Omdia has learned that Gigamon sold its ThreatInsight NDR business to Fortinet for approximately $31 million. The deal highlights what may be a pivot point for the NDR market.

Gigamon has exited the network detection and response (NDR) business, selling its NDR solution to a former competitor, Omdia has learned.

The Santa Clara, California-based network visibility and IT observability vendor quietly sold its ThreatInsight NDR business to Fortinet at the end of last year. Omdia research indicates the acquisition price was approximately $31 million.

The sale also encompassed the staff dedicated to ThreatInsight, including Gigamon’s former threat intelligence group. Omdia research indicates that approximately 30 to 50 Gigamon employees moved to Fortinet in the transaction.

**Gigamon Shifts to NDR Enabler**

Gigamon entered the NDR market in 2018 when it acquired NDR startup Icebrg. Seen at the time as a strong complement to its portfolio of network visibility solutions, which includes network traffic decryption, ThreatInsight never lived up to Gigamon's commercial expectations, in part because enterprise buying centers for visibility and observability tend to differ from those related to threat detection, investigation, and response (TDIR).

One of the difficulties of selling point products is that they tend to have very specific buying centers. This is highlighted by the position that Gigamon found itself in with NDR. While it continues to have success selling its broader portfolio by targeting CISOs and security architecture teams, NDR sales are typically evaluated and funded within incident response groups, which require a different sales motion.

While security remains an important use case for Gigamon’s visibility portfolio generally, Gigamon increasingly saw itself as better positioned as an ecosystem enabler of NDR solutions through partnership with leading NDR vendors.

By eliminating any competitive conflicts, the deal should immediately make Gigamon a more attractive partner with a variety of NDR vendors with which it formerly competed. Additionally, the company can re-emphasize its renewed focus on network and hybrid cloud observability, this following its recent pivot to relabel its core platform as a Deep Observability Pipeline solution.

**Fortinet Doubles Down on NDR**

Fortinet will rebrand the ThreatInsight technology as FortiNDR Cloud and sell it as a cloud-based addition to its existing on-premises FortiNDR product (formerly known as FortiAI).

Fortinet introduced FortiAI in 2020 as an AI/ML appliance for network detection and response. The company has seen strong demand for NDR as customers shift focus to what Fortinet calls advanced and early detection. The growing adoption of a zero-trust philosophy is also driving additional interest as organizations treat internal east-west traffic with increased scrutiny.

**NDR Market Evolution**

The move also highlights the NDR market’s continuing evolution. As enterprises increasingly seek to unify their TDIR product architectures, interest is growing in NDR solutions that can not only detect and respond to network-specific threats but can also provide insight to and integration with broader solution sets, such as XDR and other security operations platforms.

This evolution is playing out in several ways. For example, NDR vendors are continuing to expand their functional footprint to include additional network security capabilities, such as a broader set of detection capabilities. Of course, the flip side to that trend is network security appliance vendors potentially adding NDR as an additional feature.

Fortinet is a case in point. While FortiNDR Cloud will be available as a stand-alone product, and one that requires no Fortinet hardware, NDR functionality is sure to find its way into broader network security solutions such as next-generation firewalls (NGFWs). This trend will shift the competitive landscape in NDR, which is currently dominated by pure plays such as Darktrace, ExtraHop, and Vectra.

NDR solutions are also increasingly expected to integrate across emerging open XDR ecosystems. This, of course, requires significant investment as the number of integration requests can be large, even if initially just focusing on EDR vendors. Omdia believes success in NDR would have required a significant new investment from Gigamon.

Ironically, given the increased partnership opportunities, Omdia believes this divestiture might well grow Gigamon’s overall share of security dollars, as security teams are either stakeholders or outright buyers of the network observability capabilities that Gigamon offers. More broadly, the company is betting that customers will be shopping for a comprehensive observability platform across hybrid environments.

Omdia's most recent global NDR market outlook indicates the NDR market is worth $0.95 billion as of the end of 2021 and is expected to grow to $1.98 billion by the end of 2027. However, Omdia forecasts that growth in the stand-alone NDR market will slow in 2023 due to macroeconomic headwinds but will rebound and continue to show reasonable growth for the foreseeable future. That said, consolidation of detection and response functionality across digital domains is an important trend.

More broadly, and as importantly, security buyers are looking to consolidate security functionality from a smaller group of larger providers. While best-of-breed security point products will never disappear, suite vendors such as Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet, and Cisco, among others, are well positioned for current vendor consolidation.

Gigamon Exits NDR Market, Sells ThreatInsight Business to Fortinet

Demand for skilled professionals will remain high, but cyber budgets will be eaten away.

We've recently seen substantial layoffs across the tech sector, to the tune of around 140,000 redundancies made by big names such as Amazon, Salesforce, Microsoft, and Tesla. As the recession bites, falling stock prices and further contraction in the market, together with merger and acquisition activity, are expected to force businesses to reduce head count further still. Yet the cybersecurity sector, thus far, has remained relatively unscathed with respect to cyber professionals (it’s a different story with vendors, which are subject to the mores of the market). The question is why, and will it continue to buck the trend?

Much of the reason why the security industry remains so buoyant is down to the fact that there simply isn't the fat to cut from security teams. Most businesses are struggling to recruit sufficient staff due to a widening skills gap — the ISC2 "2022 Cybersecurity Workforce Study" reports that while there is a global workforce of 4.7 million, the gap is almost as big at 3.4 million — and that means teams are often short-handed, leading to job creep, whereby staff have to take on extra responsibilities. "The State of Security 2022" report found that 76% of cybersecurity staff had to take on responsibilities they were not ready for in an attempt to fill the void. 

**Is My Job Safe?**

Yet despite professionals being in demand, the wider cybersecurity sector is beginning to feel the pain. Budgets themselves remain robust, with analyst houses such as Gartner predicting strong investment in cloud security, application security, and other information security software. But even if cybersecurity spending increases in 2023, it's being eroded by rising inflation and increasing solution/licensing costs, and the majority (70%) believe budgets will be cut or frozen this year, according to ESG Research.

So, what are the implications for the year ahead? First, cybersecurity talent will remain in short supply, while the annual shortfall, together with an exodus of talent, will see the gap widen, increasing demand still further. Jobs will, therefore, largely be safe, although this doesn't apply across the board.

The shortages are focused, with those with three to four years or more of experience most in demand, according to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport, as well as those with experience in emerging or nascent technologies, such as cloud security, security operations center (SOC) analysts, and security admin and security architects, according to Fortinet's "2022 Cybersecurity Skills Gap" report. Those findings broadly tally with ISACA's "State of Cybersecurity 2022" report, which lists the top five skill sets as cloud computing, data protection, identity access management, incident response and DevSecOps. However, positions further down the hierarchy are likely to prove less recession-proof. 

**Investment in Tech**

Second, shrinking budgets could slow investment in automation, which many had hoped would alleviate the skills shortage and improve retention rate by providing security teams with some much-needed assistance. That's bad news for the industry, as it will stifle progress, but it could also see organizations become more exposed. The ISACA report found 69% of those businesses that suffered an attack last year were somewhat or significantly understaffed, and it's a problem that is turning out to be something of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Half of staff say they are much more likely to quit following a cyberattack, and job candidates are far less likely to want to work for a business that has suffered from cyberattacks, according to "The True Cost of Cyber."

However, the jury is still out on just how affected cyber spending will be. According to "The 2023 State of IT" report, cybersecurity is expected to increase its take out of IT budgets with respect to software (11%), hardware (7%), cloud (6%), and managed services (11%). Furthermore, the "2023 Global Tech Outlook" report found cybersecurity is now viewed as a higher-priority spend than innovation in digital transformation projects. IT security (44%) came out top as a spending priority for the next 12 months, followed by cloud infrastructure (36%) and IT/cloud management (35%).

**Wage Walkouts**

Third, we're unlikely to see salaries continue to escalate as they did pre- and post-pandemic, when some salaries experienced double-digit percentage growth. The Harvey Nash Hot Skills & Salary Report found that certain cybersecurity roles have plateaued, with 67% not receiving a pay rise. Realistically, this will make retention more difficult, and businesses are going to have to work to hang on to their hard-won talent (60% of businesses have already had staff poached, according to ISACA). That said, with the market contracting, some cybersecurity professionals may opt for job security over salary.

It looks unlikely that the cybersecurity sector will escape entirely the ravages of the recession. Demand for skilled professionals will remain high, but with cyber budgets being eaten away, there will be less cash to go round, forcing businesses to prioritize. In a bid to do more with less, workloads are likely to go up, in turn increasing staff turnover, jeopardizing business continuity. That means the one certainty we do seem to have is that businesses will be understaffed — and overexposed.

Will Cybersecurity Remain Recession-Proof in 2023?

NETGEAR Nighthawk WiFi Mesh systems and routers are affected by a stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability. This affects MR60 before 1.1.7.132, MS60 before 1.1.7.132, R6900P before 1.3.3.154, R7000P before 1.3.3.154, R7960P before 1.4.4.94, and R8000P before 1.4.4.94.

Was this article helpful?   Yes     No

First published: 2022-11-07

NETGEAR is aware of a pre-authentication buffer overflow security vulnerability on some Nighthawk WiFi Mesh Systems and routers.

NETGEAR has released fixes for this vulnerability on the following product models:

**Nighthawk Mesh WiFi Systems**

*   MR60 fixed in firmware version 1.1.7.132
*   MS60 fixed in firmware version 1.1.7.132

**Routers**

*   R6900P fixed in firmware version 1.3.3.154
*   R7000P fixed in firmware version 1.3.3.154
*   R7960P fixed in firmware version 1.4.4.94
*   R8000P fixed in firmware version 1.4.4.94

**To download the latest firmware for your NETGEAR product:**

1.  Visit NETGEAR Support.
2.  Start typing your model number in the search box, then select your model from the drop-down menu as soon as it appears.  
    If you do not see a drop-down menu, make sure that you entered your model number correctly, or select a product category to browse for your product model.
3.  Click **Downloads**.
4.  Under **Current Versions**, select the first download whose title begins with **Firmware Version**.
5.  Click **Release Notes**.
6.  Follow the instructions in the firmware release notes to download and install the new firmware.

**Workarounds**

No workarounds are available for this vulnerability.

**Disclaimer**

This document is provided on an "as is" basis and does not imply any kind of guarantee or warranty, including the warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular use. Your use of the information in the document or materials linked from the document is at your own risk. NETGEAR reserves the right to change or update this document at any time. NETGEAR expects to update this document as new information becomes available.

The pre-authentication buffer overflow vulnerability remains if you do not complete all recommended steps. NETGEAR is not responsible for any consequences that could have been avoided by following the recommendations in this notification.

**Acknowledgements**

Jean-Jamil Khalifé

**Common Vulnerability Scoring System**

CVSS Rating: High  
CVSS Score: 7.6  
CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:L

**Best Practices for Updating Firmware**

We recommend that you keep your NETGEAR devices up to date with the latest firmware. Firmware updates contain security fixes, bug fixes, and new features for your NETGEAR products.

If your product is supported by one of our apps, using the app is the easiest way to update your firmware:

*   Orbi products: NETGEAR Orbi app
*   NETGEAR WiFi routers: NETGEAR Nighthawk app
*   Some NETGEAR Business products: NETGEAR Insight app (firmware updates through the app are available only for Insight subscribers)

If your product is not supported by one of our apps, you can always update your firmware manually by following the instructions in your product's user manual, firmware release notes, or product support page. For more information, see Where can I find information about my NETGEAR product?.

**Contact**

We appreciate and value having security concerns brought to our attention. NETGEAR constantly monitors for both known and unknown threats. Being pro-active rather than re-active to emerging security issues is fundamental for product support at NETGEAR.

It is NETGEAR's mission to be the innovative leader in connecting the world to the internet. To achieve this mission, we strive to earn and maintain the trust of those that use NETGEAR products for their connectivity.

To report a security vulnerability, visit http://www.netgear.com/about/security/.

If you are a NETGEAR customer with a security-related support concern, you can contact NETGEAR customer support at techsupport.security@netgear.com.

**Revision History**

2022-11-07: Published advisory

Last Updated:11/07/2022 | Article ID: 000065265

**Was this article helpful?**Yes No

**This article applies to:**

*   Wireless AC Router Nighthawk (4)
    *   R6900P
    *   R7000P
    *   R7960P
    *   R8000P
*   Nighthawk WiFi Systems (2)
    *   MR60
    *   MS60

How to Find Your Model Number

**Looking for more about your product?**

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With NETGEAR’s round-the-clock premium support, help is just a phone call away.

**Complimentary Support**

NETGEAR provides complimentary technical support for NETGEAR products for 90 days from the original date of purchase.

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**NETGEAR Premium Support**

**GearHead Support for Home Users**

GearHead Support is a technical support service for NETGEAR devices and all other connected devices in your home. Advanced remote support tools are used to fix issues on any of your devices. The service includes support for the following:

*   Desktop and Notebook PCs, Wired and Wireless Routers, Modems, Printers, Scanners, Fax Machines, USB devices and Sound Cards
*   Windows Operating Systems (2000, XP or Vista), MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Adobe Acrobat
*   Anti-virus and Anti-Spyware: McAfee, Norton, AVG, eTrust and BitDefender

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**ProSUPPORT Services for Business Users**

NETGEAR ProSUPPORT services are available to supplement your technical support and warranty entitlements. NETGEAR offers a variety of ProSUPPORT services that allow you to access NETGEAR's expertise in a way that best meets your needs:

*   Product Installation
*   Professional Wireless Site Survey
*   Defective Drive Retention (DDR) Service

Learn More

CVE-2022-48322: Security Advisory for Pre-authentication Buffer Overflow on Multiple Products, PSV-2022-0155

The company is adding new tools as bad actors use ChatGPT-themed lures and mask their infrastructure in an attempt to trick victims and elude defenders.

The social media giant Meta warned today that it sees many malware actors spreading their attack infrastructure across multiple platforms, to make it more difficult for individual tech companies to detect their malicious activity. The company added, though, that it views the shift in tactics as a sign that industry crackdowns are working, and it says it is launching additional resources and protections for business users with the goal of raising the barriers for attackers even more.

On Facebook, Meta has now added new controls for business accounts to manage, audit, and limit who can become an account administrator, who can add other administrators, and who can perform sensitive actions like accessing a line of credit. The goal is to make it more difficult for attackers to use some of their most common tactics. For example, bad actors may take over the account of an individual who is employed by or otherwise connected to a target company, so the attacker can then add the compromised account as an administrator on the business page.

Meta is also launching a step-by-step tool for businesses to help them flag and remove malware on their enterprise devices and will even suggest using third-party malware scanners. The company says it sees a pattern in which users' Facebook accounts are compromised, the owners regain control, and then the accounts are re-compromised because the targets' devices are still infected with malware or have been reinfected.

“This is an ecosystem challenge, and there’s a lot of adversary adaptation,” says Nathaniel Gleicher, Meta’s head of security policy. “What we’re seeing is adversaries working really hard, but defenders moving more systematically. We're not just disrupting individual bad actors; there are a number of different ways that we are countering them and making it harder.”

The move to distribute malicious infrastructure across multiple platforms has advantages for attackers. They may distribute ads on a social network like Facebook that aren't directly malicious, but that link to a fake creator page or other niche profile. On that site, attackers can post a special password and link to a file-sharing service like Dropbox or Mega. Then they can upload their malicious file to the hosting platform and encrypt it with the password from the previous page to make it harder for companies to scan and flag. In this way, victims follow the bread crumbs through a chain of legitimate-looking services, and no one site has a complete view of every step in the attack.

As public interest in generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Bard has ramped up in recent months, Meta also says it has seen attackers incorporating the topic into their malicious ads, claiming to offer access to these and other generative AI tools. Since March 2023, the company says, it has blocked more than 1,000 malicious links used in generative AI-themed lures so they can't be shared on Facebook or other Meta platforms, and it has shared the URLs with other tech companies. It has also reported multiple browser extensions and mobile apps related to these malicious campaigns.

Meta says the attackers who distribute a known malware strain called Ducktail have increasingly leaned on these techniques in an attempt to compromise a range of victims and take over Facebook business accounts to distribute more of their malicious ads. Meta attributes Ducktail's activity to actors in Vietnam, and the company recently issued a cease-and-desist letter to specific individuals in addition to reporting the activity to law enforcement.

In late January, Meta also identified a new malware strain, dubbed NodeStealer, that was targeting Windows browsers to record victims' usernames and passwords, steal cookies, and use the data to compromise Facebook accounts as well as Gmail and Outlook accounts. Meta also attributes this campaign to Vietnamese actors, and it quickly began submitting takedown requests to hosting providers, domain registrars, and other application services that the actor was using for its activity and malware distribution. The company says these steps appear to have been disruptive, and it hasn't detected new samples of NodeStealer since February 27.

“What they’re counting on is that we are going to keep working in silos amongst companies and we’re not going to be able to follow them jump to jump, platform to platform,” Meta's Gleicher says. 

He adds that in addition to adding new features for users, expanding Meta's automatic detections, and taking direct action against attackers, the company uses public disclosure and information-sharing with other companies and law enforcement as a way of making things more difficult for attackers.

“It’s easy to recognize that the more platforms need to coordinate, the more complex the defenses can be,” Gleicher says. “But the more distributed an adversary's operation is, the more they have to keep all these different platforms working together, and the number of victims who make it through that funnel is lower and lower. The more we force them to be distributed, the higher the cost on the adversary.”

Meta Moves to Counter New Malware and Repeat Account Takeovers

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter.
I’m fascinated by how things live and die on the internet. Things that are ubiquitous to our daily lives are simply gone the next. LiveJournal and Myspace we hardly knew you. Elon Musk’s purchase

Thursday, November 3, 2022 16:11

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter.

I’m fascinated by how things live and die on the internet. Things that are ubiquitous to our daily lives are simply gone the next. LiveJournal and Myspace we hardly knew you. Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter and the subsequent exodus led me down the nostalgic path of thinking about how times change and platforms change but things largely remain the same. Until now. We’ve grown as an entire internet community and we remember the pain of moving from app to app and site to site. Many top infosec follows have deactivated their accounts while others are weighing when and if they will leave. Several have moved to decentralized solutions like mastodon.social which saw an uptick of more than 70,000 new users in a single day after the purchase was official. In theory Mastadon can’t be controlled by a single person or entity and to me it feels like this is the next step in our path as an internet community. Will it catch on and be the answer to all of our needs? Doubtful. It is a step in the evolution of the internet and I’m very interested to see what the next adaptation brings.

**The one big thing**

Cisco Talos Incident Response recently released their Quarterly Report highlighting the ransomware and pre-ransomware engagements, making up nearly 40 percent of threats this quarter. This quarter saw ongoing Qakbot, Hive, and Vice Society activity as well as the emergence of Black Basta, which first surfaced in April 2022. Adversaries continue to leverage not only LoLBins but a variety of publicly available tools and scripts hosted on GitHub repositories or free to download from third-party websites to support operations across multiple stages of the attack lifecycle. Defenders continue to struggle with MFA rollouts, as lack of MFA remains one of the biggest impediments to enterprise security. Nearly 18 percent of engagements either had no MFA or only had it enabled on a handful of accounts and critical services.

**Why do I care?**

Understanding the current tools and trends used by attackers, as well as understanding the vulnerabilities that are targeted are intrinsic to good security posture. Knowing your environment is step one. Understanding that same environment from the view of the attacker is the next step. Per the report “In nearly 15 percent of engagements this quarter, adversaries identified and/or exploited misconfigured public-facing applications by conducting SQL injection attacks against external websites, exploiting Log4Shell in vulnerable versions of VMware Horizon, and targeting misconfigured and/or publicly exposed servers.”

**So now what?**

Ensuring that you know your environment and are covering the base of the security pyramid well is critical. Patch, self-assess, and follow trusted threat intelligence sources. Talos IR recommends disabling VPN access for all accounts that are not using two-factor authentication and to disable or delete inactive accounts from Active Directory to prevent suspicious activity.

For the OpenSSL vulnerability we strongly recommend users mitigate affected OpenSSL systems as soon as possible by upgrading to version 3.0.7. Talos has released coverage across the device portfolio including Snort Rules: 60790, 300306-300307 to protect against exploitation of CVE-2022-3602 and ClamAV signature, Multios.Exploit.CVE\_2022\_3602-9976476-0, to detect malware artifacts related to this threat.

**Top security headlines of the week**

Security researchers were once again falsely implied by a ransomware gang in an effort to indicate their involvement. This time around Azov implicated BleepingComputer, Hasherazade, MalwareHunterTeam, Michael Gillespie, Lawrence Abrams, and Vitali Kremez, urging infected users to contact them via their accounts on Twitter to recover files.

Dropbox was the target of a recent phishing campaign that led to attackers gaining access to code stored in Github and copying 130 code repositories, including third-party libraries, internal software projects, and a few tools and configuration files maintained by the Dropbox security team. The attackers didn't gain access to any user content, passwords, or payment information. The Dropbox security team released a report detailing how they handled the incident.

**Can't get enough Talos?**

*   https://blog.talosintelligence.com/researcher-spotlight-how-azim-khodjibaev-went-from-hunting-real-world-threats-to-threats-on-the-dark-web/
*   https://blog.talosintelligence.com/quarterly-report-incident-response-trends-in-q3-2022/
*   https://blog.talosintelligence.com/openssl-vulnerability/
*   https://youtu.be/KhG6RUZgMas

**Upcoming events where you can find Talos**

BSides Lisbon (Nov. 10 - 11)  
Cidade Universitária, Lisboa, Portugal

SIS(Security Intelligence Summit), 2022.ON (Nov. 29)  
Josun Palace, Seoul

**Most prevalent malware files from Talos telemetry over the past week**

SHA 256:  
9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507  
MD5: 2915b3f8b703eb744fc54c81f4a9c67f  
Typical Filename: VID001.exe  
Detection Name: Simple\_Custom\_Detection

  
SHA256:  
d5dc790f6f220cf7e42c6c1c9f5bc6e4443cb52d07bcdef24a6bf457153c1d86  
MD5: 69fbf6849d935432bac8b04bdb00fd68  
Typical Filename: KMSAuto++.exe  
Detection Name: W32.File.MalParent

SHA256:  
e4973db44081591e9bff5117946defbef6041397e56164f485cf8ec57b1d8934  
MD5: 93fefc3e88ffb78abb36365fa5cf857c  
Typical Filename: Wextract  
Claimed Product: Internet Explorer  
Detection Name: PUA.Win.Trojan.Generic::85.lp.ret.sbx.tg

SHA 256:  
125e12c8045689bb2a5dcad6fa2644847156dec8b533ee8a3653b432f8fd5645  
MD5: 2c8ea737a232fd03ab80db672d50a17a  
Typical Filename: LwssPlayer.scr  
Claimed Product: 梦想之巅幻灯播放器  
Detection Name: Auto.125E12.241442.in02

SHA 256:  
00ab15b194cc1fc8e48e849ca9717c0700ef7ce2265511276f7015d7037d8725  
MD5: d47fa115154927113b05bd3c8a308201  
Typical Filename: outlook.exe  
Claimed Product: MS Outlook  
Detection Name: W32.00AB15B194-95.SBX.TG

Threat Source newsletter (Nov. 3, 2022): Mastadon, evolution, and LiveJournal oh my!

Cybersecurity researchers have called attention to a new antivirus evasion technique that involves embedding a malicious Microsoft Word file into a PDF file.
The sneaky method, dubbed MalDoc in PDF by JPCERT/CC, is said to have been employed in an in-the-wild attack in July 2023.
"A file created with MalDoc in PDF can be opened in Word even though it has magic numbers and file structure of PDF,"

Cybersecurity researchers have called attention to a new antivirus evasion technique that involves embedding a malicious Microsoft Word file into a PDF file.

The sneaky method, dubbed **MalDoc in PDF** by JPCERT/CC, is said to have been employed in an in-the-wild attack in July 2023.

"A file created with MalDoc in PDF can be opened in Word even though it has magic numbers and file structure of PDF," researchers Yuma Masubuchi and Kota Kino said. "If the file has a configured macro, by opening it in Word, VBS runs and performs malicious behaviors."

Such specially crafted files are called polyglots as they are a legitimate form of multiple different file types, in this case, both PDF and Word (DOC).

This entails adding an MHT file created in Word and with a macro attached after the PDF file object. The end result is a valid PDF file that can also be opened in the Word application.

Put differently; the PDF document embeds within itself a Word document with a VBS macro that's designed to download and install an MSI malware file if opened as a .DOC file in Microsoft Office. It's not immediately clear what malware was distributed in this fashion.

"When a document is downloaded from the internet or email, it'll carry a MotW," security researcher Will Dormann said. "As such, the user will have to click 'Enable Editing' to exit Protected View. At which point they'll be learn \[sic\] that macros are disabled."

While real-world attacks leveraging MalDoc in PDF were observed a little over a month ago, there's evidence to suggest that it was being experimented ("DummymhtmldocmacroDoc.doc") as early as May, Dormann highlighted.

The development comes amid a spike in phishing campaigns using QR codes to propagate malicious URLs, a technique called qishing.

"The samples we have observed using this technique are primarily disguised as multi-factor authentication (MFA) notifications, which lure their victims into scanning the QR code with their mobile phones to gain access," Trustwave said last week.

"However, instead of going to the target's desired location, the QR code leads them to the threat actor's phishing page."

One such campaign targeting the Microsoft credentials of users has witnessed an increase of more than 2,400% since May 2023, Cofense noted in August, pointing out how "scanning a QR code on a mobile device puts the user outside the protections of the enterprise environment."

Social engineering attacks, as evidenced in attacks associated with LAPSUS$ and Muddled Libra, are getting more elaborate and sophisticated as threat actors leverage vishing and phishing tactics to gain unauthorized access to target systems.

In one instance highlighted by Sophos, a threat combined phone and email lures to launch a complex attack chain against an employee of a Switzerland-based organization.

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"The caller, whose voice sounded like a middle-aged man, told the employee that he was a delivery driver with an urgent package destined for one of the company locations, but that nobody was there to receive the package, and he asked for a new delivery address at the employee's office location," Sophos researcher Andrew Brandt said.

"In order to redeliver the package, he continued, the employee would have to read aloud a code the shipping company would email."

The email from the purported shipping company convinced the victim to open what seemed like a PDF attachment containing the code, but in reality, it turned out to be a static image embedded in the message body designed to be "just like an Outlook message with an email attachment."

The fake-image spam attack ultimately took the recipient to a bogus website via a redirect chain that, in turn, dropped a deceptive executable masquerading as a package service ("Universe Parcel Service."), which, when launched, acted as a conduit to deliver additional PowerShell scripts to steal data and beacon to a remote TOR hidden service.

The developments also arrive as security concerns have been raised around name collisions in the Domain Name System (DNS) that could be exploited to leak sensitive data.

"Name collisions aren't the only situations that can cause a \[top-level domain\] to act strangely," Cisco Talos said in a recent write-up. "Some do not respond properly when presented with names that have expired or never existed."

"In these TLDs, unregistered and expired domain names still resolve to IP addresses. Some of these TLDs even publish MX records and collect emails for the names in question."

Found this article interesting? Follow us on Twitter __ and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.

Beware of MalDoc in PDF: A New Polyglot Attack Allowing Attackers to Evade Antivirus

Microsoft is sending the world a whole bunch of love today, in the form of patches to plug dozens of security holes in its Windows operating systems and other software. This year's special Valentine's Day Patch Tuesday includes fixes for a whopping three different "zero-day" vulnerabilities that are already being used in active attacks.

**Microsoft** is sending the world a whole bunch of love today, in the form of patches to plug dozens of security holes in its **Windows** operating systems and other software. This year’s special Valentine’s Day Patch Tuesday includes fixes for a whopping three different “zero-day” vulnerabilities that are already being used in active attacks.

Microsoft’s security advisories are somewhat sparse with details about the zero-day bugs. Redmond flags CVE-2023-23376 as an “Important” elevation of privilege vulnerability in the **Windows Common Log File System Driver**, which is present in Windows 10 and 11 systems, as well as many server versions of Windows.

“Sadly, there’s just a little solid information about this privilege escalation,” said **Dustin Childs**, head of threat awareness at Trend Micro’s **Zero Day Initiative**. “Microsoft does note that the vulnerability would allow an attacker to exploit code as SYSTEM, which would allow them to completely take over a target. This is likely being chained with a remote code execution bug to spread malware or ransomware. Considering this was discovered by Microsoft’s Threat Intelligence Center, it could mean it was used by advanced threat actors. Either way, make sure you test and roll these fixes quickly.”

The zero-day CVE-2023-21715 is a weakness in **Microsoft Office** that Redmond describes as a “security feature bypass vulnerability.”

“Microsoft lists this as under active exploit, but they offer no info on how widespread these exploits may be,” Childs said. “Based on the write-up, it sounds more like a privilege escalation than a security feature bypass, but regardless, active attacks in a common enterprise application shouldn’t be ignored. It’s always alarming when a security feature is not just bypassed but exploited. Let’s hope the fix comprehensively addresses the problem.”

The third zero-day flaw already seeing exploitation is CVE-2023-21823, which is another elevation of privilege weakness — this one in the **Microsoft Windows Graphic** component. Researchers at cybersecurity forensics firm **Mandiant** were credited with reporting the bug.

**Kevin Breen**, director of cyber threat research at **Immersive Labs**, pointed out that the security bulletin for CVE-2023-21823 specifically calls out **OneNote** as being a vulnerable component for the vulnerability.

“In recent weeks, we have seen an increase in the use of OneNote files as part of targeted malware campaigns,” Breen said. “Patches for this are delivered via the app stores and not through the typical formats, so it’s important to double check your organization’s policies.”

Microsoft fixed another Office vulnerability in CVE-2023-21716, which is a **Microsoft Word** bug that can lead to remote code execution — even if a booby-trapped Word document is merely viewed in the preview pane of **Microsoft Outlook**. This security hole has a CVSS (severity) score of 9.8 out of a possible 10.

Microsoft also has more valentines for organizations that rely on **Microsoft Exchange Server** to handle email. Redmond patched three Exchange Server flaws (CVE-2023-21706, CVE-2023-21707, and CVE-2023-21529), all of which Microsoft says are remote code execution flaws that are likely to be exploited.

Microsoft said authentication is required to exploit these bugs, but then again threat groups that attack Exchange vulnerabilities also tend to phish targets for their Exchange credentials.

Microsoft isn’t alone in dropping fixes for scary, ill-described zero-day flaws. Apple on Feb. 13 released an update for iOS that resolves a zero-day vulnerability in Webkit, Apple’s open source browser engine. **Johannes Ullrich** at the **SANS Internet Storm Center** notes that in addition to the WebKit problem, Apple fixed a privilege escalation issue. Both flaws are fixed in iOS 16.3.1.

“This privilege escalation issue could be used to escape the browser sandbox and gain full system access after executing code via the WebKit vulnerability,” Ullrich warned.

On a lighter note (hopefully), Microsoft drove the final nail in the coffin for **Internet Explorer 11 (IE11)**. According to Redmond, the out-of-support IE11 desktop application was permanently disabled on certain versions of Windows 10 on February 14, 2023 through a **Microsoft Edge** update.

“All remaining consumer and commercial devices that were not already redirected from IE11 to Microsoft Edge were redirected with the Microsoft Edge update. Users will be unable to reverse the change,” Microsoft explained. “Additionally, redirection from IE11 to Microsoft Edge will be included as part of all future Microsoft Edge updates. IE11 visual references, such as the IE11 icons on the Start Menu and taskbar, will be removed by the June 2023 Windows security update (“B” release) scheduled for June 13, 2023.”

For a more granular rundown on the updates released today, see the SANS Internet Storm Center roundup. If today’s updates cause any stability or usability issues in Windows, AskWoody.com will likely have the lowdown on that.

Please consider backing up your data and/or imaging your system before applying any updates. And feel free to sound off in the comments if you experience any problems as a result of these patches.

Microsoft Patch Tuesday, February 2023 Edition

Researchers have found flaws in the way SMTP servers handle messages, allowing them to send spoofed emails to and from targets.

SMTP smuggling is a technique that allows an attacker to send an email from pretty much any address they like. The intended goal is email spoofing—sending emails with false sender addresses. Email spoofing allows criminals to make malicious emails more believable.

Let’s take a closer look at what it is exactly, and how cybercriminals can use it.

The first thing we need to look at is the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), a protocol that allows the exchange of emails. Mail servers and other message transfer agents use SMTP to send and receive mail messages.

SMTP is very much a protocol that has developed over time since it became the standard for always-online servers in the 1980s.

Basically, an email is written using software like Microsoft Outlook or Apple Mail and is then handed over to an SMTP server. The server looks up the appropriate mail server for the domain in the recipient’s address—the part on the right side of the @ symbol, and sends the mail to that server.

It sometimes takes a few steps, but if all goes well the email will be received by the SMTP server that handles the mail for the recipient. This server may deliver the messages directly to storage, or forward it over a network using SMTP before it reaches the recipient.

Simplified, the process looks like this:

Image courtesy of SEC Consult

Image courtesy of SEC Consult

Image courtesy of SEC Consult

Since SMTP lacks authentication it used to be extremely easy to spoof a sender address. Several safeguards emerged to stop this:

*   SPF (Sender Policy Framework): This uses DNS records to indicate to receiving mail servers which IP addresses are authorized to send mail for a given domain. So this still leaves the work to the receiving server.
*   DKIM (Domain Key Identified Mail): This method signs outgoing emails using a private key. Receiving servers validate the sender using the sending server’s public key,.
*   DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance): DMARC verifies if the email’s “From” domain aligns with SPF checks and/or DKIM signatures. Thus, the DMARC check fails if there is a mismatch between the MAIL FROM and the From domain where otherwise the SPF check would pass. Unfortunately DMARC is not very widely used.

**SMTP smuggling**

SMTP smuggling takes advantage of inconsistencies in the way that proxy servers and firewalls handle SMTP traffic.

Traditionally, the end of data in an SMTP conversation is indicated by a sequence <CR><LF>.<CR><LF> (CR LF stands for Carriage Return and Line Feed, which are standard text delimiters) which can also be written as \r\n.\r\n.

Researchers published about two types of SMTP smuggling, inbound and outbound. They started working from the question, what happens if outbound and inbound SMTP servers interpret the end-of-data sequence (<CR><LF>.<CR><LF>) differently?

If you can tell one server the email ends here and the other one that the full packet ends later, you can create a compartment in which you can smuggle more data.

So, the researchers started testing by putting a <LF>.<LF>  sequence in the middle of sent packages. And they found that outbound SMTP servers have different methods of dealing with it, including:

*   Dot-stuffing (Escaping the single dot with another dot):  <LF>..<LF> 
*   Replacing it with a <CR><LF> 
*   Encoding it (e.g., via quoted-printable): =0A.=0A 
*   Removing the entire sequence 
*   Not sending the message 
*   Or do nothing at all

By testing, which included sending specially constructed messages from and to different email providers, the researchers were able to find combinations that allowed them to send two email messages in one package. The sequence <LF>.<CR><LF> turned out to be effective on a custom SMTP server called NemesisSMTPd which is in use by email services provided by Ionos (e.g. GMX) which accounts for about a million hosted domains.

Image courtesy of SEC Consult

Some vendors (Microsoft and GMX) were quick to fix the vulnerabilities that facilitated SMTP smuggling, but the researchers urge companies using the also affected Cisco Secure Email product to manually update their vulnerable default configuration. The Cisco flaw affects more than 40,000 vulnerable instances and allows an attacker to send spoofed emails to high-value targets, such as Amazon, PayPal, eBay, and the IRS.

The recommendation by the researchers tells organizations using Cisco Secure Email Gateway (on premises) or Cisco Secure Email Cloud Gateway (cloud) to change the default settings of “CR and LF Handling” from “Clean” to “Allow,” citing Cisco guidelines to help administrators understand the change that should be made.

That may sound counterproductive, but this setting passes e-mails with bare carriage returns or line feeds on to the actual e-mail server (Cisco Secure Email Gateway is just a gateway), which only interprets <CR><LF>.<CR><LF> as end-of-data sequence. So, if you don’t want to receive spoofed e-mails with valid DMARC checks, we highly recommend changing your configuration.

Our business solutions remove all remnants of ransomware and prevent you from getting reinfected. Want to learn more about how we can help protect your business? Get a free trial below.

 Explained: SMTP smuggling 

The latest episode of ThreatWise TV from Hazel Burton is the closest look yet at the team Talos assembled in the days after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Thursday, March 16, 2023 14:03

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter.

We’re written a ton about Cisco Talos’ support of Ukraine and our friends and allies there. Now, we encourage you to watch and listen to the folks who have been working hands-on there.

The latest episode of ThreatWise TV from Hazel Burton is the closest look yet at the team Talos assembled in the days after Russia invaded Ukraine to help defend critical infrastructure, intelligence partners and government agencies in Ukraine. You can watch the full documentary above, or over on YouTube here.

**The one big thing**

We have new research out on a never-before-seen threat actor called YoroTrooper that’s carrying out a variety of espionage activity in Europe and Asia. This group has targeted several high-profile government organizations, including one in the European Union, stealing sensitive information such as login credentials, browser histories and cookies, system information and screenshots.

**Why do I care?**

While YoroTrooper uses malware associated with other threat actors, such as PoetRAT and LodaRAT, we believe this is a new cluster of activity from an entirely new threat actor. YoroTrooper is clearly going after major targets and has already been successful, so everyone should be on the lookout for these attacks, but especially users and organizations in Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries.

**So now what?**

YoroTrooper creates malicious domains and spoofs commonly visited URLs that look like they belong to government agencies in the targeted countries to host its malware. So any time you go to open an email attachment or click on a link in an email, triple check to make sure it’s really where you want to go, or that you can verify the sender. Additionally, the blog outlines a range of protections in Cisco Secure products that can defend and detect this group’s actions.

**Top security headlines of the week**

The APLHV ransomware cartel claims to have **successfully stolen data belonging to Amazon’s Ring smart home company.** The ransomware gang’s dark website threatened to leak the data earlier this week, though it showed no evidence of a successful attack. Ring said on Tuesday that it had “no indications that Ring has experienced a ransomware event.” ALPHV, which is known for the BlackCat malware, usually encrypts targets’ data and threatens to leak the stolen information if the victim does not pay the requested ransom payment. Politico also reported this week that Ring will openly share recorded footage with local law enforcement, even if the camera’s user declines to do so, sparking questions about who owns security footage on private property and whether users are compelled to share those recordings. (Vice, TechCrunch, Politico)

Sensitive information from D.C. Health Link — the online health insurance marketplace for Washington, D.C. — is **reportedly for sale on the dark web,** potentially affecting White House staff and members of Congress. An internal memo last week warned of a "significant data breach” that potentially exposed the personal information of thousands of federal employees and warned potential victims that their data may have been compromised. As many as 21 members from the U.S. House and Senate could be affected, all of whom get their insurance through the program. In all, 56,415 customers were affected, according to the exchange. (CBS News, Roll Call)

Microsoft **released its monthly security update Tuesday,** disclosing 83 vulnerabilities across the company’s hardware and software line, including two issues that are actively being exploited in the wild, continuing a trend of zero-days appearing in Patch Tuesdays over the past few months. Two of the vulnerabilities included in March’s security update have been exploited in the wild, according to Microsoft, including one critical issue. One of the zero-days included this month, CVE-2023-23397, is a privilege escalation vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook that could force a targeted device to connect to a remote URL and transmit the Windows account's Net-NTLMv2 hash to an adversary. To trigger this vulnerability, a user doesn’t even need to open the email or preview it, the vulnerability is triggered as soon as the email is retrieved by the targeted email server. (Cisco Talos, SecurityWeek)

**Can’t get enough Talos?**

*   Talos Takes Ep. #130: There’s not actually more spam during tax season, just different spam
*   Researcher Spotlight: How David Liebenberg went from never having opened Terminal to hunting international APTs
*   YoroTrooper cyberspies target CIS energy orgs, EU embassies
*   YoroTrooper Espionage Campaigns Target CIS, EU Countries
*   Updated Prometei botnet evades defenses, mines Monero

**Upcoming events where you can find Talos**

**WiCyS (March 16 - 18)**

Denver, CO

**RSA (April 24 - 27)**

San Francisco, CA

**Most prevalent malware files from Talos telemetry over the past week**

  
**SHA 256:** 00ab15b194cc1fc8e48e849ca9717c0700ef7ce2265511276f7015d7037d8725  
**MD5:** d47fa115154927113b05bd3c8a308201  
**Typical Filename:** mssqlsrv.exe  
**Claimed Product:** N/A  
**Detection Name:** Trojan.GenericKD.65065311

**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

**SHA 256:** 5616b94f1a40b49096e2f8f78d646891b45c649473a5b67b8beddac46ad398e1  
**MD5:** 3e10a74a7613d1cae4b9749d7ec93515  
**Typical Filename:** IMG001.exe  
**Claimed Product:** N/A  
**Detection Name:** Win.Dropper.Coinminer::1201

**SHA 256:** de3908adc431d1e66656199063acbb83f2b2bfc4d21f02076fe381bb97afc423  
**MD5:** 954a5fc664c23a7a97e09850accdfe8e  
**Typical Filename:** teams15.exe  
**Claimed Product:** teams15  
**Detection Name:** Gen:Variant.MSILHeracles.59885

Threat Source newsletter (March 16, 2023) — A deep dive into Talos' work in Ukraine

Microsoft patched a record number of 147 new CVEs this month, though only three are rated "Critical."

Source: redbrickstock.com via Alamy Stock Photo

Microsoft outdid itself with this month's Patch Tuesday releases, which contain no zero-day patches, though at least one of the patches addresses a flaw already being actively exploited.

Products affected by the most recent Patch Tuesday updates include Windows and Windows Components; Azure; .NET Framework and Visual Studio; SQL Server; DNS Server; Windows Defender; Bitlocker; and Windows Secure Boot.

Microsoft's April update included 147 CVEs, three rated "Critical," 142 categorized as "Important," and two listed as "Moderate" in severity. That number swells to 155 CVEs if third-party flaws are included. The number represents a record high for Patch Tuesday fixes.

"Microsoft patched 147 CVEs in April, the largest number of CVEs patched in a month since we began tracking this data in 2017," Satnam Narang, senior staff researcher engineer at Tenable, said in a statement. "The last time there were over 100 CVEs patched was October 2023, when Microsoft addressed 103 CVEs." The previous high was in July 2023, with 130 CVEs patched, Narang added.

Microsoft did not indicate any of the April Patch Tuesday CVEs are zero-day threats, a welcome departure from last year's brisk clip of zero-day disclosures.

"This time last year, there were seven zero-day vulnerabilities exploited in the wild," Narang said. This year, there have only been two zero-days exploited and both were in February. "It's difficult to pinpoint why we've seen this decrease, whether it's just a lack of visibility or if it signifies a trend with attackers utilizing known vulnerabilities as part of their attacks on organizations."

However, Dustin Childs of the Zero Day Initiative noted in his April Microsoft Patch Tuesday analysis that his organization has evidence of a known exploited flaw in the list of this month's fixes.

**Patch Tuesday Fixes to Prioritize**

Childs pointed to the max-severity vulnerability in SmartScreen Prompt Security Feature Bypass (CVE-2024-29988) with a CVSS score of 8.8, which was discovered by ZDI but wasn't listed as exploited in Microsoft's Patch Tuesday update.

"However, the bug reported by ZDI threat hunter Peter Girrus was found in the wild," Childs added. "We have evidence this is being exploited in the wild, and I'm listing it as such."

Another max-severity bug impacting the Remote Procedure Call Runtime Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (CVE-2024-20678) was given a CVSS score of 8.8 and patched this month by Microsoft.

A spoofing vulnerability (CVE-2024-20670), listed as max-severity with a base CVSS of 8.1, was fixed in Outlook for Windows. And a Windows DNS Server Remote Code Execution, also listed as max-severity (CVE-2024-26221) with a CVSS score of 7.2, was patched as well.

**Microsoft SQL Gets Plenty of Patches**

Microsoft SQL Server vulnerabilities make up a large share of this month's Patch Tuesday fixes, according to Kev Breen, senior director threat research for Immersive Labs.

"While at first glance, it may appear that Microsoft has called out a large number of vulnerabilities in its latest notes, 40 of them are all related to the same product — Microsoft SQL Server," Breen said in a statement. "The main issue is with the Clients used to connect to an SQL server, not the server itself."

Breen went on to explain that all of these would require social engineering, making the SQL flaws difficult to exploit in any useful capacity.

"All the reported vulnerabilities follow a similar pattern: For an attacker to gain code execution, they must convince an authenticated user inside an organization to connect to a remote SQL server the attacker controls," Breen added. "While not impossible, this is unlikely to be exploited at scale by attackers."

Security teams concerned about these types of attacks should look for anomalous activity and block outbound connections except to trusted servers.

**Microsoft SmartScreen Prompt and Secure Boot Flaws**

Tenable's Narang noted this month's fix for the SmartScreen Prompt security feature bypass (CVE-2024-29988), with its CVSS score of 8.8, likewise relies on social engineering to make exploitation possible. A similar zero-day bug (CVE-2024-21412), discovered by the same researchers was used in a DarkGate campaign impersonating popular brands like Apple iTunes.

"Microsoft Defender SmartScreen is supposed to provide additional protections for end users against phishing and malicious websites," Narang said. "However, as the name implies, these flaws bypass these security features, which leads to end users being infected with malware."

Narang also suggested security teams take a look at the 24 Windows Secure Boot flaw fixes included in Microsoft's April Patch Tuesday release.

"The last time Microsoft patched a flaw in Windows Secure Boot (CVE-2023-24932) in May 2023 had a notable impact as it was exploited in the wild and linked to the BlackLotus UEFI bootkit, which was sold on Dark Web forums for $5,000," he said.

BlackLotus malware is able to block security protections while booting up.

"While none of these Secure Boot vulnerabilities addressed this month were exploited in the wild, they serve as a reminder that flaws in Secure Boot persist, and we could see more malicious activity related to Secure Boot in the future," Narang stressed.

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