Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, May 25 - 29, 2020

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, May 25 - 29, 2020 - Featured Image

Weekly Threat Briefing • May 29, 2020

The Good

A wave of government-sponsored cyberattack campaigns aimed at stealing COVID-19-related medical research is on the rise. Keeping this in mind, the DHS’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has reformed the security measures for healthcare organizations and research facilities to prevent hackers from pilfering medical research data. On the other hand, Google launched a new ‘Scam Spotter’ program to combat COVID-19 scams.

  • The CISA improved the defense measures for healthcare organizations and research facilities in an effort to protect Coronavirus-related research. The development comes as state-sponsored hackers continue to target Coronavirus-related medical research data.

  • Qihoo 360 along with Baidu disrupted the operations of DoubleGuns trojan that infected thousands of computers across China. The trojan was active since July 2017 and its primary purpose was to infect users with MBR and VBR bootkits, and install malicious drivers.

  • Federal authorities arrested a member of the prolific Fin7 hacking group that impacted Chipotle and other fast food restaurants, casinos, and credit unions.

  • Google in association with the Cybercrime Support Network, launched a new ‘Scam Spotter’ program to help individuals spot and prevent COVID-19 related scams.

The Bad

This week saw the leak of confidential data belonging to several organizations such as NTT, AIS, and Bank of Costa Rica. Most of the leaked data included personal details of either employees or customers.

  • NTT disclosed a data breach that resulted in the compromise of data of about 600 customers. The hackers infiltrated Active Directory services on May 7 to gain access to NTT’s sensitive data.

  • A database containing around 26 million LiveJournal credentials was put up for sale on the dark web. The database, sold for a price of $35, was hacked in 2015.

  • Personal data of up to 1.3 million civil servants at Indonesia’s Education and Culture Ministry was reportedly breached. The leaked data included citizen identification numbers, full names, home addresses, birthplaces, and birth dates of individuals.

  • Around 31 SQL databases associated with several e-commerce sites were offered for sale on a public website. Hackers demanded a ransom of $525 in Bitcoin from victims to prevent their databases from being made publicly available. These databases contained 1.6 million rows of user information.

  • Thailand’s largest cell network, AIS, spilled billions of real-time internet records that included DNS queries and NetFlow data due to an unprotected database. It took the database offline as soon as it became aware.

  • The operators of NetWalker ransomware attacked Michigan State University and demanded a ransom in exchange for the decryption keys. They published five images associated with the documents stolen from the university to support their claim.

  • Tellus app leaked nearly 17,000 user records due to a misconfigured Amazon S3 bucket. The leaky bucket also contained chat logs of landlords, building managers, investors, and Tellus support staff.

  • The week also witnessed ransomware attacks on Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization in Halifax and North Babylon School District. The attackers disrupted many computers, thereby leaving less chance to recover the encrypted files.

  • Arbonne International revealed that it suffered a data breach last month. This affected the personal information of thousands of Californians.

  • Cybercrooks sold a database comprising records of 47.5 million TrueCaller users. The compromised data dates back to 2019.

  • Online education site EduCBA asked its users to reset passwords following a data breach. The company notified its customers about their data being accessed by an unauthorized third party.

  • Maze ransomware operators published credit card details of Bank of Costa Rica (BCR) after a failed ransom demand. The hackers had exfiltrated the data in August 2019.

New Threats

Among the new threats discovered this week, security researchers discovered a new RangeAmp attack that could bring down websites and Content Delivery Networks (CDNs). A new variant of StrandHogg, found in smartphones running versions prior to Android 9.0, could let hackers steal data from installed apps.

  • Threat actors targeted industrial suppliers in Japan, Italy, Germany, and the UK to steal credentials. The campaign leveraged phishing emails written in different languages.

  • Two high severity vulnerabilities found in the PageLayer plugin could let attackers wipe out the content and take control of WordPress sites. The plugin is installed on at least 120,000 sites.

  • Trickbot trojan updated one of its propagation modules known as ‘mworm’ to a new module called ‘nworm’. With this new addition, the trojan can move across a network without being detected.

  • RagnarLocker ransomware’s anti-analysis capability was enhanced using an Oracle VirtualBox. It allowed the ransomware to evade detection during the infection process.

  • Two new ransomware - PonyFinal and [F]Unicorn - were also discovered by researchers this week. While [F]Unicorn spreads via a fake COVID-19 contact-tracing app, the PonyFinal ransomware propagates through brute-force attacks.

  • Academics used an advanced fuzzing tool, USBFuzz, to discover 26 new vulnerabilities in the USB driver stack employed by operating systems such as Linux, macOS, Windows, and FreeBSD. Of these, 18 are ‘high-severity’ flaws.

  • Privacy flaws in internet-connected doorbells and security cameras can let attackers eavesdrop on a user’s private video recordings. The flaws affect products manufactured by Ring, Nest, SimpliSafe, D-Link, TP-Link, and Blink.

  • A new form of DoS attack called RangeAmp can bring down websites and CDNs by amplifying web traffic. So far, there are two variants of the attack - RangeAmp Small Byte Range (SBR) and RangeAmp Overlapping Byte Ranges (OBR).

  • A fake Valorant app, promoted via YouTube videos, was used by cybercrooks to push an Android.FakeApp.176 trojan on to a victim’s phone.

  • The capabilities of Grandoreiro trojan and Valak malware were enhanced to target Portuguese users and Microsoft Exchange servers respectively. While the former was used to steal banking credentials, the later stole targeted enterprises’ credentials.

  • The Ke3chang hacker group developed a new malware, dubbed Ketrum, by recycling two old malware - Ketrican and Okrum. The newly discovered malware strain includes screenshot grabbing and backdoor capabilities.

  • StrandHogg 2.0 vulnerability affects all smartphones running earlier versions of Android 9.0. The flaw could be abused to invade data from all apps installed on a user’s phone.

  • The National Security Agency (NSA) raised an alarm about the Sandworm hacker group exploiting a known vulnerability in Exim email servers. It revealed that the group was abusing the flaw since August 2019.

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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

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May 2, 2025

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

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Apr 25, 2025

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, April 21–25, 2025

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Apr 18, 2025

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, April 14–18, 2025

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Apr 11, 2025

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, April 07–11, 2025

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Apr 4, 2025

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, March 31–April 04, 2025

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Mar 28, 2025

Cyware Weekly Threat Intelligence, March 24–28, 2025

The U.K’s NCSC is putting domain abuse in its crosshairs. New guidance targets registrars with a push to curb malicious domain registrations and hijacks. The recommendations focus on tightening security at registration, offering enhanced protections to customers, and more. Europe is getting serious about the quantum future. ETSI has rolled out a new quantum-safe encryption standard featuring Covercrypt, a novel key encapsulation scheme with built-in access controls. By tying decryption permissions to user attributes, Covercrypt delivers speed and post-quantum security. Medusa isn’t just encrypting files, it’s dismantling defenses first. The RaaS has been leveraging a malicious driver called ABYSSWORKER in BYOVD attacks to disable endpoint protections. FamousSparrow has returned with new tools and a familiar agenda. The Chinese APT group was behind a July 2024 attack targeting a U.S. trade group and a Mexican research institute, deploying a web shell on an IIS server to drop SparrowDoor and ShadowPad. A supply chain attack snuck through npm by modifying what developers thought they could trust. Threat actors used two packages to inject malware into the widely used ethers library. Lucid isn’t just phishing - it’s engineering trust through your inbox. This advanced PhaaS platform weaponizes the built-in features of iMessage and RCS to create hyper-realistic scams. Known for years of corporate espionage, RedCurl has shifted gears with a new ransomware called QWCrypt. The malware was found in a North American network, targeting hypervisors for maximum disruption. PlayBoy Locker is offering ransomware with a user manual and tech support. The newly investigated RaaS platform operates on an affiliate model and comes packed with features. Targeting Windows, NAS, and ESXi systems, it moves laterally using LDAP scans and abuses Restart Manager DLLs to shut down active processes before encryption.

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

A Russian hosting provider is feeling the heat from global sanctions. Australia, the U.K., and the U.S. have sanctioned Zservers, a bulletproof hosting provider linked to ransomware and fraud, freezing its assets and restricting operations. Switzerland is tightening its grip on cyber incident reporting. Starting April 1, critical infrastructure operatorsmust report cyberattacks to the NCSC within 24 hours, reinforcing national cybersecurity defenses. Cybercriminals are upgrading their toolkit for long-term access. Ragnar Loader is being leveraged by ransomware groups like FIN7, FIN8, and Ragnar Locker, evolving into a stealthier and more modular malware for persistent system compromise. Chinese hackers are slipping past defenses in Juniper routers. The UNC3886 threat group is backdooring older Juniper MX routers, bypassing security protections and embedding custom TinyShell malware to maintain access. North Korean hackers are adding ransomware to their arsenal. Moonstone Sleet (Storm-1789) is deploying Qilin ransomware, using fake companies and trojanized tools to infiltrate targets through LinkedIn and freelance platforms. A botnet is turning home routers into attack platforms. The Ballista botnet is exploiting an unpatched TP-Link Archer router flaw (CVE-2023-1389) to spread stealthily, using Tor domains and remote command execution to launch DDoS attacks worldwide. Copy, paste, and lose your crypto. MassJacker hijacks clipboard transactions, swapping wallet addresses with attacker-controlled ones, stealing funds from victims who unknowingly send money to the wrong destination. A fake CAPTCHA is all it takes to get root access. The OBSCURE#BAT campaign is using social engineering tactics to install the r77 rootkit, bypassing defenses and targeting English-speaking users with stealthy, persistent malware.

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’.