Remote Access Trojan | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

The threat actor known as Patchwork has been linked to a cyber attack targeting entities with ties to Bhutan to deliver the Brute Ratel C4 framework and an updated version of a backdoor called PGoShell. The development marks the first time the adversary has been observed using the red teaming software, the Knownsec 404 Team said in an analysis published last week. The activity cluster, also called APT-C-09, Dropping Elephant, Operation Hangover, Viceroy Tiger, and Zinc Emerson, is a state-sponsored actor likely of Indian origin. Known for conducting spear-phishing and watering hole attacks against China and Pakistan, the hacking crew is believed to be active since at least 2009, according to data shared by Chinese cybersecurity firm QiAnXin. Last July, Knownsec 404 disclosed details of an espionage campaign aimed at universities and research organizations in China that leveraged a .NET-based implant codenamed EyeShell to fetch and execute commands from an attacker-controlled

The JavaScript downloader malware known as SocGholish (aka FakeUpdates) is being used to deliver a remote access trojan called AsyncRAT as well as a legitimate open-source project called BOINC. BOINC , short for Berkeley Open Infrastructure Network Computing Client, is an open-source "volunteer computing" platform maintained by the University of California with an aim to carry out "large-scale distributed high-throughput computing" using participating home computers on which the app is installed. "It's similar to a cryptocurrency miner in that way (using computer resources to do work), and it's actually designed to reward users with a specific type of cryptocurrency called Gridcoin, designed for this purpose," Huntress researchers Matt Anderson, Alden Schmidt, and Greg Linares said in a report published last week. These malicious installations are designed to connect to an actor-controlled domain ("rosettahome[.]cn" or "rosettah

As a vCISO, you are responsible for your client's cybersecurity strategy and risk governance. This incorporates multiple disciplines, from research to execution to reporting. Recently, we published a comprehensive playbook for vCISOs, "Your First 100 Days as a vCISO – 5 Steps to Success" , which covers all the phases entailed in launching a successful vCISO engagement, along with recommended actions to take, and step-by-step examples.  Following the success of the playbook and the requests that have come in from the MSP/MSSP community, we decided to drill down into specific parts of vCISO reporting and provide more color and examples. In this article, we focus on how to create compelling narratives within a report, which has a significant impact on the overall MSP/MSSP value proposition.  This article brings the highlights of a recent guided workshop we held, covering what makes a successful report and how it can be used to enhance engagement with your cyber security clients.

Threat actors have been observed publishing a new wave of malicious packages to the NuGet package manager as part of an ongoing campaign that began in August 2023, while also adding a new layer of stealth to evade detection. The fresh packages, about 60 in number and spanning 290 versions, demonstrate a refined approach from the previous set that came to light in October 2023, software supply chain security firm ReversingLabs said. The attackers pivoted from using NuGet's MSBuild integrations to "a strategy that uses simple, obfuscated downloaders that are inserted into legitimate PE binary files using Intermediary Language (IL) Weaving, a .NET programming technique for modifying an application's code after compilation," security researcher Karlo Zanki said . The end goal of the counterfeit packages, both old and new, is to deliver an off-the-shelf remote access trojan called SeroXen RAT . All the identified packages have since been taken down. The latest coll

Spanish language victims are the target of an email phishing campaign that delivers a new remote access trojan (RAT) called Poco RAT since at least February 2024. The attacks primarily single out mining, manufacturing, hospitality, and utilities sectors, according to cybersecurity company Cofense. "The majority of the custom code in the malware appears to be focused on anti-analysis, communicating with its command-and-control center (C2), and downloading and running files with a limited focus on monitoring or harvesting credentials," it said . Infection chains begin with phishing messages bearing finance-themed lures that trick recipients into clicking on an embedded URL pointing to a 7-Zip archive file hosted on Google Drive. Other methods observed include the use of HTML or PDF files directly attached to the emails or downloaded via another embedded Google Drive link. The abuse of legitimate services by threat actors is not a new phenomenon as it allows them to bypass

Multiple threat actors have been observed exploiting a recently disclosed security flaw in PHP to deliver remote access trojans, cryptocurrency miners, and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) botnets. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2024-4577 (CVSS score: 9.8), which allows an attacker to remotely execute malicious commands on Windows systems using Chinese and Japanese language locales. It was publicly disclosed in early June 2024. "CVE-2024-4577 is a flaw that allows an attacker to escape the command line and pass arguments to be interpreted directly by PHP," Akamai researchers Kyle Lefton, Allen West, and Sam Tinklenberg said in a Wednesday analysis. "The vulnerability itself lies in how Unicode characters are converted into ASCII." The web infrastructure company said it began observing exploit attempts against its honeypot servers targeting the PHP flaw within 24 hours of it being public knowledge. This included exploits designed to deliver a remote

Military personnel from Middle East countries are the target of an ongoing surveillanceware operation that delivers an Android data-gathering tool called GuardZoo . The campaign , believed to have commenced as early as October 2019, has been attributed to a Houthi-aligned threat actor based on the application lures, command-and-control (C2) server logs, targeting footprint, and the attack infrastructure location, according to Lookout. More than 450 victims have been impacted by the malicious activity, with targets located in Egypt, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the U.A.E., and Yemen. Telemetry data indicates that most of the infections have been recorded in Yemen. GuardZoo is a modified version of an Android remote access trojan (RAT) named Dendroid RAT that was first discovered by Broadcom-owned Symantec in March 2014. The entire source code associated with the crimeware solution was leaked later that August. Originally marketed as a commodity malware for a one-off price

Cybersecurity researchers have shed light on a new phishing campaign that has been identified as targeting people in Pakistan using a custom backdoor. Dubbed PHANTOM#SPIKE by Securonix, the unknown threat actors behind the activity have leveraged military-related phishing documents to activate the infection sequence. "While there are many methods used today to deploy malware, the threat actors made use of ZIP files with a password-protected payload archive contained within," researchers Den Iuzvyk, Tim Peck, and Oleg Kolesnikov said in a report shared with The Hacker News. The campaign is notable for its lack of sophistication and the use of simple payloads to achieve remote access to target machines. The email messages come bearing a ZIP archive that purports to be meeting minutes related to the International Military-Technical Forum Army 2024, a legitimate event organized by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. It's set to be held in Moscow in mid

A suspected China-nexus cyber espionage actor has been attributed as behind a prolonged attack against an unnamed organization located in East Asia for a period of about three years, with the adversary establishing persistence using legacy F5 BIG-IP appliances and using it as an internal command-and-control (C&C) for defense evasion purposes. Cybersecurity company Sygnia, which responded to the intrusion in late 2023, is tracking the activity under the name Velvet Ant , characterizing it as possessing robust capabilities to swiftly pivot and adapt their tactics to counter repeated eradication efforts. "Velvet Ant is a sophisticated and innovative threat actor," the Israeli company said in a technical report shared with The Hacker News. "They collected sensitive information over a long period of time, focusing on customer and financial information." The attack chains involve the use of a known backdoor called PlugX (aka Korplug), a modular remote access tr

Legitimate-but-compromised websites are being used as a conduit to deliver a Windows backdoor dubbed BadSpace under the guise of fake browser updates. "The threat actor employs a multi-stage attack chain involving an infected website, a command-and-control (C2) server, in some cases a fake browser update, and a JScript downloader to deploy a backdoor into the victim's system," German cybersecurity company G DATA said in a report. Details of the malware were first shared by researchers kevross33 and Gi7w0rm last month. It all starts with a compromised website, including those built on WordPress, to inject code that incorporates logic to determine if a user has visited the site before.  Should it be the user's first visit, the code collects information about the device, IP address, user-agent, and location, and transmits it to a hard-coded domain via an HTTP GET request. The response from the server subsequently overlays the contents of the web page with a ph

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

A previously undocumented cross-platform malware codenamed Noodle RAT has been put to use by Chinese-speaking threat actors either for espionage or cybercrime for years. While this backdoor was previously categorized as a variant of Gh0st RAT and Rekoobe , Trend Micro security researcher Hara Hiroaki said "this backdoor is not merely a variant of existing malware, but is a new type altogether." Noodle RAT, which also goes by the monikers ANGRYREBEL and Nood RAT , comes in both Windows and Linux flavors, and is believed to have been put to use since at least July 2016. The remote access trojan Gh0st RAT first surfaced in 2008 when a China threat group called the C. Rufus Security Team made its source code publicly available. Over the years, the malware – alongside other tools like PlugX and ShadowPad – has become a hallmark of Chinese government hackers, who have used it in numerous campaigns and attacks. The Windows version of Noodle RAT, an in-memory modular backd

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a threat actor known as Sticky Werewolf that has been linked to cyber attacks targeting entities in Russia and Belarus. The phishing attacks were aimed at a pharmaceutical company, a Russian research institute dealing with microbiology and vaccine development, and the aviation sector, expanding beyond their initial focus of government organizations, Morphisec said in a report last week. "In previous campaigns, the infection chain began with phishing emails containing a link to download a malicious file from platforms like gofile.io," security researcher Arnold Osipov said. "This latest campaign used archive files containing LNK files pointing to a payload stored on WebDAV servers." Sticky Werewolf, one of the many threat actors targeting Russia and Belarus such as Cloud Werewolf (aka Inception and Cloud Atlas ), Quartz Wolf , Red Wolf (aka RedCurl ), and Scaly Wolf , was first documented by BI.ZONE in Octo

Muhstik botnet exploits a critical Apache RocketMQ flaw (CVE-2023-33246) for remote code execution , targeting Linux servers and IoT devices for DDoS attacks and cryptocurrency mining . Infection involves executing a shell script from a remote IP, downloading the Muhstik malware binary ("pty3") , and ensuring persistence by copying to multiple directories and editing system files. With over 5,000 vulnerable Apache RocketMQ instances still exposed, organizations must update to the latest version to mitigate risks, while securing MS-SQL servers against brute-force attacks and ensuring regular password changes. The distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) botnet known as Muhstik has been observed leveraging a now-patched security flaw impacting Apache RocketMQ to co-opt susceptible servers and expand its scale. "Muhstik is a well-known threat targeting IoT devices and Linux-based servers, notorious for its ability to infect devices and utilize the

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 uncovered a new suspicious package uploaded to the npm package registry that's designed to drop a remote access trojan (RAT) on compromised systems. The package in question is glup-debugger-log , which targets users of the gulp toolkit by masquerading as a "logger for gulp and gulp plugins." It has been downloaded 175 times to date. Software supply chain security firm Phylum, which discovered the package, said the software comes fitted with two obfuscated files that work in tandem to deploy the malicious payload. "One worked as a kind of initial dropper setting the stage for the malware campaign by compromising the target machine if it met certain requirements, then downloading additional malware components, and the other script providing the attacker with a persistent remote access mechanism to control the compromised machine," it said . Phylum's closer examination of the library's package.json file – which acts as

Law enforcement authorities behind Operation Endgame are seeking information related to an individual who goes by the name Odd and is allegedly the mastermind behind the Emotet malware.  Odd is also said to go by the nicknames Aron, C700, Cbd748, Ivanov Odd, Mors, Morse, and Veron over the past few years, according to a video released by the agencies. "Who is he working with? What is his current product?," the video continues, suggesting that he is likely not acting alone and may be collaborating with others on malware other than Emotet. The threat actor(s) behind Emotet has been tracked by the cybersecurity community under the monikers Gold Crestwood, Mealybug, Mummy Spider, and TA542. Originally conceived as a banking trojan, it evolved into a broader-purpose tool capable of delivering other payloads, along the lines of malware such as TrickBot, IcedID, QakBot, and others. It re-emerged in late 2021, albeit as part of low-volume campaigns, following a law enforceme

Fake web browser updates are being used to deliver remote access trojans (RATs) and information stealer malware such as BitRAT and Lumma Stealer (aka LummaC2). "Fake browser updates have been responsible for numerous malware infections, including those of the well-known SocGholish malware," cybersecurity firm eSentire said in a new report. "In April 2024, we observed FakeBat being distributed via similar fake update mechanisms." The attack chain commences when prospective targets visits a booby-trapped website that contains JavaScript code designed to redirect users to a bogus browser update page ("chatgpt-app[.]cloud"). The redirected web page comes embedded with a download link to a ZIP archive file ("Update.zip") that's hosted on Discord and downloaded automatically to the victim's device. It's worth pointing out that threat actors often use Discord as an attack vector, with a recent analysis from Bitdefender uncovering m

Cybersecurity researchers are alerting of phishing campaigns that abuse  Cloudflare Workers  to serve phishing sites that are used to harvest users' credentials associated with Microsoft, Gmail, Yahoo!, and cPanel Webmail. The attack method, called transparent phishing or adversary-in-the-middle ( AitM ) phishing, "uses Cloudflare Workers to act as a reverse proxy server for a legitimate login page, intercepting traffic between the victim and the login page to capture credentials, cookies, and tokens," Netskope researcher Jan Michael Alcantara  said  in a report. A majority of phishing campaigns hosted on Cloudflare Workers over the past 30 days have targeted victims in Asia, North America, and Southern Europe, spanning technology, financial services, and banking sectors. The cybersecurity firm said that an increase in traffic to Cloudflare Workers-hosted phishing pages was first registered in Q2 2023, noting it observed a spike in the total number of distinct domains