Security
Headlines
HeadlinesLatestCVEs

Headline

Most Q2 Attacks Targeted Old Microsoft Vulnerabilities

The most heavily targeted flaw last quarter was a remote code execution vulnerability in Microsoft Office that was disclosed and patched four years ago.

DARKReading
#vulnerability#windows#microsoft#rce#zero_day

Attacks targeting a remote code execution vulnerability in Microsoft’s MSHTML browser engine — which was patched last September — soared during the second quarter of this year, according to a Kaspersky analysis.

Researchers from Kaspersky counted at least 4,886 attacks targeting the flaw (CVE-2021-40444) last quarter, an eightfold increase over the first quarter of 2022. The security vendor attributed the continued adversary interest in the vulnerability to the ease with which it can be exploited.

Kaspersky said it has observed threat actors exploiting the flaw in attacks on organizations across multiple sectors including the energy and industrial sectors, research and development, IT companies, and financial and medical technology firms. In many of these attacks, the adversaries have used social engineering tricks to try and get victims to open specially crafted Office documents that would then download and execute a malicious script. The flaw was under active attack at the time Microsoft first disclosed it in September 2021.

The attacks targeting the MSHTML flaw were part of a broader set of exploit activity last quarter that overwhelmingly targeted Microsoft vulnerabilities. According to Kaspersky, exploits for Windows vulnerabilities accounted for 82% of all exploits across all platforms during the second quarter of 2022. While attacks on the MSHTML vulnerability increased the most dramatically, it was by no means the most exploited flaw.

Old Is Gold for Threat Actors

Kaspersky’s telemetry showed far more attacks on a handful of other vulnerabilities from 2018 and 2017. One of them was CVE-2018-0802, a remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability in Microsoft Office that was attacked some 345,827 times last quarter. Another similar memory corruption flaw from 2017 (CVE-2017-11882) was targeted in 140,623 attacks while a Microsoft Office/WordPad remote code execution flaw also from 2017 (CVE-2017-0199) was involved in 60,132 attacks.

The so-called Follina vulnerability in Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool (MSDT) (CVE-2022-30190) was among the most targeted of recent vulnerabilities. The RCE flaw was one of at least five zero-day flaws that Microsoft has disclosed this year.

In total, Kaspersky found vulnerabilities in older versions of Microsoft Office being used in attacks against more than half a million users in second quarter. The attacks are another reminder of how unpatched vulnerabilities in older technologies remain a popular and highly attractive target for threat actors, the security vendor noted. “Old versions of applications remain the main targets for attackers, with almost 547,000 users in total being affected through corresponding vulnerabilities in the last quarter,” Kaspersky said.

Kaspersky’s report is another reminder of why security experts advocate quick patching of Microsoft vulnerabilities. Recent data has shown attackers have gotten much faster at exploiting flaws than before. A study that Rapid7 conducted last year showed that the mean time to known exploitation for vulnerabilities in 2021 was just 12 days — a 71% decrease from 42 days in 2020. The company explained the numbers as being driven by a sharp rise in zero-day exploit activity. “A drastic reduction in time to exploitation year over year means that not only are well-worn emergency patching procedures necessary, incident response protocols are likely to require repeated use as well,” Rapid7 noted at the time.

Related news

Revamped Remcos RAT Deployed Against Microsoft Windows Users

Windows users are at risk for full device takeover by an emerging malicious version of the Remcos remote admin tool, which is being used in an ongoing campaign exploiting a known remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability in Microsoft Office and WordPad.

Hackers Use Excel Files to Deliver Remcos RAT Variant on Windows

This article explains the inner workings of the Remcos RAT, a dangerous malware that uses advanced techniques to…

Free Sniper Dz Phishing Tools Fuel 140,000+ Cyber Attacks Targeting User Credentials

More than 140,000 phishing websites have been found linked to a phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) platform named Sniper Dz over the past year, indicating that it's being used by a large number of cybercriminals to conduct credential theft. "For prospective phishers, Sniper Dz offers an online admin panel with a catalog of phishing pages," Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 researchers Shehroze Farooqi,

Multi-Stage ValleyRAT Targets Chinese Users with Advanced Tactics

Chinese-speaking users are the target of an ongoing campaign that distributes malware known as ValleyRAT. "ValleyRAT is a multi-stage malware that utilizes diverse techniques to monitor and control its victims and deploy arbitrary plugins to cause further damage," Fortinet FortiGuard Labs researchers Eduardo Altares and Joie Salvio said. "Another noteworthy characteristic of this malware is its

India-Linked SideWinder Group Pivots to Hacking Maritime Targets

The nation-state espionage group known for attacking Pakistan has expanded its reach to targets in Egypt and Sri Lanka.

New SideWinder Cyber Attacks Target Maritime Facilities in Multiple Countries

The nation-state threat actor known as SideWinder has been attributed to a new cyber espionage campaign targeting ports and maritime facilities in the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. The BlackBerry Research and Intelligence Team, which discovered the activity, said targets of the spear-phishing campaign include countries like Pakistan, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, and the

Void Banshee APT Exploits Microsoft MHTML Flaw to Spread Atlantida Stealer

An advanced persistent threat (APT) group called Void Banshee has been observed exploiting a recently disclosed security flaw in the Microsoft MHTML browser engine as a zero-day to deliver an information stealer called Atlantida. Cybersecurity firm Trend Micro, which observed the activity in mid-May 2024, the vulnerability – tracked as CVE-2024-38112 – was used as part of a multi-stage attack

New Phishing Campaign Uses Stealthy JPGs to Drop Agent Tesla

Spanish speakers beware! A new campaign using the Agent Tesla RAT targets Spanish-speaking individuals. Learn how to protect…

To Damage OT Systems, Hackers Tap USBs, Old Bugs & Malware

USBs have something the newest, hottest attack techniques lack: the ability to bridge air gaps.

Hackers Exploiting Old MS Excel Vulnerability to Spread Agent Tesla Malware

Attackers are weaponizing an old Microsoft Office vulnerability as part of phishing campaigns to distribute a strain of malware called Agent Tesla. The infection chains leverage decoy Excel documents attached in invoice-themed messages to trick potential targets into opening them and activate the exploitation of CVE-2017-11882 (CVSS score: 7.8), a memory corruption vulnerability in Office's

September 2023: VM courses, Bahasa Indonesia, Russian Podcasts, Goodbye Tinkoff, MS Patch Tuesday, Qualys TOP 20, Linux, Forrester, GigaOm, R-Vision VM

Hello everyone! On the last day of September, I decided to record another retrospective episode on how my Vulnerability Management month went. Alternative video link (for Russia): https://vk.com/video-149273431_456239136 September was quite a busy month for me. Vulnerability Management courses I participated in two educational activities. The first one is an on-line cyber security course for […]

Operation Rusty Flag: Azerbaijan Targeted in New Rust-Based Malware Campaign

Targets located in Azerbaijan have been singled out as part of a new campaign that's designed to deploy Rust-based malware on compromised systems. Cybersecurity firm Deep Instinct is tracking the operation under the name Operation Rusty Flag. It has not been associated with any known threat actor or group. "The operation has at least two different initial access vectors," security researchers

New Agent Tesla Variant Uses Excel Exploit to Infect Windows PCs

By Deeba Ahmed FortiGuard Discovers Phishing Campaign Distributing New Agent Tesla Variant to Windows Devices. This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: New Agent Tesla Variant Uses Excel Exploit to Infect Windows PCs

Alert: Phishing Campaigns Deliver New SideTwist Backdoor and Agent Tesla Variant

The Iranian threat actor tracked as APT34 has been linked to a new phishing attack that leads to the deployment of a variant of a backdoor called SideTwist. “APT34 has a high level of attack technology, can design different intrusion methods for different types of targets, and has supply chain attack capability,” NSFOCUS Security Labs said in a report published last week. APT34, also known by

Cybercriminals Exploit Microsoft Word Vulnerabilities to Deploy LokiBot Malware

Microsoft Word documents exploiting known remote code execution flaws are being used as phishing lures to drop malware called LokiBot on compromised systems. "LokiBot, also known as Loki PWS, has been a well-known information-stealing Trojan active since 2015," Fortinet FortiGuard Labs researcher Cara Lin said. "It primarily targets Windows systems and aims to gather sensitive information from

New Attack Drops LokiBot Malware Via Malicious Macros in Word Docs

By Waqas LokiBot, a notorious Trojan active since 2015, specializes in stealing sensitive information from Windows machines, posing a significant threat to user data. This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: New Attack Drops LokiBot Malware Via Malicious Macros in Word Docs

A DIY Guide To Become An Alone Long Time Bughunter For Ordinary People

Whitepaper called Bughunter's Life-Style: A DIY guide to become an alone long time bughunter for ordinary people. Written in Spanish.

North Korea's Kimsuky APT Keeps Growing, Despite Public Outing

Kim Jong Un's Swiss Army knife APT continues to spread its tendrils around the world, showing it's not intimidated by the researchers closing in.

Ransomware's Favorite Target: Critical Infrastructure and Its Industrial Control Systems

The health, manufacturing, and energy sectors are the most vulnerable to ransomware.

Chinese Hackers Keep Targeting Group-IB Cybersecurity Firm

By Deeba Ahmed An APT group known as Tonto Team has tried targeting the Singapore-based Group-IB cybersecurity firm for the second time. This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: Chinese Hackers Keep Targeting Group-IB Cybersecurity Firm

New Malware Campaign Targeting Job Seekers with Cobalt Strike Beacons

A social engineering campaign leveraging job-themed lures is weaponizing a years-old remote code execution flaw in Microsoft Office to deploy Cobalt Strike beacons on compromised hosts. "The payload discovered is a leaked version of a Cobalt Strike beacon," Cisco Talos researchers Chetan Raghuprasad and Vanja Svajcer said in a new analysis published Wednesday. "The beacon configuration contains

New campaign uses government, union-themed lures to deliver Cobalt Strike beacons

By Chetan Raghuprasad and Vanja Svajcer. Cisco Talos discovered a malicious campaign in August 2022 delivering Cobalt Strike beacons that could be used in later, follow-on attacks. Lure themes in the phishing documents in this campaign are related to the job details of a government organization in the United States and a trade union in New Zealand. The attack involves a multistage and modular infection chain with fileless, malicious scripts. Cisco Talos recently discovered a malicious campaign with a modularised attack technique to deliver Cobalt Strike beacons on infected endpoints. The initial vector of this attack is a phishing email with a malicious Microsoft Word document attachment containing an exploit that attempts to exploit the vulnerability CVE-2017-0199, a remote code execution issue in Microsoft Office. If a victim opens the maldoc, it downloads a malicious Word document template hosted on an attacker-controlled Bitbucket repository. Talos discovered two attack met...

Hackers Using PowerPoint Mouseover Trick to Infect System with Malware

The Russian state-sponsored threat actor known as APT28 has been found leveraging a new code execution method that makes use of mouse movement in decoy Microsoft PowerPoint documents to deploy malware. The technique "is designed to be triggered when the user starts the presentation mode and moves the mouse," cybersecurity firm Cluster25 said in a technical report. "The code execution runs a

Vulnerability Exploits, Not Phishing, Are the Top Cyberattack Vector for Initial Compromise

A slew of Microsoft Exchange vulnerabilities (including ProxyLogon) fueled a surge in attacks targeting software flaws in 2021, but the trend has continued this year.

Cybercrime Group TA558 Targeting Hospitality, Hotel, and Travel Organizations

A financially motivated cybercrime group has been linked to an ongoing wave of attacks aimed at hospitality, hotel, and travel organizations in Latin America with the goal of installing malware on compromised systems. Enterprise security firm Proofpoint, which is tracking the group under the name TA558 dating all the way back to April 2018, called it a "small crime threat actor." "Since 2018,

Chinese Hackers Targeted Dozens of Industrial Enterprises and Public Institutions

Over a dozen military-industrial complex enterprises and public institutions in Afghanistan and Europe have come under a wave of targeted attacks since January 2022 to steal confidential data by simultaneously making use of six different backdoors. Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky attributed the attacks "with a high degree of confidence" to a China-linked threat actor tracked by Proofpoint

Woody RAT: A new feature-rich malware spotted in the wild

The Malwarebytes Threat Intelligence team has discovered a new Remote Access Trojan that we dubbed Woody Rat used to target Russian entities. The post Woody RAT: A new feature-rich malware spotted in the wild appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Microsoft Office Most Exploited Software in Malware Attacks – Report

By Deeba Ahmed Research reveals that around 80% of all malware attacks used MS Office flaws. Atlas VPN has shared its… This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: Microsoft Office Most Exploited Software in Malware Attacks – Report

Microsoft Office Most Exploited Software in Malware Attacks – Report

By Deeba Ahmed Research reveals that around 80% of all malware attacks used MS Office flaws. Atlas VPN has shared its… This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: Microsoft Office Most Exploited Software in Malware Attacks – Report

Microsoft Patch Tuesday June 2022: Follina RCE, NFSV4.1 RCE, LDAP RCEs and bad patches

Hello everyone! This will be an episode about the Microsoft vulnerabilities that were released on June Patch Tuesday and also between May and June Patch Tuesdays. Alternative video link (for Russia): https://vk.com/video-149273431_456239094 On June Patch Tuesday, June 14, 56 vulnerabilities were released. Between May and June Patch Tuesdays, 38 vulnerabilities were released. This gives us 94 […]

Internet Explorer Now Retired but Still an Attacker Target

Though the once-popular browser is officially now history as far as Microsoft support goes, adversaries won't stop attacking it, security experts say.

Update now!  Microsoft patches Follina, and many other security updates

Patch Tuesday for June 2022 brought a fix for Follina and many other security vulnerabilities. Time to figure out what needs to be prioritized. The post Update now!  Microsoft patches Follina, and many other security updates appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Patch Tuesday: Microsoft Issues Fix for Actively Exploited 'Follina' Vulnerability

Microsoft officially released fixes to address an actively exploited Windows zero-day vulnerability known as Follina as part of its Patch Tuesday updates. Also addressed by the tech giant are 55 other flaws, three of which are rated Critical, 51 are rated Important, and one is rated Moderate in severity. Separately, five other shortcomings were resolved in the Microsoft Edge browser. <!-

PHDays 11: towards the Independence Era

Hello everyone! In this episode, I want to talk about the Positive Hack Days 11 conference, which took place on May 18 and 19 in Moscow. As usual, I want to express my personal opinion about this event. Alternative video link (for Russia): https://vk.com/video-149273431_456239091 As I did last year, I want to start talking about this […]

Potent Emotet Variant Spreads Via Stolen Email Credentials

The dangerous malware appears to be well and truly back in action, sporting new variants and security-dodging behaviors in a wave of recent phishing campaigns.

Emotet Banking Trojan Resurfaces, Skating Past Email Security

The malware is using spreadsheets, documents, and other types of Microsoft Office attachments in a new and improved version that is often able to bypass email gateway-security scanners.

CVE-2022-30190

Microsoft Windows Support Diagnostic Tool (MSDT) Remote Code Execution Vulnerability.

FAQ: Mitigating Microsoft Office’s ‘Follina’ zero-day

FAQ for the new Follina zero-day vulnerability. What you can do to protect your computers right now. The post FAQ: Mitigating Microsoft Office’s ‘Follina’ zero-day appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Unofficial Micropatch for Follina Released as Chinese Hackers Exploit the 0-day

By Waqas The Follina vulnerability was originally discovered after a malicious Microsoft Word document was uploaded on VirusTotal from a… This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: Unofficial Micropatch for Follina Released as Chinese Hackers Exploit the 0-day

Threat Advisory: Zero-day vulnerability in Microsoft diagnostic tool MSDT could lead to code execution

A recently discovered zero-day vulnerability in the Microsoft Windows Support Diagnostic Tool (MSDT) made headlines over the past few days. CVE-2022-30190, also known under the name "Follina," exists when MSDT is called using the URL protocol from an application, such as Microsoft Office, Microsoft... [[ This is only the beginning! Please visit the blog for the complete entry ]]

Microsoft Releases Workaround for ‘One-Click’ 0Day Under Active Attack

Threat actors already are exploiting vulnerability, dubbed ‘Follina’ and originally identified back in April, to target organizations in Russia and Tibet, researchers said.

Microsoft Office MSDT Follina Proof Of Concept

Proof of concept for the remote code execution vulnerability in MSDT known as Follina.

Microsoft Office MSDT Follina Proof Of Concept

Proof of concept for the remote code execution vulnerability in MSDT known as Follina.

SideWinder Hackers Launched Over a 1,000 Cyber Attacks Over the Past 2 Years

An "aggressive" advanced persistent threat (APT) group known as SideWinder has been linked to over 1,000 new attacks since April 2020. "Some of the main characteristics of this threat actor that make it stand out among the others, are the sheer number, high frequency and persistence of their attacks and the large collection of encrypted and obfuscated malicious components used in their

New Attack Shows Weaponized PDF Files Remain a Threat

Notable new infection chain uses PDF to embed malicious files, load remote exploits, shellcode encryption, and more, new research shows.

Snake Keylogger Spreads Through Malicious PDFs

Microsoft Word also leveraged in the email campaign, which uses a 22-year-old Office RCE bug.

Bitter APT Hackers Add Bangladesh to Their List of Targets in South Asia

An espionage-focused threat actor known for targeting China, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia has expanded to set its sights on Bangladeshi government organizations as part of an ongoing campaign that commenced in August 2021. Cybersecurity firm Cisco Talos attributed the activity with moderate confidence to a hacking group dubbed the Bitter APT based on overlaps in the command-and-control (C2)

Bitter APT Hackers Add Bangladesh to Their List of Targets in South Asia

An espionage-focused threat actor known for targeting China, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia has expanded to set its sights on Bangladeshi government organizations as part of an ongoing campaign that commenced in August 2021. Cybersecurity firm Cisco Talos attributed the activity with moderate confidence to a hacking group dubbed the Bitter APT based on overlaps in the command-and-control (C2)

Bitter APT adds Bangladesh to their targets

Cisco Talos has observed an ongoing malicious campaign since August 2021 from the Bitter APT group that appears to target users in Bangladesh, a change from the attackers' usual victims.As part of this, there's a new trojan based on Apost Talos is calling "ZxxZ," that, among other... [[ This is only the beginning! Please visit the blog for the complete entry ]]

Bitter APT adds Bangladesh to their targets

Cisco Talos has observed an ongoing malicious campaign since August 2021 from the Bitter APT group that appears to target users in Bangladesh, a change from the attackers' usual victims.As part of this, there's a new trojan based on Apost Talos is calling "ZxxZ," that, among other... [[ This is only the beginning! Please visit the blog for the complete entry ]]

CVE-2021-36338: DSA-2021-226: Dell EMC Unisphere for PowerMax, Dell EMC Unisphere for PowerMax vApp, Dell EMC Solutions Enabler vApp, Dell EMC Unisphere 360, Dell EMC VASA, and Dell EMC PowerMax EMB Mgmt Security Upd

Unisphere for PowerMax versions prior to 9.2.2.2 contains a privilege escalation vulnerability. An adjacent malicious user could potentially exploit this vulnerability to escalate their privileges and access functionalities they do not have access to. CVE-2022-31233 addresses the partial fix in CVE-2021-36338.

CVE-2021-40444

Microsoft MSHTML Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

DARKReading: Latest News

Faux ChatGPT, Claude API Packages Deliver JarkaStealer