#1 Trusted Cybersecurity News Platform
Followed by 5.20+ million
The Hacker News Logo
Subscribe – Get Latest News

DLL hijacking | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Category — DLL hijacking
From PDFs to Payload: Bogus Adobe Acrobat Reader Installers Distribute Byakugan Malware

From PDFs to Payload: Bogus Adobe Acrobat Reader Installers Distribute Byakugan Malware

Apr 05, 2024 Malware / Endpoint Security
Bogus installers for Adobe Acrobat Reader are being used to  distribute  a new multi-functional malware dubbed  Byakugan . The starting point of the attack is a PDF file written in Portuguese that, when opened, shows a blurred image and asks the victim to click on a link to download the Reader application to view the content. According to Fortinet FortiGuard Labs, clicking the URL leads to the delivery of an installer ("Reader_Install_Setup.exe") that activates the infection sequence. Details of the campaign were  first disclosed  by the AhnLab Security Intelligence Center (ASEC) last month. The attack chain leverages techniques like DLL hijacking and Windows User Access Control (UAC) bypass to load a malicious dynamic-link library (DLL) file named "BluetoothDiagnosticUtil.dll," which, in turn, loads unleashes the final payload. It also deploys a legitimate installer for a PDF reader like Wondershare PDFelement. The binary is equipped to gather and exfiltra...
China-linked Hackers Deploy New 'UNAPIMON' Malware for Stealthy Operations

China-linked Hackers Deploy New 'UNAPIMON' Malware for Stealthy Operations

Apr 02, 2024 Cyber Espionage / Threat Intelligence
A threat activity cluster tracked as  Earth Freybug  has been observed using a new malware called UNAPIMON to fly under the radar. "Earth Freybug is a cyberthreat group that has been active since at least 2012 that focuses on espionage and financially motivated activities," Trend Micro security researcher Christopher So  said  in a report published today. "It has been observed to target organizations from various sectors across different countries." The cybersecurity firm has described Earth Freybug as a subset within  APT41 , a China-linked cyber espionage group that's also tracked as Axiom, Brass Typhoon (formerly Barium), Bronze Atlas, HOODOO, Wicked Panda, and Winnti. The adversarial collective is known to rely on a combination of living-off-the-land binaries (LOLBins) and custom malware to realize its goals. Also adopted are techniques like dynamic-link library (DLL) hijacking and application programming interface (API) unhooking. Trend Micro said th...
Unlocking Google Workspace Security: Are You Doing Enough to Protect Your Data?

Crowdstrike Named A Leader In Endpoint Protection Platforms

Nov 22, 2024Endpoint Security / Threat Detection
CrowdStrike is named a Leader in the 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Endpoint Protection Platforms for the fifth consecutive time, positioned highest on Ability to Execute and furthest to the right on Completeness of Vision.
New Variant of DLL Search Order Hijacking Bypasses Windows 10 and 11 Protections

New Variant of DLL Search Order Hijacking Bypasses Windows 10 and 11 Protections

Jan 01, 2024 Windows Security / Vulnerability
Security researchers have detailed a new variant of a dynamic link library ( DLL ) search order hijacking technique that could be used by threat actors to bypass security mechanisms and achieve execution of malicious code on systems running Microsoft Windows 10 and Windows 11. The approach "leverages executables commonly found in the trusted WinSxS folder and exploits them via the classic DLL search order hijacking technique," cybersecurity firm Security Joes  said  in a new report exclusively shared with The Hacker News. In doing so, it allows adversaries to eliminate the need for elevated privileges when attempting to run nefarious code on a compromised machine as well as introduce potentially vulnerable binaries into the attack chain, as  observed   in the   past . DLL search order hijacking , as the name implies, involves  gaming the search order  used to load DLLs in order to execute malicious payloads for purposes of defense evasion, persiste...
cyber security

Creating, Managing and Securing Non-Human Identities

websitePermisoCybersecurity / Identity Security
A new class of identities has emerged alongside traditional human users: non-human identities (NHIs). Permiso Security's new eBook details everything you need to know about managing and securing non-human identities, and strategies to unify identity security without compromising agility.
China-Linked Bronze Starlight Group Targeting Gambling Sector with Cobalt Strike Beacons

China-Linked Bronze Starlight Group Targeting Gambling Sector with Cobalt Strike Beacons

Aug 17, 2023 Cyber Attack / Malware
An ongoing cyber attack campaign originating from China is targeting the Southeast Asian gambling sector to deploy Cobalt Strike beacons on compromised systems.  Cybersecurity firm SentinelOne said the tactics, techniques, and procedures point to the involvement of a threat actor tracked as  Bronze Starlight  (aka Emperor Dragonfly or Storm-0401), which has been linked to the use of  short-lived   ransomware families  as a smokescreen to conceal its espionage motives. "The threat actors abuse Adobe Creative Cloud, Microsoft Edge, and McAfee VirusScan executables vulnerable to DLL hijacking to deploy Cobalt Strike beacons," security researchers Aleksandar Milenkoski and Tom Hegel  said  in an analysis published today. It also bears noting that the campaign exhibits overlaps with an intrusion set monitored by ESET under the name  Operation ChattyGoblin . This activity, in turn, shares commonalities with a  supply chain attack  tha...
Security Flaw in Pre-Installed Dell Support Software Affects Million of Computers

Security Flaw in Pre-Installed Dell Support Software Affects Million of Computers

Jun 21, 2019
Dell's SupportAssist utility that comes pre-installed on millions of Dell laptops and PCs contains a security vulnerability that could allow malicious software or rogue logged-in users to escalate their privileges to administrator-level and access sensitive information. Discovered by security researchers at SafeBreach Labs , the vulnerability, identified as CVE-2019-12280, is a privilege-escalation issue and affects Dell's SupportAssist application for business PCs (version 2.0) and home PCs (version 3.2.1 and all prior versions). Dell SupportAssist, formerly known as Dell System Detect, checks the health of your system's hardware and software, alerting customers to take appropriate action to resolve them. To do so, it runs on your computer with SYSTEM-level permissions. With this high-level privileges, the utility interacts with the Dell Support website and automatically detects Service Tag or Express Service Code of your Dell product, scans the existing device d...
Unpatchable 'DoubleAgent' Attack Can Hijack All Windows Versions — Even Your Antivirus!

Unpatchable 'DoubleAgent' Attack Can Hijack All Windows Versions — Even Your Antivirus!

Mar 22, 2017
A team of security researchers from Cybellum, an Israeli zero-day prevention firm, has discovered a new Windows vulnerability that could allow hackers to take full control of your computer. Dubbed DoubleAgent , the new injecting code technique works on all versions of Microsoft Windows operating systems, starting from Windows XP to the latest release of Windows 10. What's worse? DoubleAgent exploits a 15-years-old undocumented legitimate feature of Windows called " Application Verifier ," which cannot be patched. Application Verifier is a runtime verification tool that loads DLLs (dynamic link library) into processes for testing purpose, allowing developers quickly detect and fix programming errors in their applications. Unpatchable Microsoft Application Verifier Exploit The vulnerability resides in how this Application Verifier tool handles DLLs. According to the researchers, as part of the process, DLLs are bound to the target processes in a Windows Regist...
Corel Software DLL Hijacking Vulnerability Allows Hackers to Execute Malicious Code

Corel Software DLL Hijacking Vulnerability Allows Hackers to Execute Malicious Code

Jan 14, 2015
Security researchers have disclosed local zero day DLL hijacking vulnerabilities in several applications developed by Corel Software that could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary commands on victims' computer, potentially affecting more than 100 million users. The security holes were publicly disclosed by Marcos Accossatto from a vulnerability research firm Core Security after the vendor didn't respond to his private disclosure about the flaws. Corel develops wide range of products including graphics, photo, video and other media editing programs. According to the researcher, when a media file associated with one of the vulnerable Corel products is opened, the product also loads a specifically named DLL (Dynamic Link Library) file into memory if it's located in the same directory as the opened media file. These DLL files contain executable code which could allow an attacker to install malware on victims' computers by inserting malicious DLLs into the...
Expert Insights / Articles Videos
Cybersecurity Resources