BYOVD Attack | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Threat actors are employing a previously undocumented "defense evasion tool" dubbed AuKill that's designed to disable endpoint detection and response (EDR) software by means of a Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver ( BYOVD ) attack. "The AuKill tool abuses an outdated version of the  driver  used by version 16.32 of the Microsoft utility,  Process Explorer , to disable EDR processes before deploying either a backdoor or ransomware on the target system," Sophos researcher Andreas Klopsch  said  in a report published last week. Incidents analyzed by the cybersecurity firm show the use of AuKill since the start of 2023 to deploy various ransomware strains such as Medusa Locker and LockBit. Six different versions of the malware have been identified to date. The oldest AuKill sample features a November 2022 compilation timestamp. The  BYOVD technique  relies on threat actors misusing a legitimate, but out-of-date and exploitable, driver signed by Microsof...

In yet another case of bring your own vulnerable driver (BYOVD) attack, the operators of the BlackByte ransomware are leveraging a flaw in a legitimate Windows driver to bypass security solutions. "The evasion technique supports disabling a whopping list of over 1,000 drivers on which security products rely to provide protection," Sophos threat researcher Andreas Klopsch  said  in a new technical write-up. BYOVD is an  attack technique  that involves threat actors abusing vulnerabilities in legitimate, signed drivers to achieve successful kernel-mode exploitation and seize control of compromised machines. Weaknesses in signed drivers have been increasingly co-opted by nation-state threat groups in recent years, including  Slingshot ,  InvisiMole ,  APT28 , and most recently, the  Lazarus Group . BlackByte, believed to be an offshoot of the  now-discontinued Conti group , is part of the big game cybercrime crews, which zeroes in on larg...

Vulnerability Management (VM) has long been a cornerstone of organizational cybersecurity. Nearly as old as the discipline of cybersecurity itself, it aims to help organizations identify and address potential security issues before they become serious problems. Yet, in recent years, the limitations of this approach have become increasingly evident.  At its core, Vulnerability Management processes remain essential for identifying and addressing weaknesses. But as time marches on and attack avenues evolve, this approach is beginning to show its age. In a recent report, How to Grow Vulnerability Management into Exposure Management (Gartner, How to Grow Vulnerability Management Into Exposure Management, 8 November 2024, Mitchell Schneider Et Al.), we believe Gartner® addresses this point precisely and demonstrates how organizations can – and must – shift from a vulnerability-centric strategy to a broader Exposure Management (EM) framework. We feel it's more than a worthwhile read an...