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Category — botnet
New "Raptor Train" IoT Botnet Compromises Over 200,000 Devices Worldwide

New "Raptor Train" IoT Botnet Compromises Over 200,000 Devices Worldwide

Sep 18, 2024 IoT Security / Threat Intelligence
Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a never-before-seen botnet comprising an army of small office/home office (SOHO) and IoT devices that are likely operated by a Chinese nation-state threat actor called Flax Typhoon (aka Ethereal Panda or RedJuliett). The sophisticated botnet, dubbed Raptor Train by Lumen's Black Lotus Labs, is believed to have been operational since at least May 2020, hitting a peak of 60,000 actively compromised devices in June 2023. "Since that time, there have been more than 200,000 SOHO routers, NVR/DVR devices, network attached storage (NAS) servers, and IP cameras; all conscripted into the Raptor Train botnet, making it one of the largest Chinese state-sponsored IoT botnets discovered to-date," the cybersecurity company said in a 81-page report shared with The Hacker News. The infrastructure powering the botnet is estimated to have ensnared hundreds of thousands of devices since its formation, with the network powered by a three-tiered
Quad7 Botnet Expands to Target SOHO Routers and VPN Appliances

Quad7 Botnet Expands to Target SOHO Routers and VPN Appliances

Sep 11, 2024 Network Security / Hacking
The operators of the mysterious Quad7 botnet are actively evolving by compromising several brands of SOHO routers and VPN appliances by leveraging a combination of both known and unknown security flaws. Targets include devices from TP-LINK, Zyxel, Asus, Axentra, D-Link, and NETGEAR, according to a new report by French cybersecurity company Sekoia. "The Quad7 botnet operators appear to be evolving their toolset, introducing a new backdoor and exploring new protocols, with the aim of enhancing stealth and evading the tracking capabilities of their operational relay boxes (ORBs)," researchers Felix Aimé, Pierre-Antoine D., and Charles M. said .  Quad7, also called 7777, was first publicly documented by independent researcher Gi7w0rm in October 2023, highlighting the activity cluster's pattern of ensnaring TP-Link routers and Dahua digital video recorders (DVRs) into a botnet. The botnet, which gets its name from the fact it opens TCP port 7777 on compromised devices,
Say Goodbye to Phishing: Must-Haves to Eliminate Credential Theft

Say Goodbye to Phishing: Must-Haves to Eliminate Credential Theft

Sep 13, 2024Device Security / Identity Management
Even as cyber threats become increasingly sophisticated, the number one attack vector for unauthorized access remains phished credentials ( Verizon DBIR, 2024 ). Solving this problem resolves over 80% of your corporate risk, and a solution is possible.  However, most tools available on the market today cannot offer a complete defense against this attack vector because they were architected to deliver probabilistic defenses. Learn more about the characteristics of Beyond Identity that allow us to deliver deterministic defenses.  The Challenge: Phishing and Credential Theft Phishing attacks trick users into revealing their credentials via deceptive sites or messages sent via SMS, email, and/or voice calls. Traditional defenses, such as end-user training or basic multi-factor authentication (MFA), lower the risk at best but cannot eliminate it. Users may still fall prey to scams, and stolen credentials can be exploited. Legacy MFA is a particularly urgent problem, given that attackers
GeoServer Vulnerability Targeted by Hackers to Deliver Backdoors and Botnet Malware

GeoServer Vulnerability Targeted by Hackers to Deliver Backdoors and Botnet Malware

Sep 06, 2024 Cryptocurrency / APT Attack
A recently disclosed security flaw in OSGeo GeoServer GeoTools has been exploited as part of multiple campaigns to deliver cryptocurrency miners, botnet malware such as Condi and JenX, and a known backdoor called SideWalk. The security vulnerability is a critical remote code execution bug (CVE-2024-36401, CVSS score: 9.8) that could allow malicious actors to take over susceptible instances. In mid-July, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added it to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation. The Shadowserver Foundation said it detected exploitation attempts against its honeypot sensors starting July 9, 2024. According to Fortinet FortiGuard Labs, the flaw has been observed being used to deliver GOREVERSE, a reverse proxy server designed to establish a connection with a command-and-control (C2) server for post-exploitation activity. These attacks are said to target IT service providers in India, tech
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DevOps Security Best Practices

websiteWizDevOps / Secure Coding
Develop securely from code to cloud with this DevOps Security Cheat Sheet from Wiz. Take a deep dive into secure coding, infrastructure security, and vigilant monitoring and response.
Unpatched AVTECH IP Camera Flaw Exploited by Hackers for Botnet Attacks

Unpatched AVTECH IP Camera Flaw Exploited by Hackers for Botnet Attacks

Aug 29, 2024 IoT Security / Vulnerability
A years-old high-severity flaw impacting AVTECH IP cameras has been weaponized by malicious actors as a zero-day to rope them into a botnet. CVE-2024-7029 (CVSS score: 8.7), the vulnerability in question, is a "command injection vulnerability found in the brightness function of AVTECH closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras that allows for remote code execution (RCE)," Akamai researchers Kyle Lefton, Larry Cashdollar, and Aline Eliovich said . Details of the security shortcoming were first made public earlier this month by the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), highlighting its low attack complexity and the ability to exploit it remotely. "Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an attacker to inject and execute commands as the owner of the running process," the agency noted in an alert published August 1, 2024. It's worth noting that the issue remains unpatched. It impacts AVM1203 camera devices using firmwar
New Gafgyt Botnet Variant Targets Weak SSH Passwords for GPU Crypto Mining

New Gafgyt Botnet Variant Targets Weak SSH Passwords for GPU Crypto Mining

Aug 15, 2024 Network Security / Cybercrime
Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new variant of the Gafgyt botnet that's targeting machines with weak SSH passwords to ultimately mine cryptocurrency on compromised instances using their GPU computational power. This indicates that the "IoT botnet is targeting more robust servers running on cloud native environments," Aqua Security researcher Assaf Morag said in a Wednesday analysis. Gafgyt (aka BASHLITE, Lizkebab, and Torlus), known to be active in the wild since 2014, has a history of exploiting weak or default credentials to gain control of devices such as routers, cameras, and digital video recorders (DVRs). It's also capable of leveraging known security flaws in Dasan, Huawei, Realtek, SonicWall, and Zyxel devices. The infected devices are corralled into a botnet capable of launching distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against targets of interest. There is evidence to suggest that Gafgyt and Necro are operated by a threat group calle
Mirai Botnet targeting OFBiz Servers Vulnerable to Directory Traversal

Mirai Botnet targeting OFBiz Servers Vulnerable to Directory Traversal

Aug 02, 2024 Vulnerability / Network Security
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software is at the heart of many enterprising supporting human resources, accounting, shipping, and manufacturing. These systems can become very complex and difficult to maintain. They are often highly customized, which can make patching difficult. However, critical vulnerabilities keep affecting these systems and put critical business data at risk.  The SANS Internet Storm Center published a report showing how the open-source ERP framework OFBiz is currently the target of new varieties of the Mirai botnet. As part of its extensive project portfolio, the Apache Foundation supports OFBiz , a Java-based framework for creating ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) applications. OFBiz appears to be far less prevalent than commercial alternatives. However, just as with any other ERP system, organizations rely on it for sensitive business data, and the security of these ERP systems is critical. In May this year, a critical security update was released f
New Golang-Based Zergeca Botnet Capable of Powerful DDoS Attacks

New Golang-Based Zergeca Botnet Capable of Powerful DDoS Attacks

Jul 05, 2024 Network Security / Cyber Attack
Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a new botnet called Zergeca that's capable of conducting distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. Written in Golang, the botnet is so named for its reference to a string named "ootheca" present in the command-and-control (C2) servers ("ootheca[.]pw" and "ootheca[.]top"). "Functionally, Zergeca is not just a typical DDoS botnet; besides supporting six different attack methods, it also has capabilities for proxying, scanning, self-upgrading, persistence, file transfer, reverse shell, and collecting sensitive device information," the QiAnXin XLab team said in a report. Zergeca is also notable for using DNS-over-HTTPS ( DoH ) to perform Domain Name System (DNS) resolution of the C2 server and using a lesser-known library known as Smux for C2 communications. There is evidence to suggest that the attackers behind the botnet are actively developing and updating the malware to support new commands
Rust-Based P2PInfect Botnet Evolves with Miner and Ransomware Payloads

Rust-Based P2PInfect Botnet Evolves with Miner and Ransomware Payloads

Jun 27, 2024 Cryptojacking / Data Protection
The peer-to-peer malware botnet known as P2PInfect has been found targeting misconfigured Redis servers with ransomware and cryptocurrency miners. The development marks the threat's transition from what appeared to be a dormant botnet with unclear motives to a financially motivated operation. "With its latest updates to the crypto miner, ransomware payload, and rootkit elements, it demonstrates the malware author's continued efforts into profiting off their illicit access and spreading the network further, as it continues to worm across the internet," Cado Security said in a report published this week. P2PInfect came to light nearly a year ago, and has since received updates to target MIPS and ARM architectures. Earlier this January, Nozomi Networks uncovered the use of the malware to deliver miner payloads. It typically spreads by targeting Redis servers and its replication feature to transform victim systems into a follower node of the attacker-controlled server
NiceRAT Malware Targets South Korean Users via Cracked Software

NiceRAT Malware Targets South Korean Users via Cracked Software

Jun 17, 2024 Botnet / Cryptocurrency
Threat actors have been observed deploying a malware called NiceRAT to co-opt infected devices into a botnet. The attacks, which target South Korean users, are designed to propagate the malware under the guise of cracked software, such as Microsoft Windows, or tools that purport to offer license verification for Microsoft Office. "Due to the nature of crack programs, information sharing amongst ordinary users contributes to the malware's distribution independently from the initial distributor," the AhnLab Security Intelligence Center (ASEC) said . "Because threat actors typically explain ways to remove anti-malware programs during the distribution phase, it is difficult to detect the distributed malware." Alternate distribution vectors involve the use of a botnet comprising zombie computers that are infiltrated by a remote access trojan (RAT) known as NanoCore RAT , mirroring prior activity that leveraged the Nitol DDoS malware for propagating another malware
Ukraine Police Arrest Suspect Linked to LockBit and Conti Ransomware Groups

Ukraine Police Arrest Suspect Linked to LockBit and Conti Ransomware Groups

Jun 13, 2024 Cyber Crime / Ransomware
The Cyber Police of Ukraine has announced the arrest of a local man who is suspected to have offered their services to LockBit and Conti ransomware groups. The unnamed 28-year-old native of the Kharkiv region allegedly specialized in the development of crypters to encrypt and obfuscate malicious payloads in order to evade detection by security programs. The product is believed to have been offered to the Conti and LockBit ransomware syndicates that then used the crypter to disguise the file-encrypting malware and launch successful attacks. "And at the end of 2021, members of the [Conti] group infected the computer networks of enterprises in the Netherlands and Belgium with hidden malware," according to a translated version of the statement released by the agency. As part of the investigation, authorities conducted searches in Kyiv and Kharkiv, and seized computer equipment, mobile phones, and notebooks. If found guilty, the defendant is expected to face up to 15 years
Chinese Actor SecShow Conducts Massive DNS Probing on Global Scale

Chinese Actor SecShow Conducts Massive DNS Probing on Global Scale

Jun 11, 2024 DDoS Attack / Cyber Espionage
Cybersecurity researchers have shed more light on a Chinese actor codenamed SecShow that has been observed conducting Domain Name System (DNS) on a global scale since at least June 2023. The adversary, according to Infoblox security researchers Dr. Renée Burton and Dave Mitchell, operates from the China Education and Research Network ( CERNET ), a project funded by the Chinese government. "These probes seek to find and measure DNS responses at open resolvers," they said in a report published last week. "The end goal of the SecShow operations is unknown, but the information that is gathered can be used for malicious activities and is only for the benefit of the actor." That said, there is some evidence to suggest that it may have been linked to some kind of academic research related to "performing measurements using IP Address Spoofing Techniques on domains within secshow.net" modeled on the same approach as the Closed Resolver Project . This, howeve
Muhstik Botnet Exploiting Apache RocketMQ Flaw to Expand DDoS Attacks

Muhstik Botnet Exploiting Apache RocketMQ Flaw to Expand DDoS Attacks

Jun 06, 2024 Botnet / DDoS Attack
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
Oracle WebLogic Server OS Command Injection Flaw Under Active Attack

Oracle WebLogic Server OS Command Injection Flaw Under Active Attack

Jun 04, 2024 Network Security / Cryptocurrency
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Thursday added a security flaw impacting the Oracle WebLogic Server to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities ( KEV ) catalog, citing evidence of active exploitation. Tracked as CVE-2017-3506 (CVSS score: 7.4), the issue concerns an operating system (OS) command injection vulnerability that could be exploited to obtain unauthorized access to susceptible servers and take complete control. "Oracle WebLogic Server, a product within the Fusion Middleware suite, contains an OS command injection vulnerability that allows an attacker to execute arbitrary code via a specially crafted HTTP request that includes a malicious XML document," CISA said. While the agency did not disclose the nature of attacks exploiting the vulnerability, the China-based cryptojacking group known as the 8220 Gang (aka Water Sigbin) has a history of leveraging it since early last year to co-opt unpatched devices into a crypto-mining bot
Authorities Ramp Up Efforts to Capture the Mastermind Behind Emotet

Authorities Ramp Up Efforts to Capture the Mastermind Behind Emotet

Jun 03, 2024 Malware / Cybercrime
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
Russian Hackers Target Europe with HeadLace Malware and Credential Harvesting

Russian Hackers Target Europe with HeadLace Malware and Credential Harvesting

May 31, 2024 Cyber Attack / Credential Harvesting
The Russian GRU-backed threat actor APT28 has been attributed as behind a series of campaigns targeting networks across Europe with the HeadLace malware and credential-harvesting web pages. APT28, also known by the names BlueDelta, Fancy Bear, Forest Blizzard, FROZENLAKE, Iron Twilight, ITG05, Pawn Storm, Sednit, Sofacy, and TA422, is an advanced persistent threat (APT) group affiliated with Russia's strategic military intelligence unit, the GRU. The hacking crew operates with a high level of stealth and sophistication, often demonstrating their adaptability through deep preparedness and custom tooling, and relying on legitimate internet services (LIS) and living off-the-land binaries (LOLBins) to conceal their operations within regular network traffic. "From April to December 2023, BlueDelta deployed Headlace malware in three distinct phases using geofencing techniques to target networks throughout Europe with a heavy focus on Ukraine," Recorded Future's Insikt
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