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Threat actors have been found deploying never-before-seen post-compromise implants in VMware's virtualization software to seize control of infected systems and evade detection. Google's Mandiant threat intelligence division referred to it as a "novel malware ecosystem" that impacts VMware ESXi, Linux vCenter servers, and Windows virtual machines, allowing attackers to maintain persistent access to the  hypervisor  as well as execute arbitrary commands. The  hyperjacking attacks , per the cybersecurity vendor, involved the use of malicious vSphere Installation Bundles ( VIBs ) to sneak in two implants, dubbed VIRTUALPITA and VIRTUALPIE, on the ESXi hypervisors. "It is important to highlight that this is not an external remote code execution vulnerability; the attacker needs admin-level privileges to the ESXi hypervisor before they can deploy malware," Mandiant researchers Alexander Marvi, Jeremy Koppen, Tufail Ahmed, and Jonathan Lepore said in an exhaus...

An espionage-focused threat actor has been observed using a steganographic trick to conceal a previously undocumented backdoor in a Windows logo in its attacks against Middle Eastern governments. Broadcom's Symantec Threat Hunter Team attributed the updated tooling to a hacking group it tracks under the name  Witchetty , which is also known as  LookingFrog , a subgroup operating under the TA410 umbrella. Intrusions involving TA410 – which is believed to share connections with a Chinese threat group known as APT10 (aka Cicada, Stone Panda, or TA429) – primarily feature a modular implant called LookBack. Symantec's latest analysis of attacks between February and September 2022, during which the group targeted the governments of two Middle Eastern countries and the stock exchange of an African nation, highlights the use of another backdoor dubbed Stegmap. The new malware leverages  steganography  – a technique used to embed a message (in this case, malware) in a n...

A social engineering campaign leveraging job-themed lures is weaponizing a years-old remote code execution flaw in Microsoft Office to deploy Cobalt Strike beacons on compromised hosts. "The payload discovered is a leaked version of a Cobalt Strike beacon," Cisco Talos researchers Chetan Raghuprasad and Vanja Svajcer  said  in a new analysis published Wednesday. "The beacon configuration contains commands to perform targeted process injection of arbitrary binaries and has a high reputation domain configured, exhibiting the redirection technique to masquerade the beacon's traffic." The malicious activity, discovered in August 2022, attempts to exploit the vulnerability  CVE-2017-0199 , a remote code execution issue in Microsoft Office, that allows an attacker to take control of an affected system. The entry vector for the attack is a phishing email containing a Microsoft Word attachment that employs job-themed lures for roles in the U.S. government and Publ...

Endpoint devices like desktops, laptops, and mobile phones enable users to connect to enterprise networks and use their resources for their day-to-day work. However, they also expand the attack surface and make the organisation vulnerable to malicious cyberattacks and data breaches. Why Modern Organisations Need EDR According to the 2020 global  risk report  by Ponemon Institute, smartphones, laptops, mobile devices, and desktops are some of the most vulnerable entry points that allow threat actors to compromise enterprise networks. Security teams must assess and address the security risks created by these devices before they can damage the organisation. And for this, they require Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR). EDR solutions provide real-time visibility into endpoints and detect threats like malware and ransomware. By continuously monitoring endpoints, they enable security teams to uncover malicious activities, investigate threats, and initiate appropriate respon...

A "highly operational, destructive, and sophisticated nation-state activity group" with ties to North Korea has been weaponizing open source software in their social engineering campaigns aimed at companies around the world since June 2022. Microsoft's threat intelligence teams, alongside LinkedIn Threat Prevention and Defense, attributed the intrusions with high confidence to Zinc, a threat group affiliated with Lazarus which is also tracked under the name Labyrinth Chollima.  Attacks targeted employees in organizations across multiple industries, including media, defense and aerospace, and IT services in the U.S., the U.K., India, and Russia. The tech giant  said  it observed Zinc leveraging a "wide range of open-source software including PuTTY, KiTTY, TightVNC, Sumatra PDF Reader, and muPDF/Subliminal Recording software installer for these attacks." According to  CrowdStrike , Zinc "has been active since 2009 in operations aimed at collecting polit...

Microsoft officially disclosed it investigating two zero-day security vulnerabilities impacting Exchange Server 2013, 2016, and 2019 following  reports of in-the-wild exploitation . "The first vulnerability, identified as  CVE-2022-41040 , is a Server-Side Request Forgery ( SSRF ) vulnerability, while the second, identified as  CVE-2022-41082 , allows remote code execution (RCE) when PowerShell is accessible to the attacker," the tech giant  said . The company also confirmed that it's aware of "limited targeted attacks" weaponizing the flaws to obtain initial access to targeted systems, but emphasized that authenticated access to the vulnerable Exchange Server is required to achieve successful exploitation. The attacks detailed by Microsoft show that the two flaws are stringed together in an exploit chain, with the SSRF bug enabling an authenticated adversary to remotely trigger arbitrary code execution. The Redmond-based company further emphasized that it...

Security researchers are warning of previously undisclosed flaws in fully patched Microsoft Exchange servers being exploited by malicious actors in real-world attacks to achieve remote code execution on affected systems. The advisory comes from Vietnamese cybersecurity company GTSC, which discovered the shortcomings as part of its security monitoring and incident response efforts in August 2022. The two vulnerabilities, which are formally yet to be assigned CVE identifiers, are being  tracked  by the Zero Day Initiative as  ZDI-CAN-18333  (CVSS score: 8.8) and  ZDI-CAN-18802  (CVSS score: 6.3). GTSC said that successful exploitation of the flaws could be abused to gain a foothold in the victim's systems, enabling adversaries to drop web shells and carry out lateral movements across the compromised network. "We detected web shells, mostly obfuscated, being dropped to Exchange servers," the company  noted . "Using the user-agent, we detected that t...

A Brazilian threat actor known as  Prilex  has resurfaced after a year-long operational hiatus with an advanced and complex malware to steal money by means of fraudulent transactions. "The Prilex group has shown a high level of knowledge about credit and debit card transactions, and how software used for payment processing works," Kaspersky researchers  said . "This enables the attackers to keep updating their tools in order to find a way to circumvent the authorization policies, allowing them to perform their attacks." The cybercrime group emerged on the scene with ATM-focused malware attacks in the South American nation, providing it the ability to break into ATM machines to perform jackpotting – a type of attack aiming to dispense cash illegitimately – and clone thousands of credit cards to steal funds from the targeted bank's customers. Prilex's modus operandi over the years has since evolved to take advantage of processes relating to point-of-sale ...

A new covert attack campaign singled out multiple military and weapons contractor companies with spear-phishing emails to trigger a multi-stage infection process designed to deploy an unknown payload on compromised machines. The highly-targeted intrusions, dubbed  STEEP#MAVERICK  by Securonix, also targeted a strategic supplier to the F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft. "The attack was carried out starting in late summer 2022 targeting at least two high-profile military contractor companies," Den Iuzvyk, Tim Peck, and Oleg Kolesnikov  said  in an analysis. Infection chains begin with a phishing mail with a ZIP archive attachment containing a shortcut file that claims to be a PDF document about "Company & Benefits," which is then used to retrieve a stager -- an initial binary that's used to download the desired malware -- from a remote server. This PowerShell stager sets the stage for a "robust chain of stagers" that progresses through seven m...

Every year, billions of credentials appear online, be it on the dark web, clear web, paste sites, or in data dumps shared by cybercriminals. These credentials are often used for account takeover attacks, exposing organizations to breaches, ransomware, and data theft.  While CISOs are aware of growing identity threats and have multiple tools in their arsenal to help reduce the potential risk, the reality is that existing methodologies have proven largely ineffective. According to the  2022 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report , over 60% of breaches involve compromised credentials.  Attackers use techniques such as social engineering, brute force, and purchasing leaked credentials on the dark web to compromise legitimate identities and gain unauthorized access to victim organizations' systems and resources.  Adversaries often leverage the fact that some passwords are shared among different users, making it easier to breach multiple accounts in the same organiz...

A threat actor by the name of LeakBase has shared a database containing personal information allegedly affecting 16 million users of Swachh City, an Indian complaint redressal platform. Leaked details include usernames, email addresses, password hashes, mobile numbers, one-time passwords, last logged-in times, and IP addresses, among others, according to a report shared by security firm CloudSEK with The Hacker News. The  website  is currently inaccessible. The Swachhata Platform is part of the Indian government's  Swachh Bharat Mission  (translated as Clean India Mission) nationwide initiative to "achieve universal sanitation coverage." According to  Cyble , the database comprises 101,718 unique email addresses and 15,835,111 unique mobile numbers, putting users at risk of phishing, smishing, social engineering, and identity theft. The cybersecurity firm said that the breach possibly leveraged compromised credentials belonging to administrator and no...

Several hacktivist groups are using Telegram and other tools to aid anti-government protests in Iran to bypass regime censorship restrictions amid  ongoing unrest  in the country following the death of Mahsa Amini in custody. "Key activities are data leaking and selling, including officials' phone numbers and emails, and maps of sensitive locations," Israeli cybersecurity firm Check Point  said  in a new report. The company said it has also witnessed sharing of proxies and open VPN servers to get around censorship and reports on the internet status in the country, with one group helping the anti-government demonstrators access social media sites. Chief among them is a Telegram channel called Official Atlas Intelligence Group (AIG) that's primarily focused on publishing data associated with government officials as well as maps of prominent locations. Calling itself the "CyberArmy," the group is said to have commenced its operations in May and has also ...