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Cybersecurity researchers are warning of two different information-stealing malware, named  FFDroider  and  Lightning Stealer , that are capable of siphoning data and launching further attacks. "Designed to send stolen credentials and cookies to a Command & Control server, FFDroider disguises itself on victim's machines to look like the instant messaging application 'Telegram,'" Zscaler ThreatLabz researchers Avinash Kumar and Niraj Shivtarkar  said  in a report published last week. Information stealers, as the name implies, are equipped to harvest sensitive information from compromised machines, such as keystrokes, screenshots, files, saved passwords and cookies from web browsers, that are then transmitted to a remote attacker-controlled domain.  FFDroider is distributed through cracked versions of installers and freeware with the primary objective of stealing cookies and credentials associated with popular social media and e-commerce platforms an...

Microsoft last week announced that it intends to make generally available a feature called Autopatch as part of Windows Enterprise E3 in July 2022. "This service will keep Windows and Office software on enrolled endpoints up-to-date automatically, at no additional cost,"  said  Lior Bela, senior product marketing manager at Microsoft, in a post last week. "The second Tuesday of every month will be 'just another Tuesday.'" Windows Autopatch is intended to work with all supported versions of Windows 10, Windows 11, and Windows 365 for Enterprise. Windows Server OS and Windows 365 for Business, however, are not supported. The tech giant said the feature is aimed at tackling the complexity associated with software updates in enterprise IT environments as well as closing security gaps introduced as a result of not applying patches in a timely fashion, thereby opening the door to potential new threats.  The managed service works by applying the updates acro...

The recently disclosed critical Spring4Shell vulnerability is being actively exploited by threat actors to execute the Mirai botnet malware , particularly in the Singapore region since the start of April 2022. "The exploitation allows threat actors to download the Mirai sample to the '/tmp' folder and execute them after permission change using 'chmod ,'" Trend Micro researchers Deep Patel, Nitesh Surana, Ashish Verma said in a report published Friday. Tracked as CVE-2022-22965 (CVSS score: 9.8), the vulnerability could allow malicious actors to achieve remote code execution in Spring Core applications under non-default circumstances, granting the attackers full control over the compromised devices. The development comes as the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) earlier this week added the Spring4Shell vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog based on "evidence of active exploitation." This is ...

China-linked adversaries have been attributed to an ongoing onslaught against Indian power grid organizations, one year after a  concerted campaign  targeting critical infrastructure in the country came to light. Most of the intrusions involved a modular backdoor named  ShadowPad , according to Recorded Future's Insikt Group, a sophisticated remote access trojan which has been  dubbed  a "masterpiece of privately sold malware in Chinese espionage." "ShadowPad continues to be employed by an ever-increasing number of People's Liberation Army (PLA) and Ministry of State Security (MSS)-linked groups, with its origins linked to known MSS contractors first using the tool in their own operations and later likely acting as a digital quartermaster," the researchers  said . The goal of the sustained campaign, the cybersecurity company said, is to facilitate intelligence gathering pertaining to critical infrastructure systems in preparation for future contingency...

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered further links between BlackCat (aka ALPHV) and BlackMatter ransomware families, the former of which emerged as a replacement following international scrutiny last year. "At least some members of the new  BlackCat  group have links to the BlackMatter group, because they modified and reused a custom exfiltration tool [...] and which has only been observed in BlackMatter activity," Kaspersky researchers  said  in a new analysis. The tool, dubbed Fendr, has not only been upgraded to include more file types but also used by the gang extensively to steal data from corporate networks in December 2021 and January 2022 prior to encryption, in a popular tactic called double extortion. The findings come less than a month after Cisco Talos researchers  identified  overlaps in the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) between BlackCat and BlackMatter, describing the new ransomware variant as a case of "vertica...