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Two malicious packages discovered in the npm package repository have been found to conceal an open source information stealer malware called  TurkoRat . The packages – named nodejs-encrypt-agent and nodejs-cookie-proxy-agent – were collectively downloaded approximately 1,200 times and were available for more than two months before they were identified and taken down. ReversingLabs, which broke down the details of the campaign, described TurkoRat as an information stealer capable of harvesting sensitive information such as login credentials, website cookies, and data from cryptocurrency wallets.  While nodejs-encrypt-agent came fitted with the malware inside, nodejs-cookie-proxy-agent was found to disguise the trojan as a dependency under the name axios-proxy. nodejs-encrypt-agent was also engineered to masquerade as another legitimate npm module known as  agent-base , which has been downloaded over 25 million times to date. The list of the rogue packages and their a...

Malicious Google Search ads for generative AI services like OpenAI ChatGPT and Midjourney are being used to direct users to sketchy websites as part of a BATLOADER campaign designed to deliver  RedLine Stealer  malware. "Both AI services are extremely popular but lack first-party standalone apps (i.e., users interface with ChatGPT via their web interface while Midjourney uses Discord)," eSentire said in an analysis. "This vacuum has been exploited by threat actors looking to drive AI app-seekers to imposter web pages promoting fake apps." BATLOADER is a loader malware that's propagated via drive-by downloads where users searching for certain keywords on search engines are displayed bogus ads that, when clicked, redirect them to rogue landing pages hosting malware. The installer file, per eSentire, is rigged with an executable file (ChatGPT.exe or midjourney.exe) and a PowerShell script (Chat.ps1 or Chat-Ready.ps1) that downloads and loads RedLine Stealer ...

Apple on Thursday  rolled out security updates  to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, watchOS, and the Safari web browser to address dozens of flaws, including three new zero-days that it said are being actively exploited in the wild. The three security shortcomings are listed below - CVE-2023-32409  - A WebKit flaw that could be exploited by a malicious actor to break out of the Web Content sandbox. It was addressed with improved bounds checks. CVE-2023-28204  - An out-of-bounds read issue in WebKit that could be abused to disclose sensitive information when processing web content. It was addressed with improved input validation. CVE-2023-32373  - A use-after free bug in WebKit that could lead to arbitrary code execution when processing maliciously crafted web content. It was addressed with improved memory management. The iPhone maker credited Clément Lecigne of Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) and Donncha Ó Cearbhaill of Amnesty International's Security Lab...

A cybercrime enterprise known as  Lemon Group  is leveraging millions of pre-infected Android smartphones worldwide to carry out their malicious operations, posing significant supply chain risks. "The infection turns these devices into mobile proxies, tools for stealing and selling SMS messages, social media and online messaging accounts and monetization via advertisements and click fraud," cybersecurity firm Trend Micro  said . The activity encompasses no fewer than 8.9 million compromised Android devices, particularly budget phones, with the highest concentration of the infections discovered in the U.S., Mexico, Indonesia, Thailand, Russia, South Africa, India, Angola, the Philippines, and Argentina. The findings were  presented  by researchers Fyodor Yarochkin, Zhengyu Dong, Vladimir Kropotov, and Paul Pajares at the Black Hat Asia conference held in Singapore last week. Describing it as a  continuously evolving problem , the cybersecurity firm said...

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Digitalization initiatives are connecting once-isolated Operational Technology (OT) environments with their Information Technology (IT) counterparts. This digital transformation of the factory floor has accelerated the connection of machinery to digital systems and data. Computer systems for managing and monitoring digital systems and data have been added to the hardware and software used for managing and monitoring industrial devices and machines, connecting OT to IT. Such connectivity enhances productivity, reduces operational costs and speeds up processes. However, this convergence has also increased organizations' security risk, making manufacturers more susceptible to attacks. In fact, in 2022 alone, there were 2,337 security breaches of manufacturing systems, 338 with confirmed data disclosure (Verizon, 2022 DBIR Report).  Ransomware: A Growing Threat for Manufacturers The nature of attacks has also changed. In the past, attackers may have been espionage-driven, targeting...

The  rising   geopolitical tensions  between China and Taiwan in recent months have sparked a noticeable uptick in cyber attacks on the East Asian island country. "From malicious emails and URLs to malware, the strain between China's claim of Taiwan as part of its territory and Taiwan's maintained independence has evolved into a worrying surge in attacks," the Trellix Advanced Research Center  said  in a new report. The attacks, which have targeted a variety of sectors in the region, are mainly designed to deliver malware and steal sensitive information, the cybersecurity firm said, adding it detected a four-fold jump in the volume of malicious emails between April 7 and April 10, 2023. Some of the most impacted industry verticals during the four-day time period were networking, manufacturing, and logistics. What's more, the spike in malicious emails targeting Taiwan was followed by a 15x increase in PlugX detections between April 10 and April 12, 2023, in...

The notorious cryptojacking group tracked as  8220 Gang  has been spotted weaponizing a six-year-old security flaw in Oracle WebLogic servers to ensnare vulnerable instances into a botnet and distribute cryptocurrency mining malware. The flaw in question is  CVE-2017-3506  (CVSS score: 7.4), which, when successfully exploited, could allow an unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary commands remotely. "This allows attackers to gain unauthorized access to sensitive data or compromise the entire system," Trend Micro researcher Sunil Bharti  said  in a report published this week. 8220 Gang,  first documented  by Cisco Talos in late 2018, is so named for its original use of port 8220 for command-and-control (C2) network communications. "8220 Gang identifies targets via scanning for misconfigured or vulnerable hosts on the public internet," SentinelOne  noted  last year. "8220 Gang is known to make use of SSH brute force attacks pos...

A U.S. national has pleaded guilty in a Missouri court to operating a darknet carding site and selling financial information belonging to tens of thousands of victims in the country. Michael D. Mihalo , aka Dale Michael Mihalo Jr. and ggmccloud1, has been accused of setting up a carding site called Skynet Market that specialized in the trafficking of credit and debit card data. Mihalo and his associates also peddled their warez on other dark web marketplaces such as AlphaBay Market, Wall Street Market, and Hansa Market between February 22, 2016, and October 1, 2019. "Mihalo assembled and directed the team that helped him sell this stolen financial information on the darknet," the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ)  said  in a press statement released on May 16, 2023. "Mihalo personally possessed, sent, and received the information associated with 49,084 stolen payment cards with the intent that the payment card information would be trafficked on darknet sites, all i...

Apple has announced that it prevented over $2 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions and rejected roughly 1.7 million app submissions for privacy and security violations in 2022. The computing giant said it terminated 428,000 developer accounts for potential fraudulent activity, blocked 105,000 fake developer account creations, and deactivated 282 million bogus customer accounts. It further noted that it thwarted 198 million attempted fraudulent new accounts prior to their creation. In contrast, Apple is estimated to have booted out 802,000 developer accounts in 2021. The company attributed the decline to new App Store "methods and protocols" that prevent the creation of such accounts in the first place. "In 2022, Apple protected users from nearly 57,000 untrustworthy apps from illegitimate storefronts," the company  emphasized . "These unauthorized marketplaces distribute harmful software that can imitate popular apps or alter them without the cons...

Cisco has released updates to address a set of nine security flaws in its Small Business Series Switches that could be exploited by an unauthenticated, remote attacker to run arbitrary code or cause a denial-of-service (DoS) condition. "These vulnerabilities are due to improper validation of requests that are sent to the web interface," Cisco  said , crediting an unnamed external researcher for reporting the issues. Four of the nine vulnerabilities are rated 9.8 out of 10 on the CVSS scoring system, making them critical in nature. The nine flaws affect the following product lines - 250 Series Smart Switches (Fixed in firmware version 2.5.9.16) 350 Series Managed Switches (Fixed in firmware version 2.5.9.16) 350X Series Stackable Managed Switches (Fixed in firmware version 2.5.9.16) 550X Series Stackable Managed Switches (Fixed in firmware version 2.5.9.16) Business 250 Series Smart Switches (Fixed in firmware version 3.3.0.16) Business 350 Series Managed Switches (F...

A hacking group dubbed  OilAlpha  with suspected ties to Yemen's  Houthi movement  has been linked to a cyber espionage campaign targeting development, humanitarian, media, and non-governmental organizations in the Arabian peninsula. "OilAlpha used encrypted chat messengers like WhatsApp to launch social engineering attacks against its targets," cybersecurity company Recorded Future  said  in a technical report published Tuesday. "It has also used URL link shorteners. Per victimology assessment, it appears a majority of the targeted entities were Arabic-language speakers and operated Android devices." OilAlpha is the new cryptonym given by Recorded Future to two overlapping clusters previously tracked by the company under the names TAG-41 and TAG-62 since April 2022. TAG-XX (short for Threat Activity Group) is the temporary moniker assigned to emerging threat groups. The assessment that the adversary is acting in the interest of the Houthi movement is...

Software is rarely a one-and-done proposition. In fact, any application available today will likely need to be updated – or patched – to fix bugs,  address vulnerabilities , and update key features at multiple points in the future. With the typical enterprise relying on a multitude of applications, servers, and end-point devices in their day-to-day operations, the acquisition of a robust  patch management platform  to identify, test, deploy, install, and document all appropriate patches are critical for ensuring systems remain stable and secure.  As with most tech tools, not all patch management solutions are created equal, and what's seen as robust by one organization may prove inadequate for another. However, an evaluation that begins with a focus on specific key criteria – essential attributes and functionality likely to be offered by many vendors but not all – will allow IT teams to narrow down their options as they work to identify the best solution for thei...

A financially motivated cyber actor has been observed abusing Microsoft Azure  Serial Console  on virtual machines (VMs) to install third-party remote management tools within compromised environments. Google-owned Mandiant attributed the activity to a threat group it tracks under the name  UNC3944 , which is also known as Roasted 0ktapus and Scattered Spider. "This method of attack was unique in that it avoided many of the traditional detection methods employed within Azure and provided the attacker with full administrative access to the VM," the threat intelligence firm  said . The emerging adversary, which first came to light late last year, is known to  leverage SIM swapping attacks  to breach telecommunications and business process outsourcing (BPO) companies since at least May 2022. Subsequently, Mandiant also  found  UNC3944 utilizing a loader named STONESTOP to install a malicious signed driver dubbed POORTRY that's designed to termin...

The second generation version of Belkin's Wemo Mini Smart Plug has been found to contain a buffer overflow vulnerability that could be weaponized by a threat actor to inject arbitrary commands remotely. The issue, assigned the identifier  CVE-2023-27217 , was discovered and reported to Belkin on January 9, 2023, by Israeli IoT security company Sternum , which reverse-engineered the device and gained firmware access. Wemo Mini Smart Plug V2 ( F7C063 ) offers convenient remote control, allowing users to turn electronic devices on or off using a companion app installed on a smartphone or tablet. The heart of the problem lies in a feature that makes it possible to rename the smart plug to a more " FriendlyName ." The default name assigned is " Wemo mini 6E9 ." "The name length is limited to 30 characters or less, but this rule is only enforced by the app itself," security researchers Amit Serper and Reuven Yakar  said  in a report shared with The Hac...

Cybersecurity researchers have unearthed previously undocumented attack infrastructure used by the prolific state-sponsored group  SideWinder  to strike entities located in Pakistan and China. This comprises a network of 55 domains and IP addresses used by the threat actor, cybersecurity companies Group-IB and Bridewell said in a joint report shared with The Hacker News. "The identified phishing domains mimic various organizations in the news, government, telecommunications, and financial sectors," researchers Nikita Rostovtsev, Joshua Penny, and Yashraj Solanki  said . SideWinder has been known to be active since at least 2012, with attack chains primarily leveraging spear-phishing as an intrusion mechanism to obtain a foothold into targeted environments. The target range of the group is widely believed to be associated with Indian espionage interests. The most frequently attacked nations include Pakistan, China, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, the Phil...

A Russian national has been charged and indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) for launching ransomware attacks against "thousands of victims" in the country and across the world. Mikhail Pavlovich Matveev  (aka  Wazawaka , m1x, Boriselcin, and Uhodiransomwar), the 30-year-old individual in question, is alleged to be a "central figure" in the development and deployment of  LockBit ,  Babuk , and  Hive  ransomware variants since at least June 2020. "These victims include law enforcement and other government agencies, hospitals, and schools," DoJ  said . "Total ransom demands allegedly made by the members of these three global ransomware campaigns to their victims amount to as much as $400 million, while total victim ransom payments amount to as much as $200 million." LockBit, Babuk, and Hive operate alike, leveraging unlawfully obtained access to exfiltrate valuable data and deploy ransomware on compromised networks. The threat actor...