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An ongoing malvertising campaign is being used to distribute virtualized .NET loaders that are designed to deploy the FormBook information-stealing malware. "The loaders, dubbed MalVirt, use obfuscated virtualization for anti-analysis and evasion along with the Windows Process Explorer driver for terminating processes," SentinelOne researchers Aleksandar Milenkoski and Tom Hegel  said  in a technical write-up. The shift to Google malvertising is the latest example of how crimeware actors are  devising alternate delivery routes  to distribute malware ever since Microsoft announced plans to block the execution of macros in Office by default from files downloaded from the internet. Malvertising entails placing rogue search engine advertisements in hopes of tricking users searching for popular software like Blender into downloading the trojanized software. The MalVirt loaders, which are implemented in .NET, use the legitimate  KoiVM  virtualizing protector for .NET applicati

A new Android banking trojan has set its eyes on Brazilian financial institutions to commit fraud by leveraging the PIX payments platform. Italian cybersecurity company Cleafy, which discovered the malware between the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023, is tracking it under the name PixPirate. "PixPirate belongs to the newest generation of Android banking trojan, as it can perform ATS ( Automatic Transfer System ), enabling attackers to automate the insertion of a malicious money transfer over the instant payment platform PIX, adopted by multiple Brazilian banks," researchers Francesco Iubatti and Alessandro Strino  said . It is also the latest addition in a long list of Android banking malware to abuse the operating system's accessibility services API to carry out its nefarious functions, including disabling Google Play Protect, intercepting SMS messages, preventing uninstallation, and serving rogue ads via push notifications. Besides stealing passwords entered

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

VMware ESXi hypervisors are the target of a new wave of attacks designed to deploy ransomware on compromised systems. "These attack campaigns appear to exploit CVE-2021-21974, for which a patch has been available since February 23, 2021," the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) of France  said  in an advisory on Friday. VMware, in its own alert released at the time, described the issue as an  OpenSLP  heap-overflow vulnerability that could lead to the execution of arbitrary code. "A malicious actor residing within the same network segment as ESXi who has access to port 427 may be able to trigger the heap-overflow issue in OpenSLP service resulting in remote code execution," the virtualization services provider  noted . French cloud services provider OVHcloud  said  the attacks are being detected globally with a specific focus on Europe. It's being suspected that the intrusions are related to a new Rust-based ransomware strain called Nevada that emerged

A zero-day vulnerability affecting Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT managed file transfer application is being actively exploited in the wild. Details of the flaw were first  publicly shared  by security reporter Brian Krebs on Mastodon. No public advisory has been published by Fortra. The vulnerability is a case of remote code injection that requires access to the administrative console of the application, making it imperative that the systems are not exposed to the public internet. According to security researcher Kevin Beaumont, there are over 1,000 on-premise instances that are publicly accessible over the internet, a majority of which are located in the U.S. "The Fortra advisory Krebs quoted advises GoAnywhere MFT customers to review all administrative users and monitor for unrecognized usernames, especially those created by system," Rapid7 researcher Caitlin Condon  said . "The logical deduction is that Fortra is likely seeing follow-on attacker behavior that inc

Two new security weaknesses discovered in several electric vehicle (EV) charging systems could be exploited to remotely shut down charging stations and even expose them to data and energy theft. The findings, which come from Israel-based SaiFlow, once again demonstrate the  potential risks  facing the EV charging infrastructure. The issues have been identified in version 1.6J of the Open Charge Point Protocol ( OCPP ) standard that uses WebSockets for communication between EV charging stations and the Charging Station Management System (CSMS) providers. The current version of OCPP is 2.0.1. "The OCPP standard doesn't define how a CSMS should accept new connections from a charge point when there is already an active connection," SaiFlow researchers Lionel Richard Saposnik and Doron Porat  said . "The lack of a clear guideline for multiple active connections can be exploited by attackers to disrupt and hijack the connection between the charge point and the CSMS.&q

In a continuing sign that threat actors are adapting well to a  post-macro world , it has emerged that the use of Microsoft OneNote documents to deliver malware via phishing attacks is on the rise. Some of the notable malware families that are being distributed using this method include AsyncRAT,  RedLine Stealer , Agent Tesla,  DOUBLEBACK , Quasar RAT, XWorm,  Qakbot ,  BATLOADER , and  FormBook . Enterprise security firm Proofpoint said it detected over 50 campaigns leveraging OneNote attachments in the month of January 2023 alone. In some instances, the email phishing lures contain a OneNote file, which, in turn, embeds an HTA file that invokes a PowerShell script to retrieve a malicious binary from a remote server. Other scenarios entail the execution of a rogue VBScript that's embedded within the OneNote document and concealed behind an image that appears as a seemingly harmless button. The VBScript, for its part, is designed to drop a PowerShell script to run DOUBLEBACK

The Iranian nation-state hacking group known as  OilRig  has continued to target government organizations in the Middle East as part of a cyber espionage campaign that leverages a new backdoor to exfiltrate data. "The campaign abuses legitimate but compromised email accounts to send stolen data to external mail accounts controlled by the attackers," Trend Micro researchers Mohamed Fahmy, Sherif Magdy, and Mahmoud Zohdy  said . While the technique in itself is not unheard of, the development marks the first time OilRig has adopted it in its playbook, indicating the continued evolution of its methods to bypass security protections. The advanced persistent threat (APT) group, also referred to as APT34, Cobalt Gypsy, Europium, and Helix Kitten, has been  documented  for its targeted phishing attacks in the Middle East since at least 2014. Linked to Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), the group is known to use a diverse toolset in its operations, with re

Cybersecurity is quickly becoming one of the most significant growth drivers for Managed Service Providers (MSPs). That's the main insight from a  recent study  from Lumu: in North America, more than 80% of MSPs cite cybersecurity as a primary growth driver of their business. Service providers have a huge opportunity to expand their business and win new customers by developing their cybersecurity offerings. This hardly comes as a surprise since the demand for cybersecurity is in full swing among SMBs and larger enterprises. According to  Gartner , "by 2025, 60% of organizations will use cybersecurity risk as a primary determinant in conducting third-party transactions and business engagements." This means that the perception around security is transforming: from liability, it's becoming a powerful business driver. Of course, cybersecurity continues to evolve at a very rapid pace, with threats emerging every day and the stakes getting higher. This alone can fuel the

Atlassian has released fixes to resolve a critical security flaw in Jira Service Management Server and Data Center that could be abused by an attacker to pass off as another user and gain unauthorized access to susceptible instances. The  vulnerability  is tracked as  CVE-2023-22501  (CVSS score: 9.4) and has been described as a case of broken authentication with low attack complexity. "An authentication vulnerability was discovered in Jira Service Management Server and Data Center which allows an attacker to impersonate another user and gain access to a Jira Service Management instance under certain circumstances," Atlassian  said . "With write access to a User Directory and outgoing email enabled on a Jira Service Management instance, an attacker could gain access to signup tokens sent to users with accounts that have never been logged into." The tokens, Atlassian noted, can be obtained in either of the two scenarios - If the attacker is included on Jira i