WhatsApp has accused professional spyware company Paragon of spying on a select group of users.

WhatsApp has accused the professional spyware company Paragon of spying on a select group of users.

WhatsApp, the Meta-owned, end-to-end encrypted messaging platform, said it has reliable information that nearly 100 journalists and other “members of civil society” were targets of a spyware campaign conducted by the Israeli spyware company.

“Members of civil society” usually refers to individuals and organizations that operate independently from government and business sectors, often those advocating for public interests, influencing policy, or holding governments accountable.

In a statement, a WhatsApp spokesperson said:

> “This is the latest example of why spyware companies must be held accountable for their unlawful actions. WhatsApp will continue to protect people’s ability to communicate privately”

Many such targets use WhatsApp because they rely on the end-to-end encryption (E2EE) that it offers by default to safeguard communications, protect sources, and shield sensitive information from prying eyes.

The targets were spread over two dozen countries, including several in Europe. WhatsApp notified the possibly affected accounts through its own app. The platform has the ability notify users about sensitive matters directly via a WhatsApp chat. In such a case, the chat will include a system message at the top of the chat that verifies that it originates from the official account of WhatsApp Support, and there will be a blue checkmark next to WhatsApp Support at the top of the chat.

A spokesperson stated that WhatsApp was able to identify and block the attack vector which Paragon used in these attacks. Reportedly, the hacking campaign used malicious PDFs sent via WhatsApp groups to compromise targets. The attack apparently required no action from the target, a so-called zero-click attack.

Researchers have often compared Paragon’s Graphite spyware to the Pegasus spyware, a deeply invasive tool developed by a company called NSO that WhatsApp has been fighting in court since 2019. But up until now, Paragon was able to keep a low profile. This is the first time that Paragon has been publicly linked to a hacking campaign that allegedly targeted journalists and members of civil society.

WhatsApp has sent Paragon Solutions a cease-and-desist letter following the series of attempted attacks. Meta also notified Canadian privacy watchdog Citizen Lab. Citizen Lab’s researcher John Scott-Railton says they observed this campaign and have started an investigation.

The attacks reportedly took place in December 2024. If you are a potential target and you received a suspicious PDF you can reach out to Citizen Lab or the non-profit digital security helpline AccessNow.

If you received a WhatsApp notification about the attack, you can contact WhatsApp Support in-app by clicking here.

**We don’t just report on phone security—we provide it**

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep threats off your mobile devices by downloading Malwarebytes for iOS, and Malwarebytes for Android today.

 WhatsApp says Paragon is spying on specific users 

Google said it blocked over 2.36 million policy-violating Android apps from being published to the Google Play app marketplace in 2024 and banned more than 158,000 bad developer accounts that attempted to publish such harmful apps.
The tech giant also noted it prevented 1.3 million apps from getting excessive or unnecessary access to sensitive user data during the time period by working with

Google Bans 158,000 Malicious Android App Developer Accounts in 2024

Apple has released a host of security updates for iOS, iPadOS, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV. Update as soon as you can.

Apple has released a host of security updates across many devices, including for a zero-day bug which is being actively exploited in iOS.

Apple said:

> “A malicious application may be able to elevate privileges. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited against versions of iOS before iOS 17.2.”

Devices affected are those that run:

*   iPhone XS and later
*   iPad Pro 13-inch, iPad Pro 12.9-inch 3rd generation and later, iPad Pro 11-inch 1st generation and later, iPad Air 3rd generation and later, iPad 7th generation and later, and iPad mini 5th generation and later
*   macOS Sequoia
*   Apple Watch Series 6 and later
*   All models of Apple TV HD and Apple TV 4K

If you use any of these then you should install updates as soon as you can. To check if you’re using the latest software version, go to **Settings** (or **System Settings**) > **General** \> **Software Update**. It’s also worth turning on Automatic Updates if you haven’t already, which you can do on the same screen.

**Technical details about the zero-day**

The zero-day vulnerability patched in this update is tracked as CVE-2025-24085. It is described as a use after free (UAF) issue in Apple’s Core Media framework that would allow an attacker to elevate privileges.

The Core Media framework handles multimedia applications like photos, videos, and real-time communication applications. UAF is a type of vulnerability that is the result of the incorrect use of dynamic memory during a program’s operation. If, after freeing a memory location, a program does not clear the pointer to that memory, an attacker can use the error to manipulate the program. Referencing memory after it has been freed can cause a program to crash, use unexpected values, or execute code. In this case, successful exploitation could provide a malicious app with privileges on the affected device that it shouldn’t have.

**We don’t just report on phone security—we provide it**

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep threats off your mobile devices by downloading Malwarebytes for iOS, and Malwarebytes for Android today.

 Apple users: Update your devices now to patch zero-day vulnerability 

Amid ongoing fears over TikTok, Chinese generative AI platform DeepSeek says it’s sending heaps of US user data straight to its home country, potentially setting the stage for greater scrutiny.

The United States’ recent regulatory action against the Chinese-owned social video platform TikTok prompted mass migration to another Chinese app, the social platform “Rednote.” Now, a generative artificial intelligence platform from the Chinese developer DeepSeek is exploding in popularity, posing a potential threat to US AI dominance and offering the latest evidence that moratoriums like the TikTok ban will not stop Americans from using Chinese-owned digital services.

DeepSeek, an AI research lab created by a prominent Chinese hedge fund, recently gained popularity after releasing its latest open source generative AI model that easily competes with top US platforms like those developed by OpenAI. However, to help avoid US sanctions on hardware and software, DeepSeek created some clever workarounds when building its models. On Monday, DeepSeek’s creators limited new sign-ups after claiming the app had been overrun with a “large-scale malicious attack.”

While DeepSeek has several AI models, some of which can be downloaded and run locally on your laptop, the majority of people will likely access the service through its iOS or Android apps or its web chat interface. Like with other generative AI models, you can ask it questions and get answers; it can search the web; or it can alternatively use a reasoning model to elaborate on answers.

DeepSeek, which does not appear to have established a communications department or press contact yet, did not return a request for comment from WIRED about its user data protections and the extent to which it prioritizes data privacy initiatives.

As people clamor to test out the AI platform, though, the demand brings into focus how the Chinese startup collects user data and sends it home. Users have already reported several examples of DeepSeek censoring content that is critical of China or its policies. The AI setup appears to collect a lot of information—including all your chat messages—and send it back to China. In many ways, it’s likely sending more data back to China than TikTok has in recent years, since the social media company moved to US cloud hosting to try to deflect US security concerns

“It shouldn’t take a panic over Chinese AI to remind people that most companies in the business set the terms for how they use your private data” says John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab. “And that when you use their services, you’re doing work for them, not the other way around.”

**What DeepSeek Collects About You**

To be clear, DeepSeek is sending your data to China. The English-language DeepSeek privacy policy, which lays out how the company handles user data, is unequivocal: “We store the information we collect in secure servers located in the People's Republic of China.”

In other words, all the conversations and questions you send to DeepSeek, along with the answers that it generates, are being sent to China or can be. DeepSeek’s privacy policies also outline the information it collects about you, which falls into three sweeping categories: information that you share with DeepSeek, information that it automatically collects, and information that it can get from other sources.

The first of these areas includes “user input,” a broad category likely to cover your chats with DeepSeek via its app or website. “We may collect your text or audio input, prompt, uploaded files, feedback, chat history, or other content that you provide to our model and Services,” the privacy policy states. Within DeepSeek’s settings, it is possible to delete your chat history. On mobile, go to the left-hand navigation bar, tap your account name at the bottom of the menu to open settings, and then click “Delete all chats.”

This collection is similar to that of other generative AI platforms that take in user prompts to answer questions. OpenAI’s ChatGPT, for example, has been criticized for its data collection although the company has increased the ways data can be deleted over time. Regardless of these types of protections, privacy advocates emphasize that you should not disclose any sensitive or personal information to AI chat bots.

“I would not input personal or private data in any such an AI assistant,” says Lukasz Olejnik, independent researcher and consultant, affiliated with King's College London Institute for AI. Olejnik notes, though, that if you install models like DeepSeek’s locally and run them on your computer, you can interact with them privately without your data going to the company that made them. Additionally, AI search company Perplexity says it has added DeepSeek to its platforms but claims it is hosting the model in US and EU data centers.

Other personal information that goes to DeepSeek includes data that you use to set up your account, including your email address, phone number, date of birth, username, and more. Likewise, if you get in touch with the company, you’ll be sharing information with it.

Bart Willemsen, a VP analyst focusing on international privacy at Gartner, says that, generally, the construction and operations of generative AI models is not transparent to consumers and other groups. People don’t know exactly how they work or the exact data they have been built upon. For individuals, DeepSeek is largely free, although it has costs for developers using its APIs. “So what do we pay with? What do we usually pay with: data, knowledge, content, information,” Willemsen says.

As with all digital platforms—from websites to apps—there can also be a large amount of data that is collected automatically and silently when you use the services. DeepSeek says it will collect information about what device you are using, your operating system, IP address, and information such as crash reports. It can also record your “keystroke patterns or rhythms,” a type of data more widely collected in software built for character-based languages. Additionally, if you purchase DeepSeek’s premium services, the platform will collect that information. It also uses cookies and other tracking technology to “measure and analyze how you use our services.”

A WIRED review of the DeepSeek website's underlying activity shows the company also appears to send data to Baidu Tongji, Chinese tech giant Baidu's popular web analytics tool, as well as Volces, a Chinese cloud infrastructure firm. In a social media post, Sean O'Brien, founder of Yale Law School's Privacy Lab, said that DeepSeek is also sending “basic” network data and “device profile” to TikTok owner ByteDance “and its intermediaries.

The final category of information DeepSeek reserves the right to collect is data from other sources. If you create a DeepSeek account using Google or Apple sign-on, for instance, it will receive some information from those companies. Advertisers also share information with DeepSeek, its policies say, and this can include “mobile identifiers for advertising, hashed email addresses and phone numbers, and cookie identifiers, which we use to help match you and your actions outside of the service.”

**How DeepSeek Uses Information**

Huge volumes of data may flow to China from DeepSeek’s international user base, but the company still has power over how it uses the information. DeepSeek’s privacy policy says the company will use data in many typical ways, including keeping its service running, enforcing its terms and conditions, and making improvements.

Crucially, though, the company’s privacy policy suggests that it may harness user prompts in developing new models. The company will “review, improve, and develop the service, including by monitoring interactions and usage across your devices, analyzing how people are using it, and by training and improving our technology,” its policies say.

DeepSeek’s privacy policy also says the company will also use information to “comply with \[its\] legal obligations”—a blanket clause many companies include in their policies. DeepSeek’s privacy policy says data can be accessed by its “corporate group,” and it will share information with law enforcement agencies, public authorities, and more when it is required to do so.

While all companies have legal obligations, those based in China do have notable responsibilities. Over the past decade, Chinese officials have passed a series of cybersecurity and privacy laws meant to allow state officials to demand data from tech companies. One 2017 law, for instance, says that organizations and citizens should “cooperate with national intelligence efforts.”

These laws, alongside growing trade tensions between the US and China and other geopolitical factors, fueled security fears about TikTok. The app could harvest huge amounts of data and send it back to China, those in favor of the TikTok ban argued, and the app could also be used to push Chinese propaganda. (TikTok has denied sending US user data to China’s government.) Meanwhile, several DeepSeek users have already pointed out that the platform does not provide answers for questions about the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, and it answers some questions in ways that sound like propaganda.

Willemsen says that, compared to users on a social media platform like TikTok, people messaging with a generative AI system are more actively engaged and the content can feel more personal. In short, any influence could be larger. “Risks of subliminal content alteration, conversation direction steering, in active engagement ought by that logic to lead to more concern, not less,” he says, “especially given how the inner workings of the model are widely unknown, its thresholds, borders, controls, censorship rules, and intent/personae largely left unscrutinized, and it being already so popular in its infancy stage.”

Olejnik, of King's College London, says that while the TikTok ban was a specific situation, US law makers or those in other countries could act again on a similar premise. “We can’t rule out that 2025 will bring an expansion: direct action against AI firms,” Olejnik says. “Of course, data collection may again be named as the reason.”

_Updated 5:27 pm EST, January 27, 2025: Added additional details about the DeepSeek website's activity._

_Updated 10:05 am EST, January 29, 2025: Added additional details about DeepSeek's network activity._

DeepSeek’s Popular AI App Is Explicitly Sending US Data to China

Google has launched a new feature called Identity Check for supported Android devices that locks sensitive settings behind biometric authentication when outside of trusted locations.
"When you turn on Identity Check, your device will require explicit biometric authentication to access certain sensitive resources when you're outside of trusted locations," Google said in a post announcing the

Android's New Identity Check Feature Locks Device Settings Outside Trusted Locations

PRESS RELEASE

LONDON, Jan. 20, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- A new survey from Omdia reveals that phishing scams are the leading security threat for smartphone users, with 24% of respondents reporting they have fallen victim to these attacks. Phishing, which includes fraudulent texts, emails, or calls designed to trick individuals into revealing sensitive personal information, remains a significant concern as cybercriminals continue to exploit unsuspecting consumers.

Omdia surveyed 1,572 consumers across the Americas, Asia & Oceania, and Europe in October 2024 for the fourth annual Omdia Mobile Device Security Scorecard. The survey found that the next most common security issue was malware and viruses, followed by physical theft, such as pickpocketing, mugging, or snatching.

In Omdia's recent assessment of leading premium smartphones, Google's Pixel 9 Pro and Samsung's Galaxy S24 outperformed Apple's iPhone 16 Pro and other Android-based devices, including the OnePlus 12, Xiaomi 14, and Honor Magic 6 Pro. Anti-phishing protection proved to be a weak spot across all devices, as none successfully intercepted all phishing texts, calls and emails.  

Simulated spam calls revealed that all Android devices from Google, Xiaomi, OnePlus, Honor, and Samsung successfully flagged suspected spam calls before users answered, while the iPhone 16 Pro lacked similar voice call protection. 

None of the tested devices fully No device flagged simulated phishing emails from Gmail as phishing, only identifying them as spam when sent from Google's SMTP. 

Despite gaps in detecting phishing texts and emails, devices with Google Safe Browsing protections successfully blocked the link from opening, displaying a warning screen and requiring user confirmation to proceed. Performance across browsers varied significantly: Samsung Internet effectively blocked most links, including advanced custom URLs, while Xiaomi Mii and OnePlus Internet browsers failed to warn users about known malicious links, underscoring inconsistencies in Android device's security.

"The lack of security protection, particularly against the growing threat of phishing attacks, is eroding consumer trust," said Omdia Senior Analyst, Aaron West. "When consumers were asked if their trust following a security issue increased (due to how well the issue was handled) or decreased, 73% reported they had reduced trust in the smartphone brand and operating system developer."  

"Despite the latest protections in place by some manufacturers, it is difficult to protect 100% against phishing attempts, highlighting the severity of the issue and potential impact to consumers. That said, smartphone manufacturers can (demonstrated by the more advanced phishing protection capabilities available) and should have a better baseline of phishing protection – such as voice call protection, and all Android devices making use of Google's Safe Browsing protections," said Hollie Hennessy, Principal Analyst, Omdia. "This needs to be paired with awareness activity from manufacturers and the wider industry to help consumers be vigilant and prepared".

ABOUT OMDIA

Omdia, part of Informa TechTarget, Inc. (Nasdaq: TTGT), is a technology research and advisory group. Our deep knowledge of tech markets combined with our actionable insights empower organizations to make smart growth decisions.

Omdia Finds Phishing Attacks Top Smartphone Security Concern for Consumers

The flurry of non-human identity attacks at the end of 2024 demonstrates extremely strong momentum heading into the new year. That does not bode well.

Itzik Alvas, Co-Founder & CEO, Entro Security

January 22, 2025

3 Min Read

Source: Brain light via Alamy Stock Photo

COMMENTARY

A look back at 2024's top non-human identity (NHI) attacks and their year-end explosion sends a worrying signal that 2025 is going to be a tough year for machine-to-machine identity theft.

One year ago, NHI burst onto the scene with a big warning flare, when Cloudflare disclosed that NHI mismanagement caused a massive breach, stemming from the failure to rotate an access token and account credentials exposed in the 2023 Okta compromise. 

While the attack was contained, the impact on Cloudflare was nonetheless significant. The company disclosed it had to rotate every production credential (more than 5,000 individual credentials), physically segment test and staging systems, perform forensic triages on 4,893 systems, and then reimage and reboot every machine in its global network.

As the year progressed, NHI breaches gained momentum.

In June, the New York Times made its own news when 270GB of its internal data and applications in 5,000 repositories were stolen from GitHub and published on the Web. 

How? The breach was executed using NHI when an exposed GitHub Personal Access Token, a machine-to-machine secret, allowed unauthorized access to the company's code repositories. The "All the News That's Fit to Print" outlet downplayed the story. Cybersecurity experts did not agree, however, arguing that source-code leaks can have wide-ranging implications.

**High-Profile Breach Disclosures**

The year ended with a spate of high-profile breach disclosures attributed to NHI during the fourth quarter. 

Thousands of online stores running Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento) software were hacked and infected with digital payment skimmers. The NHI attack used stolen cryptographic keys to generate an application programming interface (API) authorization token, enabling the attacker to access private customer data and insert payment skimmers into the checkout process.

AWS and Microsoft Azure machine-to-machine authentication keys found in Android and iOS apps used by millions were compromised, exposing user data and source code to security breaches. Exposing this type of credential can easily lead to unauthorized access to storage buckets and databases with sensitive user data. Apart from this, attackers could use them to manipulate or steal data.

Schneider Electric confirmed its development platform was breached after a hacker used exposed Jira credentials to steal data. The hacker gloated that the breach compromised critical data, including projects, issues and plug-ins, along with over 400,000 rows of user data, totaling more than 40GB of compressed data,

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warned that attackers were exploiting a critical missing authentication vulnerability in Palo Alto Networks Expedition, a migration tool that can help convert firewall configuration from Checkpoint, Cisco, and other vendors to PAN-OS. This security flaw enabled threat actors to remotely exploit it to reset application admin credentials on Internet-exposed Expedition servers.

A new sophisticated phishing tool targeting GitHub users was also revealed in the fourth quarter. It posed a significant threat to developers and organizations worldwide. Here's how this relates to NHIs: Bots used a compromised secret and set of permissions associated with that credential as the ingredients to make the API calls and create comments using a script.

The comments themselves convinced developers to use insecure scripts as validated solutions.

These scripts, in turn, could lead victims to phishing pages designed to steal login credentials, malware downloads, or rogue OAuth app authorization prompts granting attackers access to private repositories and data.

Finally, and bringing the year to a dramatic close, NHI was responsible for the US Treasury hack by Chinese threat actors, who gained access to "unclassified documents" after compromising the agency's networks. The attackers were able to exploit vulnerabilities in remote tech support software by misusing a leaked API key to gain unauthorized access.

The flurry of NHI attacks at the end of the year demonstrates extremely strong momentum heading into 2025. That does not bode well. 

Chief information security officers (CISOs) and security teams need to prioritize the emerging NHI threats roaring into the new year.

**About the Author**

Co-Founder & CEO, Entro Security

Itzik Alvas is co-founder and CEO at Entro Security and former healthcare organization CISO and information technology manager at Microsoft.

A cloud and security expert with more than 17 years of experience managing and building teams of hundreds of employees for both leading global enterprise companies and early-stage startups, always at the forefront of state-of-art security solutions used by governments, top intelligence agencies, data centers, cloud providers and industrial markets. Itzik served with the IDF's elite intelligence unit.

Will 2025 See a Rise of NHI Attacks?

The advanced persistent threat (APT) group is likely India-based and targeting individuals with connections to the country's intelligence community.

Source: SROOLOVE via Shutterstock

Advanced persistent threat group "DONOT Team" is leveraging two nearly identical Android applications to conduct intelligence-gathering operations targeting individuals and groups in India who appear to be of national security interest to the country.

The "Tanzeem" and "Tanzeem Update" apps purport to be chat apps but do not work as advertised. Instead, once installed on a system they prompt the user to turn on the device's accessibility feature and grant access to several easily misused permissions. The apps then shut down and proceed to stealthily harvest information from the compromised device, according to researchers at Cyfirma, who recently spotted the new DONOT campaign.

**Intelligence Gathering and Beyond**

"The ongoing efforts by the notorious DONOT APT extend beyond gathering intelligence on internal threats; they have also targeted various organizations in South Asia," Cyfirma noted in a blog post on Jan. 17. The goal appears to be to collect intelligence of strategic importance to India, the security vendor said.

Cyfirma's analysis of Tanzeem and Tanzeem Update showed the apps using OneSignal, a popular customer engagement platform, to send push notifications to users who install either app on their devices. OneSignal basically allows developers and businesses to send in-app messages, emails, and SMS messages to users across mobile devices, Web browsers, desktop apps, and other platforms.

When a user installs Tanzeem or Tanzeem Update on their device, they receive a push notification via OneSignal that prompts them to start a fake chat. Users tricked into clicking on the "Start Chat" prompt receive a subsequent prompt asking them to enable Android accessibility services to use the app. The victim is then directed to the accessibility settings page from which the app accesses several dangerous permissions. These include permissions that allow the two malicious Android apps to read and fetch call logs from the compromised device; to read and fetch contact information; and to search for and fetch data from the file manager.

Researchers at Cyfirma also found the apps to access several other permissions such as those that allow the threat actor to delete and read both incoming and outgoing text messages. They also can access the Android device's internal storage to extract its exact location and monitor its movement on a real-time basis.

Significantly, Cyfirma found the malicious apps using push notifications to try and get victims to install additional malicious payloads on compromised devices to ensure persistence. "This tactic enhances the malware's ability to remain active on the targeted device, indicating the threat group's evolving intentions to continue participating in intelligence gathering for national interests," Cyfirma noted.

**A Persistent South Asian Threat**

DONOT Team, which some vendors track as APT-C-35, SectorE02, and Viceroy Tiger, is a threat group with a likely nexus to India that has been operational since at least 2016. Several vendors have associated the group with attacks and data theft campaigns targeting entities in South Asia. In November 2024, Cyble linked DONOT Team to a campaign targeting manufacturing companies in Pakistan associated with the country's defense and maritime industries.

Others, such as ESET have reported on DONOT Team using sophisticated Windows and Android malware in espionage campaigns targeting organizations in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal. In 2023, Cyfirma reported finding three malicious Android apps on Google's Play store that the threat actor used against targeted individuals in Kashmir and Pakistan.

DONOT Team is one of several APT groups believed to be operating out of India that is engaged in a range of malicious activities, including online extortion scams, hacktivism, and increasingly, cyber espionage and surveillance. Security experts believe that at least some of the activity is tied to geopolitical tensions in the region and to a broader growth in all kinds of cybercrime in South Asia in recent years.

**About the Author**

Jai Vijayan is a seasoned technology reporter with over 20 years of experience in IT trade journalism. He was most recently a Senior Editor at Computerworld, where he covered information security and data privacy issues for the publication. Over the course of his 20-year career at Computerworld, Jai also covered a variety of other technology topics, including big data, Hadoop, Internet of Things, e-voting, and data analytics. Prior to Computerworld, Jai covered technology issues for The Economic Times in Bangalore, India. Jai has a Master's degree in Statistics and lives in Naperville, Ill.

DONOT Group Deploys Malicious Android Apps in India

Two separate campaigns are targeting flaws in various IoT devices globally, with the goal of compromising them and propagating malware worldwide.

Source: Aleksey Funtap via Alamy Stock Photo

Separate spinoffs of the infamous Mirai botnet are responsible for a fresh wave of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks globally. One is exploiting specific vulnerabilities in Internet of Things (IoT) devices to establish "expansive" botnet networks, while the other has been targeting organizations in North America, Europe, and Asia with DDoS attacks since the end of 2024, researchers have found.

An ongoing operation within Mirai dubbed "Murdoc\_Botnet" (which began in July and has more than 1,300 active IPs) is targeting Avtech cameras and Huawei HG532 routers, researchers from Qualys revealed in a report posted today.

The researchers uncovered more than 100 distinct sets of servers associated with the Murdoc botnet, "each tasked with deciphering its activities and establishing communication with one of the compromised IPs implicated in this ongoing campaign," Qualys lead security researcher Shilpesh Trivedi wrote in the post.

Meanwhile, a botnet that comprises malware variants derived from both Mirai and Bashlite is exploiting security flaws and weak credentials in IoT devices in DDoS attacks spanning the globe, according to separate research from Trend Micro. "The malware infiltrates the device by exploiting RCE vulnerabilities or weak passwords, then executes a download script on the infected host," the researchers said.

Related:Email Bombing, 'Vishing' Tactics Abound in Microsoft 365 Attacks

The two campaigns demonstrate the ongoing impact of Mirai, a botnet that has spawned myriad variants since its source code was leaked in 2016 and which remains a significant security threat 10+ years after first appearing on the cyberattack scene.

**Murdoc Botnet Exploits Specific Flaws**

The Murdoc botnet delivering Mirai malware uses existing exploits, including CVE-2024-7029 and CVE-2017-17215, to download next-stage payloads. The former is an Avtech camera flaw that allows for commands to be injected over the network and executed without authentication, while the latter is a remote code execution (RCE) flaw found in Huawei routers.

Most of the IP addresses associated with the Murdoc botnet campaign are found in Malaysia, followed by Thailand, Mexico, and Indonesia.

Qualys researchers discovered more than 500 samples containing ELF files and shell script files associated with the Murdoc botnet. Each shell script "is loaded onto devices such as IP cameras, Network devices, and IoT devices, and, in turn, the C2 server loads the new variant of Mirai botnet, i.e., Murdoc\_Botnet, into the devices," Trivedi wrote in the post.

**An Expansive DDoS Campaign Targets US**

Related:DONOT Group Deploys Malicious Android Apps in India

Meanwhile, researchers at Trend Micro initially detected "large-scale" DDoS botnet attacks against Japanese organizations, including major corporations and banks, starting at the end of 2024, but then tracked the activity to a larger global campaign. Organizations in the US were most affected by the attacks, followed by companies in Bahrain, Poland, and Spain, among various other countries.

The primary devices targeted in the attacks have been wireless routers and IP cameras from well-known brands, including TP-Link and Zyxel routers, and Hikvision IP cameras. As with the Murdoc botnet activity, cyberattackers here targeted flaws in the devices to compromise them, but they also used weak passwords to gain access.

In terms of attack vector, the researchers found two different types of DDoS attacks related to the activity, they said. One type overloads the network by sending a large number of packets, while the other exhausts server resources by establishing a large number of sessions.

"In addition, we observed two or more commands used in combination, making it possible that both network overload attacks and server resource exhaustion attacks occur simultaneously," according to the post.

**How to Defend Against DDoS Cyberattacks**

Related:Russian APT Phishes Kazakh Gov't for Strategic Intel

With Mirai variants continuing to spawn new botnets for mounting new and widespread DDoS attacks, it's important that organizations can identify and protect their networks from floods of unwanted traffic, the researchers said.

Qualys researchers recommended that organizations regularly monitor the suspicious processes, events, and network traffic spawned by the execution of any untrusted binary/scripts, as well as exercise caution in executing shell scripts from unknown and untrusted sources.

Meanwhile, Trend Micro analysts recommended different mitigation efforts for the two types of DDoS attacks that they observed. For attacks that flood the network with packets, the researchers recommended organizations use a firewall or router to block specific IP addresses or protocols and restrict traffic; collaborate with communication service providers to filter DDoS traffic at the backbone or edge of the network; and strengthen router hardware to increase the number of packets that can be processed.

For attacks that exhaust resources by establishing a large number of sessions, Trend Micro recommended that organizations limit the number of requests that can be sent by a specific IP address within a certain period of time; use third-party services to separate attack traffic and process clean traffic; and perform real-time monitoring and block IP addresses with a high number of connections, among other mitigations and preventions.

**About the Author**

Elizabeth Montalbano is a freelance writer, journalist, and therapeutic writing mentor with more than 25 years of professional experience. Her areas of expertise include technology, business, and culture. Elizabeth previously lived and worked as a full-time journalist in Phoenix, San Francisco, and New York City; she currently resides in a village on the southwest coast of Portugal. In her free time, she enjoys surfing, hiking with her dogs, traveling, playing music, yoga, and cooking.

Mirai Botnet Spinoffs Unleash Global Wave of DDoS Attacks

The Threat actor known as DoNot Team has been linked to a new Android malware as part of highly targeted cyber attacks.
The artifacts in question, named Tanzeem (meaning "organization" in Urdu) and Tanzeem Update, were spotted in October and December 2024 by cybersecurity company Cyfirma. The apps in question have been found to incorporate identical functions, barring minor modifications to the

Tag

#android