Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence - January 29–02

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence - May 20–24 - Featured Image

Weekly Threat Briefing • February 2, 2024

The Good

In a global crackdown against cybercrime, Interpol dismantled malicious servers that served as a channel for phishing and malware attacks in great measure. Meanwhile, authorities from the U.S. and Brazil wiped out the KV botnet and Grandoreiro trojan, respectively.

  • Interpol detained 31 suspected cybercriminals and took down 70% of 1,300 malicious servers in a three-month-long coordinated operation called Operation Synergia. Most of these servers were located in Europe, Hong Kong, and Singapore, and were used to carry out phishing attacks or distribute malware. In addition to the 31 arrests, Interpol identified an additional 70 suspects responsible for phishing attacks, spreading banking malware, and distributing ransomware.
  • The U.S. disrupted the Chinese state-sponsored Volt Typhoon hacking campaign that targeted American and allied critical infrastructure. The campaign involved embedding KV Botnet into privately owned routers to conceal its presence. A vast majority of routers from Cisco and NetGear that reached the end-of-life status were compromised by the botnet.
  • ESET researchers, in collaboration with the Federal Police of Brazil, wrecked the Grandoreiro malware threat, which has been targeting Spanish-speaking countries with financial fraud since 2017. This was possible after researchers discovered a design flaw in the malware's network protocol. The criminal structure is suspected of moving at least 3.6 million euros through fraud since 2019.

The Bad

Ransomware attack woes escalated as Schneider Electric's Sustainability Business division and a U.S. military-linked IT provider, Technica, fell victim to separate ransomware attacks. Additionally, Keenan & Associates disclosed a ransomware attack that impacted the sensitive data of over 1.5 million individuals.

  • California-based insurance broker Keenan & Associates notified over 1.5 million individuals about last year's ransomware and data exfiltration attack. An unauthorized party had gained access to some of the internal systems of the firm multiple times for about a week. The compromised data includes names, birth dates, SSNs, passport numbers, driver's license numbers, and health-related information.
  • Cloudflare revealed a breach of its internal Atlassian server by a suspected 'nation-state attacker', accessing Confluence wiki, Jira bug database, and Bitbucket source code management. The intrusion started on November 14, 2023, and involved one access token and three service account credentials stolen in Okta's breach from October.
  • French multinational Schneider Electric disclosed that its Sustainability Business division was impacted in a ransomware attack earlier this month. The attack affected its Resource Advisory product, as well as other division-specific systems. It is reported that the Cactus ransomware group is behind the attacks.
  • The BlackCat group threatened to leak 300GB of data stolen from Technica, a Virginia-based IT services company that works with the federal government. The stolen data also includes sensitive information about the U.S. military. To back up its claim, ALPHV posted more than two dozen screenshots of purportedly stolen documents featuring the names, Social Security numbers, clearance levels, and roles and work locations of dozens of people.
  • Global Affairs Canada (GAC) is investigating a data breach in its internal network. The breach affected the remote access to GAC’s network and several employees were asked to stop working remotely. The incident also impacted two internal drives, emails, calendars, and contacts of several staff members.
  • Researchers from RedHunt Labs discovered a significant security lapse at Mercedes-Benz, where a private key and authentication token were unintentionally left accessible online. The exposed token could provide unrestricted access to the company's GitHub Enterprise Server, resulting in the exposure of source code, cloud access keys, blueprints, single sign-on passwords, API keys, and more. The affected repositories also contained Azure and AWS credentials.
  • In a new update, the LockBit ransomware gang claimed responsibility for attacks on Saint Anthony Hospital in Chicago by adding the name to its list of victims and demanding a $900,000 ransom to prevent the leak of data. The hospital had previously acknowledged the attack that was discovered on December 18, 2023. It determined that files containing patient information were copied from the network.
  • Security analysts at Resecurity found 1,572 compromised credentials on the dark web belonging to telecom network administrators and engineers from various companies including RIPE, Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC), the African Network Information Centre (AFRINIC), and the Latin America and Caribbean Network Information Center (LACNIC). Victims of the incident span across various sectors, including an Iranian research organization, a Kenyan financial institution, a major Spanish financial organization, and an Iraqi government agency.
  • The FBI issued a public service announcement cautioning about scammers exploiting courier services in tech support and government impersonation scams. Perpetrators, often targeting senior citizens, coerce victims into liquidating assets, buying precious metals, or wiring funds based on false claims of compromised financial accounts. The scammers then arrange for couriers to collect cash or valuables in person. The elaborate scheme has led to aggregated losses exceeding $55 million from May to December 2023.
  • A threat group infiltrated the database of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies, obtaining confidential information, including the prime minister's identity documents, medical analyses, and other personal data. The attackers threatened to release the personal data of deputies if they did not receive a ransom, demanding 0.8 bitcoins. They reportedly published some information online, including the identity cards of Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu and UDMR leader Kelemen Hunor.
  • The IntelBroker group allegedly targeted a popular mobile banking app with over 10 million users. The threat actor posted details of the exploit on a hacker forum, offering an exploit capable of scraping and leaking sensitive information from the banking app. The data for sale included full names, countries, and payment methods of users. Cybercriminals demanded payment exclusively in XMR (Monero).
  • Direct Trading Technologies, an international fintech company, exposed the sensitive information of over 300,000 users due to a misconfigured web server discovered by the Cybernews research team. The leaked data included trading activity, names, email addresses, IP addresses, plaintext passwords, home addresses, phone numbers, and credit card details. Additionally, internal comments from the company's outreach team about clients were exposed.
  • A misconfigured S3 bucket leaked COVID e-passport details of 3.5 Indian people, including their passport information, mobile numbers, vehicle numbers, gender, and email addresses. Early investigation reveals that the leaky database belonged to a third-party service provider.

New Threats

Several malware campaigns abusing recently disclosed vulnerabilities were discovered in the wild. While Akamai reported Log4Shell vulnerability and Polkit Linux component flaws being exploited to distribute new variants of the FritzFrog botnet, InfectedSlurs botnet was observed exploiting six zero-day vulnerabilities impacting Hitron DVR device models. In a separate instance, the Trigona group targeted MS-SQL servers to install Mimic ransomware.

  • Akamai Security Intelligence Group (SIG) uncovered several new variants of the FritzFrog botnet, one of which includes the capability to exploit the 2021 Log4Shell vulnerability. The botnet has also been upgraded with a module to exploit a privilege escalation vulnerability (CVE-2021-4034) in the Polkit Linux component. So far, the botnet has infected over 1500 victims worldwide.

  • The Patchwork APT group was found to have created at least 12 malicious Android apps, including MeetMe, Let’s Chat, Quick Chat, and Rafaqat, and distributed them through Google Play Store and other platforms to exfiltrate data from Pakistani users. As part of the attack, the attackers used romance scams to trick the victims into installing the apps that eventually downloaded the VajraSpy RAT onto their Android phones.

  • The CERT-UA warned about a PurpleFox malware campaign that infected at least 2,000 computers in Ukraine. As part of the activity, CERT-UA leveraged IOCs associated with the malware to monitor infected hosts between January 20 and 31, and detected 486 intermediate control server IP addresses, most of which were located in China.

  • Mandiant researchers discovered new malware attacks targeting Ivanti Connect Secure VPN and Policy Secure devices. Attackers were observed exploiting CVE-2023-46805 and CVE-2024-21887 to execute arbitrary commands on the unpatched Ivanti devices. Some of the malware employed in these attacks include a custom web shell tracked as BUSHWALK, a new variant of the LIGHTWIRE web shell, a Python-based CHAINLINE web shell, the FRAMESTING web shell, and KrustyLoader. Meanwhile, the CISA issued a fresh directive, demanding all federal agencies disconnect all instances of Ivanti Connect Secure and Ivanti Policy Secure products within 48 hours.

  • Security researchers identified approximately 45,000 Jenkins instances that are vulnerable to a critical RCE bug CVE-2024-23897. The security issue can be abused in several ways, including manipulating Resource Root URLs, "Remember me" cookies, or CSRF protection bypass. Depending on permissions, attackers can exploit the flaw to access sensitive information, potentially leading to the decryption of stored secrets and other malicious activities.

  • AT&T researchers came across a phishing attack that leveraged the Microsoft Teams chat group to push DarkGate malware onto victims’ systems. The attackers used a domain named .onmicrosoft.com to send phishing messages, tricking users into downloading a deceptive file. Researchers noted that the attack succeeded because users had enabled External Access in Microsoft Teams users to message users in other tenants by default.

  • Researchers at Unit 42 identified a large-scale campaign named ApateWeb that employed over 130,000 domains to distribute scareware, PUPs, and other scam pages. The campaign involved adware programs, a rogue browser, and various browser extensions. These served as potential initial access points for cybercriminals, putting victims at risk of more severe threats.

  • The Trigona ransomware threat actor expanded its activities by installing Mimic malware targeting MS-SQL servers. The actor abused the Bulk Copy Program (BCP) feature in MS-SQL servers, utilizing the bcp.exe command-line tool during the malware installation process. The threat actor also used the Everything file search tool to speed up file encryption and imitate aspects of the Conti ransomware. The installed files contained tools for deactivating Windows Defender and port forwarding.

  • Akamai issued an InfectedSlurs botnet advisory following the discovery of active exploitation of multiple DVR device models from Hitron Systems. The botnet exploited six zero-day vulnerabilities (CVE-2024-22768 through CVE-2024-22772, and CVE-2024-23842) to launch attacks. These vulnerabilities, categorized as improper input validation issues, allowed attackers to inject OS commands and achieve remote code execution.

  • A new ransomware group, named Alpha, was observed on the landscape along with its leak site on the dark web. It displayed data from industries impacted across the U.K, U.S., and Israel. The ransomware appends a random 8-character alphanumeric extension to encrypted files, and its DLS, titled "MYDATA," is considered unstable and frequently offline.

  • Cado researchers recently encountered a novel malware campaign, dubbed “Commando Cat”, targeting exposed Docker API endpoints. It is unclear who the threat actor behind Commando Cat is or where they're from, though there is an overlap in scripts and IP addresses to other groups like Team TNT, indicating a potential connection.

  • Mandiant reported that the UNC4990 threat group has shifted from its traditional method of using USB devices to distribute payloads. It is now abusing legitimate services such as Ars Technica, GitHub, GitLab, and Vimeo to host the EMPTYSPACE downloader. It can execute QUIETBOARD backdoor or any payload from the command and control (C2) server.

  • Russia-based Star Blizzard APT impersonated Russian researchers and academics in a new campaign to gain access to their colleagues’ email accounts. The emails contained a document that included blurring content and a fake button to Google Drive.

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Jun 13, 2025

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, June 09–13, 2025

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Jun 6, 2025

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, June 02–06, 2025

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May 30, 2025

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, May 26–30, 2025

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Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, May 19–23, 2025

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May 9, 2025

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, May 05–09, 2025

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May 2, 2025

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, April 28–May 02, 2025

The FBI just dropped a massive breadcrumb trail. Details of 42,000 phishing domains tied to the LabHost platform have been released to help defenders investigate potential breaches. The service enabled the theft of 500,000 credit cards and over a million credentials. The takedown of JokerOTP has exposed just how far phishing has evolved. The tool was used in more than 28,000 attacks across 13 countries, tricking victims into handing over 2FA codes by mimicking trusted brands. The operation cost victims £7.5 million and has now led to serious criminal charges, thanks to a joint effort involving Europol and Dutch authorities. Malware’s now hitching a ride on Go modules. Socket has uncovered three malicious packages hiding disk-wiping payloads, designed to cause irreversible data loss, especially on Linux systems. These modules take advantage of Go’s decentralized ecosystem. In the shadows of the cybersecurity landscape, MintsLoader emerges as a formidable adversary, orchestrating a multi-faceted infection strategy that deploys the notorious GhostWeaver RAT. Some PyPI packages are doing more than importing functions. Researchers uncovered seven malicious Python packages under the “Coffin” naming scheme, using Gmail’s SMTP service as a stealthy C2 channel. Ransomware groups aren’t always the ones breaking the door open. Researchers have uncovered ToyMaker, an initial access broker selling network entry to ransomware groups. Using a custom malware strain called LAGTOY, ToyMaker establishes reverse shells and executes commands on compromised systems. New vulnerabilities in Apple’s AirPlay protocol, collectively dubbed AirBorne, expose billions of devices to remote code execution without user interaction. Sharp and TX stealers are back, donning a new cloak - named Hannibal Stealer. It is going after credentials from browsers, crypto wallets, FTP clients, and VPN apps. It even captures Discord tokens and Steam sessions.

Apr 25, 2025

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, April 21–25, 2025

AI security finally has a global playbook. ETSI has released TS 104 223, a first-of-its-kind technical specification outlining how to secure AI systems across their entire lifecycle - from design to decommissioning. MITRE’s latest update is catching up with the cloud. ATT&CK v17 expands the framework to include ESXi and adds more than 140 defensive analytics. Platform-specific data collection advice, improved mitigation mapping, and deeper coverage of mobile threats like SIM swaps round out the upgrade. An APT group with deep roots in Southeast Asia is quietly siphoning data through everyday cloud platforms. Earth Kurma has been active since late 2020, targeting government and telecom entities across the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia. Signal and WhatsApp are the new frontline for cloud compromise. Russian actors are running OAuth phishing campaigns against Microsoft 365 users tied to Ukraine and human rights work. A forged email that passes every security check - that’s the new phishing trick. Attackers are using DKIM replay tactics to forward legitimate Google security alerts to unsuspecting victims. It starts with a fake sales order and ends with FormBook silently stealing your data. A recent phishing campaign has been abusing a long-patched Microsoft flaw to deliver a fileless variant of the malware. Docker containers aren’t always what they seem. A new threat named TenoBot is targeting systems running outdated Teneo Web3 node software, deploying malicious containers to hijack environments. A stealthy new RAT is slipping through Ivanti Connect Secure devices in Japan. Dubbed DslogdRAT, the malware exploits a zero-day flaw to execute commands via web shell and quietly exfiltrate data using encoded C2 traffic.

Apr 18, 2025

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, April 14–18, 2025

The U.S. is drawing a hard line on data outflows. The DOJ’s new Data Security Program aims to block foreign adversaries, specifically nations like China and Russia, from acquiring sensitive American data through commercial channels. SSL certificates are about to expire a lot faster. In a move to tighten digital trust, the CA/Browser Forum has approved a gradual reduction in certificate lifespans - from the current 398 days to just 47 by 2029. One email, three stages, and no files to catch. Agent Tesla is being deployed through spam campaigns that use archive attachments with embedded JavaScript. They look like browser helpers, but they act like spyware. A set of 57 Chrome extensions have been found snooping on users. XorDDoS is now compromising Docker servers and deploying new features tied to a “VIP” variant. Most of the recent activity is hitting U.S. infrastructure. UNC5174 is keeping a low profile, but its targets aren’t. Active since late 2024, the Chinese state-linked group has been compromising Linux systems using a malicious bash script that drops SNOWLIGHT malware and a fileless VShell RAT. A wine-tasting invite with a side of malware. APT29, the Russian state-aligned group, is targeting European diplomatic networks with phishing lures disguised as event announcements.

Apr 11, 2025

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, April 07–11, 2025

The U.K. government rolled out a Cyber Governance Code of Practice aimed at directors and board members, not just CISOs. Backed by the NCSC and other national bodies, the code includes practical actions, modular training, and a board-level toolkit. Startups building the future of cyber defense are getting serious backing. The British Business Bank has committed most of a £50 million fund to Osney Capital, which will invest in early-stage cybersecurity companies across the U.K. A torrent download might be doing more than delivering cracked software. A campaign has been distributing ViperSoftX to Korean users, likely run by Arabic-speaking threat actors. Invasive spyware campaigns are zeroing in on high-risk communities. MOONSHINE and BADBAZAAR are being deployed through trojanized mobile apps to surveil Uyghur, Tibetan, and Taiwanese individuals, as well as civil society groups. Search for QuickBooks during tax season, and you might land on a trap. Threat actors are placing deceptive Google Ads that link to phishing pages almost identical to the real QuickBooks login portal. It starts with a PDF search and ends with malware on your machine. A new campaign is using fake CAPTCHAs and Cloudflare Turnstile to lure users into downloading LegionLoader. Seed phrases aren’t supposed to come from strangers. The PoisonSeed campaign is targeting crypto holders and enterprise users by compromising bulk email services. Victims are lured with fake wallet setup instructions that embed attacker-controlled recovery phrases - giving threat actors full access once the wallets are used. A Chinese-linked threat group, ToddyCat, has been exploiting a security vulnerability in ESET's software to deliver a new malware, TCESB, in Asia.