Security News
Cybersecurity researchers have detailed a new campaign that likely targets entities in Southeast Asia with a previously unrecognized Linux malware that's engineered to enable remote access to its operators, in addition to amassing credentials and function as a proxy server. The malware family, dubbed "FontOnLake" by Slovak cybersecurity firm ESET, is said to feature "Well-designed modules" that are continuously being upgraded with new features, indicating an active development phase.
It's a horrific leak that included the Amazon-owned service's source code, comments dating back to the dawn of Twitch time, security tools, an unreleased Amazon Game Studios competitor to Steam, a list of of the highest-paid channels plus how much they were paid, and more. On Wednesday, Twitch disclosed that "Some data" was exposed to the internet due to "An error in a Twitch server configuration change that was subsequently accessed by a malicious third party." It said that its teams were urgently investigating, but that it hadn't found any evidence that login credentials had been exposed.
Sophos has released details of a new ransomware written in Python that attackers used to compromise and encrypt virtual machines hosted on an ESXi hypervisor."This is one of the fastest ransomware attacks Sophos has ever investigated and it appeared to precision-target the ESXi platform," said Andrew Brandt, principal researcher at Sophos.
Cybersecurity researchers on Tuesday revealed details of a previously undocumented UEFI bootkit that has been put to use by threat actors to backdoor Windows systems as early as 2012 by modifying a legitimate Windows Boot Manager binary to achieve persistence, once again demonstrating how technology meant to secure the environment prior to loading the operating system is increasingly becoming a "Tempting target." Slovak cybersecurity firm ESET codenamed the new malware "ESPecter" for its ability to persist on the EFI System Partition, in addition to circumventing Microsoft Windows Driver Signature Enforcement to load its own unsigned driver that can be used to facilitate espionage activities such as document theft, keylogging, and screen monitoring by periodically capturing screenshots.
A flaw in ASUS's ROG Armoury Crate hardware management app could have allowed low-privileged users to execute code as administrator. Federico discovered the vuln after taking a close look at ROG Armoury Crate, finding a DLL hijacking vuln that allowed ordinary users to execute code with SYSTEM privileges after pasting a crafted file into a directory used by the app.
Proof-of-concept exploit code for three iOS zero-day vulnerabilities was published on GitHub after Apple delayed patching and failed to credit the researcher. The unknown researcher who found the four zero-days reported them to Apple between March 10 and May 4.
It's not entirely certain that FamousSparrow represents a wholly new APT group. While the SparrowDoor tool appears to be exclusive and suggests a new player, the researchers found potential links between FamousSparrow and existing APT groups - including the use of the Motnug loader known to have been used by a group dubbed SparklingGoblin and a SparrowDoor-compromised machine seen to be connecting to a command and control server connected to the DRDControl group.
Security researchers are compiling an easy-to-follow list of vulnerabilities ransomware gangs and their affiliates are using as initial access to breach victims' networks. While these bugs have been or still are exploited by one ransomware group or another in past and ongoing attacks, the list has also been expanded to include actively exploited flaws, as security researcher Pancak3 explained.
The recent targeted attacks exploiting the zero-day remote code execution vulnerability in Windows via booby-trapped Office documents have been delivering custom Cobalt Strike payloads, Microsoft and Microsoft-owned RiskIQ have shared. The researchers also found connections between the attackers' exploit delivery infrastructure and an infrastructure previously used by attackers to deliver human-operated ransomware, the Trickbot trojan and the BazaLoader backdoor/downloader.
Researchers with threat intelligence company KELA have recently analyzed 48 active threads on underground marketplaces made by threat actors looking to buy access to organizations' systems, assets and networks, and have found that at least 40% of the postings were by active participants in the ransomware-as-a-service supply chain.Unsurprisingly, companies in developed countries such the US, Canada, Australia and European countries are preferred targets, while organizations based in countries that are members of the Commonwealth of Independent States are generally avoided - most likely because the threat actors are based in some of those countries and wish to avoid local law enforcement focusing on them.