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Cybersecurity researchers from ETH Zurich have developed a new variant of the RowHammer DRAM (dynamic random-access memory) attack that, for the first time, successfully works against AMD Zen 2 and Zen 3 systems despite mitigations such as Target Row Refresh (TRR). "This result proves that AMD systems are equally vulnerable to Rowhammer as Intel systems, which greatly increases the attack surface, considering today's AMD market share of around 36% on x86 desktop CPUs," the researchers  said . The technique has been codenamed  ZenHammer , which can also trigger RowHammer bit flips on DDR5 devices for the first time. RowHammer , first publicly disclosed in 2014, is a  well-known attack  that exploits DRAM's memory cell architecture to alter data by repeatedly accessing a specific row (aka hammering) to cause the electrical charge of a cell to leak to adjacent cells. This can induce random bit flips in neighboring memory rows (from 0 to 1, or vice versa), which can

Considering the ever-changing state of cybersecurity, it's never too late to ask yourself, "am I doing what's necessary to keep my organization's web applications secure?" The continuous evolution of technology introduces new and increasingly sophisticated threats daily, posing challenges to organizations all over the world and across the broader spectrum of industries striving to maintain reliable defenses. 2024 promises to be no exception. Threat actors continue to adapt their tactics, techniques, and procedures to exploit vulnerabilities in innovative ways, injecting malicious content into files that bypass traditional antivirus solutions and advanced, AI and ML-powered solutions alike. Therefore, organizations must assess and continually reinforce their security measures. One critical aspect that organizations often grapple with is identifying and addressing security blind spots. These are areas within the infrastructure where vulnerabilities exist but may

In IT environments, some secrets are managed well and some fly under the radar. Here's a quick checklist of what kinds of secrets companies typically manage, including one type they should manage: Passwords [x] TLS certificates [x] Accounts [x] SSH keys ??? The secrets listed above are typically secured with privileged access management (PAM) solutions or similar. Yet, most traditional PAM vendors hardly talk about SSH key management. The reason is simple: they don't have the technology to do it properly.  We can prove it. All our SSH key management customers have had a traditional PAM deployed, but they realized that they couldn't manage SSH keys with it. At best, traditional PAMs can discover, let alone manage, 20% of all keys. So, what's the fuss about SSH keys? SSH keys are access credentials in the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol. In many ways, they're just like passwords but functionally different. On top of that, keys tend to outnumber passwords, especially in long-standi

In the whirlwind of modern software development, teams race against time, constantly pushing the boundaries of innovation and efficiency. This relentless pace is fueled by an evolving tech landscape, where SaaS domination, the proliferation of microservices, and the ubiquity of CI/CD pipelines are not just trends but the new norm. Amidst this backdrop, a critical aspect subtly weaves into the narrative — the handling of non-human identities. The need to manage API keys, passwords, and other sensitive data becomes more than a checklist item yet is often overshadowed by the sprint toward quicker releases and cutting-edge features. The challenge is clear: How do software teams maintain the sanctity of secrets without slowing down their stride? Challenges in the development stage of non-human identities The pressure to deliver rapidly in organizations today can lead developers to take shortcuts, compromising security. Secrets are the credentials used for non-human identities. Some stan

A sophisticated phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) platform called  Darcula  has set its sights on organizations in over 100 countries by leveraging a massive network of more than 20,000 counterfeit domains to help cyber criminals launch attacks at scale. "Using iMessage and RCS rather than SMS to send text messages has the side effect of bypassing SMS firewalls, which is being used to great effect to target USPS along with postal services and other established organizations in 100+ countries," Netcraft  said . Darcula has been employed in several high-profile phishing attacks over the last year, wherein the smishing messages are sent to both Android and iOS users in the U.K., in addition to those that leverage package delivery lures by impersonating legitimate services like USPS. A Chinese-language PhaaS, Darcula is  advertised on Telegram  and offers support for  about 200 templates  impersonating legitimate brands that customers can avail for a monthly fee to set up phishin

In June 2017, a  study  of more than 3,000 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) students  published  by the National Bureau for Economic Research (NBER) found that 98% of them were willing to give away their friends' email addresses in exchange for free pizza. "Whereas people say they care about privacy, they are willing to relinquish private data quite easily when incentivized to do so," the research said, pointing out a what's called the privacy paradox. Now, nearly seven years later, Telegram has introduced a new feature that gives some users a free  premium membership  in exchange for allowing the popular messaging app to use their phone numbers as a relay for sending one-time passwords (OTPs) to other users who are attempting to sign in to the platform. The feature, called Peer-to-Peer Login (P2PL), is currently being tested in selected countries for Android users of Telegram. It was first spotted by  tginfo  in February 2024 (via  @AssembleDebug ). A

Indian government entities and energy companies have been targeted by unknown threat actors with an aim to deliver a modified version of an open-source information stealer malware called HackBrowserData and exfiltrate sensitive information in some cases by using Slack as command-and-control (C2). "The information stealer was delivered via a phishing email, masquerading as an invitation letter from the Indian Air Force," EclecticIQ researcher Arda Büyükkaya  said  in a report published today. "The attacker utilized Slack channels as exfiltration points to upload confidential internal documents, private email messages, and cached web browser data after the malware's execution." The campaign, observed by the Dutch cybersecurity firm beginning March 7, 2024, has been codenamed Operation FlightNight in reference to the Slack channels operated by the adversary. Targets of the malicious activity span multiple government entities in India, counting those related t

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has  added  a security flaw impacting Microsoft Sharepoint Server to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities ( KEV ) catalog based on evidence of active exploitation in the wild. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023-24955 (CVSS score: 7.2), is a critical remote code execution flaw that allows an authenticated attacker with Site Owner privileges to execute arbitrary code. "In a network-based attack, an authenticated attacker as a Site Owner could execute code remotely on the SharePoint Server," Microsoft  said  in an advisory. The flaw was addressed by Microsoft as part of its  Patch Tuesday updates  for May 2023. The development comes more than two months after CISA  added  CVE-2023-29357, a privilege escalation flaw in SharePoint Server, to its KEV catalog. It's worth pointing out that an exploit chain combining CVE-2023-29357 and CVE-2023-24955 was demonstrated by StarLabs SG at the Pwn2Own Vancouver h

A now-patched security flaw in the Microsoft Edge web browser could have been abused to install arbitrary extensions on users' systems and carry out malicious actions.  "This flaw could have allowed an attacker to exploit a private API, initially intended for marketing purposes, to covertly install additional browser extensions with broad permissions without the user's knowledge," Guardio Labs security researcher Oleg Zaytsev  said  in a new report shared with The Hacker News. Tracked as  CVE-2024-21388  (CVSS score: 6.5), it was addressed by Microsoft in Edge stable version 121.0.2277.83 released on January 25, 2024, following responsible disclosure in November 2023. The Windows maker credited both Zaytsev and Jun Kokatsu for reporting the issue. "An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the privileges needed to install an extension," Microsoft said in an advisory for the flaw, adding it "could lead to a browser sandbo

As SaaS applications dominate the business landscape, organizations need optimized network speed and robust security measures. Many of them have been turning to SASE, a product category that offers cloud-based network protection while enhancing network infrastructure performance. However, a new report: "Better Together: SASE and Enterprise Browser Extension for the SaaS-First Enterprise" ( Download here ), challenges SASE's ability to deliver comprehensive security against web-borne cyber threats on its own. From phishing attacks to malicious extensions and account takeovers, traditional network traffic analysis and security falls short. The report sheds light on these limitations and introduces the role of secure browser extensions as an essential component in a comprehensive security strategy. SASE Advantages and Limitations SASE takes on a dual role in addressing both infrastructure and security. However, while SASE offers clear advantages in security, it may not e

Cybersecurity researchers are warning that threat actors are actively exploiting a "disputed" and unpatched vulnerability in an open-source artificial intelligence (AI) platform called Anyscale Ray to hijack computing power for illicit cryptocurrency mining. "This vulnerability allows attackers to take over the companies' computing power and leak sensitive data," Oligo Security researchers Avi Lumelsky, Guy Kaplan, and Gal Elbaz  said  in a Tuesday disclosure. "This flaw has been under active exploitation for the last seven months, affecting sectors like education, cryptocurrency, biopharma, and more." The campaign, ongoing since September 2023, has been codenamed  ShadowRay  by the Israeli application security firm. It also marks the first time AI workloads have been targeted in the wild through shortcomings underpinning the AI infrastructure. Ray is an  open-source, fully-managed compute framework  that allows organizations to build, train, and

A new phishing campaign has been observed leveraging a novel loader malware to deliver an information stealer and keylogger called  Agent Tesla . Trustwave SpiderLabs said it identified a phishing email bearing this attack chain on March 8, 2024. The message masquerades as a bank payment notification, urging the user to open an archive file attachment. The archive ("Bank Handlowy w Warszawie - dowód wpłaty_pdf.tar.gz") conceals a malicious loader that activates the procedure to deploy Agent Tesla on the compromised host. "This loader then used obfuscation to evade detection and leveraged polymorphic behavior with complex decryption methods," security researcher Bernard Bautista  said  in a Tuesday analysis. "The loader also exhibited the capability to bypass antivirus defenses and retrieved its payload using specific URLs and user agents leveraging proxies to further obfuscate traffic." The tactic of embedding malware within seemingly benign files is

Two China-linked advanced persistent threat (APT) groups have been observed targeting entities and member countries affiliated with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as part of a cyber espionage campaign over the past three months. This includes the threat actor known as  Mustang Panda , which has been recently linked to  cyber attacks against Myanmar  as well as other Asian countries with a variant of the PlugX (aka Korplug) backdoor dubbed  DOPLUGS . Mustang Panda, also called Camaro Dragon, Earth Preta, and Stately Taurus, is believed to have targeted entities in Myanmar, the Philippines, Japan and Singapore, targeting them with phishing emails designed to deliver two malware packages. "Threat actors created malware for these packages on March 4-5, 2024, coinciding with the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit (March 4-6, 2024)," Palo Alto Networks Unit 42  said  in a report shared with The Hacker News. One of the malware package is a ZIP file that contains

Threat hunters have identified a suspicious package in the  NuGet package manager  that's likely designed to target developers working with tools made by a Chinese firm that specializes in industrial- and digital equipment manufacturing. The package in question is  SqzrFramework480 , which ReversingLabs said was first published on January 24, 2024. It has been  downloaded  2,999 times as of writing. The software supply chain security firm said it did not find any other package that exhibited similar behavior. It, however, theorized the campaign could likely be used for orchestrating industrial espionage on systems equipped with cameras, machine vision, and robotic arms. The indication that SqzrFramework480 is seemingly tied to a Chinese firm named Bozhon Precision Industry Technology Co., Ltd. comes from the use of a version of the company's logo for the package's icon. It was uploaded by a Nuget user account called " zhaoyushun1999 ." Present within the l

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Monday unsealed indictments against seven Chinese nationals for their involvement in a hacking group that targeted U.S. and foreign critics, journalists, businesses, and political officials for about 14 years. The defendants include Ni Gaobin (倪高彬), Weng Ming (翁明), Cheng Feng (程锋), Peng Yaowen (彭耀文), Sun Xiaohui (孙小辉), Xiong Wang (熊旺), and Zhao Guangzong (赵光宗).  The suspected cyber spies have been charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusions and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with a state-sponsored threat group tracked as  APT31 , which is also known as Altaire,  Bronze Vinewood , Judgement Panda, and Violet Typhoon (formerly Zirconium). The hacking collective has been  active since at least 2010 . Specifically, their responsibilities entail testing and exploiting the malware used to conduct the intrusions, managing the attack infrastructure, and conducting surveillance of specific U.S. entities, federal prosecutors no