Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence - March 20–24

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

Weekly Threat Briefing • March 24, 2023

The Good

A good number of cybersecurity approaches to deal with advanced and sophisticated cyber threats were disclosed this week. One of these involved a new open-source incident response tool released by the CISA. The tool is designed to detect signs of malicious activity across different Microsoft cloud environments. In another significant development, the U.K’s NCSC announced two new services—Cyber Action Plan and Check Your Cyber Security—to help small businesses effectively deal with cyber risks.

  • The DHS’ Science and Technology Directorate and the Republic of Korea’s Ministry of National Defense Acquisition Program Administration signed a memorandum to boost their security capabilities against cyber and other threats. As per the agreement, both nations will work side-by-side and share technical information, along with emerging technologies to protect citizens from sophisticated cyber threats.
  • The CISA has released a new open-source incident response tool called ‘Untitled Goose Tool’ that can help organizations to detect signs of malicious activity in Microsoft cloud environments. The tool comes with several authentication and data collection methods that can be used to run a full investigation on Azure AD, Azure, and Microsoft 365 environments.
  • This week the U.K government issued several new strategies to improve the overall cybersecurity posture of the nation. In one instance, the NHS provided new guidelines for cyber resilience in the country’s healthcare sector. On the other hand, the NCSC announced two new services—Cyber Action Plan and Check Your Cyber Security—to help small businesses effectively enhance their cyber risk management.

The Bad

The infamous GoAnywhere MFT hacking incident continues to be in the headlines as the notorious Cl0p ransomware gang exposed a list of new victims. This includes a luxury brand retailer in the U.S., a British multinational conglomerate, and the City of Toronto. Apart from this, the LockBit gang took credit for the attack on the City of Oakland while setting a ransom demand deadline for the government to prevent the stolen files from being exposed. In other concerning news, a popular streaming platform had put the personal data of nearly 37 million subscribers at risk due to an unprotected Elasticsearch database.

  • Lionsgate streaming platform leaked nearly 37 million subscribers’ IP addresses and data due to an unprotected Elasticsearch database. The entries in the database were old as May 2022 and also contained other information such as the platform’s usage data, search queries entered by users, and titles of URLs.
  • Fresh product giant Dole Food Company revealed that the ransomware attack in February compromised the information of an undisclosed number of employees. Furthermore, the incident impacted several operations, which led to a shortage of Dole products on store shelves for over a week.
  • Saks Fifth Avenue has emerged as the newest victim of aggressive Cl0p ransomware attacks that compromised over 130 organizations. Other victims include the City of Toronto, the Pension Protection Fund, and Virgin Group (the U.K). These organizations were impacted by attacks that exploited vulnerable GoAnywhere MFT servers. The ransomware gang claimed the attack by sharing the name of the retail firm on its leak site.
  • On March 20, Ferrari revealed that its Italian subsidiary, Ferrari S.p.A, was the victim of a ransomware attack. The attacker has demanded a ransom to prevent the leak of contact details of clients. At present, the luxury sports cars company claims that there is no evidence of sensitive data being accessed and that there is no impact on its operations.
  • Over 2,400 phishing pages impersonating well-known companies in the logistics, food & beverage, and petroleum industries were used to target Arabic-speaking job seekers. The campaign was active from January 2022 to January 2023 and lured victims with web pages containing descriptions about fake vacancies.
  • The LockBit gang has threatened to leak the files and data stolen from the City of Oakland’s systems. The attackers have given a 19-day deadline after which they plan to publish the stolen data. However, the city is yet to issue a statement regarding the claims.
  • The Play ransomware gang took responsibility for the attack on the logistics company Royal Dirkzwager. The gang added the company’s name to its Tor leak site and announced the theft of stolen private and personal information, including employee IDs, passports, and contracts.
  • The personal data of nearly one million users connected with PowderRoom, a beauty content platform in South Korea, is at risk due to a leaky database. The database was publicly available for over a year and included full names, email addresses, Instagram usernames, and home addresses of users.

New Threats

This week, a new wave of Magecart attacks was observed against multiple Magento and WooCommerce sites. In one of these campaigns, researchers found the emergence of a Kritec skimmer that masqueraded as Google Tag Manager. There is also an update on the FakeGPT campaign that was first discovered on March 14. The attackers have launched a new Chrome extension called ‘Chat GPT for Google’ to ensnare more Facebook user accounts.

  • In a joint advisory, the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) and the National Intelligence Service of the Republic of Korea (NIS) warned that the notorious Kimsuky APT is using a malicious Chrome extension and Android apps to intercept and steal victims’ email content. The campaign is aimed at diplomats, journalists, government agencies, university professors, and politicians in South Korea, the U.S., and Europe.

  • A new Kritec skimming malware was used in Magecart attacks to target Magento stores. The malware masqueraded as a legitimate Google Tag Manager to evade detection. Once executed, the stolen credit card details were exfiltrated twice - one via a WebSocket skimmer and the other via a POST request. Apart from abusing Google Tag Manager, Magecart actors were also found hiding malicious code inside the ‘Authorize[.]net’ payment gate module for WooCommerce to steal credit card details.

  • Researchers disclosed a campaign where the North Korea-based ScarCruft APT used Microsoft Compiled HTML Help (CHM) files to deploy malware on targeted machines. The latest development illustrates the group’s continuous efforts to refine its tactic to bypass detection.

  • A new Android banking trojan, dubbed Nexus, is being used by several threat actors to target 450 financial applications and conduct fraud. While it is still under development, the trojan provides all the main features to perform ATO attacks against banking portals and cryptocurrency services. The trojan is advertised on various hacking forums for a monthly fee of $3,000.

  • The PoC for vulnerabilities in Netgear’s Orbi 750 series router and extender satellites has been released, indicating that organizations using these products must immediately apply security patches to stay safe. One of these flaws is related to a remote command execution vulnerability.

  • Government agencies and organizations operating in Russia-occupied territories of Ukraine are being targeted with new malware strains, named CommonMagic and PowerMagic. Active since September 2021, the malware are designed to steal data from victims’ devices. They are distributed via phishing emails with a link to a ZIP archive.

  • Threat actors are abusing the legitimate Adobe Acrobat Sign service to distribute the notorious RedLine information stealer. The infection chain starts with a phishing email that asks recipients to verify a report by clicking on the review and sign button. Once the victim clicks on the button, they are redirected to a site that asks them to enter a CAPTCHA that is hard coded. Consequently, the victim downloads the ZIP archive that contains the trojan.

  • Attackers have been found impersonating legitimate packages via typosquatting to infect .NET developers with cryptocurrency stealers. These malicious packages are delivered through the NuGet repository, with three of them being downloaded over 150,000 times within a month. The malicious packages are designed to download and execute a PowerShell-based dropper script that configures the compromised system before dropping the second-stage payload.

  • The threat group tracked as REF2924 has been found deploying previously unseen malware in its attacks against entities in South and Southeast Asia. The malware, dubbed NAPLISTENER, is an HTTP listener programmed in C# and is designed to evade network-based forms of detection. In addition to NAPLISTENER, the hacking group has also been associated with multiple custom malware tracked as SiestaGraph and Somnirecord, among others.

  • A new variant of BlackGuard stealer has been spotted with capabilities like USB propagation, persistence mechanisms, and targeting additional crypto wallets. While the developers are constantly improving the malware, researchers warn that the new variant is being widely used to launch attacks.

  • A new variant of the FakeGPT Chrome extension titled ‘Chat GPT for Google’ is targeting Facebook users in an attempt to hijack their accounts. The attack is an extension of the FakeGPT campaign that was discovered on March 14. This time, the malicious extension is not pushed using sponsored Facebook posts but rather is distributed by abusing Google Ads.

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May 30, 2025

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, May 26–30, 2025

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May 23, 2025

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, May 19–23, 2025

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May 16, 2025

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, May 12–16, 2025

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May 9, 2025

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, May 05–09, 2025

Another blow to DDoS-for-hire networks. Europol has shut down six services used to launch global cyberattacks, arresting suspects in Poland and seizing domains in the U.S. The UN has launched a new framework to help policymakers make sense of cyber intrusions. Called UNIDIR Intrusion Path, it complements models like MITRE ATT&CK but simplifies the technical details. It breaks down attacker activity into three layers, making it easier to evaluate threats in a policy context. Old routers are becoming cybercrime goldmines. The FBI has warned that end-of-life routers are being hijacked with malware like TheMoon and sold on proxy networks such as 5Socks and Anyproxy. These compromised devices are used for crypto theft, cybercrime-as-a-service, and even espionage. Crypto users on Discord are the latest targets of a phishing campaign tied to Inferno Drainer. Attackers were found impersonating the Collab.Land bot to trick users into signing malicious transactions. The Play ransomware group has joined the list of actors exploiting CVE-2025-29824. This Windows zero-day in the CLFS driver enables privilege escalation via a race condition during file operations. Linked to the Balloonfly group, the attacks targeted a U.S. organization and included deployment of the Grixba infostealer. COLDRIVER’s latest malware, LOSTKEYS, is now in play. The Russian state-backed group is deploying this tool to steal files and system data from advisors, journalists, NGOs, and individuals linked to Ukraine. Agenda’s playbook just got upgraded. The ransomware group has added two new tools: SmokeLoader and a stealthy .NET-based loader called NETXLOADER. The latter leverages techniques like JIT hooking and AES decryption to deploy ransomware. Corporate HR teams are the latest target in a spear-phishing spree by Venom Spider. Disguised as job applications, these emails deliver More_eggs backdoor, now upgraded with advanced features.

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.