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U.S. cybersecurity and intelligence agencies have  released  a set of recommendations to address security concerns with 5G standalone network slicing and harden them against possible threats. "The threat landscape in 5G is dynamic; due to this, advanced monitoring, auditing, and other analytical capabilities are required to meet certain levels of network slicing service level requirements over time," the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the National Security Agency (NSA)  said . 5G is the fifth-generation technology standard for broadband cellular networks, offering increased data speeds and lower latency. Network slicing is an architectural model that allows mobile service providers to partition their network up into several independent "slices" in order to create virtual networks that cater to different clients and use cases. The latest advisory builds upon guidance  previously issued  by the agencies in December 2022, warn...

The prolific China-linked nation-state actor known as APT41 has been linked to two previously undocumented strains of Android spyware called WyrmSpy and DragonEgg. "Known for its exploitation of web-facing applications and infiltration of traditional endpoint devices, an established threat actor like APT 41 including mobile in its arsenal of malware shows how mobile endpoints are high-value targets with coveted corporate and personal data," Lookout  said  in a report shared with The Hacker News. APT41, also tracked under the names Axiom, Blackfly, Brass Typhoon (formerly Barium), Bronze Atlas, HOODOO, Wicked Panda, and Winnti, is known to be operational since at least 2007, targeting a wide range of industries to conduct intellectual property theft. Recent attacks mounted by the adversarial collective have  leveraged  an open-source red teaming tool known as Google Command and Control (GC2) as part of attacks aimed at media and job platforms in Taiwan and Italy. ...

On April 5, 2023, the FBI and Dutch National Police  announced the takedown of Genesis Market , one of the largest dark web marketplaces. The operation, dubbed "Operation Cookie Monster," resulted in the arrest of 119 people and the seizure of over $1M in cryptocurrency. You can read the FBI's warrant  here  for details specific to this case. In light of these events, I'd like to discuss how OSINT can assist with dark web investigations. The Dark Web's anonymity attracts a variety of users, from whistleblowers and political activists to cybercriminals and terrorists. There are several techniques that can be used to try and identify the individuals behind these sites and personas. Technical Vulnerabilities While not considered OSINT, there have been instances when technical vulnerabilities have existed in the technology used to host dark websites. These vulnerabilities may exist in the software itself or be due to misconfigurations, but they can sometimes revea...

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a privilege escalation vulnerability in Google Cloud that could enable malicious actors tamper with application images and infect users, leading to supply chain attacks. The issue, dubbed  Bad.Build , is rooted in the  Google Cloud Build service , according to cloud security firm Orca, which discovered and reported the issue. "By abusing the flaw and enabling an impersonation of the default Cloud Build service, attackers can manipulate images in the Google Artifact Registry and inject malicious code," the company  said  in a statement shared with The Hacker News. "Any applications built from the manipulated images are then affected and, if the malformed applications are meant to be deployed on customer's environments, the risk crosses from the supplying organization's environment to their customers' environments, constituting a major supply chain risk." Following responsible disclosure, Google has  issued  a ...

The U.S. government on Tuesday added two foreign commercial spyware vendors, Cytrox and Intellexa, to an economic blocklist for weaponizing cyber exploits to gain unauthorized access to devices and "threatening the privacy and security of individuals and organizations worldwide." This includes the companies' corporate holdings in Hungary (Cytrox Holdings Crt), North Macedonia (Cytrox AD), Greece (Intellexa S.A.), and Ireland (Intellexa Limited). By adding to the economic denylist, it prohibits U.S. companies from transacting with these businesses. "Recognizing the increasingly key role that surveillance technology plays in enabling campaigns of repression and other human rights abuses, the Commerce Department's action today targets these entities' ability to access commodities, software, and technology that could contribute to the development of surveillance tools that pose a risk of misuse in violations or abuses of human rights," the Bureau of Indus...

Citrix is  alerting  users of a critical security flaw in NetScaler Application Delivery Controller (ADC) and Gateway that it said is being actively exploited in the wild. Tracked as  CVE-2023-3519  (CVSS score: 9.8), the issue relates to a case of  code injection  that could result in unauthenticated remote code execution. It impacts the following versions - NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway 13.1 before 13.1-49.13 NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway 13.0 before 13.0-91.13 NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway version 12.1 (currently end-of-life) NetScaler ADC 13.1-FIPS before 13.1-37.159 NetScaler ADC 12.1-FIPS before 12.1-55.297, and NetScaler ADC 12.1-NDcPP before 12.1-55.297 The company did not give further details on the flaw tied to CVE-2023-3519 other than to say that exploits for the flaw have been observed on "unmitigated appliances." However, successful exploitation requires the device to be configured as a Gateway (VPN virtual server, ...

An unidentified threat actor compromised an application used by multiple entities in Pakistan to deliver  ShadowPad , a successor to the PlugX backdoor that's commonly associated with  Chinese hacking crews . Targets included a Pakistan government entity, a public sector bank, and a telecommunications provider, according to Trend Micro. The infections took place between mid-February 2022 and September 2022. The cybersecurity company said the incident could be the result of a supply-chain attack, in which a legitimate piece of software used by targets of interest is trojanized to deploy malware capable of gathering sensitive information from compromised systems. The attack chain takes the form of a malicious installer for  E-Office , an application developed by the National Information Technology Board (NITB) of Pakistan to help government departments go paperless. It's currently not clear how the backdoored E-Office installer was delivered to the targets. That said, ...

Data associated with a subset of registered customers of VirusTotal, including their names and email addresses, were exposed after an employee inadvertently uploaded the information to the malware scanning platform. The security incident, which comprises a database of 5,600 names in a 313KB file, was first disclosed by  Der Spiegel  and  Der Standard  yesterday. Launched in 2004, VirusTotal is a popular service that analyzes suspicious files and URLs to detect types of malware and malicious content using antivirus engines and website scanners. It was acquired by Google in 2012 and became a subsidiary of Google Cloud's Chronicle unit in 2018. When reached for comment, Google confirmed the leak and said it took immediate steps to remove the data. "We are aware of the unintentional distribution of a small segment of customer group administrator emails and organization names by one of our employees on the VirusTotal platform," a Google Cloud spokesperson told The Ha...

Discover stories about threat actors' latest tactics, techniques, and procedures from Cybersixgill's threat experts each month. Each story brings you details on emerging underground threats, the threat actors involved, and how you can take action to mitigate risks. Learn about the top vulnerabilities and review the latest ransomware and malware trends from the deep and dark web. Stolen ChatGPT credentials flood dark web markets Over the past year, 100,000 stolen credentials for ChatGPT were advertised on underground sites, being sold for as little as $5 on dark web marketplaces in addition to being offered for free. Stolen ChatGPT credentials include usernames, passwords, and other personal information associated with accounts. This is problematic because ChatGPT accounts may store sensitive information from queries, including confidential data and intellectual property. Specifically, companies increasingly incorporate ChatGPT into daily workflows, which means employees may disclose ...

The financially motivated threat actor known as FIN8 has been observed using a "revamped" version of a backdoor called  Sardonic  to deliver the  BlackCat ransomware . According to the Symantec Threat Hunter Team, part of Broadcom, the development is an attempt on the part of the e-crime group to diversify its focus and maximize profits from infected entities. The intrusion attempt took place in December 2022. FIN8 is being tracked by the cybersecurity company under the name Syssphinx. Known to be active since at least 2016, the adversary was originally attributed to attacks targeting point-of-sale (PoS) systems using malware such as PUNCHTRACK and BADHATCH. The group resurfaced after more than a year in March 2021 with an updated version of BADHATCH, following it up with a completely new bespoke implant called Sardonic , which was disclosed by Bitdefender in August 2021. "The C++-based Sardonic backdoor has the ability to harvest system information and execute c...

Conor Brian Fitzpatrick , the owner of the now-defunct BreachForums website, has pleaded guilty to charges related to his operation of the cybercrime forum as well as having child pornography images. The development,  first reported  by DataBreaches.net last week, comes nearly four months after Fitzpatrick (aka pompompurin) was  formally charged  in the U.S. with conspiracy to commit access device fraud and possession of child pornography. BreachForums, launched in March 2022, operated as an illegal marketplace that allowed its members to trade hacked or stolen databases, enabling other criminal actors to gain unauthorized access to target systems. It was shut down in March 2023 shortly after  Fitzpatrick's arrest  in New York. As many as 888 databases consisting of 14 billion individual records are estimated to have been found in total. The forum had over 333,000 members prior to its takedown. "The purpose of BreachForums, and Fitzpatrick's intent in...

Threat actors are actively exploiting a recently disclosed critical security flaw in the WooCommerce Payments WordPress plugin as part of a massive targeted campaign. The flaw, tracked as  CVE-2023-28121  (CVSS score: 9.8), is a case of authentication bypass that enables unauthenticated attackers to impersonate arbitrary users and perform some actions as the impersonated user, including an administrator, potentially leading to site takeover. "Large-scale attacks against the vulnerability, assigned CVE-2023-28121, began on Thursday, July 14, 2023 and continued over the weekend, peaking at 1.3 million attacks against 157,000 sites on Saturday, July 16, 2023," Wordfence security researcher Ram Gall  said  in a Monday post. Versions 4.8.0 through 5.6.1 of WooCommerce Payments are vulnerable. The plugin is installed on over 600,000 sites. Patches for the bug were released by WooCommerce back in March 2023, with WordPress issuing auto-updates to sites using affected v...