malware

TWiC | Lapsus$ Ransomware, LastPass Hack & MS ZeroDay

The past couple of weeks have been busy ones for the world of cybersecurity. Multiple companies have disclosed serious hacks that have led to breaches of customer data and overall system availability. In this week’s security advisory, nGuard will detail some of these incidents and their impact on the cybersecurity landscape.

Cisco Data Breach Attributed to Lapsus$ Ransomware Group

The Lapsus$ crime gang is back at it again with an attack on the networking giant, Cisco. About a month ago, Cisco had disclosed that its systems were breached. A social engineering attack led adversaries on a pathway to overtaking an employee’s Google account. Saved credentials were then obtained from the browser and voice communications were utilized to trick the unsuspecting employee into accepting a multi-factor authentication push notification. Cisco believes the end goal of the attacker was to deploy ransomware on the network after gaining access to multiple systems. Cisco is reporting that attempts to deploy ransomware were unsuccessful.

LastPass Says Hackers Had Internal Access For Four Days

Lastpass reported a breach back in August and are now releasing some more details about the compromise. They are now reporting that an attacker had internal access to the company systems for four days before they were detected. Lastpass worked with a cybersecurity firm to investigate the incident and found that no customer data or password vaults were accessed during this time. LastPass maintains that your master password, and the keys used to encrypt and decrypt data, are never sent to LastPass’ servers, and are never accessible by LastPass. The attacker was however able to access a developer endpoint and poke around the development environments.

Microsoft Patches a New Zero-Day Affecting All Versions of Windows

Microsoft is patching another zero-day vulnerability affecting all supported versions of Windows. This zero-day is reported as being used in real-world attacks. CVE-2022-37969 is a privilege elevation flaw in the Windows Common Log File System Driver. This is utilized for data and event logging. Once a system is compromised, this vulnerability can be used to escalate user privileges to the highest level, SYSTEM. 4 different security firms reported this vulnerability to Microsoft which makes them believe this could be widely used in real-world scenarios. They recommend patching immediately.

nGuard closely monitors trends in the world of cybersecurity and applies those trends to assessment activities and managed security services. Having penetration testing conducted periodically against network assets, web applications, and other critical infrastructure can prevent data breaches before they happen. Putting your employees through social engineering campaigns to test their security readiness can boost awareness. Having a security first mindset is essential in protecting the valuable data of organizations.

Vulnerability Exploits Overtake Phishing as Initial Attack Vector

Most security professionals will advise the number one way attackers gain an initial foothold on a network is, and continues to be, phishing and social engineering attacks. Palo Alto recently released their 2022 Incident Response Report which confirmed what most would say is true. At a combined 42%, phishing and social engineering make up almost half of all means of initial access.

Source: 2022 Incident Response Report

The second most common way according to the above chart from Palo Alto is software vulnerabilities. However, in the first week of September, Kaspersky released its 2021 Incident Response Overview and it told a different story. 53.6% of the initial attack vectors they responded to were exploits of public-facing applications.

Source: 2021 Incident Response Overview

2021 had no shortage of time sensitive critical vulnerabilities including Log4j, Microsoft Exchange ProxyLogon, and three other CVEs related to the ProxyLogon vulnerabilities that were released in March of 2021. When these vulnerabilities are made publicly available it is only a matter of minutes before publicly facing systems are being scanned for vulnerable targets. Within hours, proof of concept exploits become available leading to an extremely high rate of organizations falling for such attacks.

In recent years, organizations have prioritized security awareness training and conducted social engineering and phishing training. But have those same organizations made it a priority to have a vulnerability management program in place?

How can organizations stay ahead of these attack trends? Start by building out a mature security program that includes annual penetration testing, ongoing vulnerability scanning, and a properly configured SIEM to alert on network anomalies. If you suspect a breach, identify a firm capable of responding to security incidents and secure an incident response retainer. Lastly, have an expert conduct a strategic security assessment to compare your organization’s security program to a known security standard like the Center for Internet Security Critical Security Controls.

TWiC | This Week in Cybersecurity – Let’s Go Phishing 🎣

Over the past week there have been many hot topics in cybersecurity. This edition of This Week in Cybersecurity includes stories focused on the latest in phishing campaigns tactics, techniques, procedures, common use cases, and infrastructure being used. Check out the details below.

Phishing Attacks Skyrocket with Microsoft and Facebook as Most Abused Brands

The number of phishing attempts that misuse the Microsoft brand jumped 266 percent in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the same period last year, according to a report by researchers at Vade. In the same period of time, fake Facebook messages increased by 177% in the second quarter of 2022. In Q1 2022 compared to the previous year, there were 266 percent more instances of phishing assaults using the Microsoft name. As opposed to the previous year, hackers are ramping up their use of false messages that abuse well-known companies, bringing back the bloom of phishing attempts. According to the phishing research Microsoft, Facebook, and the French bank Crédit Agricole are the three most frequently impersonated companies in attacks. Crédit Agricole, WhatsApp, and the French telecommunications provider Orange are some of the other top names that are misused in phishing attempts. Other well-known brands included Apple, Google, and PayPal.
DUCKTAIL Malware Targeting HR Professionals Through LinkedIn Spear-phishing Campaign

Cybersecurity research has recently learned of an ongoing operation known as DUCKTAIL. This strategy aims to gain control of a company’s Facebook business account that handle its advertising. DUCKTAIL uses a malware component that steals information to hack Facebook Business accounts. This sets DUCKTAIL apart from other malware campaigns that used Facebook as a base of operations in the past. The malware is able to access the victim’s Facebook account by stealing cookies from the victim’s browser and utilizing authentication cookies during authenticated Facebook sessions. This has allowed hackers to access every Facebook Business account that the victim has access to, even ones with restricted access. DUCKTAIL has been using LinkedIn to identify potential targets for these campaigns.
1,000s of Phishing Attacks Blast Off from InterPlanetary File System

The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), a distributed peer-to-peer file system, has become a hotbed of phishing-site storage. Thousands of emails containing phishing URLs are showing up in corporate inboxes. IPFS uses peer-to-peer (P2P) connections for file and service-sharing instead of a static resource demarked by a host and path. Phishers may start using even more sophisticated methods for replicating sites, such as using distributed hash tables. According to an anti-phishing expert, security admins need to educate themselves and their staff about how IPFS works.
Evilnum APT Hackers Group Attack Windows Using Weaponized Word Documents

The APT threat actor, Evilnum, has been targeting European banking and investment organizations. Recently their tactics, techniques, and procedures have included spear-phishing emails with attachments like Microsoft Word, ISO, and Windows Shortcut (LNK) files. Researchers discovered other variations of the campaign in late 2022, including ones that employed financial bribes to get victims to open malicious ZIP folders that were coupled with malicious .LNK files. In the middle of 2022, the methodology that was being used to distribute Word documents was altered once more to incorporate a mechanism that tries to connect to an attacker-controlled domain and obtain a remote template.

Stop Phishing
nGuard has been conducting social engineering assessments for almost 2 decades and has the experience and expertise to assess your users against phishing campaigns using a variety of attack methods. Using emails, phone calls, text messages, multi-factor prompt bombing attacks, fake websites, and more, nGuard can thoroughly test your security awareness training program efficacy. Contact your Account Executive or Security Consultant to learn more about how nGuard can help.

FBI Secretly Removing Malware

Late last week, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the FBI was removing malware from computer systems around the world in an attempt to thwart Russian cyber-attacks. In March, the White House warned that Russia could be targeting critical infrastructure in the United States. The malware that is being removed from systems by the FBI is reported to allow an arm of the Russian military called the GRU to take over machines and create botnets for DDoS attacks. The GRU is Russia’s largest foreign intelligence agency responsible for handling multiple forms of military intelligence.

The Justice Department says that this strain of malware is designed to compromise externally facing firewalls and loop them into a botnet called Cyclops Blink. The botnet is controlled by a notorious group called Sandworm that has been known to work with the GRU. The DOJ warned owners of infected devices that their machines were part of this Cyclops Blink botnet, but decided that it was not worth the wait and took it upon themselves to remove the malware from infected devices.

Through secret court orders, the Justice Department and FBI were able to quietly remove this malware from infected devices across the globe. After removing the malware, the FBI also closed the management port that was being used as the attack vector. The Biden administration has been ramping up their cyber security operations since the breakout of war in Ukraine. While Ukraine has been the number 1 target of cyber attacks over the last couple months, authorities warn that critical infrastructure organizations in the United States could be next.

Performing external penetration testing and having a formal external vulnerability management program can help to thwart attacks like this. By identifying these vulnerabilities and patching them before adversaries get their hands on them, you can protect your externally facing machines from becoming a part of a worldwide botnet.