Security News
A Latin America-based financially motivated actor codenamed FLUXROOT has been observed leveraging Google Cloud serverless projects to orchestrate credential phishing activity, highlighting the abuse of the cloud computing model for malicious purposes. The campaign involved the use of Google Cloud container URLs to host credential phishing pages with the aim of harvesting login information associated with Mercado Pago, an online payments platform popular in the LATAM region.
UK police have arrested a 17-year-old boy suspected of being involved in the 2023 MGM Resorts ransomware attack and a member of the Scattered Spider hacking collective. "We're proud to have assisted law enforcement in locating and arresting one of the alleged criminals responsible for the cyber attack against MGM Resorts and many others," MGM said as part of the law enforcement statement.
Cisco has fixed a critical severity vulnerability that lets attackers add new users with root privileges and permanently crash Security Email Gateway appliances using emails with malicious attachments. "This vulnerability is due to improper handling of email attachments when file analysis and content filters are enabled. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to replace any file on the underlying file system," Cisco explained.
The notorious FIN7 hacking group has been spotted selling its custom "AvNeutralizer" tool, used to evade detection by killing enterprise endpoint protection software on corporate networks. The same threat actors are also likely tied to the BlackCat ransomware operation, which recently conducted an exit scam after stealing a UnitedHealth ransom payment.
Cisco has fixed a maximum severity vulnerability that allows attackers to change any user's password on vulnerable Cisco Smart Software Manager On-Prem license servers, including administrators. The flaw also impacts SSM On-Prem installations earlier than Release 7.0, known as Cisco Smart Software Manager Satellite.
BeaverTail refers to a JavaScript stealer malware that was first documented by Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 in November 2023 as part of a campaign dubbed Contagious Interview that aims to infect software developers with malware through a supposed job interview process. Securonix is tracking the same activity under the moniker DEV#POPPER. Besides siphoning sensitive information from web browsers and crypto wallets, the malware is capable of delivering additional payloads like InvisibleFerret, a Python backdoor that's responsible for downloading AnyDesk for persistent remote access.
Microsoft says the Scattered Spider cybercrime gang has added Qilin ransomware to its arsenal and is now using it in attacks. "In the second quarter of 2024, financially motivated threat actor Octo Tempest, our most closely tracked ransomware threat actor, added RansomHub and Qilin to its ransomware payloads in campaigns," Microsoft said Monday.
The Iranian nation-state actor known as MuddyWater has been observed using a never-before-seen backdoor as part of a recent attack campaign, shifting away from its well-known tactic of deploying legitimate remote monitoring and management software for maintaining persistent access. "Compared to previous campaigns, this time MuddyWater changed their infection chain and did not rely on the legitimate Atera remote monitoring and management tool as a validator," Sekoia said in a report shared with The Hacker News.
A threat actor that was previously observed using an open-source network mapping tool has greatly expanded their operations to infect over 1,500 victims. Sysdig, which is tracking the cluster under the name CRYSTALRAY, said the activities have witnessed a 10x surge, adding it includes "Mass scanning, exploiting multiple vulnerabilities, and placing backdoors using multiple security tools."
Threat actors are quick to weaponize available proof-of-concept (PoC) exploits in actual attacks, sometimes as quickly as 22 minutes after exploits are made publicly available. [...]