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The threat actors behind ShellBot are leveraging IP addresses transformed into their hexadecimal notation to infiltrate poorly managed Linux SSH servers and deploy the DDoS malware. "The overall flow remains the same, but the download URL used by the threat actor to install ShellBot has changed from a regular IP address to a hexadecimal value," the AhnLab Security Emergency response Center (ASEC) said in a new report published today. ShellBot, also known by the name PerlBot, is known to breach servers that have weak SSH credentials by means of a dictionary attack , with the malware used as a conduit to stage DDoS attacks and deliver cryptocurrency miners . Developed in Perl, the malware uses the IRC protocol to communicate with a command-and-control (C2) server. The latest set of observed attacks involving ShellBot has been found to install the malware using hexadecimal IP addresses – hxxp://0x2763da4e/ which corresponds to 39.99.218[.]78 – in what's seen as an a...

ChatGPT has transformed the way businesses generate textual content, which can potentially result in a quantum leap in productivity. However, Generative AI innovation also introduces a new dimension of data exposure risk, when employees inadvertently type or paste sensitive business data into ChatGPT, or similar applications. DLP solutions, the go-to solution for similar challenges, are ill-equipped to handle these challenges, since they focus on file-based data protection. A new report by LayerX, “Browser Security Platform: Guard your Data from Exposure in ChatGPT“ ( Download here ), sheds light on the challenges and risks of ungoverned ChatGPT usage. It paints a comprehensive picture of the potential hazards for businesses and then offers a potential solution: browser security platforms. Such platforms provide real-time monitoring and governance over web sessions, effectively safeguarding sensitive data. ChatGPT Data Exposure: By the Numbers Employee usage of GenAI apps has surge...

Microsoft on Wednesday said that a user containment feature in Microsoft Defender for Endpoint helped thwart a "large-scale remote encryption attempt" made by  Akira ransomware actors  targeting an unknown industrial organization in early June 2023. The tech giant's threat intelligence team is tracking the operator as Storm-1567. The attack leveraged devices that were not onboarded to Microsoft Defender for Endpoint as a defense evasion tactic, while also conducting a series of reconnaissance and lateral movement activities prior to encrypting the devices using a compromised user account. But the new  automatic attack disruption capability  meant that the breached accounts are prevented from "accessing endpoints and other resources in the network, limiting attackers' ability to move laterally regardless of the account's Active Directory state or privilege level." In other words, the idea is to cut off all inbound and outbound communication and proh...

Cybersecurity researchers have shed light on a new sophisticated strain of malware that masquerades as a WordPress plugin to stealthily create administrator accounts and remotely control a compromised site. "Complete with a professional looking opening comment implying it is a caching plugin, this rogue code contains numerous functions, adds filters to prevent itself from being included in the list of activated plugins, and has pinging functionality that allows a malicious actor to check if the script is still operational, as well as file modification capabilities," Wordfence  said . The plugin also offers the ability to activate and deactivate arbitrary plugins on the site remotely as well as create rogue admin accounts with the username superadmin and a hard-coded password. In what's seen as an attempt to erase traces of compromise, it features a function named "_pln_cmd_hide" that's designed to remove the superadmin account when it's no longer req...

High-profile government and telecom entities in Asia have been targeted as part of an ongoing campaign since 2021 that's designed to deploy basic backdoors and loaders for delivering next-stage malware. Cybersecurity company Check Point is tracking the activity under the name  Stayin' Alive . Targets include organizations located in Vietnam, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, and Kazakhstan. "The simplistic nature of the tools [...] and their wide variation suggests they are disposable, mostly utilized to download and run additional payloads," it  said  in a report published Wednesday. "These tools share no clear code overlaps with products created by any known actors and do not have much in common with each other." What's notable about the campaign is that the infrastructure  shares overlaps  with that used by  ToddyCat , a China-linked threat actor known for orchestrating cyber assaults against government and military agencies in Europe and Asia since at least...