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A North Korea-linked cyber-espionage group has been observed leveraging job-themed phishing lures to target prospective victims in energy and aerospace verticals and infect them with a previously undocumented backdoor dubbed MISTPEN. The activity cluster is being tracked by Google-owned Mandiant under the moniker UNC2970 , which it said overlaps with a threat group known as TEMP.Hermit , which is also broadly called Lazarus Group or Diamond Sleet (formerly Zinc). The threat actor has a history of targeting government, defense, telecommunications, and financial institutions worldwide since at least 2013 to collect strategic intelligence that furthers North Korean interests. It's affiliated with the Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB). The threat intelligence firm said it has observed UNC2970 singling out various entities located in the U.S., the U.K., the Netherlands, Cyprus, Sweden, Germany, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Australia. "UNC2970 targets victims under the guise o

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a never-before-seen dropper that serves as a conduit to launch next-stage malware with the ultimate goal of infecting Windows systems with information stealers and loaders. "This memory-only dropper decrypts and executes a PowerShell-based downloader," Google-owned Mandiant said . "This PowerShell-based downloader is being tracked as PEAKLIGHT." Some of the malware strains distributed using this technique are Lumma Stealer , Hijack Loader (aka DOILoader, IDAT Loader, or SHADOWLADDER), and CryptBot , all of which are advertised under the malware-as-a-service (SaaS) model. The starting point of the attack chain is a Windows shortcut (LNK) file that's downloaded via drive-by download techniques -- e.g., when users look up a movie on search engines. It's worth pointing out that the LNK files are distributed within ZIP archives that are disguised as pirated movies. The LNK file connects to a content delivery network

Shadow apps, a segment of Shadow IT, are SaaS applications purchased without the knowledge of the security team. While these applications may be legitimate, they operate within the blind spots of the corporate security team and expose the company to attackers.  Shadow apps may include instances of software that the company is already using. For example, a dev team may onboard their own instance of GitHub to keep their work separate from other developers. They might justify the purchase by noting that GitHub is an approved application, as it is already in use by other teams. However, since the new instance is used outside of the security team's view, it lacks governance. It may store sensitive corporate data and not have essential protections like MFA enabled, SSO enforced, or it could suffer from weak access controls. These misconfigurations can easily lead to risks like stolen source code and other issues. Types of Shadow Apps  Shadow apps can be categorized based on their interac

Cybersecurity researchers have detailed widespread phishing campaigns targeting small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in Poland during May 2024 that led to the deployment of several malware families like Agent Tesla , Formbook , and Remcos RAT . Some of the other regions targeted by the campaigns include Italy and Romania, according to cybersecurity firm ESET. "Attackers used previously compromised email accounts and company servers, not only to spread malicious emails but also to host malware and collect stolen data," ESET researcher Jakub Kaloč said in a report published today. These campaigns, spread across nine waves, are notable for the use of a malware loader called DBatLoader (aka ModiLoader and NatsoLoader) to deliver the final payloads. This, the Slovakian cybersecurity company said, marks a departure from previous attacks observed in the second half of 2023 that leveraged a cryptors-as-a-service (CaaS) dubbed AceCryptor to propagate Remcos RAT (aka Resc

Learn about critical threats that can impact your organization and the bad actors behind them from Cybersixgill's threat experts. Each story shines a light on underground activities, the threat actors involved, and why you should care, along with what you can do to mitigate risk.  Cybersecurity professionals are facing unprecedented challenges as they strive to manage increasing workloads amidst limited budgets, inadequate staffing, and growing attack surfaces. Research indicates that a majority of these professionals find their jobs more difficult than ever, and a significant number are contemplating leaving their current positions due to the stress and demands of the role. The value of cyber threat intelligence (CTI) in anticipating and mitigating potential attacks is widely recognized. However, security teams face several challenges in effectively utilizing CTI insights, which can turn a powerful cyber defense weapon into an additional burden that security professionals must cont

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a new evasive malware loader named SquidLoader that spreads via phishing campaigns targeting Chinese organizations. AT&T LevelBlue Labs, which first observed the malware in late April 2024, said it incorporates features that are designed to thwart static and dynamic analysis and ultimately evade detection. Attack chains leverage phishing emails that come with attachments that masquerade as Microsoft Word documents, but, in reality, are binaries that pave the way for the execution of the malware, which is then used to fetch second-stage shellcode payloads from a remote server, including Cobalt Strike. "These loaders feature heavy evasion and decoy mechanisms which help them remain undetected while also hindering analysis," security researcher Fernando Dominguez said . "The shellcode that is delivered is also loaded in the same loader process, likely to avoid writing the payload to disk and thus risk being detected."

Details have emerged about a new critical security flaw impacting PHP that could be exploited to achieve remote code execution under certain circumstances. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-4577 , has been described as a CGI argument injection vulnerability affecting all versions of PHP installed on the Windows operating system. According to DEVCORE security researchers, the shortcoming makes it possible to bypass protections put in place for another security flaw, CVE-2012-1823 . "While implementing PHP, the team did not notice the Best-Fit feature of encoding conversion within the Windows operating system," security researcher Orange Tsai said . "This oversight allows unauthenticated attackers to bypass the previous protection of CVE-2012-1823 by specific character sequences. Arbitrary code can be executed on remote PHP servers through the argument injection attack." Following responsible disclosure on May 7, 2024, a fix for the vulnerability has bee

Threat actors are evolving, yet Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) remains confined to each isolated point solution. Organizations require a holistic analysis across external data, inbound and outbound threats and network activity. This will enable evaluating the true state of cybersecurity in the enterprise. Cato's Cyber Threat Research Lab (Cato CTRL, see more details below) has recently released its first SASE threat report , offering a comprehensive view of and insights into enterprise and network threats. This is based on Cato's capabilities to analyze networks extensively and granularly (see report sources below).  About the Report The SASE Threat Report covers threats across a strategic, tactical and operational standpoint, utilizing the MITRE ATT&CK framework. It includes malicious and suspicious activities, as well as the applications, protocols and tools running on the networks. The report is based on: Granular data on every traffic flow from every endpoint communica

Medieval castles stood as impregnable fortresses for centuries, thanks to their meticulous design. Fast forward to the digital age, and this medieval wisdom still echoes in cybersecurity. Like castles with strategic layouts to withstand attacks, the Defense-in-Depth strategy is the modern counterpart — a multi-layered approach with strategic redundancy and a blend of passive and active security controls.  However, the evolving cyber threat landscape can challenge even the most fortified defenses. Despite the widespread adoption of the Defense-in-Depth strategy, cyber threats persist. Fortunately, the Defense-in-Depth strategy can be augmented using Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS), an automated tool that assesses and improves every security control in each layer. Defense-in-Depth: False Sense of Security with Layers Also known as multi-layered defense, the defense-in-depth strategy has been widely adopted by organizations since the early 2000s. It's based on the assumption that a

A decryptor for the Tortilla variant of the Babuk ransomware has been  released  by Cisco Talos, allowing victims targeted by the malware to regain access to their files. The cybersecurity firm said the threat intelligence it shared with Dutch law enforcement authorities made it possible to arrest the threat actor behind the operations. The encryption key has also been shared with Avast, which had previously  released a decryptor  for Babuk ransomware after its  source code was leaked  in September 2021. The updated decryptor can be accessed  here  [EXE file]. "A single private key is used for all victims of the Tortilla threat actor," Avast  noted . "This makes the update to the decryptor especially useful, as all victims of the campaign can use it to decrypt their files." The Tortilla campaign was  first disclosed  by Talos in November 2021, with the attacks leveraging  ProxyShell flaws in Microsoft Exchange servers  to drop the ransomware within victim environments. Tortilla

Ransomware attacks  have become a significant and pervasive threat in the ever-evolving realm of cybersecurity. Among the various iterations of ransomware, one trend that has gained prominence is Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS). This alarming development has transformed the cybercrime landscape, enabling individuals with limited technical expertise to carry out devastating attacks. Traditional and double extortion ransomware attacks Traditionally, ransomware refers to a type of malware that encrypts the victim's files, effectively blocking access to data and applications until a ransom is paid to the attacker. However, more contemporary attackers often employ an additional strategy. The bad actors create copies of the compromised data and leverage the threat of publishing sensitive information online unless their demands for ransom are met. This dual approach adds an extra layer of complexity and potential harm to the victims. A new model for ransomware RaaS is the latest busin

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Thursday added three security flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities ( KEV ) catalog based on evidence of active exploitation in the wild. The  vulnerabilities  are as follows - CVE-2023-36584  (CVSS score: 5.4) - Microsoft Windows Mark-of-the-Web (MotW) Security Feature Bypass Vulnerability CVE-2023-1671  (CVSS score: 9.8) - Sophos Web Appliance Command Injection Vulnerability CVE-2020-2551  (CVSS score: 9.8) - Oracle Fusion Middleware Unspecified Vulnerability CVE-2023-1671 relates to a critical  pre-auth command injection vulnerability  that allows for the execution of arbitrary code. CVE-2020-2551 is a  flaw  in the WLS Core Components that allows an unauthenticated attacker with network access to compromise the WebLogic Server. There are currently no public reports documenting in-the-wild attacks leveraging CVE-2023-1671, but Cybernews disclosed in July 2023 that it had identified a subdomain of t

Russian threat actors have been possibly linked to what's been described as the "largest cyber attack against Danish critical infrastructure," in which 22 companies associated with the operation of the country's energy sector were targeted in May 2023.  "22 simultaneous, successful cyberattacks against Danish critical infrastructure are not commonplace," Denmark's SektorCERT  said  [PDF]. "The attackers knew in advance who they were going to target and got it right every time. Not once did a shot miss the target." The agency said it found evidence connecting one or more attacks to Russia's GRU military intelligence agency, which is also tracked under the name  Sandworm  and has a track record of orchestrating disruptive cyber assaults on industrial control systems. This assessment is based on artifacts communicating with IP addresses that have been traced to the hacking crew. The unprecedented and coordinated cyber attacks took place on

Microsoft on Wednesday said that a user containment feature in Microsoft Defender for Endpoint helped thwart a "large-scale remote encryption attempt" made by  Akira ransomware actors  targeting an unknown industrial organization in early June 2023. The tech giant's threat intelligence team is tracking the operator as Storm-1567. The attack leveraged devices that were not onboarded to Microsoft Defender for Endpoint as a defense evasion tactic, while also conducting a series of reconnaissance and lateral movement activities prior to encrypting the devices using a compromised user account. But the new  automatic attack disruption capability  meant that the breached accounts are prevented from "accessing endpoints and other resources in the network, limiting attackers' ability to move laterally regardless of the account's Active Directory state or privilege level." In other words, the idea is to cut off all inbound and outbound communication and proh

The Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT-UA) has warned of cyber attacks targeting state bodies in the country as part of an espionage campaign. The  intrusion set , attributed to a threat actor tracked by the authority as UAC-0063 since 2021, leverages phishing lures to deploy a variety of malicious tools on infected systems. The origins of the hacking crew are presently unknown. In the attack chain described by the agency, the emails targeted an unspecified ministry and purported to be from the Embassy of Tajikistan in Ukraine. It's suspected that the messages were sent from a previously compromised mailbox. The emails come attached with a Microsoft Word document that, upon enabling macros, launches an encoded VBScript called HATVIBE, which is then used to drop additional malware. This includes a keylogger (LOGPIE), a Python-based backdoor capable of running commands sent from a remote server (CHERRYSPY), and a tool focused on exfiltrating files with specific e

The US government's $6 Billion firewall is nothing but a big blunder. Dubbed EINSTEIN , the nationwide firewall run by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is not as smart as its name suggests. An audit conducted by the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) has claimed that the firewall used by US government agencies is failing to fully meet its objectives and leaving the agencies open to zero-day attacks. EINSTEIN, which is officially known as the US' National Cybersecurity Protection System (NCPS) and has cost $5.7 Billion to develop, detects only 6 percent of today's most common security vulnerabilities and failed to detect the rest 94 percent. How bad is EINSTEIN Firewall in reality? In a series of tests conducted last year, Einstein only detected 29 out of 489 vulnerabilities across Flash, Office, Java, IE and Acrobat disclosed via CVE reports published in 2014, according to a report [ PDF ] released by the GAO late las

As organizations expand their IT infrastructure to match their evolving business models and meet changing regulatory requirements, they often find that their networks have become extremely complex and challenging to manage. A primary concern for many IT teams is detecting threats in the mountain of event data being generated every day. Even a relatively small network can generate hundreds or thousands of events per second, with every system, application, and service generating events. The sheer volume of data makes it virtually impossible to identify manually and link those few events that indicate a successful network breach and system compromise, before the exfiltration of data. The AlienVault Unified Security Management (USM) platform is a solution to help IT teams with limited resources overcome the challenge of detecting threats in their network. USM platform accelerates and simplifies your ability to detect, prioritize, and respond to the most critical