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Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new version of the ZLoader malware that employs a Domain Name System (DNS) tunnel for command-and-control (C2) communications, indicating that the threat actors are continuing to refine the tool after resurfacing a year ago. "Zloader 2.9.4.0 adds notable improvements including a custom DNS tunnel protocol for C2 communications and an interactive shell that supports more than a dozen commands, which may be valuable for ransomware attacks," Zscaler ThreatLabz said in a Tuesday report. "These modifications provide additional layers of resilience against detection and mitigation." ZLoader , also referred to as Terdot, DELoader, or Silent Night, is a malware loader that's equipped with the ability to deploy next-stage payloads. Malware campaigns distributing the malware were observed for the first time in almost two years in September 2023 after its infrastructure was taken down. In addition to incorporating various...

Microsoft closed out its Patch Tuesday updates for 2024 with fixes for a total of 72 security flaws spanning its software portfolio, including one that it said has been exploited in the wild. Of the 72 flaws, 17 are rated Critical, 54 are rated Important, and one is rated Moderate in severity. Thirty-one of the vulnerabilities are remote code execution flaws, and 27 of them allow for the elevation of privileges. This is in addition to 13 vulnerabilities the company has addressed in its Chromium-based Edge browser since the release of last month's security update . In total, Microsoft has resolved as many as 1,088 vulnerabilities in 2024 alone, per Fortra. The vulnerability that Microsoft has acknowledged as having been actively exploited is CVE-2024-49138 (CVSS score: 7.8), a privilege escalation flaw in the Windows Common Log File System (CLFS) Driver. "An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain SYSTEM privileges," the company said in an...

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...

The U.S. government on Tuesday unsealed charges against a Chinese national for allegedly breaking into thousands of Sophos firewall devices globally in 2020. Guan Tianfeng (aka gbigmao and gxiaomao), who is said to have worked at Sichuan Silence Information Technology Company, Limited, has been charged with conspiracy to commit computer fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Guan has been accused of developing and testing a zero-day security vulnerability used to conduct the attacks against Sophos firewalls. "Guan Tianfeng is wanted for his alleged role in conspiring to access Sophos firewalls without authorization, cause damage to them, and retrieve and exfiltrate data from both the firewalls themselves and the computers behind these firewalls," the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said . "The exploit was used to infiltrate approximately 81,000 firewalls." The then-zero-day vulnerability in question is CVE-2020-12271 (CVSS score: 9.8), a severe S...

Users of Cleo-managed file transfer software are being urged to ensure that their instances are not exposed to the internet following reports of mass exploitation of a vulnerability affecting fully patched systems. Cybersecurity company Huntress said it discovered evidence of threat actors exploiting the issue en masse on December 3, 2024. The vulnerability, which impacts Cleo's LexiCom, VLTransfer, and Harmony software, concerns a case of unauthenticated remote code execution. The security hole is tracked as CVE-2024-50623, with Cleo noting that the flaw is the result of an unrestricted file upload that could pave the way for the execution of arbitrary code. The Illinois-based company, which has over 4,200 customers across the world, has since issued another advisory (CVE pending), warning of a separate "unauthenticated malicious hosts vulnerability that could lead to remote code execution." The development comes after Huntress said the patches released for CVE...

The threat actors linked to the Black Basta ransomware have been observed switching up their social engineering tactics , distributing a different set of payloads such as Zbot and DarkGate since early October 2024. "Users within the target environment will be email bombed by the threat actor, which is often achieved by signing up the user's email to numerous mailing lists simultaneously," Rapid7 said . "After the email bomb, the threat actor will reach out to the impacted users." As observed back in August, the attackers make initial contact with prospective targets on Microsoft Teams, pretending to be support personnel or IT staff of the organization. In some instances, they have also been observed impersonating IT staff members within the targeted organization. Users who end up interacting with the threat actors are urged to install legitimate remote access software such as AnyDesk, ScreenConnect, TeamViewer, and Microsoft's Quick Assist. The Window...

This week's cyber world is like a big spy movie. Hackers are breaking into other hackers' setups, sneaky malware is hiding in popular software, and AI-powered scams are tricking even the smartest of us. On the other side, the good guys are busting secret online markets and kicking out shady chat rooms, while big companies rush to fix new security holes before attackers can jump in. Want to know who's hacking who, how they're doing it, and what's being done to fight back? Stick around—this recap has the scoop. ⚡ Threat of the Week Turla Hackers Hijack Pakistan Hackers' Infrastructure — Imagine one hacker group sneaking into another hacker group 's secret hideout and using their stuff to carry out their own missions. That's basically what the Russia-linked Turla group has been doing since December 2022. They broke into the servers of a Pakistani hacking team called Storm-0156 and used those servers to spy on government and military targets in Afghanistan and India. By doing th...

The modern business landscape is thrilling yet daunting. Rapidly evolving technology, persistent cyberthreats and escalating operational complexities make data protection and seamless business continuity challenging for businesses of all sizes. Your organization needs robust security measures that go beyond traditional backup solutions to address the intricacies of today's complex IT ecosystems. To ensure comprehensive security and smooth operation of critical business processes, your organization needs more than periodic backups — it requires a comprehensive, proactive approach that integrates advanced backup strategies, disaster recovery (DR) capabilities and state-of-the-art ransomware protection. In this article, we'll examine the current cyberthreat landscape, how it is evolving and how you can prepare your organization to overcome unprecedented challenges in 2025 and beyond. Take a self-guided product tour of Unitrends Unified BCDR to experience effortless backup and disaste...

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added multiple security flaws affecting products from Zyxel, North Grid Proself, ProjectSend , and CyberPanel to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities ( KEV ) catalog, citing evidence of active exploitation in the wild. The list of vulnerabilities is as follows - CVE-2024-51378 (CVSS score: 10.0) - An incorrect default permissions vulnerability that allows for authentication bypass and the execution of arbitrary commands using shell metacharacters in the statusfile property CVE-2023-45727 (CVSS score: 7.5) - An improper restriction of XML External Entity (XXE) reference vulnerability that could allow a remote, unauthenticated attacker to conduct an XXE attack CVE-2024-11680 (CVSS score: 9.8) - An improper authentication vulnerability that allows a remote, unauthenticated attacker to create accounts, upload web shells, and embed malicious JavaScript CVE-2024-11667 (CVSS score: 7.5) - A path traversal vulnerabilit...

Veeam has released security updates to address a critical flaw impacting Service Provider Console (VSPC) that could pave the way for remote code execution on susceptible instances. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-42448, carries a CVSS score of 9.9 out of a maximum of 10.0. The company noted that the bug was identified during internal testing. "From the VSPC management agent machine, under the condition that the management agent is authorized on the server, it is possible to perform Remote Code Execution (RCE) on the VSPC server machine," Veeam said in an advisory. Another defect patched by Veeam relates to a vulnerability (CVE-2024-42449, CVSS score: 7.1) that could be abused to leak an NTLM hash of the VSPC server service account and delete files on the VSPC server machine. Both the identified vulnerabilities affect Veeam Service Provider Console 8.1.0.21377 and all earlier versions of 7 and 8 builds. They have been addressed in version 8.1.0.21999. Veeam furt...