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A previously unknown threat activity cluster targeted European organizations, particularly those in the healthcare sector, to deploy PlugX and its successor, ShadowPad, with the intrusions ultimately leading to deployment of a ransomware called NailaoLocker in some cases. The campaign, codenamed Green Nailao by Orange Cyberdefense CERT, involved the exploitation of a now-patched security flaw in Check Point network gateway security products ( CVE-2024-24919 , CVSS score: 7.5). The attacks were observed between June and October 2024. "The campaign relied on DLL search-order hijacking to deploy ShadowPad and PlugX – two implants often associated with China-nexus targeted intrusions," the company said in a technical report shared with The Hacker News. The initial access afforded by exploitation of vulnerable Check Point instances is said to have allowed the threat actors to retrieve user credentials and to connect to the VPN using a legitimate account. In the next stage,...

Check Point is warning of a zero-day vulnerability in its Network Security gateway products that threat actors have exploited in the wild. Tracked as CVE-2024-24919 (CVSS score: 8.6), the issue impacts CloudGuard Network, Quantum Maestro, Quantum Scalable Chassis, Quantum Security Gateways, and Quantum Spark appliances. "The vulnerability potentially allows an attacker to read certain information on Internet-connected Gateways with remote access VPN or mobile access enabled," Check Point said . Hotfixes are available in the following versions - Quantum Security Gateway and CloudGuard Network Security Versions - R81.20, R81.10, R81, R80.40 Quantum Maestro and Quantum Scalable Chassis - R81.20, R81.10, R80.40, R80.30SP, R80.20SP Quantum Spark Gateways Version - R81.10.x, R80.20.x, R77.20.x The development comes days after the Israeli cybersecurity company warned of attacks targeting its VPN devices to infiltrate enterprise networks. "By May 24, 2024, we identi...

Multiple threat actors are weaponizing a design flaw in Foxit PDF Reader to deliver a variety of malware such as Agent Tesla, AsyncRAT, DCRat, NanoCore RAT, NjRAT, Pony, Remcos RAT, and XWorm. "This exploit triggers security warnings that could deceive unsuspecting users into executing harmful commands," Check Point  said  in a technical report. "This exploit has been used by multiple threat actors, from e-crime to espionage." It's worth noting that Adobe Acrobat Reader – which is more prevalent in sandboxes or antivirus solutions – is not susceptible to this specific exploit, thus contributing to the campaign's low detection rate. The issue stems from the fact that the application shows "OK" as the default selected option in a pop-up when users are asked to trust the document prior to enabling certain features to avoid potential security risks. Once a user clicks OK, they are displayed a second pop-up warning that the file is about to execute...

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new Raspberry Robin campaign wave that has been propagating the malware through malicious Windows Script Files ( WSFs ) since March 2024. "Historically, Raspberry Robin was known to spread through removable media like USB drives, but over time its distributors have experimented with other initial infection vectors," HP Wolf Security researcher Patrick Schläpfer  said  in a report shared with The Hacker News. Raspberry Robin, also called QNAP worm, was  first spotted  in September 2021 that has since  evolved into a downloader  for various other payloads in recent years, such as SocGholish, Cobalt Strike, IcedID, BumbleBee, and TrueBot, and also serving as a precursor for ransomware. While the malware was initially distributed by means of USB devices containing LNK files that retrieved the payload from a compromised QNAP device, it has since  adopted other methods  such as social engineering and malv...

Multiple threat actors, including LockBit ransomware affiliates, are  actively exploiting  a recently disclosed critical security flaw in Citrix NetScaler application delivery control (ADC) and Gateway appliances to obtain initial access to target environments. The joint advisory comes from the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC), and Australian Signals Directorate's Australian Cyber Security Center (ASD's ACSC). "Citrix Bleed, known to be leveraged by LockBit 3.0 affiliates, allows threat actors to bypass password requirements and multifactor authentication (MFA), leading to successful session hijacking of legitimate user sessions on Citrix NetScaler web application delivery control (ADC) and Gateway appliances," the agencies  said . "Through the takeover of legitimate user sessions, malicious actors acquire elevated permissions to ...

Russian cyber espionage actors affiliated with the Federal Security Service (FSB) have been observed using a USB propagating worm called  LitterDrifter  in attacks targeting Ukrainian entities. Check Point, which  detailed  Gamaredon's (aka Aqua Blizzard, Iron Tilden, Primitive Bear, Shuckworm, and Winterflounder) latest tactics, branded the group as engaging in large-scale campaigns that are followed by "data collection efforts aimed at specific targets, whose selection is likely motivated by espionage goals." The LitterDrifter worm packs in two main features: automatically spreading the malware via connected USB drives as well as communicating with the threat actor's command-and-control (C&C) servers. It's also suspected to be an evolution of a PowerShell-based USB worm that was previously  disclosed  by Symantec in June 2023. Written in VBS, the spreader module is responsible for distributing the worm as a hidden file in a USB drive together with...

High-profile government and telecom entities in Asia have been targeted as part of an ongoing campaign since 2021 that's designed to deploy basic backdoors and loaders for delivering next-stage malware. Cybersecurity company Check Point is tracking the activity under the name  Stayin' Alive . Targets include organizations located in Vietnam, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, and Kazakhstan. "The simplistic nature of the tools [...] and their wide variation suggests they are disposable, mostly utilized to download and run additional payloads," it  said  in a report published Wednesday. "These tools share no clear code overlaps with products created by any known actors and do not have much in common with each other." What's notable about the campaign is that the infrastructure  shares overlaps  with that used by  ToddyCat , a China-linked threat actor known for orchestrating cyber assaults against government and military agencies in Europe and Asia since at least...

An active malware campaign targeting Latin America is dispensing a new variant of a banking trojan called  BBTok , particularly users in Brazil and Mexico. "The BBTok banker has a dedicated functionality that replicates the interfaces of more than 40 Mexican and Brazilian banks, and tricks the victims into entering its 2FA code to their bank accounts or into entering their payment card number," Check Point  said  in research published this week. The payloads are generated by a custom server-side PowerShell script and are unique for each victim based on the operating system and country, while being delivered via phishing emails that leverage a variety of file types. BBTok is a Windows-based banking malware that  first surfaced  in 2020. It's equipped with features that run the typical trojan gamut, allowing it to enumerate and kill processes, issue remote commands, manipulate keyboard, and serve fake login pages for banks operating in the two countries. The ...

Tactical similarities have been unearthed between the double extortion ransomware group known as Rhysida and Vice Society , including in their targeting of education and healthcare sectors. "As Vice Society was observed deploying a variety of commodity ransomware payloads, this link does not suggest that Rhysida is exclusively used by Vice Society, but shows with at least medium confidence that Vice Society operators are now using Rhysida ransomware," Check Point  said  in a new report. Vice Society , tracked by Microsoft under the name Storm-0832, has a  pattern  of employing already existing ransomware binaries that are sold on criminal forums to pull off their attacks. The financially motivated gang has also been observed resorting to pure extortion-themed attacks wherein the data is exfiltrated without encrypting them. First observed in May 2023, the  Rhysida  ransomware group is known to rely on phishing attacks and Cobalt Strike to breach target...

A new malware strain known as BundleBot has been stealthily operating under the radar by taking advantage of  .NET single-file deployment techniques , enabling threat actors to capture sensitive information from compromised hosts. "BundleBot is abusing the dotnet bundle (single-file), self-contained format that results in very low or no static detection at all," Check Point  said  in a report published this week, adding it is "commonly distributed via Facebook Ads and compromised accounts leading to websites masquerading as regular program utilities, AI tools, and games." Some of these websites aim to mimic Google Bard, the company's conversational generative artificial intelligence chatbot, enticing victims into downloading a bogus RAR archive ("Google_AI.rar") hosted on legitimate cloud storage services such as Dropbox. The archive file, when unpacked, contains an executable file ("GoogleAI.exe"), which is the .NET single-file, self-con...

The Chinese nation-state actor known as  Mustang Panda  has been linked to a new set of sophisticated and targeted attacks aimed at European foreign affairs entities since January 2023. An analysis of these intrusions, per Check Point researchers Itay Cohen and Radoslaw Madej, has revealed a custom firmware implant designed explicitly for TP-Link routers. "The implant features several malicious components, including a custom backdoor named 'Horse Shell' that enables the attackers to maintain persistent access, build anonymous infrastructure, and enable lateral movement into compromised networks," the company said . "Due to its firmware-agnostic design, the implant's components can be integrated into various firmware by different vendors." The Israeli cybersecurity firm is tracking the threat group under the mythical creature name Camaro Dragon,  which  is  also known as  BASIN, Bronze President, Earth Preta, HoneyMyte, RedDelta, and Red Lich. The ...

Various sectors in East Asian markets have been subjected to a new email phishing campaign that distributes a previously undocumented strain of Android malware called  FluHorse  that abuses the Flutter software development framework. "The malware features several malicious Android applications that mimic legitimate applications, most of which have more than 1,000,000 installs," Check Point  said  in a technical report. "These malicious apps steal the victims' credentials and two-factor authentication (2FA) codes." The malicious apps have been found to imitate popular apps like ETC and VPBank Neo, which are widely used in Taiwan and Vietnam. Evidence gathered so far shows that the activity has been active since at least May 2022.  The phishing scheme in itself is fairly straightforward, wherein victims are lured with emails that contain links to a bogus website that hosts malicious APK files. Also added to the website are checks that aim to screen victi...

An Iranian nation-state threat actor has been linked to a new wave of phishing attacks targeting Israel that's designed to deploy an updated version of a Windows backdoor called PowerLess . Cybersecurity firm Check Point is tracking the activity cluster under its mythical creature handle  Educated Manticore , which exhibits "strong overlaps" with a hacking crew known as APT35, Charming Kitten, Cobalt Illusion, ITG18, Mint Sandstorm (formerly Phosphorus), TA453, and Yellow Garuda. "Like many other actors, Educated Manticore has adopted recent trends and started using ISO images and possibly other archive files to initiate infection chains," the Israeli company  said  in a technical report published today. Active since at least 2011, APT35 has cast a  wide net of targets  by leveraging  fake social media personas ,  spear-phishing techniques , and  N-day vulnerabilities in internet-exposed applications  to gain initial access and drop vario...

The threat actor known as Blind Eagle has been linked to a new campaign targeting various key industries in Colombia. The activity, which was detected by the BlackBerry Research and Intelligence Team on February 20, 2023, is also said to encompass Ecuador, Chile, and Spain, suggesting a slow expansion of the hacking group's victimology footprint. Targeted entities include health, financial, law enforcement, immigration, and an agency in charge of peace negotiation in Colombia, the Canadian cybersecurity company said. Blind Eagle, also known as  APT-C-36 , was  recently covered  by Check Point Research, detailing the adversary's advanced toolset comprising Meterpreter payloads that are delivered via spear-phishing emails. The latest set of attacks involves the group impersonating the Colombian government tax agency, the National Directorate of Taxes and Customs (DIAN), to phish its targets using lures that urge recipients to settle "outstanding obligations." Th...

A financially motivated threat actor tracked as  Blind Eagle  has resurfaced with a refined toolset and an elaborate infection chain as part of its attacks targeting organizations in Colombia and Ecuador. Check Point's  latest research  offers new insights into the Spanish-speaking group's tactics and techniques, including the use of sophisticated tools and government-themed lures to activate the killchain. Also tracked under the name APT-C-36, Blind Eagle is notable for its narrow geographical focus and launching indiscriminate attacks against South American nations since at least 2018. Blind Eagle's operations have been  documented  by Trend Micro in September 2021, when it described a spear-phishing campaign primarily aimed at Colombian entities that's designed to deliver a commodity malware known as  BitRAT , with a lesser focus towards targets in Ecuador, Spain, and Panama. Attack chains commence with phishing emails containing a booby-trapp...

In what's yet another instance of malicious packages creeping into public code repositories, 10 modules have been removed from the Python Package Index (PyPI) for their ability to harvest critical data points such as passwords and API tokens. The packages "install info-stealers that enable attackers to steal developer's private data and personal credentials," Israeli cybersecurity firm Check Point  said  in a Monday report. A short summary of the offending packages is below - Ascii2text , which downloads a nefarious script that gathers passwords stored in web browsers such as Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Brave, Opera, and Yandex Browser Pyg-utils, Pymocks, and PyProto2 , which are designed to  steal users' AWS credentials Test-async and Zlibsrc , which download and execute malicious code during installation Free-net-vpn, Free-net-vpn2, and WINRPCexploit , which steal user credentials and environment variables, and Browserdiv , which are capable of coll...