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Cybersecurity researchers have unearthed a fourth new malware strain—designed to spread the malware onto other computers in victims' networks—which was deployed as part of the  SolarWinds supply chain attack  disclosed late last year. Dubbed "Raindrop" by Broadcom-owned Symantec, the malware joins the likes of other malicious implants such as  Sunspot , Sunburst (or Solorigate), and Teardrop that were stealthily delivered to enterprise networks. The latest finding comes amid a continued probe into the breach, suspected to be of  Russian origin , that has claimed a number of U.S. government agencies and private sector companies. "The discovery of Raindrop is a significant step in our investigation of the SolarWinds attacks as it provides further insights into post-compromise activity at organizations of interest to the attackers," Symantec researchers  said . The cybersecurity firm said it discovered only four samples of Raindrop to date that were used to d

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered multiple vulnerabilities in Dnsmasq, a popular open-source software used for caching Domain Name System (DNS) responses, thereby potentially allowing an adversary to mount DNS  cache poisoning attacks  and remotely execute malicious code. The seven flaws, collectively called " DNSpooq " by Israeli research firm JSOF, echoes previously disclosed weaknesses in the DNS architecture, making Dnsmasq servers powerless against a range of attacks. "We found that Dnsmasq is vulnerable to DNS cache poisoning attack by an off-path attacker (i.e., an attacker that does not observe the communication between the DNS forwarder and the DNS server)," the researchers noted in a report published today. "Our attack allows for poisoning of multiple domain names at once, and is a result of several vulnerabilities found. The attack can be completed successfully under seconds or few minutes, and have no special requirements. We also found

Identities now transcend human boundaries. Within each line of code and every API call lies a non-human identity. These entities act as programmatic access keys, enabling authentication and facilitating interactions among systems and services, which are essential for every API call, database query, or storage account access. As we depend on multi-factor authentication and passwords to safeguard human identities, a pressing question arises: How do we guarantee the security and integrity of these non-human counterparts? How do we authenticate, authorize, and regulate access for entities devoid of life but crucial for the functioning of critical systems? Let's break it down. The challenge Imagine a cloud-native application as a bustling metropolis of tiny neighborhoods known as microservices, all neatly packed into containers. These microservices function akin to diligent worker bees, each diligently performing its designated task, be it processing data, verifying credentials, or

Cybersecurity is hard. For a CISO that faces the cyber threat landscape with a small security team, the challenge is compounded. Compared to CISOs at large enterprises, CISOs small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have smaller teams with less expertise, smaller budgets for technology and outside services, and are more involved in day-to-day protection activities. CISOs at SMEs are increasingly relying on virtual CISOs (vCISOs) to provide security expertise and guidance. vCISOs are typically former CISOs with years of experience building and managing information security programs across large and small organizations. Helpful Advice for CISOs with Small Security Teams Brian Haugli, a well-known vCISO in the US, recently collaborated with cybersecurity company  Cynet —which provides autonomous XDR platforms tailored to small security teams—to provide a series of educational videos for CISOs with small security teams with relevant information about their challenges and possible solu

An ongoing malware campaign has been found exploiting recently disclosed vulnerabilities in network-attached storage (NAS) devices running on Linux systems to co-opt the machines into an  IRC botnet  for launching distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and mining Monero cryptocurrency. The attacks deploy a new  malware variant called " FreakOut " by leveraging critical flaws fixed in Laminas Project (formerly Zend Framework) and Liferay Portal as well as an unpatched security weakness in TerraMaster, according to Check Point Research's new analysis published today and shared with The Hacker News. Attributing the malware to be the work of a long-time cybercrime hacker — who goes by the aliases Fl0urite and Freak on HackForums and Pastebin at least since 2015 — the researchers said the flaws —  CVE-2020-28188 ,  CVE-2021-3007 , and  CVE-2020-7961  — were weaponized to inject and execute malicious commands in the server. Regardless of the vulnerabilities exploit

Apple has removed a controversial feature from its macOS operating system that allowed the company's own first-party apps to bypass content filters, VPNs, and third-party firewalls. Called " ContentFilterExclusionList ," it included a list of as many as 50 Apple apps like iCloud, Maps, Music, FaceTime, HomeKit, the App Store, and its software update service that were routed through Network Extension Framework, effectively circumventing firewall protections. This exclusion list has been scrubbed now from macOS 11.2 beta 2. The issue first came to light last October following the release of macOS Big Sur, prompting concerns from security researchers who said the feature was ripe for abuse, adding it could be leveraged by an attacker to exfiltrate sensitive data by piggybacking it on to legitimate Apple apps included on the list and then bypass firewalls and security software. "After lots of bad press and lots of feedback/bug reports to Apple from developers such

WhatsApp said on Friday that it wouldn't enforce its recently announced  controversial data sharing policy  update until May 15. Originally set to go into effect next month on February 8, the three-month delay comes following "a lot of misinformation" about a revision to its privacy policy that allows WhatsApp to share data with Facebook, sparking widespread concerns about the exact kind of information that will be shared under the incoming terms. The Facebook-owned company has since repeatedly clarified that the update does not expand its ability to share personal user chats or other profile information with Facebook and is instead simply providing further transparency about how user data is collected and shared when using the messaging app to interact with businesses. "The update includes new options people will have to message a business on WhatsApp, and provides further transparency about how we collect and use data," WhatsApp  said  in a post. "W

The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) on Friday said DNS over HTTPS (DoH) — if configured appropriately in enterprise environments — can help prevent "numerous" initial access, command-and-control, and exfiltration techniques used by threat actors. "DNS over Hypertext Transfer Protocol over Transport Layer Security (HTTPS), often referred to as DNS over HTTPS (DoH), encrypts DNS requests by using HTTPS to provide privacy, integrity, and 'last mile' source authentication with a client's DNS resolver," according to the NSA's  new guidance . Proposed in 2018,  DoH  is a protocol for performing remote Domain Name System resolution via the HTTPS protocol. One of the major shortcomings with current DNS lookups is that even when someone visits a site that uses HTTPS, the DNS query and its response is sent over an unencrypted connection, thus allowing third-party eavesdropping on the network to track every website a user is visiting. Even worse, the

Joker's Stash, the largest dark web marketplace notorious for selling compromised payment card data, has announced plans to shut down its operations on February 15, 2021. In a message board post on a Russian-language underground cybercrime forum, the operator of the site — who goes by the name "JokerStash" — said "it's time for us to leave forever" and that "we will never ever open again," according to twin reports from cybersecurity firms  Gemini Advisory  and  Intel471 . "Joker goes on a well-deserved retirement. Joker's Stash is closing," the post read. "When we opened years ago, nobody knew us. Today we are one of the largest cards/dumps marketplace[s]." The exact reason for the shut down is still unclear. Joker's Stash, since its origins in 2014, emerged as one of the biggest players in the underground payment card economy over the years, with over $1 billion generated in revenues. The news of the imminent sh

Cybersecurity researchers have  disclosed  a series of attacks by a threat actor of Chinese origin that has targeted organizations in Russia and Hong Kong with malware — including a previously undocumented backdoor. Attributing the campaign to  Winnti  (or APT41), Positive Technologies dated the first attack to May 12, 2020, when the APT used LNK shortcuts to extract and run the malware payload. A second attack detected on May 30 used a malicious RAR archive file consisting of shortcuts to two bait PDF documents that purported to be a curriculum vitae and an IELTS certificate. The shortcuts themselves contain links to pages hosted on Zeplin, a legitimate collaboration tool for designers and developers that are used to fetch the final-stage malware that, in turn, includes a shellcode loader ("svchast.exe") and a backdoor called  Crosswalk  ("3t54dE3r.tmp"). Crosswalk, first documented by FireEye in 2017, is a bare-bones modular backdoor capable of carrying out s