Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence - February 28–04

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence - February 28–04 - Featured Image

Weekly Threat Briefing • March 4, 2022

The Good

There is a lot going on in the world right now, but we also have some good things to look forward to. A group of MIT researchers took a big step toward securing sensitive data. They fabricated an IC chip that protects against power side-channel attacks and is tiny enough to fit inside a smartwatch, tablet, or smartphone. Meanwhile, MITRE launched the Engage framework to help defenders conduct cyber adversary engagement, deception, and denial activities.

  • A group of researchers at MIT built an integrated circuit chip that can defend against power side-channel attacks while using much less energy than a common security technique. The integrated circuit conducts machine learning on the edge so that less power is consumed without compromising security.

  • Facebook has blocked multiple accounts and phishing domains, associated with the Belarusian-linked hacking group Ghostwriter (aka UNC1151), designed to target Ukrainian officials and military personnel. Additionally, it confirmed a spear-phishing campaign by the group that tricked Ukrainian military personnel into sharing their personal information.

  • European police detained 17 cybercriminals from France and Spain that were involved in distributing counterfeit ID documents for migrant smugglers over the dark web.

  • MITRE launched the first official version of Engage, a framework for conducting cyber adversary engagement, deception, and denial activities. This framework will help CISOs, security analysts, and vendors to implement defense strategies by taking cues from adversary behavior observed in the real world.

  • Singapore is all set out to build a new digital intelligence center to fortify the nation’s defenses against cyber threats. Dubbed Digital and Intelligence Service (DIS), the unit will work under the Singapore Armed Forces and tackle online attacks.

The Bad

Attacks against Ukrainian entities are getting worse. The week witnessed multiple attacks, notable among them is a massive attack wave against Ukrainian academic institutions and a DDoS attack using DanaBot against the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. In other news, two ransomware gangs—Karma and Conti—targeted the same healthcare provider in back-to-back attacks.

  • A phishing campaign compromised the email accounts of Ukrainian armed services to spread Lua-based SunSeed malware. The campaign appears to target European government personnel who are involved in managing the logistics of refugees from Ukraine. Lately, the campaign has been upgraded to target NATO entities and is tentatively linked with the Ghostwriter hacking group.

  • A large-scale phishing campaign, leveraging over 200 phishing sites, has tricked users into making fake investments for buying e-bikes or registering for dealerships. The fraudulent operation abuses Google Ads and SEO to draw in victims. The campaign has caused financial damages of up to $1,000,000 and a majority of the affected are Indians.

  • Satellite communication giant Viasat was hit by a cyberattack that caused an internet outage across Europe. The firm has notified law enforcement agencies and government partners who are currently investigating the incident. Reports suggest that the attack began on February 24 and is ongoing.

  • A dual ransomware attack affected a Canada-based healthcare organization in December 2021. The attack was launched by the Karma ransomware gang first and later by the Conti ransomware gang. The attackers had managed to intrude into the victim’s network by exploiting the ProxyShell vulnerability.

  • A spate of phishing emails is being used against Microsoft account users to pilfer their credentials. The attackers are capitalizing on the Ukrainian crisis to spread terror among the recipients. The email asks the victims to log into their accounts as an unusual sign-on activity from Russia has been detected. The subject line of the email includes ‘Report the user.’

  • More than 30 WordPress-hosted Ukrainian university websites were hacked in a targeted attack. The threat actors support Russia and are identified as the ‘Monday Group.’ In 24 hours, more than 100,000 attacks were launched on Ukrainian education institutions.

  • A threat actor launched a DDoS attack using DanaBot against the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense’s webmail server. The attack was launched to deliver a second-stage malware payload leveraging the download and executing the command.

  • Scammers are weaponizing the Russia-Ukraine conflict to target users in well-crafted phishing campaigns. The phishing emails include different subject lines to dupe victims into sharing their crypto wallet credentials or making payments in the form of cryptocurrency. In one of the campaigns, emails spoofing the login page of popular German Bitcoin marketplace bitcoin.de had targeted employees at European financial service providers. In another campaign, the email spoofed the Ukraine Red Cross Society to lure recipients into cryptocurrency donations to a private wallet.

  • Researchers have disclosed details of a now-patched security vulnerability in GitLab that could potentially allow attackers to recover user information. Tracked as CVE-2021-4191, the flaw affects several versions of GitLab Community Edition and Enterprise Edition. The CVSS score of the flaw is 5.3. It has been patched with the release of versions 14.8.7, 14.7.4, and 14.6.5.

  • The New York State Office of the Attorney General warned victims of the August 2021 T-Mobile data breach after some of the stolen information ended up for sale on the dark web. This increases the risk of identity theft.

  • In a new update, Lapsus$ ransomware attackers have shared NVIDIA’s DLSS source code on their website. Additionally, the credentials of more than 71,000 employees have been leaked online. The data breach at the U.S. chipmaker occurred last month.

  • A hacker group, going by the moniker v0g3lsec, allegedly compromised a website connected to Russia’s Space Research Institute and posted the screenshot for the same.

New Threats

TeaBot is back in business and in the news. The operators came up with a newer version of it which is propagated via apps on Google Play Store, once again. Attacks against Ukrainian entities saw two new malware in disparate attacks - HermeticRansom and IsaacWiper. While we are on the topic of malware, Microsoft unveiled FoxBlade, another new malware that was used to perform DDoS attacks against Ukraine.

  • A new version of TeaBot is now targeting over 400 applications that include banks, crypto exchanges, and digital insurances. The attacks, driven via spam text messages, are being targeted against users in Russia, Hong Kong, and the U.S.

  • Researchers have demystified a newly found Golang ransomware dubbed HermeticRansom. Also known as PartyTicket, the ransomware encrypts specific files and appends them with .encryptedJB extension. It uses AES and RSA-OAEP algorithms to encrypt files and later drops an HTML ransom note on the victim’s desktop.

  • ESET researchers uncovered a third new data wiper malware, dubbed IssacWiper, that was used against hundreds of machines located in Ukraine. According to the researchers, the malware has been active since February 24 and includes both a wiper and a worm component to spread HermeticWiper in local networks.

  • Researchers detected a series of new TCP reflection/amplification attacks that leverage a new technique to knock websites offline. The amplification attack abuses vulnerable middleboxes, such as firewalls via TCP to magnify denial of service attacks. Middlebox devices from the likes of Cisco, Fortinet, SonicWall, and Palo Alto Networks are vulnerable to this new attack method.

  • A new stealthy backdoor named Daxin has been associated with a China-based hacking group. The malware is designed to give an attacker low-level root privileges on a compromised system. The malware was last used in November 2021 to target critical infrastructure in multiple countries.

  • Microsoft revealed that a new malware, dubbed FoxBlade, was used on several networks based in Eastern Europe. The malware was also used in destructive attacks against Ukraine right before the Russian invasion. It is capable of launching DDoS attacks on systems.

  • A new version of an info-stealing malware called Jester Stealer has been observed to be active since January. The new malware version, tracked as 1.7.1.0, is available for sale in underground cybercrime forums. Jester Stealer can pilfer data from web browsers, email clients, crypto wallets, and password managers.

  • Iran-linked UNC3313 threat actor group was found deploying two new custom backdoors, tracked as GRAMDOOR and STARWHALE. These backdoors were used in the attack against an unnamed government entity in the Middle East in November 2021.

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Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, April 21–25, 2025

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Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, April 07–11, 2025

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Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, March 24–28, 2025

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Mar 21, 2025

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, March 17–21, 2025

The race to outpace quantum threats is officially on. The NCSC has issued guidance to help organizations transition to post-quantum cryptography by 2035, with a focus on NIST-approved algorithms and planned support for critical sectors. A nationwide fraud crackdown ends with hundreds behind bars. Operation Henhouse led to 422 arrests and the seizure of millions in assets, as U.K. police target the country’s most widespread and costly crime - fraud. A threat actor briefly exposed their entire playbook. Researchers found a public server hosting tools tied to a campaign targeting South Korea, including a Rust-compiled payload delivering Cobalt Strike Cat and a list of over 1,000 potential targets. Phishing messages on Signal are leading to full system compromise. CERT-UA warns of DarkCrystal RAT attacks targeting Ukraine’s defense sector, using fake contacts and malicious files to trick victims into executing spyware. Ransomware slipped into VSCode under the radar. Two malicious extensions were discovered on the VSCode Marketplace, bypassing checks to deliver test-stage ransomware demanding ShibaCoin for decryption. Fake ads are being weaponized to steal Google credentials. A campaign targeting Semrush users is redirecting victims to spoofed login pages, where attackers harvest Google account logins through a fake “Log in with Google” prompt. A fake browser update could cost you more than a few clicks. A new ClearFake campaign is using fake reCAPTCHA and Turnstile pages to deliver malware like Lumma and Vidar Stealer, with payloads fetched through Binance’s Smart Chain. Hackers are quietly poisoning AI-generated code. A new supply chain attack targets AI editors like Copilot and Cursor, exploiting rules files to inject malicious prompts that trick the tools into writing compromised code.

Mar 14, 2025

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, March 10–14, 2025

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Mar 7, 2025

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, March 03–07, 2025

The code caves of GitHub just got a cleanup crew courtesy of Microsoft. A sprawling malvertising campaign that snagged nearly a million devices worldwide has been knocked down a peg. Cheap Android gadgets are getting a breather from a relentless digital pest. The BadBox 2.0 botnet, a souped-up sequel backed by multiple threat crews, saw 24 shady apps booted from Google Play and half a million infected devices cut off from their puppet masters, thanks to some crafty sinkholing and Google’s cleanup sweep. A sneaky gatecrasher has turned WordPress into a redirect rollercoaster. A malicious JavaScript injection lurking in a theme file has snagged at least 31 sites, pulling visitors through a two-step detour to shady third-party domains. Japan’s digital defenses are under siege from a shadowy crew with a taste for chaos. Since January, unknown threat actors have been prying open organizations in tech, telecom, entertainment, and more, exploiting CVE-2024-4577 in PHP-CGI on Windows. Crooks posing as the Electronic Frontier Foundation are targeting Albion Online players with phishing emails and fake PDFs, claiming account trouble. It’s a ruse to drop Stealc malware and Pyramid C2. A fresh face in the cybercrime underworld is juggling a bag of nasty surprises. EncryptHub is hitting users of QQ Talk, WeChat, Google Meet, and more with trojanized apps and slick multi-stage attacks. The Eleven11bot botnet, loosely tied to Iran, has taken over 86,000 IoT devices to slam telecoms and gaming servers with relentless DDoS barrages. Social media’s sunny side has a dark shadow creeping across the Middle East and North Africa. Since September 2024, Desert Dexter has been slinging a tweaked AsyncRAT via legit file-sharing sites and Telegram. For detailed Cyber Threat Intel, click ‘Read More’.