Signal | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Cybersecurity researchers have shed light on a mobile forensics tool called Massistant that's used by law enforcement authorities in China to gather information from seized mobile devices. The hacking tool, believed to be a successor of MFSocket , is developed by a Chinese company named SDIC Intelligence Xiamen Information Co., Ltd. , which was formerly known as Meiya Pico. It specializes in the research, development, and sale of electronic data forensics and network information security technology products. According to a report published by Lookout, Massistant works in conjunction with a corresponding desktop software, allowing for access to the device's GPS location data, SMS messages, images, audio, contacts, and phone services. "Meiya Pico maintains partnerships with domestic and international law enforcement partners, both as a surveillance hardware and software provider, as well as through training programs for law enforcement personnel," security resear...

The Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT-UA) is warning of a new campaign that targets the defense sectors with Dark Crystal RAT (aka DCRat ). The campaign, detected earlier this month, has been found to target both employees of enterprises of the defense-industrial complex and individual representatives of the Defense Forces of Ukraine. The activity involves distributing malicious messages via the Signal messaging app that contain supposed meeting minutes. Some of these messages are sent from previously compromised Signal accounts so as to increase the likelihood of success of the attacks. The reports are shared in the form of archive files, which contain a decoy PDF and an executable, a .NET-based evasive crypter named DarkTortilla that decrypts and launches the DCRat malware. DCRat, a well-documented remote access trojan (RAT), facilitates the execution of arbitrary commands, steals valuable information, and establishes remote control over infected devices. CE...

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-...

AI agents promise to automate everything from financial reconciliations to incident response. Yet every time an AI agent spins up a workflow, it has to authenticate somewhere; often with a high-privilege API key, OAuth token, or service account that defenders can't easily see. These "invisible" non-human identities (NHIs) now outnumber human accounts in most cloud environments, and they have become one of the ripest targets for attackers. Astrix's Field CTO Jonathan Sander put it bluntly in a recent Hacker News webinar : "One dangerous habit we've had for a long time is trusting application logic to act as the guardrails. That doesn't work when your AI agent is powered by LLMs that don't stop and think when they're about to do something wrong. They just do it." Why AI Agents Redefine Identity Risk Autonomy changes everything: An AI agent can chain multiple API calls and modify data without a human in the loop. If the underlying credential is exposed or overprivileged, each addit...

End-to-end encrypted (E2EE) messaging app Signal said it's piloting a new feature that allows users to create unique usernames (not to be confused with profile names) and keep the phone numbers away from prying eyes. "If you use Signal, your phone number will no longer be visible to everyone you chat with by default," Signal's Randall Sarafa  said . "People who have your number saved in their phone's contacts will still see your phone number since they already know it." Setting a new username requires account holders to provide two or more numbers at the end of it (e.g., axolotl.99) in an effort to keep them "egalitarian and minimize spoofing." Usernames can be changed any number of times, but it's worth noting that they are not logins or handles. Put differently, a username is an anonymous way to initiate conversations on the chat platform without having to share phone numbers. The feature is opt-in, although Signal said it's also taking steps to hide by default users' phone ...

The threat actor known as Patchwork likely used romance scam lures to trap victims in Pakistan and India, and infect their Android devices with a remote access trojan called  VajraSpy . Slovak cybersecurity firm ESET said it uncovered 12 espionage apps, six of which were available for download from the official Google Play Store and were collectively downloaded more than 1,400 times between April 2021 and March 2023. "VajraSpy has a range of espionage functionalities that can be expanded based on the permissions granted to the app bundled with its code," security researcher Lukáš Štefanko  said . "It steals contacts, files, call logs, and SMS messages, but some of its implementations can even extract WhatsApp and Signal messages, record phone calls, and take pictures with the camera." As many as 148 devices in Pakistan and India are estimated to have been compromised in the wild. The malicious apps distributed via Google Play and elsewhere primarily masqueraded ...

Encrypted messaging app Signal has pushed back against "viral reports" of an alleged zero-day flaw in its software, stating it found no evidence to support the claim. "After responsible investigation *we have no evidence that suggests this vulnerability is real* nor has any additional info been shared via our official reporting channels," it  said  in a series of messages posted in X (formerly Twitter). Signal said it also checked with the U.S. government and that it found no information to suggest "this is a valid claim." It's also urging those with legitimate information to send reports to security@signal[.]org. The development comes as  reports   circulated  over the  weekend  about a zero-day vulnerability in Signal that could be exploited to gain complete access to a targeted mobile device. As a security precaution, it's been advised to turn off  link previews  in the app. The feature can be disabled by going to Signal Settings >...

Encrypted messaging app Signal has announced an update to the Signal Protocol to add support for quantum resistance by upgrading the Extended Triple Diffie-Hellman ( X3DH ) specification to Post-Quantum Extended Diffie-Hellman ( PQXDH ). "With this upgrade, we are adding a layer of protection against the threat of a quantum computer being built in the future that is powerful enough to break current encryption standards," Signal's Ehren Kret  said . The development comes weeks after Google added support for  quantum-resistant encryption algorithms  in its Chrome web browser and announced a  quantum-resilient FIDO2 security key implementation  as part of its OpenSK security keys initiative last month. The  Signal Protocol  is a set of cryptographic specifications that provides end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for private text and voice communications. It's used in various messaging apps like WhatsApp and Google's encrypted RCS messages for Android. Whi...

The threat actor behind the attacks on  Twilio  and  Cloudflare  earlier this month has been linked to a broader phishing campaign aimed at 136 organizations that resulted in a cumulative compromise of 9,931 accounts. The activity has been condemned  0ktapus  by Group-IB because the initial goal of the attacks was to "obtain Okta identity credentials and two-factor authentication (2FA) codes from users of the targeted organizations." Calling the attacks well designed and executed, the Singapore-headquartered company said the adversary singled out employees of companies that are customers of identity services provider Okta. The modus operandi involved sending targets text messages containing links to phishing sites that impersonated the Okta authentication page of the respective targeted entities. "This case is of interest because despite using low-skill methods it was able to compromise a large number of well-known organizations," Group-IB  said ...

Moxie Marlinspike, the founder of the popular encrypted instant messaging service Signal, has announced that he is stepping down as the chief executive of the non-profit in a move that has been underway over the last few months. "In other words, after a decade or more, it's difficult to overstate how important Signal is to me, but I now feel very comfortable replacing myself as CEO based on the team we have, and also believe that it is an important step for expanding on Signal's success," Marlinspike  said  in a blog post on Monday. Executive chairman and WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton, who famously urged users to #DeleteFacebook in March 2018 and founded the Signal Foundation along with Marlinspike after he walked away from the social media giant in 2017 over a conflict with Facebook's plans to monetize WhatsApp, will serve as the interim CEO while the search for a replacement is on. Founded in July 2014, Signal has more than 40 million monthly users, in ...