XWorm | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

XWorm is a relatively new representative of the remote access trojan cohort that has already earned its spot among the most persistent threats across the globe.  Since 2022, when it was first observed by researchers, it has undergone a number of major updates that have significantly enhanced its functionality and solidified its staying power.  The analyst team at  ANY.RUN  came across the newest version of the malware and could not refuse the opportunity of taking it apart to examine XWorm mechanics configurations. Here is how they did it and what they found.  The XWorm sample's source  The sample in question was discovered in ANY. RUN's database of malware, a repository containing detailed analysis reports on all files and links that have been uploaded by users of the sandbox in public mode.  A quick look at the results of the analysis revealed that the sample was initially distributed via MediaFire, a file-hosting service. The malware was packaged in a RAR archive and p

Malicious actors are using a legitimate Rust-based injector called  Freeze[.]rs  to deploy a commodity malware called XWorm in victim environments. The novel attack chain, detected by Fortinet FortiGuard Labs on July 13, 2023, is initiated via a phishing email containing a booby-trapped PDF file. It has also been used to introduce Remcos RAT by means of a crypter called SYK Crypter, which was first documented by Morphisec in May 2022. "This file redirects to an HTML file and utilizes the 'search-ms' protocol to access an LNK file on a remote server," security researcher Cara Lin  said . "Upon clicking the LNK file, a PowerShell script executes Freeze[.]rs and SYK Crypter for further offensive actions." Freeze[.]rs, released on May 4, 2023, is an  open-source red teaming tool  from Optiv that functions as a payload creation tool used for circumventing security solutions and executing shellcode in a stealthy manner. "Freeze[.]rs utilizes multiple te

It comes as no surprise that today's cyber threats are orders of magnitude more complex than those of the past. And the ever-evolving tactics that attackers use demand the adoption of better, more holistic and consolidated ways to meet this non-stop challenge. Security teams constantly look for ways to reduce risk while improving security posture, but many approaches offer piecemeal solutions – zeroing in on one particular element of the evolving threat landscape challenge – missing the forest for the trees.  In the last few years, Exposure Management has become known as a comprehensive way of reigning in the chaos, giving organizations a true fighting chance to reduce risk and improve posture. In this article I'll cover what Exposure Management is, how it stacks up against some alternative approaches and why building an Exposure Management program should be on  your 2024 to-do list. What is Exposure Management?  Exposure Management is the systematic identification, evaluation,

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered an ongoing phishing campaign that makes use of a unique attack chain to deliver the  XWorm malware  on targeted systems. Securonix, which is tracking the activity cluster under the name  MEME#4CHAN , said some of the attacks have primarily targeted manufacturing firms and healthcare clinics located in Germany. "The attack campaign has been leveraging rather unusual meme-filled PowerShell code, followed by a heavily obfuscated XWorm payload to infect its victims," security researchers Den Iuzvyk, Tim Peck, and Oleg Kolesnikov said in a new analysis shared with The Hacker News. The report builds on  recent findings  from Elastic Security Labs, which revealed the threat actor's reservation-themed lures to deceive victims into opening malicious documents capable of delivering XWorm and Agent Tesla payloads. The attacks begin with phishing attacks to distribute decoy Microsoft Word documents that, instead of using macros, weapon