Security News
Threat actors are showing an increased interest in generative artificial intelligence tools, with hundreds of thousands of OpenAI credentials for sale on the dark web and access to a malicious alternative for ChatGPT. Both less skilled and seasoned cybercriminals can use the tools to create more convincing phishing emails that are customized for the intended audience to grow the chances of a successful attack. Hackers tapping into GPT AI. In six months, the users of the dark web and Telegram mentioned ChatGPT, OpenAI's artificial intelligence chatbot, more than 27,000 times, shows data from Flare, a threat exposure management company, shared with BleepingComputer.
A malicious actor has been linked to a cloud credential stealing campaign in June 2023 that's focused on Azure and Google Cloud Platform services, marking the adversary's expansion in targeting beyond Amazon Web Services. They also overlap with an ongoing TeamTNT campaign disclosed by Aqua called Silentbob that leverages misconfigured cloud services to drop malware as part of what's said to be a testing effort, while also linking SCARLETEEL attacks to the threat actor, citing infrastructure commonalities.
Microsoft has disclosed that it's detected a spike in credential-stealing attacks conducted by the Russian state-affiliated hacker group known as Midnight Blizzard. The group, which drew worldwide attention for the SolarWinds supply chain compromise in December 2020, has continued to rely on unseen tooling in its targeted attacks aimed at foreign ministries and diplomatic entities.
Over 100,000 compromised OpenAI ChatGPT account credentials have found their way on illicit dark web marketplaces between June 2022 and May 2023, with India alone accounting for 12,632 stolen credentials. The credentials were discovered within information stealer logs made available for sale on the cybercrime underground, Group-IB said in a report shared with The Hacker News.
Google Chrome is getting new security-enhancing features for the built-in Password Manager, making it easier for users to manage their passwords and stay safe from account hijacking attacks. The Chrome Password Manager is an integrated part of Google's services that can manage and autofill credentials on the Chrome browser and other Google software products, syncing the login information across all apps used by the same Google Account.
For years, "Dark" markets have contained stolen credentials for sale. Users often reuse the same credentials across multiple services, making them vulnerable to theft.
Phishers are using encrypted restricted-permission messages attached in phishing emails to steal Microsoft 365 account credentials. "The initial emails are sent from compromised Microsoft 365 accounts and appear to be targeted towards recipient addresses where the sender might be familiar."
A Brazilian hacking group has been targeting thirty Portuguese government and private financial institutions since 2021 in a malicious campaign called 'Operation Magalenha. The attackers use many methods to distribute their malware to targets, including phishing emails pretending to come from Energias de Portugal and the Portuguese Tax and Customs Authority, social engineering, and malicious websites that mimic these organizations.
Researchers from Cado Labs recently encountered an update to the emerging cloud-focused malware family, Legion. This sample iterates upon the credential harvesting features of its predecessor, with a continued emphasis on exploiting PHP web applications.
An updated version of the commodity malware called Legion comes with expanded features to compromise SSH servers and Amazon Web Services credentials associated with DynamoDB and CloudWatch. "This recent update demonstrates a widening of scope, with new capabilities such the ability to compromise SSH servers and retrieve additional AWS-specific credentials from Laravel web applications," Cado Labs researcher Matt Muir said in a report shared with The Hacker News.