The Hacker News | #1 Trusted Cybersecurity News Site — Index Page

One of the first malware samples tailored to run natively on Apple's M1 chips has been discovered, suggesting a new development that indicates that bad actors have begun adapting malicious software to target the company's latest generation of Macs powered by its own processors. While the transition to Apple silicon has necessitated developers to build new versions of their apps to ensure better performance and compatibility, malware authors are now undertaking similar steps to build malware that are capable of executing natively on Apple's new M1 systems, according to macOS Security researcher Patrick Wardle. Wardle detailed a Safari adware extension called GoSearch22 that was originally written to run on Intel x86 chips but has since been ported to run on ARM-based M1 chips. The rogue extension, which is a variant of the Pirrit advertising malware, was first seen in the wild on November 23, 2020, according to a sample  uploaded  to VirusTotal on December 27. "Tod

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Wednesday  indicted  three suspected North Korean hackers for allegedly conspiring to steal and extort over $1.3 billion in cash and cryptocurrencies from financial institutions and businesses. The three defendants — Jon Chang Hyok, 31; Kim Il, 27; and Park Jin Hyok, 36 — are said to be members of the Reconnaissance General Bureau, a military intelligence division of North Korea, also known as the  Lazarus group ,  Hidden Cobra , or Advanced Persistent Threat 38 (APT 38). Accusing them of creating and deploying multiple malicious cryptocurrency applications, developing and fraudulently marketing a blockchain platform, the indictment expands on the  2018 charges brought against Park , one of the alleged nation-state hackers previously charged in connection with the 2014 cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment. A Wide-Ranging Scheme to Commit Cyberattacks and Financial Crimes "North Korea's operatives, using keyboards rather than g

The introduction of Open AI's ChatGPT was a defining moment for the software industry, touching off a GenAI race with its November 2022 release. SaaS vendors are now rushing to upgrade tools with enhanced productivity capabilities that are driven by generative AI. Among a wide range of uses, GenAI tools make it easier for developers to build software, assist sales teams in mundane email writing, help marketers produce unique content at low cost, and enable teams and creatives to brainstorm new ideas.  Recent significant GenAI product launches include Microsoft 365 Copilot, GitHub Copilot, and Salesforce Einstein GPT. Notably, these GenAI tools from leading SaaS providers are paid enhancements, a clear sign that no SaaS provider will want to miss out on cashing in on the GenAI transformation. Google will soon launch its SGE "Search Generative Experience" platform for premium AI-generated summaries rather than a list of websites.  At this pace, it's just a matter of a short time befo

A severe security vulnerability in a popular video calling software development kit (SDK) could have allowed an attacker to spy on ongoing private video and audio calls. That's according to new research published by the McAfee Advanced Threat Research (ATR) team today, which found the aforementioned flaw in Agora.io's SDK used by several social apps such as eHarmony, Plenty of Fish, MeetMe, and Skout; healthcare apps like Talkspace, Practo, and Dr. First's Backline; and in the Android app that's paired with "temi" personal robot. California-based Agora is a video, voice, and live interactive streaming platform, allowing developers to embed voice and video chat, real-time recording, interactive live streaming, and real-time messaging into their apps. The company's SDKs are estimated to be embedded into mobile, web, and desktop applications across more than 1.7 billion devices globally. McAfee disclosed the flaw (CVE-2020-25605) to Agora.io on April 20

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 create and

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