Credential stuffing | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered malicious packages uploaded to the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository that act as checker tools to validate stolen email addresses against TikTok and Instagram APIs. All three packages are no longer available on PyPI. The names of the Python packages are below - checker-SaGaF (2,605 downloads) steinlurks (1,049 downloads) sinnercore (3,300 downloads) "True to its name, checker-SaGaF checks if an email is associated with a TikTok account and an Instagram account," Socket researcher Olivia Brown said in an analysis published last week. Specifically, the package is designed to send HTTP POST requests to TikTok's password recovery API and Instagram's account login endpoints to determine if an email address passed as input is valid, meaning there exists an account holder corresponding to that email address. "Once threat actors have this information, just from an email address, they can threaten to dox or spam, c...

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered several cryptocurrency packages on the npm registry that have been hijacked to siphon sensitive information such as environment variables from compromised systems. "Some of these packages have lived on npmjs.com for over 9 years, and provide legitimate functionality to blockchain developers," Sonatype researcher Ax Sharma said . "However, [...] the latest versions of each of these packages were laden with obfuscated scripts." The affected packages and their hijacked versions are listed below - country-currency-map (2.1.8) bnb-javascript-sdk-nobroadcast (2.16.16) @bithighlander/bitcoin-cash-js-lib (5.2.2) eslint-config-travix (6.3.1) @crosswise-finance1/sdk-v2 (0.1.21) @keepkey/device-protocol (7.13.3) @veniceswap/uikit (0.65.34) @veniceswap/eslint-config-pancake (1.6.2) babel-preset-travix (1.2.1) @travix/ui-themes (1.1.5) @coinmasters/types (4.8.16) Analysis of these packages by the software supply chain ...

Threat actors are leveraging an e-crime tool called Atlantis AIO Multi-Checker to automate credential stuffing attacks, according to findings from Abnormal Security. Atlantis AIO "has emerged as a powerful weapon in the cybercriminal arsenal, enabling attackers to test millions of stolen credentials in rapid succession," the cybersecurity company said in an analysis. Credential stuffing is a type of cyber attack in which an adversary collects stolen account credentials, typically consisting of lists of usernames or email addresses and passwords, and then uses them to gain unauthorized access to user accounts on unrelated systems through large-scale automated login requests. Such credentials could be obtained from a data breach of a social media service or be acquired from underground forums where they are advertised for sale by other threat actors. Credential stuffing is also different from brute-force attacks, which revolve around cracking passwords, login credential...

I had the honor of hosting the first episode of the Xposure Podcast live from Xposure Summit 2025. And I couldn't have asked for a better kickoff panel: three cybersecurity leaders who don't just talk security, they live it. Let me introduce them. Alex Delay , CISO at IDB Bank, knows what it means to defend a highly regulated environment. Ben Mead , Director of Cybersecurity at Avidity Biosciences, brings a forward-thinking security perspective that reflects the innovation behind Avidity's targeted RNA therapeutics. Last but not least, Michael Francess , Director of Cybersecurity Advanced Threat at Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, leads the charge in protecting the franchise. Each brought a unique vantage point to a common challenge: applying Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) to complex production environments. Gartner made waves in 2023 with a bold prediction: organizations that prioritize CTEM will be three times less likely to be breached by 2026. But here's the kicker -...

The recently leaked trove of internal chat logs among members of the Black Basta ransomware operation has revealed possible connections between the e-crime gang and Russian authorities. The leak, containing over 200,000 messages from September 2023 to September 2024, was published by a Telegram user @ExploitWhispers last month. According to an analysis of the messages by cybersecurity company Trellix, Black Basta's alleged leader Oleg Nefedov (aka GG or AA) may have received help from Russian officials following his arrest in Yerevan, Armenia, in June 2024, allowing him to escape three days later. In the messages, GG claimed that he contacted high-ranking officials to pass through a "green corridor" and facilitate the extraction. "This knowledge from chat leaks makes it difficult for the Black Basta gang to completely abandon the way they operate and start a new RaaS from scratch without a reference to their previous activities," Trellix researchers Ja...

Credential stuffing attacks had a huge impact in 2024, fueled by a vicious circle of infostealer infections and data breaches . But things could be about to get worse still with Computer-Using Agents, a new kind of AI agent that enables low-cost, low-effort automation of common web tasks — including those frequently performed by attackers. Stolen credentials: The cyber criminal's weapon of choice in 2024 Stolen credentials were the #1 attacker action in 2023/24 , and the breach vector for 80% of web app attacks. Not surprising when you consider the fact that billions of leaked credentials are in circulation online, and attackers can pick up the latest drop for as little as $10 on criminal forums.  The criminal marketplace for stolen credentials is benefitting from the publicity of high-profile breaches in 2024 such as the attacks on Snowflake customers using credentials found in data breach dumps and compromised credential feeds from infostealer and mass phishing campaigns, r...

Last week, the notorious hacker gang, ShinyHunters, sent shockwaves across the globe by allegedly plundering 1.3 terabytes of data from 560 million users. This colossal breach, with a price tag of $500,000, could expose the personal information of a massive swath of a live event company's clientele, igniting a firestorm of concern and outrage.  Let's review the facts: two large organizations announced that they suffered a data breach, identifying unauthorized activity within a third-party cloud database environment. The accessed business records contained critical information on some employees, a large number of customers and other key business data.  The cloud connection  What might link these two breaches is the cloud data company Snowflake, which counts among its users both organizations. Snowflake did publish a warning with CISA , indicating a "recent increase in cyber threat activity targeting customer accounts on its cloud data platform." Snowflake issued a reco...

Okta is warning that a cross-origin authentication feature in Customer Identity Cloud (CIC) is susceptible to credential stuffing attacks orchestrated by threat actors. "We observed that the endpoints used to support the cross-origin authentication feature being attacked via credential stuffing for a number of our customers," the Identity and access management (IAM) services provider said . The suspicious activity commenced on April 15, 2024, with the company noting that it "proactively" informed customers that had the feature enabled. It did not disclose how many customers were impacted by the attacks. Credential stuffing is a type of cyber attack in which adversaries attempt to sign in to online services using an already available list of usernames and passwords obtained either from previous data breaches, or from phishing and malware campaigns. As recommended actions, users are being asked to review tenant logs for any signs of unexpected login events – ...

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 company  said  in an alert published Saturday. The findings build on a  recent advisory  from Cisco, which cautioned of 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," Talos noted at the time, adding targets of the attacks comprise VPN appliances from Cisco, Check Point, Fortinet, Soni...

At a little overt halfway through 2023, credential theft is still a major thorn in the side of IT teams. The heart of the problem is the value of data to cybercriminals and the evolution of the techniques they use to get hold of it. The  2023 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR)  revealed that 83% of breaches involved external actors, with almost all attacks being financially motivated. Of these breaches by external actors, 49% involved the use of stolen credentials.  We'll explore why credential theft is still such an attractive (and successful) attack route, and look at how IT security teams can fight back in the second half of 2023 and beyond. Users are still often the weak link The hallmarks of many successful cyberattacks are the determination, inventiveness, and patience threat actors show. Though a user may spot some attacks through security and awareness training, it only takes one well-crafted attack to catch them. Sometimes all it takes is for a ...

The case for browser fingerprinting: personalizing user experience, improving fraud detection, and optimizing login security Have you ever heard of browser fingerprinting? You should! It's an online user identification technique that collects information about a visitor's web browser and its configuration preferences to associate individual browsing sessions with a single website visitor.  With browser fingerprinting, many pieces of data can be collected about a user's web browser and device, such as screen resolution, location, language, and operating system. When you stitch these pieces together, they reveal a unique combination of information that forms every user's visitor ID or "digital fingerprint." Websites can use the visitor ID in various ways, including personalizing the user's experience, improving fraud detection, and optimizing login security. This article discusses the case for browser fingerprinting and how to use it safely on your websi...