Chinese Hackers | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

A previously undocumented threat actor called CeranaKeeper has been linked to a string of data exfiltration attacks targeting Southeast Asia. Slovak cybersecurity firm ESET, which observed campaigns targeting governmental institutions in Thailand starting in 2023, attributed the activity cluster as aligned to China, leveraging tools previously identified as used by the Mustang Panda actor. "The group constantly updates its backdoor to evade detection and diversifies its methods to aid massive data exfiltration," security researcher Romain Dumont said in an analysis published today. "CeranaKeeper abuses popular, legitimate cloud and file-sharing services such as Dropbox and OneDrive to implement custom backdoors and extraction tools." Some of the other countries targeted by the adversary include Myanmar, the Philippines, Japan, and Taiwan, all of which have been targeted by Chinese state-sponsored threat actors in recent years. ESET described CeranaKeeper a

A suspected advanced persistent threat (APT) originating from China targeted a government organization in Taiwan, and possibly other countries in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, by exploiting a recently patched critical security flaw impacting OSGeo GeoServer GeoTools. The intrusion activity, which was detected by Trend Micro in July 2024, has been attributed to a threat actor dubbed Earth Baxia . "Based on the collected phishing emails, decoy documents, and observations from incidents, it appears that the targets are primarily government agencies, telecommunication businesses, and the energy industry in the Philippines, South Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Thailand," researchers Ted Lee, Cyris Tseng, Pierre Lee, Sunny Lu, and Philip Chen said . The discovery of lure documents in Simplified Chinese points to China being one of the affected countries as well, although the cybersecurity company said it does not have enough information to determine what sectors within the coun

For years, securing a company's systems was synonymous with securing its "perimeter." There was what was safe "inside" and the unsafe outside world. We built sturdy firewalls and deployed sophisticated detection systems, confident that keeping the barbarians outside the walls kept our data and systems safe. The problem is that we no longer operate within the confines of physical on-prem installations and controlled networks. Data and applications now reside in distributed cloud environments and data centers, accessed by users and devices connecting from anywhere on the planet. The walls have crumbled, and the perimeter has dissolved, opening the door to a new battlefield: identity . Identity is at the center of what the industry has praised as the new gold standard of enterprise security: "zero trust." In this paradigm, explicit trust becomes mandatory for any interactions between systems, and no implicit trust shall subsist. Every access request, regardless of its origin,

The operators of the mysterious Quad7 botnet are actively evolving by compromising several brands of SOHO routers and VPN appliances by leveraging a combination of both known and unknown security flaws. Targets include devices from TP-LINK, Zyxel, Asus, Axentra, D-Link, and NETGEAR, according to a new report by French cybersecurity company Sekoia. "The Quad7 botnet operators appear to be evolving their toolset, introducing a new backdoor and exploring new protocols, with the aim of enhancing stealth and evading the tracking capabilities of their operational relay boxes (ORBs)," researchers Felix Aimé, Pierre-Antoine D., and Charles M. said .  Quad7, also called 7777, was first publicly documented by independent researcher Gi7w0rm in October 2023, highlighting the activity cluster's pattern of ensnaring TP-Link routers and Dahua digital video recorders (DVRs) into a botnet. The botnet, which gets its name from the fact it opens TCP port 7777 on compromised devices,

The China-linked advanced persistent threat (APT) group known as Mustang Panda has been observed weaponizing Visual Studio Code software as part of espionage operations targeting government entities in Southeast Asia. "This threat actor used Visual Studio Code's embedded reverse shell feature to gain a foothold in target networks," Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 researcher Tom Fakterman said in a report, describing it as a "relatively new technique" that was first demonstrated in September 2023 by Truvis Thornton. The campaign is assessed to be a continuation of a previously documented attack activity aimed at an unnamed Southeast Asian government entity in late September 2023. Mustang Panda , also known by the names BASIN, Bronze President, Camaro Dragon, Earth Preta, HoneyMyte, RedDelta, and Red Lich, has been operational since 2012, routinely conducting cyber espionage campaigns targeting government and religious entities across Europe and Asia, particul

The Chinese-speaking threat actor known as Earth Lusca has been observed using a new backdoor dubbed KTLVdoor as part of a cyber attack targeting an unnamed trading company based in China. The previously unreported malware is written in Golang, and thus is a cross-platform weapon capable of targeting both Microsoft Windows and Linux systems. "KTLVdoor is a highly obfuscated malware that masquerades as different system utilities, allowing attackers to carry out a variety of tasks including file manipulation, command execution, and remote port scanning," Trend Micro researchers Cedric Pernet and Jaromir Horejsi said in an analysis published Wednesday. Some of the tools KTLVdoor impersonates include sshd, Java, SQLite, bash, and edr-agent, among others, with the malware distributed in the form of dynamic-link library (.dll) or a shared object (.so). Perhaps the most unusual aspect of the activity cluster is the discovery of more than 50 command-and-control (C&C) s

Details have emerged about a China-nexus threat group's exploitation of a recently disclosed, now-patched security flaw in Cisco switches as a zero-day to seize control of the appliances and evade detection. The activity, attributed to Velvet Ant, was observed early this year and involved the weaponization of CVE-2024-20399 (CVSS score: 6.0) to deliver bespoke malware and gain extensive control over the compromised system, facilitating both data exfiltration and persistent access. "The zero-day exploit allows an attacker with valid administrator credentials to the Switch management console to escape the NX-OS command line interface (CLI) and execute arbitrary commands on the Linux underlying operating system," cybersecurity company Sygnia said in a report shared with The Hacker News. Velvet Ant first caught the attention of researchers at the Israeli cybersecurity company in connection with a multi-year campaign that targeted an unnamed organization located in Eas

A Taiwanese government-affiliated research institute that specializes in computing and associated technologies was breached by nation-state threat actors with ties to China, according to new findings from Cisco Talos. The unnamed organization was targeted as early as mid-July 2023 to deliver a variety of backdoors and post-compromise tools like ShadowPad and Cobalt Strike. It has been attributed with medium confidence to a prolific hacking group tracked as APT41 . "The ShadowPad malware used in the current campaign exploited an outdated vulnerable version of Microsoft Office IME binary as a loader to load the customized second-stage loader for launching the payload," security researchers Joey Chen, Ashley Shen, and Vitor Ventura said . "The threat actor compromised three hosts in the targeted environment and was able to exfiltrate some documents from the network." Cisco Talos said it discovered the activity in August 2023 after detecting what it described we

Japanese organizations are the target of a Chinese nation-state threat actor that leverages malware families like LODEINFO and NOOPDOOR to harvest sensitive information from compromised hosts while stealthily remaining under the radar in some cases for a time period ranging from two to three years. Israeli cybersecurity company Cybereason is tracking the campaign under the name Cuckoo Spear , attributing it as related to a known intrusion set dubbed APT10, which is also known as Bronze Riverside, ChessMaster, Cicada, Cloudhopper, MenuPass, MirrorFace, Purple Typhoon (formerly Potassium), and Stone Panda. "The actors behind NOOPDOOR not only utilized LODEINFO during the campaign, but also utilized the new backdoor to exfiltrate data from compromised enterprise networks," it said . The findings come weeks after JPCERT/CC warned of cyber attacks mounted by the threat actor targeting Japanese entities using the two malware strains. Earlier this January, ITOCHU Cyber & I

Organizations in Taiwan and a U.S. non-governmental organization (NGO) based in China have been targeted by a Beijing-affiliated state-sponsored hacking group called Daggerfly using an upgraded set of malware tools. The campaign is a sign that the group "also engages in internal espionage," Symantec's Threat Hunter Team, part of Broadcom, said in a new report published today. "In the attack on this organization, the attackers exploited a vulnerability in an Apache HTTP server to deliver their MgBot malware." Daggerfly, also known by the names Bronze Highland and Evasive Panda, was previously observed using the MgBot modular malware framework in connection with an intelligence-gathering mission aimed at telecom service providers in Africa. It's known to be operational since 2012. "Daggerfly appears to be capable of responding to exposure by quickly updating its toolset to continue its espionage activities with minimal disruption," the compan

The China-linked advanced persistent threat (APT) group codenamed APT41 is suspected to be using an "advanced and upgraded version" of a known malware called StealthVector to deliver a previously undocumented backdoor dubbed MoonWalk. The new variant of StealthVector – which is also referred to as DUSTPAN – has been designated DodgeBox by Zscaler ThreatLabz, which discovered the loader strain in April 2024. "DodgeBox is a loader that proceeds to load a new backdoor named MoonWalk," security researchers Yin Hong Chang and Sudeep Singh said . "MoonWalk shares many evasion techniques implemented in DodgeBox and utilizes Google Drive for command-and-control (C2) communication." APT41 is the moniker assigned to a prolific state-sponsored threat actor affiliated with China that's known to be active since at least 2007. It's also tracked by the broader cybersecurity community under the names Axiom, Blackfly, Brass Typhoon (formerly Barium), Bronze Atl

Cybersecurity agencies from Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, the U.K., and the U.S. have released a joint advisory about a China-linked cyber espionage group called APT40 , warning about its ability to co-opt exploits for newly disclosed security flaws within hours or days of public release. "APT40 has previously targeted organizations in various countries, including Australia and the United States," the agencies said . "Notably, APT40 possesses the ability to quickly transform and adapt vulnerability proofs-of-concept (PoCs) for targeting, reconnaissance, and exploitation operations." The adversarial collective, also known as Bronze Mohawk, Gingham Typhoon (formerly Gadolinium), ISLANDDREAMS, Kryptonite Panda, Leviathan, Red Ladon, TA423, and TEMP.Periscope, is known to be active since at least 2011 , carrying out cyber attacks targeting entities in the Asia-Pacific region. It's assessed to be based in Haikou. In July 2021, the

A likely China-linked state-sponsored threat actor has been linked to a cyber espionage campaign targeting government, academic, technology, and diplomatic organizations in Taiwan between November 2023 and April 2024. Recorded Future's Insikt Group is tracking the activity under the name RedJuliett , describing it as a cluster that operates from Fuzhou, China, to support Beijing's intelligence collection goals related to the East Asian country. It's also tracked under the names Flax Typhoon and Ethereal Panda . Among other countries targeted by the adversarial collective include Djibouti, Hong Kong, Kenya, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Rwanda, South Korea, and the U.S. In all, as many as 24 victim organizations have been observed communicating with the threat actor infrastructure, including government agencies in Taiwan, Laos, Kenya, and Rwanda. It's also estimated to have targeted at least 75 Taiwanese entities for broader reconnaissance and follow-on exploita

A previously undocumented Chinese-speaking threat actor codenamed SneakyChef has been linked to an espionage campaign primarily targeting government entities across Asia and EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) with SugarGh0st malware since at least August 2023. "SneakyChef uses lures that are scanned documents of government agencies, most of which are related to various countries' Ministries of Foreign Affairs or embassies," Cisco Talos researchers Chetan Raghuprasad and Ashley Shen said in an analysis published today. Activities related to the hacking crew were first highlighted by the cybersecurity company in late November 2023 in connection with an attack campaign that singled out South Korea and Uzbekistan with a custom variant of Gh0st RAT called SugarGh0st . A subsequent analysis from Proofpoint last month uncovered the use of SugarGh0st RAT against U.S. organizations involved in artificial intelligence efforts, including those in academia, private indust

Cyber espionage groups associated with China have been linked to a long-running campaign that has infiltrated several telecom operators located in a single Asian country at least since 2021. "The attackers placed backdoors on the networks of targeted companies and also attempted to steal credentials," the Symantec Threat Hunter Team, part of Broadcom, said in a report shared with The Hacker News. The cybersecurity firm did not reveal the country that was targeted, but said it found evidence to suggest that the malicious cyber activity may have started as far back as 2020. The attacks also targeted an unnamed services company that catered to the telecoms sector and a university in another Asian country, it added. The choice of tools used in this campaign overlaps with other missions conducted by Chinese espionage groups like Mustang Panda (aka Earth Preta and Fireant), RedFoxtrot (aka Neeedleminer and Nomad Panda), and Naikon (aka Firefly) in recent years. This incl

State-sponsored threat actors backed by China gained access to 20,000 Fortinet FortiGate systems worldwide by exploiting a known critical security flaw between 2022 and 2023, indicating that the operation had a broader impact than previously known. "The state actor behind this campaign was already aware of this vulnerability in FortiGate systems at least two months before Fortinet disclosed the vulnerability," the Dutch National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said in a new bulletin. "During this so-called zero-day period, the actor alone infected 14,000 devices." The campaign targeted dozens of Western governments, international organizations, and a large number of companies within the defense industry. The names of the entities were not disclosed. The findings build on an earlier advisory from February 2024, which found that the attackers had breached a computer network used by the Dutch armed forces by exploiting CVE-2022-42475 (CVSS score: 9.8), which allows

An unnamed high-profile government organization in Southeast Asia emerged as the target of a "complex, long-running" Chinese state-sponsored cyber espionage operation codenamed Crimson Palace . "The overall goal behind the campaign was to maintain access to the target network for cyberespionage in support of Chinese state interests," Sophos researchers Paul Jaramillo, Morgan Demboski, Sean Gallagher, and Mark Parsons said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "This includes accessing critical IT systems, performing reconnaissance of specific users, collecting sensitive military and technical information, and deploying various malware implants for command-and-control (C2) communications." The name of the government organization was not disclosed, but the company said the country is known to have repeated conflict with China over territory in the South China Sea , raising the possibility that it may be the Philippines, which has been targeted by Chi

Governmental entities in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia are the target of a Chinese advanced persistent threat (APT) group as part of an ongoing cyber espionage campaign dubbed  Operation Diplomatic Specter  since at least late 2022. "An analysis of this threat actor's activity reveals long-term espionage operations against at least seven governmental entities," Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 researchers Lior Rochberger and Daniel Frank  said  in a report shared with The Hacker News. "The threat actor performed intelligence collection efforts at a large scale, leveraging rare email exfiltration techniques against compromised servers." The cybersecurity firm, which previously tracked the activity cluster under the name CL-STA-0043, said it's graduating it to a temporary actor group codenamed TGR-STA-0043 owing to its assessment that the intrusion set is the work of a single actor operating on behalf of Chinese state-aligned interests. Targets of the attacks i

The recently uncovered cyber espionage campaign targeting perimeter network devices from several vendors, including Cisco, may have been the work of China-linked actors, according to  new findings  from attack surface management firm Censys. Dubbed  ArcaneDoor , the activity is said to have commenced around July 2023, with the first confirmed attack against an unnamed victim detected in early January 2024. The targeted attacks, orchestrated by a previously undocumented and suspected sophisticated state-sponsored actor tracked as  UAT4356  (aka Storm-1849), entailed the deployment of two custom malware dubbed Line Runner and Line Dancer. The initial access pathway used to facilitate the intrusions has yet to be discovered, although the adversary has been observed leveraging two now-patched flaws in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances ( CVE-2024-20353  and  CVE-2024-20359 ) to persist Line Runner. Telemetry data gathered as part of the investigation has revealed the threat actor&