brute force attack | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Defending your organization's security is like fortifying a castle—you need to understand where attackers will strike and how they'll try to breach your walls. And hackers are always searching for weaknesses, whether it's a lax password policy or a forgotten backdoor. To build a stronger defense, you must think like a hacker and anticipate their moves. Read on to learn more about hackers' strategies to crack passwords, the vulnerabilities they exploit, and how you can reinforce your defenses to keep them at bay. Analysis of the worst passwords Weak, commonly used passwords represent the easiest targets for hackers. Every year, experts provide  lists of the most frequently used passwords , with classics like " 123456 " and " password " appearing year after year. These passwords are the low-hanging fruit of a hacker's attack strategy. Despite years of security warnings, users still use simple, easy-to-remember passwords—often based on predictable patterns or personal details ...

Threat actors constantly change tactics to bypass cybersecurity measures, developing innovative methods to steal user credentials. Hybrid password attacks merge multiple cracking techniques to amplify their effectiveness. These combined approaches exploit the strengths of various methods, accelerating the password-cracking process.  In this post, we'll explore hybrid attacks — what they are and the most common types. We'll also discuss how your organization can defend against them. The blended approach of hybrid attacks Threat actors are always looking for better, more successful ways to crack passwords — and hybrid attacks allow them to combine two different hacking techniques into a single attack. By integrating attack methodologies, they can take advantage of the strengths associated with each method, increasing their chances of success. And hybrid attacks aren't just limited to cracking passwords. Cybercriminals regularly combine technical cyberattacks with other tactics, ...

Vulnerability Management (VM) has long been a cornerstone of organizational cybersecurity. Nearly as old as the discipline of cybersecurity itself, it aims to help organizations identify and address potential security issues before they become serious problems. Yet, in recent years, the limitations of this approach have become increasingly evident.  At its core, Vulnerability Management processes remain essential for identifying and addressing weaknesses. But as time marches on and attack avenues evolve, this approach is beginning to show its age. In a recent report, How to Grow Vulnerability Management into Exposure Management (Gartner, How to Grow Vulnerability Management Into Exposure Management, 8 November 2024, Mitchell Schneider Et Al.), we believe Gartner® addresses this point precisely and demonstrates how organizations can – and must – shift from a vulnerability-centric strategy to a broader Exposure Management (EM) framework. We feel it's more than a worthwhile read an...

Threat actors have been observed targeting the construction sector by infiltrating the FOUNDATION Accounting Software , according to new findings from Huntress. "Attackers have been observed brute-forcing the software at scale, and gaining access simply by using the product's default credentials," the cybersecurity company said . Targets of the emerging threat include plumbing, HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning), concrete, and other related sub-industries. The FOUNDATION software comes with a Microsoft SQL (MS SQL) Server to handle database operations, and, in some cases, has the TCP port 4243 open to directly access the database via a mobile app. Huntress said the server includes two high-privileged accounts, including "sa," a default system administrator account, and "dba," an account created by FOUNDATION, that are often left with unchanged default credentials. A consequence of this action is that threat actors could brute-force th...

Russian state-sponsored actors have staged NT LAN Manager (NTLM) v2 hash relay attacks through various methods from April 2022 to November 2023, targeting high-value targets worldwide. The attacks, attributed to an "aggressive" hacking crew called  APT28 , have set their eyes on organizations dealing with foreign affairs, energy, defense, and transportation, as well as those involved with labor, social welfare, finance, parenthood, and local city councils. Cybersecurity firm Trend Micro  assessed  these intrusions as a "cost-efficient method of automating attempts to brute-force its way into the networks" of its targets, noting the adversary may have compromised thousands of email accounts over time. APT28 is also tracked by the broader cybersecurity community under the names Blue Athena, BlueDelta, Fancy Bear, Fighting Ursa, Forest Blizzard (formerly Strontium), FROZENLAKE, Iron Twilight, ITG05, Pawn Storm, Sednit, Sofacy, and TA422. The group, believed to be ...

Microsoft is now taking steps to prevent Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) brute-force attacks as part of the latest builds for the Windows 11 operating system in an attempt to raise the  security baseline  to meet the evolving threat landscape. To that end, the default policy for Windows 11 builds – particularly, Insider Preview builds 22528.1000 and newer – will automatically lock accounts for 10 minutes after 10 invalid sign-in attempts. "Win11 builds now have a DEFAULT account lockout policy to mitigate RDP and other brute-force password vectors," David Weston, Microsoft's vice president for OS security and enterprise,  said  in a series of tweets last week. "This technique is very commonly used in Human Operated Ransomware and other attacks -- this control will make brute forcing much harder which is awesome!" It's worth pointing out that while this  account lockout setting  is already incorporated in Windows 10, it's not enabled by default. The f...

A new version of the infamous Mirai botnet is exploiting a recently uncovered critical vulnerability in network-attached storage (NAS) devices in an attempt to remotely infect and control vulnerable machines. Called " Mukashi ," the new variant of the malware employs brute-force attacks using different combinations of default credentials to log into Zyxel NAS, UTM, ATP, and VPN firewall products to take control of the devices and add them to a network of infected bots that can be used to carry out Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. Multiple Zyxel NAS products running firmware versions up to 5.21 are vulnerable to the compromise, Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 global threat intelligence team said, adding they uncovered the first such exploitation of the flaw in the wild on March 12. Zyxel's Pre-Authentication Command Injection Flaw Mukashi hinges on a pre-authentication command injection vulnerability (tracked as CVE-2020-9054 ), for which a proof-...

Security researchers have discovered an ongoing sophisticated botnet campaign that is currently brute-forcing more than 1.5 million publicly accessible Windows RDP servers on the Internet. Dubbed GoldBrute , the botnet scheme has been designed in a way to escalate gradually by adding every new cracked system to its network, forcing them to further find new available RDP servers and then brute force them. To fly under the radar of security tools and malware analysts, attackers behind this campaign command each infected machine to target millions of servers with a unique set of username and password combination so that a targeted server receives brute force attempts from different IP addresses. The campaign, discovered  by Renato Marinho at Morphus Labs, works as shown in the illustrated image, and its modus operandi has been explained in the following steps: Step 1 — After successfully brute-forcing an RDP server, the attacker installs a JAVA-based GoldBrute botnet malw...

If you can't find it on Google, you will definitely find it on the Dark Web . Black markets on the Dark web are not known for just buying drugs, it is a massive hidden network where you can buy pretty much anything you can imagine—from pornography, weapon, and counterfeit currencies, to hacking tools, exploits, malware, and zero-days. One such type of underground marketplace on Dark Web is RDP Shop, a platform from where anyone can buy RDP access (remote desktop protocol) to thousands of hacked machines for a small fee. While investigating several underground RDP shops, security researchers from the McAfee's Advanced Threat Research team discovered that someone is selling remote access linked to security systems at a major International airport for as low as $10. Yes, that's $10, I didn't miss any zeros. Instead of buying RDP credential, researchers used the Shodan search engine to find the correct IP address of the hacked Windows Server machine, whose ad...

A cyber attack has hit the email system of UK Houses of Parliament on Friday morning that breached at least 90 emails accounts protected by weak passwords belonging to MPs, lawmakers, and other parliamentary staff. Meanwhile, as a precaution, the Security service has temporarily shut down the remote access (outside the Westminster) to its network to protect email accounts. Liberal Democrat Chris Rennard has advised on Twitter that urgent messages should be sent by text message. "We have discovered unauthorized attempts to access accounts of parliamentary networks users and are investigating this ongoing incident, working closely with the National Cyber Security Centre," the spokesperson said . "Parliament has robust measures in place to protect all of our accounts and systems, and we are taking the necessary steps to protect and secure our network." The authorities found less than 1% of parliament's 9,000 email addresses had been compromised using the ...

Gift cards have once again caused quite a headache for retailers, as cyber criminals are using a botnet to break into and steal cash from money-loaded gift cards provided by major retailers around the globe. Dubbed GiftGhostBot , the new botnet specialized in gift card fraud is an advanced persistent bot (APB) that has been spotted in the wild by cyber security firm Distil Networks. GiftGhostBot has been seen attacking almost 1,000 websites worldwide and defrauding legitimate consumers of the money loaded on gift cards since Distil detected the attack late last month. According to the security firm, any website – from luxury retailers, supermarkets to coffee distributors – that allow their customers to buy products with gift cards could be targeted by the botnet. Operators of the GiftGhostBot botnet launch brute-force attacks against retailer's website to check potential gift card account numbers at a rate of about 1.7 Million numbers per hour, and request the balance f...

How to Hack a Facebook Account? That's possibly the most frequently asked question on the Internet today. Though the solution is hard to find, a white hat hacker has just proven how easy it is to hack multiple Facebook accounts with some basic computer skills. Your Facebook account can be hacked, no matter how strong your password is or how much extra security measures you have taken. No joke! Gurkirat Singh from California recently discovered a loophole in Facebook's password reset mechanism that could have given hackers complete access to the victim's Facebook account, allowing them to view message conversations and payment card details, post anything and do whatever the real account holder can. The attack vector is simple, though the execution is quite difficult. The issue, Gurkirat ( @GurkiratSpeca ) says, actually resides in the way Facebook allows you to reset your password. The social network uses an algorithm that generates a random 6-digit passcode ‒ ...

How to hack an Instagram account? The answer to this question is difficult to find, but a bug bounty hunter just did it without too many difficulties. Belgian bug bounty hunter Arne Swinnen discovered two vulnerabilities in image-sharing social network Instagram that allowed him to brute-force Instagram account passwords and take over user accounts with minimal efforts. Both brute-force attack issues were exploitable due to Instagram's weak password policies and its practice of using incremental user IDs. "This could have allowed an attacker to compromise many accounts without any user interaction, including high-profile ones," Swinnen wrote in a blog post describing details of both vulnerabilities. Brute-Force Attack Using Mobile Login API Swinnen discovered that an attacker could have performed brute force attack against any Instagram account via its Android authentication API URL, due to improper security implementations. According to his blog post , fo...

Apple has been asked to comply with a federal court order to help the FBI unlock an iPhone 5C by one of the terrorists in the San Bernardino mass shootings that killed 14 and injured 24 in December. The FBI knows that it can not bypass the encryption on the iPhone, but it very well knows that Apple can make a way out that could help them try more than 10 PINs on the dead shooter's iPhone without getting the device's data self-destructed. Although Apple refused to comply with the court order and has always claimed its inability to unlock phones anymore, the FBI so cleverly proved that Apple does have a technical way to help feds access data on a locked iOS device. And this is the first time when Apple has not denied that it can not unlock iPhones, rather it simply refused to build the FBI a Backdoor  for the iPhone, in an attempt to maintain its users trust. So, now we know that Apple is not doing so, but it has the ability to do so. Now, when you know ...

The majority of Internet users are vulnerable to cyber threats because of their own weaknesses in setting up a strong password. But, are end-users completely responsible for choosing weak passwords? Give a thought. Recently we wrote an article revealing the list of Worst Passwords of 2015 that proved most of us are still using bad passwords, like ' 123456 ' or ' password ,' to secure our online accounts that when breached could result in critical information loss. If the end-user is to blame for weak password security, then the solution is to educate each and every Internet user to follow the best password security practice. But is that really possible? Practically, No. Even after being aware of best password security measures, do we really set strong passwords for every website? I mean EVERY. Ask yourself. Who's Responsible for allowing Users to Set a Weak Password? It's the websites and their developers, who didn't enforce a...