Security News

Log4shell exploits now used mostly for DDoS botnets, cryptominers
2022-03-02 15:17

The Log4Shell vulnerabilities in the widely used Log4j software are still leveraged by threat actors today to deploy various malware payloads, including recruiting devices into DDoS botnets and for planting cryptominers. The threat actor can then control this botnet to perform DDoS attacks against a specific target, depleting their resources and disrupting their online service.

Google Cloud hypervisor modified to detect cryptominers without agents
2022-02-07 17:05

Google has announced the public preview of a new Virtual Machine Threat Detection system that can detect cryptocurrency miners and other malware without the need for software agents. A significant problem for developers and enterprises using cloud-based virtual machines is the constant targeting of threat actors who breach servers to install cryptominers.

Cybercriminals Actively Target VMware vSphere with Cryptominers
2022-01-18 19:33

Organizations running sophisticated virtual networks with VMware's vSphere service are actively being targeted by cryptojackers, who have figured out how to inject the XMRig commercial cryptominer into the environment, undetected.Uptycs' Siddharth Sharma has released research showing threat actors are using malicious shell scripts to make modifications and run the cryptominer on vSphere virtual networks.

Remember Norton 360's bundled cryptominer? Irritated folk realise Ethereum crafter is tricky to delete
2022-01-05 15:56

Norton antivirus's inbuilt cryptominer has re-entered the public consciousness after a random Twitter bod expressed annoyance at how difficult it is to uninstall. Exe, Norton 360's signed cryptocurrency-mining binary, to installations of Norton antivirus isn't new - but it seems to have taken the non-techie world a few months to realise what's going on.

‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Download Installs Cryptominer
2021-12-23 15:00

Global buzz around the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home is making tons of online noise - an ideal environment for cybercriminals to spread a Monero cryptominer disguised as a download of the newly released film. A torrent download of Spider-Man: No Way Home is circulating, infected with a persistent Monero cryptominer, according to a new alert from ReasonLabs.

Cryptominers aren't just a headache – they're a big neon sign that Bad Things are on your network
2021-12-07 16:14

Cryptominer malware removal is a routine piece of the cybersecurity landscape these days. If criminals are hijacking your compute cycles to mine cryptocurrencies, chances are there's something worse lurking on your network too.

Tor2Mine cryptominer has evolved: Just patching and cleaning the system won’t help
2021-12-03 06:00

Sophos released new findings on the Tor2Mine cryptominer, that show how the miner evades detection, spreads automatically through a target network and is increasingly harder to remove from an infected system. In the research, Sophos describes new variants of the miner that include a PowerShell script that attempts to disable malware protection, execute the miner payload and steal Windows administrator credentials.

Popular nmp package hijacked, modified to deliver cryptominers
2021-10-26 11:04

The library's lightweight npm package is extremely popular: according to the numbers on its npm registry page, it surpasses 8 million weekly downloads. The compromised packages were removed from the repository and a security advisory was published.

Malicious NPM Packages Caught Running Cryptominer On Windows, Linux, macOS Devices
2021-10-22 21:24

Three JavaScript libraries uploaded to the official NPM package repository have been unmasked as crypto-mining malware, once again demonstrating how open-source software package repositories are becoming a lucrative target for executing an array of attacks on Windows, macOS, and Linux systems. The malicious packages in question - named okhsa, klow, and klown - were published by the same developer and falsely claimed to be JavaScript-based user-agent string parsers designed to extract hardware specifics from the "User-Agent" HTTP header.

FreakOut Botnet Turns DVRs Into Monero Cryptominers
2021-10-13 20:17

Threat group FreakOut's Necro botnet has developed a new trick: infecting Visual Tools DVRs with a Monero miner. Juniper Threat Labs researchers have issued a report detailing new activities from FreakOut, also known as Necro Python and Python.