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You can tell the story of the current state of stolen credential-based attacks in three numbers: Stolen credentials were the #1 attacker action in 2023/24, and the breach vector for 80% of web app attacks . (Source: Verizon). Cybersecurity budgets grew again in 2024, with organizations now spending almost $1,100 per user (Source: Forrester).  Stolen credentials on criminal forums cost as little as $10 (Source: Verizon). Something doesn't add up. So, what's going on? In this article, we'll cover: What's contributing to the huge rise in account compromises linked to stolen creds and why existing approaches aren't working.  The world of murky intelligence on stolen credentials, and how to cut through the noise to find the true positives. Recommendations for security teams to stop attackers from using stolen creds to achieve account takeover. Stolen credential-based attacks are on the rise There's clear evidence that identity attacks are now the #1 cyber threat f...

Details have emerged about a now-patched security vulnerability that could allow a bypass of the Secure Boot mechanism in Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) systems. The vulnerability, assigned the CVE identifier CVE-2024-7344 (CVSS score: 6.7), resides in a UEFI application signed by Microsoft's "Microsoft Corporation UEFI CA 2011" third-party UEFI certificate, according to a new report from ESET shared with The Hacker News. Successful exploitation of the flaw can lead to the execution of untrusted code during system boot, thereby enabling attackers to deploy malicious UEFI bootkits on machines that have Secure Boot on, irrespective of the operating system installed. Secure Boot is a firmware security standard that prevents malware from loading when a computer starts up by ensuring that the device boots using only software that is trusted by the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM). The feature leverages digital signatures to validate the authenticity,...

Cybersecurity researchers have found that the Microsoft Active Directory Group Policy that's designed to disable NT LAN Manager (NTLM) v1 can be trivially bypassed by a misconfiguration. "A simple misconfiguration in on-premise applications can override the Group Policy, effectively negating the Group Policy designed to stop NTLMv1 authentications," Silverfort researcher Dor Segal said in a report shared with The Hacker News. NTLM is a still widely used mechanism particularly in Windows environments to authenticate users across a network. The legacy protocol, while not removed due to backward compatibility requirements, has been deprecated as of mid 2024. Late last year, Microsoft officially removed NTLMv1 starting in Windows 11, version 24H2, and Windows Server 2025. While NTLMv2 introduces new mitigations to make it harder to perform relay attacks, the technology has been besieged by several security weaknesses that have been actively exploited by threat acto...

Threat actors have been observed concealing malicious code in images to deliver malware such as VIP Keylogger and 0bj3ctivity Stealer as part of separate campaigns. "In both campaigns, attackers hid malicious code in images they uploaded to archive[.]org, a file-hosting website, and used the same .NET loader to install their final payloads," HP Wolf Security said in its Threat Insights Report for Q3 2024 shared with The Hacker News. The starting point is a phishing email that masquerades as invoices and purchase orders to trick recipients into opening malicious attachments, such as Microsoft Excel documents, that, when opened, exploits a known security flaw in Equation Editor ( CVE-2017-11882 ) to download a VBScript file. The script, for its part, is designed to decode and run a PowerShell script that retrieves an image hosted on archive[.]org and extracts a Base64-encoded code, which is subsequently decoded into a .NET executable and executed. The .NET executable ser...

Cybersecurity researchers have detailed an attack that involved a threat actor utilizing a Python-based backdoor to maintain persistent access to compromised endpoints and then leveraged this access to deploy the RansomHub ransomware throughout the target network. According to GuidePoint Security , initial access is said to have been facilitated by means of a JavaScript malware downloaded named SocGholish (aka FakeUpdates), which is known to be distributed via drive-by campaigns that trick unsuspecting users into downloading bogus web browser updates. Such attacks commonly involve the use of legitimate-but-infected websites that victims are redirected to from search engine results using black hat Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques. Upon execution, SocGholish establishes contact with an attacker-controlled server to retrieve secondary payloads. As recently as last year, SocGholish campaigns have targeted WordPress sites relying on outdated versions of popular SEO plug...

Ivanti has rolled out security updates to address several security flaws impacting Avalanche, Application Control Engine, and Endpoint Manager (EPM), including four critical bugs that could lead to information disclosure. All the four critical security flaws, rated 9.8 out of 10.0 on the CVSS scale, are rooted in EPM, and concern instances of absolute path traversal that allow a remote unauthenticated attacker to leak sensitive information. The flaws are listed below - CVE-2024-10811 CVE-2024-13161  CVE-2024-13160, and CVE-2024-13159 The shortcomings affect EPM versions 2024 November security update and prior, and 2022 SU6 November security update and prior. They have been addressed in EPM 2024 January-2025 Security Update and EPM 2022 SU6 January-2025 Security Update. Horizon3.ai security researcher Zach Hanley has been credited with discovering and reporting all four vulnerabilities in question. Also patched by Ivanti are multiple high-severity bugs in Avalanche vers...

Cybersecurity researchers have alerted to a new malvertising campaign that's targeting individuals and businesses advertising via Google Ads by attempting to phish for their credentials via fraudulent ads on Google. "The scheme consists of stealing as many advertiser accounts as possible by impersonating Google Ads and redirecting victims to fake login pages," Jérôme Segura, senior director of threat intelligence at Malwarebytes, said in a report shared with The Hacker News. It's suspected the end goal of the campaign is to reuse the stolen credentials to further perpetuate the campaigns, while also selling them to other criminal actors on underground forums. Based on posts shared on Reddit , Bluesky , and Google's own support forums , the threat has been active since at least mid-November 2024. The activity cluster is a lot similar to campaigns that leverage stealer malware to steal data related to Facebook advertising and business accounts in order to ...

The North Korea-linked Lazarus Group has been attributed to a new cyber attack campaign dubbed Operation 99 that targeted software developers looking for freelance Web3 and cryptocurrency work to deliver malware. "The campaign begins with fake recruiters, posing on platforms like LinkedIn, luring developers with project tests and code reviews," Ryan Sherstobitoff, senior vice president of Threat Research and Intelligence at SecurityScorecard, said in a new report published today. "Once a victim takes the bait, they're directed to clone a malicious GitLab repository – seemingly harmless, but packed with disaster. The cloned code connects to command-and-control (C2) servers, embedding malware into the victim's environment." Victims of the campaign have been identified across the globe, with a significant concentration recorded in Italy. A lesser number of impacted victims are located in Argentina, Brazil, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Mexico,...

Cybersecurity researchers have identified infrastructure links between the North Korean threat actors behind the fraudulent IT worker schemes and a 2016 crowdfunding scam. The new evidence suggests that Pyongyang-based threamoret groups may have pulled off illicit money-making scams that predate the use of IT workers, SecureWorks Counter Threat Unit (CTU) said in a report shared with The Hacker News. The IT worker fraud scheme , which came to light in late 2023, involves North Korean actors infiltrating companies in the West and other parts of the world by surreptitiously seeking employment under fake identities to generate revenue for the sanctions-hit nation. It's also tracked under the names Famous Chollima, Nickel Tapestry, UNC5267, and Wagemole. The IT personnel, per South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), have been assessed to be part of the 313th General Bureau, an organization under the Munitions Industry Department of the Workers' Party of Korea. ...

As many as six security vulnerabilities have been disclosed in the popular Rsync file-synchronizing tool for Unix systems, some of which could be exploited to execute arbitrary code on a client. "Attackers can take control of a malicious server and read/write arbitrary files of any connected client," the CERT Coordination Center (CERT/CC) said in an advisory. "Sensitive data, such as SSH keys, can be extracted, and malicious code can be executed by overwriting files such as ~/.bashrc or ~/.popt." The shortcomings, which comprise heap-buffer overflow, information disclosure, file leak, external directory file-write, and symbolic-link race condition, are listed below - CVE-2024-12084 (CVSS score: 9.8) - Heap-buffer overflow in Rsync due to improper checksum length handling CVE-2024-12085 (CVSS score: 7.5) - Information leak via uninitialized stack contents CVE-2024-12086 (CVSS score: 6.1) - Rsync server leaks arbitrary client files CVE-2024-12087 (CVSS ...

Why does ICS/OT need specific controls and its own cybersecurity budget today? Because treating ICS/OT security with an IT security playbook isn't just ineffective—it's high risk. In the rapidly evolving domain of cybersecurity, the specific challenges and needs for Industrial Control Systems (ICS) and Operational Technology (OT) security distinctly stand out from traditional IT security. ICS/OT engineering systems, which power critical infrastructure such as electric power grids, oil and gas processing, heavy manufacturing, food and beverage processes, and water management facilities, require tailored cybersecurity strategies, and controls. This is due to the increasing attacks towards ICS/OT, their unique operational missions, a different risk surface than that of traditional IT networks, and the significant safety consequences from cyber incidents that impact the physical world. Critical infrastructure should be protected against today's threats to continue supporting national sa...