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Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a never-before-seen dropper that serves as a conduit to launch next-stage malware with the ultimate goal of infecting Windows systems with information stealers and loaders. "This memory-only dropper decrypts and executes a PowerShell-based downloader," Google-owned Mandiant said . "This PowerShell-based downloader is being tracked as PEAKLIGHT." Some of the malware strains distributed using this technique are Lumma Stealer , Hijack Loader (aka DOILoader, IDAT Loader, or SHADOWLADDER), and CryptBot , all of which are advertised under the malware-as-a-service (SaaS) model. The starting point of the attack chain is a Windows shortcut (LNK) file that's downloaded via drive-by download techniques -- e.g., when users look up a movie on search engines. It's worth pointing out that the LNK files are distributed within ZIP archives that are disguised as pirated movies. The LNK file connects to a content delivery network

Cybersecurity researchers are warning about a new phishing campaign that targets Microsoft OneDrive users with the aim of executing a malicious PowerShell script. "This campaign heavily relies on social engineering tactics to deceive users into executing a PowerShell script, thereby compromising their systems," Trellix security researcher Rafael Pena said in a Monday analysis. The cybersecurity company is tracking the "crafty" phishing and downloader campaign under the name OneDrive Pastejacking. The attack unfolds via an email containing an HTML file that, when opened, displays an image simulating an OneDrive page and includes the error message that says: "Failed to connect to the 'OneDrive' cloud service. To fix the error, you need to update the DNS cache manually." The message also comes with two options, namely "How to fix" and "Details," with the latter directing the email recipient to a legitimate Microsoft Learn pag

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,

Security researchers have shed more light on the cryptocurrency mining operation conducted by the 8220 Gang by exploiting known security flaws in the Oracle WebLogic Server. "The threat actor employs fileless execution techniques, using DLL reflective and process injection, allowing the malware code to run solely in memory and avoid disk-based detection mechanisms," Trend Micro researchers Ahmed Mohamed Ibrahim, Shubham Singh, and Sunil Bharti said in a new analysis published today. The cybersecurity firm is tracking the financially motivated actor under the name Water Sigbin, which is known to weaponize vulnerabilities in Oracle WebLogic Server such as CVE-2017-3506 , CVE- 2017-10271 , and CVE-2023-21839 for initial access and drop the miner payload via a multi-stage loading technique. A successful foothold is followed by the deployment of PowerShell script that's responsible for dropping a first-stage loader ("wireguard2-3.exe") that mimics the legiti

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered an updated version of malware called ValleyRAT that's being distributed as part of a new campaign. "In the latest version, ValleyRAT introduced new commands, such as capturing screenshots, process filtering, forced shutdown, and clearing Windows event logs," Zscaler ThreatLabz researchers Muhammed Irfan V A and Manisha Ramcharan Prajapati said . ValleyRAT was previously documented by QiAnXin and Proofpoint in 2023 in connection with a phishing campaign targeting Chinese-speaking users and Japanese organizations that distributed various malware families such as Purple Fox and a variant of the Gh0st RAT trojan known as Sainbox RAT (aka FatalRAT). The malware has been assessed to be the work of a China-based threat actor, boasting of capabilities to harvest sensitive information and drop additional payloads onto compromised hosts. The starting point is a downloader that utilizes an HTTP File Server (HFS) to fetch a file named

Cyber attacks involving the DarkGate malware-as-a-service (MaaS) operation have shifted away from AutoIt scripts to an AutoHotkey mechanism to deliver the last stages, underscoring continued efforts on the part of the threat actors to continuously stay ahead of the detection curve. The updates have been observed in version 6 of DarkGate released in March 2024 by its developer RastaFarEye, who has been selling the program on a subscription basis to as many as 30 customers. The malware has been active since at least 2018. A fully-featured remote access trojan (RAT), DarkGate is equipped with command-and-control (C2) and rootkit capabilities, and incorporates various modules for credential theft, keylogging, screen capturing, and remote desktop. "DarkGate campaigns tend to adapt really fast, modifying different components to try to stay off security solutions," Trellix security researcher Ernesto Fernández Provecho said in a Monday analysis. "This is the first time

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Thursday added a security flaw impacting the Oracle WebLogic Server to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities ( KEV ) catalog, citing evidence of active exploitation. Tracked as CVE-2017-3506 (CVSS score: 7.4), the issue concerns an operating system (OS) command injection vulnerability that could be exploited to obtain unauthorized access to susceptible servers and take complete control. "Oracle WebLogic Server, a product within the Fusion Middleware suite, contains an OS command injection vulnerability that allows an attacker to execute arbitrary code via a specially crafted HTTP request that includes a malicious XML document," CISA said. While the agency did not disclose the nature of attacks exploiting the vulnerability, the China-based cryptojacking group known as the 8220 Gang (aka Water Sigbin) has a history of leveraging it since early last year to co-opt unpatched devices into a crypto-mining bot

Fake web browser updates are being used to deliver remote access trojans (RATs) and information stealer malware such as BitRAT and Lumma Stealer (aka LummaC2). "Fake browser updates have been responsible for numerous malware infections, including those of the well-known SocGholish malware," cybersecurity firm eSentire said in a new report. "In April 2024, we observed FakeBat being distributed via similar fake update mechanisms." The attack chain commences when prospective targets visits a booby-trapped website that contains JavaScript code designed to redirect users to a bogus browser update page ("chatgpt-app[.]cloud"). The redirected web page comes embedded with a download link to a ZIP archive file ("Update.zip") that's hosted on Discord and downloaded automatically to the victim's device. It's worth pointing out that threat actors often use Discord as an attack vector, with a recent analysis from Bitdefender uncovering m

Microsoft on Wednesday outlined its plans to deprecate Visual Basic Script (VBScript) in the second half of 2024 in favor of more advanced alternatives such as JavaScript and PowerShell. "Technology has advanced over the years, giving rise to more powerful and versatile scripting languages such as JavaScript and PowerShell," Microsoft Program Manager Naveen Shankar  said . "These languages offer broader capabilities and are better suited for modern web development and automation tasks." The tech giant originally  announced  its plans to gradually sunset VBScript in October 2023. The scripting language, also called Visual Basic Scripting Edition, was first introduced by Microsoft in 1996 as a Windows system component, offering users the ability to automate tasks and develop interactive web pages using Internet Explorer and Edge (in  Internet Explorer mode ). The announced deprecation plan consists of three phases, with the first phase kicking off in the second h

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new cryptojacking campaign that employs vulnerable drivers to disable known security solutions (EDRs) and thwart detection in what's called a Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver ( BYOVD ) attack. Elastic Security Labs is tracking the campaign under the name REF4578 and the primary payload as GHOSTENGINE. Previous research from Chinese cybersecurity firm Antiy Labs has codenamed the activity as HIDDEN SHOVEL. "GHOSTENGINE leverages vulnerable drivers to terminate and delete known EDR agents that would likely interfere with the deployed and well-known coin miner," Elastic researchers Salim Bitam, Samir Bousseaden, Terrance DeJesus, and Andrew Pease said . "This campaign involved an uncommon amount of complexity to ensure both the installation and persistence of the XMRig miner." It all starts with an executable file ("Tiworker.exe"), which is used to run a PowerShell script that retrieves an obfuscated Power

A new attack campaign dubbed  CLOUD#REVERSER  has been observed leveraging legitimate cloud storage services like Google Drive and Dropbox to stage malicious payloads. "The VBScript and PowerShell scripts in the CLOUD#REVERSER inherently involves command-and-control-like activities by using Google Drive and Dropbox as staging platforms to manage file uploads and downloads," Securonix researchers Den Iuzvyk, Tim Peck, and Oleg Kolesnikov  said  in a report shared with The Hacker News. "The scripts are designed to fetch files that match specific patterns, suggesting they are waiting for commands or scripts placed in Google Drive or Dropbox." The starting point of the attack chain is a phishing email bearing a ZIP archive file, which contains an executable that masquerades as a Microsoft Excel file. In an interesting twist, the filename makes use of the hidden right-to-left override ( RLO ) Unicode character (U+202E) to reverse the order of the characters that co

The financially motivated threat actor known as  FIN7  has been observed leveraging malicious Google ads spoofing legitimate brands as a means to deliver MSIX installers that culminate in the deployment of  NetSupport RAT . "The threat actors used malicious websites to impersonate well-known brands, including AnyDesk, WinSCP, BlackRock, Asana, Concur, The Wall Street Journal, Workable, and Google Meet," cybersecurity firm eSentire  said  in a report published earlier this week. FIN7 (aka Carbon Spider and Sangria Tempest) is a  persistent e-crime group  that's been active since 2013, initially dabbling in attacks targeting point-of-sale (PoS) devices to steal payment data, before pivoting to breaching large firms via ransomware campaigns. Over the years, the threat actor has refined its tactics and cyber weapon arsenal, adopting  various   custom malware  families such as BIRDWATCH, Carbanak, DICELOADER (aka Lizar and Tirion), POWERPLANT, POWERTRASH, and TERMITE, amo

A new ongoing malware campaign has been observed distributing three different stealers, such as  CryptBot ,  LummaC2 , and  Rhadamanthys  hosted on Content Delivery Network (CDN) cache domains since at least February 2024. Cisco Talos has attributed the activity with moderate confidence to a threat actor tracked as  CoralRaider , a suspected Vietnamese-origin group that came to light earlier this month. This assessment is based on "several overlaps in tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) of CoralRaider's Rotbot campaign, including the initial attack vector of the Windows Shortcut file, intermediate PowerShell decryptor and payload download scripts, the FoDHelper technique used to bypass User Access Controls (UAC) of the victim machine," the company said. Targets of the campaign span various business verticals across geographies, including the U.S., Nigeria, Pakistan, Ecuador, Germany, Egypt, the U.K., Poland, the Philippines, Norway, Japan, Syria, and Turkey.

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new campaign that's exploiting a recently disclosed security flaw in Fortinet FortiClient EMS devices to deliver ScreenConnect and Metasploit Powerfun payloads. The activity entails the exploitation of  CVE-2023-48788  (CVSS score: 9.3), a critical SQL injection flaw that could permit an unauthenticated attacker to execute unauthorized code or commands via specifically crafted requests. Cybersecurity firm Forescout is  tracking  the campaign under the codename  Connect:fun  owing to the use of ScreenConnect and Powerfun for post-exploitation. The intrusion, which targeted an unnamed media company that had its vulnerable FortiClient EMS device exposed to the internet, took place shortly after the  release  of a proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit for the flaw on March 21, 2024. Over the next couple of days, the unknown adversary was observed leveraging the flaw to unsuccessfully download ScreenConnect and then install the remote desktop s

A threat actor tracked as  TA547  has targeted dozens of German organizations with an information stealer called  Rhadamanthys  as part of an invoice-themed phishing campaign. "This is the first time researchers observed TA547 use Rhadamanthys, an information stealer that is used by multiple cybercriminal threat actors," Proofpoint  said . "Additionally, the actor appeared to use a PowerShell script that researchers suspect was generated by a large language model (LLM)." TA547 is a prolific, financially motivated threat actor that's known to be active since at least November 2017, using email phishing lures to deliver a variety of Android and Windows malware such as ZLoader, Gootkit, DanaBot, Ursnif, and even Adhubllka ransomware. In recent years, the group has  evolved  into an initial access broker (IAB) for ransomware attacks. It has also been observed employing geofencing tricks to restrict payloads to specific regions. The email messages observed as p