campaign leveraged two zero-day flaws in Cisco networking gear to deliver custom malware and facilitate covert data collection on target environments. Cisco Talos, which dubbed the activity ArcaneDoor, attributed it as the handiwork of a previously undocumented sophisticated state-sponsored actor it tracks under the name UAT4356 (aka Storm-1849 by Microsoft). "UAT4356

U.S. Treasury Sanctions Iranian Firms and Individuals Tied to Cyber Attacks

The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Monday sanctioned two firms and four individuals for their involvement in malicious cyber activities on behalf of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Cyber Electronic Command (IRGC-CEC) from at least 2016 to April 2021. This includes the front companies Mehrsam Andisheh Saz Nik (MASN) and Dadeh

Researchers Detail Multistage Attack Hijacking Systems with SSLoad, Cobalt Strike

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered an ongoing attack campaign that's leveraging phishing emails to deliver a malware called SSLoad. The campaign, codenamed FROZEN#SHADOW by Securonix, also involves the deployment of Cobalt Strike and the ConnectWise ScreenConnect remote desktop software. "SSLoad is designed to stealthily infiltrate systems, gather sensitive

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

Apache Cordova App Harness Targeted in Dependency Confusion Attack

Researchers have identified a dependency confusion vulnerability impacting an archived Apache project called Cordova App Harness. Dependency confusion attacks take place owing to the fact that package managers check the public repositories before private registries, thus allowing a threat actor to publish a malicious package with the same name to a public package repository. This&

Webinar: Learn Proactive Supply Chain Threat Hunting Techniques

In the high-stakes world of cybersecurity, the battleground has shifted. Supply chain attacks have emerged as a potent threat, exploiting the intricate web of interconnected systems and third-party dependencies to breach even the most formidable defenses. But what if you could turn the tables and proactively hunt these threats before they wreak havoc? We invite you to join us for an

Unmasking the True Cost of Cyberattacks: Beyond Ransom and Recovery

Cybersecurity breaches can be devastating for both individuals and businesses alike. While many people tend to focus on understanding how and why they were targeted by such breaches, there's a larger, more pressing question: What is the true financial impact of a cyberattack? According to research by Cybersecurity Ventures, the global cost of cybercrime is projected to reach

Russia's APT28 Exploited Windows Print Spooler Flaw to Deploy 'GooseEgg' Malware

The Russia-linked nation-state threat actor tracked as APT28 weaponized a security flaw in the Microsoft Windows Print Spooler component to deliver a previously unknown custom malware called GooseEgg. The post-compromise tool, which is said to have been used since at least June 2020 and possibly as early as April 2019, leveraged a now-patched flaw that allowed for

ToddyCat Hacker Group Uses Advanced Tools for Industrial-Scale Data Theft

The threat actor known as ToddyCat has been observed using a wide range of tools to retain access to compromised environments and steal valuable data. Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky characterized the adversary as relying on various programs to harvest data on an "industrial scale" from primarily governmental organizations, some of them defense related, located in

Microsoft Warns: North Korean Hackers Turn to AI-Fueled Cyber Espionage

Microsoft has revealed that North Korea-linked state-sponsored cyber actors have begun to use artificial intelligence (AI) to make their operations more effective and efficient. "They are learning to use tools powered by AI large language models (LLM) to make their operations more efficient and effective," the tech giant said in its latest report on East Asia hacking groups. The

How Attackers Can Own a Business Without Touching the Endpoint

Attackers are increasingly making use of “networkless” attack techniques targeting cloud apps and identities. Here’s how attackers can (and are) compromising organizations – without ever needing to touch the endpoint or conventional networked systems and services.  Before getting into the details of the attack techniques being used, let’s discuss why

Global Police Operation Disrupts 'LabHost' Phishing Service, Over 30 Arrested Worldwide

As many as 37 individuals have been arrested as part of an international crackdown on a cybercrime service called LabHost that has been used by criminal actors to steal personal credentials from victims around the world. Described as one of the largest Phishing-as-a-Service (PhaaS) providers, LabHost offered phishing pages targeting banks, high-profile organizations, and other service

Russian APT Deploys New 'Kapeka' Backdoor in Eastern European Attacks

A previously undocumented "flexible" backdoor called Kapeka has been "sporadically" observed in cyber attacks targeting Eastern Europe, including Estonia and Ukraine, since at least mid-2022. The findings come from Finnish cybersecurity firm WithSecure, which attributed the malware to the Russia-linked advanced persistent threat (APT) group tracked as Sandworm (aka APT44 or

Cisco Warns of Global Surge in Brute-Force Attacks Targeting VPN and SSH Services

Cisco is warning about a global surge in brute-force attacks targeting various devices, including Virtual Private Network (VPN) services, web application authentication interfaces, and SSH services, since at least March 18, 2024. "These attacks all appear to be originating from TOR exit nodes and a range of other anonymizing tunnels and proxies," Cisco Talos said. Successful attacks could

OpenJS Foundation Targeted in Potential JavaScript Project Takeover Attempt

Security researchers have uncovered a "credible" takeover attempt targeting the OpenJS Foundation in a manner that evokes similarities to the recently uncovered incident aimed at the open-source XZ Utils project. "The OpenJS Foundation Cross Project Council received a suspicious series of emails with similar messages, bearing different names and overlapping GitHub-associated emails," OpenJS

TA558 Hackers Weaponize Images for Wide-Scale Malware Attacks

The threat actor tracked as TA558 has been observed leveraging steganography as an obfuscation technique to deliver a wide range of malware such as Agent Tesla, FormBook, Remcos RAT, LokiBot, GuLoader, Snake Keylogger, and XWorm, among others. "The group made extensive use of steganography by sending VBSs, PowerShell code, as well as RTF documents with an embedded exploit, inside

Widely-Used PuTTY SSH Client Found Vulnerable to Key Recovery Attack

The maintainers of the PuTTY Secure Shell (SSH) and Telnet client are alerting users of a critical vulnerability impacting versions from 0.68 through 0.80 that could be exploited to achieve full recovery of NIST P-521 (ecdsa-sha2-nistp521) private keys. The flaw has been assigned the CVE identifier CVE-2024-31497, with the discovery credited to researchers Fabian Bäumer and Marcus

Timing is Everything: The Role of Just-in-Time Privileged Access in Security Evolution

To minimize the risk of privilege misuse, a trend in the privileged access management (PAM) solution market involves implementing just-in-time (JIT) privileged access. This approach to privileged identity management aims to mitigate the risks associated with prolonged high-level access by granting privileges temporarily and only when necessary, rather than providing users with

Palo Alto Networks Releases Urgent Fixes for Exploited PAN-OS Vulnerability

Palo Alto Networks has released hotfixes to address a maximum-severity security flaw impacting PAN-OS software that has come under active exploitation in the wild. Tracked as CVE-2024-3400 (CVSS score: 10.0), the critical vulnerability is a case of command injection in the GlobalProtect feature that an unauthenticated attacker could weaponize to execute arbitrary code with root