The Hacker News | #1 Trusted Source for Cybersecurity News — Index Page

Taiwanese networking equipment company Zyxel is warning customers of an ongoing attack targeting a "small subset" of its security products such as firewall and VPN servers. Attributing the attacks to a "sophisticated threat actor," the firm noted that the attacks single out appliances that have remote management or SSL VPN enabled, namely in the USG/ZyWALL, USG FLEX, ATP, and VPN series running on-premise ZLD firmware, implying that the targeted devices are publicly accessible over the internet. "The threat actor attempts to access a device through WAN; if successful, they then bypass authentication and establish SSL VPN tunnels with unknown user accounts, such as 'zyxel_slIvpn', 'zyxel_ts', or 'zyxel_vpn_test', to manipulate the device's configuration," Zyxel said in an  email message , which was shared on Twitter. As of writing, it's not immediately known if the attacks are exploiting previously known vulnerabilities...

A previously undocumented Windows malware has infected over 222,000 systems worldwide since at least June 2018, yielding its developer no less than 9,000 Moneros ($2 million) in illegal profits. Dubbed " Crackonosh ," the malware is distributed via illegal, cracked copies of popular software, only to disable antivirus programs installed in the machine and install a coin miner package called XMRig for stealthily exploiting the infected host's resources to mine Monero. At least 30 different versions of the malware executable have been discovered between Jan. 1, 2018, and Nov. 23, 2020, Czech cybersecurity software company Avast  said  on Thursday, with a majority of the victims located in the U.S., Brazil, India, Poland, and the Philippines. Crackonosh works by replacing critical Windows system files such as "serviceinstaller.msi" and "maintenance.vbs" to cover its tracks and abuses the  safe mode , which prevents antivirus software from working, to...

A Ukrainian national and a mid-​level supervisor of the hacking group known as FIN7 has been sentenced to seven years in prison for his role as a "pen tester" and perpetuating a criminal scheme that enabled the gang to compromise millions of customers debit and credit cards. Andrii Kolpakov , 33, was arrested in Spain on June 28, 2018, and subsequently extradited to the U.S. the following year on June 1, 2019. In June 2020, Kolpakov pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit computer hacking. The Western District of Washington also ordered Kolpakov to pay $2.5 million in restitution. The defendant, who was involved with the group from April 2016 until his arrest, managed other hackers who were tasked with breaching the point-of-sale systems of companies, both in the U.S. and elsewhere, to deploy malware capable of stealing financial information. FIN7 , also called Anunak, Carbanak Group , and the Navigator Group,...

While phishing and ransomware dominate headlines, another critical risk quietly persists across most enterprises: exposed Git repositories leaking sensitive data. A risk that silently creates shadow access into core systems Git is the backbone of modern software development, hosting millions of repositories and serving thousands of organizations worldwide. Yet, amid the daily hustle of shipping code, developers may inadvertently leave behind API keys, tokens, or passwords in configuration files and code files, effectively handing attackers the keys to the kingdom. This isn't just about poor hygiene; it's a systemic and growing supply chain risk. As cyber threats become more sophisticated, so do compliance requirements. Security frameworks like NIS2, SOC2, and ISO 27001 now demand proof that software delivery pipelines are hardened and third-party risk is controlled. The message is clear: securing your Git repositories is no longer optional, it's essential. Below, we look at the ris...

The cybercrime ring that was apprehended last week in connection with Clop (aka Cl0p) ransomware attacks against dozens of companies in the last few months helped launder money totaling $500 million for several malicious actors through a plethora of illegal activities. "The group — also known as FANCYCAT — has been running multiple criminal activities: distributing cyber attacks; operating a high-risk exchanger; and laundering money from dark web operations and high-profile cyber attacks such as Cl0p and Petya ransomware," popular cryptocurrency exchange Binance  said  Thursday. On June 16, the Ukraine Cyber Police  nabbed six individuals  in the city of Kyiv, describing the arrests as resulting from an international operation involving law enforcement authorities from Korea, the U.S., and Interpol. While the bust was seen as a major blow to the operations of the Clop gang, the hackers published earlier this week a fresh batch of confidential employee records st...

Cybersecurity researchers on Thursday disclosed a chain of vulnerabilities affecting the BIOSConnect feature within Dell Client BIOS that could be abused by a privileged network adversary to gain arbitrary code execution at the BIOS/UEFI level of the affected device. "As the attacker has the ability to remotely execute code in the pre-boot environment, this can be used to subvert the operating system and undermine fundamental trust in the device," researchers from enterprise device security firm Eclypsium said . "The virtually unlimited control over a device that this attack can provide makes the fruit of the labor well worth it for the attacker." In all, the flaws affect 128 Dell models spanning across consumer and business laptops, desktops, and tablets, totalling an estimated 30 million individual devices. Worse, the weaknesses also impact computers that have  Secure Boot  enabled, a security feature designed to prevent  rootkits from being installed  at boot...

Enterprise applications used to live securely in data centers and office employees connected to internal networks using company-managed laptops or desktops. And data was encircled by a walled perimeter to keep everything safe. All that changed in the last 18 months. Businesses and employees had to adapt quickly to cloud technology and remote work. The cloud gave businesses the agility to respond faster to change and the scale to accommodate rapid growth. Remote work boosted productivity by letting employees access cloud data from anywhere on any device. This is not business as usual. The data center and the perimeter security are no longer the center of the universe. Now remote workers, personal mobile devices, applications, and data are in the middle. Although employees, applications, and data have left the building, IT security teams still shoulder the responsibility for protecting confidential data and ensuring compliance with strict privacy regulations. The risk of not doing so...

Cybersecurity researchers on Wednesday disclosed critical flaws in the Atlassian project and software development platform that could be exploited to take over an account and control some of the apps connected through its single sign-on ( SSO ) capability. "With just one click, an attacker could have used the flaws to get access to Atlassian's publish Jira system and get sensitive information, such as security issues on Atlassian cloud, Bitbucket and on premise products," Check Point Research said in an analysis shared with The Hacker News. After the issues were reported to Atlassian on Jan. 8, 2021, the Australian company deployed a fix as part of its  updates  rolled out on  May 18 . The sub-domains affected by the flaws include -  jira.atlassian.com confluence.atlassian.com getsupport.atlassian.com partners.atlassian.com developer.atlassian.com support.atlassian.com training.atlassian.com Successful exploitation of these flaws could result in a supp...

VMware has rolled out security updates to resolve a critical flaw affecting Carbon Black App Control that could be exploited to bypass authentication and take control of vulnerable systems. The vulnerability, identified as CVE-2021-21998, is rated 9.4 out of 10 in severity by the industry-standard Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) and affects App Control (AppC) versions 8.0.x, 8.1.x, 8.5.x, and 8.6.x. Carbon Black App Control  is a security solution designed to lock down critical systems and servers to prevent unauthorized changes in the face of cyber-attacks and ensure compliance with regulatory mandates such as PCI-DSS, HIPAA, GDPR, SOX, FISMA, and NERC. "A malicious actor with network access to the VMware Carbon Black App Control management server might be able to obtain administrative access to the product without the need to authenticate," the California-based cloud computing and virtualization technology company  said  in an advisory. CVE-2021-21998 i...

Controversial mogul and antivirus pioneer John McAfee on Wednesday died by suicide in a jail cell in Barcelona, hours after reports that he would be extradited to face federal charges in the U.S. McAfee was 75. He is said to have died by hanging "as his nine months in prison brought him to despair," according to McAfee's lawyer Javier Villalba, Reuters  reported . Security personnel at the Brians 2 prison tried to revive McAfee, but he was eventually declared dead, per  Associated Press . News of his death comes after Spain's National Court approved his extradition to the U.S. to face federal criminal tax evasion charges. McAfee worked for NASA, Xerox, and Lockheed Martin before launching the world's first commercial antivirus software in 1987. He later resigned from the namesake security firm in 1994. The former cybersecurity tycoon turned fugitive was detained in Spain last October for " willful failure to file tax returns ," with the U.S. Depar...

A threat actor with suspected ties to Pakistan has been striking government and energy organizations in the South and Central Asia regions to deploy a remote access trojan on compromised Windows systems, according to new research. "Most of the organizations that exhibited signs of compromise were in India, and a small number were in Afghanistan," Lumen's Black Lotus Labs  said  in a Tuesday analysis. "The potentially compromised victims aligned with the government and power utility verticals." Some of the victims include a foreign government organization, a power transmission organization, and a power generation and transmission organization. The covert operation is said to have begun at least in January 2021. The intrusions are notable for a number of reasons, not least because in addition to its highly-targeted nature, the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) adopted by the adversary rely on repurposed open-source code and the use of compromised dom...

It seems like every new day brings with it a new ransomware news item – new attacks, methods, horror stories, and data being leaked. Ransomware attacks are on the rise, and they've become a major issue for organizations across industries. A recent report estimated that by 2031, ransomware attacks would cost the world over $260 billion. A new whitepaper from XDR provider Cynet demonstrates how the company's platform can help organizations mitigate the impact of ransomware ( download here ). Today, attackers have shown themselves to be less interested in ignoring the most vulnerable sectors, such as health care providers and hospitals. With a parallel increase in the number of variants – Wastedlocker, FTCode, Tycooon, TrickBot, REvil, and many others – it's becoming harder to defend against the growing threat of ransomware. Ransomware operates by using a variety of infection and encryption techniques to steal or barricade companies' files behind hard paywalls. Even t...

Open-source Tor browser has been updated to version 10.0.18 with fixes for multiple issues, including a privacy-defeating bug that could be used to uniquely fingerprint users across different browsers based on the apps installed on a computer. In addition to  updating  Tor to 0.4.5.9, the browser's Android version has been upgraded to Firefox to version 89.1.1, alongside incorporating patches rolled out by Mozilla for several  security vulnerabilities  addressed in Firefox 89. Chief among the rectified issues is a new fingerprinting attack that came to light last month. Dubbed  scheme flooding , the vulnerability enables a malicious website to leverage information about installed apps on the system to assign users a permanent unique identifier even when they switch browsers, use incognito mode, or a VPN. Put differently, the  weakness  takes advantage of custom URL schemes in apps as an attack vector, allowing a bad actor to track a device's user ...

A critical vulnerability in SonicWall VPN appliances that was believed to have been patched last year has been now found to be "botched," with the company leaving a memory leak flaw unaddressed, until now, that could permit a remote attacker to gain access to sensitive information. The shortcoming was rectified in an update rolled out to SonicOS on June 22.  Tracked as  CVE-2021-20019  (CVSS score: 5.3), the vulnerability is the consequence of a memory leak when sending a specially-crafted unauthenticated HTTP request, culminating in information disclosure. It's worth noting that SonicWall's decision to hold back the patch comes amid  multiple   zero-day   disclosures  affecting its remote access VPN and email security products that have been exploited in a series of in-the-wild attacks to deploy backdoors and a new strain of ransomware called FIVEHANDS. Howevere, there is no evidence that the flaw is being exploited in the wild. Memory Dump PoC...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed a critical unpatched vulnerability affecting Pling-based free and open-source software (FOSS) marketplaces for Linux platform that could be potentially abused to stage supply-chain attacks and achieve remote code execution (RCE). "Linux marketplaces that are based on the Pling platform are vulnerable to a wormable [cross-site scripting] with potential for a supply-chain attack," Positive Security co-founder Fabian Bräunlein  said  in a technical write-up published today. "The native PlingStore application is affected by an RCE vulnerability, which can be triggered from any website while the app is running." The Pling-based app stores impacted by the flaw include — appimagehub.com store.kde.org gnome-look.org xfce-look.org pling.com PlingStore allows users to search and install Linux software, themes, icons, and other add-ons that may not be available for download through the distribution's software center.  T...

Cybersecurity researchers are sounding the alarm bell over a new ransomware strain called " DarkRadiation " that's implemented entirely in Bash and targets Linux and Docker cloud containers, while banking on messaging service Telegram for command-and-control (C2) communications. "The ransomware is written in  Bash  script and targets Red Hat/CentOS and Debian Linux distributions," researchers from Trend Micro  said  in a report published last week. "The malware uses OpenSSL's AES algorithm with CBC mode to encrypt files in various directories. It also uses Telegram's API to send an infection status to the threat actor(s)." As of writing, there's no information available on the delivery methods or evidence that the ransomware has been deployed in real-world attacks. The findings come from an analysis of a collection of hacking tools hosted on the unidentified threat actor's infrastructure (IP address "185.141.25.168") in a...

U.S. graphics chip specialist NVIDIA has released  software updates  to address a total of 26 vulnerabilities impacting its Jetson system-on-module (SOM) series that could be abused by adversaries to escalate privileges and even lead to denial-of-service and information disclosure. Tracked from CVE‑2021‑34372 through CVE‑2021‑34397, the flaws affect products Jetson TX1, TX2 series, TX2 NX, AGX Xavier series, Xavier NX, and Nano and Nano 2GB running all Jetson Linux versions prior to 32.5.1. The company credited Frédéric Perriot of Apple Media Products for reporting all the issues. The  NVIDIA Jetson  line consists of embedded Linux AI and computer vision compute modules and developer kits that primarily caters to AI-based computer vision applications and autonomous systems such as mobile robots and drones. Chief among the vulnerabilities is CVE‑2021‑34372 (CVSS score: 8.2), a buffer overflow flaw in its  Trusty  trusted execution environment (TEE) th...

Hackers are increasingly using ransomware as an effective tool to disrupt businesses and fund malicious activities. A recent analysis by cybersecurity company Group-IB revealed  ransomware attacks doubled in 2020 , while Cybersecurity Ventures predicts that a ransomware attack will occur every 11 seconds  in 2021. Businesses must prepare for the possibility of a ransomware attack affecting their data, services, and business continuity. What steps are involved in recovering from a ransomware attack? Isolate and shutdown critical systems Enact your business continuity plan Report the cyberattack Restore from backup Remediate, patch, and monitor Isolate and shutdown critical systems The first important step is to isolate and shut down business-critical systems. There is a chance the ransomware has not affected all accessible data and systems. Shutting down and isolating both infected systems and healthy systems helps contain malicious code. From the first eviden...

A new research published by a group of academics has found that anti-virus programs for Android continue to remain vulnerable against different permutations of malware, in what could pose a serious risk as malicious actors evolve their toolsets to better evade analysis. "Malware writers use stealthy mutations (morphing/obfuscations) to continuously develop malware clones, thwarting detection by signature based detectors," the researchers  said . "This attack of clones seriously threatens all the mobile platforms, especially Android." The findings were published in a study last week by researchers from Adana Science and Technology University, Turkey, and the National University of Science and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan. Unlike iOS, apps can be downloaded from third-party sources on Android devices, raising the possibility that unwitting users can install unverified and lookalike apps that clone a legitimate app's functionality but are built to trick tar...

A wireless network naming bug has been discovered in Apple's iOS operating system that effectively disables an iPhone's ability to connect to a Wi-Fi network. The issue was spotted by security researcher  Carl Schou , who found that the phone's Wi-Fi functionality gets permanently disabled after joining a Wi-Fi network with the unusual name " %p%s%s%s%s%n " even after rebooting the phone or changing the network's name (i.e., service set identifier or SSID). The bug could have serious implications in that bad actors could exploit the issue to plant fraudulent Wi-Fi hotspots with the name in question to break the device's wireless networking features. After joining my personal WiFi with the SSID "%p%s%s%s%s%n", my iPhone permanently disabled it's WiFi functionality. Neither rebooting nor changing SSID fixes it :~) pic.twitter.com/2eue90JFu3 — Carl Schou (@vm_call) June 18, 2021 The issue stems from a  string formatting  bug in the manner iOS parses th...