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Category — Phishing
Hackers Exploit Signal's Linked Devices Feature to Hijack Accounts via Malicious QR Codes

Hackers Exploit Signal's Linked Devices Feature to Hijack Accounts via Malicious QR Codes

Feb 19, 2025 Mobile Security / Cyber Espionage
Multiple Russia-aligned threat actors have been observed targeting individuals of interest via the privacy-focused messaging app Signal to gain unauthorized access to their accounts. "The most novel and widely used technique underpinning Russian-aligned attempts to compromise Signal accounts is the abuse of the app's legitimate 'linked devices' feature that enables Signal to be used on multiple devices concurrently," the Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) said in a report. In the attacks spotted by the tech giant's threat intelligence teams, the threat actors, including one it's tracking as UNC5792, have resorted to malicious QR codes that, when scanned, will link a victim's account to an actor-controlled Signal instance. As a result, future messages get delivered synchronously to both the victim and the threat actor in real-time, thereby granting threat actors a persistent way to eavesdrop on the victim's conversations. Google said UAC-...
New Snake Keylogger Variant Leverages AutoIt Scripting to Evade Detection

New Snake Keylogger Variant Leverages AutoIt Scripting to Evade Detection

Feb 19, 2025 Malware / Threat Intelligence
A new variant of the Snake Keylogger malware is being used to actively target Windows users located in China, Turkey, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Spain. Fortinet FortiGuard Labs said the new version of the malware has been behind over 280 million blocked infection attempts worldwide since the start of the year. "Typically delivered through phishing emails containing malicious attachments or links, Snake Keylogger is designed to steal sensitive information from popular web browsers like Chrome, Edge, and Firefox by logging keystrokes, capturing credentials, and monitoring the clipboard," security researcher Kevin Su said . Its other features allow it to exfiltrate the stolen information to an attacker-controlled server using the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and Telegram bots, allowing the threat actors to access stolen credentials and other sensitive data." What's notable about the latest set of attacks is that it makes use of the AutoIt scripting language ...
4 Ways to Keep MFA From Becoming too Much of a Good Thing

4 Ways to Keep MFA From Becoming too Much of a Good Thing

Feb 11, 2025IT Security / Threat Protection
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) has quickly become the standard for securing business accounts. Once a niche security measure, adoption is on the rise across industries. But while it's undeniably effective at keeping bad actors out, the implementation of MFA solutions can be a tangled mess of competing designs and ideas. For businesses and employees, the reality is that MFA sometimes feels like too much of a good thing. Here are a few reasons why MFA isn't implemented more universally. 1. Businesses see MFA as a cost center MFA for businesses isn't free, and the costs of MFA can add up over time. Third-party MFA solutions come with subscription costs, typically charged per user. Even built-in options like Microsoft 365's MFA features can cost extra depending on your Microsoft Entra license. Plus, there's the cost of training employees to use MFA and the time IT takes to enroll them. If MFA increases help desk calls, support costs go up too. While these expenses are far less t...
Chinese Hackers Exploit MAVInject.exe to Evade Detection in Targeted Cyber Attacks

Chinese Hackers Exploit MAVInject.exe to Evade Detection in Targeted Cyber Attacks

Feb 18, 2025 Cyber Espionage / Malware
The Chinese state-sponsored threat actor known as Mustang Panda has been observed employing a novel technique to evade detection and maintain control over infected systems. This involves the use of a legitimate Microsoft Windows utility called Microsoft Application Virtualization Injector (MAVInject.exe) to inject the threat actor's malicious payload into an external process, waitfor.exe, whenever ESET antivirus application is detected running, Trend Micro said in a new analysis. "The attack involves dropping multiple files, including legitimate executables and malicious components, and deploying a decoy PDF to distract the victim," security researchers Nathaniel Morales and Nick Dai noted. "Additionally, Earth Preta utilizes Setup Factory, an installer builder for Windows software, to drop and execute the payload; this enables them to evade detection and maintain persistence in compromised systems." The starting point of the attack sequence is an execu...
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AI-Powered Social Engineering: Ancillary Tools and Techniques

AI-Powered Social Engineering: Ancillary Tools and Techniques

Feb 14, 2025 Cybercrime / Artificial Intelligence
Social engineering is advancing fast, at the speed of generative AI. This is offering bad actors multiple new tools and techniques for researching, scoping, and exploiting organizations. In a recent communication, the FBI pointed out: 'As technology continues to evolve, so do cybercriminals' tactics.' This article explores some of the impacts of this GenAI-fueled acceleration. And examines what it means for IT leaders responsible for managing defenses and mitigating vulnerabilities. More realism, better pretexting, and multi-lingual attack scenarios Traditional social engineering methods usually involve impersonating someone the target knows. The attacker may hide behind email to communicate, adding some psychological triggers to boost the chances of a successful breach. Maybe a request to act urgently, so the target is less likely to pause and develop doubts. Or making the email come from an employee's CEO, hoping the employee's respect for authority means they won't question...
Microsoft: Russian-Linked Hackers Using 'Device Code Phishing' to Hijack Accounts

Microsoft: Russian-Linked Hackers Using 'Device Code Phishing' to Hijack Accounts

Feb 14, 2025 Enterprise Security / Cyber Attack
Microsoft is calling attention to an emerging threat cluster it calls Storm-2372 that has been attributed to a new set of cyber attacks aimed at a variety of sectors since August 2024. The attacks have targeted government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), information technology (IT) services and technology, defense, telecommunications, health, higher education, and energy/oil and gas sectors in Europe, North America, Africa, and the Middle East.  The threat actor, assessed with medium confidence to be aligned with Russian interests, victimology, and tradecraft, has been observed targeting users via messaging apps like WhatsApp, Signal, and Microsoft Teams by falsely claiming to be a prominent person relevant to the target in an attempt to build trust. "The attacks use a specific phishing technique called 'device code phishing' that tricks users to log into productivity apps while Storm-2372 actors capture the information from the log in (tokens) that they can us...
Hackers Use CAPTCHA Trick on Webflow CDN PDFs to Bypass Security Scanners

Hackers Use CAPTCHA Trick on Webflow CDN PDFs to Bypass Security Scanners

Feb 13, 2025 Web Security / Cloud Security
A widespread phishing campaign has been observed leveraging bogus PDF documents hosted on the Webflow content delivery network (CDN) with an aim to steal credit card information and commit financial fraud. "The attacker targets victims searching for documents on search engines, resulting in access to malicious PDF that contains a CAPTCHA image embedded with a phishing link, leading them to provide sensitive information," Netskope Threat Labs researcher Jan Michael Alcantara said . The activity, ongoing since the second half of 2024, entails users looking for book titles, documents, and charts on search engines like Google to redirect users to PDF files hosted on Webflow CDN. These PDF files come embedded with an image that mimics a CAPTCHA challenge, causing users who click on it to be taken to a phishing page that, this time, hosts a real Cloudflare Turnstile CAPTCHA. In doing so, the attackers aim to lend the process a veneer of legitimacy, fooling victims into think...
North Korean APT43 Uses PowerShell and Dropbox in Targeted South Korea Cyberattacks

North Korean APT43 Uses PowerShell and Dropbox in Targeted South Korea Cyberattacks

Feb 13, 2025 United States
A nation-state threat actor with ties to North Korea has been linked to an ongoing campaign targeting South Korean business, government, and cryptocurrency sectors. The attack campaign, dubbed DEEP#DRIVE by Securonix, has been attributed to a hacking group known as Kimsuky , which is also tracked under the names APT43, Black Banshee, Emerald Sleet, Sparkling Pisces, Springtail, TA427, and Velvet Chollima. "Leveraging tailored phishing lures written in Korean and disguised as legitimate documents, the attackers successfully infiltrated targeted environments," security researchers Den Iuzvyk and Tim Peck said in a report shared with The Hacker News, describing the activity as a "sophisticated and multi-stage operation." The decoy documents, sent via phishing emails as .HWP, .XLSX, and .PPTX files, are disguised as work logs, insurance documents and crypto-related files to trick recipients into opening them, thereby triggering the infection process. The attack...
North Korean Hackers Exploit PowerShell Trick to Hijack Devices in New Cyberattack

North Korean Hackers Exploit PowerShell Trick to Hijack Devices in New Cyberattack

Feb 12, 2025 IT Security / Cybercrime
The North Korea-linked threat actor known as Kimsuky has been observed using a new tactic that involves deceiving targets into running PowerShell as an administrator and then instructing them to paste and run malicious code provided by them. "To execute this tactic, the threat actor masquerades as a South Korean government official and over time builds rapport with a target before sending a spear-phishing email with an [sic] PDF attachment," the Microsoft Threat Intelligence team said in a series of posts shared on X. To read the purported PDF document, victims are persuaded to click a URL containing a list of steps to register their Windows system. The registration link urges them to launch PowerShell as an administrator and copy/paste the displayed code snippet into the terminal, and execute it. Should the victim follow through, the malicious code downloads and installs a browser-based remote desktop tool, along with a certificate file with a hardcoded PIN from a rem...
FBI, Europol, and NCA Take Down 8Base Ransomware Data Leak and Negotiation Sites

FBI, Europol, and NCA Take Down 8Base Ransomware Data Leak and Negotiation Sites

Feb 11, 2025 Cybercrime / Ransomware
Source: The Nation A coordinated law enforcement operation has taken down the dark web data leak and negotiation sites associated with the 8Base ransomware gang. Visitors to the data leak site are now greeted with a seizure banner that says: "This hidden site and the criminal content have been seized by the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office on behalf of the Office of the Public Prosecutor General in Bamberg." The takedown involved the U.K. National Crime Agency (NCA), the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Europol, as well as agencies from Bavaria, Belgium, Czechia, France, Germany, Japan, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, and Thailand. Thai media reports have revealed that four European nationals – two men and two women – were arrested across four different locations on Monday as part of an effort codenamed Operation Phobos Aetor. The identities of the suspects were not disclosed. Authorities are said to have seized more than 40 pieces of evidence, including ...
DragonRank Exploits IIS Servers with BadIIS Malware for SEO Fraud and Gambling Redirects

DragonRank Exploits IIS Servers with BadIIS Malware for SEO Fraud and Gambling Redirects

Feb 10, 2025 Malware / Web Security
Threat actors have been observed targeting Internet Information Services (IIS) servers in Asia as part of a search engine optimization (SEO) manipulation campaign designed to install BadIIS malware. "It is likely that the campaign is financially motivated since redirecting users to illegal gambling websites shows that attackers deploy BadIIS for profit," Trend Micro researchers Ted Lee and Lenart Bermejo said in an analysis published last week, Targets of the campaign include IIS servers located in India, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and Brazil. These servers are associated with government, universities, technology companies, and telecommunications sectors. Requests to the compromised servers can then be served altered content from attackers, ranging from redirections to gambling sites to connecting to rogue servers that host malware or credential harvesting pages. It's suspected that the activity is the work of a Chinese-s...
AI-Powered Social Engineering: Reinvented Threats

AI-Powered Social Engineering: Reinvented Threats

Feb 07, 2025 Artificial Intelligence / Cybercrime
The foundations for social engineering attacks – manipulating humans – might not have changed much over the years. It's the vectors – how these techniques are deployed – that are evolving. And like most industries these days, AI is accelerating its evolution.  This article explores how these changes are impacting business, and how cybersecurity leaders can respond. Impersonation attacks: using a trusted identity Traditional forms of defense were already struggling to solve social engineering, the 'cause of most data breaches' according to Thomson Reuters. The next generation of AI-powered cyber attacks and threat actors can now launch these attacks with unprecedented speed, scale, and realism.  The old way: Silicone masks By impersonating a French government minister, two fraudsters were able to extract over €55 million from multiple victims. During video calls, one would wear a silicone mask of Jean-Yves Le Drian. To add a layer of believability, they also sat in a rec...
North Korean APT Kimsuky Uses forceCopy Malware to Steal Browser-Stored Credentials

North Korean APT Kimsuky Uses forceCopy Malware to Steal Browser-Stored Credentials

Feb 06, 2025 Threat Intelligence / Malware
The North Korea-linked nation-state hacking group known as Kimsuky has been observed conducting spear-phishing attacks to deliver an information stealer malware named forceCopy, according to new findings from the AhnLab Security Intelligence Center (ASEC). The attacks commence with phishing emails containing a Windows shortcut (LNK) file that's disguised as a Microsoft Office or PDF document. Opening this attachment triggers the execution of PowerShell or mshta.exe, a legitimate Microsoft binary designed to run HTML Application (HTA) files, that are responsible for downloading and running next-stage payloads from an external source. The South Korean cybersecurity company said the attacks culminated in the deployment of a known trojan dubbed PEBBLEDASH and a custom version of an open-source Remote Desktop utility named RDP Wrapper . Also delivered as part of the attacks is a proxy malware that allows the threat actors to establish persistent communications with an external ...
Cross-Platform JavaScript Stealer Targets Crypto Wallets in New Lazarus Group Campaign

Cross-Platform JavaScript Stealer Targets Crypto Wallets in New Lazarus Group Campaign

Feb 05, 2025 Cryptocurrency / Data Breach
The North Korea-linked Lazarus Group has been linked to an active campaign that leverages fake LinkedIn job offers in the cryptocurrency and travel sectors to deliver malware capable of infecting Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems. According to cybersecurity company Bitdefender, the scam begins with a message sent on a professional social media network, enticing them with the promise of remote work, part-time flexibility, and good pay. "Once the target expresses interest, the 'hiring process' unfolds, with the scammer requesting a CV or even a personal GitHub repository link," the Romanian firm said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "Although seemingly innocent, these requests can serve nefarious purposes, such as harvesting personal data or lending a veneer of legitimacy to the interaction." Once the requested details are obtained, the attack moves to the next stage where the threat actor, under the guise of a recruiter, shares a lin...
AsyncRAT Campaign Uses Python Payloads and TryCloudflare Tunnels for Stealth Attacks

AsyncRAT Campaign Uses Python Payloads and TryCloudflare Tunnels for Stealth Attacks

Feb 05, 2025 Malware / Network Security
A malware campaign has been observed delivering a remote access trojan (RAT) named AsyncRAT by making use of Python payloads and TryCloudflare tunnels. "AsyncRAT is a remote access trojan (RAT) that exploits the async/await pattern for efficient, asynchronous communication," Forcepoint X-Labs researcher Jyotika Singh said in an analysis. "It allows attackers to control infected systems stealthily, exfiltrate data and execute commands while remaining hidden – making it a significant cyberthreat." The starting point of the multi-stage attack chain is a phishing email that contains a Dropbox URL that, upon clicking, downloads a ZIP archive. Present within the file is an internet shortcut (URL) file, which serves as a conduit for a Windows shortcut (LNK) file responsible for taking the infection further, while a seemingly benign decoy PDF document is displayed to the message recipient. Specifically, the LNK file is retrieved by means of a TryCloudflare URL embed...
Russian Cybercrime Groups Exploiting 7-Zip Flaw to Bypass Windows MotW Protections

Russian Cybercrime Groups Exploiting 7-Zip Flaw to Bypass Windows MotW Protections

Feb 04, 2025 Vulnerability / Cyber Espionage
A recently patched security vulnerability in the 7-Zip archiver tool was exploited in the wild to deliver the SmokeLoader malware. The flaw, CVE-2025-0411 (CVSS score: 7.0), allows remote attackers to circumvent mark-of-the-web ( MotW ) protections and execute arbitrary code in the context of the current user. It was addressed by 7-Zip in November 2024 with version 24.09 . "The vulnerability was actively exploited by Russian cybercrime groups through spear-phishing campaigns, using homoglyph attacks to spoof document extensions and trick users and the Windows Operating System into executing malicious files," Trend Micro security researcher Peter Girnus said . It's suspected that CVE-2025-0411 was likely weaponized to target governmental and non-governmental organizations in Ukraine as part of a cyber espionage campaign set against the backdrop of the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian conflict. MotW is a security feature implemented by Microsoft in Windows to prevent the a...
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