DLL injection | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Cybersecurity researchers have spotted a phishing attack distributing the More_eggs malware by masquerading it as a resume, a technique originally detected more than two years ago. The attack, which was unsuccessful, targeted an unnamed company in the industrial services industry in May 2024, Canadian cybersecurity firm eSentire disclosed last week. "Specifically, the targeted individual was a recruiter that was deceived by the threat actor into thinking they were a job applicant and lured them to their website to download the loader," it said. More_eggs, believed to be the work of a threat actor known as the Golden Chickens (aka Venom Spider), is a modular backdoor that's capable of harvesting sensitive information. It's offered to other criminal actors under a Malware-as-a-Service (MaaS) model. Last year, eSentire unmasked the real-world identities of two individuals – Chuck from Montreal and Jack – who are said to be running the operation. The latest atta...

A new sophisticated cyber attack has been observed targeting endpoints geolocated to Ukraine with an aim to deploy Cobalt Strike and seize control of the compromised hosts. The attack chain, per Fortinet FortiGuard Labs, involves a Microsoft Excel file that carries an embedded VBA macro to initiate the infection, "The attacker uses a multi-stage malware strategy to deliver the notorious 'Cobalt Strike' payload and establish communication with a command-and-control (C2) server," security researcher Cara Lin said in a Monday report. "This attack employs various evasion techniques to ensure successful payload delivery." Cobalt Strike , developed and maintained by Fortra, is a legitimate adversary simulation toolkit used for red teaming operations. However, over the years, cracked versions of the software have been extensively exploited by threat actors for malicious purposes. The starting point of the attack is the Excel document that, when launched, dis...

IT leaders know the drill—regulators and cyber insurers demand regular network penetration testing to keep the bad guys out. But here's the thing: hackers don't wait around for compliance schedules. Most companies approach network penetration testing on a set schedule, with the most common frequency being twice a year (29%), followed by three to four times per year (23%) and once per year (20%), according to the Kaseya Cybersecurity Survey Report 2024 . Compliance-focused testing can catch vulnerabilities that exist at the exact time of testing, but it's not enough to stay ahead of attackers in a meaningful way. Why More Frequent Testing Makes Sense When companies test more often, they're not just checking a box for compliance—they're actually protecting their networks. The Kaseya survey also points out that the top drivers for network penetration testing are: Cybersecurity Control and Validation (34%) – ensuring the security controls work and vulnerabilities are minimized. Re...

A new collection of eight process injection techniques, collectively dubbed  PoolParty , could be exploited to achieve code execution in Windows systems while evading endpoint detection and response (EDR) systems. SafeBreach researcher Alon Leviev  said  the methods are "capable of working across all processes without any limitations, making them more flexible than existing process injection techniques." The  findings  were first presented at the  Black Hat Europe 2023  conference last week. Process injection refers to an  evasion technique  used to run arbitrary code in a target process. A wide range of process injection techniques exists, such as dynamic link library (DLL) injection, portable executable injection, thread execution hijacking, process hollowing, and process doppelgänging. PoolParty is so named because it's rooted in a component called Windows user-mode thread pool, leveraging it to insert any type of work item into a ta...

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...

Cyber criminals  are using popular note-taking app Evernote as Command-and-Control Server to give commands to the malware installed on infected PCs using botnets. TrendMicro uncovered a malware detected as " BKDR_VERNOT.A " tried to communicate with Command-and-Control Server using Evernote. Malware delivered via an executable file that installs the malware as a dynamic-link library. The installer then ties the DLL into a legitimate running process, hiding it from casual detection. Once installed, BKDR_VERNOT.A can perform several backdoor commands such as downloading, executing, and renaming files. It then gathers information from the infected system, including details about its OS, timezone, user name, computer name, registered owner and organization. Researchers  also pointed out that the backdoor may have also used Evernote as a location to upload stolen data. " Unfortunately, during our testing, it was not able to logi...