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Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed two high-severity security flaws in the Ubuntu kernel that could pave the way for local privilege escalation attacks. Cloud security firm Wiz, in a  report  shared with The Hacker News, said the easy-to-exploit shortcomings have the potential to impact 40% of Ubuntu users. "The impacted Ubuntu versions are prevalent in the cloud as they serve as the default operating systems for multiple [cloud service providers]," security researchers Sagi Tzadik and Shir Tamari said. The  vulnerabilities  – tracked as CVE-2023-2640 and CVE-2023-32629 (CVSS scores: 7.8) and dubbed  GameOver(lay)  – are present in a module called  OverlayFS  and arise as a result of inadequate permissions checks in certain scenarios, enabling a local attacker to gain elevated privileges. Overlay Filesystem refers to a union mount file system that makes it possible to combine multiple directory trees or file systems into a single, unif...

A new malvertising campaign has been observed leveraging ads on Google Search and Bing to target users seeking IT tools like AnyDesk, Cisco AnyConnect VPN, and WinSCP, and trick them into downloading trojanized installers with an aim to breach enterprise networks and likely carry out future ransomware attacks. Dubbed  Nitrogen , the "opportunistic" activity is designed to deploy second-stage attack tools such as Cobalt Strike, Sophos  said  in a Wednesday analysis. Nitrogen was  first documented  by eSentire in June 2023, detailing an infection chain that redirects users to compromised WordPress sites hosting malicious ISO image files that ultimately culminate in the delivery of Python scripts and Cobalt Strike Beacons onto the targeted system. Then earlier this month, Trend Micro  uncovered  a similar attack sequence in which a fraudulent WinSCP application functioned as a stepping stone for a BlackCat ransomware attack. "Throughout the infection...

As cloud applications are built, tested and updated, they wind their way through an ever-complex series of different tools and teams. Across hundreds or even thousands of technologies that make up the patchwork quilt of development and cloud environments, security processes are all too often applied in only the final phases of software development.  Placing security at the very end of the production pipeline puts both devs and security on the back foot. Developers want to build and ship secure apps; security teams want to support this process by strengthening application security. However, today's security processes are legacy approaches that once worked brilliantly for the tight constraints of on-prem production, but struggle in ever-shifting cloud environments. As a result, security is an afterthought, and any attempt to squeeze siloed security into agile SDLC can  swell the cost of patching by 600% . A new cloud security operating model is long overdue. Shift-left is an ...

Misconfigured and poorly secured Apache Tomcat servers are being targeted as part of a new campaign designed to deliver the  Mirai botnet malware  and cryptocurrency miners. The findings come courtesy of Aqua, which detected more than 800 attacks against its Tomcat server honeypots over a two-year time period, with 96% of the attacks linked to the Mirai botnet. Of these attack attempts, 20% (or 152) entailed the use of a web shell script dubbed "neww" that originated from 24 unique IP addresses, with 68% of them originating from a single IP address (104.248.157[.]218). "The threat actor scanned for Tomcat servers and launched a brute force attack against it, attempting to gain access to the Tomcat web application manager by trying different combinations of credentials associated with it," Aqua security researcher Nitzan Yaakov  said . Upon gaining a successful foothold, the threat actors have been observed deploying a  WAR file  that contains a malicious w...

A city court in Moscow on Wednesday convicted Group-IB co-founder and CEO Ilya Sachkov of "high treason" and jailed him for 14 years in a "strict regime colony" over accusations of passing information to foreign spies. "The court found Sachkov guilty under Article 275 of the Russian Criminal Code (high treason) sentencing him to 14 years of incarceration in a maximum-security jail, restriction of freedom for one year and a fine of 500,000 rubles (about $5,550)," state news agency TASS  reported . Sachkov, who has been in custody  since September 2021  and denied wrongdoing, had been accused of handing over classified information to foreign intelligence in 2011, which the prosecutors said caused reputational damage to Russia's national interests. The exact nature of the charges is unclear. The 37-year-old is expected to appeal the decision, Bloomberg  said , adding, "Sachkov was alleged to have  given the U.S. government  information regardin...

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday approved new rules that require publicly traded companies to publicize details of a cyber attack within four days of identifying that it has a "material" impact on their finances, marking a major shift in how computer breaches are disclosed. "Whether a company loses a factory in a fire — or millions of files in a cybersecurity incident — it may be material to investors," SEC chair Gary Gensler  said . "Currently, many public companies provide cybersecurity disclosure to investors. I think companies and investors alike, however, would benefit if this disclosure were made in a more consistent, comparable, and decision-useful way." To that end, the new obligations mandate that companies reveal the incident's nature, scope, and timing, as well as its impact. This disclosure, however, may be delayed by an additional period of up to 60 days should it be determined that giving out such specific...

A deeper analysis of a recently discovered malware called  Decoy Dog  has revealed that it's a significant upgrade over the  Pupy RAT , an open-source remote access trojan it's modeled on. "Decoy Dog has a full suite of powerful, previously unknown capabilities – including the ability to move victims to another controller, allowing them to maintain communication with compromised machines and remain hidden for long periods of time," Infoblox  said  in a Tuesday report. "Some victims have actively communicated with a Decoy Dog server for over a year." Other new features allow the malware to execute arbitrary Java code on the client and connect to emergency controllers using a mechanism that's similar to a traditional DNS domain generation algorithm ( DGA ), with the Decoy Dog domains engineered to respond to replayed DNS queries from breached clients. "Decoy Dog has added functionality not available in Pupy," Dr. Renée Burton, head of threat...

A new study conducted by Uptycs has uncovered a stark increase in the distribution of information stealing (a.k.a. infostealer or stealer) malware. Incidents have more than doubled in Q1 2023, indicating an alarming trend that threatens global organizations. According to the new Uptycs' whitepaper,  Stealers are Organization Killers , a variety of new info stealers have emerged this year, preying on Windows, Linux, and macOS systems. Telegram has notably been used extensively by these malware authors for command, control, and data exfiltration. What is a Stealer? A stealer is a type of malware that targets its victim by stealing sensitive information that can include passwords, login credentials, and other personal data. After collecting such data, the stealer sends it to the threat actor's command and control (C2) system. RedLine and Vidar, two well-known stealers, took advantage of log-providing services to infiltrate private systems. RedLine primarily targets credenti...

Tax-paying individuals in Mexico and Chile have been targeted by a Mexico-based cybercrime group that goes by the name  Fenix  to breach targeted networks and steal valuable data. A key hallmark of the operation entails cloning official portals of the Servicio de Administración Tributaria (SAT) in Mexico and the Servicio de Impuestos Internos (SII) in Chile and redirecting potential victims to those sites.  "These fake websites prompt users to download a supposed security tool, claiming it will enhance their portal navigation safety," Metabase Q security researchers Gerardo Corona and Julio Vidal  said  in a recent analysis. "However, unbeknownst to the victims, this download actually installs the initial stage of malware, ultimately enabling the theft of sensitive information such as credentials." The goal of Fenix, according to the Latin America-focused cybersecurity firm, is to act as an initial access broker and get a foothold into different companies ...

Following the footsteps of  WormGPT , threat actors are advertising yet another cybercrime generative artificial intelligence (AI) tool dubbed  FraudGPT  on various dark web marketplaces and Telegram channels. "This is an AI bot, exclusively targeted for offensive purposes, such as crafting spear phishing emails, creating cracking tools, carding, etc.," Netenrich security researcher Rakesh Krishnan   said  in a report published Tuesday. The cybersecurity firm said the offering has been circulating since at least July 22, 2023, for a subscription cost of $200 a month (or $1,000 for six months and $1,700 for a year). "If your [sic] looking for a Chat GPT alternative designed to provide a wide range of exclusive tools, features, and capabilities tailored to anyone's individuals with no boundaries then look no further!," claims the actor, who goes by the online alias CanadianKingpin. The author also states that the tool could be used to write malicious code, c...

A new malware family called  Realst  has become the latest to target Apple macOS systems, with a third of the samples already designed to infect macOS 14 Sonoma, the upcoming major release of the operating system. Written in the Rust programming language, the malware is distributed in the form of bogus blockchain games and is capable of "emptying crypto wallets and stealing stored password and browser data" from both Windows and macOS machines. Realst was first discovered in the wild by security researcher  iamdeadlyz . "Realst Infostealer is distributed via malicious websites advertising fake blockchain games with names such as Brawl Earth, WildWorld, Dawnland, Destruction, Evolion, Pearl, Olymp of Reptiles, and SaintLegend," SentinelOne security researcher Phil Stokes  said  in a report. "Each version of the fake blockchain game is hosted on its own website complete with associated Twitter and Discord accounts." The cybersecurity firm, which identif...

A severe privilege escalation issue impacting MikroTik RouterOS could be weaponized by remote malicious actors to execute arbitrary code and seize full control of vulnerable devices. Cataloged as  CVE-2023-30799  (CVSS score: 9.1), the shortcoming is expected to put approximately 500,000 and 900,000 RouterOS systems at risk of exploitation via their web and/or Winbox interfaces, respectively, VulnCheck disclosed in a Tuesday report. "CVE-2023-30799 does require authentication," security researcher Jacob Baines  said . "In fact, the vulnerability itself is a simple privilege escalation from admin to 'super-admin' which results in access to an arbitrary function. Acquiring credentials to RouterOS systems is easier than one might expect." This is because the Mikrotik RouterOS operating system does not offer any protection against password brute-force attacks and ships with a well-known default "admin" user, with its password being an empty string...