Search results for Checkmarx | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

An alarming security vulnerability has been discovered in several models of Android smartphones manufactured by Google, Samsung, and others that could allow malicious apps to secretly take pictures and record videos — even when they don't have specific device permissions to do so. You must already know that the security model of the Android mobile operating system is primarily based on device permissions where each app needs to explicitly define which services, device capabilities, or user information it wants to access. However, researchers at Checkmarx discovered that a vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2019-2234 , in pre-installed camera apps on millions of devices could be leveraged by attackers to bypass such restrictions and access device camera and microphone without any permissions to do so. How Can Attackers Exploit the Camera App Vulnerability? The attack scenario involves a rogue app that only needs access to device storage (i.e., SD card), which is one of the mo...

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new malicious Python package that masquerades as a cryptocurrency trading tool but harbors functionality designed to steal sensitive data and drain assets from victims' crypto wallets. The package, named "CryptoAITools," is said to have been distributed via both Python Package Index (PyPI) and bogus GitHub repositories. It was downloaded over 1,300 times before being taken down from PyPI. "The malware activated automatically upon installation, targeting both Windows and macOS operating systems," Checkmarx said in a new report shared with The Hacker News. "A deceptive graphical user interface (GUI) was used to distract vic4ms while the malware performed its malicious ac4vi4es in the background." The package is designed to unleash its malicious behavior immediately after installation through code injected into its "__init__.py" file that first determines if the target system is Windows or macOS ...

Secrets are meant to be hidden or, at the very least, only known to a specific and limited set of individuals (or systems). Otherwise, they aren't really secrets. In personal life, a secret revealed can damage relationships, lead to social stigma, or, at the very least, be embarrassing. In a developer's or application security engineer's professional life, the consequences of exposing secrets can lead to breaches of security, data leaks, and, well, also be embarrassing. And while there are tools available for detecting source code and code repositories, there are few options for identifying secrets in plain text, documents, emails, chat logs, content management systems, and more. What Are Secrets? In the context of applications, secrets are sensitive information such as passwords, API keys, cryptographic keys, and other confidential data that an application needs to function but should not be exposed to unauthorized users. Secrets are typically stored securely and access...

Cloud-based repository hosting service GitHub has addressed a high-severity security flaw that could have been exploited to create malicious repositories and mount supply chain attacks. The RepoJacking technique,  disclosed  by Checkmarx, entails a bypass of a protection mechanism called  popular repository namespace retirement , which aims to prevent developers from pulling unsafe repositories with the same name. The issue was addressed by the Microsoft-owned subsidiary on September 19, 2022 following responsible disclosure. RepoJacking  occurs  when a creator of a repository opts to change the username, potentially enabling a threat actor to claim the old username and publish a rogue repository with the same name in an attempt to trick users into downloading them. While Microsoft's countermeasure "retire[s] the namespace of any open source project that had more than 100 clones in the week leading up to the owner's account being renamed or deleted," Che...

Threat actors flooded the npm open source package repository for Node.js with bogus packages that briefly even resulted in a denial-of-service (DoS) attack. "The threat actors create malicious websites and publish empty packages with links to those malicious websites, taking advantage of open-source ecosystems' good reputation on search engines," Checkmarx's Jossef Harush Kadouri  said  in a report published last week. "The attacks caused a denial-of-service (DoS) that made NPM unstable with sporadic 'Service Unavailable' errors." While  similar campaigns  were recently observed propagating phishing links, the latest wave pushed the number of package versions to 1.42 million, a dramatic uptick from the approximate 800,000 packages released on npm. The attack technique leverages the fact that open source repositories are ranked higher on search engine results to create rogue websites and upload empty npm modules with links to those sites in the ...

Unidentified adversaries orchestrated a sophisticated attack campaign that has impacted several individual developers as well as the GitHub organization account associated with Top.gg, a Discord bot discovery site. "The threat actors used multiple TTPs in this attack, including account takeover via stolen browser cookies, contributing malicious code with verified commits, setting up a custom Python mirror, and publishing malicious packages to the PyPI registry," Checkmarx  said  in a technical report shared with The Hacker News. The software supply chain attack is said to have led to the theft of sensitive information, including passwords, credentials, and other valuable data. Some aspects of the campaign were  previously   disclosed  at the start of the month by an Egypt-based developer named Mohammed Dief. It chiefly entailed setting up a clever typosquat of the official PyPI domain known as "files. python hosted[.]org," giving it the name "files. pypi ho...

Cybersecurity researchers have found that entry points could be abused across multiple programming ecosystems like PyPI, npm, Ruby Gems, NuGet, Dart Pub, and Rust Crates to stage software supply chain attacks. "Attackers can leverage these entry points to execute malicious code when specific commands are run, posing a widespread risk in the open-source landscape," Checkmarx researchers Yehuda Gelb and Elad Rapaport said in a report shared with The Hacker News. The software supply chain security company noted that entry-point attacks offer threat actors a more sneaky and persistent method of compromising systems in a manner that can bypass traditional security defenses. Entry points in a programming language like Python refer to a packaging mechanism that allows developers to expose certain functionality as a command-line wrapper (aka console_scripts). Alternatively, they can also serve to load plugins that augment a package's features. Checkmarx noted that while en...

An unknown threat actor has been observed publishing typosquat packages to the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository for nearly six months with an aim to deliver malware capable of gaining persistence, stealing sensitive data, and accessing cryptocurrency wallets for financial gain. The 27 packages, which masqueraded as popular legitimate Python libraries, attracted thousands of downloads, Checkmarx said in a new report. A majority of the downloads originated from the U.S., China, France, Hong Kong, Germany, Russia, Ireland, Singapore, the U.K., and Japan. "A defining characteristic of this attack was the utilization of steganography to hide a malicious payload within an innocent-looking image file, which increased the stealthiness of the attack," the software supply chain security firm  said . Some of the packages are pyefflorer, pyminor, pyowler, pystallerer, pystob, and pywool, the last of which was planted on May 13, 2023. A common denominator to these packages is t...

An ongoing supply chain attack has been leveraging malicious Python packages to distribute malware called W4SP Stealer, with over hundreds of victims ensnared to date. "The threat actor is still active and is releasing more malicious packages," Checkmarx researcher Jossef Harush  said  in a technical write-up, calling the adversary  WASP . "The attack seems related to cybercrime as the attacker claims that these tools are undetectable to increase sales." The findings from Checkmarx build on recent reports from  Phylum  and  Check Point , which flagged 30 different modules published on the Python Package Index (PyPI) that were designed to propagate malicious code under the guise of benign-looking packages. The attack is just the latest threat to target the software supply chain. What makes it notable is the use of steganography to extract a  polymorphic malware  payload hidden within an image file hosted on Imgur. The installation of the pac...

While the use of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) has gained significant popularity as organizations embrace cloud computing and DevOps practices, the speed and flexibility that IaC provides can also introduce the potential for misconfigurations and security vulnerabilities.  IaC allows organizations to define and manage their infrastructure using machine-readable configuration files, which are typically version-controlled and treated as code. IaC misconfigurations are mistakes, or oversights, in the configuration of infrastructure resources and environments that happen when using IaC tools and frameworks. Discover the power of a comprehensive AppSec platform. Download this new whitepaper to discover how to effortlessly integrate application security into every stage of the software development life cycle. Learn about the role of integration and automation, the 7 requirements for choosing an AppSec platform, and how Checkmarx One™ simplifies security. Misconfigurations in Ia...

In yet another sign that threat actors are always looking out for new ways to trick users into downloading malware, it has come to light that the question-and-answer (Q&A) platform known as Stack Exchange has been abused to direct unsuspecting developers to bogus Python packages capable of draining their cryptocurrency wallets. "Upon installation, this code would execute automatically, setting in motion a chain of events designed to compromise and control the victim's systems, while also exfiltrating their data and draining their crypto wallets," Checkmarx researchers Yehuda Gelb and Tzachi Zornstain said in a report shared with The Hacker News. The campaign, which began on June 25, 2024, specifically singled out cryptocurrency users involved with Raydium and Solana. The list of rogue packages uncovered as part of the activity is listed below - raydium (762 downloads) raydium-sdk (137 downloads) sol-instruct (115 downloads) sol-structs (292 downloads) sp...

A new vulnerability disclosed in GitHub could have exposed thousands of repositories at risk of repojacking attacks, new findings show. The flaw "could allow an attacker to exploit a race condition within GitHub's repository creation and username renaming operations," Checkmarx security researcher Elad Rapoport  said  in a technical report shared with The Hacker News. "Successful exploitation of this vulnerability impacts the open-source community by enabling the hijacking of over 4,000 code packages in languages such as Go, PHP, and Swift, as well as GitHub actions." Following responsible disclosure on March 1, 2023, the Microsoft-owned code hosting platform has addressed the issue as of September 1, 2023. Repojacking , short for  repository hijacking , is a technique where a threat actor is able to bypass a security mechanism called popular repository namespace retirement and ultimately control of a repository. What the protection measure does is preven...

An unknown threat actor is leveraging malicious npm packages to target developers with an aim to steal source code and configuration files from victim machines, a sign of how threats lurk consistently in open-source repositories. "The threat actor behind this campaign has been linked to malicious activity dating back to 2021," software supply chain security firm Checkmarx  said  in a report shared with The Hacker News. "Since then, they have continuously published malicious packages." The latest report is a continuation of the  same campaign  that Phylum disclosed at the start of the month in which a number of npm modules were engineered to exfiltrate valuable information to a remote server. The packages, by design, are configured to execute immediately post-installation by means of a postinstall hook defined in the package.json file. It triggers the launch of preinstall.js, which spawns index.js to capture the system metadata as well as harvest source code and...

Cybersecurity researchers have identified malicious packages on the open-source Python Package Index (PyPI) repository that deliver an information stealing malware called WhiteSnake Stealer on Windows systems. The malware-laced packages are named nigpal, figflix, telerer, seGMM, fbdebug, sGMM, myGens, NewGends, and TestLibs111. They have been uploaded by a threat actor named "WS." "These packages incorporate Base64-encoded source code of PE or other Python scripts within their setup.py files," Fortinet FortiGuard Labs  said  in an analysis published last week. "Depending on the victim devices' operating system, the final malicious payload is dropped and executed when these Python packages are installed." While Windows systems are infected with WhiteSnake Stealer, compromised Linux hosts are served a Python script designed to harvest information. The activity, which predominantly targets Windows users, overlaps with a  prior campaign  that JFrog ...

"Alexa, are you spying on me?" — aaaa.....mmmm.....hmmm.....maybe!!! Security researchers have developed a new malicious 'skill' for Amazon's popular voice assistant Alexa that can turn your Amazon Echo into a full-fledged spying device. Amazon Echo is an always-listening voice-activated smart home speaker that allows you to get things done by using your voice, like playing music, setting alarms, and answering questions. However, the device doesn't remain activated all the time; instead, it sleeps until the user says, "Alexa," and by default, it ends a session after some duration. Amazon also allows developers to build custom 'skills,' applications for Alexa, which is the brain behind millions of voice-activated smart devices including Amazon Echo Show, Echo Dot, and Amazon Tap. However, security researchers at cybersecurity firm Checkmarx created a proof-of-concept voice-driven 'skill' for Alexa that forces device to indefin...

Multiple campaigns that distributed trojanized and typosquatted packages on the NPM open source repository have been identified as the work of a single threat actor dubbed LofyGang . Checkmarx said it discovered 199 rogue packages totaling thousands of installations, with the group operating for over a year with the goal of stealing credit card data as well as user accounts associated with Discord Nitro, gaming, and streaming services. "LofyGang operators are seen promoting their hacking tools in hacking forums, while some of the tools are shipped with a hidden backdoor," the software security company said in a report shared with The Hacker News prior to its publication. Various pieces of the attack puzzle have already been reported by  JFrog ,  Sonatype , and  Kaspersky  (which called it LofyLife), but the latest analysis pulls the various operations together under one organizational umbrella that Checkmarx is referring to as  LofyGang . Believed to be ...