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The last few years have seen more than a few new categories of security solutions arise in hopes of stemming a never-ending tidal wave of risks. One of these categories is Automated Security Validation (ASV), which provides the attacker's perspective of exposures and equips security teams to continuously validate exposures, security measures, and remediation at scale. ASV is an important element of any cybersecurity strategy and by providing a clearer picture of potential vulnerabilities and exposures in the organization, security teams can identify weaknesses before they can be exploited.  However, relying solely on ASV can be limiting. In this article, we'll take a look into how combining the detailed vulnerability insights from  ASV  with the broader threat landscape analysis provided by the Continuous Threat Exposure Management Framework (CTEM) can empower your security teams to make more informed decisions and allocate resources effectively. (Want to learn more abo...

Microsoft said it is developing security updates to address two loopholes that it said could be abused to stage downgrade attacks against the Windows update architecture and replace current versions of the operating system files with older versions. The vulnerabilities are listed below - CVE-2024-38202 (CVSS score: 7.3) - Windows Update Stack Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability CVE-2024-21302 (CVSS score: 6.7) - Windows Secure Kernel Mode Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability Credited with discovering and reporting the flaws is SafeBreach Labs researcher Alon Leviev, who presented the findings at Black Hat USA 2024 and DEF CON 32 . CVE-2024-38202, which is rooted in the Windows Backup component, allows an "attacker with basic user privileges to reintroduce previously mitigated vulnerabilities or circumvent some features of Virtualization Based Security (VBS)," the tech giant said. It, however, noted that an attacker attempting to leverage the flaw would have to c...

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a novel phishing campaign that leverages Google Drawings and shortened links generated via WhatsApp to evade detection and trick users into clicking on bogus links designed to steal sensitive information. "The attackers chose a group of the best-known websites in computing to craft the threat, including Google and WhatsApp to host the attack elements, and an Amazon look-alike to harvest the victim's information," Menlo Security researcher Ashwin Vamshi said . "This attack is a great example of a Living Off Trusted Sites ( LoTS ) threat." The starting point of the attack is a phishing email that directs the recipients to a graphic that appears to be an Amazon account verification link. This graphic, for its part, is hosted on Google Drawings, in an apparent effort to evade detection. Abusing legitimate services has obvious benefits for attackers in that they're not only a low-cost solution, but more importantly, ...

I had the honor of hosting the first episode of the Xposure Podcast live from Xposure Summit 2025. And I couldn't have asked for a better kickoff panel: three cybersecurity leaders who don't just talk security, they live it. Let me introduce them. Alex Delay , CISO at IDB Bank, knows what it means to defend a highly regulated environment. Ben Mead , Director of Cybersecurity at Avidity Biosciences, brings a forward-thinking security perspective that reflects the innovation behind Avidity's targeted RNA therapeutics. Last but not least, Michael Francess , Director of Cybersecurity Advanced Threat at Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, leads the charge in protecting the franchise. Each brought a unique vantage point to a common challenge: applying Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) to complex production environments. Gartner made waves in 2023 with a bold prediction: organizations that prioritize CTEM will be three times less likely to be breached by 2026. But here's the kicker -...

The Immersive Experience Happening This September in Las Vegas! In an era of relentless cybersecurity threats and rapid technological advancement, staying ahead of the curve is not just a necessity, but critical. SANS Institute, the premier global authority in cybersecurity training, is thrilled to announce Network Security 2024 , a landmark event designed to empower cybersecurity professionals with groundbreaking skills, knowledge and insights. Taking place from September 4-9, 2024, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and online, this event promises to deliver unparalleled learning experiences and networking opportunities. ensuring accessibility for attendees across the globe. A transformative highlight of this year's event includes AI-focused keynote led by Daniel Miessler, Founder of Unsupervised Learning and Creator of Fabric AI. In his keynote, "How to Run Your Security Program Using AI Before Someone Else Does," Daniel will explore how AI can be seamlessly integrated i...

The ransomware strain known as BlackSuit has demanded as much as $500 million in ransoms to date, with one individual ransom demand hitting $60 million. That's according to an updated advisory from the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). "BlackSuit actors have exhibited a willingness to negotiate payment amounts," the agencies said . "Ransom amounts are not part of the initial ransom note, but require direct interaction with the threat actor via a .onion URL (reachable through the Tor browser) provided after encryption." Attacks involving ransomware have targeted several critical infrastructure sectors spanning commercial facilities, healthcare and public health, government facilities, and critical manufacturing. An evolution of the Royal ransomware , it leverages the initial access obtained via phishing emails to disarm antivirus software and exfiltrate sensitive data before ultimately...

A critical security flaw impacting Progress Software WhatsUp Gold is seeing active exploitation attempts, making it essential that users move quickly to apply the latest. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2024-4885 (CVSS score: 9.8), an unauthenticated remote code execution bug impacting versions of the network monitoring application released before 2023.1.3. "The WhatsUp.ExportUtilities.Export.GetFileWithoutZip allows execution of commands with iisapppool\\nmconsole privileges," the company said in an advisory released in late June 2024. According to security researcher Sina Kheirkhah of the Summoning Team, the flaw resides in the implementation of the GetFileWithoutZip method, which fails to perform adequate validation of user-supplied paths prior to its use. An attacker could take advantage of this behavior to execute code in the context of the service account. A proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit has since been released by Kheirkhah. The Shadowserver Foundation s...

Cybersecurity researchers have shed light on a novel Linux kernel exploitation technique dubbed SLUBStick that could be exploited to elevate a limited heap vulnerability to an arbitrary memory read-and-write primitive. "Initially, it exploits a timing side-channel of the allocator to perform a cross-cache attack reliably," a group of academics from the Graz University of Technology said [PDF]. "Concretely, exploiting the side-channel leakage pushes the success rate to above 99% for frequently used generic caches." Memory safety vulnerabilities impacting the Linux kernel have limited capabilities and are a lot more challenging to exploit owing to security features like Supervisor Mode Access Prevention ( SMAP ), Kernel address space layout randomization ( KASLR ), and kernel control flow integrity ( kCFI ). While software cross-cache attacks have been devised as a way to counter kernel hardening strategies like coarse-grained heap separation, studies have show...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of security flaws in the Roundcube webmail software that could be exploited to execute malicious JavaScript in a victim's web browser and steal sensitive information from their account under specific circumstances. "When a victim views a malicious email in Roundcube sent by an attacker, the attacker can execute arbitrary JavaScript in the victim's browser," cybersecurity company Sonar said in an analysis published this week. "Attackers can abuse the vulnerability to steal emails, contacts, and the victim's email password as well as send emails from the victim's account." Following responsible disclosure on June 18, 2024, the three vulnerabilities have been addressed in Roundcube versions 1.6.8 and 1.5.8 released on August 4, 2024. The list of vulnerabilities is as follows - CVE-2024-42008 - A cross-site scripting flaw via a malicious email attachment served with a dangerous Content-Type head...

An unnamed media organization in South Asia was targeted in November 20233 using a previously undocumented Go-based backdoor called GoGra. "GoGra is written in Go and uses the Microsoft Graph API to interact with a command-and-control (C&C) server hosted on Microsoft mail services," Symantec, part of Broadcom, said in a report shared with The Hacker News. It's currently not clear how it's delivered to target environments. However, GoGra is specifically configured to read messages from an Outlook username "FNU LNU" whose subject line starts with the word "Input." The message contents are then decrypted using the AES-256 algorithm in Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) mode using a key, following which it executes the commands via cmd.exe. The results of the operation are then encrypted and sent to the same user with the subject "Output." GoGra is said to be the work of a nation-state hacking group known as Harvester owing to its simila...

Cybersecurity company CrowdStrike has published its root cause analysis detailing the Falcon Sensor software update crash that crippled millions of Windows devices globally. The "Channel File 291" incident, as originally highlighted in its Preliminary Post Incident Review (PIR), has been traced back to a content validation issue that arose after it introduced a new Template Type to enable visibility into and detection of novel attack techniques that abuse named pipes and other Windows interprocess communication (IPC) mechanisms. Specifically, it's related to a problematic content update deployed over the cloud, with the company describing it as a "confluence" of several shortcomings that led to a crash – the most prominent of them is a mismatch between the 21 inputs passed to the Content Validator via the IPC Template Type as opposed to the 20 supplied to the Content Interpreter. CrowdStrike said the parameter mismatch was not discovered during "multi...

Cybersecurity researchers have lifted the lid on a new technique adopted by threat actors behind the Chameleon Android banking trojan targeting users in Canada by masquerading as a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) app. "Chameleon was seen masquerading as a CRM app, targeting a Canadian restaurant chain operating internationally," Dutch security outfit ThreatFabric said in a technical report published Monday. The campaign, spotted in July 2024, targeted customers in Canada and Europe, indicating an expansion of its victimology footprint from Australia, Italy, Poland, and the U.K. The use of CRM-related themes for the malicious dropper apps containing the malware points to the targets being customers in the hospitality sector and Business-to-Consumer (B2C) employees. The dropper artifacts are also designed to bypass Restricted Settings imposed by Google in Android 13 and later in order to prevent sideloaded apps from requesting for dangerous permissions (e.g., acc...

Apple on Tuesday announced an update to its next-generation macOS version that makes it a little more difficult for users to override Gatekeeper protections. Gatekeeper is a crucial line of defense built into macOS designed to ensure that only trusted apps run on the operating system. When an app is downloaded from outside of the App Store and opened for the first time, it verifies that the software is from an identified developer. It also runs checks to ensure that the app is notarized and has not been tampered with to install malware on macOS systems. Furthermore, it requires user approval before allowing any such third-party app to be run. It's this user approval mechanism that Apple has now tightened further with macOS Sequoia, the next iteration of the Mac operating system that's expected to be released next month. "In macOS Sequoia, users will no longer be able to Control-click to override Gatekeeper when opening software that isn't signed correctly or no...

INTERPOL said it devised a "global stop-payment mechanism" that helped facilitate the largest-ever recovery of funds defrauded in a business email compromise ( BEC ) scam.  The development comes after an unnamed commodity firm based in Singapore fell victim to a BEC scam in mid-July 2024. It refers to a type of cybercrime where a malicious actor poses as a trusted figure and uses email to trick targets into sending money or divulging confidential company information. Such attacks can take place in myriad ways, including gaining unauthorized access to a finance employee or a law firm's email account to send fake invoices or impersonating a third-party vendor to email a phony bill. "On 15 July, the firm had received an email from a supplier requesting that a pending payment be sent to a new bank account based in Timor-Leste," INTERPOL said in a press statement. "The email, however, came from a fraudulent account spelled slightly different to the supplier...

The North Korea-linked threat actor known as Moonstone Sleet has continued to push malicious npm packages to the JavaScript package registry with the aim of infecting Windows systems, underscoring the persistent nature of their campaigns. The packages in question, harthat-api and harthat-hash , were published on July 7, 2024, according to Datadog Security Labs. Both the libraries did not attract any downloads and were shortly pulled after a brief period of time. The security arm of the cloud monitoring firm is tracking the threat actor under the name Stressed Pungsan, which exhibits overlaps with a newly discovered North Korean malicious activity cluster dubbed Moonstone Sleet. "While the name resembles the Hardhat npm package (an Ethereum development utility), its content does not indicate any intention to typosquat it," Datadog researchers Sebastian Obregoso and Zack Allen said . "The malicious package reuses code from a well-known GitHub repository called node-...

Everyone loves the double-agent plot twist in a spy movie, but it's a different story when it comes to securing company data. Whether intentional or unintentional, insider threats are a legitimate concern. According to CSA research , 26% of companies who reported a SaaS security incident were struck by an insider.  The challenge for many is detecting those threats before they lead to full breaches. Many security professionals assume there is nothing they can do to protect themselves from a legitimate managed user who logs in with valid credentials using a company MFA method. Insiders can log in during regular business hours, and can easily justify their access within the application.  Cue the plot twist: With the right tools in place, businesses can protect themselves from the enemy from within (and without).  Learn how to secure your entire SaaS stack from both internal and external threats Subduing Identity-Centric Threats with ITDR  In SaaS security, an Ide...

Users in Russia have been the target of a previously undocumented Android post-compromise spyware called LianSpy since at least 2021. Cybersecurity vendor Kaspersky, which discovered the malware in March 2024, noted its use of Yandex Cloud, a Russian cloud service, for command-and-control (C2) communications as a way to avoid having a dedicated infrastructure and evade detection. "This threat is equipped to capture screencasts, exfiltrate user files, and harvest call logs and app lists," security researcher Dmitry Kalinin said in a new technical report published Monday. It's currently not clear how the spyware is distributed, but the Russian company said it's likely deployed through either an unknown security flaw or direct physical access to the target phone. The malware-laced apps are disguised as Alipay or an Android system service. LianSpy, once activated, determines if it's running as a system app to operate in the background using administrator privi...