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

Cybercriminals are vipers. They're like snakes in the grass, hiding behind their keyboards, waiting to strike. And if you're a small- and medium-sized business (SMB), your organization is the ideal lair for these serpents to slither into.  With cybercriminals becoming more sophisticated, SMBs like you must do more to protect themselves. But at what price? That's the daunting question many SMBs are forced to ask. Amidst your everyday challenges, the answer seems obvious: forgo investing in a robust cybersecurity solution for the time being. However, the alternative is to cross your fingers and hope hackers don't find you. That, of course, isn't the most prudent strategy, as the uncomfortable truth is threat actors now see your organization as a quick path to profit. Therefore, if your defenses are weak—or just not there—these digital crooks are likely to disrupt your operations, access sensitive data, and extort a heavy ransom. In this article, we'll expl...

Multiple security vulnerabilities have been disclosed in various applications and system components within Xiaomi devices running Android. "The vulnerabilities in Xiaomi led to access to arbitrary activities, receivers and services with system privileges, theft of arbitrary files with system privileges, [and] disclosure of phone, settings and Xiaomi account data," mobile security firm Oversecured  said  in a report shared with The Hacker News. The 20 shortcomings impact different apps and components like - Gallery (com.miui.gallery) GetApps (com.xiaomi.mipicks) Mi Video (com.miui.videoplayer) MIUI Bluetooth (com.xiaomi.bluetooth) Phone Services (com.android.phone) Print Spooler (com.android.printspooler) Security (com.miui.securitycenter) Security Core Component (com.miui.securitycore) Settings (com.android.settings) ShareMe (com.xiaomi.midrop) System Tracing (com.android.traceur), and Xiaomi Cloud (com.miui.cloudservice) Some of the notable flaws ...

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new information stealer targeting Apple macOS systems that's designed to set up persistence on the infected hosts and act as a spyware. Dubbed  Cuckoo  by Kandji, the malware is a universal Mach-O binary that's capable of running on both Intel- and Arm-based Macs. The exact distribution vector is currently unclear, although there are indications that the binary is hosted on sites like dumpmedia[.]com, tunesolo[.]com, fonedog[.]com, tunesfun[.]com, and tunefab[.]com that claim to offer free and paid versions of applications dedicated to ripping music from streaming services and converting it into the MP3 format. The disk image file downloaded from the websites is responsible for spawning a bash shell to gather host information and ensuring that the compromised machine is not located in Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine. The malicious binary is executed only if the locale check is successful. It also establishes persis...

Czechia and Germany on Friday revealed that they were the target of a long-term cyber espionage campaign conducted by the Russia-linked nation-state actor known as  APT28 , drawing condemnation from the European Union (E.U.), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the U.K., and the U.S. The Czech Republic's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), in a statement, said some unnamed entities in the country have been attacked using a security flaw in Microsoft Outlook that came to light early last year. "Cyber attacks targeting political entities, state institutions and critical infrastructure are not only a threat to national security, but also disrupt the democratic processes on which our free society is based," the MFA  said . The security flaw in question is  CVE-2023-23397 , a now-patched critical privilege escalation bug in Outlook that could allow an adversary to access Net-NTLMv2 hashes and then use them to authenticate themselves by me...

In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, the threat of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks looms more significant than ever. As these cyber threats grow in sophistication, understanding and countering them becomes crucial for any business seeking to protect its online presence. To address this urgent need, we are thrilled to announce our upcoming webinar, " Uncovering Contemporary DDoS Attack Tactics—How to Fight Back ," featuring the expertise of Andrey Slastenov, Head of Security at Gcore. What You Will Learn: Understanding the Threat:  Explore the escalated risks DDoS attacks pose to your business, including recent advancements in attack strategies like IoT botnets and amplification tactics. Real-World Consequences:  Hear firsthand accounts of businesses that faced these attacks and the impacts on their operations and reputation. Proactive Defense Strategies:  Learn actionable steps to enhance your cybersecurity posture and effectively mitigate po...

Threat actors have been increasingly weaponizing  Microsoft Graph API  for malicious purposes with the aim of evading detection. This is done to "facilitate communications with command-and-control (C&C) infrastructure hosted on Microsoft cloud services," the Symantec Threat Hunter Team, part of Broadcom,  said  in a report shared with The Hacker News. Since January 2022, multiple nation-state-aligned hacking groups have been observed using Microsoft Graph API for C&C. This includes threat actors tracked as  APT28 ,  REF2924 ,  Red Stinger ,  Flea ,  APT29 , and  OilRig . The first known instance of Microsoft Graph API abuse prior to its wider adoption dates back to June 2021 in connection with an activity cluster dubbed  Harvester  that was found using a custom implant known as Graphon that utilized the API to communicate with Microsoft infrastructure. Symantec said it ...

SaaS applications are dominating the corporate landscape. Their increased use enables organizations to push the boundaries of technology and business. At the same time, these applications also pose a new security risk that security leaders need to address, since the existing security stack does not enable complete control or comprehensive monitoring of their usage. LayerX has recently released a new guide, " Let There Be Light: Eliminating the Risk of Shadow SaaS " for security and IT teams, which addresses this gap. The guide explains the challenges of shadow SaaS, i.e., the use of unauthorized SaaS apps for work purposes, and suggests practices and controls that can mitigate them. The guide also compares various security controls that attempt to address this risk (CASB, SASE, Secure Browser Extension) and explains how each one operates and its efficacy. Consequently, the guide is a must-read for all security leaders at...

The U.S. government on Thursday published a new cybersecurity advisory warning of North Korean threat actors' attempts to send emails in a manner that makes them appear like they are from legitimate and trusted parties. The joint bulletin was published by the National Security Agency (NSA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Department of State. "The DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] leverages these spear-phishing campaigns to collect intelligence on geopolitical events, adversary foreign policy strategies, and any information affecting DPRK interests by gaining illicit access to targets' private documents, research, and communications," the NSA  said . The technique specifically concerns exploiting improperly configured DNS Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance ( DMARC ) record policies to conceal social engineering attempts. In doing so, the threat actors can send spoofed emails as if...

Google on Thursday announced that passkeys are being used by over 400 million Google accounts, authenticating users more than 1 billion times  over the past two years . "Passkeys are easy to use and phishing resistant, only relying on a fingerprint, face scan or a pin making them 50% faster than passwords," Heather Adkins, vice president of security engineering at Google,  said . The search giant notes that passkeys are already used for authentication on Google Accounts more often than legacy forms of two-factor authentication, such as SMS one-time passwords (OTPs) and app based OTPs combined. In addition, the company said it's expanding  Cross-Account Protection , which alerts of suspicious events with third-party apps and services connected to a user's Google Account, to include more apps and services. Google is also expected to support the use of passkeys for high-risk users as part of its Advanced Protection Progr...

HPE Aruba Networking (formerly Aruba Networks) has released security updates to address critical flaws impacting ArubaOS that could result in remote code execution (RCE) on affected systems. Of the  10 security defects , four are rated critical in severity - CVE-2024-26304  (CVSS score: 9.8) - Unauthenticated Buffer Overflow Vulnerability in the L2/L3 Management Service Accessed via the PAPI Protocol CVE-2024-26305  (CVSS score: 9.8) - Unauthenticated Buffer Overflow Vulnerability in the Utility Daemon Accessed via the PAPI Protocol CVE-2024-33511  (CVSS score: 9.8) - Unauthenticated Buffer Overflow Vulnerability in the Automatic Reporting Service Accessed via the PAPI Protocol CVE-2024-33512  (CVSS score: 9.8) - Unauthenticated Buffer Overflow Vulnerability in the Local User Authentication Database Accessed via the PAPI Protocol A threat actor could exploit the aforementioned buffer overflow bugs by sending specially crafted packet...

Several popular Android applications available in Google Play Store are susceptible to a path traversal-affiliated vulnerability codenamed the Dirty Stream attack that could be exploited by a malicious app to overwrite arbitrary files in the vulnerable app's home directory. "The implications of this vulnerability pattern include arbitrary code execution and token theft, depending on an application's implementation," Dimitrios Valsamaras of the Microsoft Threat Intelligence team  said  in a report published Wednesday. Successful exploitation could allow an attacker to take full control of the application's behavior and leverage the stolen tokens to gain unauthorized access to the victim's online accounts and other data. Two of the apps that were found vulnerable to the problem are as follows - Xiaomi File Manager (com.mi. Android.globalFileexplorer) - Over 1 billion installs WPS Office (cn.wps.m...

A Ukrainian national has been sentenced to more than 13 years in prison and ordered to pay $16 million in restitution for carrying out thousands of ransomware attacks and extorting victims. Yaroslav Vasinskyi (aka Rabotnik), 24, along with his co-conspirators part of the  REvil ransomware group  orchestrated more than 2,500 ransomware attacks and demanded ransom payments in cryptocurrency totaling more than $700 million. "The co-conspirators demanded ransom payments in cryptocurrency and used cryptocurrency exchangers and mixing services to hide their ill-gotten gains," the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ)  said . "To drive their ransom demands higher, Sodinokibi/REvil co-conspirators also publicly exposed their victims' data when victims would not pay ransom demands." Vasinskyi was  extradited  to the U.S. in March 2022 following his arrest in Poland in October 2021. REvil, prior to formally going offline in late 2021, was responsible ...

Like antivirus software, vulnerability scans rely on a database of known weaknesses. That's why websites like VirusTotal exist, to give cyber practitioners a chance to see whether a malware sample is detected by multiple virus scanning engines, but this concept hasn't existed in the vulnerability management space. The benefits of using multiple scanning engines Generally speaking, vulnerability scanners aim to produce checks for as many vulnerabilities as possible. However, the number of vulnerabilities discovered year on year is now so high, reaching nearly 30,000 a year, or 80 a day, that it's impossible for a single scanning engine to keep up with them all.  As a result, even the very best, industry-leading leading scanners will struggle to check for every known vulnerability out there, and often they will favour certain sets of software known to be used by their customers. For example,  Intruder's analysis  from early...

Cloud storage services provider Dropbox on Wednesday disclosed that Dropbox Sign (formerly HelloSign) was breached by unidentified threat actors, who accessed emails, usernames, and general account settings associated with all users of the digital signature product. The company, in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), said it became aware of the "unauthorized access" on April 24, 2024. Dropbox  announced  its plans to acquire HelloSign in January 2019. "The threat actor had accessed data related to all users of Dropbox Sign, such as emails and usernames, in addition to general account settings," it  said  in the Form 8-K filing.. "For subsets of users, the threat actor also accessed phone numbers, hashed passwords, and certain authentication information such as API keys, OAuth tokens, and multi-factor authentication." Even worse, the intrusion also affects third-parties who received or signed a docu...

A never-before-seen botnet called  Goldoon  has been observed targeting D-Link routers with a nearly decade-old critical security flaw with the goal of using the compromised devices for further attacks. The vulnerability in question is  CVE-2015-2051  (CVSS score: 9.8), which affects D-Link DIR-645 routers and allows remote attackers to  execute arbitrary commands  by means of specially crafted HTTP requests. "If a targeted device is compromised, attackers can gain complete control, enabling them to extract system information, establish communication with a C2 server, and then use these devices to launch further attacks, such as distributed denial-of-service (DDoS)," Fortinet FortiGuard Labs researchers Cara Lin and Vincent Li  said . Telemetry data from the network security company points to a spike in the botnet activity around April 9, 2024. It all starts with the exploitation of CVE-2015-2051 to ret...

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has  added  a critical flaw impacting GitLab to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities ( KEV ) catalog, owing to active exploitation in the wild. Tracked as  CVE-2023-7028  (CVSS score: 10.0), the maximum severity vulnerability could facilitate account takeover by sending password reset emails to an unverified email address. GitLab, which disclosed details of the shortcoming earlier this January, said it was introduced as part of a code change in version 16.1.0 on May 1, 2023. "Within these versions, all authentication mechanisms are impacted," the company  noted  at the time. "Additionally, users who have two-factor authentication enabled are vulnerable to password reset but not account takeover as their second authentication factor is required to login." Successful exploitation of the issue can have serious consequences as it not only enables an adversary to take control of a Git...