linux | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

The  Kimsuky  (aka Springtail) advanced persistent threat (APT) group, which is linked to North Korea's Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB), has been observed deploying a Linux version of its GoBear backdoor as part of a campaign targeting South Korean organizations. The backdoor, codenamed  Gomir , is "structurally almost identical to GoBear, with extensive sharing of code between malware variants," the Symantec Threat Hunter Team, part of Broadcom,  said  in a new report. "Any functionality from GoBear that is operating system-dependent is either missing or reimplemented in Gomir." GoBear was  first documented  by South Korean security firm S2W in early February 2024 in connection with a campaign that delivered a malware called Troll Stealer (aka TrollAgent), which overlaps with known Kimsuky malware families like AppleSeed and AlphaSeed. A subsequent analysis by the AhnLab Security Intelligence Center (ASEC) revealed that the malware is distributed via t

A malware botnet called  Ebury  is estimated to have compromised 400,000 Linux servers since 2009, out of which more than 100,000 were still compromised as of late 2023. The findings come from Slovak cybersecurity firm ESET, which characterized it as one of the most advanced server-side malware campaigns for financial gain. "Ebury actors have been pursuing monetization activities [...], including the spread of spam, web traffic redirections, and credential stealing," security researcher Marc-Etienne M.Léveillé  said  in a deep dive analysis. "[The] operators are also involved in cryptocurrency heists by using AitM and credit card stealing via network traffic eavesdropping, commonly known as server-side web skimming." Ebury was first documented over a decade ago as part of a campaign codenamed  Operation Windigo  that targeted Linux servers to deploy the malware, alongside other backdoors and scripts like Cdorked and Calfbot to redirect web traffic and send spam

For years, securing a company's systems was synonymous with securing its "perimeter." There was what was safe "inside" and the unsafe outside world. We built sturdy firewalls and deployed sophisticated detection systems, confident that keeping the barbarians outside the walls kept our data and systems safe. The problem is that we no longer operate within the confines of physical on-prem installations and controlled networks. Data and applications now reside in distributed cloud environments and data centers, accessed by users and devices connecting from anywhere on the planet. The walls have crumbled, and the perimeter has dissolved, opening the door to a new battlefield: identity . Identity is at the center of what the industry has praised as the new gold standard of enterprise security: "zero trust." In this paradigm, explicit trust becomes mandatory for any interactions between systems, and no implicit trust shall subsist. Every access request, regardless of its origin,

Fortinet has released patches to address a critical security flaw impacting FortiClientLinux that could be exploited to achieve arbitrary code execution. Tracked as CVE-2023-45590, the vulnerability carries a CVSS score of 9.4 out of a maximum of 10. "An Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection') vulnerability [CWE-94] in FortiClientLinux may allow an unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code via tricking a FortiClientLinux user into visiting a malicious website," Fortinet  said  in an advisory. The shortcoming, which has been described as a case of remote code execution due to a "dangerous nodejs configuration," impacts the following versions - FortiClientLinux versions 7.0.3 through 7.0.4 and 7.0.6 through 7.0.10 (Upgrade to 7.0.11 or above) FortiClientLinux version 7.2.0 (Upgrade to 7.2.1 or above) Security researcher CataLpa from Dbappsecurity has been credited with discovering and reporting the vulnerability. Fortinet&

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed what they say is the "first native Spectre v2 exploit" against the Linux kernel on Intel systems that could be exploited to read sensitive data from the memory. The exploit, called Native Branch History Injection (BHI), can be used to leak arbitrary kernel memory at 3.5 kB/sec by bypassing existing Spectre v2/BHI mitigations, researchers from Systems and Network Security Group (VUSec) at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam  said  in a new study. The shortcoming is being tracked as  CVE-2024-2201 . BHI was  first disclosed  by VUSec in March 2022, describing it as a technique that can get around Spectre v2 protections in modern processors from Intel, AMD, and Arm. While the attack leveraged extended Berkeley Packet Filters (eBPFs), Intel's recommendations to address the problem, among other things, were to disable Linux's unprivileged eBPFs. "Privileged managed runtimes that can be configured to allow an unprivileged user t

Red Hat on Friday released an "urgent security alert" warning that two versions of a popular data compression library called  XZ Utils  (previously LZMA Utils) have been backdoored with malicious code designed to allow unauthorized remote access. The software supply chain compromise, tracked as  CVE-2024-3094 , has a CVSS score of 10.0, indicating maximum severity. It impacts XZ Utils versions 5.6.0 (released February 24) and 5.6.1 (released March 9). "Through a series of complex obfuscations, the liblzma build process extracts a prebuilt object file from a disguised test file existing in the source code, which is then used to modify specific functions in the liblzma code," the IBM subsidiary  said  in an advisory. "This results in a modified liblzma library that can be used by any software linked against this library, intercepting and modifying the data interaction with this library." Specifically, the nefarious code baked into the code is  designed

Details have emerged about a vulnerability impacting the "wall" command of the util-linux package that could be potentially exploited by a bad actor to leak a user's password or alter the clipboard on certain Linux distributions. The bug, tracked as CVE-2024-28085, has been codenamed  WallEscape  by security researcher Skyler Ferrante. It has been described as a case of improper neutralization of escape sequences. "The util-linux wall command does not filter  escape sequences  from command line arguments," Ferrante  said . "This allows unprivileged users to put arbitrary text on other users' terminals, if mesg is set to "y" and wall is setgid." The  vulnerability  was introduced as part of a  commit  made in August 2013.  The "wall" command is used to write a message to the terminals of all users that are currently logged in to a server, essentially allowing users with elevated permissions to  broadcast key information  to

A Linux version of a multi-platform backdoor called  DinodasRAT  has been detected in the wild targeting China, Taiwan, Turkey, and Uzbekistan,  new findings  from Kaspersky reveal. DinodasRAT, also known as XDealer, is a C++-based malware that offers the ability to harvest a wide range of sensitive data from compromised hosts. In October 2023, Slovak cybersecurity firm ESET  revealed  that a governmental entity in Guyana had been targeted as part of a cyber espionage campaign dubbed Operation Jacana to deploy the Windows version of the implant. Then last week, Trend Micro  detailed  a threat activity cluster it tracks as Earth Krahang and which has shifted to using DinodasRAT since 2023 in its attacks aimed at several government entities worldwide. The use of DinodasRAT has been attributed to various China-nexus threat actors, including  LuoYu , once again reflecting the tool sharing prevalent among hacking crews identified as acting on behalf of the country. Kaspersky said it

The data wiping malware called  AcidPour  may have been deployed in attacks targeting four telecom providers in Ukraine, new findings from SentinelOne show. The cybersecurity firm also confirmed connections between the malware and AcidRain, tying it to threat activity clusters associated with Russian military intelligence. "AcidPour's expanded capabilities would enable it to better disable embedded devices including networking, IoT, large storage (RAIDs), and possibly ICS devices running Linux x86 distributions," security researchers Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade and Tom Hegel  said . AcidPour is a variant of  AcidRain , a wiper that was used to render Viasat KA-SAT modems operable at the onset of the Russo-Ukrainian war in early 2022 and cripple Ukraine's military communications. It also builds upon the latter's features, while targeting Linux systems running on x86 architecture. AcidRain, on the other hand, is compiled for MIPS architecture. Where AcidRain w

A new variant of a data wiping malware called AcidRain has been detected in the wild that's specifically designed for targeting Linux x86 devices. The malware, dubbed AcidPour, is compiled for Linux x86 devices, SentinelOne's Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade said in a series of posts on X. "The new variant [...] is an ELF binary compiled for x86 (not MIPS) and while it refers to similar devices/strings, it's a largely different codebase," Guerrero-Saade  noted . AcidRain  first came to light  in the early days of the Russo-Ukrainian war, with the malware deployed against KA-SAT modems from U.S. satellite company Viasat. An ELF binary compiled for MIPS architectures, it is capable of wiping the filesystem and different known storage device files by recursively iterating over common directories for most Linux distributions. The cyber attack was  subsequently attributed  to Russia by the Five Eyes nations, along with Ukraine and the European Union. AcidPour, as the

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new Linux variant of a remote access trojan (RAT) called BIFROSE (aka Bifrost) that uses a deceptive domain mimicking VMware. "This latest version of Bifrost aims to bypass security measures and compromise targeted systems," Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 researchers Anmol Maurya and Siddharth Sharma  said . BIFROSE  is one of the long-standing threats that has been active since 2004. It has been offered for sale in underground forums for up to $10,000 in the past, according to a  report  from Trend Micro in December 2015. The malware has been put to use by a state-backed hacking group from China tracked as  BlackTech  (aka Circuit Panda, HUAPI, Manga Taurus, Palmerworm, PLEAD, Red Djinn, and Temp.Overboard), which has a history of striking organizations in Japan, Taiwan, and the U.S. It's suspected that the threat actor purchased the source code or gained access to it around 2010, and repurposed the malware for use in its own

Threat hunters have discovered a new Linux malware called  GTPDOOR  that's designed to be deployed in telecom networks that are adjacent to GPRS roaming exchanges ( GRX ) The  malware  is novel in the fact that it leverages the GPRS Tunnelling Protocol ( GTP ) for command-and-control (C2) communications. GPRS roaming allows subscribers to access their GPRS services while they are beyond the reach of their home mobile network. This is facilitated by means of a GRX that transports the roaming traffic using GTP between the visited and the home Public Land Mobile Network ( PLMN ). Security researcher haxrob, who discovered two  GTPDOOR   artifacts  uploaded to VirusTotal from China and Italy, said the backdoor is likely linked to a known threat actor tracked as  LightBasin  (aka UNC1945), which was previously disclosed by CrowdStrike in October 2021 in connection with a series of attacks targeting the telecom sector to steal subscriber information and call metadata. "When run, the f

The U.S. government is warning about the resurgence of BlackCat (aka ALPHV) ransomware attacks targeting the healthcare sector as recently as this month. "Since mid-December 2023, of the nearly 70 leaked victims, the healthcare sector has been the most commonly victimized," the government  said  in an updated advisory. "This is likely in response to the ALPHV/BlackCat administrator's post encouraging its affiliates to target hospitals after operational action against the group and its infrastructure in early December 2023." The alert comes courtesy of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The BlackCat ransomware operation suffered a major blow late last year after a coordinated law enforcement operation led to the  seizure of its dark leak sites . But the takedown turned out to be a failure after the group managed to regain control of the

An "intricately designed" remote access trojan (RAT) called  Xeno RAT  has been made available on GitHub, making it easily accessible to other actors at no extra cost. Written in C# and compatible with Windows 10 and Windows 11 operating systems, the open-source RAT comes with a "comprehensive set of features for remote system management," according to its developer, who goes by the name moom825. It includes a SOCKS5 reverse proxy and the ability to record real-time audio, as well as incorporate a hidden virtual network computing ( hVNC ) module along the lines of  DarkVNC , which allows attackers to gain remote access to an infected computer. "Xeno RAT is developed entirely from scratch, ensuring a unique and tailored approach to remote access tools," the developer  states  in the project description. Another notable aspect is that it has a builder that enables the creation of bespoke variants of the malware.  It's worth noting that moom825 is a

Cybersecurity researchers have identified two authentication bypass flaws in open-source Wi-Fi software found in Android, Linux, and ChromeOS devices that could trick users into joining a malicious clone of a legitimate network or allow an attacker to join a trusted network without a password. The vulnerabilities, tracked as CVE-2023-52160 and CVE-2023-52161, have been discovered following a security evaluation of  wpa_supplicant  and Intel's iNet Wireless Daemon ( IWD ), respectively. The flaws "allow attackers to trick victims into connecting to malicious clones of trusted networks and intercept their traffic, and join otherwise secure networks without needing the password," Top10VPN  said  in a new research conducted in collaboration with Mathy Vanhoef, who has previously uncovered Wi-Fi attacks like  KRACK ,  DragonBlood , and  TunnelCrack . CVE-2023-52161, in particular, permits an adversary to gain unauthorized access to a protected Wi-Fi network, exposing exis

A novel malware campaign has been observed targeting Redis servers for initial access with the ultimate goal of mining cryptocurrency on compromised Linux hosts. "This particular campaign involves the use of a number of novel system weakening techniques against the data store itself," Cado security researcher Matt Muir  said  in a technical report. The cryptojacking attack is facilitated by a malware codenamed Migo, a Golang ELF binary that comes fitted with compile-time obfuscation and the ability to persist on Linux machines. The cloud security company said it detected the campaign after it identified an "unusual series of commands" targeting its Redis honeypots that are engineered to lower security defenses by disabling the following configuration options - protected-mode   replica-read-only aof-rewrite-incremental-fsync , and rdb-save-incremental-fsync It's suspected that these options are turned off in order to send additional commands to the Re

A reverse engineering of the firmware running on Ivanti Pulse Secure appliances has revealed numerous weaknesses, once again underscoring the challenge of securing software supply chains. Eclypsiusm, which acquired firmware version 9.1.18.2-24467.1 as part of the process, said the base operating system used by the Utah-based software company for the device is CentOS 6.4. "Pulse Secure runs an 11-year-old version of Linux which hasn't been supported since November 2020," the firmware security company  said  in a report shared with The Hacker News. The development comes as threat actors are capitalizing on a number of security flaws discovered in Ivanti Connect Secure, Policy Secure, and ZTA gateways to  deliver  a  wide range of malware , including web shells, stealers, and backdoors. The vulnerabilities that have come under active exploitation in recent months comprise CVE-2023-46805, CVE-2024-21887, and CVE-2024-21893. Last week, Ivanti also  disclosed  another bug