Security News
A new Mac malware named "Realst" is being used in a massive campaign targeting Apple computers, with some of its latest variants including support for macOS 14 Sonoma, which is still in development. The malware, first discovered by security researcher iamdeadlyz, is distributed to both Windows and macOS users in the form of fake blockchain games using names such as Brawl Earth, WildWorld, Dawnland, Destruction, Evolion, Pearl, Olymp of Reptiles, and SaintLegend.
Hive is widely believed to be affiliated with the Conti ransomware group, joining a list of other groups associated with former Conti operators, including Royal, Black Basta, and Quantum. Hive, like other RaaS providers, wrote a ransomware encryptor, created a dark web domain, advertised their services to affiliates and forums, and then allowed users to purchase a license to configure a ransomware payload and receive extortion funds.
A new fileless attack dubbed PyLoose has been observed striking cloud workloads with the goal of delivering a cryptocurrency miner, new findings from Wiz reveal. "The attack consists of Python code that loads an XMRig Miner directly into memory using memfd, a known Linux fileless technique," security researchers Avigayil Mechtinger, Oren Ofer, and Itamar Gilad said.
An unknown cryptocurrency exchange located in Japan was the target of a new attack earlier this month to deploy an Apple macOS backdoor called JokerSpy. Elastic Security Labs, which is monitoring the intrusion set under the name REF9134, said the attack led to the installation of Swiftbelt, a Swift-based enumeration tool inspired by an open-source utility called SeatBelt.
Internet-facing Linux systems and Internet of Things devices are being targeted as part of a new campaign designed to illicitly mine cryptocurrency. "The threat actors behind the attack use a backdoor that deploys a wide array of tools and components such as rootkits and an IRC bot to steal device resources for mining operations," Microsoft threat intelligence researcher Rotem Sde-Or said.
Ransomware actors and cryptocurrency scammers have joined nation-state actors in abusing cloud mining services to launder digital assets, new findings reveal. Earlier this March, Google Mandiant disclosed North Korea-based APT43's use of the hash rental and cloud mining services to obscure the forensic trail and wash the stolen cryptocurrency "Clean."
A novel multi-stage loader called DoubleFinger has been observed delivering a cryptocurrency stealer dubbed GreetingGhoul in what's an advanced attack targeting users in Europe, the U.S., and Latin America. "DoubleFinger is deployed on the target machine, when the victim opens a malicious PIF attachment in an email message, ultimately executing the first of DoubleFinger's loader stages," Kaspersky researcher Sergey Lozhkin said in a Monday report.
A previously undetected cryptocurrency scam has leveraged a constellation of over 1,000 fraudulent websites to ensnare users into a bogus rewards scheme since at least January 2021. "The scam works via an advanced fee fraud that involves tricking victims into believing that they've won a certain amount of cryptocurrency. However, to get their rewards, the victims would need to pay a small amount to open an account on their website."
A recent malware campaign has been found to leverage Satacom downloader as a conduit to deploy stealthy malware capable of siphoning cryptocurrency using a rogue extension for Chromium-based browsers. "The main purpose of the malware that is dropped by the Satacom downloader is to steal BTC from the victim's account by performing web injections into targeted cryptocurrency websites," Kaspersky researchers Haim Zigel and Oleg Kupreev said.
A financially motivated threat actor is actively scouring the internet for unprotected Apache NiFi instances to covertly install a cryptocurrency miner and facilitate lateral movement. "The attack script is not saved to the system. The attack scripts are kept in memory only."