Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence - May 13–17

The Good

We’re back with our weekly dose of the most insightful threat intel. The past week witnessed several cybersecurity advancements, security incidents, as well as the emergence of new threats. To begin with, let’s first glance through all the good that has happened in cyberspace over the past week. Amazon is introducing a new feature dubbed ‘Alexa Guard’ which transforms the Echo smart speaker into a smart home security system. PEO STRI is setting up a “national cyber range” where US forces and their allies can conduct “in-the-box” exercises in a simulated cyber realm. Meanwhile, researchers are developing a technology inspired by fitness trackers that could prevent cyber attacks.

• The Persistent Cyber Training Environment PEO STRI is setting up a “national cyber range” where US forces and their allies can conduct “in-the-box” exercises in a simulated cyber realm. This will provide US forces with realistic virtual training to combat cyber threats.
• Researchers from the University of Bath and Goldsmiths and the University of London are developing a technology inspired by fitness trackers that could prevent cyber attacks. This technology would signal when someone is resetting a password or updating anti-virus software with sound, lights, and vibration.
• Amazon is introducing a new feature dubbed ‘Alexa Guard’ which transforms the Echo smart speaker into a smart home security system. Alexa Guard feature will send alerts to users via their mobile devices if any problem is suspected at home. This feature is compatible with the Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Plus, Echo Show, Echo Spot, and Echo Input.

The Bad

Several data breaches and security incidents were witnessed over the past week. Attackers hacked the webcast of the first Eurovision semi-final to display faked explosions along with a warning about a missile attack. Magecart threat group injected its card skimming script on Forbes’ subscription website in order to steal the credit card data that customers enter on the checkout page. Last but not least, the names of the major antivirus companies that were breached by ‘Fxmsp’ hacking group have been revealed, which includes Symantec, McAfee, and Trend Micro.

• Magecart threat group injected its card skimming script on Forbes’ subscription website in order to steal the credit card data that customers enter on the checkout page. The infected website has been taken down with the help of Freenom’s anti-abuse API, however, the obfuscated Magecart skimmer script is still present on the forbesmagazine[.]com.
• Attackers hacked the webcast of the first Eurovision semi-final to display faked explosions along with a warning about a missile attack. Viewers switching on to the Kan webcast saw the warning “Risk of missile attack. Please take shelter,” along with the sound of a rocket-warning siren. The Israeli national broadcaster, Kan, suspects Hamas to be behind this action.
• Attackers have compromised analytics service Picreel and open-source project Alpaca Forms to embed malicious code on over 4,600 websites. The malicious code embedded in the Picreel script has been detected on 1,249 websites, while the Alpaca Forms script has been detected on 3,435 domains.
• The Southeastern Council Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (SCADD) suffered a ransomware attack impacting certain personal information of patients. The compromised information includes patients’ names, addresses, Social Security numbers, as well as medical history and treatment information.
• FirstBank suffered an external security incident which led to the compromise of its customers’ bank accounts. This incident has affected nearly 50 FirstBank account holders. The bank is canceling issued debit cards in order to reduce the risk of improper access to bank accounts.
• Attackers gained unauthorized access to several Pacers Sports & Entertainment (PSE) employee accounts between October 15, 2018, and December 4, 2018, and compromised customers’ personal records. The compromised information includes names, addresses, dates of birth, passport numbers, medical information, driver's license/state identification numbers, account numbers, payment card numbers, digital signatures, login credentials, and Social Security numbers.
• A cybersecurity firm has disclosed the names of the three antivirus companies that have been breached by the ‘Fxmsp’ hacking group. The conversations between Fxmsp group members confirm that the breached antivirus companies were Symantec, Trend Micro, and McAfee.
• Boost Mobile suffered a data breach, wherein attackers compromised user accounts via users’ Boost phone numbers and Boost.com PIN codes that have been previously exposed. In response to the breach, Boost has provided the potentially affected customers with a temporary PIN that can be used to access their account. Boost Mobile confirmed that customers’ credit card information and social security numbers are encrypted and were not compromised.
• Fast Retailing, the Japanese company behind the Uniqlo retail chain, revealed that almost 460,000 customers’ data on its Uniqlo online shopping sites has been accessed by attackers. Compromised customer data includes names, addresses, and contact details. However, partial credit card data might also be involved in the breach.
• An unprotected Elasticsearch server exposed almost 3,427,396 personal records and patient data of nearly 85% of Panama citizens. The exposed personal records include names, home addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, national ID numbers, dates of birth, and medical insurance numbers.
• American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) has uncovered a fraud scheme from late 2018 through which almost 757,760 IPv4 addresses worth between $9,850,880 and $14,397,440 were fraudulently obtained. The two accused parties behind the fraud scheme, Amir Golestan and Micfo, are charged in federal court with twenty-counts in a wire fraud indictment, with each count punishable by up to 20 years of imprisonment.
• Multiple Russian government websites are leaking the personal and passport data of over 2.25 million citizens, including the government officials and high-profile politicians. He uncovered around 23 Russian government sites that leaked SNILS numbers and 14 sites that leaked passport details. These sites also exposed other personal information such as names, email addresses, designations, places of work, and tax identification numbers.
• Attackers have hacked the website of Red Cross, Singapore and have stolen the personal information of over 4,000 potential blood donors. The compromised information includes blood donors’ names, blood types, and contact numbers.

New Threats

In the past week, the occurrence of several new malware strains and vulnerabilities were detected. Researchers have spotted Emotet distributing third-party payloads such as Qbot, Trickbot, IcedID, and Gootkit. Whatsapp had a critical vulnerability in its audio call feature that could allow attackers to install spyware on mobiles via a WhatsApp call. Meanwhile, researchers uncovered a flaw in Intel’s hardware that could allow attackers to extract sensitive data from a computer’s CPU.

• Threat actor group TA542 ’s signature payload Emotet was found distributing third-party payloads such as Qbot, The Trick, IcedID, and Gootkit. Researchers also noted that this new version of Emotet loaded its modules for spamming, credential stealing, email harvesting, and spreading on local networks.
• A North Korean cyber-espionage group has developed a new strain of malware that is designed to harvest information about Bluetooth devices connected to Windows systems. This malware uses Windows Bluetooth APIs to collect data from victims. The Bluetooth data that is harvested includes the name of Bluetooth-connected devices, device class, device address, and whether the device is currently connected/authenticated/remembered, or not.
• A serious buffer overflow vulnerability was identified in the audio call feature of WhatsApp. This vulnerability could allow attackers to install spyware on mobiles via a WhatsApp call. The buffer overflow vulnerability (CVE-2019-3568) has been patched in WhatsApp versions v2.19.134 (Android), v2.19.51 (iOS), v2.18.348 (Windows Phone) and v2.18.15 (Tizen). The bug has also been patched in WhatsApp Business versions v2.19.44 (Android) and v2.19.51 (iOS).
• Researchers have found similarities between the MegaCortex ransomware and LockerGoga ransomware. Both the ransomware rename the files it plans to encrypt before encrypting them. At least one of the C&C server used by MegaCortex has also been used by LockerGoga. Similarly, both the malware operators use a compromised domain controller to push the ransomware out to machines on a target network.
• Attackers are abusing the ASUS web storage system to perform Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attacks and distribute the Plead malware. Plead malware is a backdoor which is associated with the BlackTech group. This malware specializes in data theft through a combination of the Plead backdoor and Drigo exfiltration tool.
• Banload is one of the most prolific Brazilian banking malware. Attackers behind this banking malware have implemented a new technique dubbed ‘FileDelete’ to remove security software belonging to antivirus programs. This driver component ‘FileDelete’ is digitally signed with a valid certificate and is installed via the group Golang loader, leveraging PowerShell, to the local directory “C:\G DATA Security Software.
• Google announced that its discovery of a misconfiguration flaw in the Bluetooth version of Titan Security Key that could allow nearby attackers to either communicate with the security key or with the device it’s paired with. The flaw could thereby allow attackers to ultimately hijack the Titan Security key. Google is advising users to get a free replacement device that fixes the vulnerability.
• Researchers have uncovered security flaws in Intel’s hardware that could allow attackers to siphon sensitive data from a computer’s CPU. The series of vulnerability and exploits are classified as MDS attacks (Microarchitectural Data Sampling attacks) which include RIDL (Rogue In-flight Data Load), ZombieLoad, and Fallout.
• Ten members of the GozNym cybercriminal group were charged for attempting to steal an estimated $100 million from more than 41,000 victims from businesses and their financial institutions. The members of the group infected victims' computers with the GozNym malware and captured their online banking login credentials, using which they managed to fraudulently steal money.