Malware-as-a-Service | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

A spear-phishing email campaign has been observed targeting recruiters with a JavaScript backdoor called More_eggs, indicating persistent efforts to single out the sector under the guise of fake job applications. "A sophisticated spear-phishing lure tricked a recruitment officer into downloading and executing a malicious file disguised as a resume, leading to a more_eggs backdoor infection," Trend Micro researchers Ryan Soliven, Maria Emreen Viray, and Fe Cureg said in an analysis. More_eggs, sold as a malware-as-a-service (MaaS), is a malicious software that comes with capabilities to siphon credentials, including those related to online bank accounts, email accounts, and IT administrator accounts. It's attributed to a threat actor called the Golden Chickens group (aka Venom Spider), and has been put to use by several other e-crime groups like FIN6 (aka ITG08 ), Cobalt, and Evilnum. Earlier this June, eSentire disclosed details of a similar attack that leverages ...

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new version of an Android banking trojan called Octo that comes with improved capabilities to conduct device takeover ( DTO ) and perform fraudulent transactions. The new version has been codenamed Octo2 by the malware author, Dutch security firm ThreatFabric said in a report shared with The Hacker News, adding campaigns distributing the malware have been spotted in European countries like Italy, Poland, Moldova, and Hungary. "The malware developers took actions to increase the stability of the remote actions capabilities needed for Device Takeover attacks," the company said . Some of the malicious apps containing Octo2 are listed below - Europe Enterprise (com.xsusb_restore3) Google Chrome (com.havirtual06numberresources) NordVPN (com.handedfastee5) Octo was first flagged by the company in early 2022, describing it as the work of a threat actor who goes by the online aliases Architect and goodluck. It has been assessed...

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Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a never-before-seen dropper that serves as a conduit to launch next-stage malware with the ultimate goal of infecting Windows systems with information stealers and loaders. "This memory-only dropper decrypts and executes a PowerShell-based downloader," Google-owned Mandiant said . "This PowerShell-based downloader is being tracked as PEAKLIGHT." Some of the malware strains distributed using this technique are Lumma Stealer , Hijack Loader (aka DOILoader, IDAT Loader, or SHADOWLADDER), and CryptBot , all of which are advertised under the malware-as-a-service (SaaS) model. The starting point of the attack chain is a Windows shortcut (LNK) file that's downloaded via drive-by download techniques -- e.g., when users look up a movie on search engines. It's worth pointing out that the LNK files are distributed within ZIP archives that are disguised as pirated movies. The LNK file connects to a content delivery network...

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a new information stealer that's designed to target Apple macOS hosts and harvest a wide range of information, underscoring how threat actors are increasingly setting their sights on the operating system. Dubbed Cthulhu Stealer, the malware has been available under a malware-as-a-service (MaaS) model for $500 a month from late 2023. It's capable of targeting both x86_64 and Arm architectures. "Cthulhu Stealer is an Apple disk image (DMG) that is bundled with two binaries, depending on the architecture," Cado Security researcher Tara Gould said . "The malware is written in Golang and disguises itself as legitimate software." Some of the software programs it impersonates include CleanMyMac, Grand Theft Auto IV, and Adobe GenP, the last of which is an open-source tool that patches Adobe apps to bypass the Creative Cloud service and activates them without a serial key. Users who end up launching the unsigned file af...

The nascent malware known as SSLoad is being delivered by means of a previously undocumented loader called PhantomLoader, according to findings from cybersecurity firm Intezer. "The loader is added to a legitimate DLL, usually EDR or AV products, by binary patching the file and employing self-modifying techniques to evade detection," security researchers Nicole Fishbein and Ryan Robinson said in a report published this week. SSLoad, likely offered to other threat actors under a Malware-as-a-Service (MaaS) model owing to its different delivery methods, infiltrates systems through phishing emails, conducts reconnaissance, and pushes additional types of malware down to victims. Prior reporting from Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 and Securonix has revealed the use of SSLoad to deploy Cobalt Strike, a legitimate adversary simulation software often used for post-exploitation purposes. The malware has been detected since April 2024. The attack chains typically involve the use o...

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...

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a malicious Python package uploaded to the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository that's designed to deliver an information stealer called Lumma (aka LummaC2). The package in question is crytic-compilers, a typosquatted version of a legitimate library named crytic-compile . The rogue package was downloaded 441 times before it was taken down by PyPI maintainers. "The counterfeit library is interesting in that, in addition [to] being named after the legitimate Python utility, 'crytic-compile,' it aligns its version numbers with the real library," Sonatype security researcher Ax Sharma said . "Whereas the real library's latest version stops at 0.3.7, the counterfeit 'crytic-compilers' version picks up right here, and ends at 0.3.11 — giving off the impression that this is a newer version of the component." In a further attempt to keep up the ruse, some versions of crytic-compilers (e.g., 0.3.9) we...

Cyber attacks involving the DarkGate malware-as-a-service (MaaS) operation have shifted away from AutoIt scripts to an AutoHotkey mechanism to deliver the last stages, underscoring continued efforts on the part of the threat actors to continuously stay ahead of the detection curve. The updates have been observed in version 6 of DarkGate released in March 2024 by its developer RastaFarEye, who has been selling the program on a subscription basis to as many as 30 customers. The malware has been active since at least 2018. A fully-featured remote access trojan (RAT), DarkGate is equipped with command-and-control (C2) and rootkit capabilities, and incorporates various modules for credential theft, keylogging, screen capturing, and remote desktop. "DarkGate campaigns tend to adapt really fast, modifying different components to try to stay off security solutions," Trellix security researcher Ernesto Fernández Provecho said in a Monday analysis. "This is the first time...

Cybersecurity researchers have detected a new wave of phishing attacks that aim to deliver an ever-evolving information stealer referred to as  StrelaStealer . The campaigns impact more than 100 organizations in the E.U. and the U.S., Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 researchers said in a new report published today. "These campaigns come in the form of spam emails with attachments that eventually launch the StrelaStealer's DLL payload," researchers Benjamin Chang, Goutam Tripathy, Pranay Kumar Chhaparwal, Anmol Maurya, and Vishwa Thothathri said . "In an attempt to evade detection, attackers change the initial email attachment file format from one campaign to the next, to prevent detection from the previously generated signature or patterns." First disclosed in November 2022, StrelaStealer is  equipped  to siphon email login data from well-known email clients and exfiltrate them to an attacker-controlled server. Since then, two large-scale campaigns involving the ma...

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered an updated variant of a stealer and malware loader called  BunnyLoader  that modularizes its various functions as well as allow it to evade detection. "BunnyLoader is dynamically developing malware with the capability to steal information, credentials and cryptocurrency, as well as deliver additional malware to its victims," Palo Alto Networks Unit 42  said  in a report published last week. The new version, dubbed BunnyLoader 3.0, was announced by its developer named Player (or Player_Bunny) on February 11, 2024, with rewritten modules for data theft, reduced payload size, and enhanced keylogging capabilities. BunnyLoader was  first documented  by Zscaler ThreatLabz in September 2023, describing it as a malware-as-a-service (MaaS) designed to harvest credentials and facilitate cryptocurrency theft. It was initially offered on a subscription basis for $250 per month. The malware has since undergone frequent upd...

Information stealing malware are actively taking advantage of an undocumented Google OAuth endpoint named MultiLogin to hijack user sessions and allow continuous access to Google services even after a password reset. According to CloudSEK, the  critical exploit  facilitates session persistence and cookie generation, enabling threat actors to maintain access to a valid session in an unauthorized manner. The technique was first revealed by a threat actor named PRISMA on October 20, 2023, on their Telegram channel. It has since been  incorporated  into  various malware-as-a-service (MaaS) stealer families , such as Lumma, Rhadamanthys, Stealc, Meduza, RisePro, and WhiteSnake. The MultiLogin authentication endpoint is primarily designed for synchronizing Google accounts across services when users sign in to their accounts in the Chrome web browser (i.e.,  profiles ).  A reverse engineering of the Lumma Stealer code has revealed that the technique tar...

A new malware loader is being used by threat actors to deliver a wide range of  information stealers  such as Lumma Stealer (aka LummaC2), Vidar, RecordBreaker (aka Raccoon Stealer V2), and  Rescoms . Cybersecurity firm ESET is tracking the trojan under the name  Win/TrojanDownloader.Rugmi . "This malware is a loader with three types of components: a downloader that downloads an encrypted payload, a loader that runs the payload from internal resources, and another loader that runs the payload from an external file on the disk," the company  said  in its Threat Report H2 2023. Telemetry data gathered by the company shows that detections for the Rugmi loader spiked in October and November 2023, surging from single digit daily numbers to hundreds per day. Stealer malware is typically sold under a malware-as-a-service (MaaS) model to other threat actors on a subscription basis. Lumma Stealer, for instance, is advertised in underground forums for $250 a mo...

The developers of the information stealer malware known as  Rhadamanthys  are actively iterating on its features, broadening its information-gathering capabilities and also incorporating a plugin system to make it more customizable. This approach not only transforms it into a threat capable of delivering "specific distributor needs," but also makes it more potent, Check Point  said  in a technical deep dive published last week. Rhadamanthys,  first documented  by ThreatMon in October 2022, has been sold under the malware-as-a-service (MaaS) model as early as September 2022 by an actor under the alias "kingcrete2022." Typically distributed through malicious websites mirroring those of genuine software that are advertised through Google ads, the malware is capable of harvesting a wide range of sensitive information from compromised hosts, including from web browsers, crypto wallets, email clients, VPN, and instant messaging apps. "Rhadamanthys represent...

Threat hunters have unmasked the latest tricks adopted by a malware strain called  GuLoader  in an effort to make analysis more challenging. "While GuLoader's core functionality hasn't changed drastically over the past few years, these constant updates in their obfuscation techniques make analyzing GuLoader a time-consuming and resource-intensive process," Elastic Security Labs researcher Daniel Stepanic  said  in a report published this week. First spotted in late 2019, GuLoader (aka CloudEyE) is an advanced shellcode-based malware downloader that's used to distribute a wide range of payloads, such as information stealers, while incorporating a bevy of sophisticated anti-analysis techniques to dodge traditional security solutions. A  steady stream  of  open-source reporting  into the malware in recent months has revealed the threat actors behind it have continued to improve its ability to bypass existing or new security features alongside oth...

Cybersecurity experts have discovered yet another malware-as-a-service ( MaaS ) threat called  BunnyLoader  that's being advertised for sale on the cybercrime underground. "BunnyLoader provides various functionalities such as downloading and executing a second-stage payload, stealing browser credentials and system information, and much more," Zscaler ThreatLabz researchers Niraj Shivtarkar and Satyam Singh  said  in an analysis published last week. Among its other capabilities include running remote commands on the infected machine, a keylogger to capture keystrokes, and a clipper functionality to monitor the victim's clipboard and replace content matching cryptocurrency wallet addresses with actor-controlled addresses. A C/C++-based loader offered for $250 for a lifetime license, the malware is said to have been under continuous development since its debut on September 4, 2023, with new features and enhancements that incorporate anti-sandbox and antivirus evasio...