What's new arround internet
| Src | Date (GMT) | Titre | Description | Tags | Stories | Notes |
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2023-02-02 09:00:00 | Lazarus Group Rises Again, to Gather Intelligence on Energy, Healthcare Firms (lien direct) | An OpSec slip from the North Korean threat group helps researchers attribute what was first suspected as a ransomware attack to nation-state espionage. | Ransomware Threat | APT 38 | ★★ |
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2023-02-02 01:00:00 | APT groups use ransomware TTPs as cover for intelligence gathering and sabotage (lien direct) | State-sponsored threat groups increasingly use ransomware-like attacks as cover to hide more insidious activities. Russian advanced persistent threat (APT) group Sandworm used ransomware programs to destroy data multiple times over the past six months while North Korea's Lazarus group used infrastructure previously associated with a ransomware group for intelligence gathering campaigns.At the same time, some Chinese APTs that were traditionally targeting entities in Asia shifted their focus to European companies, while Iran-based groups that traditionally targeted Israeli companies started going after their foreign subsidiaries. At least one North Korean group that was focused on South Korea and Russia has started using English in its operations. All these operational changes suggest organizations and companies from Western countries are at increased risk from APT activity.To read this article in full, please click here | Ransomware Threat Medical | APT 38 | ★★ |
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2023-01-31 17:27:00 | Anomali Cyber Watch: KilllSomeOne Folders Invisible in Windows, Everything APIs Abuse Speeds Up Ransomware, APT38 Experiments with Delivery Vectors and Backdoors (lien direct) | The various threat intelligence stories in this iteration of the Anomali Cyber Watch discuss the following topics: APT, China, Cryptocurrency, Data leak, Iran, North Korea, Phishing, Ransomware, and USB malware. The IOCs related to these stories are attached to Anomali Cyber Watch and can be used to check your logs for potential malicious activity.
Figure 1 - IOC Summary Charts. These charts summarize the IOCs attached to this magazine and provide a glimpse of the threats discussed.
Trending Cyber News and Threat Intelligence
Chinese PlugX Malware Hidden in Your USB Devices?
(published: January 26, 2023)
Palo Alto researchers analyzed a PlugX malware variant (KilllSomeOne) that spreads via USB devices such as floppy, thumb, or flash drives. The variant is used by a technically-skilled group, possibly by the Black Basta ransomware. The actors use special shortcuts, folder icons and settings to make folders impersonating disks and a recycle bin directory. They also name certain folders with the 00A0 (no-break space) Unicode character thus hindering Windows Explorer and the command shell from displaying the folder and all the files inside it.
Analyst Comment: Several behavior detections could be used to spot similar PlugX malware variants: DLL side loading, adding registry persistence, and payload execution with rundll32.exe. Incidents responders can check USB devices for the presence of no-break space as a folder name.
MITRE ATT&CK: [MITRE ATT&CK] T1091 - Replication Through Removable Media | [MITRE ATT&CK] T1559.001 - Inter-Process Communication: Component Object Model | [MITRE ATT&CK] T1547.009 - Boot or Logon Autostart Execution: Shortcut Modification | [MITRE ATT&CK] T1574.002 - Hijack Execution Flow: Dll Side-Loading | [MITRE ATT&CK] T1036 - Masquerading | [MITRE ATT&CK] T1027 - Obfuscated Files Or Information | [MITRE ATT&CK] T1564.001: Hidden Files and Directories | [MITRE ATT&CK] T1105 - Ingress Tool Transfer
Tags: detection:PlugX, detection:KilllSomeOne, USB, No-break space, file-type:DAT, file-type:EXE, file-type:DLL, actor:Black Basta, Windows
Abraham's Ax Likely Linked to Moses Staff
(published: January 26, 2023)
Cobalt Sapling is an Iran-based threat actor active in hacking, leaking, and sabotage since at least November 2020. Since October 2021, Cobalt Sapling has been operating under a persona called Moses Staff to leak data from Israeli businesses and government entities. In November 2022, an additional fake identity was created, Abraham's Ax, to target government ministries in Saudi Arabia. Cobalt Sapling uses their custom PyDCrypt loader, the StrifeWater remote access trojan, and the DCSrv wiper styled as ransomware.
Analyst Comment: A defense-in-depth approach can assist in creating a proactive stance against threat actors attempting to destroy data. Critical systems should be segregated from each other to minimize potential damage, with an |
Ransomware Malware Tool Threat Medical | APT 38 | ★★★ |
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2023-01-24 17:28:00 | FBI Says North Korean Hackers Behind $100 Million Horizon Bridge Crypto Theft (lien direct) | The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Monday confirmed that North Korean threat actors were responsible for the theft of $100 million in cryptocurrency assets from Harmony Horizon Bridge in June 2022. The law enforcement agency attributed the hack to the Lazarus Group and APT38, the latter of which is a North Korean state-sponsored threat group that specializes in financial cyber | Hack Threat Medical | APT 38 | ★★ |
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2023-01-04 16:30:00 | Anomali Cyber Watch: Machine Learning Toolkit Targeted by Dependency Confusion, Multiple Campaigns Hide in Google Ads, Lazarus Group Experiments with Bypassing Mark-of-the-Web (lien direct) | The various threat intelligence stories in this iteration of the Anomali Cyber Watch discuss the following topics: APT, Backdoors, Data breaches, North Korea, Phishing, and Typosquatting. The IOCs related to these stories are attached to Anomali Cyber Watch and can be used to check your logs for potential malicious activity.
Figure 1 - IOC Summary Charts. These charts summarize the IOCs attached to this magazine and provide a glimpse of the threats discussed.
Trending Cyber News and Threat Intelligence
PyTorch Discloses Malicious Dependency Chain Compromise Over Holidays
(published: January 1, 2023)
Between December 25th and December 30th, 2022, users who installed PyTorch-nightly were targeted by a malicious library. The malicious torchtriton dependency on PyPI uses the dependency confusion attack by having the same name as the legitimate one on the PyTorch repository (PyPI takes precedence unless excluded). The actor behind the malicious library claims that it was part of ethical research and that he alerted some affected companies via HackerOne programs (Facebook was allegedly alerted). At the same time the library’s features are more aligned with being a malware than a research project. The code is obfuscated, it employs anti-VM techniques and doesn’t stop at fingerprinting. It exfiltrates passwords, certain files, and the history of Terminal commands. Stolen data is sent to the C2 domain via encrypted DNS queries using the wheezy[.]io DNS server.
Analyst Comment: The presence of the malicious torchtriton binary can be detected, and it should be uninstalled. PyTorch team has renamed the 'torchtriton' library to 'pytorch-triton' and reserved the name on PyPI to prevent similar attacks. Opensource repositories and apps are a valuable asset for many organizations but adoption of these must be security risk assessed, appropriately mitigated and then monitored to ensure ongoing integrity.
MITRE ATT&CK: [MITRE ATT&CK] T1195.001 - Supply Chain Compromise: Compromise Software Dependencies And Development Tools | [MITRE ATT&CK] T1027 - Obfuscated Files Or Information | [MITRE ATT&CK] Picus: The System Information Discovery Technique Explained - MITRE ATT&CK T1082 | [MITRE ATT&CK] T1003.008 - OS Credential Dumping: /Etc/Passwd And /Etc/Shadow | [MITRE ATT&CK] T1041 - Exfiltration Over C2 Channel
Tags: Dependency confusion, Dependency chain compromise, PyPI, PyTorch, torchtriton, Facebook, Meta AI, Exfiltration over DNS, Linux
Linux Backdoor Malware Infects WordPress-Based Websites
(published: December 30, 2022)
Doctor Web researchers have discovered a new Linux backdoor that attacks websites based on the WordPress content management system. The latest version of the backdoor exploits 30 vulnerabilities in outdated versions of WordPress add-ons (plugins and themes). The exploited website pages are injected with a malicious JavaScript that intercepts all users clicks on the infected page to cause a malicious redirect.
Analyst Comment: Owners of WordPress-based websites should keep all the components of the platform up-to-date, including third-party add-ons and themes. Use |
Malware Tool Vulnerability Threat Patching Medical | APT 38 LastPass | ★★ |
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2022-12-13 16:00:00 | Anomali Cyber Watch: MuddyWater Hides Behind Legitimate Remote Administration Tools, Vice Society Tops Ransomware Threats to Education, Abandoned JavaScript Library Domain Pushes Web-Skimmers (lien direct) | The various threat intelligence stories in this iteration of the Anomali Cyber Watch discuss the following topics: APT, Compromised websites, Education, Healthcare, Iran, Phishing, Ransomware, and Supply chain. The IOCs related to these stories are attached to Anomali Cyber Watch and can be used to check your logs for potential malicious activity.
Figure 1 - IOC Summary Charts. These charts summarize the IOCs attached to this magazine and provide a glimpse of the threats discussed.
Trending Cyber News and Threat Intelligence
New MuddyWater Threat: Old Kitten; New Tricks
(published: December 8, 2022)
In 2020-2022, Iran-sponsored MuddyWater (Static Kitten, Mercury) group went through abusing several legitimate remote administration tools: RemoteUtilities, followed by ScreenConnect and then Atera Agent. Since September 2022, a new campaign attributed to MuddyWater uses spearphishing to deliver links to archived MSI files with yet another remote administration tool: Syncro. Deep Instinct researchers observed the targeting of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Oman, Qatar, Tajikistan, and United Arab Emirates.
Analyst Comment: Network defenders are advised to establish a baseline for typical running processes and monitor for remote desktop solutions that are not common in the organization.
MITRE ATT&CK: [MITRE ATT&CK] Phishing - T1566 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Remote Access Tools - T1219
Tags: mitre-group:MuddyWater, actor:Static Kitten, actor:Mercury, Iran, source-country:IR, APT, Cyberespionage, Ministry of Intelligence and Security, detection:Syncro, malware-type:RAT, file-type:MSI, file-type:ZIP, OneHub, Windows
Babuk Ransomware Variant in Major New Attack
(published: December 7, 2022)
In November 2022, Morphisec researchers identified a new ransomware variant based on the Babuk source code that was leaked in 2021. One modification is lowering detection by abusing the legitimate Microsoft signed process: DLL side-loading into NTSD.exe — a Symbolic Debugger tool for Windows. The mechanism to remove the available Shadow Copies was changed to using Component Object Model objects that execute Windows Management Instrumentation queries. This sample was detected in a large, unnamed manufacturing company where attackers had network access and were gathering information for two weeks. They have compromised the company’s domain controller and used it to distribute ransomware to all devices within the organization through Group Policy Object. The delivered BAT script bypasses User Account Control and executes a malicious MSI file that contains files for DLL side-loading and an open-source-based reflective loader (OCS files).
Analyst Comment: The attackers strive to improve their evasion techniques, their malware on certain steps hides behind Microsoft-signed processes and exists primarily in device memory. It increases the need for the defense-in-depth approach and robust monitoring of your organization domain.
MITRE ATT&CK: [MITRE ATT&CK] Data Encrypted for Impact - T1486 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism - T1548 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Hijack Execution Flow - T1574 | |
Ransomware Malware Tool Threat Medical | APT 38 | ★★★ |
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2022-12-07 14:52:00 | Microsoft Alerts Cryptocurrency Industry of Targeted Cyber Attacks (lien direct) | Cryptocurrency investment companies are the target of a developing threat cluster that uses Telegram groups to seek out potential victims. Microsoft's Security Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) is tracking the activity under the name DEV-0139, and builds upon a recent report from Volexity that attributed the same set of attacks to North Korea's Lazarus Group. "DEV-0139 joined Telegram groups | Threat Medical | APT 38 | ★★★ |
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2022-12-06 17:09:00 | Anomali Cyber Watch: Infected Websites Show Different Headers Depending on Search Engine Fingerprinting, 10 Android Platform Certificates Abused in the Wild, Phishing Group Impersonated Major UAE Oil (lien direct) | The various threat intelligence stories in this iteration of the Anomali Cyber Watch discuss the following topics: APT, China, In-memory evasion, Infostealers, North Korea, Phishing, Ransomware, Search engine optimization, and Signed malware. The IOCs related to these stories are attached to Anomali Cyber Watch and can be used to check your logs for potential malicious activity.
Figure 1 - IOC Summary Charts. These charts summarize the IOCs attached to this magazine and provide a glimpse of the threats discussed.
Trending Cyber News and Threat Intelligence
Chinese Gambling Spam Targets World Cup Keywords
(published: December 2, 2022)
Since 2018, a large-scale website infection campaign was affecting up to over 100,000 sites at a given moment. Infected websites, mostly oriented at audiences in China, were modified with additional scripts. Compromised websites were made to redirect users to Chinese gambling sites. Title and Meta tags on the compromised websites were changed to display keywords that the attackers had chosen to abuse search engine optimization (SEO). At the same time, additional scripts were switching the page titles back to the original if the visitor fingerprinting did not show a Chinese search engine from a preset list (such as Baidu).
Analyst Comment: Website owners should keep their systems updated, use unique strong passwords and introduce MFA for all privileged or internet facing resources, and employ server-side scanning to detect unauthorized malicious content. Implement secure storage for website backups.
MITRE ATT&CK: [MITRE ATT&CK] Exploit Public-Facing Application - T1190 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Obfuscated Files or Information - T1027
Tags: SEO hack, HTML entities, Black hat SEO, Fraudulent redirects, Visitor fingerprinting, Gambling, Sports betting, World Cup, China, target-country:CN, JavaScript, Baidu, baiduspider, Sogou, 360spider, Yisou
Leaked Android Platform Certificates Create Risks for Users
(published: December 2, 2022)
On November 30, 2022, Google reported 10 different Android platform certificates that were seen actively abused in the wild to sign malware. Rapid7 researchers found that the reported signed samples are adware, so it is possible that these platform certificates may have been widely available. It is not shared how these platform certificates could have been leaked.
Analyst Comment: Malware signed with a platform certificate can enjoy privileged execution with system permissions, including permissions to access user data. Developers should minimize the number of applications requiring a platform certificate signature.
Tags: Android, Google, Platform certificates, Signed malware, malware-type:Adware
Blowing Cobalt Strike Out of the Water With Memory Analysis
(published: December 2, 2022)
The Cobalt Strike attack framework remains difficult to detect as it works mostly in memory and doesn’t touch the disk much after the initial loader stage. Palo Alto researchers analyzed three types of Cobalt Strike loaders: KoboldLoader which loads an SMB beacon, MagnetLoader loading an HTTPS beacon, and LithiumLoader loading a stager beacon. These beacon samples do not execute in normal sandbox environments and utilize in-me |
Spam Malware Tool Threat Medical | APT 38 | ★★★ |
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2022-12-05 16:00:00 | North Korean Hackers Spread AppleJeus Malware Disguised as Cryptocurrency Apps (lien direct) | The Lazarus Group threat actor has been observed leveraging fake cryptocurrency apps as a lure to deliver a previously undocumented version of the AppleJeus malware, according to new findings from Volexity. "This activity notably involves a campaign likely targeting cryptocurrency users and organizations with a variant of the AppleJeus malware by way of malicious Microsoft Office documents," | Malware Threat Medical | APT 38 | ★★★ |
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2022-12-01 20:41:19 | ₿Uyer ₿eware: fausses applications de crypto-monnaie servant de front pour les logiciels malveillants d'Applejeus ₿uyer ₿eware: Fake Cryptocurrency Applications Serving as Front for AppleJeus Malware (lien direct) |
> Au cours des derniers mois, la volexité a observé une nouvelle activité liée à un acteur de menace nord-coréen, IT suit largement le groupe Lazare.Cette activité implique notamment une campagne ciblant probablement les utilisateurs et les organisations de crypto-monnaie avec une variante du malware d'Applejeus par le biais de documents malveillants Microsoft Office.L'analyse de Volexity \\ de cette campagne a révélé un site Web en direct sur le thème de la crypto-monnaie avec le contenu volé à un autre site Web légitime.Une analyse technique supplémentaire du logiciel malveillant Applejeus déployé a révélé une nouvelle variation de chargement latérale DLL que la volexité n'a pas été documentée précédemment comme dans la nature.Ce blog décrit les nouvelles techniques utilisées par le groupe Lazare, analyse les récentes variantes de logiciels malveillants d'Applejeus, partage des indicateurs d'autres versions de ce malware, ainsi que des liens entre cette activité et les campagnes historiques.La fin de la publication comprend des possibilités de détection et d'atténuation pour les particuliers ou les organisations susceptibles d'être ciblées par [& # 8230;]
>Over the last few months, Volexity has observed new activity tied to a North Korean threat actor it tracks that is widely referred to as the Lazarus Group. This activity notably involves a campaign likely targeting cryptocurrency users and organizations with a variant of the AppleJeus malware by way of malicious Microsoft Office documents. Volexity\'s analysis of this campaign uncovered a live cryptocurrency-themed website with contents stolen from another legitimate website. Further technical analysis of the deployed AppleJeus malware uncovered a new variation of DLL side-loading that Volexity has not seen previously documented as in the wild. This blog outlines new techniques used by the Lazarus Group, analyzes recent AppleJeus malware variants, shares indicators from other versions of this malware, as well as outlines links between this activity and historic campaigns. The end of the post includes detection and mitigation opportunities for individuals or organizations likely to be targeted by […] |
Malware Threat | APT 38 | ★★★ |
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2022-11-22 23:47:00 | Anomali Cyber Watch: URI Fragmentation Used to Stealthily Defraud Holiday Shoppers, Lazarus and BillBug Stick to Their Custom Backdoors, Z-Team Turned Ransomware into Wiper, and More (lien direct) | The various threat intelligence stories in this iteration of the Anomali Cyber Watch discuss the following topics: APT, Cyberespionage, Phishing, Ransomware, Signed malware, and Wipers. The IOCs related to these stories are attached to Anomali Cyber Watch and can be used to check your logs for potential malicious activity.
Figure 1 - IOC Summary Charts. These charts summarize the IOCs attached to this magazine and provide a glimpse of the threats discussed.
Trending Cyber News and Threat Intelligence
DEV-0569 Finds New Ways to Deliver Royal Ransomware, Various Payloads
(published: November 17, 2022)
From August to October, 2022, Microsoft researchers detected new campaigns by a threat group dubbed DEV-0569. For delivery, the group alternated between delivering malicious links by abusing Google Ads for malvertising and by using contact forms on targeted organizations’ public websites. Fake installer files were hosted on typosquatted domains or legitimate repositories (GitHub, OneDrive). First stage was user-downloaded, signed MSI or VHD file (BatLoader malware), leading to second stage payloads such as BumbleBee, Gozi, Royal Ransomware, or Vidar Stealer.
Analyst Comment: DEV-0569 is a dangerous group for its abuse of legitimate services and legitimate certificates. Organizations should consider educating and limiting their users regarding software installation options. Links from alternative incoming messaging such as from contact forms should be treated as thorough as links from incoming email traffic.
MITRE ATT&CK: [MITRE ATT&CK] Phishing - T1566 | [MITRE ATT&CK] User Execution - T1204 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Ingress Tool Transfer - T1105 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Command and Scripting Interpreter - T1059 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Impair Defenses - T1562 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Data Encrypted for Impact - T1486
Tags: actor:DEV-0569, detection:Cobalt Strike, detection:Royal, malware-type:Ransomware, file-type:VHD, detection:NSudo, malware-type:Hacktool, detection:IcedID, Google Ads, Keitaro, Traffic distribution system, detection:Gozi, detection:BumbleBee, NirCmd, detection:BatLoader, malware-type:Loader, detection:Vidar, malware-type:Stealer, AnyDesk, GitHub, OneDrive, PowerShell, Phishing, SEO poisoning, TeamViewer, Adobe Flash Player, Zoom, Windows
Highly Sophisticated Phishing Scams Are Abusing Holiday Sentiment
(published: November 16, 2022)
From mid-September 2022, a new phishing campaign targets users in North America with holiday special pretenses. It impersonated a number of major brands including Costco, Delta Airlines, Dick's, and Sam's Club. Akamai researchers analyzed techniques that the underlying sophisticated phishing kit was using. For defense evasion and tracking, the attackers used URI fragmentation. They were placing target-specific tokens after the URL fragment identifier (a hash mark, aka HTML anchor). The value was used by a JavaScript code running on the victim’s browser to reconstruct the redirecting URL.
Analyst Comment: Evasion through URI fragmentation hides the token value from traff |
Ransomware Malware Tool Threat Guideline Medical | APT 38 | ★★★★ |
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2022-10-31 01:57:31 | A Case of Malware Infection by the Lazarus Attack Group Disabling Anti-Malware Programs With the BYOVD Technique (lien direct) | In the ASEC blog post uploaded on April 2022 (New Malware of Lazarus Threat Actor Group Exploiting INITECH Process, https://asec.ahnlab.com/en/33801/), the team discussed the fact that the Lazarus attack group had been exploiting the INITECH process to infect systems with malware. This article aims to cover the details of the Lazarus group using the watering hole technique to hack into systems before exploiting the vulnerability of the MagicLine4NX product from Dream Security in order to additionally hack into systems in... | Malware Hack Vulnerability Threat Medical | APT 38 | |
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2022-10-25 16:53:00 | Anomali Cyber Watch: Daixin Team Ransoms Healthcare Sector, Earth Berberoka Breaches Casinos for Data, Windows Affected by Bring-Your-Own-Vulnerable-Driver Attacks, and More (lien direct) | The various threat intelligence stories in this iteration of the Anomali Cyber Watch discuss the following topics: APT, China, DDoS, Infostealers, Iran, Ransomware, and Russia. The IOCs related to these stories are attached to Anomali Cyber Watch and can be used to check your logs for potential malicious activity.
Figure 1 - IOC Summary Charts. These charts summarize the IOCs attached to this magazine and provide a glimpse of the threats discussed.
Trending Cyber News and Threat Intelligence
Alert (AA22-294A) #StopRansomware: Daixin Team
(published: October 21, 2022)
Daixin Team is a double-extortion ransomware group that has been targeting US businesses, predominantly in the healthcare sector. Since June 2022, Daixin Team has been encrypting electronic health record services, diagnostics services, imaging services, and intranet services. The group has exfiltrated personal identifiable information and patient health information. Typical intrusion starts with initial access through virtual private network (VPN) servers gained by exploitation or valid credentials derived from prior phishing. They use SSH and RDP for lateral movement and target VMware ESXi systems with ransomware based on leaked Babuk Locker source code.
Analyst Comment: Network defenders should keep organization’s VPN servers up-to-date on security updates. Enable multifactor authentication (MFA) on your VPN server and other critical accounts (administrative, backup-related, and webmail). Restrict the use of RDP, SSH, Telnet, virtual desktop and similar services in your environment.
MITRE ATT&CK: [MITRE ATT&CK] Exploit Public-Facing Application - T1190 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Valid Accounts - T1078 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Account Manipulation - T1098 | [MITRE ATT&CK] OS Credential Dumping - T1003 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Remote Service Session Hijacking - T1563 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Use Alternate Authentication Material - T1550 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Exfiltration Over Web Service - T1567 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Data Encrypted for Impact - T1486
Tags: actor:Daixin Team, malware-type:Ransomware, PHI, SSH, RDP, Rclone, Ngrok, target-sector:Health Care NAICS 62, ESXi, VMware, Windows
Exbyte: BlackByte Ransomware Attackers Deploy New Exfiltration Tool
(published: October 21, 2022)
Symantec detected a new custom data exfiltration tool used in a number of BlackByte ransomware attacks. This infostealer, dubbed Exbyte, performs anti-sandbox checks and proceeds to exfiltrate selected file types to a hardcoded Mega account. BlackByte ransomware-as-a-service operations were first uncovered in February 2022. The group’s recent attacks start with exploiting public-facing vulnerabilities of ProxyShell and ProxyLogon families. BlackByte removes Kernel Notify Routines to bypass Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) products. The group uses AdFind, AnyDesk, Exbyte, NetScan, and PowerView tools and deploys BlackByte 2.0 ransomware payload.
Analyst Comment: It is crucial that your company ensures that servers are |
Ransomware Malware Tool Vulnerability Threat Medical | APT 38 | |
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2022-10-18 08:41:18 | The benefits of taking an intent-based approach to detecting Business Email Compromise (lien direct) |  By Abhishek Singh.BEC is a multi-stage attack. Adversaries first identify targets, then they establish rapport with the victim before exploiting them for whatever their end goal is. In the case of BEC, a threat actor can impersonate any employee in the organization to trick targets. A policy that checks for authorized email addresses of the sender can prevent BEC attacks. However, scaling the approach for every employee in a large organization is a challenge. Building an executive profile based on email analysis using a machine learning model and scanning emails against that profile will detect BEC. Data collection for building and training machine learning algorithms can take time, though, opening a window of opportunity for threat actors to exploit. Detection of exploitation techniques such as lookalike domains and any differences in the email addresses in the "From" and "Reply-to" fields can also detect BEC messages. However, the final verdict cannot account for the threat actor's intent. The intent-based approach detects BEC and then classifies it into the type of scam. It catches BEC messages, irrespective of whether a threat actor is impersonating a C-level executive or any employee in an organization. Classification based on the type of scam can help identify which segment of an organization was targeted and which employees were being impersonated by the threat actor. The additional information will further assist in better designing preventive features to stop BEC. Business email compromise (BEC) is one of the most financially damaging online crimes. As per the internet crime 221 report, the total loss in 2021 due to BEC is around 2.4 billion dollars. Since 2013, BEC has resulted in a 43 billion dollars loss. The report defines BEC as a scam targeting businesses (not individuals) working with foreign suppliers and companies regularly performing wire transfer payments. Fraudsters carry out these sophisticated scams to conduct the unauthorized transfer of funds. This introduces the challenge of how to detect and block these campaigns as they continue to compromise organizations successfully. There are a variety of approaches to identifying BEC email messages, such as using policy to allow emails from authorized email addresses, detecting exploitation techniques used by threat actors, building profiles by analysis of emails, and validating against the profile to detect BEC. These approaches have a variety of limitations or shortcomings. Cisco Talos is taking a different approach and using an intent-based model to identify and block BEC messages. Before we get too deep into the intent-based model, take a deeper look at the commonly used approaches to block BEC from the simplistic through machine learning (ML) approaches. Policy-based detection The first place to start is with policy-based detection as it is one of the most common and simplistic approaches to blocking BEC campaigns. Let's start by looking at an example of a BEC email. |
Threat Medical Cloud | Yahoo Uber APT 38 APT 37 APT 29 APT 19 APT 15 APT 10 | |
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2022-10-04 18:08:00 | Anomali Cyber Watch: Canceling Subscription Installs Royal Ransomware, Lazarus Covinces to SSH to Its Servers, Polyglot File Executed Itself as a Different File Type, and More (lien direct) | The various threat intelligence stories in this iteration of the Anomali Cyber Watch discuss the following topics: DLL side-loading, Influence operations, Infostealers, North Korea, Ransomware, Russia, and Social engineering. The IOCs related to these stories are attached to Anomali Cyber Watch and can be used to check your logs for potential malicious activity.
Figure 1 - IOC Summary Charts. These charts summarize the IOCs attached to this magazine and provide a glimpse of the threats discussed.
Trending Cyber News and Threat Intelligence
New Royal Ransomware Emerges in Multi-Million Dollar Attacks
(published: September 29, 2022)
AdvIntel and BleepingComputer researchers describe the Royal ransomware group. Several experienced ransomware actors formed this group in January 2022. It started with third-party encryptors such as BlackCat, switched to using its own custom Zeon ransomware, and, since the middle of September 2022, the Royal ransomware. Royal group utilizes targeted callback phishing attacks. Its phishing emails impersonating food delivery and software providers contained phone numbers to cancel the alleged subscription (after the alleged end of a free trial). If an employee calls the number, Royal uses social engineering to convince the victim to install a remote access tool, which is used to gain initial access to the corporate network.
Analyst Comment: Use services such as Anomali's Premium Digital Risk Protection to detect the abuse of your brands in typosquatting and phishing attacks. Organizations should include callback phishing attacks awareness into their anti-phishing training.
MITRE ATT&CK: [MITRE ATT&CK] Data Encrypted for Impact - T1486 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Phishing - T1566
Tags: actor:Royal, detection:Zeon, detection:Royal, malware-type:Ransomware, detection:BlackCat, detection:Cobalt Strike, Callback phishing attacks, Spearphishing, Social Engineering
ZINC Weaponizing Open-Source Software
(published: September 29, 2022)
Microsoft researchers described recent developments in Lazarus Group (ZINC) campaigns that start from social engineering conversations on LinkedIn. Since June 2022, Lazarus was able to trojanize several open-source tools (KiTTY, muPDF/Subliminal Recording software installer, PuTTY, TightVNC, and Sumatra PDF Reader). When a target extracts the trojanized tool from the ISO file and installs it, Lazarus is able to deliver their custom malware such as EventHorizon and ZetaNile. In many cases, the final payload was not delivered unless the target manually established an SSH connection to an attacker-controlled IP address provided in the attached ReadMe.txt file.
Analyst Comment: All known indicators connected to this recent Lazarus Group campaign are available in the Anomali platform and customers are advised to block these on their infrastructure. Researchers should monitor for the additional User Execution step required for payload delivery. Defense contractors should be aware of advanced social engineering efforts abusing LinkedIn and other means of establishing trusted communication.
MITRE ATT&CK: [MITRE ATT&CK] User Execution - T1204 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Scheduled Task - T1053 | |
Ransomware Malware Tool Threat Medical | APT 38 | |
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2022-10-03 16:26:00 | Hackers Exploiting Dell Driver Vulnerability to Deploy Rootkit on Targeted Computers (lien direct) | The North Korea-backed Lazarus Group has been observed deploying a Windows rootkit by taking advantage of an exploit in a Dell firmware driver, highlighting new tactics adopted by the state-sponsored adversary. The Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver (BYOVD) attack, which took place in the autumn of 2021, is another variant of the threat actor's espionage-oriented activity called Operation In(ter) | Vulnerability Threat Medical | APT 38 | |
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2022-09-30 15:32:00 | North Korean Hackers Weaponizing Open-Source Software in Latest Cyber Attacks (lien direct) | A "highly operational, destructive, and sophisticated nation-state activity group" with ties to North Korea has been weaponizing open source software in their social engineering campaigns aimed at companies around the world since June 2022. Microsoft's threat intelligence teams, alongside LinkedIn Threat Prevention and Defense, attributed the intrusions with high confidence to Zinc, which is | Threat Medical | APT 38 | |
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2022-09-09 17:06:00 | U.S. Seizes Cryptocurrency Worth $30 Million Stolen by North Korean Hackers (lien direct) | More than $30 million worth of cryptocurrency plundered by the North Korea-linked Lazarus Group from online video game Axie Infinity has been recovered, marking the first time digital assets stolen by the threat actor have been seized. "The seizures represent approximately 10% of the total funds stolen from Axie Infinity (accounting for price differences between time stolen and seized), and | Threat Medical | APT 38 | |
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2022-09-08 14:14:00 | North Korean state-sponsored hacker group Lazarus adds new RAT to its malware toolset (lien direct) | Security researchers have discovered a new remote access Trojan (RAT) being used in attack campaigns this year by Lazarus, a threat actor tied to the North Korean government. The new RAT has been used alongside other malware implants attributed to Lazarus and it's mainly used in the first stages of an attack.Dubbed MagicRAT, the new Lazarus malware program was developed using Qt, a framework commonly used to develop graphical user interfaces for cross-platform applications. Since the Trojan doesn't have a GUI, researchers from Cisco Talos believe the reason for using Qt was to make detection harder.To read this article in full, please click here | Malware Threat | APT 38 | |
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2022-09-08 08:39:42 | Lazarus and the tale of three RATs (lien direct) |  By Jung soo An, Asheer Malhotra and Vitor Ventura.Cisco Talos has been tracking a new campaign operated by the Lazarus APT group, attributed to North Korea by the United States government. This campaign involved the exploitation of vulnerabilities in VMWare Horizon to gain an initial foothold into targeted organizations.Targeted organizations include energy providers from around the world, including those headquartered in the United States, Canada and Japan. The campaign is meant to infiltrate organizations around the world for establishing long term access and subsequently exfiltrating data of interest to the adversary's nation-state.Talos has discovered the use of two known families of malware in these intrusions - VSingle and YamaBot.Talos has also discovered the use of a recently disclosed implant we're calling "MagicRAT" in this campaign. IntroductionCisco Talos observed North Korean state-sponsored APT Lazarus Group conducting malicious activity between February and July 2022. Lazarus has been previously attributed to the North Korean government by the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). The entry vectors involve the successful exploitation of vulnerabilities in VMWare products to establish initial footholds into enterprise networks, followed by the deployment of the group's custom malware implants, VSingle and YamaBot. In addition to these known malware families, we have also discovered the use of a previously unknown malware implant we're calling "MagicRAT."This campaign was previously partially disclosed by other security firms, but our findings reveal more details about the adversary's modus operandi. We have also observed an overlap of command and control (C2) and payload-hosting infrastructure between our findings and the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency's (CISA) June advisory that detailed continued attempts from threat actors to compromise vulnerable VMWare Horizon servers.In this research, we illustrate Lazarus Group's post-exploitation tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) to establish a foothold, perform initial reconnaissance, deploy bespoke malware and move laterally across infected enterprises. We also provide details about the activities performed by the attackers when the VSingle backdoor is instrumented on the infected endpoints.In this campaign, Lazarus was primarily targeting energy companies in Canada, the U.S. and Japan. The main goal of these attacks was likely to establish long-term access into victim networks to conduct espionage operations in support of North Korean govern |
Malware Tool Vulnerability Threat Medical | APT 38 | |
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2022-09-07 08:01:43 | MagicRAT: Lazarus\' latest gateway into victim networks (lien direct) |  By Jung soo An, Asheer Malhotra and Vitor Ventura.Cisco Talos has discovered a new remote access trojan (RAT) we're calling "MagicRAT," developed and operated by the Lazarus APT group, which the U.S. government believes is a North Korean state-sponsored actor.Lazarus deployed MagicRAT after the successful exploitation of vulnerabilities in VMWare Horizon platforms.We've also found links between MagicRAT and another RAT known as "TigerRAT," disclosed and attributed to Lazarus by the Korean Internet & Security Agency (KISA) recently.TigerRAT has evolved over the past year to include new functionalities that we illustrate in this blog. Executive SummaryCisco Talos has discovered a new remote access trojan (RAT), which we are calling "MagicRAT," that we are attributing with moderate to high confidence to the Lazarus threat actor, a state-sponsored APT attributed to North Korea by the U.S. Cyber Security & Infrastructure Agency (CISA). This new RAT was found on victims that had been initially compromised through the exploitation of publicly exposed VMware Horizon platforms. While being a relatively simple RAT capability-wise, it was built with recourse to the Qt Framework, with the sole intent of making human analysis harder, and automated detection through machine learning and heuristics less likely.We have also found evidence to suggest that once MagicRAT is deployed on infected systems, it launches additional payloads such as custom-built port scanners. Additionally, we've found that MagicRAT's C2 infrastructure was also used to host newer variants of known Lazarus implants such as TigerRAT. The discovery of MagicRAT in the wild is an indication of Lazarus' motivations to rapidly build new, bespoke malware to use along with their previously known malware such as TigerRAT to target organizations worldwide.Actor profile |
Malware Threat Medical | APT 38 | ★★★ |
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2022-08-18 13:24:31 | North Korean Threat Group Lazarus Up To Old Tricks With New Malware Attack Targeting Mac OS Systems (lien direct) | The news broke that ESET researchers have identified a new cyberespionage campaign by North Korean APT group Lazarus, targeting Apple and Intel chip systems via a fake engineering job post supposedly from Coinbase. Identified in a series of tweets, the job description claims to be seeking an engineering manager for product security, before dropping a […] | Malware Threat | APT 38 | |
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2022-08-18 12:54:17 | North Korean Hackers Use Fake Job Offers to Deliver New macOS Malware (lien direct) | Researchers with cybersecurity company ESET have observed a new macOS malware sample developed by the infamous North Korean advanced persistent threat (APT) actor Lazarus. | Malware Threat | APT 38 | |
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2022-08-16 15:06:00 | Anomali Cyber Watch: Ransomware Module Added to SOVA Android Trojan, Bitter APT Targets Mobile Phones with Dracarys, China-Sponsored TA428 Deploys Six Backdoors at Once, and More (lien direct) | The various threat intelligence stories in this iteration of the Anomali Cyber Watch discuss the following topics: Android, APT, China, Cyberespionage, India, Malspam, Ransomware, Spearphishing, and Vulnerabilities. The IOCs related to these stories are attached to Anomali Cyber Watch and can be used to check your logs for potential malicious activity.
Figure 1 - IOC Summary Charts. These charts summarize the IOCs attached to this magazine and provide a glimpse of the threats discussed.
Trending Cyber News and Threat Intelligence
APT-C-35: New Windows Framework Revealed
(published: August 11, 2022)
The DoNot Team (APT-C-35) are India-sponsored actors active since at least 2016. Morphisec Labs researchers discovered a new Windows framework used by the group in its campaign targeting Pakistani government and defense departments. The attack starts with a spearphishing RTF attachment. If opened in a Microsoft Office application, it downloads a malicious remote template. After the victim enables editing (macroses) a multi-stage framework deployment starts. It includes two shellcode stages followed by main DLL that, based on victim fingerprinting, downloads a custom set of additional information-stealing modules.
Analyst Comment: The described DoNot Team framework is pretty unique in its customisation, fingerprinting, and module implementation. At the same time, the general theme of spearphishing attachment that asks the targeted user to enable editing is not new and can be mitigated by anti-phishing training and Microsoft Office settings hardening.
MITRE ATT&CK: [MITRE ATT&CK] Phishing - T1566 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Virtualization/Sandbox Evasion - T1497 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Template Injection - T1221 | [MITRE ATT&CK] User Execution - T1204 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Ingress Tool Transfer - T1105 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Obfuscated Files or Information - T1027 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Deobfuscate/Decode Files or Information - T1140 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Scheduled Task - T1053 | [MITRE ATT&CK] System Information Discovery - T1082 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Input Capture - T1056 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Screen Capture - T1113 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Data from Local System - T1005 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Data from Removable Media - T1025 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Data from Network Shared Drive - T1039 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Credentials from Password Stores - T1555 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Data Staged - T1074 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Command and Scripting Interpreter - T1059
Tags: APT-C-35, DoNot Team, APT, India, source-country:IN, Government, Military, Pakistan, target-country:PK, Windows |
Ransomware Malware Tool Vulnerability Threat Guideline Medical | APT 38 | |
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2022-08-06 10:46:21 | CISO workshop slides (lien direct) | A glossy, nicely-constructed and detailed PowerPoint slide deck by Microsoft Security caught my beady this morning. The title 'CISO Workshop: Security Program and Strategy' with 'Your Name Here' suggests it might be a template for use in a workshop/course bringing CISOs up to speed on the governance, strategic and architectural aspects of information security, but in fact given the amount of technical detail, it appears to be aimed at informing IT/technology managers about IT or cybersecurity, specifically. Maybe it is intended for newly-appointed CISOs or more junior managers who aspire to be CISOs, helping them clamber up the pyramid (slide 87 of 142): | Malware Vulnerability Threat Patching Guideline Medical Cloud | Uber APT 38 APT 37 APT 28 APT 19 APT 15 APT 10 APT 34 Guam | |
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2022-07-07 08:14:35 | North Korean State-Sponsored Threat Actors Deploying "MAUI" Ransomware (lien direct) | Today, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) and the Department of Treasury released a joint Cybersecurity Advisory on Maui Ransomware, which is attributed to state sponsored activity by the government of North Korea. The Joint CSA provides detailed insight on the various TTPs used by the threat actors behind Maui, which has targeted the Health and Public Health Sector.How Serious of an Issue is This?High. As ransomware activity causes downtime, theft of confidential and personally identifiable information (PII) and other significant impact to operations, it is important to ensure that various security measures are in place, like being up to date with patching vulnerable machines/infrastructure. Also, ensuring employees are trained and up to date on various social engineering attempts and tactics used by threat actors will be a first line of defense against such attacks.What is Maui Ransomware?Maui ransomware is unique in a way that it requires manual execution to start the encryption routine. Maui also features a CLI (command line interface) that is used by the threat actor to target specific files to encrypt. Maui also has the ability to identify previously encrypted files due to customer headers containing the original path of the file.Who are HIDDEN COBRA/LAZARUS/APT38/BeagleBoyz?HIDDEN COBRA also known as Lazarus/APT38/BeagleBoyz has been atributed to the government of North Korea. Also, they have been linked to multiple high-profile, financially-motivated attacks in various parts of the world - some of which have caused massive infrastructure disruptions. Notable attacks include the 2014 attack on a major entertainment company and a 2016 Bangladeshi financial institution heist that almost netted nearly $1 Billion (USD) for the attackers. Had it not been for a misspelling in an instruction that caused a bank to flag and block thirty transactions, HIDDEN COBRA would have pulled off a heist unlike any other. Although HIDDEN COBRA failed in their attempt, they were still able to net around 81 million dollars in total.The most recent notable attack attributed to HIDDEN COBRA was the Wannacry Ransomware attack, which resulted in massive disruption and damage worldwide to numerous organizations, especially those in manufacturing. Various estimates of the impact were in the hundreds of millions of dollars, with some estimates claiming billions. Other verticals which this group has targeted include critical infrastructures, entertainment, finance, healthcare, and telecommunication sectors across multiple countries.Who are the BeagleBoyz?The BeagleBoyz group is a newly identified group that is a subset of activity by the threat actors known as HIDDEN COBRA/LAZARUS/APT 38 and has been observed committing financial crimes, specifically cryptocurrency related thefts. Further information about the BeagleBoyz can be found here.What Operating Systems are Affected?Windows based operating systems are affected.What is the Status of Coverage?Fortinet customers running the latest definitions are protected against Maui with the following (AV) signatures:W32/Ransom_Win32_MAUICRYPT.YACC5W32/Agent.C5C2!trW32/PossibleThreatAnything Else to Note?Victims of ransomware are cautioned against paying ransoms by such organizations as CISA, NCSC, the FBI, and HHS. Payment does not guarantee files will be recovered. It may also embolden adversaries to target additional organizations, encourage other criminal actors to engage in the distribution of ransomware, and/or fund illicit activities which could potentially be illegal according to a U.S. Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) advisory. | Ransomware Threat Patching Medical | Wannacry Wannacry APT 38 | |
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2022-06-30 17:58:47 | Experts blame North Korea-linked Lazarus APT for the Harmony hack (lien direct) | >North Korea-linked Lazarus APT group is suspected to be behind the recent hack of the Harmony Horizon Bridge. Recently, threat actors have stolen $100 million in cryptocurrency from the Blockchain company Harmony. The company reported the incident to the authorities, the FBI is investigating the cyber heist with the help of several cybersecurity firms. Harmony's […] | Hack Threat | APT 38 | |
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2022-05-27 08:00:43 | IT threat evolution Q1 2022 (lien direct) | Kaspersky IT threat review in Q1 2022: activity of APTs such as MoonBounce, BlueNororff, Lazarus and Roaming Mantis, attacks against Ukraine, phishing kits, Okta hack and more. | Hack Threat | APT 38 | ★★★ |
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2022-05-22 15:48:25 | North Korea-linked Lazarus APT uses Log4J to target VMware servers (lien direct) | >North Korea-linked Lazarus APT is exploiting the Log4J remote code execution (RCE) in attacks aimed at VMware Horizon servers. North Korea-linked group Lazarus is exploiting the Log4J RCE vulnerability (CVE-2021-44228) to compromise VMware Horizon servers. Multiple threat actors are exploiting this flaw since January, in January VMware urged customers to patch critical Log4j security vulnerabilities impacting Internet-exposed […] | Vulnerability Threat | APT 38 | |
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2022-05-17 08:44:00 | BrandPost: DDos Extortion Takes VoIP Providers Offline (lien direct) | Threat actors are continually innovating and rethinking their attack patterns – as well as who they target with attacks. This is clearly seen in their targeting of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers, as highlighted in NETSCOUT's 2H 2021 Threat Report. Why target VoIP providers? The short answer is financial gain. Attackers know bringing down VoIP providers that service a large number of customers causes a lot of pain and therefore is ripe for extortion.Cyber attackers launched three worldwide distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) extortion attack campaigns in 2021 – a startling new achievement carried out by a REvil copycat, Lazarus Bear Armada (LBA), and Fancy Lazarus. But threat actors did more than simply increase such global attacks.To read this article in full, please click here | Threat | APT 38 | |
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2022-04-26 16:24:00 | Anomali Cyber Watch: Gamaredon Delivers Four Pterodos At Once, Known-Plaintext Attack on Yanlouwang Encryption, North-Korea Targets Blockchain Industry, and More (lien direct) | The various threat intelligence stories in this iteration of the Anomali Cyber Watch discuss the following topics: APT, CatalanGate, Cloud, Cryptocurrency, Information stealers, Ransomware, and Vulnerabilities. The IOCs related to these stories are attached to Anomali Cyber Watch and can be used to check your logs for potential malicious activity.
Figure 1 - IOC Summary Charts. These charts summarize the IOCs attached to this magazine and provide a glimpse of the threats discussed.
Trending Cyber News and Threat Intelligence
SocGholish and Zloader – From Fake Updates and Installers to Owning Your Systems
(published: April 25, 2022)
Cybereason researchers have compared trending attacks involving SocGholish and Zloader malware. Both infection chains begin with social engineering and malicious downloads masquerading as legitimate software, and both lead to data theft and possible ransomware installation. SocGholish attacks rely on drive-by downloads followed by user execution of purported browser installer or browser update. The SocGholish JavaScript payload is obfuscated using random variable names and string manipulation. The attacker domain names are written in reverse order with the individual string characters being put at the odd index positions. Zloader infection starts by masquerading as a popular application such as TeamViewer. Zloader acts as information stealer, backdoor, and downloader. Active since 2016, Zloader actively evolves and has acquired detection evasion capabilities, such as excluding its processes from Windows Defender and using living-off-the-land (LotL) executables.
Analyst Comment: All applications should be carefully researched prior to installing on a personal or work machine. Applications that request additional permissions upon installation should be carefully vetted prior to allowing permissions. Additionally, all applications, especially free versions, should only be downloaded from trusted vendors.
MITRE ATT&CK: [MITRE ATT&CK] Drive-by Compromise - T1189 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Phishing - T1566 | [MITRE ATT&CK] User Execution - T1204 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Command and Scripting Interpreter - T1059 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Windows Management Instrumentation - T1047 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Masquerading - T1036 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Process Injection - T1055 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Signed Binary Proxy Execution - T1218 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Credentials from Password Stores - T1555 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Steal or Forge Kerberos Tickets - T1558 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Steal Web Session Cookie - T1539 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Unsecured Credentials - T1552 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Remote System Discovery - T1018 | [MITRE ATT&CK] System Owner/User Discovery - T1033 | |
Ransomware Malware Tool Vulnerability Threat Guideline Medical | Uber APT 38 APT 28 | |
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2022-04-20 15:30:00 | US Government: North Korean Threat Actors Are Targeting Cryptocurrency Organizations (lien direct) | Joint advisory reveals Lazarus APT is targeting cryptocurrency organizations using trojanized applications | Threat | APT 38 APT 28 | |
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2022-04-19 15:00:00 | Anomali Cyber Watch: RaidForums Seized, Sandworm Attacks Ukrainian Power Stations, North Korea Steals Chemical Secrets, and More (lien direct) | The various threat intelligence stories in this iteration of the Anomali Cyber Watch discuss the following topics: APT, China, Cyberespionage, North Korea, Spearphishing, Russia, Ukraine, and Vulnerabilities. The IOCs related to these stories are attached to Anomali Cyber Watch and can be used to check your logs for potential malicious activity.
Figure 1 - IOC Summary Charts. These charts summarize the IOCs attached to this magazine and provide a glimpse of the threats discussed.
Trending Cyber News and Threat Intelligence
Lazarus Targets Chemical Sector
(published: April 14, 2022)
In January 2022, Symantec researchers discovered a new wave of Operation Dream Job. This operation, attributed to the North Korea-sponsored group Lazarus, utilizes fake job offers via professional social media and email communications. With the new wave of attacks, Operation Dream Job switched from targeting the defense, government, and engineering sectors to targeting South Korean organizations operating within the chemical sector. A targeted user executes an HTM file sent via a link. The HTM file is copied to a DLL file to be injected into the legitimate system management software. It downloads and executes the final backdoor: a trojanized version of the Tukaani project LZMA Utils library (XZ Utils) with a malicious export added (AppMgmt). After the initial access, the attackers gain persistence via scheduled tasks, move laterally, and collect credentials and sensitive information.
Analyst Comment: Organizations should train their users to recognize social engineering attacks including those posing as “dream job” proposals. Organizations facing cyberespionage threats should implement a defense-in-depth approach: layering of security mechanisms, redundancy, fail-safe defense processes.
MITRE ATT&CK: [MITRE ATT&CK] Scheduled Task - T1053 | [MITRE ATT&CK] User Execution - T1204 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Windows Management Instrumentation - T1047 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Process Injection - T1055 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Valid Accounts - T1078 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Signed Binary Proxy Execution - T1218 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Credentials from Password Stores - T1555
Tags: Lazarus, Operation Dream Job, North Korea, source-country:KP, South Korea, target-country:KR, APT, HTM, CPL, Chemical sector, Espionage, Supply chain, IT sector
Old Gremlins, New Methods
(published: April 14, 2022)
Group-IB researchers have released their analysis of threat actor OldGremlin’s new March 2022 campaign. OldGremlin favored phishing as an initial infection vector, crafting intricate phishing emails that target Russian industries. The threat actors utilized the current war between Russia and Ukraine to add a sense of legitimacy to their emails, with claims that users needed to click a link to register for a new credit card, as current ones would be rendered useless by incoming sanctions. The link leads users to a malicious Microsoft Office document stored within Dropbox. When macros are enabled, the threat actor’s new, custom backdoor, TinyFluff, a new version of their old TinyNode |
Ransomware Spam Malware Vulnerability Threat Guideline Medical | APT 38 APT 28 | |
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2022-04-19 10:41:45 | (Déjà vu) Blockchain companies warned of North Korean hackers (lien direct) | The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Treasury Department have all warned of new, ongoing attacks targeting blockchain companies, carried out by the Lazarus Group. The activity cluster has been dubbed TraderTraitor, involving the North Korean state-sponsored advanced persistent threat (APT) actor striking entities operating in the […] | Threat Medical | APT 38 APT 28 | |
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2022-04-19 00:02:44 | FBI, U.S. Treasury and CISA Warn of North Korean Hackers Targeting Blockchain Companies (lien direct) | The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Treasury Department, warned of a new set of ongoing cyber attacks carried out by the Lazarus Group targeting blockchain companies. Calling the activity cluster TraderTraitor, the infiltrations involve the North Korean state-sponsored advanced persistent threat (APT) | Threat Medical | APT 38 APT 28 | |
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2022-04-16 01:31:45 | Lazarus Group Behind $540 Million Axie Infinity Crypto Hack and Attacks on Chemical Sector (lien direct) | The U.S. Treasury Department has implicated the North Korea-backed Lazarus Group (aka Hidden Cobra) in the theft of $540 million from video game Axie Infinity's Ronin Network last month. On Thursday, the Treasury tied the Ethereum wallet address that received the stolen funds to the threat actor and sanctioned the funds by adding the address to the Office of Foreign Assets Control's (OFAC) | Hack Threat Medical | APT 38 APT 28 | |
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2022-03-23 09:00:00 | Pas si Lazarus: cartographie des groupes de cyber-menaces de la RPDC pour les organisations gouvernementales Not So Lazarus: Mapping DPRK Cyber Threat Groups to Government Organizations (lien direct) |
Mandiant estime que la cyber-capacité de la Corée du Nord soutient les priorités de la sécurité politique et nationale de longue date et immédiate, ainsi que des objectifs financiers.Nous évaluons la plupart des cyber-opérations de la Corée du Nord, y compris l'espionnage, les opérations destructrices et les délits financiers, sont principalement menés par des éléments du Bureau général de reconnaissance.Pendant ce temps, les missions du ministère de la Sécurité des États et du Front United semblent jouer un rôle limité dans le programme de cyber \\ de la Corée du Nord. Les rapports open-source utilisent souvent le titre Lezarus Group comme terme parapluie se référant à
Mandiant believes that North Korea\'s cyber capability supports both long-standing and immediate political and national security priorities, as well as financial goals. We assess most of North Korea\'s cyber operations, including espionage, destructive operations, and financial crimes, are primarily conducted by elements within the Reconnaissance General Bureau. Meanwhile, the Ministry of State Security and United Front Department\'s missions appear to play limited roles in North Korea\'s cyber program. Open-source reporting often uses the Lazarus Group title as an umbrella term referring to |
Threat | APT 38 | ★★★★ |
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2022-02-09 10:57:38 | Cryptocurrency organisations hit with fake job offers (lien direct) | North Korean threat actors, known as the Lazarus group have been posting fake job listings to target the cryptocurrency vertical in the US, UK, Germany, Singapore and more. Lazarus hackers, also known as HIDDEN COBRA by the United States Intelligence Community and Zinc by Microsoft, have targeted cryptocurrency organisations in the past. The North Koreans are […] | Threat Medical | APT 38 APT 28 | ★★ |
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2022-01-31 15:41:44 | North Korean Hackers Abuse Windows Update Client in Attacks on Defense Industry (lien direct) | The North Korean threat group Lazarus was observed abusing the Windows Update client for the execution of malicious code during a campaign this month, Malwarebytes reports. | Threat | APT 38 APT 28 | |
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2022-01-19 22:45:00 | Anomali Cyber Watch: Russia-Sponsored Cyber Threats, China-Based Earth Lusca Active in Cyberespionage and Cybertheft, BlueNoroff Hunts Cryptocurrency-Related Businesses, and More (lien direct) | The various threat intelligence stories in this iteration of the Anomali Cyber Watch discuss the following topics: APT, China, HTTP Stack, Malspam, North Korea, Phishing, Russia and Vulnerabilities. The IOCs related to these stories are attached to Anomali Cyber Watch and can be used to check your logs for potential malicious activity.
Figure 1 - IOC Summary Charts. These charts summarize the IOCs attached to this magazine and provide a glimpse of the threats discussed.
Trending Cyber News and Threat Intelligence
Earth Lusca Employs Sophisticated Infrastructure, Varied Tools and Techniques
(published: January 17, 2022)
The Earth Lusca threat group is part of the Winnti cluster. It is one of different Chinese groups that share aspects of their tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) including the use of Winnti malware. Earth Lusca were active throughout 2021 committing both cyberespionage operations against government-connected organizations and financially-motivated intrusions targeting gambling and cryptocurrency-related sectors. For intrusion, the group tries different ways in including: spearphishing, watering hole attacks, and exploiting publicly facing servers. Cobalt Strike is one of the group’s preferred post-exploitation tools. It is followed by the use of the BioPass RAT, the Doraemon backdoor, the FunnySwitch backdoor, ShadowPad, and Winnti. The group employs two separate infrastructure clusters, first one is rented Vultr VPS servers used for command-and-control (C2), second one is compromised web servers used to scan for vulnerabilities, tunnel traffic, and Cobalt Strike C2.
Analyst Comment: Earth Lusca often relies on tried-and-true techniques that can be stopped by security best practices, such as avoiding clicking on suspicious email/website links and or reacting on random banners urging to update important public-facing applications. Don’t be tricked to download Adobe Flash update, it was discontinued at the end of December 2020. Administrators should keep their important public-facing applications (such as Microsoft Exchange and Oracle GlassFish Server) updated.
MITRE ATT&CK: [MITRE ATT&CK] Drive-by Compromise - T1189 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Exploit Public-Facing Application - T1190 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Phishing - T1566 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Command and Scripting Interpreter - T1059 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Scheduled Task - T1053 | [MITRE ATT&CK] System Services - T1569 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Windows Management Instrumentation - T1047 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Account Manipulation - T1098 | [MITRE ATT&CK] BITS Jobs - T1197 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Create Account - T1136 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Create or Modify System Process - T1543 | [MITRE ATT&CK] External Remote Services - T1133 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Hijack Execution Flow |
Ransomware Malware Tool Vulnerability Threat Patching Guideline | APT 41 APT 38 APT 29 APT 28 APT 28 | |
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2022-01-18 16:59:26 | North Korean Cryptocurrency Theft Relies on Social Engineering (lien direct) |
A North Korean threat actor being called “BlueNoroff,” a subunit of Pyongyang's Lazarus Group, has been targeting cryptocurrency startups with financially motivated attacks, researchers at Kaspersky have found. The campaign, “SnatchCrypto,” is using malicious documents to gain access to internal communications, then using social engineering to manipulate employees. |
Threat Medical | APT 38 APT 28 | |
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2022-01-13 14:02:59 | Lazarus Group, Cobalt Gang and FIN7 the Worst Threat Actors Targeting the Financial Services Sector (lien direct) | A new industry report by Blueliv, an Outpost24 company, has deep dived into the evolving threat landscape that is surrounding the financial services sector. Using advanced threat intelligence gathered by Blueliv's Threat Compass; the 'Follow the Money' report reveals the main cyber threats and the culprits behind these malicious attacks to forewarn these vital institutions. Threat intelligence gathered by Blueliv from the dark web and deep web showed that the main cyberthreats targeting the industry included: Phishing, […] | Threat | APT 38 | |
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2021-12-21 16:57:00 | Anomali Cyber Watch: \'PseudoManuscrypt\' Mass Spyware Campaign Targets 35K Systems, APT31 Intrusion Set Campaign: Description, Countermeasures and Code, State-sponsored hackers abuse Slack API to steal (lien direct) | The various threat intelligence stories in this iteration of the Anomali Cyber Watch discuss the following topics: APT31, Magecart, Hancitor, Pakdoor, Lazarus, and Vulnerabilities CVE-2021-21551.. The IOCs related to these stories are attached to Anomali Cyber Watch and can be used to check your logs for potential malicious activity.
Figure 1 - IOC Summary Charts. These charts summarize the IOCs attached to this magazine and provide a glimpse of the threats discussed.
Trending Cyber News and Threat Intelligence
NSW Government Casual Recruiter Suffers Ransomware Hit
(published: December 17, 2021)
Finite Recruitment suffered a ransomware attack during the month of October 2021, resulting in the exfiltration of some data. Their incident responders (IR) identified the ransomware as Conti, a fast encrypting ransomware commonly attributed to the cybercriminal group Wizard Spider. The exfiltrated data was published on the dark web, however the firm remains fully operational, and affected customers are being informed.
Analyst Comment: Always check to see if there is a decryptor available for the ransomware before considering payment. Enforce a strong backup policy to ensure that data is recoverable in the event of encryption or loss.
MITRE ATT&CK: [MITRE ATT&CK] Scheduled Transfer - T1029
Tags: Conti, Wizard Spider, Ransomware, Banking and Finance
Phorpiex botnet is back with a new Twizt: Hijacking Hundreds of crypto transactions
(published: December 16, 2021)
Check Point Research has uncovered a new variant of the Phorpiex botnet named Twizt. Historically, Phorpiex utilized sextortion, ransomware delivery, and cryptocurrency clipping. Twizt however, appears to be primarily focused on stealing cryptocurrency and have stolen half a million dollars since November 2020 in the form of Bitcoin, Ether and ERC20 tokens.The botnet features departure from it’s traditional command and control (C2) infrastructure, opting for peer-to-peer (P2P) communications between infected hosts, eliminating the need for C2 communication as each host can fulfill that role.
Analyst Comment: Bots within a P2P network need to communicate regularly with other bots to receive and share commands. If the infected bots are on a private network, private IP addresses will be used. Therefore, careful monitoring of network traffic will reveal suspicious activity, and a spike in network resource usage as opposed to the detection of C2 IP addresses.
MITRE ATT&CK: [MITRE ATT&CK] Data Encoding - T1132 | [MITRE ATT&CK] File and Directory Discovery - T1083 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Clipboard Data - T1115
Tags: Phorpiex, Twizt, Russia, Banking and Finance, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin
‘PseudoManuscrypt’ Mass Spyware Campaign Targets 35K Systems
(published: December 16, 2021)
Kaspersky researchers have documented a spyware that has targeted 195 countries as of December 2021. The spyware, named PseudoManuscrypt, was developed and deployed by Lazarus Group |
Ransomware Malware Vulnerability Threat Guideline Medical | APT 41 APT 38 APT 28 APT 31 | |
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2021-11-28 12:11:54 | North Korea-linked Zinc group posed as Samsung recruiters to target security firms (lien direct) | North Korea-linked threat actors posed as Samsung recruiters in a spear-phishing campaign aimed at employees at South Korean security firms. North Korea-linked APT group posed as Samsung recruiters is a spear-phishing campaign that targeted South Korean security companies that sell anti-malware solutions, Google TAG researchers reported. According to the Google Threat Horizons report, the state-sponsored […] | Threat | APT 38 | |
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2021-11-16 17:34:00 | Anomali Cyber Watch: REvil Affiliates Arrested, Electronics Retail Giant Hit By Ransomware, Robinhood Breach, Zero Day In Palo Alto Security Appliance and More (lien direct) | The various threat intelligence stories in this iteration of the Anomali Cyber Watch discuss the following topics: APT, Data breach, Data leak, Malspam, Phishing, and Vulnerabilities. The IOCs related to these stories are attached to Anomali Cyber Watch and can be used to check your logs for potential malicious activity.
Figure 1 - IOC Summary Charts. These charts summarize the IOCs attached to this magazine and provide a glimpse of the threats discussed.
Trending Cyber News and Threat Intelligence
Targeted Attack Campaign Against ManageEngine ADSelfService Plus Delivers Godzilla Webshells, NGLite Trojan and KdcSponge Stealer
(published: November 8, 2021)
US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has released an alert about advanced persistent threat (APT) actors exploiting vulnerability in self-service password management and single sign-on solution known as ManageEngine ADSelfService Plus. PaloAlto, Microsoft & Lumen Technologies did a joint effort to track, analyse and mitigate this threat. The attack deployed a webshell and created a registry key for persistence. The actor leveraged leased infrastructure in the US to scan hundreds of organizations and compromised at least nine global organizations across technology, defense, healthcare and education industries.
Analyst Comment: This actor has used some unique techniques in these attacks including: a blockchain based legitimate remote control application, and credential stealing tool which hooks specific functions from the LSASS process. It’s important to make sure your EDR solution is configured to and supports detecting such advanced techniques in order to detect such attacks.
MITRE ATT&CK: [MITRE ATT&CK] OS Credential Dumping - T1003 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Ingress Tool Transfer - T1105 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Scripting - T1064 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Valid Accounts - T1078 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Application Layer Protocol - T1071 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Credentials in Files - T1081 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Brute Force - T1110 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Data Staged - T1074 | [MITRE ATT&CK] External Remote Services - T1133 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Hooking - T1179 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Registry Run Keys / Startup Folder - T1060 | [MITRE ATT&CK] Pass the Hash - T1075
Tags: Threat Group 3390, APT27, TG-3390, Emissary Panda, WildFire, NGLite backdoor, Cobalt Strike, Godzilla, PwDump, beacon, ChinaChopper, CVE-2021-40539, Healthcare, Military, North America, China
REvil Affiliates Arrested; DOJ Seizes $6.1M in Ransom
(published: November 9, 2021)
A 22 year old Ukranian national named Yaroslav Vasinskyi, has been charged with conducting ransomware attacks by the U.S Department of Justice (DOJ). These attacks include t |
Ransomware Data Breach Malware Tool Vulnerability Threat Medical | APT 38 APT 27 APT 1 | |
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2021-11-15 15:34:25 | North Korea-linked Lazarus group targets cybersecurity experts with Trojanized IDA Pro (lien direct) | North Korea-linked APT Lazarus targets security researchers using a trojanized pirated version of the popular IDA Pro reverse engineering software. ESET researchers reported that the North Korea-linked Lazarus APT group is targeting cyber security community with a trojanized pirated version of the popular IDA Pro reverse engineering software. Threat actors bundled the IDA Pro 7.5 […] | Threat | APT 38 APT 28 | |
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2021-10-27 09:30:00 | North Korean Lazarus APT Targets Software Supply Chain (lien direct) | Prolific threat group take a leaf out of the SolarWinds campaign | Threat | APT 38 APT 28 | ★★★★ |
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2021-10-27 00:14:47 | Latest Report Uncovers Supply Chain Attacks by North Korean Hackers (lien direct) | Lazarus Group, the advanced persistent threat (APT) group attributed to the North Korean government, has been observed waging two separate supply chain attack campaigns as a means to gain a foothold into corporate networks and target a wide range of downstream entities.
The latest intelligence-gathering operation involved the use of MATA malware framework as well as backdoors dubbed BLINDINGCAN |
Malware Threat Medical | APT 38 APT 28 | |
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2021-07-06 10:00:00 | Lazarus campaign TTPs and evolution (lien direct) |
Executive summary
AT&T Alien Labs™ has observed new activity that has been attributed to the Lazarus adversary group potentially targeting engineering job candidates and/or employees in classified engineering roles within the U.S. and Europe. This assessment is based on malicious documents believed to have been delivered by Lazarus during the last few months (spring 2021). However, historical analysis shows the lures used in this campaign to be in line with others used to target these groups.
The purpose of this blog is to share the new technical intelligence and provide detection options for defenders. Alien Labs will continue to report on any noteworthy changes.
Key Takeaways:
Lazarus has been identified targeting defense contractors with malicious documents.
There is a high emphasis on renaming system utilities (Certutil and Explorer) to obfuscate the adversary’s activities (T1036.003).
Background
Since 2009, the known tools and capabilities believed to have been used by the Lazarus Group include DDoS botnets, keyloggers, remote access tools (RATs), and drive wiper malware. The most publicly documented malware and tools used by the group actors include Destover, Duuzer, and Hangman.
Analysis
Several documents identified from May to June 2021 by Twitter users were identified as being linked to the Lazarus group. Documents observed in previous campaigns lured victims with job opportunities for Boeing and BAE systems. These new documents include:
Rheinmetall_job_requirements.doc: identified by ESET Research.
General_motors_cars.doc: identified by Twitter user @1nternaut.
Airbus_job_opportunity_confidential.doc: identified by 360CoreSec.
The documents attempted to impersonate new defense contractors and engineering companies like Airbus, General Motors (GM), and Rheinmetall. All of these documents contain macro malware, which has been developed and improved during the course of this campaign and from one target to another. The core techniques for the three malicious documents are the same, but the attackers attempted to reduce the potential detections and increase the faculties of the macros.
First iteration: Rheinmetall
The first two documents from early May 2021 were related to a German Engineering company focused on the defense and automotive industries, Rheinmetall. The second malicious document appears to include more elaborate content, which may have resulted in the documents going unnoticed by victims.
The Macro has base64 encoded files, which are extracted and decoded during execution. Some of the files are split inside the Macro and are not combined until the time of decoding. One of the most distinctive characteristics of this Macro is how it evades detections of a MZ header encoded in base64 (TVoA, TVpB, TVpQ, TVqA, TVqQ or TVro), by separating the first two characters from the rest of the content, as seen in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Concealing of MZ header, as captured by Alien Labs.
The rest of the content is kept together in lines of 64 characters, and because of this, YARA rules can be used to detect other, typical executable content encoded in base64 aside of the MZ header. In this case, up to nine different YARA rules alerted to suspicious encoded strings in our Alien Labs analysis, like VirtualProtect, GetProcAddress, IsDe |
Malware Threat Guideline Medical | APT 38 APT 28 | |
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2021-07-01 10:00:00 | Anomali May Quarterly Product Release: Democratizing Intelligence (lien direct) | Anomali’s product team continues to deliver on an aggressive schedule of intelligence-driven cybersecurity solutions, continuing to work in tight unison with our customers and security professionals throughout the product development lifecycle.
We’re excited to announce our quarterly product release update for May 2021. Key highlights for this quarter include:
New Match 4.4 release enhancing Anomali’s extended detection and response capabilities
Custom dashboards aligning global threat intelligence with local SOC threat prioritization activities
Industry news monitoring that leverages Machine Learning to determine global trends
Enhanced STIX 2.1 support with Custom Objects & Relationship Objects
Support for MITRE ATT&CK Framework v9.0 via Attack Patterns
Simplified Integrator upgrade process
Anomali Lens - Outlook for Office 365
Match 4.4 New Features and Improvements
Anomali Match is the first threat detection and response solution that automatically and continuously correlates all your environment logs against all relevant active threat intelligence to expose previously unknown threats that may have already penetrated your enterprise, resulting in faster Mean-Time-To-Detection (MTTD), reduced cost of security incidents, and more efficient security operations.
In this release, we’ve added several new and significant features to improve the value offered by Match to clients, enhancing the fidelity of intelligence we use to identify matches in your environments, and simplifying the normalization of data coming from a variety of different formatted log sources. Furthermore, new alerting capabilities provide enhanced process automation and now support threat model-based alerts.
We’ve also released Universal Link v4.4 and made updates to these dedicated links that enable log event integration with Anomali Match: QRadar, Splunk, and RSA.
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Building Custom Dashboard Widgets Based on Threat Model Data
Dashboards in ThreatStream provide a quick, digestible, and timely source of key metrics on threat intelligence indicators. Custom dashboards can be tailored for a given organization’s or user’s requirements. Users can now develop their own dashboard with widgets based on Threat Model saved searches also, in addition to an Observable saved search. Users can also choose to incorporate out-of-the-box widgets or develop their own, based on an advanced saved search (of Observables or Threat Models). This new feature builds upon features we’ve been adding to ThreatStream over recent releases, i.e. the addition of custom widgets and also the enablement of Threat Model advanced saved searches.
Industry News Trend Widgets in ThreatStream Dashboard
ThreatStream Dashboards provide key decision-making data in an easy-to-digest visual format for all users of ThreatStream - whether research analyst, team manager or CISO. With this release, industry trending news on Actors, Malware and Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) are available as graph widgets within the ThreatStream dashboard. Our trending engine is based on data sourced from a huge array of public and private security news feeds, blogs, and other reputable sources. The graphs provide current lists of trending entities, with pertinent information and graphs showing activity over various timelines. Currently, this feature is exclusive to Anomali Lens+ customers.
MITRE ATT&CK Support for Sub-techniques
The MITRE ATT&CK Security Framework is one of the most widely used tools to help organizations un |
Malware Threat | APT 38 |
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