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RedLine Stealer
Binance Blockchain Crypto Scam Crypto Wallets Cyber Security Netskope NFTs Phishing Attacks RedLine Stealer

Users' Crypto Wallets are Stolen by Fake Binance NFT Mystery Box Bots

 

Researchers have discovered a new campaign to disperse the RedLine Stealer — a low-cost password seeker sold on underground forums — by mutating oneself with the data malware from GitHub repositories using a fake Binance NFT mystery box bots, an array of YouTube videos that take advantage of global interest in NFTs. 

The enticement is the promise of a bot that will automatically purchase Binance NFT Mystery Boxes as they become available. Binance mystery boxes are collections of non-fungible token (NFT) things for users to purchase in the hopes of receiving a one-of-a-kind or uncommon item at a discounted price. Some of the NFTs obtained in such boxes can be used in online blockchain games to add unusual cosmetics or identities. However, the bot is a hoax. According to Gustavo Palazolo, a malware analyst at Netskope Threat Labs, the video descriptions on the YouTube pages encourage victims to accidentally download RedLine Stealer from a GitHub link. 

In the NFT market, mystery boxes are popular because they provide individuals with the thrill of the unknown as well as the possibility of a large payout if they win a rare NFT. However, marketplaces such as Binance sell them in limited quantities, making some crates difficult to obtain before they sell out. 

"We found in this attempt that the attacker is also exploiting GitHub in the threat flow, to host the payloads," Palazolo said. "RedLine Stealer was already known for manipulating YouTube videos to proliferate through false themes," Palazolo said. The advertising was spotted by Netskope in April. "While RedLine Stealer is a low-cost malware, it has several capabilities that might do considerable harm to its victims, including the loss of sensitive data," Palazolo said. This is why prospective buyers frequently use "bots" to obtain them, and it is exactly this big trend that threat actors are attempting to exploit. 

The Ads were uploaded during March and April 2022, and each one includes a link to a GitHub repository that purports to host the bot but instead distributes RedLine. "BinanceNFT.bot v1.3.zip" is the name of the dropped file, which contains a program of a similar name, which is the cargo, a Visual C++ installation, and a README.txt file. Because RedLine is written in.NET, it demands the VC redistributable setup file to run, whereas the prose file contains the victim's installation instructions.

If the infected machine is found in any of the following countries, the virus does not run, according to Palazolo: Armenia, Azerbaijan,  Belarus,  Kazakhstan,  Kyrgyzstan,  Moldova,  Russia,  Tajikistan Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.

The repository's GitHub account, "NFTSupp," began work in March 2022, according to Palazolo. The same source also contains 15 zipped files including five different RedLine Stealer loaders. "While each of the five loaders we looked at is slightly different, they all unzip and inject RedLine Stealer in the same fashion, as we discussed earlier in this report. The oldest sample we identified was most likely created on March 11, 2022, and the newest sample was most likely compiled on April 7, 2022," he said. These promotions, on the other hand, use rebrand.ly URLs that lead to MediaFire downloads. This operation is also spreading password-stealing trojans, according to VirusTotal. 

RedLine is now available for $100 per month on a subscription basis to independent operators, and it allows for the theft of login passwords and cookies from browsers, content from chat apps, VPN keys, and cryptocurrency wallets. Keep in mind that the validity of platforms like YouTube and GitHub doesn't really inherently imply content reliability, as these sites' upload checks and moderation systems are inadequate.
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UEFI Firmware
Cyber Security HP Patch Fix Security Patch SMI UEFI Firmware

HP Fixes UEFI Flaws Affecting 200+ Computers

 

HP released updates for two high-severity flaws in the UEFI firmware of more than 200 laptops, workstations, and other products on Wednesday. 

CVE-2021-3808 and CVE-2021-3809 are the two flaws, which have a CVSS score of 8.8. HP credited Aruba Threat Labs' Nicholas Starke and a researcher going by the online handle "yngweijw" with reporting the issues but did not disclose technical details on either of the flaws. 

The company did, however, provide a list of affected products, which includes a variety of corporate notebooks and desktop PCs, as well as desktop workstations, retail point-of-sale devices, and thin client PCs. 

“Potential security vulnerabilities have been identified in the BIOS (UEFI Firmware) for certain HP PC products, which might allow arbitrary code execution. HP is releasing firmware updates to mitigate these potential vulnerabilities,” HP notes in its advisory. 

According to Starke, HP took almost six months to fix CVE-2021-3809, the issue he disclosed. He adds that the security flaw is due to a SMI (System Management Interrupt) handler called from System Management Mode (SMM), a highly privileged x86 processor execution mode. The SMI handler, according to Starke, may be triggered from a kernel execution context like a Windows Kernel Driver, enabling an attacker to determine the memory location of a specific function and overwrite it in physical memory to refer to attacker code. 

“This vulnerability could allow an attacker executing with kernel-level privileges (CPL == 0) to escalate privileges to System Management Mode (SMM). Executing in SMM gives an attacker full privileges over the host to further carry out attacks,” Starke added.

While the majority of the vulnerable devices have already received firmware updates, a handful has yet to receive them. Users can check HP's advisory for more information on the impact and upgrades. HP also released warnings this week that outline the updates Intel have released to address several firmware and software vulnerabilities affecting its CPUs and chipsets, as well as HP products.
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User Security
Cyber Security Ransomware ransomware attacks Security Risk User Security

Analyzing the New Black Basta Ransomware

 

Black Basta, a new ransomware group has been highly active since April 2022 and has already breached a dozen companies worldwide. The list of victims includes the American Dental Association and German wind turbine giant Deutsche Windtechnik. 

Modus operandi of Black Basta 

While Black Basta assaults are relatively new, some information on their methodology has been made public. The data encryptor employed by ransomware requires administrator privileges to execute, otherwise, it is harmless. 

To launch the encryption executable, the ransomware targets a legitimate Windows service. After execution, the ransomware erases shadow copies from the compromised system using vssadmin.exe. This action removes the Windows backup so that after encryption victim cannot revert the system to its previous state. 

Subsequently, Black Basta drops two files: dlaksjdoiwq.jpg and fkdjsadasd.ico in the user Temp folder. The second file is a custom icon for all files with the “.basta” extension. The icon is assigned by designing and setting a new registry key “HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.basta\DefaultIcon”. 

The persistence technique of the Black Basta ransomware is executed by “stealing” an existing service name, deleting the service, and then creating a new service named ‘FAX. Before the encryption routine begins, the ransomware checks the boot options using GetSystemMetrics() API and then adds HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SafeBoot\Network\Fax entry in the registry to start the FAX service in safe mode. 

After completing all the customizations, the ransomware sets up the operating system to boot in safe mode using bcedit.exechecks. Due to the reboot mode change, the PC will reboot in safe mode with the ‘Fax’ service running. This service will then execute the ransomware again, but this time for the purpose of encryption. 

 Methodologies Identical to Conti group 

Researchers at MalwareHunterTeam attribute the Black Basta ransomware to the team behind Conti ransomware. This assumption is based on similarities between their leak sites, their payment sites, and the way their “support” employees talk and behave. 

Lawrence Abrams of BleepingComputer also mentioned that the threat actors behind Black Basta seem like they are exerting a lot of effort to avoid any resemblance to their previous identity. 

To prevent Black Basta ransomware from further encryptions, it must be eliminated from the operating system. Unfortunately, removal will not restore already compromised data. The sole solution is recovering it from a backup if one was created beforehand and is stored elsewhere. 

Additionally, to avoid permanent data loss, researchers recommend keeping backups in multiple different locations (e.g., remote servers, unplugged storage devices, etc.
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South Korea
CCDCOE Cyber defense Cyber Security NATO South Korea

South Korea Joins NATO's Cyber Research Centre, Becomes First Asian Member

South Korean intelligence agency on Thursday said that South Korea has joined a cyber defense group under NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), becoming its first Asian member community. ZDNet reports "South Korea had suffered numerous cyberattacks in the past with targets ranging from state-run nuclear research institutes to cryptocurrency companies, most of which were allegedly committed by North Korean hacking groups." 

According to National Intelligence Service (NIS), South Korea, along with Luxembourg and Canada, have been added to the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE), a think tank from Tallinn, Estonia. It supports member countries and NATO with cyber defense research, exercises, and training. CCDCOE was founded in 2008 by NATO countries, on behalf of Estonia's initiative, as a response to the country suffering intense cyberattacks done by Russia. 

With the inclusion of the three latest members, CCDCOE now has 32 members among which, 27 are sponsored members of NATO and 5 contributing members, which includes South Korea, which is not a part of NATO. NIS said that South Korea has been active since 2019 to become a member of CCDCOE to learn cyber defense expertise to safeguard the country's infrastructure backbone, and to plan out a global strategy. NIS is planning to send more staff to the center and increase the scope of joint training. Cyberattacks were making a massive impact on users and countries that need global cooperation to respond. 

South Korea will work alongside CCDCOE members to formulate a robust cyber defense system. "Even prior to becoming an official member of the center, South Korea had taken part in CCDCOE's large-scale, live-fire cyber defense exercise, Locked Shields, where thousands of experts from member nations and partners jointly defended a fictional country against simulated cyberattacks," says ZDNet.

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threats
BCSC Cyber Security Developers FBI Malicious Apps Security Security and Safety threats

NCSC Warns Of Threats Posed By Malicious Apps

 

A new report by the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has alerted of the threats posed by malicious applications. While most people are familiar with apps downloaded to smartphones, they are also available on everything from smart TVs to smart speakers. 

The government is seeking input on new security and privacy guidelines for applications and app stores. Ian Levy, the NCSC's technical director, stated app stores could do more to improve security. Cybercriminals are currently exploiting vulnerabilities in app stores on all types of linked devices to cause harm,  as per Mr Levy. 

Android phone users downloaded apps containing the Triada and Escobar malware from various third-party app stores last year, according to the FBI.  "This resulted in cyber-criminals remotely taking control of people's phones and stealing their data and money by signing them up for premium subscription services," it said.

The NCSC's report noted that apps "can also be installed on laptops, computers, games consoles, wearable devices (such as smartwatches or fitness trackers), smart TVs, smart speakers (such as Alexa devices), and IoT (internet of things) devices". It includes an example of a security firm illustrating how it could construct a malicious app for a prominent fitness tracker that could be downloaded via a link that seemed legitimate because it used the company's web address. 

Spyware/stalkerware capable of stealing anything from location to personal body data was found in the app. After the security firm alerted the company, it proceeded to rectify the situation. 

 The thirst for applications grew during the pandemic, according to the NCSC research, with the UK app market currently valued at £18.6 billion ($23.2 billion). The government's proposal to ask app retailers to commit to a new code of practice outlining baseline security and privacy requirements is supported by the cyber-security centre. 

"Developers and store operators making apps available to UK users would be covered. This includes Apple, Google, Amazon, Huawei, Microsoft and Samsung," the government stated.

 A new code of practice would require retailers to set up procedures to find and repair security problems more quickly.
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Ukraine
Cyber Security Cyber Threats Cyberspace Ransom Ransomware attack Russia Ukraine

Russian Group Attack on Bulgarian Refugee Agency

 

A ransomware group that shares strong ties with Russia warned on Wednesday that it will publicly post the files it has stolen from the Bulgarian government agency that is responsible for the refugee management.

LockBit 2.0 published a notice on the dark website saying it had files from the Bulgarian State Agency for Refugees under the Council of Ministers. “All available data will be published!” the notice read under the group’s trademark bright red countdown clock, which has a May 9 publication date. It's worth noting that there was no specific post for a ransom demand. 

According to the Sofia Globe, a news organization in the country’s capital, nearly 5.7 million Ukrainian refugees have fled their country since February and approximately 230,000 fled to Bulgaria, while 100,700 are remaining in the country. 

The official website of the agency remains active, however, a notice on the site’s home page reads, “due to network problems, the e-addresses of the State Agency for Refugees at the Council of Ministers are temporarily unavailable.”

Press contacted an official for a comment on the same matter but the agency didn’t immediately respond to the email. Later, a spokesperson at the Bulgarian embassy in Washington, D.C., said that he did not have information on the incident and would look into the matter. 

LockBit 2.0 is an updated version of LockBit, a ransomware variant that first was spotted in September 2019, as per the cybersecurity firm Emsisoft. Originally known as ABCD ransomware, LockBit is famous for the file extension appended to encrypted files, with the extension later updating to “LockBit”.  Moreover, in September, the group made headlines for launching its own leak website. 

“This is simply the latest in a very long list of hits on organizations which provide critical services...,” said Brett Callow, a threat analyst at Emsisoft. 

“...Hospitals, [search and rescue], fire departments, and charities for the disabled have all been targeted. The individuals involved with ransomware are conscienceless scumbags and the sooner we find a way to deal with the problem, the better.”
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SSH
Akamai Cloud based services Container Security Crypto Mining Cyber Security DDOS Vulnerability Honeypot Intezer cybersecurity Kernel Kubernetes SSH

Safeguarding From Container Attacks Inside the Cloud


As an alternative to virtualization, containerization has become a key trend in software development. It entails encapsulating or packaging software code and all of its dependencies so it may execute consistently and uniformly across any infrastructure. Containers are self-contained units that represent whole software environments that may be transported. They include everything a program needs to run, including binaries, libraries, configuration data, and references. Docker and Amazon Elastic, as an illustration, are two of the extra well-known choices. 

Although many containers can run on the same infrastructure and use the same operating system kernel, they are isolated from such a layer and have a little interface with the actual hosting elements, for instance, a public cloud occasion. The ability to instantly spin up and down apps – for users, is one of the many advantages of running cloud-based containers. Admins may utilize orchestration to centrally manage containerized apps and services at scale, such as putting out automatic updates and isolating any malfunctioning containers.

Container adoption is at an all-time high, worldwide businesses of all sizes are eager to jump on board. According to a poll conducted by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), 83 percent of respondents plan to use Kubernetes in production in 2020, up from 78 percent the year before and just 58 percent in 2018. As adoption grows, cybercriminals' interest grows as well. According to a June Red Hat study, 94 percent of respondents have experienced a Kubernetes security problem in the last 12 months. 

Larry Cashdollar, an Akamai security researcher, recently set up a basic Docker container honeypot to test what type of attention it would get from the larger web's cybercriminals. The results were alarming: in just 24 hours, the honeypot was used for four different nefarious campaigns. Cashdollar had integrated SSH protocol for encryption and developed a “guessable” root password. It wouldn't stick out as an obvious honeypot on the web because it was running a typical cloud container configuration, he explained. It would instead appear to be a vulnerable cloud instance. The assaults had a variety of objectives: one campaign aimed to utilize the container as a proxy to access Twitch feeds or other services, another attempted a botnet infection, a third attempted crypto mining, and the fourth attempted a work-from-home hoax. 

"Profit is still the key motivator for cybercriminals attacking containers," as these cases demonstrate, according to Mark Nunnikhoven, a senior cloud strategist at Lacework. "CPU time and bandwidth can be rented to other criminals for buried services, or even used to directly mine cryptocurrencies. Data can be sold or ransomed at any time. In an environment where containers are frequently used, these reasons do not change." 

According to a recent Gartner study, client misconfigurations or mistakes would be the primary cause of more than 99 percent of cloud breaches by 2025. As per Trevor Morgan, product manager at comfort AG, most businesses, particularly smaller businesses, rely on default configuration options rather than more advanced and granular setup capabilities: "Simple errors or selecting default settings  that are far less safe than customized options." The problems with configuration typically go beyond the containers themselves. Last July, for example, misconfigured Argo Workflows servers were detected attacking Kubernetes clusters. 

Argo Workflows is an open-source, container-native workflow engine for coordinating parallel activities on Kubernetes to reduce processing time for compute-intensive tasks such as machine learning and large data processing. 

According to an examination by Intezer, malware operators were using publicly available dashboards which did not require authentication for outside users to drop crypto miners into the cloud. Far above misconfiguration, compromised images or layers are the next most serious threat to containers, according to Nunnikhoven. "Lacework Labs has witnessed multiple instances of cybercriminals infiltrating containers, either through malware implants or pre-installed crypto mining apps," he said. "When a group deploys the pictures, the attacker has access to the victim's resources."

According to Gal Singer, an Aqua Security researcher, the flaw (CVE-2020-15157) was discovered in the container image-pulling process. Adversaries may take advantage of this by creating dedicated container images which stole the host's token when they were pulled into a project.  Similarly, a denial-of-service vulnerability in one of Kubernetes' Go libraries (CVE-2021-20291) was discovered to be exploited by storing a malicious picture in a registry. When the image was taken from the registry by an unwary user, the DoS condition was generated.

The second source of concern is vulnerabilities, both known and unknown. In 2021, several container flaws were discovered, but "Azurescape" was likely the most alarming. Within Microsoft's multitenant container-as-a-service offering, Unit 42 researchers found a chain of exploits that might allow a hostile Azure user to infect other customers' cloud instances. 

Containerized environments can provide unique issues in terms of observability and security controls, according to Nunnikhoven, but a comprehensive security approach can help. Researchers recommended that users apply a laundry list of best practices to secure their Kubernetes assets: 

  • Avoid using default settings; use secure passwords.
  • To prevent attackers from impersonating the token owner, do not send privileged service account tokens to anyone other than the API server. 
  • Enable the feature "BoundServiceAccountTokenVolume": When a pod ends, its token becomes invalid, reducing the risk of token theft.
  • Examine orchestrators for least-privilege settings to verify that CI/CD movements are authenticated, logged, and monitored. 
  • Be comprehensive: Create a unified risk picture that includes both cloud-based applications and traditional IT infrastructure. 
  • Have data-analysis software in place, as well as an automatic runbook that can react to the findings.
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Notice
Breach Cyber Data Cyber Security Data Privacy Hacking Notice

All Organisations Must Report Cybersecurity Beaches Within 6 Hours: CERT-In

 

CERT-In, India's computer, and emergency response team released new guidelines on Thursday that mandate that service providers, intermediaries, data centres, and government institutions disclose cybersecurity incidents, including data breaches, within six hours.

The government said in a release, "Any service provider, intermediary, data center, body corporate and Government organization shall mandatorily report cyber incidents [...] to CERT-In within six hours of noticing such incidents or being brought to notice about such incidents."

Compromise of critical systems, targeting scanning, unauthorised access to computers and social media accounts, website defacements, malware deployments, identity theft, DDoS attacks, data breaches and leaks, rogue mobile apps, and attacks against servers and network appliances such as routers and IoT devices are among the types of incidents covered.

The government stated  it was taking these steps to ensure that the required indicators of compromise (IoC) associated with security events are easily accessible to "carry out the analysis, investigation, and coordination as per the process of the law”

Concerned organisations are also required to synchronise ICT system clocks to the National Informatics Centre (NIC) or National Physical Laboratory (NPL) Network Time Protocol (NTP) Server, maintain ICT system logs for a rolling period of 180 days, and necessitate VPN service providers to maintain data such as names, addresses, phone numbers, emails, and IP addresses of subscribers for a minimum of five years, according to the guidelines.

The guidelines also require virtual asset service, exchange, and custodian wallet providers to preserve records on Know Your Customer (KYC) and financial transactions for a period of five years, starting in 60 days.

India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) said in a statement, "These directions shall enhance overall cyber security posture and ensure safe and trusted Internet in the country."

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Supply Chain Attack
Cyber Security NIST Private Sectors Risk Management Supply Chain Attack

NIST Seeking Feedback for a New Cybersecurity Framework and Supply Chain Guidance

 

Addressing the SolarWinds disaster and other major third-party assaults targeting vital infrastructure, the National Institute of Standards and Technology is due to publish advice for securing organizations against supply chain breaches. [Special Publication 800-161] is the most important cybersecurity supply chain risk management guidance.' Angela Smith of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) stated. 

Angela Smith of the NIST talked at an Atlantic Council session on Tuesday about initiatives to protect information and communications technology supply chains. The first big revised version will be released by the end of next week, so stay tuned if you haven't already reviewed some of the public drafts. 

The NIST upgrade comes as the Biden administration tries to use the government's procurement power to prod contractors such as IT management firm SolarWinds and other software vendors to improve the security of their environments. 

Vendors of the underlying information and communications technology are pitching in and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency consider expanding private-sector partnerships and taking a more comprehensive approach to tackling dangers to critical infrastructure. 

Future guidelines on trying to manage cybersecurity risks that emerge through the supply chain, according to Smith, would focus more on actions for providers along the chain to address, in addition to the upcoming change. The current literature on the subject has been centered on the organizations' responsibilities for integrating supply-chain aspects into existing surroundings. 

The previous draft version, R2, which was released in October 2021, had a new appendix, Appendix F, which gave implementation assistance for Executive Order 14028 to government agencies. Following NIST's February 4, 2022, Secure Software Development Framework (SSDF) Recommendations, the SP 800-161 release scheduled for next week is likely to deliver more EO 14028 guidance.

The CSF was last updated by NIST in 2018. "There is no single reason causing this transition, This is a scheduled upgrade to keep the CSF current and consistent with other regularly used tools," said Kevin Stine, Chief Cybersecurity Advisor at the NIST. NIST is seeking public input on three primary topics to help guide the revision: revisions to the CSF itself, relationships and alignment between the CSF and other resources, and approaches to improve supply chain cybersecurity. President Barack Obama directed NIST to develop the CSF and directed federal agencies to use it, as well as advising the private sector to do so.

NIST should give a definition for an agency to "use" the framework, and agencies should furnish NIST with cybersecurity risk documents developed and used to comply with this requirement. For enterprises that are utilizing or considering adopting the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, seeing how it is used by US government entities would be extremely beneficial.
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Misinformation
Cyber Security Europol Fake Documents Malicious actor McAfee Misinformation

According to Europol, Deepfakes are Used Frequently in Organized Crime

 

The Europol Innovation Lab recently released its inaugural report, titled "Facing reality? Law enforcement and the challenge of deepfakes", as part of its Observatory function. The paper presents a full overview of the illegal use of deepfake technology, as well as the obstacles faced by law enforcement in identifying and preventing the malicious use of deepfakes, based on significant desk research and in-depth interaction with law enforcement specialists. 

Deepfakes are audio and audio-visual consents that "convincingly show individuals expressing or doing activities they never did, or build personalities which never existed in the first place" using artificial intelligence. Deepfakes are being utilized for malevolent purposes in three important areas, according to the study: disinformation, non-consensual obscenity, and document fraud. As technology further advances in the near future, it is predicted such attacks would become more realistic and dangerous.

  1. Disinformation: Europol provided several examples of how deepfakes could be used to distribute false information, with potentially disastrous results. In the geopolitical domain, for example, producing a phony emergency warning that warns of an oncoming attack. The US charged the Kremlin with a disinformation scheme to use as a pretext for an invasion of Ukraine in February, just before the crisis between Russia and Ukraine erupted.  The technique may also be used to attack corporations, for example, by constructing a video or audio deepfake which makes it appear as if a company's leader committed contentious or unlawful conduct. Criminals imitating the voice of the top executive of an energy firm robbed the company of $243,000. 
  2. Non-consensual obscenity: According to the analysis, Sensity found non-consensual obscenity was present in 96 percent of phony videos. This usually entails superimposing a victim's face onto the body of a philanderer, giving the impression of the victim is performing the act.
  3. Document fraud: While current fraud protection techniques are making it more difficult to fake passports, the survey stated that "synthetic media and digitally modified facial photos present a new way for document fraud." These technologies, for example, can mix or morph the faces of the person who owns the passport and the person who wants to obtain one illegally, boosting the likelihood the photo will pass screening, including automatic ones. 

Deepfakes might also harm the court system, according to the paper, by artificially manipulating or producing media to show or deny someone's guilt. In a recent child custody dispute, a mother of a kid edited an audiotape of her husband to persuade the court he was abusive to her. 

Europol stated all law enforcement organizations must acquire new skills and tools to properly deal with these types of threats. Manual detection strategies, such as looking for discrepancies, and automatic detection techniques, such as deepfake detection software uses artificial intelligence and is being developed by companies like Facebook and McAfee, are among them. 

It is quite conceivable that malicious threat actors would employ deepfake technology to assist various criminal crimes and undertake misinformation campaigns to influence or corrupt public opinion in the months and years ahead. Machine learning and artificial intelligence advancements will continue to improve the software used to make deepfakes.
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Safeboot
Boot Configuration Cyber Safety Cyber Security Logs Research Safeboot

Identifying Ransomware’s Stealthy Boot Configuration Edits

 

The research by Binary Defense entails the various threat hunting techniques and detections for a regularly reported Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) methodology. Using the built-in Windows programme bcdedit.exe (Boot Configuration Data Edit),  threat actors have been spotted changing boot loader configurations to: 
  • Modify Boot Status Policies 
  • Disable Recovery Mode 
  • Enable Safe Mode 
Threat actors (such as Snatch and REvil) may not need to utilise bcdedit to adjust boot loader configurations if they implement code that directly modifies the Windows registry keys that define such configurations, according to the hypothesis employed by Binary Defense to construct the hunting queries. Last year, the researcher am0nsec published a proof-of-concept code that showed how to do exactly this on Windows 10 PCs. Binary Defense wanted to make sure that they could detect such behaviour not only on Windows 7, 8.1, and 11 computers but also on systems where the necessary registry key is stored under a different Globally Unique Identifier (GUID). 

The research builds on the work of Specter Ops researcher Michael Barclay, who published an in-depth blog about hunting for such activities on Windows 10 earlier this year. Below are the bcdedit.exe commands that attackers employ to change boot configuration. Other tools, such as the Windows System Configuration Utility (msconfig.exe), can be used to change the boot configuration data as well. Alternatives, on the other hand, are not described in the study because they are not command-line apps and hence cannot be utilised without a user interface.

Boot Status Policy: The usual way to edit the boot status policy is to use bcdedit with these command line arguments:
bcdedit.exe /set {default} bootstatuspolicy ignoreallfailures
If there is a failed shutdown, boot, or other error during the startup process, this will change the "boot status policy" settings and compel the system to boot normally rather than entering Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE). Threat actors deactivate this to prevent system administrators from using the Windows RE's System Image Recovery tool.

Recovery Mode: The usual method for disabling recovery mode with bcdedit is like this:
bcdedit.exe /set {default} recoveryenabled no
This command completely eliminates the Windows RE. Using the prior command to change the boot status policy will prevent the boot loader from loading the recovery environment when there are starting difficulties, but it will also prohibit system administrators from manually loading it.

Safeboot: To change the Safeboot options, bcdedit is used with these command line arguments:
bcdedit.exe /set {default} safeboot minimal

This command modifies the configuration that decides whether or not the system will restart in Safe Mode the next time it is powered on. Since not all Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solutions and Anti-Virus (AV) software will be running in Safe Mode, this is being changed to prevent identification rather than recovery. Windows Defender, for example, does not work in Safe Mode. As a result, any activities taken by a threat actor (for example, file encryption) will not be tracked, and thus will not be prevented.

Prior study into similar approaches revealed that the registry keys storing these boot loader configuration items were Windows version-specific, with only Windows 10 detections. Binary Defense simply set up VMs running Windows 7, 8.1, and 11 and ran the three aforementioned bcdedit.exe commands while doing a capture with the Windows SysInternals tool Procmon to figure out what those registry keys were for other Windows versions. The logs created by this tool are notoriously noisy, but by adding two filters, one excluding any process not named bcdedit.exe and the other excluding any operation not named RegSetValue, it was simple to filter down to the necessary logs.

In a 60-day period, the following queries were evaluated across different enterprise environments with zero false positives. Because changes to these parameters are uncommon, all of these inquiries can be surfaced to a SOC as detections.

Detections
  • Carbon Black
Windows 7:

regmod_name:(*BCD00000000\Objects\{8c07be1f-21bb-11e8-9c5d-d181d62e5fbf}\Elements\250000e0* OR *BCD00000000\Objects\{8c07be1f-21bb-11e8-9c5d-d181d62e5fbf}\Elements\16000009* OR *BCD00000000\Objects\{8c07be1f-21bb-11e8-9c5d-d181d62e5fbf}\Elements\25000080*)

Windows 8.1:

regmod_name:(*BCD00000000\Objects\{303a1187-f04f-11e7-ae97-d7affdbdc5e9}\Elements\250000e0* OR *BCD00000000\Objects\{303a1187-f04f-11e7-ae97-d7affdbdc5e9}\Elements\16000009* OR *BCD00000000\Objects\{303a1187-f04f-11e7-ae97-d7affdbdc5e9}\Elements\25000080*)

Windows 10:

regmod_name:(*BCD00000000\\Objects\\\{9f83643f\-4a91\–11e9\–9501\-b252ac81e352\}\\Elements\\250000E0* OR *BCD00000000\\Objects\\\{9f83643f\-4a91\–11e9\–9501\-b252ac81e352\}\\Elements\\250000E0* OR *BCD00000000\\Objects\\\{9f83643f\-4a91\–11e9\–9501\-b252ac81e352\}\\Elements\\16000009*)

Windows 11:

regmod_name:(*BCD00000000\Objects\{ea075dc0-83af-11ec-9994-82f1525d1096}\Elements\250000e0* OR *BCD00000000\Objects\{ea075dc0-83af-11ec-9994-82f1525d1096}\Elements\16000009* OR *BCD00000000\Objects\{ea075dc0-83af-11ec-9994-82f1525d1096}\Elements\25000080*)

  • CrowdStrike
Windows 7:

(event_simpleName=AsepValueUpdate OR event_simpleName=SuspiciousRegAsepUpdate OR event_simpleName=RegistryOperationDetectInfo) AND (RegObjectName=”*BCD00000000\Objects\{8c07be1f-21bb-11e8-9c5d-d181d62e5fbf}\Elements\250000e0*” OR RegObjectName=”*BCD00000000\Objects\{8c07be1f-21bb-11e8-9c5d-d181d62e5fbf}\Elements\16000009*” OR RegObjectName=”*BCD00000000\Objects\{8c07be1f-21bb-11e8-9c5d-d181d62e5fbf}\Elements\25000080*”)

Windows 8.1:

event_simpleName=AsepValueUpdate OR event_simpleName=SuspiciousRegAsepUpdate OR event_simpleName=RegistryOperationDetectInfo) AND (RegObjectName=”*BCD00000000\Objects\{303a1187-f04f-11e7-ae97-d7affdbdc5e9}\Elements\250000e0*” OR RegObjectName=”*BCD00000000\Objects\{303a1187-f04f-11e7-ae97-d7affdbdc5e9}\Elements\16000009*” OR RegObjectName=”*BCD00000000\Objects\{303a1187-f04f-11e7-ae97-d7affdbdc5e9}\Elements\25000080*”)

Windows 10:

event_simpleName=AsepValueUpdate OR event_simpleName=SuspiciousRegAsepUpdate OR event_simpleName=RegistryOperationDetectInfo) AND (RegObjectName=”*BCD00000000\\Objects\\{9f83643f-4a91–11e9–9501-b252ac81e352}\\Elements\\25000080*” OR RegObjectName=”*BCD00000000\\Objects\\{9f83643f-4a91–11e9–9501-b252ac81e352}\\Elements\\250000E0*” OR RegObjectName=”*BCD00000000\\Objects\\{9f83643f-4a91–11e9–9501-b252ac81e352}\\Elements\\16000009*”)

Windows 11:

event_simpleName=AsepValueUpdate OR event_simpleName=SuspiciousRegAsepUpdate OR event_simpleName=RegistryOperationDetectInfo) AND (RegObjectName=”*BCD00000000\Objects\{ea075dc0-83af-11ec-9994-82f1525d1096}\Elements\250000e0*” OR RegObjectName=”*BCD00000000\Objects\{ea075dc0-83af-11ec-9994-82f1525d1096}\Elements\16000009*” OR RegObjectName=”*BCD00000000\Objects\{ea075dc0-83af-11ec-9994-82f1525d1096}\Elements\25000080*”)

  • Microsoft Sentinel and Defender for Endpoint
Windows 7:

DeviceRegistryEvents
| where TimeGenerated > ago(90d)
where ActionType == “RegistryValueSet”
| where RegistryKey has_any (@”BCD00000000\Objects\{8c07be1f-21bb-11e8-9c5d-d181d62e5fbf}\Elements\250000e0″, @”BCD00000000\Objects\{8c07be1f-21bb-11e8-9c5d-d181d62e5fbf}\Elements\16000009″, @”BCD00000000\Objects\{8c07be1f-21bb-11e8-9c5d-d181d62e5fbf}\Elements\25000080″)

Windows 8.1:

DeviceRegistryEvents
| where TimeGenerated > ago(90d)
| where ActionType == “RegistryValueSet”
| where RegistryKey has_any (@”BCD00000000\Objects\{303a1187-f04f-11e7-ae97-d7affdbdc5e9}\Elements\250000e0″, @”BCD00000000\Objects\{303a1187-f04f-11e7-ae97-d7affdbdc5e9}\Elements\16000009″, @”BCD00000000\Objects\{303a1187-f04f-11e7-ae97-d7affdbdc5e9}\Elements\25000080″)

Windows 10:

DeviceRegistryEvents
| where TimeGenerated > ago(90d)
| where ActionType == “RegistryValueSet”
| where RegistryKey has_any (@”BCD00000000\Objects\{9f83643f-4a91–11e9–9501-b252ac81e352}\Elements\25000080″, @”BCD00000000\Objects\{9f83643f-4a91–11e9–9501-b252ac81e352}\Elements\250000E0″, @”BCD00000000\Objects\{9f83643f-4a91–11e9–9501-b252ac81e352}\Elements\16000009″)

Windows 11:

DeviceRegistryEvents
| where TimeGenerated > ago(90d)
| where ActionType == “RegistryValueSet”
| where RegistryKey has_any (@”BCD00000000\Objects\{ea075dc0-83af-11ec-9994-82f1525d1096}\Elements\250000e0″, @”BCD00000000\Objects\{ea075dc0-83af-11ec-9994-82f1525d1096}\Elements\16000009″, @”BCD00000000\Objects\{ea075dc0-83af-11ec-9994-82f1525d1096}\Elements\25000080″)

  • SentinelOne
Windows 7:

EventType = “Registry Value Modified” and RegistryKeyPath In Contains Anycase (“BCD00000000\Objects\{8c07be1f-21bb-11e8-9c5d-d181d62e5fbf}\Elements\250000e0”, “BCD00000000\Objects\{8c07be1f-21bb-11e8-9c5d-d181d62e5fbf}\Elements\16000009”, “BCD00000000\Objects\{8c07be1f-21bb-11e8-9c5d-d181d62e5fbf}\Elements\25000080”)

Windows 8.1: {303a1187-f04f-11e7-ae97-d7affdbdc5e9}

EventType = “Registry Value Modified” and RegistryKeyPath In Contains Anycase (“BCD00000000\Objects\{303a1187-f04f-11e7-ae97-d7affdbdc5e9}\Elements\250000e0”, “BCD00000000\Objects\{303a1187-f04f-11e7-ae97-d7affdbdc5e9}\Elements\16000009”, “BCD00000000\Objects\{303a1187-f04f-11e7-ae97-d7affdbdc5e9}\Elements\25000080”)

Windows 10:

EventType = “Registry Value Modified” and RegistryKeyPath In Contains Anycase (“BCD00000000\Objects\{9f83643f-4a91–11e9–9501-b252ac81e352}\Elements\25000080”, “BCD00000000\Objects\{9f83643f-4a91–11e9–9501-b252ac81e352}\Elements\250000E0”, “BCD00000000\Objects\{9f83643f-4a91–11e9–9501-b252ac81e352}\Elements\16000009”)

Windows 11: {ea075dc0-83af-11ec-9994-82f1525d1096}

EventType = “Registry Value Modified” and RegistryKeyPath In Contains Anycase (“BCD00000000\Objects\{ea075dc0-83af-11ec-9994-82f1525d1096}\Elements\250000e0”, “BCD00000000\Objects\{ea075dc0-83af-11ec-9994-82f1525d1096}\Elements\16000009”, “BCD00000000\Objects\{ea075dc0-83af-11ec-9994-82f1525d1096}\Elements\25000080”)
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Safety
Antivirus Cyber Security Device Safety Google Research Safety

VirusTotal Reveals Claims of Critical Flaws in Google’s Antivirus Service

 

There have been questions raised regarding the credibility of research that claims to reveal a severe vulnerability in VirusTotal, a Google-owned antivirus comparison and threat intel service. 

VirusTotal (VT) is a service that enables security researchers, system administrators, and others to evaluate suspicious files, domains, IP addresses, and URLs using an aggregated service that includes close to 70 antivirus vendors and scan engines. The security community, including, but not limited to, the vendors who maintain the scanning engines used by VT, receives samples provided through the service automatically. 

 In a blog post published on Tuesday, Israel-based cybersecurity education platform provider Cysource claims researchers were able to “execute commands remotely within [the] VirusTotal platform and gain access to its various scans capabilities”. 

A doctored DJVU file with a malicious payload added to the file's metadata is used in the attack. To accomplish remote code execution (RCE) and a remote shell, this payload exploits the CVE-2021-22204 vulnerability in Exiftool, a metadata analysis tool.

In April 2021, Cysource researchers presented their findings to Google's VRP, which were addressed a month later. VirusTotal claims that instead of providing a way to weaponize VirusTotal, Cysource has only demonstrated a way to exploit an unpatched third-party antivirus toolset. 

Bernardo Quintero, VirusTotal's founder, stated the code executions are occurring on third-party scanning systems that take and analyse samples obtained from VT, rather than VirusTotal itself, in a response to the findings released as a thread on Twitter. 

 “None [of the] reported machine was from VT and the ‘researchers’ knew it,” Quintero added.
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Windows
Cyber Security cybercriminals DLL Emotet Trojan Excel File Mallicious URLs Proofpoint TTPs Windows

Emotet is Evolving with Different Delivery Methods

 

Emotet is a well-known botnet and trojan which distributes follow-on malware via Windows platforms.  After a 10-month pause amid a coordinated law enforcement operation to take down its assault infrastructure, Emotet, the work of a cybercrime organization known as TA542 (formerly known as Mummy Spider or Gold Crestwood), marked its comeback late last year. 

Since then, Emotet campaigns have sent tens of thousands of messages to thousands of clients across many geographic regions, with message volumes exceeding one million in some situations. The threat actor behind the popular Emotet botnet is experimenting with new attack methods on a small scale before incorporating them into larger-scale spam campaigns, possibly in response to Microsoft's decision to deactivate Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macros by default across all of its products.

According to analysts, the malicious actors behind Emotet, TA542, are experimenting with new approaches on a micro level before deploying them on a larger scale. The current wave of attacks is claimed to have occurred between April 4 and April 19, 2022, when prior large-scale Emotet campaigns were halted. 

Researchers from Proofpoint discovered numerous distinguishing characteristics in the campaign, including the usage of OneDrive URLs rather than Emotet's traditional dependence on Microsoft Office attachments or URLs connecting to Office files. Instead of Emotet's previous use of Microsoft Excel or Word documents with VBA or XL4 macros, the campaign employed XLL files, which are a sort of dynamic link library (DLL) file designed to expand the capability of Excel.

Alternatively, these additional TTPs could mean the TA542 is now conducting more targeted and limited-scale attacks in addition to the traditional mass-scale email operations. The lack of macro-enabled Microsoft Excel or Word document attachments is a notable departure from prior Emotet attacks, implying the threat actor is abandoning the tactic to avoid Microsoft's intentions to disable VBA macros by default beginning April 2022. 

The development came after the virus writers addressed an issue last week which prevented potential victims from being compromised when they opened weaponized email attachments.
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Safety
Cyber Security Data Medical Medical Devices Safety

Medical Device Cybersecurity: What Next in 2022?

 

A survey report on medical device cybersecurity was published by Cybellum, along with trends and predictions for 2022. It's worth noting that medical device cybersecurity has become a very challenging task. 

With medical devices increasingly becoming software-driven machines and the rapid pace at which cybersecurity risk emerges as a result of new vulnerabilities, complex supply chains, new suppliers, and new product lines, keeping the entire product portfolio secure and compliant at all times appears to be impossible. Learning from peers and attempting to identify the best path forward is now more crucial than ever. 

Security experts from hundreds of medical device manufacturers were asked what their biggest challenges are and how they plan to tackle them in 2022 and beyond in this poll. The following are some of the intriguing findings from the survey about medical device manufacturers' security readiness: 
  • The top security difficulty for respondents is managing an expanding number of tools and technologies, which is partially explained by a lack of high-level ownership. 
  • Seventy-five percent of respondents said they don't have a dedicated senior manager in charge of device security. 
  • Almost 90% of respondents acknowledged that companies need to improve in critical areas including SBOM analysis and compliance readiness. 
  • In 2022, nearly half of companies increased their cybersecurity spending by more than 25%. 
  • A dedicated response team (PSIRT) is not in existence at more than 55% of medical device makers. 
David Leichner, CMO at Cybellum said, “We embarked on this survey to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the main challenges facing product security teams at medical device manufacturers, as part of our effort to help to better secure the devices. Some of our findings were quite surprising and highlight serious gaps that exist both in processes for securing medical devices and in regulation compliance.”
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Ransomware
Australia Crypto Crime Cyber Security Ransomware

AUSTRAC Publishes New Guidance on Ransomware and Crypto Crime

 

The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) has released two new financial guides for businesses to detect and prevent criminal abuse of digital currencies and ransomware. 

Each guide provides practical recommendation to assist businesses detect if a payment is related to a ransomware assault, or if someone is exploiting digital currencies and blockchain technology to commit crimes such as tax evasion, terror financing, scams or money laundering. 

The guideline implored businesses to be on the lookout for users who tried to obfuscate the trail of their digital assets transactions by using mixers, privacy assets, and decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms suspiciously. 

Among the particular indicators, Austrac recommends being careful when figuring out if somebody is using digital currencies for terrorism financing, for example, is when transactions to crowdfunding or online fundraising campaigns are linked to ideologically or religiously motivated violent extremism centered boards, or when a buyer account receives a number of small deposits, that are instantly transferred to private wallets. 

In the meantime, some indicators of identifying when an individual is a sufferer of a ransomware assault, according to Austrac, include when a customer increases the limit on their account after which rapidly sends funds to a third party; following a preliminary giant digital currency transfer, a customer has little or no additional digital forex exercise; and when a newly onboarded customer desires to make a direct and huge buy of digital currency, followed by a direct withdrawal to an exterior digital currency address. 

"Financial service providers need to be alert to the signs of criminal use of digital currencies, including their use in ransomware attacks," Austrac CEO Nicole Rose said in a statement. 

The guides have been released in response to the increase in cyber threats to Australia. In 2020-21, 500 ransomware attacks were reported, marking a 15% increase from the previous fiscal year, analysts at Austrac noted. 

Earlier this month, IDCare reported that over 5,000 customer details of former cryptocurrency exchange Alpha were exposed online. The details included the driver's license, passport, proof of age, and national identity card images of 232 Australians and 24 New Zealanders. 

IDCare initially discovered the breach in late January when it noticed a post for sale on a Chinese-speaking platform for $150, before it was eventually posted to be accessed without spending a dime on another online forum called Breached.

"This event poses a serious risk to the identities of any involved. Due to the nature of the identity documents discovered, we urge anyone who had any dealings with AlphaEx to contact us," IDCare said.
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survey
Cyber Security Privacy Report Research Safety Safety Measures survey

Survey: 89% Firms Experienced One or More Successful Email Breach

 

During the past 12 months, 89 percent of firms had one or more successful email intrusions, resulting in significant expenses. 

The vast majority of security teams believe that their email protection measures are useless against the most significant inbound threats, such as ransomware. This is according to a survey of business customers using Microsoft 365 for email commissioned by Cyren and conducted by Osterman Research. The survey examined issues with phishing, business email compromise (BEC), and ransomware threats, attacks that became costly incidents, and readiness to cope with attacks and incidents. 

“Security team managers are most concerned that current email security solutions do not block serious inbound threats (particularly ransomware), which requires time for response and remediation by the security team before dangerous threats are triggered by users,” according to the report.

Less than half of those surveyed felt their companies can prevent email threats from being delivered. Whereas, less than half of firms consider their current email security solutions to be efficient. Techniques to detect and stop mass-mailed phishing emails are seen as the least effective, followed by safeguards against impersonation attacks. 

As a result, it's perhaps unsurprising that nearly every company polled has experienced one or more sorts of email breaches. Overall, successful ransomware attacks have climbed by 71% in the last three years, Microsoft 365 credential compromise has increased by 49%, and successful phishing assaults have increased by 44%, according to the report. 

Email Defences 

When the firms looked into where email defence falls short, they discovered that, surprisingly, the use of email client plug-ins for users to flag questionable communications is on the upswing. According to a 2019 survey, half of the firms now employ an automatic email client plug-in for users to flag questionable email messages for review by skilled security personnel, up from 37% in 2019. The most common recipients of these reports are security operations centre analysts, email administrators, and an email security vendor or service provider, however, 78 percent of firms alert two or more groups. 

In addition, most firms now provide user training on email dangers, according to the survey: More than 99% of companies provide training at least once a year, and one out of every seven companies provides email security training monthly or more regularly. 

“Training more frequently reduces a range of threat markers Among organizations offering training every 90 days or more frequently, the likelihood of employees falling for a phishing, BEC or ransomware threat is less than organizations only training once or twice a year,” as per the report.

Furthermore, the survey discovered that more regular training leads to a higher number of suspicious messages being reported, as well as a higher percentage of these messages being reported as such. The survey also revealed that firms are utilising at least one additional security product to supplement Microsoft 365's basic email protections. However, the survey discovered that their implementation efficacy differs. 

The report explained, “Additive tools include Microsoft 365 Defender, security awareness training technology, a third-party secure email gateway or a third-party specialized anti-phishing add-on. There is a wide range of deployment patterns with the use of these tools.”

The firms came to the conclusion that these kinds of flaws, as well as weak defences in general, result in significant expenses for businesses.

“Costs include post-incident remediation, manual removal of malicious messages from inboxes, and time wasted on triaging messages reported as suspicious that prove to be benign. Organizations face a range of other costs too, including alert fatigue, cybersecurity analyst turnover, and regulatory fines” the report further read.
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Trend Micro
Alibaba Amazon Web Services AWS Cisco Talos Crypto Mining Cyber Security Kubernetes Linux TeamTNT Trend Micro

AWS, and Alibaba Cloud was Attacked by Crypto Miners

 

An intel source recently provided Cisco Talos with modified versions of the TeamTNT cybercrime team's infected shell scripts, an earlier version of which was documented by Trend Micro. The malware creator modified these tools after learning that security experts had disclosed the prior version of its scripts. These scripts are intended primarily for Amazon Web Services (AWS), but they might also be used on-premise, in containers, or in other Linux instances. 

There are multiple TeamTNT payloads focusing on bitcoin mining, persistence, and lateral movement employing tactics like identifying and installing on with all Kubernetes pods in a local network, in addition to the primary credential stealer scripts. A script containing user credentials for the distribution system server and another with an API key which may allow remote access to a tmate shared login session is also included. Defense evasion functions aimed at defeating Alibaba cloud security technologies are included in some TeamTNT scripts.

When it comes to decision making obtaining credentials, the script looks for them in the following places and APIs: 

  • It attempts to obtain the string 'AWS' from /proc/*/environ from the Linux system environment variables. 
  • Obtaining the string 'AWS' from Docker environment variables with the command $(docker inspect $) (docker ps -q).
  • /home/.aws/credentials and /root/.aws/credentials are the default AWS CLI credential file locations.
While the query itself will not be caught by Cisco Secure Cloud Analytics, the alert "AWS Temporary Token Persistence" will detect later use of these credentials to generate further temporary credentials. Finally, the virus saves any credentials acquired by the preceding functions to the file "/var/tmp/TeamTNT AWS STEALER.txt" and uses cURL to transfer it to the URL http://chimaera[.]cc/in/AWS.php before deleting it. 

No CloudTrail, GuardDuty, or SCA events were generated when the script ran on the target EC2 instance for all network traffic was restricted by the VPC Security Group such as the script could not access TeamTNT's servers. 

The core of the defense impairment functions is directed against Alibaba Cloud Security's numerous agents, how, they also target Tencent Cloud Monitor and third-party BMC Helix Cloud Security, agents. While the bulk of malicious scripts targets AWS Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) virtual machines, these bots are most typically detected running inside Alibaba Cloud Elastic Compute Service (ECS) or a Tencent Cloud VM. They could theoretically be put on a VM operating on AWS or any other service, but it would be unusual. TeamTNT makes no attempt to disable AWS CloudWatch, Microsoft Defender, Google Cloud Monitor, Cisco Secure Cloud Analytics, CrowdStrike Falcon, Palo Alto Prisma Cloud, or other popular cloud security tools in the United States. 

The Alibaba defense damage routines have been retrieved and saved here from the script Kubernetes root payload 2.sh. Since static analysis of the defense impairment functions is problematic due to the presence of multiple Base64 encoded strings, those functions have been decrypted and placed back into the file ali-defense-impairment-base64-decoded.sh.txt. 

"Cybercriminals who have been exposed by security researchers should update those tools to keep functioning successfully," stated Darin Smith of Talos. 

The serious remote code execution problem in Spring Framework (CVE-2022-22965) has been leveraged to deploy cryptocurrency miners, in yet another example of how threat actors quickly co-opt recently revealed flaws into existing attacks. To deploy the cryptocurrency miners, the exploitation efforts employ a unique web shell, but not before switching off the firewall and disabling other virtual currency miner processes.
Read more »
Security Tools
Cloud Network Cyber Security Encryption Tools infosec Security Tools

To Reliably Govern Multi-Cloud Workloads, IT Leaders Demand Better Security Insights

 

Gigamon has revealed the results of a Pulse. qa poll of IT and InfoSec experts to identify hurdles in progressing current multi-cloud plans. 

According to a recent Pew Research poll, 64 percent of Americans prefer to work in either an entirely remote or hybrid environment, pushing organizations to deal with the growing complexity of transferring and expanding workloads in the cloud. As a result, respondents to the Pulse.qa poll rank transparency over cloud data-in-motion as the most important security element globally. 

"Deep observability across hybrid and multi-cloud setups are required for every firm to stay competitive in a world of enhanced security risk and IT complexity. While each company's journey to service and infrastructure modernization is unique, bridging this visibility gap is critical to safeguarding and optimizing the network in order to provide a superior user experience." Gigamon's VP of brand and technical marketing, Bassam Khan, explained. 

Multi-cloud methods' challenges 

  • The successful administration of multi-cloud infrastructures is being hampered by increasing complexity and cost — 99 percent of respondents said the team lacked or violated an app service-level agreement (SLA) owing to challenges caused by an overly complicated cloud infrastructure. 
  • Attempts by tech executives to transfer and boost workloads in the cloud are being hampered by rising costs and complexity – High cloud expenses, according to 67 percent of respondents, are hindering the firms' ability to transfer applications and workloads as quickly as they need; 96 percent said connectivity bottlenecks or complex cloud troubleshooting attempts hold down migration efforts. 
  • The expense and complexities of cloud infrastructure deplete resources for other ventures and apps, frustrating already overworked IT employees — IT employee irritation was a close second (51%) to a lack of budget (61%) for critical applications. 

82 percent of IT and InfoSec leaders favor best-of-breed third-party security tools over cloud platform provider technologies to overcome these cloud migration bottlenecks and issues. Furthermore, the percent prefers a single point of visibility across the whole environment to a compartmentalized approach to cloud problems.

In a comparable pattern, multi-cloud is utilized. It gives organizations more ways to take advantage of the cloud's benefits. In response to demand, multi-cloud is certainly one of the most popular techniques.
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RSA
Amazon API Bug Cyber Security FBI Mespinoza group PHP PRODAFT PYSA ransomware attacks RSA

PYSA Ransomware Group: Experts Share In-Depth Details

 

Since August 2020, the cybercrime group adopted a five-stage system design, with the malware developers prioritizing enhancements to boost the efficiency of its activities, according to an 18-month examination of the PYSA ransomware operation. The GSOC explores the PYSA ransomware inside this Threat Analysis Report. Once the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) informed of the ransomware's increased activity and significant harmful impact early this year, it became known as the PYSA ransomware. 

This includes a user-friendly tool, such as a full-text search engine, to make metadata extraction easier and allow threat actors to easily locate and access victim information. "The group is notorious for thoroughly researching high-value targets before unleashing its operations, compromising business systems, and forcing researchers to pay significant ransoms to retrieve sensitive data," stated PRODAFT, a Swiss cybersecurity firm, in a comprehensive report released last week. 

PYSA, which stands for "Protect Your System, Amigo" and is a descendant of the Mespinoza ransomware, was initially discovered in December 2019 and has since risen to become the third most common ransomware strain reported in the fourth quarter of 2021. The cybercriminal cell is thought to have exfiltrated confidential info linked to as many as 747 individuals since September 2020, until its databases were taken down earlier this January. 

The majority of its victims are in the United States and Europe, and the gang primarily targets the federal, medical, and educational sectors. "The United States was the most-affected country, contributing for 59.2 percent of all PYSA occurrences documented," Intel 471 stated in a review of ransomware assaults observed from October to December 2021. PYSA, like all other malware attacks, is renowned for using the "big game hunting" method of double ransom, which involves making the stolen data public if the victim refuses to comply with the firm's demands. 

Every relevant key is encrypted and assigned the ".pysa" extension, which can only be decoded with the RSA private key given after paying the fee. PYSA victims are claimed to have paid about 58 percent in digital payments to get access to protected data. PRODAFT was able to find a publicly accessible. git folder owned by PYSA operators and designated one of the project's writers as "dodo@mail.pcc," a danger actor based on the commit history thought to be situated in a country that observes daylight savings time.

As per the study, at least 11 accounts are in control of the whole operation, the mass of which was formed on January 8, 2021. However, four of these accounts — t1, t3, t4, and t5 — account for approximately 90% of activity on the management panel of the company. Other operational security failures committed by the group's members allowed a concealed system running on the TOR secrecy network — a server provider (Snel.com B.V.) based in the Netherlands — to be identified, providing insight into the actor's techniques. PYSA's infrastructure also includes dockerized containers for global leak servers, database servers, administrative servers, and an Amazon S3 cloud for storing the files, which total 31.47TB.

The panel is written in PHP 7.3.12 by using the Laravel framework and uses the Git version monitoring system to oversee the development process. Furthermore, the admin panel exposes several API endpoints that allow the system to display files, auto-generate GIFs, and scan data, which is used to group stolen victim data into broad categories for simple retrieval. Several or more potential threat groups spent nearly five months within the system of an undisclosed regional US government agency before delivering the LockBit ransomware malware at the start of the year, as per research from cybersecurity firm Sophos.
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User Data
Cyber Firms Cyber Security Dark data Data Data Safety data security Secure Data Security User Data

Dark Data: A Crucial Concern for Security Experts

 

BigID recently released a research paper that examines the current problems that businesses face in safeguarding their most critical information. A number of important findings emerged from the research:
  • Dark data is extremely concerning to 84 per cent of businesses. This is data that businesses aren't aware of, but which accounts for more than half of all data in existence and can be extremely sensitive or vital. 
  • Unstructured data is the most difficult to manage and safeguard for eight out of ten businesses. Unstructured data generally comprises a variety of sensitive information and is challenging to scan and identify due to its inherent complexity. 
  • More than 90% of businesses have trouble implementing security standards involving sensitive or important data. Data policy reach and enforcement are crucial for proper data asset management, remediation, and security. 
Data is an organization's most valuable asset, relying on it every day to make critical strategic and operational choices. Unfortunately, most of this data is highly sensitive or critical, and it can be exposed accidentally or maliciously in some instances. 

Dimitri Sirota, CEO of BigID stated, “Data is the fuel that drives a company forward. However, a lot of this data is personal and as it accumulates, so does cyber risk. You owe it to your customers, partners, and employees to keep this data safe, let alone to keep your business running. This report reinforces the fact that most continue to struggle to confidently protect their most valuable data.” 

Sensitive or essential data is being spread throughout the environment at unprecedented rates, thanks to the rapid rise of public, private, hybrid, and multi-cloud models. As the scope of this type of data grows, so does the risk to the organisation. 

The research looks into the most significant security issues, the core causes of these problems, and practical ways to improve data security so that teams can protect their most valuable data assets.
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