Cyber Defense Advisors

Month: February 2024

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  • February 15, 2024

Rhysida ransomware cracked! Free decryption tool released

A group of South Korean security researchers have uncovered a vulnerability in the infamous Rhysida ransomware that provides a way for encrypted files to be unscrambled. Read more in my article on the Tripwire State of Security blog. 

Cyber News
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  • February 15, 2024

Russian Turla Hackers Target Polish NGOs with New TinyTurla-NG Backdoor

The Russia-linked threat actor known as Turla has been observed using a new backdoor called TinyTurla-NG as part of a three-month-long campaign targeting Polish non-governmental organizations in December 2023. “TinyTurla-NG, just like TinyTurla, is a small ‘last chance’ backdoor that is left behind to be used when all other unauthorized access/backdoor mechanisms have failed or […]

Cyber News
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  • February 15, 2024

Ivanti Pulse Secure Found Using 11-Year-Old Linux Version and Outdated Libraries

A reverse engineering of the firmware running on Ivanti Pulse Secure appliances has revealed numerous weaknesses, once again underscoring the challenge of securing software supply chains. Eclypsiusm, which acquired firmware version 9.1.18.2-24467.1 as part of the process, said the base operating system used by the Utah-based software company for the device is CentOS 6.4. “Pulse […]

Cyber News
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  • February 15, 2024

On the Insecurity of Software Bloat

Good essay on software bloat and the insecurities it causes. The world ships too much code, most of it by third parties, sometimes unintended, most of it uninspected. Because of this, there is a huge attack surface full of mediocre code. Efforts are ongoing to improve the quality of code itself, but many exploits are […]

Cyber News
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  • February 15, 2024

How Nation-State Actors Target Your Business: New Research Exposes Major SaaS Vulnerabilities

With many of the highly publicized 2023 cyber attacks revolving around one or more SaaS applications, SaaS has become a cause for genuine concern in many boardroom discussions. More so than ever, considering that GenAI applications are, in fact, SaaS applications. Wing Security (Wing), a SaaS security company, conducted an analysis of 493 SaaS-using companies […]

Cyber News
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  • February 15, 2024

North Korea successfully hacks email of South Korean President’s aide, gains access to sensitive information

The office of South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol has confirmed that North Korea hacked into the personal emails of one of its staff members. Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog. 

Cyber News
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  • February 15, 2024

Chinese Hackers Using Deepfakes in Advanced Mobile Banking Malware Attacks

A Chinese-speaking threat actor codenamed GoldFactory has been attributed to the development of highly sophisticated banking trojans, including a previously undocumented iOS malware called GoldPickaxe that’s capable of harvesting identity documents, facial recognition data, and intercepting SMS. “The GoldPickaxe family is available for both iOS and Android platforms,” Singapore-headquartered Group-IB said in an extensive report […]

Cyber News
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  • February 15, 2024

Critical Exchange Server Flaw (CVE-2024-21410) Under Active Exploitation

Microsoft on Wednesday acknowledged that a newly disclosed critical security flaw in Exchange Server has been actively exploited in the wild, a day after it released fixes for the vulnerability as part of its Patch Tuesday updates. Tracked as CVE-2024-21410 (CVSS score: 9.8), the issue has been described as a case of privilege escalation impacting […]

Cyber News
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  • February 15, 2024

Smashing Security podcast #359: Declaring war on ransomware gangs, mobile muddles, and AI religion

Holy mackerel! AI is jumping on the religion bandwagon, ransomware gangs target hospitals, and what’s happened to your old mobile phone number? All this and much much more is discussed in the latest edition of the “Smashing Security” podcast by cybersecurity veterans Graham Cluley and Carole Theriault, joined this week by “Ransomware Sommelier” Allan Liska. 

Cyber News