Research Saturday

Tim Peck, a Senior Threat Researcher at Securonix, is discussing their work on "Threat actors behind the DEV#POPPER campaign have retooled and are continuing to target software developers via social engineering." The DEV#POPPER campaign continues to evolve, now targeting developers with malware capable of operating on Linux, Windows, and macOS systems. The threat actors, believed to be North Korean, employ sophisticated social engineering tactics, such as fake job interviews, to deliver stealthy malware that gathers sensitive information, including browser credentials and system data. The research can be found here: Research Update: Threat Actors Behind the DEV#POPPER Campaign Have Retooled and are Continuing to Target Software Developers via Social Engineering Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Robert Duncan, VP of Product Strategy from Netcraft, is discussing their work on "Mule-as-a-Service Infrastructure Exposed." Netcraft's new threat intelligence reveals the intricate connections within global fraud networks, showing how criminals use specialized services like Mule-as-a-Service (MaaS) to launder scam proceeds. By mapping the cyber and financial infrastructure, including bank accounts, crypto wallets, and phone numbers, Netcraft exposes how different scams are interconnected and identifies weak points that can be targeted to disrupt these operations. This insight provides an opportunity to prevent fraud and protect against financial crimes like pig butchering, investment scams, and romance fraud. The research can be found here: Mule-as-a-Service Infrastructure Exposed Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Snir Ben Shimol from ZEST Security on their work, "How we hacked a cloud production environment by exploiting Terraform providers." In this blog, ZEST discusses the security risks associated with Terraform providers, particularly those from community sources. The research highlights the importance of carefully vetting providers, regular scanning, and following best practices like version pinning to mitigate potential vulnerabilities in cloud infrastructure management. The research can be found here: The hidden risks of Terraform providers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shachar Menashe, Senior Director of Security Research at JFrog, is talking about "When Prompts Go Rogue: Analyzing a Prompt Injection Code Execution in Vanna.AI." A security vulnerability in the Vanna.AI tool, called CVE-2024-5565, allows hackers to exploit large language models (LLMs) by manipulating user input to execute malicious code, a method known as prompt injection. This poses a significant risk when LLMs are connected to critical functions, highlighting the need for stronger security measures. The research can be found here: When Prompts Go Rogue: Analyzing a Prompt Injection Code Execution in Vanna.AI Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we are joined by Jason Baker, Senior Threat Consultant at GuidePoint Security, and he is discussing their work on "Worldwide Web: An Analysis of Tactics and Techniques Attributed to Scattered Spider." In early 2024, a current RansomHub RaaS affiliate was identified as a former Alphv/Black Cat affiliate and is believed to be linked to the Scattered Spider group, known for using overlapping tools, tactics, and victims. The high-confidence assessment by GuidePoint’s DFIR and GRIT teams is supported by the consistent use of tools like ngrok and Tailscale, social engineering tactics, and systematic playbooks in intrusions. The research can be found here: Worldwide Web: An Analysis of Tactics and Techniques Attributed to Scattered Spider Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dick O'Brien from Symantec Threat Hunter team is talking about their work on "Ransomware Attackers May Have Used Privilege Escalation Vulnerability as Zero-day." Also going to provide some background/history on Black Basta. CVE-2024-26169 in the Windows Error Reporting Service, patched on March 12, 2024, allowed privilege escalation. Despite initial claims of no active exploitation, recent analysis indicates it may have been exploited as a zero-day before the patch. The research can be found here: Ransomware Attackers May Have Used Privilege Escalation Vulnerability as Zero-day Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we are joined by Selena Larson, Staff Threat Researcher, Lead Intelligence Analysis and Strategy at Proofpoint, as well as host of the "Only Malware in the Building" podcast, as she is discussing their research on "Scammers Create Fraudulent Olympics Ticketing Websites." Proofpoint recently identified a fraudulent website selling fake tickets to the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics and quickly suspended the domain. This site was among many identified by the French Gendarmerie Nationale and Olympics partners, who have shut down 51 of 338 fraudulent websites, with 140 receiving formal notices from law enforcement. The research can be found here: Security Brief: Scammers Create Fraudulent Olympics Ticketing Websites Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we are joined by Asheer Malhotra and Vitor Ventura from Cisco Talos, and they are discussing "Operation Celestial Force employs mobile and desktop malware to target Indian entities." Cisco Talos revealed Operation Celestial Force, an espionage campaign by the Pakistani threat group "Cosmic Leopard," targeting Indian defense, government, and technology sectors. Active for at least six years, the operation has recently increased its use of mobile malware and commercial spyware for surveillance. The research can be found here: Operation Celestial Force employs mobile and desktop malware to target Indian entities Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ismael Valenzuela, Vice President Threat Research & Intelligence, from Blackberry Threat Research and Intelligence team is discussing their work on "Transparent Tribe Targets Indian Government, Defense, and Aerospace Sectors Leveraging Cross-Platform Programming Languages." BlackBerry has identified Transparent Tribe (APT36), a Pakistani-based advanced persistent threat group, targeting India's government, defense, and aerospace sectors from late 2023 to April 2024, using evolving toolkits and exploiting web services like Telegram and Google Drive. Evidence such as time zone settings and spear-phishing emails with Pakistani IP addresses supports their attribution, suggesting alignment with Pakistan's interests. The research can be found here: Transparent Tribe Targets Indian Government, Defense, and Aerospace Sectors Leveraging Cross-Platform Programming Languages Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kerri Shafer-Page from Arctic Wolf joins us to discuss their work on "Lost in the Fog: A New Ransomware Threat." Starting in early May, Arctic Wolf's Incident Response team investigated Fog ransomware attacks on US education and recreation sectors, where attackers exploited compromised VPN credentials to access systems, disable Windows Defender, encrypt files, and delete backups. Despite the uniformity in ransomware payloads and ransom notes, the organizational structure of the responsible groups remains unknown. The research can be found here: Lost in the Fog: A New Ransomware Threat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we are joined by a Security Researcher from SpyCloud Labs, James, who is discussing their work on "Unpacking Infostealer Malware: What we’ve learned from reverse engineering LummaC2 and Atomic macOS Stealer." Infostealer malware has become highly prevalent, with SpyCloud tracking over 50 families and finding that 1 in 5 digital identities are at risk. This research analyzes the workings and intentions behind infostealers like LummaC2 and Atomic macOS Stealer, focusing on the types of data extracted and the broader security implications. The research can be found here: Reversing LummaC2 4.0: Updates, Bug Fixes Reversing Atomic macOS Stealer: Binaries, Backdoors & Browser Theft How the Threat Actors at SpaxMedia Distribute Malware Globally Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jérôme Segura, Senior Director of Threat Intelligence at Malwarebytes, is discussing their work on "Threat actors ride the hype for newly released Arc browser." The Arc browser, newly released for Windows, has quickly garnered positive reviews but has also attracted cybercriminals who are using deceptive Google search ads to distribute malware disguised as the browser. These malicious campaigns exploit the hype around Arc, using techniques like embedding malware in image files and utilizing the MEGA cloud platform for command and control, highlighting the need for caution with sponsored search results and the effectiveness of Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) systems. The research can be found here: Threat actors ride the hype for newly released Arc browser Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amit Malik, Director of Threat Research at Uptycs, is sharing their work on "New Threat Detected: Inside Our Discovery of the Log4j Campaign and Its XMRig Malware." The Uptycs Threat Research Team has discovered a large-scale Log4j campaign involving over 1700 IPs, aiming to deploy XMRig cryptominer malware. This ongoing operation was initially detected through the team's honeypot collection, prompting an in-depth analysis of the campaign. The research says "The JNDI plugin is particularly useful to attackers because it allows them not only to fetch the values of environment variables in the target system but also to freely define the URL and protocol resource for the JNDI network connection." The research can be found here: New Threat Detected: Inside Our Discovery of the Log4j Campaign and Its XMRig Malware Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jon DiMaggio, a Chief Security Strategist at Analyst1, is sharing his work on "Ransomware Diaries Volume 5: Unmasking LockBit." On February 19, 2024, the National Crime Agency (NCA), a UK sovereign law enforcement agency, in collaboration with the FBI, Europol, and nine other countries under "Operation Cronos," disrupted the LockBit ransomware gang’s data leak site used for shaming, extorting, and leaking victim data. The NCA greeted visitors to LockBit’s dark web leak site with a seizure banner, revealing they had been controlling LockBit’s infrastructure for some time, collecting information, acquiring victim decryption keys, and even compromising the new ransomware payload intended for LockBit 4.0. The research can be found here: Ransomware Diaries Volume 5: Unmasking LockBit Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we are joined by Hosein Yavarzadeh from the University of California San Diego, as he is discussing his work on "Pathfinder: High-Resolution Control-Flow Attacks Exploiting the Conditional Branch Predictor" This paper introduces new methods that let attackers read from and write to specific parts of high-performance CPUs, such as the path history register (PHR) and prediction history tables (PHTs). These methods allow two main types of attacks. One can reveal a program's control flow history, as shown by recovering a secret image through the libjpeg routines. The other enables detailed transient attacks, demonstrated by extracting an AES encryption key, highlighting significant security risks for these systems. The research can be found here: Graph: Growing number of threats leveraging Microsoft API Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dick O'Brien from Symantec Threat Hunter team is discussing their research on “Graph: Growing number of threats leveraging Microsoft API.” The team observed an increasing number of threats that have begun to leverage the Microsoft Graph API, usually to facilitate communications with command-and-control (C&C) infrastructure hosted on Microsoft cloud services. The research states "the technique was most recently used in an attack against an organization in Ukraine, where a previously undocumented piece of malware used the Graph API to leverage Microsoft OneDrive for C&C purposes." The research can be found here: Graph: Growing number of threats leveraging Microsoft API Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adam Marré, CISO at Arctic Wolf, is diving deep into geopolitical tension with China including APT31, iSoon and TikTok with Dave this week. They also discuss some of the history behind China cyber operations. Adam shares information on how different APT groups are able to create spear phishing campaigns, and provides info on how to combat these groups. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher Doman, Co-Founder and CTO at Cado Security, is talking about their research on "Cerber Ransomware: Dissecting the three heads." This research delves into Cerber ransomware being deployed onto servers running the Confluence application via the CVE-2023-22518 exploit.  The research states "Cerber emerged and was at the peak of its activity around 2016, and has since only occasional campaigns, most recently targeting the aforementioned Confluence vulnerability." The research can be found here: Cerber Ransomware: Dissecting the three heads Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Greg Lesnewich, senior threat researcher at Proofpoint, sits down to discuss "From Social Engineering to DMARC Abuse: TA427’s Art of Information Gathering." Since 2023, TA427 has directly solicited foreign policy experts for their opinions on nuclear disarmament, US-ROK policies, and sanction topics via benign conversation starting emails.  The research states "While our researchers have consistently observed TA427 rely on social engineering tactics and regularly rotating its email infrastructure, in December 2023 the threat actor began to abuse lax Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC) policies to spoof various personas and, in February 2024, began incorporating web beacons for target profiling." The research can be found here: From Social Engineering to DMARC Abuse: TA427’s Art of Information Gathering Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tomer Peled, a Security & Vulnerability Researcher from Akamai is sharing their work on "What a Cluster: Local Volumes Vulnerability in Kubernetes." This research focuses on a high-severity vulnerability in Kubernetes, allowing for remote code execution with system privileges on all Windows endpoints within a Kubernetes cluster. The research states "The discovery of this vulnerability led to the discovery of two others that share the same root cause: insecure function call and lack of user input sanitization." The research can be found here: What a Cluster: Local Volumes Vulnerability in Kubernetes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices