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Category — Ethereum
Malicious npm Packages Target Developers' Ethereum Wallets with SSH Backdoor

Malicious npm Packages Target Developers' Ethereum Wallets with SSH Backdoor

Oct 22, 2024 Vulnerability / Supply Chain
Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a number of suspicious packages published to the npm registry that are designed to harvest Ethereum private keys and gain remote access to the machine via the secure shell (SSH) protocol. The packages attempt to "gain SSH access to the victim's machine by writing the attacker's SSH public key in the root user's authorized_keys file," software supply chain security company Phylum said in an analysis published last week. The list of packages identified as part of the campaign, which aim to impersonate the legitimate ethers package , are as follows - ethers-mew (62 downloads) ethers-web3 (110 downloads) ethers-6 (56 downloads) ethers-eth (58 downloads) ethers-aaa (781 downloads) ethers-audit (69 downloads) ethers-test (336 downloads) Some of these packages, most of which have been published by accounts named "crstianokavic" and "timyorks," are believed to have been released for testing purpose...
Indian Government Rescues 250 Citizens Forced into Cybercrime in Cambodia

Indian Government Rescues 250 Citizens Forced into Cybercrime in Cambodia

Apr 01, 2024 Cryptocurrency / Financial Fraud
The Indian government said it has rescued and repatriated about 250 citizens in Cambodia who were held captive and coerced into running cyber scams. The Indian nationals "were lured with employment opportunities to that country but were forced to undertake illegal cyber work," the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA)  said  in a statement, adding it had rescued 75 people in the past three months. It also said it's working with "with Cambodian authorities and with agencies in India to crack down on those responsible for these fraudulent schemes." The development comes in the wake of a  report  from the Indian Express that said more than 5,000 Indians stuck in Cambodia were forced into "cyber slavery" by organized crime rackets to scam people in India and extort money by masquerading as law enforcement authorities in some cases. The report also tracks with an earlier disclosure from INTERPOL, which characterized the situation as  human trafficking-fu...
The Future of Serverless Security in 2025: From Logs to Runtime Protection

The Future of Serverless Security in 2025: From Logs to Runtime Protection

Nov 28, 2024Cloud Security / Threat Detection
Serverless environments, leveraging services such as AWS Lambda, offer incredible benefits in terms of scalability, efficiency, and reduced operational overhead. However, securing these environments is extremely challenging. The core of current serverless security practices often revolves around two key components: log monitoring and static analysis of code or system configuration. But here is the issue with that: 1. Logs Only Tell Part of the Story Logs can track external-facing activities, but they don't provide visibility into the internal execution of functions. For example, if an attacker injects malicious code into a serverless function that doesn't interact with external resources (e.g., external APIs or databases), traditional log-based tools will not detect this intrusion. The attacker may execute unauthorized processes, manipulate files, or escalate privileges—all without triggering log events. 2. Static Misconfiguration Detection is Incomplete Static tools that check ...
Cybercriminals Weaponizing Legitimate Advanced Installer Tool in Crypto-Mining Attacks

Cybercriminals Weaponizing Legitimate Advanced Installer Tool in Crypto-Mining Attacks

Sep 09, 2023 Malware / Hacking
A legitimate Windows tool used for creating software packages called Advanced Installer is being abused by threat actors to drop cryptocurrency-mining malware on infected machines since at least November 2021. "The attacker uses  Advanced Installer  to package other legitimate software installers, such as Adobe Illustrator, Autodesk 3ds Max, and SketchUp Pro, with malicious scripts and uses Advanced Installer's Custom Actions feature to make the software installers execute the malicious scripts," Cisco Talos researcher Chetan Raghuprasad  said  in a technical report. The nature of the applications trojanized indicates that the victims likely span architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, and entertainment sectors. The software installers predominantly use the French language, a sign that French-speaking users are being singled out. This  campaign  is strategic in that these industries rely on computers with high Graphics Processing Unit (G...
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.
Crypto Trading Firm Wintermute Loses $160 Million in Hacking Incident

Crypto Trading Firm Wintermute Loses $160 Million in Hacking Incident

Sep 21, 2022
In what's the latest crypto heist to target the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, hackers have stolen digital assets worth around $160 million from crypto trading firm Wintermute . The hack involved a series of unauthorized transactions that transferred USD Coin, Binance USD, Tether USD, Wrapped ETH, and 66 other cryptocurrencies to the  attacker's wallet . The company said that its centralized finance (CeFi) and over-the-counter (OTC) operations have not been impacted by the security incident. It did not disclose when the hack took place. The digital asset market maker, which provides liquidity to more several exchanges and crypto platforms, warned of disruption to its services in the coming days, but stressed that it's "solvent with twice over that amount in equity left." "We are (still) open to treat[ing] this as a white hat, so if you are the attacker – get in touch," the company's founder and CEO, Evgeny Gaevoy,  said  in a tweet. Detai...
Cryptocurrency Hacks Still Growing — What Does That Mean for the Industry?

Cryptocurrency Hacks Still Growing — What Does That Mean for the Industry?

May 14, 2019
Though once synonymous with underground networks and black hat hackers, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have gone mainstream over the past two years. In 2017, we saw the skyrocket of bitcoin to an all-time high of close to $20,000 followed by a significant decline the following year. But beyond the ups and downs in the market for the world's largest cryptocurrency is a much more sinister story revolving around cyber-attacks of the economy's newest asset class. In 2018, it estimated that as much as $1.7 billion worth of cryptocurrencies were swindled away from investors (likely more) through a variety of means. Whether accomplished through hacking, phishing, or other forms of scamming, it's clear that the crypto industry is facing a serious dilemma with security. For a technological movement based on decentralization and the advantages it offers for security, the number of breaches occurring is startling. Cryptocurrencies offer users a way to send money with...
Ethereum Classic (ETC) Hit by Double-Spend Attack Worth $1.1 Million

Ethereum Classic (ETC) Hit by Double-Spend Attack Worth $1.1 Million

Jan 08, 2019
Popular cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has suspended all transactions of Ethereum Classic (ETC)—the original unforked version of the Ethereum network—on their trading platforms, other products and services after detecting a potential attack on the cryptocurrency network that let someone spend the same digital coins twice. Why is this attack concerning? The heist resulted in the loss of $1.1 million worth of the Ethereum Classic digital currency. The digital currency immediately fell in price after the news came out. Coinbase revealed Monday that it identified "a deep chain reorganization" of the Ethereum Classic blockchain (or 51 percent attack of the network), which means that someone controlling the majority of miners on the network (over 50%) had modified the transaction history. After reorganizing the Ethereum blockchain, the attackers were able to what's called "double spend" about 219,500 ETC by recovering previously spent coins from the rightfu...
Hackers Stole Over $20 Million in Ethereum from Insecurely Configured Clients

Hackers Stole Over $20 Million in Ethereum from Insecurely Configured Clients

Jun 11, 2018
Security researchers have been warning about cybercriminals who have made over 20 million dollars in just past few months by hijacking insecurely configured Ethereum nodes exposed on the Internet. Qihoo 360 Netlab in March tweeted about a group of cybercriminals who were scanning the Internet for port 8545 to find insecure geth clients running Ethereum nodes and, at that time, stole 3.96234 units of Ethereum cryptocurrency (Ether). However, researchers now noticed that another cybercriminal group have managed to steal a total 38,642 Ether, worth more than $20,500,000 at the time of writing, in past few months by hijacking Ethereum wallets of users who had opened their JSON-RPC port 8545 to the outside world. Geth is one of the most popular clients for running Ethereum node and enabling JSON-RPC interface on it allows users to remotely access the Ethereum blockchain and node functionalities, including the ability to send transactions from any account which has been unlocked b...
Critical RCE Flaw Discovered in Blockchain-Based EOS Smart Contract System

Critical RCE Flaw Discovered in Blockchain-Based EOS Smart Contract System

May 29, 2018
Security researchers have discovered a series of new vulnerabilities in EOS blockchain platform, one of which could allow remote hackers to take complete control over the node servers running the critical blockchain-based applications. EOS is an open source smart contract platform, known as 'Blockchain 3.0,' that allows developers to build decentralized applications over blockchain infrastructure, just like Ethereum. Discovered by Chinese security researchers at Qihoo 360 —Yuki Chen of Vulcan team and Zhiniang Peng of Core security team—the vulnerability is a buffer out-of-bounds write issue which resides in the function used by nodes server to parse contracts. To achieve remote code execution on a targeted node, all an attacker needs to do is upload a maliciously crafted WASM file (a smart contract) written in WebAssembly to the server. As soon as the vulnerable process parser reads the WASM file, the malicious payload gets executed on the node, which could then al...
How to Steal Bitcoin Wallet Keys (Cold Storage) from Air-Gapped PCs

How to Steal Bitcoin Wallet Keys (Cold Storage) from Air-Gapped PCs

Apr 23, 2018
Dr. Mordechai Guri, the head of R&D team at Israel's Ben Gurion University, who previously demonstrated various methods to steal data from an air-gapped computer, has now published new research named " BeatCoin ." BeatCoin is not a new hacking technique; instead, it's an experiment wherein the researcher demonstrates how all previously discovered out-of-band communication methods can be used to steal private keys for a cryptocurrency wallet installed on cold storage, preferably an air-gapped computer or Raspberry Pi. For those unaware, keeping your cryptocurrency protected in a wallet on a device which is entirely offline is called cold storage. Since online digital wallets carry different security risks, some people prefer keeping their private keys offline. Air-gapped computers are those that are isolated from the Internet, local networks, Bluetooth and therefore, are believed to be the most secure devices and are difficult to infiltrate or exfiltrate. ...
Learn Ethereum Development – Build Decentralized Blockchain Apps

Learn Ethereum Development – Build Decentralized Blockchain Apps

Nov 06, 2017
As of today — 1 Bitcoin = $7300 USD (Approx 471,000 INR) At the beginning of this year, 1 Bitcoin was approximately equal to $1000, and now it has surged to a new height, marking its market capitalization at over $124 billion. Is it really too late to invest in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum? For those wondering if they have missed the money-making boat, the answer is—NO, it's never too late to invest. In case you are new to cryptocurrency trading, we have a simple step-by-step guide on our deal store that explains how to invest in cryptocurrencies . However, the blockchain, the revolutionary technology behind Bitcoin and other digital currencies, is not always about cryptocurrencies. Though it is a decentralized public database which ensures that all transactions are properly conducted and recorded, Blockchains can be used for a wide variety of applications, such as for digital identity management, smart assets, digital voting, distributed cloud sto...
EtherParty Breach: Another Ethereum ICO Gets Hacked

EtherParty Breach: Another Ethereum ICO Gets Hacked

Oct 03, 2017
Etherparty announced Sunday that its ICO (Initial Coin Offering) website selling tokens for a blockchain-based smart contract tool was hacked and the address for sending funds to buy tokens was replaced by a fraudulent address controlled by the hackers. Vancouver-based Etherparty is a smart contract creation tool that allows its users to create smart contracts on the blockchain. Companies like this launch ICO to let them raise funding from multiple sources. Etherparty said the company launched its Fuel token sale on Sunday, October 1 at 9 A.M. PDT, but just 45 minutes, some unknown attackers hacked into its ICO website and replaced the legitimate address by their own, redirecting cryptocurrencies sent by investors into their digital wallet. According to the details released by the Etherparty team, the company detected the hack after just 15 minutes and immediately took its website down for nearly one and half hour to fix the issue, preventing more people from sending funds to ...
China Bans Fundraising Through Initial Coin Offering (ICO)

China Bans Fundraising Through Initial Coin Offering (ICO)

Sep 04, 2017
China's central bank today announced an immediate ban on all ICO—Initial Coin Offering—fundraising, to prevent fraud and illegal fundraising. ICO is the hottest new thing in the blockchain world, which is an alternative to crowdfunding that lets a firm raise funding from multiple sources. The People's Bank of China (PBoC), the country's central bank and financial regulator, has issued an official notice on Monday, forbidding "all types of currency issuance financing activities" that have "seriously disrupted the economic and financial order." This PBoC's bold move has been backed by many other Chinese government administrators and regulators including the China Securities Regulatory Commission, China Insurance Regulatory Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, and China Banking Regulatory Commission. This move marks the end of an era of ICO fundraising in China. The regulator claims that ICOs are being misused for "...
Warning: Enigma Hacked; Over $470,000 in Ethereum Stolen So Far

Warning: Enigma Hacked; Over $470,000 in Ethereum Stolen So Far

Aug 21, 2017
More Ethereum Stolen! An unknown hacker has so far stolen more than $471,000 worth of Ethereum—one of the most popular and increasingly valuable cryptocurrencies—in yet another Ethereum hack that hit the popular cryptocurrency investment platform, Enigma . According to an announcement made on their official website an hour ago, an "unknown entity" has managed to hack their website, slack account and email newsletter accounts, and uploaded a fake pre-sale page with a fake ETH address to send money. The hackers also spammed their fake address in Enigma's newsletter and slack accounts for pre-sale coins, tricking victims to send their cryptocurrencies to hacker's address. Etherscan, a popular search engine for the Ethereum Blockchain that allows users to look up, confirm and validate transactions easily, has already flagged the address as compromised, but people are still sending ETH to the fake address (given below). 0x29d7d1dd5b6f9c864d9db560d72a247c178ae86...
Microsoft Launches Ethereum-Based 'Coco Framework' to Speed Up Blockchain Network

Microsoft Launches Ethereum-Based 'Coco Framework' to Speed Up Blockchain Network

Aug 14, 2017
A growing number of enterprises are showing their interest in blockchains , but the underlying software fails to meet key enterprise requirements like performance, confidentiality, governance, and required processing power. However, Microsoft wants to help solve these issues and make it easier for the enterprises to build their networks using any distributed ledger. Microsoft has unveiled a framework called " Coco " — short for " Confidential Consortium " — a new open-source foundation for enterprise blockchain networks . Coco is an Ethereum-based protocol which has been designed to help commercial companies and large-scale enterprises process information on the Ethereum Blockchain with increased privacy. "Coco presents an alternative approach to Ledger construction, giving enterprises the scalability, distributed governance and enhanced confidentiality they need without sacrificing the inherent security and immutability they expect," Mark Russi...
How Hackers Cash Out Thousands of Bitcoins Received in Ransomware Attacks

How Hackers Cash Out Thousands of Bitcoins Received in Ransomware Attacks

Jul 28, 2017
Digital currencies have emerged as a favourite tool for hackers and cyber criminals, as digital currency transactions are nearly anonymous, allowing cyber criminals to use it in underground markets for illegal trading, and to receive thousands of dollars in ransomware attacks— WannaCry , Petya , LeakerLocker , Locky and Cerber to name a few. Also, every other day we hear about some incidents of hacking of crypto currency exchange or digital wallets, in which hackers stole millions of dollars in Bitcoin or Ethereum. The latest back-to-back series of thefts of Ethereum —one of the most popular and increasingly valuable cryptocurrencies—in which around half a billion dollars in total were stolen is the recent example of how much hackers are after crypto currencies. It's obvious that after ripping off hundreds of thousands of cryptocurrencies from exchanges, wallets and ransomware victims, cyber criminals would not hold them in just digital form—the next step is to cash the...
Hacker Steals $8.4 Million in Ethereum (4th Heist In A Month)

Hacker Steals $8.4 Million in Ethereum (4th Heist In A Month)

Jul 25, 2017
More Ethereum Stolen! An unknown hacker has just stolen nearly $8.4 Million worth of Ethereum – one of the most popular and increasingly valuable cryptocurrencies – in yet another Ethereum hack that hit Veritaseum's Initial Coin Offering (ICO). This incident marks as the fourth Ethereum hack this month and second cyber attack on an ICO, following a theft of $7 Million worth of Ether tokens during the hack of Israeli startup CoinDash's initial coin offering last week. A few days ago, a hacker also stole nearly $32 Million worth of Ethereum from wallet accounts by exploiting a critical vulnerability in Parity's Ethereum Wallet software, which followed a $1 Million worth of Ether and Bitcoins heist in crypto currency exchange Bithumb earlier this month. Now, Veritaseum has confirmed that a hacker stole $8.4 Million in Ether (ETH) from its ICO this Sunday, July 23. "We were hacked, possibly by a group. The hack seemed to be very sophisticated, but there...
Hackers Stole $32 Million in Ethereum; 3rd Heist in 20 Days

Hackers Stole $32 Million in Ethereum; 3rd Heist in 20 Days

Jul 20, 2017
An unknown hacker has just stolen nearly $32 million worth of Ethereum – one of the most popular and increasingly valuable cryptocurrencies – from Ethereum wallet accounts linked to at least three companies that seem to have been hacked. This is the third Ethereum cryptocurrency heist that came out two days after an alleged hacker stole $7.4 million worth of Ether from trading platform CoinDash, and two weeks after an unknown attacker hacked into South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb and stole more than $1 Million in Ether and Bitcoins from user accounts. On Wednesday, Smart contract coding company Parity issued a security alert , warning of a critical vulnerability in Parity's Ethereum Wallet software, which is described as "the fastest and most secure way of interacting with the Ethereum network." Exploiting the vulnerability allowed attackers to compromise at least three accounts and steal nearly 153,000 units of Ether worth just almost US$32 million...
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