Cyber Defense Advisors

Year: 2024

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  • February 1, 2024

U.S. Feds Shut Down China-Linked “KV-Botnet” Targeting SOHO Routers

The U.S. government on Wednesday said it took steps to neutralize a botnet comprising hundreds of U.S.-based small office and home office (SOHO) routers hijacked by a China-linked state-sponsored threat actor called Volt Typhoon and blunt the impact posed by the hacking campaign. The existence of the botnet, dubbed KV-botnet, was first disclosed by the Black Lotus Labs […]

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  • February 1, 2024

HeadCrab 2.0 Goes Fileless, Targeting Redis Servers for Crypto Mining

Cybersecurity researchers have detailed an updated version of the malware HeadCrab that’s known to target Redis database servers across the world since early September 2021. The development, which comes exactly a year after the malware was first publicly disclosed by Aqua, is a sign that the financially-motivated threat actor behind the campaign is actively adapting and 

Cyber News
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  • February 1, 2024

Warning: New Malware Emerges in Attacks Exploiting Ivanti VPN Vulnerabilities

Google-owned Mandiant said it identified new malware employed by a China-nexus espionage threat actor known as UNC5221 and other threat groups during post-exploitation activity targeting Ivanti Connect Secure VPN and Policy Secure devices. This includes custom web shells such as BUSHWALK, CHAINLINE, FRAMESTING, and a variant of LIGHTWIRE. “CHAINLINE is a Python web shell backdoor that […]

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  • February 1, 2024

CISA Warns of Active Exploitation Apple iOS and macOS Vulnerability

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Wednesday added a high-severity flaw impacting iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2022-48618 (CVSS score: 7.8), concerns a bug in the kernel component. “An attacker with 

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  • February 1, 2024

Smashing Security podcast #357: Interview with an iPhone thief, anti-AI, and have we gone too far?

The iPhone security setting that you should enable right now, the worrying way that AI is predicting what criminals look like, and we play a game of face fake or real… All this and much more is discussed in the latest edition of the award-winning “Smashing Security” podcast by cybersecurity veterans Graham Cluley and Carole […]

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  • January 31, 2024

RunC Flaws Enable Container Escapes, Granting Attackers Host Access

Multiple security vulnerabilities have been disclosed in the runC command line tool that could be exploited by threat actors to escape the bounds of the container and stage follow-on attacks. The vulnerabilities, tracked as CVE-2024-21626, CVE-2024-23651, CVE-2024-23652, and CVE-2024-23653, have been collectively dubbed Leaky Vessels by cybersecurity vendor Snyk. “These container 

Cyber News
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  • January 31, 2024

Alert: Ivanti Discloses 2 New Zero-Day Flaws, One Under Active Exploitation

Ivanti is alerting of two new high-severity flaws in its Connect Secure and Policy Secure products, one of which is said to have come under targeted exploitation in the wild. The list of vulnerabilities is as follows – CVE-2024-21888 (CVSS score: 8.8) – A privilege escalation vulnerability in the web component of Ivanti Connect Secure (9.x, […]

Cyber News
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  • January 31, 2024

Telegram Marketplaces Fuel Phishing Attacks with Easy-to-Use Kits and Malware

Cybersecurity researchers are calling attention to the “democratization” of the phishing ecosystem owing to the emergence of Telegram as an epicenter for cybercrime, enabling threat actors to mount a mass attack for as little as $230. “This messaging app has transformed into a bustling hub where seasoned cybercriminals and newcomers alike exchange illicit tools and […]

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  • January 31, 2024

CFPB’s Proposed Data Rules

In October, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) proposed a set of rules that if implemented would transform how financial institutions handle personal data about their customers. The rules put control of that data back in the hands of ordinary Americans, while at the same time undermining the data broker economy and increasing customer choice […]

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