Infamous malware Raccoon Stealer is reportedly back in business after a break.
The post Raccoon Stealer returns with a new bag of tricks appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

The popular malware Raccoon stealer, which suspended operations after a developer allegedly died in the Ukraine invasion, has returned.

Raccoon stealer is malware as a service, with the developers selling it to would-be users. The operation is a tightly-run ship, to the extent that customers have digital signatures tied to their executables. If files end up on malware scanning services, the malware authors know exactly who the leak has come from.

**So much data, so little time**

The popular tool, used for data theft, is ubiquitous where stealing credentials is concerned. Cryptocurrency wallets, cookies, passwords, browser autofill data, and credit card data: pretty much anything is up for grabs.

Since 2019, Raccoon stealer has been lifting data from the unwary. Cheap to purchase and packing a large range of features, it is able to steal from as many as 60 different applications including:

**Email**: Outlook, Thunderbird, Thunderbird  
**Browsers**: Firefox, Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, Vivaldi, SeaMonkey, Vivaldi  
**Cryptocurrency app**s: Exodus, Monero, Electrum, Jaxx

Raccoon’s two most popular delivery methods are phishing campaigns (the tried and tested malicious Word document/Macro combination) and exploit kits. Once data is located on the target system, it is eventually placed into a .zip file and sent to the malware Command and Control (C&C) server.

Its operators are constantly innovating, for example making use of Telegram to operate C&C. This is one malware project which wasn’t going to stay gone for long.

**An all new raccoon rampage**

The new version, Raccoon Stealer 2.0, was claimed as being sold on Telegram and in circulation since May 17. However, these claims related to Telegram have since been shown to be fake.

While functionality appears to be mostly similar to the original version, there are some notable differences. The creators claim to have improved the software and resurrected their malware antics to “honour” the legacy of the teammate who died:

> _After our teammate loss we made a decision that we can not leave our project and we will continue our work in his honour. Raccoon Stealer 2.0 was totally coded from the very beginning. New back-end, new front-end, absolutely new stealer software._

**Smash and grab**

Credit card data, autofill, browser passwords, and a big slice of cryptocurrency wallets are once more targets for Raccoon Stealer. The big change up seems to be related to how data is exfiltrated. This new version doesn’t appear to be particularly stealthy.

The name of the game in data exfiltration is to make as few moves as possible to help evade detection. Sneaky malware will collect data as it goes, before eventually sending the whole lot in a zip in one go. If an infection is constantly pinging away, the chances of it being caught by security tools increases dramatically.

Here, Racoon Stealer seems to be throwing a little caution to the wind. The stealer sends data every single time it adds to its exfiltrated data collection. Researchers note that Raccoon Stealer 2.0 possesses no obfuscation or anti-analysis techniques.

I’d love to know if some sort of data driven analysis led developers to the conclusion that smash and grab is ultimately more suited to their business model than waiting it out. Ultimately, this may be the one bright note for embattled IT admins in the wake of everyone’s least favourite raccoon’s re-emergence onto the malware scene.

Raccoon Stealer returns with a new bag of tricks

Extortion group RansomHouse has revealed its latest victim: semiconductor giant AMD. The company was breached due to weak passwords.
The post RansomHouse claims to have stolen at least 450GB of AMD’s data appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

AMD is investigating the claim that the RansomHouse extortion group has its hands on more than 450GB of the company’s data.

AMD’s breach revelation came to light after RansomHouse teased on Telegram about selling data belonging to a popular ‘three-letter company that starts with the letter ‘A’. The event crescendoed with the addition of AMD to the group’s data leak site.

RansomHouse’s leak pages for AMD. (Source: Marcelo Rivero | Malwarebytes)

RansomHouse didn’t breach AMD, although it was once linked to such activity. The group revealed to BleepingComputer that its “partners” breached AMD’s network a year ago. Those partners are said to no longer have access to AMD’s network.

The extortion group didn’t bother informing the graphics drive company, thinking it was a “waste of time.”

> “\[I\]t will be more worth it to sell the data rather then wait for AMD representatives to react with a lot of bureaucracy involved.”

The group hasn’t provided any substantial evidence of files belonging to AMD. Still, it claims the stolen data contains research, financial information, a list of 70,000 devices in AMD’s internal network, and alleged employee credentials, showcasing a collection of embarrassingly weak passwords. Some of these are ‘password’, ‘P@ssw0rd’, ‘amd!23’, and ‘Welcome1.’

The use of bad passwords is the reason why AMD got compromised, the extortion group said.

RansomHouse is a group-on-a-mission. As long as businesses have weaknesses in places—may these be passwords or in the software they use—expect a very quiet knock on the door when everyone is paying the slightest attention.

It’s never too late to extinguish weak passwords and tighten up the perimeter around accounts. Companies can start off by:

*   Using a password manager. This tool creates complicated passwords and remembers them for you as well.
*   Requiring two-factor authentication (2FA) for highly sensitive resource repositories and administrator accounts.
*   Stressing the importance of not reusing a password. It’s so easy for an attacker to use a password breached on one site to get in to another, if the login credentials are the same. Stopping password reuse makes things much more difficult for them.

Good luck!

RansomHouse claims to have stolen at least 450GB of AMD’s data

Malwarebytes found a family of forced Chrome extensions that can't be removed because of a policy change that tells users "Your browser is managed".
The post Forced Chrome extensions get removed, keep reappearing appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

In the continued saga of annoying search extensions we have a new end-of-level boss.

Victims have been reporting browser extensions that were removed by Malwarebytes, but “magically” came back later. Since the victims also complained about the message saying their browser was “managed”, we had a pretty good idea where to look.

_custom search bar_ is _one of the forced extensions_

**Search extensions**

The culprits turned out to be search extensions. Which is often the case when we spot potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) that use malware tactics to get installed and gain persistence.

The search hijackers “active search bar” and “custom search bar” were both available in the Chrome web store at the time of writing even though we reported them days ago.

_active search bar is also available in the webstore_

**PowerShell**

It took some digging to find the origin, since all we had were the extensions. And when the extensions were installed directly from the webstore, nothing happened out of the ordinary. However, some hunting on VirusTotal soon led me to a few recently uploaded PowerShell scripts that included the string “ExtensionInstallForcelist.” I looked for that string because we know from the past that these registry policies account for the “Your browser is managed” warnings.

$CPath = "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\\Policies\\Google\\Chrome\ExtensionInstallForcelist";

$EPath = "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge\ExtensionInstallForcelist";

The description in the Chromium documentation about the ExtensionInstallForcelist states:

> “Specifies a list of apps and extensions that are installed silently, without user interaction, and which cannot be uninstalled nor disabled by the user.”

And to confirm this finding, the victims that provided logs all had one of these PowerShell script listed in their Scheduled Tasks.

_The Scheduled Task triggers the PowerShell script_

The Scheduled Task was set to run every four hours, which explained why the extensions kept coming back.

**Installer**

But Scheduled Tasks don’t install themselves either and dropping PowerShell scripts in the System32 folder requires Administrator privileges, so we needed to dig a little further to find an installer.

The domain wincloudservice.com was used as a download location in all the PowerShell scripts so we used that domain as a search parameter in our next stage of VirusTotal hunting. This search eventually returned three installers. What they had in common at first glance was that the filenames all ended with “\_x64LTS.exe” and that they were all signed by “Tommy Tech LTD.”

Upon further inspection we noticed that the installers all asked for Administrator privileges twice. The first part installs something that is called “Setup” and the second part installs an application that aligns with the name of the installer. So, it appears that the original installer files were “patched” to add the installer for our browser hijacker. It stands to reason that these installers are offered for download somewhere by the threat actors.

The EULA points to tommytechil.com which is unreachable. I was unable to find an installer that actually dropped an extension in Edge, but the “Your browser is managed by your organization” setting does get enforced.

_Edge managed by your organization_

**Javascripts**

Malwarebytes customers were protected against these extensions as Malwarebytes’ web protection module blocked the domain wincloudservice\[.\]com. On inspection, this domain hosted several javascripts including heavily obfuscated files called crypto.js and crypto-js.min.js.

**Detection and removal**

Malwarebytes detects these browser hijackers as PUP.Optional.ActiveSearchBar and PUP.Optional.CustomSearchBar. Included in the removal procedure are the extension, and the Scheduled Task, which is enough to permanently get rid of the extension.

Some Windows registry changes have been made that will take a system administrator to decide what they want to keep or not.

The registry keys to remove the “Your browser is managed” are:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Chrome\ExtensionInstallForceList

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge\ExtensionInstallForceList

And another change made by the installer was the registry value:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PowerShell\1\ShellIds\Microsoft.PowerShell\\\\ExecutionPolicy

The installer set that to “Unrestricted” which may not be your favorite setting. If you are not sure or you have never actively set that policy, the default is “Restricted”. Please note that in some organizations PowerShell is required to run.

**IOCs**

**Domains:**

activesearchbar\[.\]me

customsearchbar\[.\]me

optimizerupdate\[.\]com

securedatacorner\[.\]com

wincloudservice\[.\]com

**Installers:**

4kvideodownloader\_5.22.371\_x64LTS.exe

AutoClicker\_x64LTS.exe

FPSUnlocker\_4.1\_x64LTS.exe

**PowerShell scripts:**

PrintWorkflowService.ps1

WindowsUpdater1.ps1

OptimizerWindows.ps1

**Extensions:**

custom search bar nniikbbaboifhfjjkjekiamnfpkdieng

active search bar pkofdnfadkamabkgjdjcddeopopbdjhg

Forced Chrome extensions get removed, keep reappearing

Chatting with strangers piqued millions of internet users’ interest during the pandemic. Omegle made this possible. Is my child safe to use it though?
The post Internet Safety Month: Everything you need to know about Omegle appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Omegle reached the heady heights of fame when everyone least expected it. Thanks to TikTok influencers, children flocked to this 13-year-old platform during the pandemic, unaware of the dangers already there.

The concept of talking to strangers online is Omegle’s main selling point, but it’s not new. When you think about it, most of us always engage with strangers on online platforms that promote conversations and debate or inspire reactions.

But unlike other social sites, Omegle has scant security to protect anyone willing to take that risky but exciting dive. Users are, once again, left to fend for themselves as they explore an online world through a platform where the only thing simple is its interface.

Omegle’s front page. It used to sport the message: “Predators have been known to use Omegle, so please be careful.” However, it removed this due to a lawsuit alleging it knowingly pairs minors with child predators.

So what are the things every parent, potential and current user, or school personnel should know about; and what can they do to protect themselves and the children in their care?

**What do you need to sign up for Omegle?**

Nothing. Unlike other popular social networking sites, users wanting to try out Omegle don’t need to sign up and create a profile. You just need to visit it from your computer or smartphone’s browser to start.

Once a user is signed up and paired with another user, the platform automatically sets the names to “You” and “Stranger”.

**What are the risks of using Omegle?**

Because people are randomly paired up for a text or video chat, anyone could meet anyone. These include VCH (virtual cam whore) puppets (which are bots), other extortionists, and impersonators (including child predators).

Content in Omegle isn’t guaranteed clean either. Your child might be exposed to nudity, grooming, privacy threats (such as strangers earning your child’s trust so they can get sensitive information from them), scams, and sexual abuse.

There is also the risk of your child being coaxed into exposing themselves and their younger siblings, or performing sexual acts. Child predators and extortionists do this so they can sell the clips, keep them for personal use, or use them in other extortion campaigns to lure more Omegle users into participating in sexual acts. Remember that the majority of these incidents happen in a house where parents and other family members are present.

Lastly, your child could become a target of cyberbullies. One TikTok user documented his experience of racism while using Omegle to TikTok users. Dr. Joanne Meredith, a cyberpsychologist, said the incident is a consequence of people losing their inhibitions online.

> “Due to various features of online interaction—including dissociative imagination, or the view that the online world is a kind of game—people become less inhibited and behave in ways that they would not normally.”

**Does Omegle have any parental controls?**

No, none.

**What other features does Omegle have?**

Omegle used to have what it called “Spy Mode” (or “Spy (question) mode”), wherein the “spy” becomes the third party in a conversation between two strangers. The “spy” can ask questions for them to answer, or the “spy” could just listen in on the conversation without contributing.

This has now been removed, reportedly because it was being used to sell child pornography.

Another feature is the College Student Chat, where curious college students can enter their student email addresses before getting paired with others enrolled in their school.

Finally, there is the Adult chat function, which is free for kids to access.

**Is Omegle safe for kids?**

I think you know the answer to that at this point.

If your child looks up to a TikTok influencer who encourages followers to use Omegle, explain that it is not a safe place to meet other people online because it doesn’t have safeguards, unlike other social media platforms.

**Staying safe on Omegle**

It is better for parents, carers, and other responsible adults to deter their young persons from using Omegle altogether until they are 18. Personally, this is a non-negotiable because of the lack of safeguards and high risk of children being targeted, especially if they are young teen girls.

Any one-on-one stranger video chat platform like Omegle is risky for kids. It is paramount to keep an open and healthy communication with your child regarding this.

If you have found out your child has or continues to use Omegle, it’s time to sit them down for a quiet chat. Never punish them for being curious. Instead, let them know about the risks in order to explain why they need to stop using the platform until they’re at the right age.

Should your young person insist on using stranger video chat apps despite knowing the risks and repeated warnings, then do whatever you can to keep them from reaching these sites. Blacklist them locally using your security solution of choice with a web filter feature on your browser, on Windows via the HOSTS file (but take care not to put a lot of URLs there) or on a Mac.

Good luck!

Internet Safety Month: Everything you need to know about Omegle

A new commercial spyware for governments, called Hermit, has spotted in the wild. It affects iOS and all Android versions.
The post Hermit spyware is deployed with the help of a victim’s ISP appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) has revealed a sophisticated spyware activity involving ISPs (internet service providers) aiding in downloading powerful commercial spyware onto users’ mobile devices. The spyware, dubbed Hermit, is reported to have government clients much like Pegasus.

Italian vendor RCS Labs developed Hermit. The spyware was spotted in Kazakhstan (to suppress protests against government policies), Italy (to investigate those involved in an anti-corruption case), and Syria (to monitor its northeastern Kurdish region), all deployed by their respective governments.

Hermit affects Android and iOS devices and is described as a modular spyware. This means it can download pieces of itself (modules) for additional functionalities, making it customizable to suit client needs, from a C2 (command and control) server.

Unlike NSO’s Pegasus, Hermit is not as stealthy. But at its core, it functions like any government-grade spyware. It can read SMS and chat messages, view passwords, intercept calls, record calls and ambient audio, redirect calls, and pinpoint precise locations of victims.

Hermit also roots all infected Android devices, giving itself deeper access to phone features and user data. On iOS, Hermit is packed with six exploits, two of which were targeting zero-day vulnerabilities. According to Google’s report, these are the following exploits:

*   CVE-2018-4344 internally referred to and publicly known as LightSpeed.
*   CVE-2019-8605 internally referred to as SockPort2 and publicly known as SockPuppet
*   CVE-2020-3837 internally referred to and publicly known as TimeWaste.
*   CVE-2020-9907 internally referred to as AveCesare.
*   CVE-2021-30883 internally referred to as Clicked2, marked as being exploited in-the-wild by Apple in October 2021.
*   CVE-2021-30983 internally referred to as Clicked3, fixed by Apple in December 2021.

A Hermit spyware campaign starts off as a seemingly authentic messaging app users are deceived into downloading. A government actor also poses as a mobile carrier over SMS—sometimes with the help of the target’s ISP—to socially engineer targets into downloading the spyware masquerading as a tool to “fix” their internet connection.

Both Apple and Google have already notified their users regarding this spyware, and then some. Apple revoked the legitimate certificates Hermit abused to reside on iPhone devices, while Google beefed up its Google Play Protect security app to block Hermit from running. Google also pulled the plug on Hermit’s Firebase account, which it uses to communicate with its C2.

When questioned by TechCrunch, RCS Labs provided a statement, which we have replicated in part below:

> RCS Lab exports its products in compliance with both national and European rules and regulations. Any sales or implementation of products is performed only after receiving an official authorization from the competent authorities. Our products are delivered and installed within the premises of approved customers. RCS Lab personnel are not exposed, nor participate in any activities conducted by the relevant customers.

Providers of government-grade spyware like Pegasus and Hermit always claim to have legitimate reasons for creating malware. But as we’ve seen and heard from countless reports, they are mainly used to spy on journalists, activists, and human rights defenders.

Hermit spyware is deployed with the help of a victim’s ISP

We take a look at reports of a USB drive containing data on all 460k residents of a city in Japan, and how encryption helped lessen the risk.
The post City worker loses USB stick containing data on every resident after day of drinking appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

A person working in the city of Amagasaki, in Western Japan, has mislaid a USB stick which contained data on the city’s 460,000 residents.

The USB drive was in a bag that went missing during a reported day of drinking and dining at a restaurant last Tuesday. The person reported it to the police the following day.

Data on the USB drive included names, gender, birthdays, and addresses. Other additional personal details were included, though it’s not been revealed what this is. Bank account numbers of households receiving welfare also found themselves on the USB drive.

**Safety first pays dividends**

The one piece of good news to emerge from this story is that the drive was both encrypted and password protected. So, providing they used a good password, if someone finds the USB drive and plugs it into a computer, they won’t be able to just open up the files and view the contents.

If whoever put this drive together hadn’t bothered with security measures, the first person to find the lost drive would have a data payday on their hands. Perhaps as a result of this cautious approach, there’s been no evidence or reports of the data being leaked so far.

**How to safely transfer data**

There is the question of why this data was on a USB stick in the first place. According to CBSNews, it was being transferred to a call center in Osaka. There are plenty of alternatives to ferrying data around on easily lost USB sticks. While some industries have strict compliance and regulatory standards, others may simply not be able to use third-party products for a variety of reasons. Even so, anything along these lines is surely better than “I lost a USB stick on a night out”. With this caveat out of the way:

*   **Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP)**. This is used in business as a way to securely send files from one device to another. Files sent using this method are done so via an encrypted connection. One potential drawback here is you’ll likely need software installed on all the machines receiving the files. If you need to send data to another organisation, this can quickly become complicated or unfeasible. Additionally, not everyone believes it’s a suitable option for secure file transfer when more custom-built solutions are now available.
*   **Data in the cloud**. Third party cloud products like Dropbox and Box allow you to store, and share, files. They both have lots to offer, with Box in particular being specifically geared towards business solutions. Multi-factor authentication, malware detection and leak prevention, encryption and compliance: it’s all there. Services like the above are increasingly more popular in business circles where secure, pain-free data transfer is required but the in-house knowledge required to do it yourself isn’t to hand.
*   **Encrypting your data and your** **USB drive**. In some situations it may well be “USB drive or nothing at all”. If you’re using Windows 10 Home, you’ll need to use a third-party solution to encrypt files as the option will be greyed out. If you’re on other versions like Pro and Enterprise, the encryption option will be available to you. Right click your file(s), then select **Properties** -> **Advanced** -> **Encrypt contents to secure data**. As for the drive itself, you’ll once again have to rely on third-party tools if you’re running Windows 10 Home. Otherwise, you can secure the drive with Bitlocker. Mac users should select the **Encrypt USB stick** option from the location entry, then create and verify the encryption password. Be sure to set a password hint, too. Hit **Encrypt Disk** to complete the process.

City worker loses USB stick containing data on every resident after day of drinking

The FTC has issued a warning to the LGBTQ+ community about extortionists posing as potential romantic partners on Grindr and Feeld.
The post LGBTQ+ community targeted by extortionists who threaten to publish nudes appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has warned the LGBTQ+ community about extortionists posing as potential romantic partners on Grindr and Feeld.

The scammers send their targets explicit photos and then ask for them to reciprocate. If they do, targets are then blackmailed into paying a ransom, usually in the form of gift cards, or risk having these photos leaked to family, friends, and employers.

And that’s not all, the scammers are also looking to out people, unless they pay a ransom. According to the FTC:

> “Other scammers threaten people who are “closeted” or not yet fully “out” as LGBTQ+. They may pressure you to pay up or be outed, claiming they’ll “ruin your life” by exposing explicit photos or conversations.”

**How to protect yourself from extortionists**

*   **Always check who you’re talking to.** Do is a reverse image search of their profile photo to see what shows up. If the name doesn’t match up with the face, end communications promptly, and report the account to the dating app/site.
*   **Be careful about sending compromising images of yourself to someone.** Trust your gut. Realize that extortionists are after such photos to use them as bargaining chips.
*   **Never send your personal information.** This includes email addresses, social media profiles, and smartphone numbers.
*   **Avoid opening attachments or clicking links.** They may contain malware designed to hijack devices or steal your information.
*   **Disable your webcam and electronic devices when not in use.**
*   **Never pay the ransom.** Scammers are known for promising one thing and doing the other. Remember that if you pay them, there’s no guarantee they’ll keep their word.
*   **Report it to the FBI and FTC.** Don’t wait to be in deep with the scammer. Once you smell fraud, cease communications immediately and report.

Grindr and Feeld also have helpful guides for their users.

Stay safe!

LGBTQ+ community targeted by extortionists who threaten to publish nudes

Microsoft posted a reminder that Exchange Server 2013 is destined to reach end of support very, very soon.
The post You only have nine months to ditch Exchange Server 2013 appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Microsoft has posted a reminder that Exchange Server 2013 reaches End of Support (EoS) on April 11, 2023.  That’s a little more than 9 months from now. A useful and timely reminder, since we all realize that it takes some time to migrate to a different system.

Every Windows product has a lifecycle. The lifecycle begins when a product is released and ends when it’s no longer supported. Knowing key dates in this lifecycle helps you make informed decisions about when to update, upgrade, or make other changes to your software.

**Exchange Server**

Microsoft Exchange Server is a groupware solution platform that provides many organizations with a mail server and calendaring server. It runs exclusively on Windows Server operating systems.

A few weeks ago Microsoft announced that the 2021 subscription model version of Exchange Server was not going to happen. So there may have been some questions whether the EoS for Exchange Server 2013 would go forward as planned. Now we know the answer: Yes.

Since the next on-premise version is not expected until the second half of 2025, your upgrade options are Exchange Server 2016 and Exchange Server 2019. Unless you want to migrate to the Exchange Online version.

**End of Support**

EoS (also called End-of-Life, or EoL) describes the final stage of a product’s lifecycle. Once a product reaches EoS, developers stop creating updates and patches for the product.

For Exchange Server 2013 this means that Microsoft will no longer provide:

*   Technical support for problems that may occur.
*   Fixes for usability or stability bugs.
*   Time zone updates.
*   Security fixes.

EoS makes the most basic security hygiene practice, “patch now”, impossible, and vulnerabilities discovered after EoS remain an open wound forever.

**Immediate threats**

Microsoft has chosen to further develop Exchange Server 2019, rather than come out with a completely new version. It mentioned the fact that state sponsored threat actors, like Hafnium, are targeting on-premises Exchange servers as one of the reasons for the cancellation of Exchange Server 2021.

The number and severity of active threats that target Exchange Server is worrying enough. And this will only get worse when one of the versions is no longer eligible for bug and security fixes.

The most prominent threats for Exchange Servers from last year were:

*   ProxyLogon that was used to infect thousands of servers before Microsoft released patches. targets on-premise Exchange servers.
*   ProxyOracle is a bit less numerous since threat actors have to trick users into clicking on a malicious link to steal the user’s password.
*   ProxyToken allows an unauthenticated attacker to perform configuration actions on mailboxes belonging to arbitrary users.
*   ProxyShell another on-premise Exchange Server vulnerability on unpatched servers with Internet access.

By now, all of the above have had patches created for them. Unfortunately that doesn’t mean that all vulnerable Exchange Servers have installed the relevant updates. But new vulnerabilities will be found. And vulnerabilities that work on a server software that no longer receives patches will be critical.

**Transition**

If you don’t want to get stuck with an unpatchable Exchange Server version, it is time to start planning, find the necessary budget, maybe think through what you are going to use next, and when is the best time for the transition.

Stay safe, everyone!

You only have nine months to ditch Exchange Server 2013

Brave Search, the privacy search engine you may not have heard of, is a year old and growing fast. 
The post Brave Search wants to replace Google’s biased search results with yours appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Brave Search, Brave Software’s privacy search engine, just turned one. To celebrate, the company says it is moving the search engine out of its beta phase to become the default search engine for all Brave browser users.

**Goodbye, Google? Not entirely.**

In May 2015, Mozilla alumni Brendan Eich and Brian Bondy launched Brave Software. Its first product was the Brave Browser, a privacy-friendly, Chromium-based internet browser that automatically blocks ads and site trackers. In March 2021, the company launched Brave Search so it could use its own index to generate search results.

In a recent announcement, the company said its search engine had passed 2.5 billion queries since its release a year earlier. That was a staggering increase in a year, from 8.1 million search queries to 411.7M by May 2022. However, as impressive as that is, Brave Search (and the other privacy search engine, DuckDuckGo) are still lightyears away from challenging Google’s hegemony. While Google enjoys a 92% market share, Brave has yet to break out of the search engine ranking’s miniscule “other” category.

Besides a loyal following, one reason for Brave Search’s fast growth is likely that it (mostly) avoids using third-party search indexes, such as Google and Bing. According to Brave’s blog, 92 percent of queries users receive are directly from Brave’s search index. The company admitted, however, that they will be pulling search results from other providers—Google in particular—if their index doesn’t have enough data of its own.

> Search engines that depend too much, or exclusively, on Big Tech are subject to their censorship, biases, and editorial decisions. The Web needs multiple search providers—without choice there’s no freedom.
> 
> Brave’s blog

Brave Search is currently ad-free, but the company has plans to work on an ad-supported version of Search. This will involve Brave Ads, Brave’s adtech platform. Users who click these ads are rewarded 70 percent of the ad revenue.

While Brave is quick to claim that its query algorithms are unbiased, The Verge pointed out that all algorithms have inherent biases. But Goggles, a new feature, may help to mitigate this.

**Going gaga over Goggles**

Brave also announced a new Brave Search results curation feature called “Goggles,” which interested users can start testing out right now. The company has already prepared some demos to try.

“Goggles will enable anyone, or any community of people, to create sets of rules and filters to constrain the searchable space and / or alter the ordering of search results,” the browser company explains. “Essentially, Goggles will act as a re-ranking option on top of the Brave Search index.”

Sample of Brave Search query results using Goggle

The search team released a white paper on Goggles, detailing its features and showcasing how these work using examples. In a nutshell, Brave is giving its users access to information filtered by their own explicit biases. This means that users’ preferences take precedence over Brave’s preferences.

Brave presented benefits for both the average user and content creator:

“The benefit for the users is that they would be empowered to explore multiple realities in a straight-forward way. The point is to offer people the freedom to choose their own biases while being conscious of them.”

“The benefit for the content creators is that they have multiple options to expose their content, by increasing their potential audience, which will reduce the need to optimize for the single set of biases implicitly encoded in the search engine’s ranking.”

The only downside to Goggles, so far, is that it’s not as easy to use as you might think. You can’t simply enter keywords or personalize preset filters. There is some coding involved, which might put off users without coding experience.

In addition to Goggles, Brave also released Discussions in April. This is a way to augment Brave Search results with actual conversations pulled from popular sites, all related to the search query.

Brave Search wants to replace Google’s biased search results with yours

CISA warns of log4shell being actively exploited to compromise VMware Horizon systems. We take a look at their warning.
The post CISA Log4Shell warning: Patch VMware Horizon installations immediately appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

CISA and the United States Coast Guard Cyber Command (CGCYBER) are warning that the threat of Log4Shell hasn’t gone away. It’s being actively exploited and used to target organisations using VMware Horizon and Unified Access Gateway servers.

**Log4Shell: what is it?**

Log4Shell was a zero-day vulnerability in something called Log4j. This open source logging library written in Java is used by millions of applications, many of them incredibly popular. The easy to trigger attack could be used to perform remote code execution (RCE) on vulnerable systems. If successful, attackers could gain full control over a target system. If they managed to have affected apps log a special string, then it was a case of game over. The system(s) at this point would be ripe for exploitation.

Discovered in November 2021, the exploit was estimated to potentially affect hundreds of millions of devices. With so much potential for damage, fixes were quickly developed and released on December 6, three days before the vulnerability was published.

Related bugs and additional vulnerabilities were also discovered and subsequently patched.

**Broadening Log4Shell’s horizons**

According to CISA and CGCYBER, Log4Shell has been used to exploit unpatched, public-facing VMWare Horizon and UAG servers. Suspected APT threat actors…

> _…implanted loader malware on compromised systems with embedded executables enabling remote command and control (C2). In one confirmed compromise, these APT actors were able to move laterally inside the network, gain access to a disaster recovery network, and collect and exfiltrate sensitive data._

Attackers not only make use of malware and HTTP, but also PowerShell scripts and Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). In the latter’s case, this was to further move around the network and other hosts inside the organisation’s production environment.

Compromised administrator accounts were used to run several additional forms of loader malware. Here are some of the samples found by CISA during one investigation:

*   SvcEdge.exe is a malicious Windows loader containing encrypted executable f7\_dump\_64.exe. When executed, SvcEdge.exe decrypts and loads f7\_dump\_64.exe into memory.
*   odbccads.exe is a malicious Windows loader containing an encrypted executable. When executed, odbccads.exe decrypts and loads the executable into memory.
*   praiser.exe is a Windows loader containing an encrypted executable. When executed, praiser.exe decrypts and loads the executable into memory.
*   fontdrvhosts.exe is a Windows loader that contains an encrypted executable. When executed, fontdrvhosts.exe decrypts and loads the executable into memory.
*   winds.exe is a Windows loader containing an encrypted malicious executable and was found on a server running as a service. During runtime, the encrypted executable is decrypted and loaded into memory. winds.exe has complex obfuscation, hindering the analysis of its code structures.

**Advice for securing installations**

CISA/CGCYBER are quite clear about this. Organisations which haven’t applied patches released back in December _should treat any and all affected VMware systems as compromised_:

*   Install fixed builds, updating all affected VMware Horizon and UAG systems to the latest versions. If updates or workarounds were not promptly applied following VMware’s release of updates for Log4Shell in December 2021, treat all affected VMware systems as compromised.
*   Minimize the internet-facing attack surface by hosting essential services on a segregated demilitarized (DMZ) zone, ensuring strict network perimeter access controls, and implementing regularly updated web application firewalls (WAFs) in front of public-facing services.
*   See VMware Security Advisory VMSA-2021-0028.13 and VMware Knowledge Base (KB) 87073 to determine which VMware Horizon components are vulnerable.
*   **Note:** Until the update is fully implemented, consider removing vulnerable components from the internet to limit the scope of traffic. While installing the updates, ensure network perimeter access controls are as restrictive as possible.
*   If upgrading is not immediately feasible, see KB87073 and KB87092 for vendor-provided temporary workarounds. Implement temporary solutions using an account with administrative privileges. Note that these temporary solutions should not be treated as permanent fixes; vulnerable components should be upgraded to the latest build as soon as possible. 
*   Prior to implementing any temporary solution, ensure appropriate backups have been completed. 
*   Verify successful implementation of mitigations by executing the vendor supplied script Horizon_Windows_Log4j_Mitigations.zip without parameters to ensure that no vulnerabilities remain. See KB87073 for details. 

Log4Shell, rated a 10 in the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS), is not to be trifled with. We advise affected organisations to pay heed to the warnings above and set about patching as soon as possible.