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Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed a new kind of Office malware distributed as part of a malicious email campaign that targeted more than 80 customers worldwide in an attempt to control victim machines and steal information remotely. The tool — dubbed " APOMacroSploit " — is a macro exploit generator that allows the user to create an Excel document capable of bypassing antivirus software, Windows Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI), and even Gmail and other email-based phishing detection. APOMacroSploit is believed to be the work of two French-based threat actors "Apocaliptique" and "Nitrix," who are estimated to have made at least $5000 in less than two months selling the product on HackForums.net. About 40 hackers in total are said to be behind the operation, utilizing 100 different email senders in a slew of attacks targeting users in more than 30 different countries. The attacks were spotted for the first time at the end of November 2020, acco...

A malvertising group known as "ScamClub" exploited a zero-day vulnerability in WebKit-based browsers to inject malicious payloads that redirected users to fraudulent websites gift card scams. The attacks, first spotted by ad security firm Confiant in late June 2020, leveraged a bug (CVE-2021–1801) that allowed malicious parties to bypass the iframe sandboxing policy in the browser engine that powers Safari and Google Chrome for iOS and run malicious code. Specifically, the technique exploited the manner how WebKit handles JavaScript event listeners , thus making it possible to break out of the sandbox associated with an ad's inline frame element despite the presence of "allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation" attribute that explicitly forbids any redirection unless the click event occurs inside the iframe. To test this hypothesis, the researchers set about creating a simple HTML file containing a cross-origin sandboxed iframe and a button outside it that...

There are many different types of accounts in a typical Active Directory environment. These include user accounts, computer accounts, and a particular type of account called a  service account .  A service account is a special type of account that serves a specific purpose for services, and ultimately, applications in the environment. These special-purpose Active Directory accounts are also the subject of cybersecurity risks in the environment. What is a service account? What special privileges does it have on local systems? What cybersecurity risks can relate to service accounts used in the environment? How can IT admins find weak or non-expiring passwords used in Active Directory for service accounts? What is a Windows service? As mentioned at the outset, specific Active Directory accounts serve different purposes in Active Directory Domain Services (ADDS). You can assign Active Directory accounts as service accounts, a special-purpose account that most organizations c...

SaaS Adoption is Skyrocketing, Resilience Hasn't Kept Pace SaaS platforms have revolutionized how businesses operate. They simplify collaboration, accelerate deployment, and reduce the overhead of managing infrastructure. But with their rise comes a subtle, dangerous assumption: that the convenience of SaaS extends to resilience. It doesn't. These platforms weren't built with full-scale data protection in mind . Most follow a shared responsibility model — wherein the provider ensures uptime and application security, but the data inside is your responsibility. In a world of hybrid architectures, global teams, and relentless cyber threats, that responsibility is harder than ever to manage. Modern organizations are being stretched across: Hybrid and multi-cloud environments with decentralized data sprawl Complex integration layers between IaaS, SaaS, and legacy systems Expanding regulatory pressure with steeper penalties for noncompliance Escalating ransomware threats and inside...

Multiple unpatched vulnerabilities have been discovered in SHAREit , a popular app with over one billion downloads, that could be abused to leak a user's sensitive data, execute arbitrary code, and possibly lead to remote code execution. The findings come from cybersecurity firm Trend Micro's analysis of the Android version of the app, which allows users to share or transfer files between devices. But in a worrisome twist, the flaws are yet to be patched by Smart Media4U Technology Pte. Ltd., the Singapore-based developer of the app, despite responsible disclosure three months ago. "We decided to disclose our research three months after reporting this since many users might be affected by this attack because the attacker can steal sensitive data and do anything with the apps' permission," Trend Micro researcher Echo Duan  said  in a write-up. "It is also not easily detectable." One of the flaws arises from the manner the app facilitates sharing of ...

As managed security service providers, you're always on the lookout for new platforms. One that can generate further business, enables you to scale easily without investing in more human resources and provides that value immediately. In the meanwhile, your clients are constantly demanding more security for a lesser cost. Cynet recently published an 8-min video detailing their platform, the Cynet 360 Autonomous XDR Platform. In their video, Cynet specifically focuses on managed service partners, showing the security and business benefits that the platform provides. The video shows the "partner view" of the system and demonstrates how the platform is used to manage multiple clients. Learn more about the Cynet 360 platform for Managed Service Providers  here . Cynet 360 natively combines several security components to reduce your operational costs. First, an XDR - Extended Detection and Response, which is a consolidated pre-integrated platform of multiple security sol...

Russia-linked state-sponsored threat actor known as Sandworm has been linked to a three-year-long stealthy operation to hack targets by exploiting an IT monitoring tool called Centreon . The intrusion campaign — which breached "several French entities" — is said to have started in late 2017 and lasted until 2020, with the attacks particularly impacting web-hosting providers, said the French information security agency ANSSI in an advisory. "On compromised systems, ANSSI discovered the presence of a backdoor in the form of a webshell dropped on several Centreon servers exposed to the internet," the agency  said  on Monday. "This backdoor was identified as being the PAS webshell, version number 3.1.4. On the same servers, ANSSI found another backdoor identical to one described by ESET and named Exaramel." The Russian hacker group (also called APT28, TeleBots, Voodoo Bear, or Iron Viking) is said to be behind some of the most devastating cyberattacks in p...

Cybersecurity researchers on Monday disclosed details of a now-patched flaw in the Telegram messaging app that could have exposed users' secret messages, photos, and videos to remote malicious actors. The issues were discovered by Italy-based Shielder in iOS, Android, and macOS versions of the app. Following responsible disclosure, Telegram addressed them in a series of patches on September 30 and October 2, 2020. The flaws stemmed from the way secret chat functionality operates and in the app's handling of  animated stickers , thus allowing attackers to send malformed stickers to unsuspecting users and gain access to messages, photos, and videos that were exchanged with their Telegram contacts through both classic and secret chats. One caveat of note is that exploiting the flaws in the wild may not have been trivial, as it requires chaining the aforementioned weaknesses to at least one additional vulnerability in order to get around security defenses in modern devices to...

Apple's upcoming iOS 14.5 update will come with a new feature that will redirect all fraudulent website checks through its own proxy servers as a workaround to preserve user privacy and prevent leaking IP addresses to Google. A built-in security-focused feature in the Safari browser, " Fraudulent Website Warning ," alerts users about dangerous websites that have been reported as deceptive, malicious, or harmful. To achieve this, Apple relies on  Google Safe Browsing  — or Tencent Safe Browsing for users in Mainland China — a blocklist service that provides a list of URLs for web resources that contain malware or phishing content, to compare a hash prefix calculated from the website address and check if the website is fraudulent. Any match against the database will prompt Safari to request Google or Tencent for the full list of URLs that correspond to the hashed prefix and subsequently block a user's access to the site with a warning. While the approach ensures t...

Russian Dutch-domiciled search engine, ride-hailing and  email service provider Yandex on Friday disclosed a data breach that compromised 4,887 email accounts of its users. The company blamed the incident on an unnamed employee who had been providing unauthorized access to the users' mailboxes for personal gain. "The employee was one of three system administrators with the necessary access rights to provide technical support for the service," Yandex said in a statement. The company said the security breach was identified during a routine audit of its systems by its security team. It also said there was no evidence that user payment details were compromised during the incident and that it had notified affected mailbox owners to change their passwords. It's not immediately clear when the breach occurred or when the employee began offering unauthorized access to third-parties. "A thorough internal investigation of the incident is under way, and Yandex will be...