RecipePoint version 1.9 suffers from an ignored default credential vulnerability.

    ====================================================================================================================================| # Title     : RecipePoint 1.9 Insecure Settings Vulnerability                                                                    || # Author    : indoushka                                                                                                          || # Tested on : windows 10 Fr(Pro) / browser : Mozilla firefox 128.0.3 (64 bits)                                                   || # Vendor    : https://demo.phpscriptpoint.com/recipepoint/                                                                       |====================================================================================================================================poc :[+] Dorking İn Google Or Other Search Enggine.[+] Insecure Settings : appears to leave a default administrative account in place post installation.[+] use payload : user =  admin@gmail.com & pass = 1234[+] https://www/127.0.0.1/demo/phpscriptpointcom/recipepoint/adminGreetings to :=====================================================================================jericho * Larry W. Cashdollar * LiquidWorm * Hussin-X * D4NB4R * Malvuln (John Page aka hyp3rlinx)|===================================================================================================

RecipePoint 1.9 Insecure Settings

Data discovery and classification are foundational for data security, data governance, and data protection.

Todd Thiemann, Senior Analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group

September 23, 2024

3 Min Read

Source: Cagkan Sayin via Alamy Stock Photo

COMMENTARY

When it comes to your sensitive data, not knowing where your crown jewels are located and ensuring they are adequately secured can have catastrophic consequences. Data resilience is the subset of cyber resilience focused on an organization's data assets. Security teams need a strategic approach to data resilience — understanding where their sensitive data stores are located and what's inside — to effectively secure their data. 

Data discovery and classification are foundational for data security, data governance, and data protection (backup and recovery). You can't secure what you don't know exists (discovery), and you need to know what is inside a data store (classification) to take appropriate action to mitigate your risk. 

My latest Enterprise Strategy Group research, conducted with my colleague Jon Brown, explores how enterprises are ensuring data resilience, which is the intersection of data security posture management (DSPM), data security (hardening data with encryption, masking, etc.), data protection (backup and recovery), and data governance. We surveyed 370 IT and cybersecurity professionals from midmarket and enterprise companies about data resilience and DSPM. In the fast-evolving DSPM space, the research found that the first phase of a DSPM deployment to locate, categorize, and establish policies around sensitive data took less than six months for 76% of the respondents, with the largest cluster being four to six months for more than 40% of those responding. 

DSPM vendors differentiate themselves on the time to value (TTV) for their offerings, and the different technologies probably have a significant impact on TTV. Implementing DSPM is like any other project in combining people, process, and technology. Much of the time required to operationalize a technology deployment comes from the people and process side of the equation. While the TTV varies, in talking to various chief information security officers (CISOs) and vendors, we found that the typical steps in a project are:

*   Align stakeholders and plan.
    
*   Identify exposed data stores and mitigate.
    
*   Identify data stores with critical data.
    
*   Classify data (cardholder data for PCI DSS, protected health information, personally identifiable information, information covered by GDPR) to your organization's categories (public, internal, sensitive, restricted.
    
*   Identify/delegate data owners.
    
*   Identify users with access to sensitive/restricted data and validate access is needed (the stale access problem).
    
*   Restrict access to need to know, least privilege.
    
*   Identify misconfigurations and mitigate.
    

*   Determine necessary security controls to protect data based on classification.
    

In speaking to both security leaders and DSPM vendors, the initial step of achieving stakeholder alignment and planning for the rollout is probably the most important to project success. Here are all the steps:

*   Engage key stakeholders: Start by aligning key stakeholders, such as GRC (governance, risk, and compliance), data teams, IT data protection, cloud architects, and security teams. Ensure that everyone understands the objectives, benefits, and their respective roles in the DSPM deployment process. Focus on the win-win. 
    
*   Define goals, definitions, and metrics: Collaboratively establish the goals of the DSPM initiative, such as reducing data exposure, achieving compliance, improving overall data security posture, or facilitating generative AI deployment. Arrive at what data is sensitive to the business and data classification definitions. Agree on key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure progress and success. Planning upfront avoids or minimizes friction as the project progresses. 
    
*   Secure executive buy-in: Present a clear case to constituents, highlighting the importance of DSPM in mitigating data risks, achieving regulatory compliance, and supporting business goals. Ensure top-down support for resource allocation and prioritization. DSPM has many constituents, and getting executive buy-in ensures adequate resourcing and team responsiveness. 
    
*   Assign roles and responsibilities: Clearly define the responsibilities of each team. For example, GRC will focus on compliance and policy alignment, data teams will manage data classification and ownership, and security teams will oversee the implementation of security controls and monitoring. 
    

Getting off on the right foot and achieving alignment at project inception will increase your chances of overall DSPM project success. 

Don't miss the latest Dark Reading Confidential podcast, where we talk to two cybersecurity professionals who were arrested in Dallas County, Iowa, and forced to spend the night in jail — just for doing their pen-testing jobs. Listen now!

**About the Author**

Senior Analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group

Todd Thiemann is a senior analyst at the Enterprise Strategy Group, researching data security and identity and access management (IAM). He is an information security veteran with more than a decade of information security experience across a range of subjects including encryption, key management, IAM/authentication, identity security, and security operations at leading cybersecurity companies including Arctic Wolf Networks, Trend Micro, Vormetric/Thales, and Nok Nok Labs. He graduated from Georgetown University with a bachelor of science degree, and earned an MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA. He enjoys cybersecurity because it is ever-changing and continually challenges us to simply explain things while not losing essential nuance.

Data Security Posture Management: Accelerating Time to Value

The internet has made breaking up a lot harder. The Modern Love Digital Breakup Checklist can help you separate locations, accounts, and more.

Breaking up is hard to do. The internet has made it harder.

With couples today regularly sharing access to one another’s email accounts, streaming services, social media platforms, online photo albums, and more, the risk of a bad breakup isn’t just heartache. Equipped with unfettered access into sensitive, shared online accounts, a vindictive ex could track someone who is actively using services like DoorDash, Uber, or Airbnb, spy on someone through a Ring doorbell, raise the temperature on a Nest thermostat, or shout obscenities through a baby monitor.

As every relationship is different, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to safely disentangling your digital life from your ex, but there are a few rules that can make the process easier.

And, because this can be a lot of work, here are a few things that can help you along the way:

*   A password manager that will help you create and store unique passwords for each online account.
*   The use of multifactor/two-factor authentication on every sensitive account that allows it.
*   A friend who can go through these exercises side-by-side with you.

Further down is a more comprehensive checklist of many considerations you can take in separating your digital life from your ex, but, here’s a quick, handy guide:

It’s important to remember that this work won’t be completed in a day. That’s entirely okay. Instead of trying to accomplish everything in one weekend, prioritize the most sensitive work—cutting off access to email accounts, online banking, shared photo albums, social media, and any services or apps that can reveal your location.

As Malwarebytes recently discovered in research conducted this year, 56% of people in committed relationships in the United States agreed that they “would like to see more guidance on how to handle shared logins, accounts, and apps in a relationship or during a breakup,” and 45% agreed that they “would have a hard time knowing where to begin if I no longer wanted to share location-based apps or services with my partner or in the event of a breakup.”

We hope this digital breakup checklist, which is not comprehensive, can provide some of that guidance.

Here is the Modern Love Digital Breakup Checklist.

*   Log out of personal accounts on shared devices, including laptops, tablets, e-readers, smartphones, smart TVs, and Internet of Things devices. This includes:
    
    *   Email, social media, and online banking accounts on shared tablets, computers, and smartphones.
    
    *   Email, social media, and online banking accounts on the shared devices of children/the entire family.
    *   Entertainment accounts (Hulu, Netflix, Disney+, Spotify, etc.) on smart TVs and streaming devices such as Roku, Google Chromecast, Apple TV, etc.
*   Remove your ex’s accounts from any device you share that you will maintain ownership of after the breakup. Here’s are guides on how to remove someone from:
    
    *   Windows device
    
    *   Mac device
    *   Android devices

*   For shared accounts where you and your ex had one set of login credentials, log out of those shared accounts on your own device.
*   If you want to continue using those services, create a new personal account with a unique password.

**3\. **Review personal accounts****

*   Before resetting passwords, check the recovery settings on your personal account to ensure that any attempts to reset your password will be sent to your personal email account and not to an email account owned by your ex.
*   Before resetting passwords, consider using a password manager to help create, store, and remember unique passwords for each account.
*   Reset and create unique passwords for sensitive accounts, including:
    
    *   Email accounts
    
    *   Online banking and financial accounts (Chase, Wells Fargo, Venmo, PayPal, Zelle, Cash App, etc.)
    *   Online shopping accounts (Amazon, Etsy, Shein, Temu, etc.)
    *   Social media accounts (TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, etc.)
    *   Shared cloud accounts for photos (Google Photos, iCloud)
    *   Shared cloud accounts for file storage (Dropbox, Box, etc.)
    *   Streaming entertainment accounts (Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, Spotify, Apple Music, etc.)
    *   Parental monitoring apps (Life360, Bark, Qustodio)
    *   Online forums and chat services (Reddit, Discord, etc.)
*   Reset and create unique passwords for accounts that can expose your location to users who are logged into the same account, including:
    
    *   Food and grocery delivery apps (Uber Eats, DoorDash, Postmates, etc.)
    
    *   Ride-sharing apps (Uber, Lyft, etc.)Vacation rental apps (Airbnb, Vrbo, etc.)
    *   Health and fitness tracking apps (FitBit, Strava, etc.)
    *   Connected apps for modern cars with anti-theft location tracking
*   Enable multifactor authentication on sensitive accounts and accounts that can expose your location, when provided as an option.

**4\. **Review/remove your signed-in devices****

*   Check your security settings in your online accounts to review what devices are currently logged into the same account. If you see a device that does not belong to you, force that device to be logged out.
    
    *   If you take this step after successfully resetting your password, those devices will be required to use the new password (which only you should know).
    
    *   These settings can often be found in “security” or “privacy and security” tabs in most apps.

**5\. **Review the location settings of your device****

*   Your device provides a way to comprehensively turn off **all** location services that apps rely on to function. With this feature turned off, location-based apps (such as Uber, Uber Eats, Airbnb, Yelp, Maps, etc.) will still function, but you will need to input your address and location manually each time you use the service.
    
    *   You can review location sharing settings on iPhone here.
    
    *   You can review location sharing settings on Android here.

**6\. **Review “Find My/Find My Device” settings****

*   Modern devices come pre-installed with anti-theft services called “Find My” on iPhones and “Find My Device” on Android phones. These are the same services that many couples use to track one another’s location, and turning these services off will shut off access that other people (including exes, friends, and family) have to your location.
    
    *   Alternatively, you can turn off location sharing with one person only rather than turning off location sharing all together. You can review location sharing settings on iPhone here.
    
    *   You can review location sharing settings on Android here.

**7\. **Review the location settings of individual apps****

*   If you want to keep location sharing on for convenience, you can review individual apps on your device and select how you would like your location to be accessed by those apps.
    
    *   iPhones allow you to choose one of several options for how frequently apps will access and use your location: Never, Ask Next Time Or When I Share, While Using the App, or Always. You can review location sharing settings on iPhone here.
    
    *   Android phones allow you to choose one of several options for how frequently apps will access and use your location: Allowed all the time, Allowed only while in use, and Not allowed.
    *   You can review location sharing settings on Android here.

**8\. **Maintain your ongoing security and privacy****

*   If you find it safe and necessary, block your ex on certain social media platforms, messaging apps, etc.
*   Review the privacy settings of social media apps to ensure that your posts are not inadvertently shared with an ex.
    *   Consider whether your ex could see your posts because you have mutual friends who may reveal your posts to your ex.
*   Review automatic cloud backups for photos you take with your smartphone.
    *   If your ex compromises your iCloud or Google Photos account—and your photos are automatically backed up to those accounts—they could retrieve sensitive photos that you want to keep private.
*   When entering a new relationship, have a conversation about consensually and safely sharing your location (or choosing not to).

**We don’t just report on threats—we remove them**

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep threats off your devices by downloading Malwarebytes today.

 Relationship broken up? Here&#8217;s how to separate your online accounts 

Hackers stole $243M from a single victim by posing as Google and Gemini support, resetting 2FA to access…

Hackers stole $243M from a single victim by posing as Google and Gemini support, resetting 2FA to access crypto. Investigator ZachXBT helped trace the thieves, leading to arrests and the recovery of millions.

A major breakthrough in cryptocurrency theft came to light on September 19, 2024, when anonymous Twitter user and crypto investigator ZachXBT (@ZachXBT) revealed his investigation into one of the largest crypto heists in history.

The theft of $243 million worth of cryptocurrency from a single Genesis creditor, was carried out through a sophisticated **social engineering attack** in August 2024. ZachXBT’s investigation played a key role in tracing the alleged culprits, which led to multiple arrests and the recovery of millions in stolen funds.

****The Heist****

On August 19, 2024, a group of cybercriminals identified as Greavys (Malone Iam), Wiz (Veer Chetal), and Box (Jeandiel Serrano) allegedly conducted a phishing operation targeting a victim in Washington, D.C.

The attackers, posing as support personnel from Google and Gemini, tricked the victim into resetting two-factor authentication (**2FA**) and transferring funds to a compromised wallet. The group further exploited the victim using remote access software **AnyDesk** to reveal private keys stored in the victim’s Bitcoin core.

ZachXBT provided transaction hashes that tracked the flow of Bitcoin, confirming that 59.34 BTC and 14.88 BTC were stolen during the attack, followed by the transfer of a massive 4,064 BTC, worth $243 million at the time, which was quickly split among the attackers.

> 3/ Here is a private video recording showing the live reaction by multiple of the threat actors to receiving $238M.
> 
> Theft txn hash  
> 4064 BTC – Aug 19 at 4:05 am UTC  
> 4b277ba298830ea538086114803b9487558bb093b5083e383e94db687fbe9090 pic.twitter.com/djSxBTkOF8
> 
> — ZachXBT (@zachxbt) September 19, 2024

**Criminals’ Identities Unveiled**

According to ZachXBT’s in-depth investigation, the details of which he shared in a _must read_ **detailed Twitter thread**, revealed the identities of the thieves. Allegedly, Wiz (Veer Chetal) made a critical error during a screenshare session, where his real name was exposed.

Furthermore, he and his friend Aakaash (Light/Dark) allegedly attempted to launder the stolen funds through exchanges such as eXch and Thorswap. Despite efforts to cover their tracks, they linked laundered funds to the stolen assets by reusing addresses.

Greavys, a key figure in the scam, flaunted his newfound wealth by purchasing luxury items, including over 10 cars and expensive nights out in Los Angeles and Miami. His flashy lifestyle, documented on social media, helped investigators track his location.

Box (Jeandiel Serrano), who impersonated a Gemini representative during the heist, also left traces linking him to the stolen funds. A shared profile picture across multiple platforms and a series of missteps in cryptocurrency transactions allowed investigators to trace $18 million back to him.

Screenshot credit: ZachXBT

**Arrests and Asset Recovery**

ZachXBT’s collaboration with **@CFInvestigators**, **@zeroshadow\_io**, and the Binance Security Team resulted in the freezing of over $9 million in assets, with $500,000 already returned to the victim. His findings also led to the arrest of Greavys and Box, who were taken into custody in Miami and Los Angeles, respectively, on September 18, 2024.

**Legal Proceedings**

The Department of Justice (DOJ) confirmed the arrests in a **press release**, announcing charges of conspiracy to steal and launder cryptocurrency against Malone Lam (aka “Anne Hathaway” and “$$$”) and Jeandiel Serrano (aka “VersaceGod” and “@SkidStar”).

The indictment outlines how the pair, alongside other conspirators, executed a series of crypto thefts, using complex laundering techniques to conceal the funds. Both individuals appeared in U.S. District Court following their arrests.

ZachXBT’s investigative work played a crucial role in cracking one of the largest cryptocurrency theft cases of the year. As law enforcement continues to crack the network behind the crime, ZachXBT has stated that updates will follow as the legal proceedings unfold.

1.  **6 of the Best Crypto Bug Bounty Programs**
2.  **Pink Drainer Posed as Journalists, Stole $3M from Twitter Users**
3.  **Hackers Stole $59 Million of Crypto Via Malicious Google, X Ads**
4.  **Crypto Scammer Returns $9.27 Million Out of $24M Crypto Theft**
5.  **Crypto losses reach $1.75 Billion in 2023; CeFi and Hacks Blamed**

Hackers Posed as Google Support to Steal $243 Million in Crypto

Hold on tight, folks, because last week's cybersecurity landscape was a rollercoaster! We witnessed everything from North Korean hackers dangling "dream jobs" to expose a new malware, to a surprising twist in the Apple vs. NSO Group saga. Even the seemingly mundane world of domain names and cloud configurations had its share of drama. Let's dive into the details and see what lessons we can glean

Cybersecurity / Cyber Threat

Hold on tight, folks, because last week's cybersecurity landscape was a rollercoaster! We witnessed everything from North Korean hackers dangling "dream jobs" to expose a new malware, to a surprising twist in the Apple vs. NSO Group saga. Even the seemingly mundane world of domain names and cloud configurations had its share of drama. Let's dive into the details and see what lessons we can glean from the past week.

****⚡ Threat of the Week****

**Raptor Train Botnet Dismantled:** The U.S. government announced the takedown of the Raptor Train botnet controlled by a China-linked threat actor known as Flax Typhoon. The botnet consisted of over 260,000 devices in June 2024, with victims scattered across North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Oceania, and South America. It also attributed the Flax Typhoon threat actor to a publicly-traded, Beijing-based company known as Integrity Technology Group.

****🔔 Top News****

*   **Lazarus Group's New Malware:** The North Korea-linked cyber espionage group known as UNC2970 (aka TEMP.Hermit) has been observed utilizing job-themed phishing lures to target prospective victims in energy and aerospace verticals and infect them with a previously undocumented backdoor dubbed MISTPEN. The activity is also tracked as Operation Dream Job.
*   **iServer and Ghost Dismantled:** In yet another big win for law enforcement agencies, Europol announced the takedown of an international criminal network that leveraged a phishing platform to unlock stolen or lost mobile phones. The agency, in partnership with the Australian Federal Police (AFP), dismantled an encrypted communications network called Ghost that enabled serious and organized crime across the world.
*   **Iranian APT Acts as Initial Access Provider:** An Iranian threat actor tracked as UNC1860 is acting as an initial access facilitator that provides remote access to target networks by deploying various passive backdoors. This access is then leveraged by other Iranian hacking groups affiliated with the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS).
*   **Apple Drops Lawsuit against NSO Group:** Apple filed a motion to "voluntarily" dismiss the lawsuit it's pursuing against Israeli commercial spyware vendor NSO Group, citing a shifting risk landscape that could lead to exposure of critical "threat intelligence" information. The lawsuit was filed in November 2021.
*   **Phishing Attacks Exploit HTTP Headers:** A new wave of phishing attacks is abusing refresh entries in HTTP headers to deliver spoofed email login pages that are designed to harvest users' credentials. Targets of the campaigns include entities in South Korea and the U.S.

****📰 Around the Cyber World****

*   **Sandvine Leaves 56 "Non-democratic" Countries:** Sandvine, the company behind middleboxes that have facilitated the delivery of commercial spyware as part of highly-targeted attacks, said it has exited 32 countries and is in process of ceasing operations in another 24 countries, citing elevated threats to digital rights. Earlier this February, the company was added to the U.S. Entity List. "The misuse of deep packet inspection technology is an international problem that threatens free and fair elections, basic human rights, and other digital freedoms we believe are inalienable," it said. It did not disclose the list of countries it's exiting as part of the overhaul.
*   **.mobi Domain Acquired for $20:** Researchers from watchTowr Labs spent a mere $20 to acquire a legacy WHOIS server domain associated with the .mobi top-level domain (TLD) and set up a WHOIS server on that domain. This led to the discovery that over 135,000 unique systems still queried the old WHOIS server over a five day period ending on September 4, 2024, including cybersecurity tools and mail servers for government, military and university entities. The research also showed that the TLS/SSL process for the entire .mobi TLD had been undermined as numerous Certificate Authorities (CAs) were found to be still using the "rogue" WHOIS server to "determine the owners of a domain and where verification details should be sent." Google has since called for stopping the use of WHOIS data for TLS domain verifications.
*   **ServiceNow Misconfigurations Leak Sensitive Data:** Thousands of companies are inadvertently exposing secrets from their internal knowledge base (KB) articles via ServiceNow misconfigurations. AppOmni attributed the issue to "outdated configurations and misconfigured access controls in KBs," likely indicating "a systematic misunderstanding of KB access controls or possibly the accidental replication of at least one instance's poor controls to another through cloning." ServiceNow has published guidance on how to configure their instances to prevent unauthenticated access to KB articles.
*   **Google Cloud Document AI Flaw Fixed:** Speaking of misconfigurations, researchers have found that overly permissive settings in Google Cloud's Document AI service could be leveraged by threat actors to hack into Cloud Storage buckets and steal sensitive information. Vectra AI described the vulnerability as an instance of transitive access abuse.
*   **Microsoft Plans End of Kernel Access for EDR Software:** Following the massive fallout from the CrowdStrike update mishap in July 2024, Microsoft has highlighted Windows 11's "improved security posture and security defaults" that allow for more security capabilities to security software makers outside of kernel mode access. It also said it will collaborate with ecosystem partners to achieve "enhanced reliability without sacrificing security."

**🔥 **Cybersecurity Resources & Insights******— **Upcoming Webinars****

*   **Zero Trust: Anti-Ransomware Armor**: Join our next webinar with Zscaler's Emily Laufer for a deep dive into the 2024 Ransomware Report, uncovering the latest trends, emerging threats, and the zero-trust strategies that can safeguard your organization. Don't become another statistic – Register now and fight back!
*   **SIEM Reboot: From Overload to Oversight:** Drowning in data? Your SIEM should be a lifesaver, not another headache. Join us to uncover how legacy SIEM went wrong, and how a modern approach can simplify security without sacrificing performance. We'll dive into the origins of SIEM, its current challenges, and our community-driven solutions to cut through the noise and empower your security. Register now for a fresh take on SIEM!

**— **Ask the Expert****

*   **Q:** How does Zero Trust differ fundamentally from traditional Perimeter Defense, and what are the key challenges and advantages when transitioning an organization from a Perimeter Defense model to a Zero Trust architecture?

*   **A:** Zero Trust and perimeter defense are two ways to protect computer systems. Zero Trust is like having multiple locks on your doors AND checking IDs at every room, meaning it trusts no one and constantly verifies everyone and everything trying to access anything. It's great for stopping hackers, even if they manage to sneak in, and works well when people work from different places or use cloud services. Perimeter defense is like having a strong wall around your castle, focusing on keeping the bad guys out. But, if someone breaks through, they have easy access to everything inside. This older approach struggles with today's threats and remote work situations. Switching to Zero Trust is like upgrading your security system, but it takes time and money. It's worth it because it provides much better protection. Remember, it's not just one thing, but a whole new way of thinking about security, and you can start small and build up over time. Also, don't ditch the wall completely, it's still useful for basic protection.

**— **Cybersecurity Jargon Buster****

*   **Polymorphic Malware:** Imagine a sneaky virus that keeps changing its disguise (signature) to trick your antivirus. It's like a chameleon, making it tough to catch.
*   **Metamorphic Malware:** This one's even trickier! It's like a shapeshifter, not just changing clothes, but completely transforming its body. It rewrites its own code each time it infects, making it nearly impossible for antivirus to recognize.

**— **Tip of the Week****

**"Think Before You Click" Maze:** Navigate a series of decision points based on real-world scenarios, choosing the safest option to avoid phishing traps and other online threats.

****Conclusion****

"To err is human; to forgive, divine." - Alexander Pope. But in the realm of cybersecurity, forgiveness can be costly. Let's learn from these mistakes, strengthen our defenses, and keep the digital world a safer place for all.

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

THN Cybersecurity Recap: Last Week's Top Threats and Trends (September 16-22)

Popular social messaging platform Discord has announced that it's rolling out a new custom end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) protocol to secure audio and video calls.
The protocol has been dubbed DAVE, short for Discord's audio and video end-to-end encryption ("E2EE A/V").
As part of the change introduced last week, voice and video in DMs, Group DMs, voice channels, and Go Live streams are expected to

Encryption / Data Protection

Popular social messaging platform Discord has announced that it's rolling out a new custom end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) protocol to secure audio and video calls.

The protocol has been dubbed **DAVE**, short for Discord's audio and video end-to-end encryption ("E2EE A/V").

As part of the change introduced last week, voice and video in DMs, Group DMs, voice channels, and Go Live streams are expected to be migrated to use DAVE.

That said, it's worth noting that messages on Discord will remain unencrypted and are subject to its content moderation approach.

"When we consider adding new privacy features like E2EE A/V, we do not do so in isolation from safety," Discord said. "That is why safety is integrated across our product and policies, and why messages on Discord are unencrypted."

"Messages will still be subject to our content moderation approach, allowing us to continue offering additional safety protections."

DAVE is publicly auditable and has been reviewed by Trail of Bits, with the protocol leveraging WebRTC encoded transforms and Message Layer Security (MLS) for encryption and group key exchange (GKE), respectively.

This allows for media frames, outside of the codec metadata, to be encrypted after they are encoded and decrypted before being decoded on the receiver side.

"Each frame is encrypted or decrypted with a per-sender symmetric key," Discord said. "This key is known to all participants of the audio and video session but crucially is unknown to any outsider who is not a member of the call, including Discord."

The use of MLS, on the other hand, makes it possible for users to join or leave a voice or video session on Discord in such a manner that neither new participants can decrypt media sent before they joined nor leaving members can decrypt any media sent in the future.

"Discord's existing transport encryption for audio and video between the client and our selective forwarding unit (SFU) is retained, ensuring only audio and video from authenticated call participants is forwarded," it noted.

"While the SFU still processes all packets for the call, audio or video data inside each packet is end-to-end encrypted and undecryptable by the SFU."

The development comes days after the GSM Association (GSMA), the governing body that oversees the development of the Rich Communications Services (RCS) protocol, said it's working towards implementing E2EE to secure messages sent between the Android and iOS ecosystems.

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

Discord Introduces DAVE Protocol for End-to-End Encryption in Audio and Video Calls

The APT group uses spear-phishing and a vulnerability in a geospatial data-sharing server to compromise organizations in Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and South Korea.

Source: kb-photodesign via Shutterstock

A China-linked cyber-espionage group has attacked Taiwanese government agencies, the Philippine and Japanese military, and energy companies in Vietnam, installing either the Cobalt Strike client or a custom backdoor known as EagleDoor on compromised machines.

Dubbed Earth Baxia by cybersecurity firm Trend Micro, the group primarily uses spear-phishing to compromise victims, but it has also exploited a vulnerability (CVE-2024-36401) in the open source GeoServer software used to distribute geospatial data. The group uses public cloud services for hosting malicious files, and appears not to be connected to other known advance persistent threat (APT) groups, although at least one analysis has found overlap between APT41 — also known as Wicked Panda and Brass Typhoon.

The majority of the group's infrastructure is based in China, and its attacks target nations of Chinese national interest, says Ted Lee, a threat researcher with Trend Micro.

"In recent campaigns, their primary targets are government agencies and other critical infrastructures — \[such as\] telecommunication — in the APAC region," he says. "In addition, we also found the decoy documents they used to lure victims are related to some significant conferences or international meetings."

The attack comes as China appears to be ramping up its attacks on governments and companies in the Asia-Pacific region. Operation Crimson Palace, a collection of three Chinese APT groups working in concert, has successfully compromised more than a dozen targets in Southeast Asia, including government agencies. In another recent case, a Chinese espionage group used a malicious fake document in an attempt to compromise systems at the US-Taiwan Business Council, prior to its 23rd US-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference.

**Spear-Phishing, With a Side of GeoServer**

The latest attacks primarily employ spear-phishing, either sending a file or a link, using regional conferences as a lure.

"Based on the collected phishing emails, decoy documents, and observations from incidents, it appears that the targets are primarily government agencies, telecommunication businesses, and the energy industry in the Philippines, South Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Thailand," Trend Micro stated in its analysis. "Notably, we also discovered a decoy document written in simplified Chinese, suggesting that China is also one of the impacted countries. However, due to limited information, we cannot accurately determine which sectors in China are affected."

In a limited number of cases, Trend Micro has noticed that the threat group uses a known flaw in the open source geospatial sharing service GeoServer to gain a beachhead within an organization. The GeoServer attacks appear to have started at least two months ago, with the Shadowserver Foundation noting that the attack first appeared in its logs on July 9. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added the vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerability (KEV) catalog on July 15.

Whether it uses a vulnerability or spear-phishing, the next step is to use one of two techniques, dubbed GrimResource and AppDomainManager injection, to further compromise targeted systems.

Discovered in June, GrimResource uses a cross-site scripting (XSS) flaw to execute JavaScript on the victim's machine and, together with a second exploit, gain arbitrary code execution. AppDomainManager injection is an older — but still not widely known — technique that can be used to load run malicious code and is starting to be abused by state-backed groups, NTT Security stated in an analysis (via Google Translate).  
"Since this method is not widely known at this time, it is clear that it is a unilateral advantage for the attackers," the translated analysis stated. "As a result, there is concern about the possibility that such attacks will expand in the future."

**All Roads Lead to Cobalt Strike?**

Compromise in any case leads either to a custom backdoor known as EagleDoor, or the installation of an implant by a pirated version of the red-team tool Cobalt Strike, whose use is common among cybercriminal and cyber-espionage groups because of its powerful lateral movement and command-and-control (C2) capabilities.

In addition, the commonness of the tool means investigators gain no attribution information from its use, Trend Micro's Lee says.

"While its use can be a red flag, attackers often modify its components to evade detection," he says. "On the other hand, it’s difficult for analysts to finish group attribution based on Cobalt Strike because it is a shared tool used by many different groups."

The Cobalt Strike component drops two executables, Hook and Eagle, which make up the EagleDoor backdoor, which allows communication over DNS, HTTP, TCP, and Telegram. The commands are used to exfiltrate data from the victim's system and installing additional payloads, Trend Micro stated in its analysis.

**About the Author**

Veteran technology journalist of more than 20 years. Former research engineer. Written for more than two dozen publications, including CNET News.com, Dark Reading, MIT's Technology Review, Popular Science, and Wired News. Five awards for journalism, including Best Deadline Journalism (Online) in 2003 for coverage of the Blaster worm. Crunches numbers on various trends using Python and R. Recent reports include analyses of the shortage in cybersecurity workers and annual vulnerability trends.

China's 'Earth Baxia' Spies Exploit Geoserver to Target APAC Orgs

An issue was discovered in the WEBrick toolkit through 1.8.1 for Ruby. It allows HTTP request smuggling by providing both a Content-Length header and a Transfer-Encoding header, e.g., "GET /admin HTTP/1.1\r\n" inside of a "POST /user HTTP/1.1\r\n" request. NOTE: the supplier's position is "Webrick should not be used in production."

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.

Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.

Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.

User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.

Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.

Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.

Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.

Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.

GHSA-6f62-3596-g6w7: HTTP Request Smuggling in ruby webrick

Ukraine has restricted the use of the Telegram messaging app by government officials, military personnel, and other defense and critical infrastructure workers, citing national security concerns.
The ban was announced by the National Coordination Centre for Cybersecurity (NCCC) in a post shared on Facebook.
"I have always advocated and advocate for freedom of speech, but the issue of Telegram is

National Security / Cyber Attack

Ukraine has restricted the use of the Telegram messaging app by government officials, military personnel, and other defense and critical infrastructure workers, citing national security concerns.

The ban was announced by the National Coordination Centre for Cybersecurity (NCCC) in a post shared on Facebook.

"I have always advocated and advocate for freedom of speech, but the issue of Telegram is not a question of freedom of speech, it is a matter of national security," Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine's GUR military intelligence agency, said.

Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) said that Telegram is "actively used by the enemy" to launch cyber attacks, spread phishing messages and malicious software, track users' whereabouts, and gather intelligence to help the Russian military target Ukraine's facilities with drones and missiles.

To that end, the use of Telegram has been proscribed on official devices of employees of state authorities, military personnel, employees of the security and defense sector, as well as enterprises that are operators of critical infrastructure.

It's worth noting that the ban does not extend to personal phones, or people who use the app as part of their official duties.

In a statement shared with Reuters, Telegram said it has not provided any personal data to any country, including Russia, and that deleted messages are permanently deleted with no way of recovering them.

The development comes weeks after Telegram's CEO was arrested in France and then released on bail in connection with an investigation into the use of the popular messaging app for child pornography, drug trafficking, and fraud.

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Ukraine Bans Telegram Use for Government and Military Personnel

Plus: The FBI dismantles the largest-ever China-backed botnet, the DOJ charges two men with a $243 million crypto theft, Apple’s MacOS Sequoia breaks cybersecurity tools, and more.

The week was dominated by news that thousands of pagers, walkie-talkies and other devices were exploding across Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday in an attack targeting the militant group Hezbollah. At least 32 people were killed, including at least four children, and more than 3,200 people were injured. The covert campaign has widely been attributed to Israel, though none of the country's government agencies have commented.

In addition to the carnage, the attacks have—seemingly by design—had the effect of sowing paranoia and fear, not just among members of Hezbollah but also in the general Lebanese public. Hardware and warfare experts say that the incident is unlikely to establish a global precedent that people's most trusted communication devices and electronics, like smartphones, are rigged with explosives left and right. But it does create the potential to inspire copycats and puts defenders on notice that such attacks are possible.

Researchers say that China’s 2023 Zhujian Cup, a hacking competition with ties to the country's military, took the unusual step of requiring participants to keep the content of the exercise secret—and they may have been targeting a real victim as part of the event. Apple’s new stand-alone app Passwords that launched with iOS 18 may help solve your login problems. And a now-deleted post from billionaire Elon Musk that questioned why no one has attempted to assassinate Joe Biden and Kamala Harris renewed concerns this week that Musk is willing to inspire extremist violence and is a national security threat in the United States.

And there's more. Each week, we round up the privacy and security news we didn’t cover in depth ourselves. Click the headlines to read the full stories. And stay safe out there.

Last month, media outlets, Microsoft, and Google warned that an Iranian state-sponsored hacking group known as APT42 had targeted both the Joe Biden and Donald Trump political campaigns, and that it had successfully stolen emails from the Trump campaign that were later shared with reporters. Now the FBI has chimed in with the added revelation that the same hackers also sent those stolen Trump communications to the Democrats, too—though for now there's no sign that the Democrats solicited those emails from the Iranians or necessarily even received the Iranians' message.

Republicans were nonetheless quick to compare the news to accusations that the Trump campaign “colluded” with the Russian hackers, part of the Kremlin's GRU military intelligence agency, who breached the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton Campaign in 2016 to carry out a hack-and-leak operation. In a statement, the Trump campaign demanded that the Democrats “must come clean on whether they used the hacked material.” The Harris campaign told CNN that it has cooperated with law enforcement and that it was “not aware of any material being sent directly to the campaign,” believing the emails to be spam or phishing attempts. “We condemn in the strongest terms any effort by foreign actors to interfere in US elections, including this unwelcome and unacceptable malicious activity,” Morgan Finkelstein, the national security spokesperson for the Harris campaign, told CNN.

**FBI Dismantles the Largest-Ever Chinese State-Sponsored Botnet**

The FBI announced this week that it had taken down a network of hacked machines being secretly controlled by a Chinese state-sponsored hacking group known as Flax Typhoon. The botnet, made up of 260,000 routers and internet-of-things devices, was allegedly being run by a Chinese contractor known as the Beijing Integrity Technology Group, a rare instance of a known, publicly traded company operating essentially a massive collection of hacked devices on behalf of the Chinese state. The botnet, according to the FBI and security firm Black Lotus Labs, had been used to hack government agencies, defense contractors, telecoms, and other US and Taiwanese targets. At the time of its takedown, the botnet still encompassed 60,000 machines, making it the largest Chinese state-sponsored botnet ever, according to Black Lotus Labs.

**Two Men Charged With Stealing $243M in Cryptocurrency Using Social Engineering Scam**

On Wednesday night, two young men were arrested after they allegedly stole hundreds of millions of dollars of cryptocurrency and spent the earnings on luxury cars, watches, jewelry, and designer handbags. In an unsealed indictment, the US Department of Justice charged Malone Lam, 20, known online as “Anne Hathaway” and Jeandiel Serrano, 21, aka “VersaceGod,” with stealing $243 million in cryptocurrency and laundering the proceeds through mixing services to conceal the origin.

CoinDesk reported that the men allegedly tricked the heist’s victim, a creditor of the now-defunct trading firm Genesis, using a social engineering scam that led them to reset their Gemini two-factor authentication and transfer 4,100 bitcoin to a compromised wallet. An analysis of the transaction by blockchain investigator ZachXBT revealed that the $243 million was divided among multiple wallets and then distributed to over 15 exchanges.

**Apple MacOS Update Breaks Some Cybersecurity Tools**

On Thursday, TechCrunch reported that Apple's latest desktop operating system update, macOS 15 (Sequoia), breaks some functionality of major security tools made by CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, and Microsoft. It’s unclear what specifically in the update is causing the issues, but social media posts and internal Slack messages reviewed by the tech outlet show that the update has frustrated engineers working on macOS-focused security tools.

A CrowdStrike sales engineer informed colleagues via Slack, as seen by TechCrunch, that the company would not be able to support Sequoia on day one, despite its usual practice of quickly supporting new OS releases. While they hope for a quick patch, they will likely need to scramble to resolve the issue with an update in their own code, assuming no immediate fix is available from Apple, which has not yet commented on the issue.

**Leader of Crypto Extortion Gang Sentenced to 47 Years**

Cryptocurrency theft has become practically a common-garden form of cybercrime. But one brutal gang took that form of thievery to a new level of cruelty and violence, breaking into a series of victims' homes to threaten and extort them into handing over their crypto holdings, sometimes even resorting to kidnapping and torture. This week, that disturbing story came to a close with the sentencing of the group's ring leader, a Florida man named Remy St. Felix, to 47 years in prison. St. Felix is one of 12 members of the gang to have now been charged, convicted, and sentenced. Prior to the home invasions that St. Felix led, another member of the group named Jarod Seemungal allegedly stole millions with more traditional crypto hacking techniques. But St. Felix's more violent, offline extortion attempts netted his gang only around $150,000 in cryptocurrency before they were caught and sentenced to years behind bars. The lesson: Crime doesn't pay—or at least, not the physical kind.

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