Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence - May 15–19

The Good

It takes a collaborative effort to achieve effective and enhanced cybersecurity. Taking a leaf from that, the U.S. Homeland Security Committee has issued two new bills that would require the CISA to bolster the government’s cybersecurity workforce and the security of open-source software. The Department of Veterans Affairs is also seeking to improve its in-house security operations by incorporating a wide range of capabilities for cyber incident response, cloud threat detection, and insider threat analysis.

• The U.S. House Homeland Security Committee advanced five bills to address challenges threatening the nation’s cybersecurity posture. Two of these bills give the CISA new responsibilities to improve the security of open-source software and the government’s cybersecurity workforce. Additionally, the federal agency will also have the authority to train DHS employees to move from non-cyber to cybersecurity roles.
• The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is prepping for a five-year cybersecurity contract, that ranges from cyber incident response to cloud threat detection and insider threat analysis, to boost its in-house security operation centers. The development comes after it was revealed that VA computer networks encounter over 45 million weekly security-related events.
• NATO announced the induction of new countries—Ukraine, Ireland, Japan, and Iceland—into its Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE). The hub focuses on cyber defense research, training and exercises, strategies, and laws to protect information systems and critical infrastructure from large-scale attacks.

The Bad

While government agencies are working to build a better defense against emerging security threats, security lapses at organizations continue to expose sensitive data. A transportation company in France and a widely used university admission platform laid bare the personal details of thousands of customers in two different incidents, owing to misconfigured databases. That’s not all. A ransomware group gained unauthorized access and stole 4.7 TB of customer data from a pharmacy services provider firm. Unfortunately, the stolen data was put up for sale on underground forums.

• A data breach at Credit Control Corporation (CCC) company affected the personal information of over 286,000 individuals. The breach occurred between March 2 and March 7 and resulted in the theft of names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and account details of people. The incident also affected numerous healthcare institutions that relied on CCC’s debt collection services.
• The U.S. Department of Transportation is investigating a data breach that affected the personal information of 237,000 current and former federal government employees. The breach occurred within the systems supporting the TRANServe program.
• A brand new type of BEC attack, ‘VIP Invoice Authorization Fraud’, was found impersonating senior executives working in the finance department to trick employees into paying for a fake invoice. To make it look legitimate, fraudsters reply to the email thread and instruct recipients to pay as soon as possible.
• The CISA, the FBI, and the ACSC published a joint advisory to warn users about the new data-stealing method adopted by the BianLian ransomware group. Since January, when Avast released a decryptor for the ransomware, the group switched to stealing data without encrypting systems.
• Threat actors have been found selling access to organizations in the energy sector, including ICS and OT systems, on hacker forums. Access includes RDP, compromised credentials, or entry through a device vulnerability. The price for these accesses ranges between $20 and $2,500 depending on the target’s size, location, and the potential for supply chain attacks.
• Technology provider ScanSource announced falling victim to a ransomware attack that impacted some of its systems, business operations, and customer portals. The incident occurred on May 15, following which the company implemented its incident response plan, including alerting law enforcement and aiding forensic and cybersecurity professionals.
• La Malle Postale, a transportation company in France, inadvertently leaked the personal data of nearly 90,000 customers due to a misconfigured database. The leaked information included names, phone numbers, emails, private communications via SMS messages, and credentials of users.
• The Philadelphia Inquirer experienced significant disruption to its operations due to a cyberattack. The company restored print operations, although updates are slower than normal. An investigation into the matter is ongoing.
• The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) and the DHS suffered a data breach after attackers gained unauthorized access to the State of Illinois Application for Benefits Eligibility system’s Manage My Case (MMC) portal. The information accessed includes names, SSNs, recipient identification numbers, phone numbers, and income information.
• International electronics manufacturer Lacroix was targeted in a cyberattack that impacted its sites in France, Germany, and Tunisia. The company was forced to shut down its operations temporarily to assess the damage caused by the attack. It also ensured that the attack is completely contained before restarting the impacted systems at these sites.
• Leverage EDU, a popular university admission platform, leaked almost 240,000 sensitive files, including students’ passports, financial documents, certificates, and exam results, due to a misconfigured Amazon S3 bucket. Among the other leaked data included degree certificates, student report cards, exam results, CVs, and filled application forms.
• PharMerica, Louisville, disclosed a breach that impacted more than 5.8 million individuals. The firm learned of the breach on March 14, after which it launched an investigation to understand the extent of the incident. The compromised information included names, SSNs, addresses, birth dates, medication information, and health insurance information. Meanwhile, the Money Message ransomware group has started publishing the stolen data, which it claims to be around 4.7 TB.
• Sophos discovered five fake ChatGPT-themed apps on Apple and Google app stores that siphoned users’ funds by pushing them to enroll in a short free trial that converted to a high recurring subscription charge. The scammers used intrusive advertising and other features to make the free version barely usable, thus pushing users toward the costly subscription.
• There is an update on the LockBit ransomware attack at Bank Syariah Indonesia. The gang published 1.5 terabytes of personal and financial information stolen from the firm after the ransom negotiation failed. The leaked information belonged to about 15 million customers and employees associated with the bank.

New Threats

Several new malware variants were also spotted this week. Security researchers associated two new variants of the CopperStealer malware that targeted users globally with the lesser-known Water Orthrus APT. In another instance, Satdos malware was upgraded with new capabilities to infect more smart devices for cryptomining attacks. A Golang variant of Cobalt Strike, dubbed Geacon, was also in the news for targeting Mac systems worldwide.

• Water Orthrus, threat actors behind the CopperStealer malware, resurfaced with two new malware—CopperPhish and CopperStealth—to target users globally. While CopperPhish steals credit card information, CopperStealth uses a rootkit to install malware on infected systems.
• Kiddowares’ Kids Place parental control app for Android, which has around 5 million downloads on Google Play Store, is impacted by several vulnerabilities that could lead to the risk of arbitrary code execution and credential harvesting attacks.
• Researchers linked the Chinese Camaro Dragon APT to a new cyberattack campaign targeting European foreign affairs entities. The attack was carried out using a malicious firmware implant for TP-Link routers, which allowed attackers to gain full control of devices. It is believed that the attackers gained access to routers either by exploiting known vulnerabilities or using default login credentials.
• A Golang variant of Cobalt Strike beacon, dubbed Geacon, is being widely used to target macOS devices. Researchers have found two cases of Geacon deployment between April 5 and April 11. The first one was delivered via an AppleScript applet file named ‘Xu Yiqing’s Resume_20230320.app’. The second was delivered via a trojanized version of the SecureLink application used for secure remote support.
• The Chinese threat group 8220 Gang was found employing new strategies to launch cryptomining campaigns. This includes using exploits for the Linux utility “lwp-download” and CVE-2017-3506, an Oracle WebLogic vulnerability.
• APT group Lancefly has been using a custom-made backdoor, named Merdoor, to target organizations across government, education, telecom, and aviation sectors. The malware appears to have been in existence since 2018 and is capable of recording keystrokes, installing itself as a service, and listening to C2 servers.
• The RecordBreaker info-stealer, also referred to as Raccoon Stealer V2, has been observed in a new attack campaign targeting Korean users. The malware was hidden inside fake certificates from a Korean software company. Researchers at ASEC came across the new campaign during an investigation into fake certificates.
• Millions of smartphones worldwide were found preloaded with Guerrilla malware that allowed threat actors to monitor users’ phones and pilfer application data. A threat actor tracked as Lemon Group has been associated with the campaign that has been active since 2018.
• The new MalasLocker ransomware was observed hacking Zimbra servers to steal emails and encrypt files. Instead of asking for ransom, the malware operators were found asking victims to make donations to non-profit organizations.
• Researchers uncovered three malicious Visual Studio extensions on Microsoft’s VSCode marketplace. These extensions were downloaded over 46,000 times by Windows developers and enabled attackers to steal PII records from and set remote shells on compromised systems.
• A new variant of Sotdas malware, which boasts a range of innovative features and advanced defense evasion techniques, was found targeting smart devices in a cryptomining operation. The malware gathers valuable system information such as CPU and memory details, network interface information, and CPU utilization.
• Rust-based info-stealers were found targeting GitHub Codespaces to steal a wide variety of data from web browsers, Discord, Steam, and cryptocurrency wallets. The stolen information includes the browser name, computer name, number of cookies extracted, number of credit cards stolen, and Windows operating system version.