PuzzleMaker attacks exploit Windows zero-day, Chrome vulnerabilities. According to Kaspersky, a wave of “highly targeted attacks” on several organizations was traced that utilized a chain of zero-day exploits in the Google Chrome browser and Microsoft Windows systems over April 14 and 15, 2021. The attackers have been named PuzzleMaker. The first exploit in the chain, while not confirmed, appears to be CVE-2021-21224, a V8 type confusion vulnerability in the Google Chrome browser prior to 90.0.4430.85.
Malicious actors are actively mass scanning the internet for vulnerable VMware vCenter servers that are unpatched against a critical remote code execution flaw, which the company addressed late last month. Mass scanning activity detected from 104.40.252.159 checking for VMware vSphere hosts vulnerable to remote code execution.
The Qlocker ransomware gang has shut down their operation after earning $350,000 in a month by exploiting vulnerabilities in QNAP NAS devices. Starting on April 19th, QNAP NAS device owners worldwide suddenly discovered that their device’s files were replaced by password-protected 7-zip archives.
Mozilla Thunderbird email client could have been abused to impersonate senders. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2021-29956, has been given a low severity rating by the company and exists in versions 78.8.1 to 78.10.1 of its email client. Thankfully though, it has now been patched by the developer who introduced it in the first place while trying to add extra protection to the secret keys used by Thunderbird.
Researchers from Ruhr-University Bochum have disclosed two new attack techniques on certified PDF documents that could potentially enable an attacker to alter a document’s visible content by displaying malicious content over the certi fi ed content without invalidating its signature.
Babuk ransomware readies ‘shut down’ post, plans to open source malware. After just a few months of activity, the operators of Babuk ransomware briefly posted a short message about their intention to quit the extortion business after having achieved their goal. Unlike other gangs that chose to release decryption keys or even return the collected ransoms, Babuk’s final gesture is to pass the torch to others.
Pradeo team has come across an advanced mobile attack campaign that uses a phishing technique to steal victims’ credit card details and infects them with a malware that impersonates the Android Google Chrome app. The malware uses victims’ devices as a vector to send thousands of phishing SMS.
Microsoft has fixed a bug that could allow a threat actor to create specially crafted downloads that crash Windows 10 simply by opening the folder where they are downloaded. Microsoft has classified this bug as a DDoS vulnerability and is tracking it as CVE-2021-28312 with the title ‘Windows NTFS Denial of Service Vulnerability.’
Nato holds Locked Shields 2021 – cyber war games with hackers targeting fictional island nation. The drills involving 30 countries are meant to test Nato’s defences during a global pandemic that is making the world more dependent on virtual systems.
Microsoft Exchange Server attacks: a significant number of cyberattacks targeting vulnerable Microsoft Exchange servers are attempted every single day, warn researchers at F-Secure – who say it is critical to apply the patches immediately.
Masslogger Trojan reinvented in quest to steal Outlook, Chrome credentials. The operators have also been linked to the use of AgentTesla, Formbook, and AsyncRAT. Cybersecurity researchers from Cisco Talos said the campaign is currently focused on victims in Turkey, Latvia, and Italy, expanding activities documented in late 2020 which targeted users in Spain, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Hungary, Estonia, and Romania.
A small but complex malware variant called Kobalos is targeting supercomputers worldwide. The malware’s codebase is tiny but is sophisticated enough to impact at least Linux, BSD, and Solaris operating systems. ESET suspects it may possibly be compatible with attacks against AIX and Microsoft Windows machines, too.
The vulnerability, disclosed recently as CVE-2021-3156 by security researchers from Qualys, impacts Sudo, an app that allows admins to delegate limited root access to other users.
EUR 272.5 million of fines have been imposed for a wide range of infringements of Europe’s tough data protection laws according to international law firm DLA Piper. EUR 158.5 million of fines imposed since 28 January 2020, a 39% increase on the previous 20 month period since the application of General Data Protection Regulation.
Cybersecurity firm FireEye released a report detailing the techniques used by the SolarWinds hackers inside the networks of companies they breached. Together with the report, FireEye researchers have also released a free tool on GitHub named Azure AD Investigator that they say can help companies determine if the SolarWinds hackers (also known as UNC2452) used any of these techniques inside their networks.
