Kaspersky | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Internet service providers (ISPs) and governmental entities in the Middle East have been targeted using an updated variant of the EAGERBEE malware framework. The new variant of EAGERBEE (aka Thumtais ) comes fitted with various components that allow the backdoor to deploy additional payloads, enumerate file systems, and execute commands shells, demonstrating a significant evolution. "The key plugins can be categorized in terms of their functionality into the following groups: Plugin Orchestrator, File System Manipulation, Remote Access Manager, Process Exploration, Network Connection Listing, and Service Management," Kaspersky researchers Saurabh Sharma and Vasily Berdnikov said in an analysis. The backdoor has been assessed by the Russian cybersecurity company with medium confidence to a threat group called CoughingDown. EAGERBEE was first documented by the Elastic Security Labs, attributing it to a state-sponsored and espionage-focused intrusion set dubbed REF5961. ...

The threat actor known as Cloud Atlas has been observed using a previously undocumented malware called VBCloud as part of its cyber attack campaigns targeting "several dozen users" in 2024. "Victims get infected via phishing emails containing a malicious document that exploits a vulnerability in the formula editor (CVE-2018-0802) to download and execute malware code," Kaspersky researcher Oleg Kupreev said in an analysis published this week. More than 80% of the targets were located in Russia. A lesser number of victims have been reported from Belarus, Canada, Moldova, Israel, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, and Vietnam. Also referred to as Clean Ursa, Inception, Oxygen, and Red October, Cloud Atlas is an unattributed threat activity cluster that has been active since 2014. In December 2022, the group was linked to cyber attacks aimed at Russia, Belarus, and Transnistria that deployed a PowerShell-based backdoor called PowerShower. Then exactly a year later, Russian cy...

As SaaS providers race to integrate AI into their product offerings to stay competitive and relevant, a new challenge has emerged in the world of AI: shadow AI.  Shadow AI refers to the unauthorized use of AI tools and copilots at organizations. For example, a developer using ChatGPT to assist with writing code, a salesperson downloading an AI-powered meeting transcription tool, or a customer support person using Agentic AI to automate tasks – without going through the proper channels. When these tools are used without IT or the Security team's knowledge, they often lack sufficient security controls, putting company data at risk. Shadow AI Detection Challenges Because shadow AI tools often embed themselves in approved business applications via AI assistants, copilots, and agents they are even more tricky to discover than traditional shadow IT. While traditional shadow apps can be identified through network monitoring methodologies that scan for unauthorized connections based on...

The Iranian nation-state hacking group known as Charming Kitten has been observed deploying a C++ variant of a known malware called BellaCiao. Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky, which dubbed the new version BellaCPP , said it discovered the artifact as part of a "recent" investigation into a compromised machine in Asia that was also infected with the BellaCiao malware. BellaCiao was first documented by Romanian cybersecurity firm Bitdefender in April 2023, describing it as a custom dropper capable of delivering additional payloads. The malware has been deployed by the hacking group in cyber attacks targeting the United States, the Middle East, and India. It's also one of the many bespoke malware families the Charming Kitten actor has developed over the years. Affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the advanced persistent threat (APT) group is also known by the monikers APT35, CALANQUE, Charming Kitten, CharmingCypress, ITG18, Mint...

A now-patched critical security flaw impacting Fortinet FortiClient EMS is being exploited by malicious actors as part of a cyber campaign that installed remote desktop software such as AnyDesk and ScreenConnect.  The vulnerability in question is CVE-2023-48788 (CVSS score: 9.3), an SQL injection bug that allows attackers to execute unauthorized code or commands by sending specially crafted data packets. Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky said the October 2024 attack targeted an unnamed company's Windows server that was exposed to the internet and had two open ports associated with FortiClient EMS. "The targeted company employs this technology to allow employees to download specific policies to their corporate devices, granting them secure access to the Fortinet VPN," it said in a Thursday analysis. Further analysis of the incident found that the threat actors took advantage of CVE-2023-48788 as an initial access vector, subsequently dropping a ScreenConnect exe...

A little-known cyber espionage actor known as The Mask has been linked to a new set of attacks targeting an unnamed organization in Latin America twice in 2019 and 2022. "The Mask APT is a legendary threat actor that has been performing highly sophisticated attacks since at least 2007," Kaspersky researchers Georgy Kucherin and Marc Rivero said in an analysis published last week. "Their targets are usually high-profile organizations, such as governments, diplomatic entities, and research institutions." Also known as Careto, the threat actor was previously documented by the Russian cybersecurity company over a decade ago in February 2014 as having targeted over 380 unique victims since 2007. The origins of the hacking group are currently unknown. Initial access to target networks is facilitated by means of spear-phishing emails embedding links to malicious websites that are designed to trigger browser-based zero-day exploits to infect the visitor (e.g., CVE-...

A newly discovered malware campaign has been found to target private users, retailers, and service businesses mainly located in Russia to deliver NetSupport RAT and BurnsRAT. The campaign, dubbed Horns&Hooves by Kaspersky, has hit more than 1,000 victims since it began around March 2023. The end goal of these attacks is to leverage the access afforded by these trojans to install stealer malware such as Rhadamanthys and Meduza . "Recent months have seen a surge in mailings with lookalike email attachments in the form of a ZIP archive containing JScript scripts," security researcher Artem Ushkov said in a Monday analysis. "The script files [are] disguised as requests and bids from potential customers or partners." The threat actors behind the operations have demonstrated their active development of the JavaScript payload, making significant changes during the course of the campaign. In some instances, the ZIP archive has been found to contain other docum...

Cybersecurity researchers have flagged a new ransomware family called Ymir that was deployed in an attack two days after systems were compromised by a stealer malware called RustyStealer. "Ymir ransomware introduces a unique combination of technical features and tactics that enhance its effectiveness," Russian cybersecurity vendor Kaspersky said . "Threat actors leveraged an unconventional blend of memory management functions – malloc, memmove, and memcmp – to execute malicious code directly in the memory. This approach deviates from the typical sequential execution flow seen in widespread ransomware types, enhancing its stealth capabilities." Kaspersky said it observed the ransomware used in a cyber attack targeting an unnamed organization in Colombia, with the threat actors previously delivering the RustyStealer malware to gather corporate credentials. It's believed that the stolen credentials were used to gain unauthorized access to the company's n...

Russian government agencies and industrial entities are the target of an ongoing activity cluster dubbed Awaken Likho . "The attackers now prefer using the agent for the legitimate MeshCentral platform instead of the UltraVNC module, which they had previously used to gain remote access to systems," Kaspersky said , detailing a new campaign that began in June 2024 and continued at least until August. The Russian cybersecurity company said the campaign primarily targeted Russian government agencies, their contractors, and industrial enterprises. Awaken Likho, also tracked as Core Werewolf and PseudoGamaredon, was first documented by BI.ZONE in June 2023 in connection with cyber attacks directed against defense and critical infrastructure sectors. The group is believed to be active since at least August 2021. The spear-phishing attacks involve distributing malicious executables disguised as Microsoft Word or PDF documents by assigning them double extensions like "doc...

Altered versions of legitimate Android apps associated with Spotify, WhatsApp, and Minecraft have been used to deliver a new version of a known malware loader called Necro. Kaspersky said some of the malicious apps have also been found on the Google Play Store. They have been cumulatively downloaded 11 million times. They include - Wuta Camera - Nice Shot Always (com.benqu.wuta) - 10+ million downloads Max Browser-Private & Security (com.max.browser) - 1+ million downloads As of writing, Max Browser is no longer available for download from the Play Store. Wuta Camera, on the other hand, has been updated (version 6.3.7.138) to remove the malware. The latest version of the app, 6.3.8.148, was released on September 8, 2024. It's currently not clear how both the apps were compromised with the malware in the first place, although it's believed that a rogue software developer kit (SDK) for integrating advertising capabilities is the culprit. Necro (not to be confused w...

Unnamed government entities in the Middle East and Malaysia are the target of a persistent cyber campaign orchestrated by a threat actor known as Tropic Trooper since June 2023. "Sighting this group's [Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures] in critical governmental entities in the Middle East, particularly those related to human rights studies, marks a new strategic move for them," Kaspersky security researcher Sherif Magdy said . The Russian cybersecurity vendor said it detected the activity in June 2024 upon discovering a new version of the China Chopper web Shell, a tool shared by many Chinese-speaking threat actors for remote access to compromised servers, on a public web server hosting an open-source content management system (CMS) called Umbraco. The attack chain is designed to deliver a malware implant named Crowdoor , a variant of the SparrowDoor backdoor documented by ESET back in September 2021. The efforts were ultimately unsuccessful. Tropic Trooper, also...

A previously undocumented advanced persistent threat (APT) group dubbed CloudSorcerer has been observed targeting Russian government entities by leveraging cloud services for command-and-control (C2) and data exfiltration. Cybersecurity firm Kaspersky, which discovered the activity in May 2024, said the tradecraft adopted by the threat actor bears similarities with that of CloudWizard , but pointed out the differences in the malware source code. The attacks wield an innovative data-gathering program and a slew of evasion tactics for covering its tracks. "It's a sophisticated cyber espionage tool used for stealth monitoring, data collection, and exfiltration via Microsoft Graph, Yandex Cloud, and Dropbox cloud infrastructure," the Russian security vendor said . "The malware leverages cloud resources as its command and control (C2) servers, accessing them through APIs using authentication tokens. Additionally, CloudSorcerer uses GitHub as its initial C2 server....

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed multiple security flaws in Cinterion cellular modems that could be potentially exploited by threat actors to access sensitive information and achieve code execution. "These vulnerabilities include critical flaws that permit remote code execution and unauthorized privilege escalation, posing substantial risks to integral communication networks and IoT devices foundational to industrial, healthcare, automotive, financial and telecommunications sectors," Kaspersky  said . Cinterion modems were originally developed by Gemalto before the business was  acquired  by Telit from Thales as part of a deal announced in July 2022. The findings were  presented  at the OffensiveCon held in Berlin on May 11. The list of eight flaws is as follows - CVE-2023-47610  (CVSS score: 8.1) - A buffer overflow vulnerability that could allow a remote unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code on the targeted system by ...

The U.S. Department of State on Monday said it's taking steps to impose visa restrictions on 13 individuals who are allegedly involved in the development and sale of  commercial spyware  or who are immediately family members of those involved in such businesses. "These individuals have facilitated or derived financial benefit from the misuse of this technology, which has targeted journalists, academics, human rights defenders, dissidents and other perceived critics, and U.S. Government personnel," the department  said . The names of those subjected to visa restrictions were not disclosed, but the move comes more than two months after the U.S. government said it's  enacting a new policy  that enforces visa constraints on people engaging in practices that could threaten privacy and freedom of expression. It also aims to counter the misuse and proliferation of commercial spyware that has been put to use by authoritarian gover...

Government entities in the Middle East have been targeted as part of a previously undocumented campaign to deliver a new backdoor dubbed CR4T. Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky said it discovered the activity in February 2024, with evidence suggesting that it may have been active since at least a year prior. The campaign has been codenamed  DuneQuixote . "The group behind the campaign took steps to prevent collection and analysis of its implants and implemented practical and well-designed evasion methods both in network communications and in the malware code," Kaspersky  said . The starting point of the attack is a dropper, which comes in two variants -- a regular dropper that's either implemented as an executable or a DLL file and a tampered installer file for a legitimate tool named  Total Commander . Regardless of the method used, the primary function of the dropper is to extract an embed...

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...

A Linux version of a multi-platform backdoor called  DinodasRAT  has been detected in the wild targeting China, Taiwan, Turkey, and Uzbekistan,  new findings  from Kaspersky reveal. DinodasRAT, also known as XDealer, is a C++-based malware that offers the ability to harvest a wide range of sensitive data from compromised hosts. In October 2023, Slovak cybersecurity firm ESET  revealed  that a governmental entity in Guyana had been targeted as part of a cyber espionage campaign dubbed Operation Jacana to deploy the Windows version of the implant. Then last week, Trend Micro  detailed  a threat activity cluster it tracks as Earth Krahang and which has shifted to using DinodasRAT since 2023 in its attacks aimed at several government entities worldwide. The use of DinodasRAT has been attributed to various China-nexus threat actors, including  LuoYu , once again reflecting the tool sharing prevalent among hacking crews identified as acting o...

Chinese users looking for legitimate software such as Notepad++ and VNote on search engines like Baidu are being targeted with malicious ads and bogus links to distribute trojanized versions of the software and ultimately deploy  Geacon , a Golang-based implementation of Cobalt Strike. "The malicious site found in the notepad++ search is distributed through an advertisement block," Kaspersky researcher Sergey Puzan  said . "Opening it, an attentive user will immediately notice an amusing inconsistency: the website address contains the line vnote, the title offers a download of Notepad‐‐ (an analog of Notepad++, also distributed as open-source software), while the image proudly shows Notepad++. In fact, the packages downloaded from here contain Notepad‐‐." The website, named vnote.fuwenkeji[.]cn, contains download links to Windows, Linux, and macOS versions of the software, with the link to the Windows variant pointing to the official  Gitee repository  containin...

Cracked software have been observed infecting Apple macOS users with a previously undocumented stealer malware capable of harvesting system information and cryptocurrency wallet data. Kaspersky, which identified the artifacts in the wild,  said  they are designed to target machines running macOS Ventura 13.6 and later, indicating the malware's ability to infect Macs on both Intel and Apple silicon processor architectures. The attack chains leverage booby-trapped disk image (DMG) files that include a program named "Activator" and a pirated version of legitimate software such as xScope. Users who end up opening the DMG files are urged to move both files to the Applications folder and run the Activator component to apply a supposed patch and run the xScope app. Launching Activator, however, displays a prompt asking the victim to enter the system administrator password, thereby allowing it to execute a Mach-O binary with elevated permissions in order to launch the modif...