Headline
Threat Source newsletter (April 13, 2023) — Dark web forum whac-a-mole
Microsoft zero-days, dark web forum takedowns and Pentagon leaks on Discord in this week’s newsletter.
Thursday, April 13, 2023 14:04
Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter.
Law enforcement organizations across the globe notched a series of wins over the past few weeks against online forums for cybercriminals.
On March 23, the FBI announced it disrupted the online cybercriminal marketplace BreachForums, known for being a place where users could buy and sell stolen user information. They also arrested a 20-year-old suspected of being the site’s founder and main administrator.
Then last week we had “Operation Cookie Monster” in which several international agencies worked together to take down Genesis Market, a similar dark web forum, arresting dozens of suspected users and administrators.
These arrests and network operations are important in that they disrupted sites that were known for highly sensitive information and served as a place for some of the most prolific cyber criminals to make money. The U.S. Department of Justice estimated that Genesis Market was responsible for the sale of data on more than 1.5 million compromised computers around the world containing over 80 million account access credentials. And the U.K.’s National Crime Agency (NCA) said credentials were available for as little as 70 cents to hundreds of dollars depending on the stolen data available.
But the user base for these sites was also huge (after all, someone had to be buying those credentials). At the time of its takedown, BreachForums had 340,000 members, according to the FBI. And reporting on Operation Cookie Monster stated that Genesis Market had 59,000 registered users.
So while it’s great that these sites have been disrupted, I can’t help but assume that two more sites are going to pop up to service these cyber criminals. It’s impossible for any agency to arrest 340,000 people, so even if a handful of administrators are restricted from accessing the internet for a while, the other 339,000 people are going to be looking for a new home.
Some of the same agencies celebrated in March 2021 that they disrupted Emotet, one of the most infamous botnets ever. As anyone who follows security news will know, Emotet didn’t actually go anywhere and was recently rebooted as recently as last month, according to our research.
RaidForums, a forefather of BreachForums, was also disrupted in April 2022, along with the arrest of several administrators and accomplices.
All of this is not to discount the great strides made in the past few weeks in disrupting these marketplaces and taking them offline. But a lot of these headlines are sounding familiar to me after a few years, so it’s important to remember that we as a security community can’t take our foot off the gas and assume that because there were a few big wins that dark web forums are just going to go away forever.
The one big thing
Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday for April included another zero-day vulnerability in the Windows Common Log File System Driver. CVE-2023-28252, which could allow an attacker to obtain SYSTEM privileges, is actively being exploited in the wild, according to Microsoft. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency already added the vulnerability to its list of know exploited issues and urged federal agencies to patch it as soon as possible. Microsoft disclosed a similar zero-day issue in September that could also lead to the same privileges: CVE-2022-37969.
Why do I care?
Security researchers say that the vulnerability has already been exploited in Nokoyawa ransomware attacks, so it’s important to patch this issue as soon as possible. The Nokoyawa ransomware is known for targeting 64-bit Windows systems in double extortion attacks in which the actors encrypt targets’ files and then threaten to leak them unless the ransom is paid.
So now what?
Microsoft has a patch available, so all Windows users should update now if they haven’t already. Talos also has new Snort detection coverage available for CVE-2023-28252 and other vulnerabilities disclosed as part of Patch Tuesday.
Top security headlines of the week
A trove of classified military documents and images leaked on several social media channels over the past week, including potentially sensitive information on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s military plans. The images first surfaced in a Discord channel, eventually making their way onto the Telegram messaging app, the popular forum 4Chan and then broader social media sites like Twitter. The U.S. Department of Justice and the Pentagon have since launched a formal investigation into the leaks. Ukrainian officials have blamed Russian actors for the leaks, trying to cast doubt on the authenticity of the images, while Russia accused Western governments of trying to spread disinformation. (Bellingcat, New York Times)
Apple released patches for two zero-day vulnerabilities targeting current and older versions of iOS, iPadOS, macOS and Safari that attackers were exploiting in the wild. The vulnerabilities, CVE-2023-28206 and CVE-2023-28205, could lead to arbitrary code execution. CVE-2023-28206 specifically could allow an adversary to execute code with kernel privileges. Apple initially patched the issue in current iPhones and other devices and followed up a few days later with fixes for older hardware like the iPhone 8. This was the third instance of Apple patching a zero-day vulnerability since the start of the year. (SC Media, Security Week)
The FBI warned users again this week against plugging their phones in public charging stations at common spaces like airports, hotels and shopping centers. The agency stated that threat actors have found ways to use the public USB ports to “introduce malware and monitoring software onto devices." Instead, the Federal Communications Commission suggests users carry their own USB cables and charging blocks to plug directly into outlets rather than relying on or trusting a cable. However, the tweet from the FBI’s Denver office did not offer examples of any recent attacks that would have prompted a fresh warning. (Axios, NBC News)
Can’t get enough Talos?
- How threat actors are using AI and other modern tools to enhance their phishing attempts
- How do you hunt cybersecurity threats in a war zone? Like this
- Cisco unveils latest security trends from Cisco Talos report at GISEC 2023
- Researcher Spotlight: Giannis Tziakouris first learned how to fix his family’s PC, and now he’s fixing networks all over the globe
Upcoming events where you can find Talos
RSA (April 24 - 27)
San Francisco, CA
Cisco Talos Incident Response: On Air (April 27)
Virtual
Cisco Live U.S. (June 4 - 8)
Las Vegas, NV
Most prevalent malware files from Talos telemetry over the past week
SHA 256: 9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507
MD5: 2915b3f8b703eb744fc54c81f4a9c67f
Typical Filename: VID001.exe
Claimed Product: N/A
Detection Name: Win.Worm.Coinminer::1201
SHA 256: e248b01e3ccde76b4d8e8077d4fcb4d0b70e5200bf4e738b45a0bd28fbc2cae6
MD5: 1e2a99ae43d6365148d412b5dfee0e1c
Typical Filename: PDFpower.exe
Claimed Product: PdfPower
Detection Name: Win32.Adware.Generic.SSO.TALOS
SHA 256: f3d5815e844319d78da574e2ec5cd0b9dd0712347622f1122f1cb821bb421f8f
MD5: a2d60b5c01a305af1ac76c95e12fdf4a
Typical Filename: KMSAuto.exe
Claimed Product: N/A
Detection Name: W32.File.MalParent
SHA 256: e4973db44081591e9bff5117946defbef6041397e56164f485cf8ec57b1d8934
MD5: 93fefc3e88ffb78abb36365fa5cf857c
Typical Filename: Wextract
Claimed Product: Internet Explorer
Detection Name: PUA.Win.Trojan.Generic::85.lp.ret.sbx.tg
SHA 256: 00ab15b194cc1fc8e48e849ca9717c0700ef7ce2265511276f7015d7037d8725
MD5: d47fa115154927113b05bd3c8a308201
Typical Filename: mssqlsrv.exe
Claimed Product: N/A
Detection Name: Trojan.GenericKD.65065311
Related news
A recently patched security flaw impacting VMware ESXi hypervisors has been actively exploited by "several" ransomware groups to gain elevated permissions and deploy file-encrypting malware. The attacks involve the exploitation of CVE-2024-37085 (CVSS score: 6.8), an Active Directory integration authentication bypass that allows an attacker to obtain administrative access to the host. "A
The banking malware known as Carbanak has been observed being used in ransomware attacks with updated tactics. "The malware has adapted to incorporate attack vendors and techniques to diversify its effectiveness," cybersecurity firm NCC Group said in an analysis of ransomware attacks that took place in November 2023. "Carbanak returned last month through new
A privilege escalation vulnerability exists in the clfs.sys driver which comes installed by default on Windows 10 21H2, Windows 11 21H2 and Windows Server 20348 operating systems. This Metasploit module exploit makes use to two different kinds of specially crafted .blf files.
Apple on Wednesday released a slew of updates for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and Safari browser to address a set of flaws it said were actively exploited in the wild. This includes a pair of zero-days that have been weaponized in a mobile surveillance campaign called Operation Triangulation that has been active since 2019. The exact threat actor behind the campaign is not known.
Gentoo Linux Security Advisory 202305-32 - Multiple vulnerabilities have been found in WebkitGTK+, the worst of which could result in arbitrary code execution. Versions greater than or equal to 2.40.1 are affected.
Apple on Thursday rolled out security updates to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, watchOS, and the Safari web browser to address three new zero-day flaws that it said are being actively exploited in the wild. The three security shortcomings are listed below - CVE-2023-32409 - A WebKit flaw that could be exploited by a malicious actor to break out of the Web Content sandbox. It was addressed with
Red Hat Security Advisory 2023-2653-01 - WebKitGTK is the port of the portable web rendering engine WebKit to the GTK platform.
Ubuntu Security Notice 6061-1 - Several security issues were discovered in the WebKitGTK Web and JavaScript engines. If a user were tricked into viewing a malicious website, a remote attacker could exploit a variety of issues related to web browser security, including cross-site scripting attacks, denial of service attacks, and arbitrary code execution.
Debian Linux Security Advisory 5396-1 - Vulnerabilities have been discovered in the WebKitGTK web engine. Luan Herrera discovered that an HTML document may be able to render iframes with sensitive user information. P1umer and Q1IQ discovered that processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to arbitrary code execution. An anonymous researcher discovered that processing maliciously crafted web content may bypass Same Origin Policy. Clement Lecigne and Donncha O Cearbhaill discovered that processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to arbitrary code execution. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited.
Hello everyone! This episode will be about Microsoft Patch Tuesday for April 2023, including vulnerabilities that were added between February and March Patch Tuesdays. As usual, I use my open source Vulristics project to analyse and prioritize vulnerabilities. I took the comments about the vulnerabilities from the Qualys, Tenable, Rapid7, ZDI Patch Tuesday reviews. And this is […]
Hello everyone! This episode and will be about latest news in my Vulristics project. EPSS v3 The third iteration of the Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS) was released in March. It is stated that EPSS has become 82% better. There is a pretty cool and detailed article about the changes. For example, EPSS Team began to analyze not 16 parameters […]
Red Hat Security Advisory 2023-1918-01 - WebKitGTK is the port of the portable web rendering engine WebKit to the GTK platform. Issues addressed include code execution and use-after-free vulnerabilities.
An update for webkit2gtk3 is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8. Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having a security impact of Important. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available for each vulnerability from the CVE link(s) in the References section.This content is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). If you distribute this content, or a modified version of it, you must provide attribution to Red Hat Inc. and provide a link to the original. Related CVEs: * CVE-2023-28205: A flaw was found in the webkitgtk package. An improper input validation issue may lead to a use-after-free vulnerability. This vulnerability allows attackers with network access to pass specially crafted web content files, causing Denial of Service or Arbitrary Code Execution.
An update for webkit2gtk3 is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9. Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having a security impact of Important. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available for each vulnerability from the CVE link(s) in the References section.This content is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). If you distribute this content, or a modified version of it, you must provide attribution to Red Hat Inc. and provide a link to the original. Related CVEs: * CVE-2023-28205: A flaw was found in the webkitgtk package. An improper input validation issue may lead to a use-after-free vulnerability. This vulnerability allows attackers with network access to pass specially crafted web content files, causing Denial of Service or Arbitrary Code Execution.
Categories: Exploits and vulnerabilities Categories: News Tags: Microsoft Tags: Apple Tags: Google Tags: Adobe Tags: Cisco Tags: SAP Tags: Mozilla Tags: CVE-2023-28252 Tags: CVE-2023-28231 Tags: CVE-2023-21554 Tags: Word Tags: Publisher Tags: Office One fixed vulnerability is being actively exploited by a ransomware gang and many others were fixed in this month's Patch Tuesday updates. (Read more...) The post Update now! April’s Patch Tuesday includes a fix for one zero-day appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.
It's the second Tuesday of the month, and Microsoft has released another set of security updates to fix a total of 97 flaws impacting its software, one of which has been actively exploited in ransomware attacks in the wild. Seven of the 97 bugs are rated Critical and 90 are rated Important in severity. Interestingly, 45 of the shortcomings are remote code execution flaws, followed by 20
Microsoft today released software updates to plug 100 security holes in its Windows operating systems and other software, including a zero-day vulnerability that is already being used in active attacks. Not to be outdone, Apple has released a set of important updates addressing two zero-day vulnerabilities that are being used to attack iPhones, iPads and Macs.
Microsoft today released software updates to plug 100 security holes in its Windows operating systems and other software, including a zero-day vulnerability that is already being used in active attacks. Not to be outdone, Apple has released a set of important updates addressing two zero-day vulnerabilities that are being used to attack iPhones, iPads and Macs.
Microsoft today released software updates to plug 100 security holes in its Windows operating systems and other software, including a zero-day vulnerability that is already being used in active attacks. Not to be outdone, Apple has released a set of important updates addressing two zero-day vulnerabilities that are being used to attack iPhones, iPads and Macs.
The April 2023 Patch Tuesday security update also included a reissue of a fix for a 10-year-old bug that a threat actor recently exploited in the supply chain attack on 3CX.
Windows Common Log File System Driver Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability
April is the third month in a row in which at least one of the vulnerabilities Microsoft released in a Patch Tuesday had been exploited in the wild prior to disclosure.
April is the third month in a row in which at least one of the vulnerabilities Microsoft released in a Patch Tuesday had been exploited in the wild prior to disclosure.
Apple Security Advisory 2023-04-10-3 - macOS Big Sur 11.7.6 addresses code execution and out of bounds write vulnerabilities.
Apple Security Advisory 2023-04-10-1 - iOS 15.7.5 and iPadOS 15.7.5 addresses code execution, out of bounds write, and use-after-free vulnerabilities.
Apple Security Advisory 2023-04-10-1 - iOS 15.7.5 and iPadOS 15.7.5 addresses code execution, out of bounds write, and use-after-free vulnerabilities.
Apple Security Advisory 2023-04-07-3 - Safari 16.4.1 addresses code execution and use-after-free vulnerabilities.
Apple Security Advisory 2023-04-07-2 - macOS Ventura 13.3.1 addresses code execution, out of bounds write, and use-after-free vulnerabilities.
Apple Security Advisory 2023-04-07-2 - macOS Ventura 13.3.1 addresses code execution, out of bounds write, and use-after-free vulnerabilities.
Apple Security Advisory 2023-04-07-1 - iOS 16.4.1 and iPadOS 16.4.1 addresses code execution, out of bounds write, and use-after-free vulnerabilities.
Apple Security Advisory 2023-04-07-1 - iOS 16.4.1 and iPadOS 16.4.1 addresses code execution, out of bounds write, and use-after-free vulnerabilities.
Categories: Apple Categories: Exploits and vulnerabilities Categories: News Tags: iOS 16.4.1 Tags: iPadOS 16.4.1 Tags: macOS 13.3.1 Tags: CVE-2023-28206 Tags: CVE-2023-28205 Tags: use-after-free Tags: out-of-bounds write Tags: IOSurfaceAccelerator Apple has released iOS 16.4.1, iPadOS 16.4.1, and macOS 13.3.1 for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, respectively, and our advice is to install them as soon as possible. (Read more...) The post Apple releases emergency updates for two known-to-be-exploited vulnerabilities appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.
Categories: Apple Categories: Exploits and vulnerabilities Categories: News Tags: iOS 16.4.1 Tags: iPadOS 16.4.1 Tags: macOS 13.3.1 Tags: CVE-2023-28206 Tags: CVE-2023-28205 Tags: use-after-free Tags: out-of-bounds write Tags: IOSurfaceAccelerator Apple has released iOS 16.4.1, iPadOS 16.4.1, and macOS 13.3.1 for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, respectively, and our advice is to install them as soon as possible. (Read more...) The post Apple releases emergency updates for two known-to-be-exploited vulnerabilities appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.
Unpatched Macs, iPhones, and iPads open to browser takeover and system kernel-level malicious code execution, Apple warns.
Unpatched Macs, iPhones, and iPads open to browser takeover and system kernel-level malicious code execution, Apple warns.
An out-of-bounds write issue was addressed with improved input validation. This issue is fixed in iOS 15.7.5 and iPadOS 15.7.5, macOS Monterey 12.6.5, iOS 16.4.1 and iPadOS 16.4.1, macOS Big Sur 11.7.6, macOS Ventura 13.3.1. An app may be able to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited.
A use after free issue was addressed with improved memory management. This issue is fixed in iOS 15.7.5 and iPadOS 15.7.5, Safari 16.4.1, iOS 16.4.1 and iPadOS 16.4.1, macOS Ventura 13.3.1. Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to arbitrary code execution. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited.
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Friday added five security flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, citing evidence of active exploitation in the wild. This includes three high-severity flaws in the Veritas Backup Exec Agent software (CVE-2021-27876, CVE-2021-27877, and CVE-2021-27878) that could lead to the execution of privileged commands
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Friday added five security flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, citing evidence of active exploitation in the wild. This includes three high-severity flaws in the Veritas Backup Exec Agent software (CVE-2021-27876, CVE-2021-27877, and CVE-2021-27878) that could lead to the execution of privileged commands
Apple on Friday released security updates for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and Safari web browser to address a pair of zero-day flaws that are being exploited in the wild. The two vulnerabilities are as follows - CVE-2023-28205 - A use after free issue in WebKit that could lead to arbitrary code execution when processing specially crafted web content. CVE-2023-28206 - An out-of-bounds write issue in
Apple on Friday released security updates for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and Safari web browser to address a pair of zero-day flaws that are being exploited in the wild. The two vulnerabilities are as follows - CVE-2023-28205 - A use after free issue in WebKit that could lead to arbitrary code execution when processing specially crafted web content. CVE-2023-28206 - An out-of-bounds write issue in
Microsoft on Tuesday released security updates to address 75 flaws spanning its product portfolio, three of which have come under active exploitation in the wild. The updates are in addition to 22 flaws the Windows maker patched in its Chromium-based Edge browser over the past month. Of the 75 vulnerabilities, nine are rated Critical and 66 are rated Important in severity. 37 out of 75 bugs are
Dell Unisphere for PowerMax vApp, VASA Provider vApp, and Solution Enabler vApp version 9.2.3.x contain an information disclosure vulnerability. A low privileged remote attacker could potentially exploit this vulnerability, leading to read arbitrary files on the underlying file system.
Details have emerged about a now-patched security flaw in Windows Common Log File System (CLFS) that could be exploited by an attacker to gain elevated permissions on compromised machines. Tracked as CVE-2022-37969 (CVSS score: 7.8), the issue was addressed by Microsoft as part of its Patch Tuesday updates for September 2022, while also noting that it was being actively exploited in the wild. "
Plus: WhatsApp plugs holes that could be used for remote execution attacks, Microsoft patches a zero-day vulnerability, and more.
Hello everyone! Let’s take a look at Microsoft’s September Patch Tuesday. This time it is quite compact. There were 63 CVEs released on Patch Tuesday day. If we add the vulnerabilities released between August and September Patch Tuesdays (as usual, they were in Microsoft Edge), the final number is 90. Much less than usual. Alternative […]
Categories: News Tags: CVE-2022-37969 Tags: CVE-2022-23960 Tags: CVE-2022-35805 Tags: CVE-2022-34700 Tags: CVE-2022-34718 Tags: CVE-2022-34721 Tags: CVE-2022-34722 Tags: Microsoft Tags: Adobe Tags: Android Tags: Apple Tags: Cisco Tags: Google Tags: Samsung Tags: SAP Tags: VMWare The September 2022 Patch Tuesday updates includes two zero-day vulnerabilities, one of which is known to be used in attacks (Read more...) The post Update now! Microsoft patches two zero-days appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.
This month's Patch Tuesday offers a little something for everyone, including security updates for a zero-day flaw in Microsoft Windows that is under active attack, and another Windows weakness experts say could be used to power a fast-spreading computer worm. Also, Apple has also quashed a pair of zero-day bugs affecting certain macOS and iOS users, and released iOS 16, which includes a nifty new privacy and security feature called "Lockdown Mode." And Adobe axed 63 vulnerabilities in a range of products.
Windows Common Log File System Driver Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability. This CVE ID is unique from CVE-2022-35803.
By Jon Munshaw and Asheer Malhotra. Microsoft released its monthly security update Tuesday, disclosing 64 vulnerabilities across the company’s hardware and software line, a sharp decline from the record number of issues Microsoft disclosed last month. September's security update features five critical vulnerabilities, 10 fewer than were included in last month’s Patch Tuesday. There are two moderate-severity vulnerabilities in this release and a low-security issue that’s already been patched as a part of a recent Google Chromium update. The remainder is considered “important.” The most serious vulnerability exists in several versions of Windows Server and Windows 10 that could allow an attacker to gain the ability to execute remote code (RCE) by sending a singular, specially crafted IPv6 packet to a Windows node where IPSec is enabled. CVE-2022-34718 only affects instances that have IPSec enabled. This vulnerability has a severity score of 9.8 out of 10 and is considered “more likely...