By Waqas
In this article, we will explore 12 paid and free OSINT tools that are publicly available and can be very useful when utilized properly and for appropriate purposes.
This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: Best Paid and Free OSINT Tools for 2024

Open Source Intelligence tools (or OSINT tools) are software applications or platforms used to collect, analyze, and interpret publicly available information from various online sources, aiding in investigations, research, and intelligence gathering.

These OSINT Tools assist in accessing and analyzing data from sources such as social media, websites, forums, and other public repositories to generate insights and support decision-making processes.

In this article, we will explore 12 paid and free OSINT tools that are publicly available and can be very useful when utilized properly and for appropriate purposes.

****1:** EpicVIN**

EpicVIN is a website dedicated to providing detailed vehicle history reports based on a vehicle’s VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) or license plate number. Established in 2012 and headquartered in Miami, Florida; the platform offers paid results with three packages starting from $14.99 for 1 report, $7.04 for 4 reports and $5.4 for 16 reports.

****2: Shodan****

Shodan is essentially a search engine for Internet-connected devices. It allows users to discover various types of devices, from routers to security cameras to servers, that are connected to the internet, providing valuable data about the security of these devices and potential vulnerabilities.

Shodan is available in free and paid packages.

****3: Telegogo****

Telegogo is a free Google-based search engine for Telegram. The tool can be used to search for public Telegram channels, groups, or content. Leveraging Google’s search capabilities helps users find Telegram-related information or discussions more efficiently than searching through Telegram’s own search features.

Telegogo is useful for anyone looking to explore public conversations or communities within Telegram around specific topics, making the platform’s vast amount of user-generated content more accessible and navigable. If you are looking for specific types of Telegram groups or channels, using a dedicated search tool like Telegogo could significantly streamline your search process.

****4\. GHunt****

GHunt is a free OSINT tool designed to extract information from any Google Account using an email address. The data that GHunt can gather includes:

*   Google ID
*   Owner’s name
*   Public photos (P)
*   Phones models (P)
*   Phones firmware
*   Installed Softwares
*   Google Maps reviews
*   Possible physical location
*   Possible YouTube channel
*   Possible other usernames
*   Events from Google Calendar
*   If the account is a Hangouts Bot
*   Last time the profile was edited
*   Activated Google services (YouTube, Photos, Maps, News360, Hangouts, etc.)

****5\. FOCA****

FOCA (Fingerprinting Organizations with Collected Archives) is a free OSINT tool used primarily for security auditing. It is designed to help security professionals analyze a domain’s security by finding metadata and hidden information in the documents they make available on their websites.

FOCA is popular among penetration testers and cybersecurity professionals for its ability to uncover information that can help in the early stages of a security audit or penetration test. It provides insights that can guide further testing and exploration including document analysis, metadata extraction, mapping and more.

****6\. SkopeNow****

Skopenow is a paid analytical search engine aimed at discovering and compiling digital identities from publicly available data. The platform uses various algorithms to aggregate information from social media, websites, and other online sources to create profiles that can be used for background checks, investigative purposes, and risk assessment. This can be particularly useful for professionals in law enforcement, fraud prevention, and corporate security to obtain insights into individuals’ online presence and behaviours.

****7\. Maltego****

Maltego is a powerful tool for performing real-time data mining and information gathering, as well as the visualization of this information in a graph format. Ideal for investigative purposes, it helps in identifying relationships and real-world links between pieces of information from various sources located on the Internet.

Maltego is available in free and paid packages.

****8\. Metagoofil****

Metagoofil is a metadata extraction tool that is used to analyze metadata of public documents (pdf, doc, xls, ppt, etc.) and to extract information that can be useful in an OSINT investigation. This tool can be used to gather data about the documents’ authors, creation dates, software used, and more.

****9\. Recon-ng****

Recon-ng is a full-featured free Web Reconnaissance framework written in Python. It provides a powerful environment in which open-source web-based reconnaissance can be conducted quickly and thoroughly. Recon-ng has a look and feels similar to the Metasploit Framework, reducing the learning curve significantly.

****10\. TheHarvester****

TheHarvester is a free OSINT tool for gathering e-mail accounts, subdomain names, virtual hosts, open ports/ banners, and employee names from different public sources (search engines, key servers). This tool is particularly useful in the early stages of a penetration test to understand the human element of cybersecurity.

****11\. Arrests.org****

Arrests.org is a free website aggregating booking and arrest records from various public law enforcement agencies across the United States. The site typically displays mugshots, personal information such as age and gender, and details of the charges against the individuals listed. These records are pulled from publicly available sources, such as county sheriff’s offices and police departments.

Therefore, this site can serve as a perfect OSINT tool for researchers, journalists, security professionals, and the general public seeking intelligence or information about individuals’ arrest histories. Additionally, the accessibility and range of data available on Arrests.org make it a useful tool for conducting background checks, investigating criminal activity, or monitoring crime trends, all of which are key aspects of OSINT research

****12\. OSINT Framework****

OSINT Framework is not a tool in itself, but rather a free collection of OSINT tools that can be used for specific purposes. It organizes tools based on the type of data you are interested in and the goal of your investigation, making it an invaluable resource for anyone conducting OSINT.

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Best Paid and Free OSINT Tools for 2024

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said today it is investigating a breach at business intelligence company Sisense, whose products are designed to allow companies to view the status of multiple third-party online services in a single dashboard. CISA urged all Sisense customers to reset any credentials and secrets that may have been shared with the company, which is the same advice Sisense gave to its customers Wednesday evening.

The **U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency** (CISA) said today it is investigating a breach at business intelligence company **Sisense**, whose products are designed to allow companies to view the status of multiple third-party online services in a single dashboard. CISA urged all Sisense customers to reset any credentials and secrets that may have been shared with the company, which is the same advice Sisense gave to its customers Wednesday evening.

New York City based Sisense has more than a thousand customers across a range of industry verticals, including financial services, telecommunications, healthcare and higher education. On April 10, **Sisense Chief Information Security Officer Sangram Dash** told customers the company had been made aware of reports that “certain Sisense company information may have been made available on what we have been advised is a restricted access server (not generally available on the internet.)”

“We are taking this matter seriously and promptly commenced an investigation,” Dash continued. “We engaged industry-leading experts to assist us with the investigation. This matter has not resulted in an interruption to our business operations. Out of an abundance of caution, and while we continue to investigate, we urge you to promptly rotate any credentials that you use within your Sisense application.”

In its alert, CISA said it was working with private industry partners to respond to a recent compromise discovered by independent security researchers involving Sisense.

“CISA is taking an active role in collaborating with private industry partners to respond to this incident, especially as it relates to impacted critical infrastructure sector organizations,” the sparse alert reads. “We will provide updates as more information becomes available.”

Sisense declined to comment when asked about the veracity of information shared by two trusted sources with close knowledge of the breach investigation. Those sources said the breach appears to have started when the attackers somehow gained access to the company’s Gitlab code repository, and in that repository was a token or credential that gave the bad guys access to Sisense’s Amazon S3 buckets in the cloud.

Customers can use Gitlab either as a solution that is hosted in the cloud at Gitlab.com, or as a self-managed deployment. KrebsOnSecurity understands that Sisense was using the self-managed version of Gitlab.

Both sources said the attackers used the S3 access to copy and exfiltrate several terabytes worth of Sisense customer data, which apparently included millions of access tokens, email account passwords, and even SSL certificates.

The incident raises questions about whether Sisense was doing enough to protect sensitive data entrusted to it by customers, such as whether the massive volume of stolen customer data was ever encrypted while at rest in these Amazon cloud servers.

It is clear, however, that unknown attackers now have all of the credentials that Sisense customers used in their dashboards.

The breach also makes clear that Sisense is somewhat limited in the clean-up actions that it can take on behalf of customers, because access tokens are essentially text files on your computer that allow you to stay logged in for extended periods of time — sometimes indefinitely. And depending on which service we’re talking about, it may be possible for attackers to re-use those access tokens to authenticate as the victim without ever having to present valid credentials.

Beyond that, it is largely up to Sisense customers to decide if and when they change passwords to the various third-party services that they’ve previously entrusted to Sisense.

Earlier today, a public relations firm working with Sisense reached out to learn if KrebsOnSecurity planned to publish any further updates on their breach (KrebsOnSecurity posted a screenshot of the CISO’s customer email to both LinkedIn and Mastodon on Wednesday evening). The PR rep said Sisense wanted to make sure they had an opportunity to comment before the story ran.

But when confronted with the details shared by my sources, Sisense apparently changed its mind.

“After consulting with Sisense, they have told me that they don’t wish to respond,” the PR rep said in an emailed reply.

**Update, 6:49 p.m., ET:** Added clarification that Sisense is using a self-hosted version of Gitlab, not the cloud version managed by Gitlab.com.

Also, Sisense’s CISO Dash just sent an update to customers directly. The latest advice from the company is far more detailed, and involves resetting a potentially large number of access tokens across multiple technologies, including Microsoft Active Directory credentials, GIT credentials, web access tokens, and any single sign-on (SSO) secrets or tokens.

The full message from Dash to customers is below:

“Good Afternoon,

We are following up on our prior communication of April 10, 2024, regarding reports that certain Sisense company information may have been made available on a restricted access server. As noted, we are taking this matter seriously and our investigation remains ongoing.

Our customers must reset any keys, tokens, or other credentials in their environment used within the Sisense application.

Specifically, you should:  
– Change Your Password: Change all Sisense-related passwords on http://my.sisense.com  
– Non-SSO:  
– Replace the Secret in the Base Configuration Security section with your GUID/UUID.  
– Reset passwords for all users in the Sisense application.  
– Logout all users by running GET /api/v1/authentication/logout\_all under Admin user.  
– Single Sign-On (SSO):  
– If you use SSO JWT for the user’s authentication in Sisense, you will need to update sso.shared\_secret in Sisense and then use the newly generated value on the side of the SSO handler.  
– We strongly recommend rotating the x.509 certificate for your SSO SAML identity provider.  
– If you utilize OpenID, it’s imperative to rotate the client secret as well.  
– Following these adjustments, update the SSO settings in Sisense with the revised values.  
– Logout all users by running GET /api/v1/authentication/logout\_all under Admin user.  
– Customer Database Credentials: Reset credentials in your database that were used in the Sisense application to ensure continuity of connection between the systems.  
– Data Models: Change all usernames and passwords in the database connection string in the data models.  
– User Params: If you are using the User Params feature, reset them.  
– Active Directory/LDAP: Change the username and user password of users whose authorization is used for AD synchronization.  
– HTTP Authentication for GIT: Rotate the credentials in every GIT project.  
– B2D Customers: Use the following API PATCH api/v2/b2d-connection in the admin section to update the B2D connection.  
– Infusion Apps: Rotate the associated keys.  
– Web Access Token: Rotate all tokens.  
– Custom Email Server: Rotate associated credentials.  
– Custom Code: Reset any secrets that appear in custom code Notebooks.

If you need any assistance, please submit a customer support ticket at https://community.sisense.com/t5/support-portal/bd-p/SupportPortal and mark it as critical. We have a dedicated response team on standby to assist with your requests.

At Sisense, we give paramount importance to security and are committed to our customers’ success. Thank you for your partnership and commitment to our mutual security.

Regards,

Sangram Dash  
Chief Information Security Officer”

Why CISA is Warning CISOs About a Breach at Sisense

Project behind the Rust programming language asserted that any calls to a specific API would be made safe, even with unsafe inputs, but researchers found ways to circumvent the protections.

Source: Monticello via Shutterstock

The Rust Project has issued an update for its standard library, after a vulnerability researcher discovered a specific function used to execute batch files on Windows systems could be exploited using an injection flaw.

The set of common functions included with Rust programming language, known as the standard library, offers the ability — among its many other capabilities — to execute Windows batch files through the Command API. The function, however, did not process the inputs to the API rigorously enough to eliminate the possibility of injecting code into the execution, according to a Rust Security Response Working Group advisory published April 9.

While Rust is well known for its memory-safety features, the incident underscores that the programming language is not proof against logic bugs, says Yair Mizrahi, a senior vulnerability researcher at application-security firm JFrog.

"Overall, Rust's memory safety is a notable advantage, but developers must also pay close attention to the potential for logical bugs to ensure the overall security and reliability of their Rust-based applications," he says. "To address such logical issues, Rust encourages a rigorous testing and code review process, as well as the use of static analysis tools to identify and mitigate logical bugs."

Rust has gained a reputation for being a very secure programming language, because it does not leave applications open to the often-severe class of flaws known as memory-safety vulnerabilities. Google has attributed a drop in memory-unsafe code to the shift to memory-safe languages, such as Rust and Kotlin, while Microsoft found that up until 2018, when it shifted to memory-safe language, such vulnerabilities regularly accounted for 70% of all security issues.

**Windows Poses a Batch of Issues**

The latest issue is not a memory-safety vulnerability, but a problem with the logic used to process untrusted input. Part of Rust's standard library allows the developer to call a function to send a batch file to the Windows machine for processing. There are reasons for submitting code to the host as a batch file, says Joel Marcey, director of technology at Rust Foundation, which supports the programming language's maintainers and the Rust ecosystem.

"Batch files are run for many reasons on systems, and Rust provides an API to allow you to execute those fairly easily," he says. "So while this is not necessarily the most common use case for Rust, the API, before the fixed patch was implemented, allowed for malicious actors to theoretically take over your system by running arbitrary commands, and this is definitely a critical vulnerability."

Typically, a developer can forward a workload to the Windows host to be executed as a batch process through the Command applications programming interface (API), part of the standard library. Typically, Rust guarantees the safety of any call to the Command API, but in this case, the Rust Project could not find a way to prevent the execution of all arguments, primarily because Windows does not adhere to any sort of standard, and that the API could allow an attacker to submit code that would then be executed.

"Unfortunately it was reported that our escaping logic was not thorough enough, and it was possible to pass malicious arguments that would result in arbitrary shell execution," according to the Rust Security Response WG.

**Rust Project Proves Responsive**

While dealing with any vulnerability can be a headache, the Rust Project has shown that the group quickly resolves issues, say experts. The standard library vulnerability, CVE-2024-24576, is ultimately an issue with the Windows batch-processing problem and affects other programming languages, if they do not adequately parse the arguments sent to the Windows batch process. The Rust Project appears to be the first out the door with a fix for passing arguments to the Windows CMD.exe process, says JFrog's Mizrahi.

The groups could not completely eliminate the issue, but the Command API will not return an error when any augments passed to the function could be unsafe, the Rust Project said. 

JFrog's Mizrahi urges Rust to broaden its use of static application security testing and expand the use of fuzzing and dynamic testing.

"Overall, Rust is on the right track by emphasizing memory safety and encouraging rigorous testing practices," he says. "Combining these efforts with continued advancements in static analysis and fuzzing can help the Rust community and the broader software industry make significant strides in addressing logical bugs and input validation flaws in the years to come."

**About the Author(s)**

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.

Critical Rust Flaw Poses Exploit Threat in Specific Windows Use Cases

North Korean hackers break ground with new exploitation techniques for Windows and macOS.

Source: Stuart Miles via Alamy Stock Photo

This month, MITRE will be adding two sub-techniques to its ATT&CK database that have been widely exploited by North Korean threat actors.

The first, not entirely new, sub-technique involves manipulation of Transparency, Consent, and Control (TCC), a security protocol that regulates application permissions on Apple's macOS.

The other — called "phantom" dynamic link library (DLL) hijacking — is a lesser-known subset of DLL hijacking, where hackers take advantage of referenced but nonexistent DLL files in Windows.

Both TCC manipulation and phantom DLL hijacking have allowed North Korean hackers to gain privileged access into macOS and Windows environments, respectively, from which they could perform espionage and other post-exploitation actions.

**TCC Manipulation**

"North Korea is opportunistic," says Marina Liang, threat intelligence engineer at Interpres Security. "They have a dual purpose of espionage and also revenue generation, so they're going to look to be where their targets are. And because macOS is increasing in popularity, that's where they started to pivot."

One way North Korean advanced persistent threats (APTs) have been breaching Macs lately is via TCC, an essential framework for controlling application permissions.

TCC has a user- and system-level database. The former is protected with permissions — a user would require Full Disk Access (FDA), or something similar — and the latter by System Integrity Protection (SIP), a feature first introduced with macOS Sierra. Theoretically, privileges and SIP are guards against malicious TCC access.

In practice, however, there are scenarios where each can be undermined. Administrators and security apps, for example, might require FDA to properly function. And there are times when users circumvent SIP.

"When developers need flexibility on their machine, or they're being blocked by the operating system, they might decrease those controls that Apple has in place to allow them to code and create software," Liang explains. "Anecdotally, I've seen that developers troubleshooting will try to figure out what's in place \[on the system\], and disable it to see if that solves their issue."

When SIP is switched off, or FDA on, attackers have a window to access the TCC database and grant themselves permissions without alerting the user.

There are a number of other ways to potentially get through TCC, too. For example, some sensitive directories such as /tmp fall outside of TCC's domain entirely. The Finder app has FDA enabled by default, and it's not listed in the user's Security & Privacy window, meaning that a user would have to be independently aware and manually revoke its permissions. Attackers can also use social engineering to direct users in disabling security controls.

A number of malware tools have been designed to manipulate TCC, including Bundlore, BlueBlood, Callisto, JokerSpy, XCSSET, and other unnamed macOS Trojans recorded on VirusTotal. Liang identified Lazarus Group malware, which attempts to dump the access table from the TCC database, and CloudMensis by APT37 (aka InkSquid, RedEyes, BadRAT, Reaper, or ScarCruft) doggedly tries to identify where SIP is disabled in order to load its own malicious database.

Dark Reading contacted Apple for a statement regarding TCC abuses and received no reply.

To block attackers taking advantage of TCC, the most important thing is keeping SIP enabled. Short of that, Liang highlights the need to know which apps have what permissions in your system. "It's being aware of what you're granting permissions to. And then — obviously it's easier said than done — exercising \[the principle of\] least privileged \[access\]. If certain apps don't necessarily need certain permissions to function, then remove them," she says.

Besides TCC vulnerabilities, APAC-area threat actors have been exploiting an even stranger flaw in Windows. For some reason, the operating system references a number of DLL files that don't actually exist.

"There are a ton of them," Liang marvels. "Maybe someone was working on a project to create specific DLLs for specific purposes, and maybe it got shelved, or they didn't have enough resources, or just forgot about it."

Dark Reading has reached out to Microsoft for clarification on this point.

To a hacker, a so-called "phantom" DLL file is like a blank canvas. They can simply create their own malicious DLLs with the same name, and write them to the same location, and they'll be loaded by the operating system with nobody the wiser.

The Lazarus Group and APT 41 (aka Winnti, Barium, Double Dragon) have used this tactic with IKEEXT, a service necessary for authentication and key exchange within Internet protocol security. When IKEEXT triggers, it attempts to load the nonexistent "wlbsctrl.dll." APT41 has also targeted other phantom DLLs like "wbemcomn.dll," loaded by the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) provider host.

Until Windows rids itself of phantom DLLs, Liang highly recommends companies run monitoring solutions, deploy proactive application controls, and automatically block remote loading of DLLs, a feature included by default in Windows Server.

**About the Author(s)**

Nate Nelson is a freelance writer based in New York City. Formerly a reporter at Threatpost, he contributes to a number of cybersecurity blogs and podcasts. He writes "Malicious Life" -- an award-winning Top 20 tech podcast on Apple and Spotify -- and hosts every other episode, featuring interviews with leading voices in security. He also co-hosts "The Industrial Security Podcast," the most popular show in its field.

DPRK Exploits 2 MITRE Sub-Techniques: Phantom DLL Hijacking, TCC Abuse

Apple has sent alerts to people in 92 nations to say it's detected that they may have been a victim of a mercenary attack.

Apple has reportedly sent alerts to individuals in 92 nations on Wednesday, April 10, to say it’s detected that they may have been a victim of a mercenary attack. The company says it has sent out these types of threat notifications to over 150 countries since the start in 2021.

Mercenary spyware is used by governments to target people like journalists, political activists, and similar targets, and involves the use of sophisticated tools like Pegasus. Pegasus is one of the world’s most advanced and invasive spyware tools, known to utilize zero-day vulnerabilities against mobile devices.

The second number became known when Apple changed the wording of the relevant support page. The change also included the title that went from “About Apple threat notifications and protecting against **state-sponsored attacks**” to “About Apple threat notifications and protecting against **mercenary spyware**.”

If you look at the before and after, you’ll also notice an extra paragraph, again with the emphasis on the change from “state-sponsored attacks” to “mercenary spyware.”

The cause for the difference in wording might be because “state-sponsored” is often used to indicate attacks targeted at entities, like governments or companies, while these mercenary attacks tend to be directed at individual people.

The extra paragraph specifically calls out the NSO Group and the Pegasus spyware it sells. While the NSO Group claims to only sell to “government clients,” we have no reason to take its word for it.

Apple says that when it detects activity consistent with a mercenary spyware attack it uses two different means of notifying the users about the attack:

*   Displays a Threat Notification at the top of the page after the user signs into appleid.apple.com.
*   Sends an email and iMessage notification to the email addresses and phone numbers associated with the user’s Apple ID.

Apple says it doesn’t want to share information about what triggers these notifications, since that might help mercenary spyware attackers adapt their behavior to evade detection in the future.

The NSO Group itself argued in a court case started by Meta for spying on WhatsApp users, that it should be recognized as a foreign government agent and, therefore, be entitled to immunity under US law limiting lawsuits against foreign countries.

NSO Group has also said that its tool is increasingly necessary in an era when end-to-end encryption is widely available to criminals.

**How to stay safe**

Apple advises iPhone users to:

*   Enable Lockdown mode.
*   Keep devices up to date.
*   Protect devices with a passcode.
*   Use Multi-Factor-Authentication (MFA) for your Apple ID.
*   Only install apps from the App Store.
*   Use strong and unique passwords online.
*   Don’t click on links or attachments from unknown senders.

We’d like to add:

*   Use an anti-malware solution on your device.
*   If you’re not sure about something that’s been sent to you, verify it with the person or company via another communcation channel.
*   Use a password manager.

**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 warns people of mercenary attacks via threat notification system 

Led by industry veterans Gadi Evron and Sounil Yu, the new company lets organizations adjust how much information LLMs provide based on the user's role and responsibilities.

Source: Deemerwha Studio via Shutterstock

Security startup Knostic is the latest company to address the various challenges organizations face as they adopt generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools. This week Knostic emerged from stealth with $3.3 million in pre-seed funding to bring "need-to-know" access controls to large language models (LLMs).

Enterprises in their AI transformation journey are sprinkling AI capabilities throughout their workflows and processes to boost productivity, reduce costs, and increase efficiency, says Gadi Evron, co-founder and CEO of Knostic. Enterprises are adopting LLMs to build ChatGPT-like enterprise search systems based on their own data sources or by enabling capabilities that are bundled into the applications and platforms they are already using. Data privacy is one of the biggest barriers to AI adoption, Evron says, noting that AI without controls potentially exposes the organization to increased risk, primarily by exposing information to the wrong people.

"How can we curate personalized information and actually give you value — answer with what you need to know instead of just saying stuff?" Evron says.

**Access Control for LLMs Is Necessary**

With Knostic, employees can access what they need and receive answers that align with the information they require to perform their jobs.

For example, an organization can have a system that answers questions such as features expected in the next product release, the latest sales numbers and revenue figures, bonus structure, due diligence results in a merger-and-acquisition scenario, or the status of an infrastructure project. But not everyone should get the same answer to every question. While the CFO and CTO needs to know the quarterly sales revenue, the marketing intern probably does not, Evron notes.

Knostic's access control engine considers whether the answer is appropriate for the questioner's role; if it is not, it answers with, "I'm sorry, that is confidential information," Evron says. Or instead of just saying no, the system can respond that even though the answer is confidential, the marketing campaigns that the intern worked on boosted sales over the quarter. That's where personalization and curation comes in.

Evron made it a point to emphasize that access control is binary — either the person can have access or they cannot. Knostic's focus on "need to know" makes it possible to provide some information even when the answer is no.

"When we say no, we are not enabling the business," Evron says, noting that providing information in a different format or with related context helps business users more than just being told no. "Once you figure out what you are allowed to know, you can solve DLP \[data loss prevention\] and IAM \[identity access management."

**What 'Need to Know' Looks Like**

When thinking about access control, organizations need to consider factors such as whether the system is internal or public-facing, whether the data used to generate responses is sensitive, and the role of the person asking the questions, says Sounil Yu, Knostic's co-founder and CTO.

There has been much discussion about how organizations need to build guardrails into AI systems to prevent abuse and not provide answers that could cause harm. However, this approach tend to be one-size-fits-all and doesn't account for a person's specific circumstances, Yu says. Consider how many publicly available chatbots would not provide medical information because they are not medical professionals and should not be used for diagnostics. But if it's a physician trying to access information as part of an investigation, that particular restriction is not helpful. Access control, unlike guardrails, take into account factors such as time, sensitivity of data, and person's role to determine how to shape the answers.

For example, a company may have a customer service chatbot that troubleshoots and assists in fixing common issues. That chatbot will have access to the same internal knowledgebase articles that the customer service representative would have. But what happens if there is information about a product that is not yet available on the market? The customer service representative needs that information to be ready when the product is available and even beforehand for training purposes. But there could be a lot of problems for that company if the customer learns details about the product from the chatbot before launch.

Instead of creating two systems — one for internal use and the other public-facing — the company can conceivably use Knostic's approach to provide different answers to the customer and to the customer service representative.

**Company Details**

Evron and Yu have deep industry expertise. Evron founded cyber deception company Cymmetria and previously held roles at Citibank and PwC. Yu is the former chief security scientist at Bank of America and former CISO and head of research at JupiterOne.

Knostic, founded in 2023, has raised $3.3 million in pre-seed financing from Shield Capital, Pitango First, DNS Ventures, Seedcamp, and several angel investors. Retired Admiral Mike Rogers, former head of the National Security Agency and a member of Knostic's advisory board, said in a statement that the startup will "unlock LLMs for enterprises."

Knostic has customers across a range of industries, including retail and financial services. It is also one of the top three finalists for the 2024 RSA Conference Launch Pad, where founders of companies incorporated for two years or less get to pitch ideas and products "on the cusp of being the next big thing" to a panel of venture capitalists. This year's Launch Pad will be on Tuesday, May 7.

**About the Author(s)**

As Dark Reading’s managing editor for features, Fahmida Y Rashid focuses on stories that provide security professionals with the information they need to do their jobs. She has spent over a decade analyzing news events and demystifying security technology for IT professionals and business managers. Prior to specializing in information security, Fahmida wrote about enterprise IT, especially networking, open source, and core internet infrastructure. Before becoming a journalist, she spent over 10 years as an IT professional -- and has experience as a network administrator, software developer, management consultant, and product manager. Her work has appeared in various business and test trade publications, including VentureBeat, CSO Online, InfoWorld, eWEEK, CRN, PC Magazine, and Tom’s Guide.

Knostic Brings Access Control to LLMs

We've made it easy for you to check if your data has been exposed in the AT&T breach.

AT&T has notified US state authorities and regulators about its recent (or not) data breach, saying 51,226,382 people were affected.

For those that have missed the story so far:

*   Back in 2021, a hacker named Shiny Hunters claimed to have breached AT&T.
*   On March 20, 2024, we reported how the data of over 70 million people was posted for sale on an online cybercrime forum. The seller claimed the data came from the Shiny Hunters breach. However, AT&T denied (both in 2021 and in March, 2024) that the data came from its systems.
*   On March 30, AT&T reset customer passcodes after a security researcher discovered the encrypted login passcodes found in the leaked data were easy to decipher.
*   Finally, on April 2, 2024, AT&T confirmed that 73 million current and former customers were caught up the data leak.

Weirdly enough, in the data breach notification, AT&T says the date of discovery of the breach was March 26, 2024. AT&T has still not disclosed the source of the leak, but says the data appears to be from June 2019 or earlier.

Malwarebytes VP of Consumer Privacy, Oren Arar, describes the AT&T breach as “especially risky” because of the type of data that’s been exposed.

> “SSN, name, date of birth—this is personal identifiable information (PII) that cannot be changed, and if scammers get their hands on it, it just makes their work in stealing people’s identities a lot easier. In addition, this exposed data was published on the internet – in a way that anyone could access it, and not on the dark web where you need some expertise to find it”.

Malwarebytes has a super easy tool—Malwarebytes Digital Footprint Portal—that allows you to check if your data was part of the AT&T breach. Just click the button below, enter your email address, and we’ll let you know what personal information we find.

We will keep you posted of any new developments in this case. Stay tuned!

**We don’t just report on threats – we help safeguard your entire digital identit**y

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Protect your—and your family’s—personal information by using identity protection.

 How to check if your data was exposed in the AT&#038;T breach 

Attackers have compromised an 8-year-old version of the cloud platform to distribute various malware that can take over infected systems.

Source: Age Foto Stock via Alamy Stock Photo

Attackers are using an 8-year-old version of the Redis open-source database server to maliciously use Metasploit's Meterpreter module to expose exploits within a system, potentially allowing for takeover and distribution of a host of other malware.

Researchers from AhnLab Security Intelligence Center (ASEC) said in a blog post that attackers likely are exploiting inappropriate settings or a vulnerability present in an implementation of Redis to distribute Meterpreter for nefarious use.

"Such malware strains attack Redis servers open to the public on the Internet with the authentication feature disabled," ASEC researcher Sanseo wrote in the post. "After gaining access to Redis, threat actors can install malware through known attack methods."

Meterpreter is an aspect of the legitimate Metasploit pen-testing tool that allows threat actors to fetch various Metasploit modules, or working exploits for known bugs, and then use them on the targeted system, according to ASEC. Metasploit is a tool similar to Cobalt Strike that also is oft-abused by threat actors to execute attacks.

"When Metasploit is installed, the threat actor can take control of the infected system and also dominate the internal network of an organization using the various features offered by the malware," Senseo explained.

**How It's Done**

Redis is an open source, in-memory data structure storage service that is increasingly being used in various ways in cloud environments; its primary purpose is typically for session management, message broker, and queues, according to ASEC. This increased prevalence also is making it a more popular target for attackers, who have abused vulnerable Redis servers to spread a host of malware, including Kinsing, P2PInfect, Skidmap, Migo, and HeadCrab.

By using Metasploit Meterpreter, there are two main attacks methods that actors can employ to spread malware once they've gained access to Redis. One is to register the malware-executing command as a Cron task, and the other is using the SLAVEOF command to set the command as the Slave server of the Redis server that has the malware.

ASEC witnessed an attack targeting a system that used Windows, along with version Redis 3.x, which was developed in 2016. The age of the abused platform means "it was likely vulnerable to attacks that abuse misconfiguration or attacks on known vulnerabilities," Senseo noted.

In the attack, the threat actor first downloaded PrintSpoofer, a privilege escalation tool, in the installation path for Redis. Attackers often use this tool against vulnerable services that are not managed properly or have not been patched to the recent version; in fact, ASEC has witnessed a flurry of these attacks against Redis since the second half of last year.

"The difference between the cases from the past and the cases now is that PrintSpoofer is installed using the CertUtil tool instead of PowerShell," Senseo explained.

**Meterpreter As Malicious Backdoor**

After installing PrintSpoofer, the threat actor installed Meterpreter Stager — one of two types of the module, the difference between which depends on the way it is installed. Meterpreter is to the Metasploit tool as Beacon is to Cobalt Strike.

When an attacker uses Stager, it means the installation is via the staged version, which downloads Meterpreter directly from the attacker's command-and-control (C2) server. This decreases its footprint version downloading it in a "stageless" way within a payload, according to ASEC.

Once this process is complete, Meterpreter is executed in the memory, which allows the threat actor to take control over the infected system and "also dominate the internal network of an organization using the various features offered by the malware," Senseo wrote.

**Update Now**

ASEC included a list of files, behaviors, and indicators of compromise of the attack in its post to help network administrators identify evidence of the threat on a system.

To avoid being compromised by the attack vector, ASEC advised that administrators of environments with Redis 3.x installed should, at the very least, update the server immediately with available patches to ensure that known vulnerabilities can't be exploited. The best-case scenario, however, would be to update V3 to the latest version of the server.

Administrators should also install security-protection software that restricts external access to Redis servers open to the Internet so they can't be identified and abused, ASEC advised.

**About the Author(s)**

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.

Expired Redis Service Abused to Use Metasploit Meterpreter Maliciously

In new threat notification information, Apple singled out Pegasus vendor NSO Group as a culprit in mercenary spyware attacks.

Source: nk Drop via Shutterstock

Apple this week updated its spyware threat notification system to alert and assist users it identifies as targeted by mercenary spyware attacks.

To date, Apple has spotted and alerted users in more than 150 countries that they were targeted in these attacks.

Such spyware attacks target individuals largely because of who they are and what they do, Apple said. While most people will never be targeted by these types of attacks, a small number of people — journalists, activists, politicians, and the like — will potentially be victimized. 

Apple said once it detects spyware it notifies the user within two days. The vendor does provide threat actor attribution, however.

In its notice, Apple pointed fingers at the NSO Group, one of the private companies that develops the mercenary spyware Pegasus that is used in such attacks. "According to public reporting and research by civil society organizations, technology firms, and journalists, individually targeted attacks of such exceptional cost and complexity have historically been associated with state actors, including private companies," stated the notice on Apple's support page. 

Should an individual receive a threat notification, Apple recommends that they seek the help of either Apple or a third party. Apple's notifications never ask the user to click on any link or install an application; the threat notification can be verified simply by signing into applied.apple.com, where the notification will be at the top of the page. 

**About the Author(s)**

Apple Warns Users in 150 Countries of Mercenary Spyware Attacks

The security community is still reflecting on the “What If” of the XZ backdoor.

Thursday, April 11, 2024 14:00

I feel like over the past several years, the “holiday” that is April Fool’s Day has really died down. At this point, there are few headlines you can write that would be more ridiculous than something you’d find on a news site any day of the week. 

And there are so many more serious issues that are developing, too, that making a joke about a fake news story is just in bad taste, even if it’s in “celebration” of a “holiday.” 

Thankfully in the security world, I think we’ve all gotten the hint at this point that we can’t just post whatever we want on April 1 of each calendar year and expect people to get the joke. I’ve put my guard down so much at this point that I actually did legitimately fall for one April Fool’s joke from Nintendo, because I could definitely see a world in which they release a Virtual Boy box for the Switch that would allow you to play virtual reality games. 

But at least from what I saw on April 1 of this year, no one tried to “get” anyone with an April Fool’s joke about a ransomware actor requesting payment in the form of “Fortnite” in-game currency, or an internet-connected household object that in no universe needs to be connected to the internet (which, as it turns out, smart pillows exist!).  

We’re already dealing with digitally manipulated photos of “Satanic McDonalds,” Twitter’s AI generating fake news about the solar eclipse, and an upcoming presidential election that is sure to generate a slew of misinformation, AI-generated photos and more that I hesitate to even make up. 

So, all that is to say, good on you, security community, for just letting go of April Fool’s. Our lives are too stressful without bogus headlines that we, ourselves, generate.  

**The one big thing **

Talos discovered a new threat actor we’re calling “CoralRaider” that we believe is of Vietnamese origin and financially motivated. CoralRaider has been operating since at least 2023, targeting victims in several Asian and Southeast Asian countries. This group focuses on stealing victims’ credentials, financial data, and social media accounts, including business and advertisement accounts. CoralRaider appears to use RotBot, a customized variant of QuasarRAT, and XClient stealer as payloads. The actor uses the dead drop technique, abusing a legitimate service to host the C2 configuration file and uncommon living-off-the-land binaries (LoLBins), including Windows Forfiles.exe and FoDHelper.exe 

**Why do I care? **

This is a brand new actor that we believe is acting out of Vietnam, traditionally not a country who is associated with high-profile state-sponsored actors. CoralRaider appears to be after targets’ social media logins, which can later be leveraged to spread scams, misinformation, or all sorts of malicious messages using the victimized account. 

**So now what? **

CoralRaider primarily uses malicious LNK files to spread their malware, though we currently don’t know how those files are spread, exactly. Threat actors have started shifting toward using LNK files as an initial infection vector after Microsoft disabled macros by default — macros used to be a primary delivery system. For more on how the info in malicious LNK files can allow defenders to learn more about infection chains, read our previous research here. 

**Top security headlines of the week **

**The security community is still reflecting on the “What If” of the XZ backdoor** that was discovered and patched before threat actors could exploit it. A single Microsoft developer, who works on a different open-source project, found the backdoor in xz Utils for Linux distributions several weeks ago seemingly on accident, and is now being hailed as a hero by security researchers and professionals. Little is known about the user who had been building the backdoor in the open-source utility for at least two years. Had it been exploited, the vulnerability would have allowed its creator to hijack a user’s SSH connection and secretly run their own code on that user’s machine. The incident is highlighting networking’s reliance on open-source projects, which are often provided little resource and usually only maintained as a hobby, for free, by individuals who have no connection to the end users. The original creator of xz Utils worked alone for many years, before they had to open the project because of outside stressors and other work. Government officials have also been alarmed by the near-miss, and are now considering new ways to protect open-source software. (New York Times, Reuters) 

**AT&T now says that more than 51 million users were affected by a data breach** that exposed their personal information on a hacking forum. The cable, internet and cell service provider has still not said how the information was stolen. The incident dates back to 2021, when threat actor ShinyHunters initially offered the data for sale for $1 million. However, that data leaked last month on a hacking forum belonging to an actor known as “MajorNelson.” AT&T’s notification to affected customers stated that, "The \[exposed\] information varied by individual and account, but may have included full name, email address, mailing address, phone number, social security number, date of birth, AT&T account number and AT&T passcode." The company has also started filing required formal notifications with U.S. state authorities and regulators. While AT&T initially denied that the data belonged to them, reporters and researchers soon found that the information were related to AT&T and DirecTV (a subsidiary of AT&T) accounts. (BleepingComputer, TechCrunch) 

**Another ransomware group claims they’ve stolen data from United HealthCare, though there is little evidence yet to prove their claim.** Change Health, a subsidiary of United, was recently hit with a massive data breach, pausing millions of dollars of payments to doctors and healthcare facilities to be paused for more than a month. Now, the ransomware gang RansomHub claims it has 4TB of data, requesting an extortion payment from United, or it says it will start selling the data to the highest bidder 12 days from Monday. RansomHub claims the stolen information contains the sensitive data of U.S. military personnel and patients, as well as medical records and financial information. Blackcat initially stated they had stolen the data, but the group quickly deleted the post from their leak site. A person representing RansomHub told Reuters that a disgruntled affiliate of Blackcat gave the data to RansomHub after a previous planned payment fell through. (DarkReading, Reuters) 

**Can’t get enough Talos? **

*   Talos Takes Ep. #178: Turla has been around for 20-plus years at this point, but they're still mixing things up 
*   Vulnerability in some TP-Link routers could lead to factory reset 
*   April’s Patch Tuesday includes 150 vulnerabilities, 60 which could lead to remote code execution 
*   Vietnamese Cybercrime Group CoralRaider Nets Financial Data 
*   Safeguarding Against CoralRaider: Protecting Your Data from Vietnamese Hackers 

**Upcoming events where you can find Talos **

**Botconf** **(April 23 - 26)** 

_Nice, Côte d'Azur, France_

> _This presentation from Chetan Raghuprasad details the Supershell C2 framework. Threat actors are using this framework massively and creating botnets with the Supershell implants._

**CARO Workshop 2024** **(May 1 - 3)** 

_Arlington, Virginia_

> Over the past year, we’ve observed a substantial uptick in attacks by YoroTrooper, a relatively nascent espionage-oriented threat actor operating against the Commonwealth of Independent Countries (CIS) since at least 2022. Asheer Malhotra's presentation at CARO 2024 will provide an overview of their various campaigns detailing the commodity and custom-built malware employed by the actor, their discovery and evolution in tactics. He will present a timeline of successful intrusions carried out by YoroTrooper targeting high-value individuals associated with CIS government agencies over the last two years.

**RSA** **(May 6 - 9)** 

_San Francisco, California_    

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

**SHA 256:** c67b03c0a91eaefffd2f2c79b5c26a2648b8d3c19a22cadf35453455ff08ead0  
**MD5:** 8c69830a50fb85d8a794fa46643493b2  
**Typical Filename:** AAct.exe  
**Claimed Product:** N/A  
**Detection Name:** PUA.Win.Dropper.Generic::1201

**SHA 256:** abaa1b89dca9655410f61d64de25990972db95d28738fc93bb7a8a69b347a6a6  
**MD5:** 22ae85259273bc4ea419584293eda886  
**Typical Filename:** KMSAuto++ x64.exe  
**Claimed Product:** KMSAuto++  
**Detection Name:** W32.File.MalParent

**SHA 256:** 161937ed1502c491748d055287898dd37af96405aeff48c2500b834f6739e72d  
**MD5:** fd743b55d530e0468805de0e83758fe9  
**Typical Filename:** KMSAuto Net.exe  
**Claimed Product:** KMSAuto Net  
**Detection Name:** PUA.Win.Tool.Kmsauto::1201

**SHA 256:** b8aec57f7e9c193fcd9796cf22997605624b8b5f9bf5f0c6190e1090d426ee31  
**MD5:** 2fb86be791b4bb4389e55df0fec04eb7  
**Typical Filename:** KMSAuto Net.exe  
**Claimed Product:** KMSAuto Net  
**Detection Name:** W32.File.MalParent

**SHA 256:** 58d6fec4ba24c32d38c9a0c7c39df3cb0e91f500b323e841121d703c7b718681  
**MD5:** f1fe671bcefd4630e5ed8b87c9283534  
**Typical Filename:** KMSAuto Net.exe  
**Claimed Product:** KMSAuto Net  
**Detection Name:** PUA.Win.Tool.Hackkms::1201

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