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The threat actor known as Arid Viper has been attributed to a mobile espionage campaign that leverages trojanized Android apps to deliver a spyware strain dubbed AridSpy. "The malware is distributed through dedicated websites impersonating various messaging apps, a job opportunity app, and a Palestinian Civil Registry app," ESET researcher Lukáš Štefanko said in a report published today. "Often these are existing applications that had been trojanized by the addition of AridSpy's malicious code." The activity is said to have spanned as many as five campaigns since 2022, with prior variants of AridSpy documented by Zimperium and 360 Beacon Labs . Three out of the five campaigns are still active. Arid Viper, a suspected Hamas-affiliated actor which is also called APT-C-23, Desert Falcon, Grey Karkadann, Mantis, and Two-tailed Scorpion, has a long track record of using mobile malware since its emergence in 2017. "Arid Viper has historically targeted mil

An unnamed European Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and its three diplomatic missions in the Middle East were targeted by two previously undocumented backdoors tracked as LunarWeb and LunarMail. ESET, which identified the activity, attributed it with medium confidence to the Russia-aligned cyberespionage group Turla (aka Iron Hunter, Pensive Ursa, Secret Blizzard, Snake, Uroburos, and Venomous Bear), citing tactical overlaps with prior campaigns identified as orchestrated by the threat actor. "LunarWeb, deployed on servers, uses HTTP(S) for its C&C [command-and-control] communications and mimics legitimate requests, while LunarMail, deployed on workstations, is persisted as an Outlook add-in and uses email messages for its C&C communications," security researcher Filip Jurčacko  said . An analysis of the Lunar artifacts shows that they may have been used in targeted attacks since early 2020, or even earlier. Turla, assessed to be affiliated with Russia's Fe

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,

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new Raspberry Robin campaign wave that has been propagating the malware through malicious Windows Script Files ( WSFs ) since March 2024. "Historically, Raspberry Robin was known to spread through removable media like USB drives, but over time its distributors have experimented with other initial infection vectors," HP Wolf Security researcher Patrick Schläpfer  said  in a report shared with The Hacker News. Raspberry Robin, also called QNAP worm, was  first spotted  in September 2021 that has since  evolved into a downloader  for various other payloads in recent years, such as SocGholish, Cobalt Strike, IcedID, BumbleBee, and TrueBot, and also serving as a precursor for ransomware. While the malware was initially distributed by means of USB devices containing LNK files that retrieved the payload from a compromised QNAP device, it has since  adopted other methods  such as social engineering and malvertising. It's attribute

The China-linked threat actor known as  Evasive Panda  orchestrated both watering hole and supply chain attacks targeting Tibetan users at least since September 2023. The end goal of the attacks is to deliver malicious downloaders for Windows and macOS that deploy a known backdoor called MgBot and a previously undocumented Windows implant known as Nightdoor. The findings come from ESET, which said the attackers compromised at least three websites to carry out watering-hole attacks as well as a supply-chain compromise of a Tibetan software company. The operation was discovered in January 2024. Evasive Panda, active since 2012 and also known as Bronze Highland and Daggerfly, was  previously disclosed  by the Slovak cybersecurity firm in April 2023 as having targeted an international non-governmental organization (NGO) in Mainland China with MgBot. Another report from Broadcom-owned Symantec around the same time  implicated  the adversary to a cyber espionage campaign aimed at infil

Cybersecurity researchers have unearthed a new influence operation targeting Ukraine that leverages spam emails to propagate war-related disinformation. The activity has been linked to Russia-aligned threat actors by Slovak cybersecurity company ESET, which also identified a spear-phishing campaign aimed at a Ukrainian defense company in October 2023 and a European Union agency in November 2023 with an aim to harvest Microsoft login credentials using fake landing pages. Operation Texonto, as the entire campaign has been codenamed, has not been attributed to a specific threat actor, although some elements of it, particularly the spear-phishing attacks, overlap with  COLDRIVER , which has a history of harvesting credentials via bogus sign-in pages. The disinformation operation took place over two waves in November and December 2023, with the email messages bearing PDF attachments and content related to heating interruptions, drug shortages, and food shortages. The November wave tar

A Brazilian law enforcement operation has led to the arrest of several Brazilian operators in charge of the  Grandoreiro  malware. The Federal Police of Brazil  said  it served five temporary arrest warrants and 13 search and seizure warrants in the states of São Paulo, Santa Catarina, Pará, Goiás, and Mato Grosso. Slovak cybersecurity firm ESET, which provided additional assistance in the effort, said it uncovered a design flaw in Grandoreiro's network protocol that helped it to identify the victimology patterns. Grandoreiro  is one of the many Latin American banking trojans such as Javali, Melcoz, Casabeniero, Mekotio, and Vadokrist, primarily targeting countries like Spain, Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina. It's known to be active since 2017. In late October 2023, Proofpoint  revealed  details of a phishing campaign that distributed an updated version of the malware to targets in Mexico and Spain. The banking trojan has capabilities to both steal data through keyloggers

Cybersecurity researchers have identified a set of 116 malicious packages on the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository that are designed to infect Windows and Linux systems with a custom backdoor. "In some cases, the final payload is a variant of the infamous  W4SP Stealer , or a simple clipboard monitor to steal cryptocurrency, or both," ESET researchers Marc-Etienne M.Léveillé and Rene Holt  said  in a report published earlier this week. The  packages  are estimated to have been downloaded over 10,000 times since May 2023. The threat actors behind the activity have been observed using three techniques to bundle malicious code into Python packages, namely via a test.py script, embedding PowerShell in setup.py file, and incorporating it in obfuscated form in the  __init__.py file . Irrespective of the method used, the end goal of the campaign is to compromise the targeted host with malware, primarily a backdoor capable of remote command execution, data exfiltration, an

The Iranian state-sponsored threat actor known as  OilRig  deployed three different downloader malware throughout 2022 to maintain persistent access to victim organizations located in Israel. The three new downloaders have been named ODAgent, OilCheck, and OilBooster by Slovak cybersecurity company ESET. The attacks also involved the use of an updated version of a known OilRig downloader dubbed  SampleCheck5000  (or SC5k). "These lightweight downloaders [...] are notable for using one of several legitimate cloud service APIs for [command-and-control] communication and data exfiltration: the Microsoft Graph OneDrive or Outlook APIs, and the Microsoft Office Exchange Web Services (EWS) API," security researchers Zuzana Hromcová and Adam Burgher  said  in a report shared with The Hacker News. By using well-known cloud service providers for command-and-control communication, the goal is to blend with authentic network traffic and cover up the group's attack infrastructure

The unexpected drop in malicious activity connected with the Mozi botnet in August 2023 was due to a kill switch that was distributed to the bots. "First, the drop manifested in India on August 8," ESET  said  in an analysis published this week. "A week later, on August 16, the same thing happened in China. While the mysterious control payload – aka kill switch – stripped Mozi bots of most functionality, they maintained persistence." Mozi is an Internet of Things (IoT) botnet that  emerged  from the source code of several known malware families, such as Gafgyt, Mirai, and IoT Reaper. First spotted in 2019, it's known to exploit weak and default remote access passwords as well as unpatched security vulnerabilities for initial access. In September 2021, researchers from cybersecurity firm Netlab  disclosed  the arrest of the botnet operators by Chinese authorities. But the  precipitous decline  in Mozi activity – from around 13,300 hosts on August 7 to 3,500

A governmental entity in Guyana has been targeted as part of a cyber espionage campaign dubbed  Operation Jacana . The  activity , which was detected by ESET in February 2023, entailed a spear-phishing attack that led to the deployment of a hitherto undocumented implant written in C++ called DinodasRAT. The Slovak cybersecurity firm said it could link the intrusion to a known threat actor or group, but attributed with medium confidence to a China-nexus adversary owing to the use of  PlugX  (aka Korplug), a remote access trojan common to Chinese hacking crews. "This campaign was targeted, as the threat actors crafted their emails specifically to entice their chosen victim organization," ESET  said  in a report shared with The Hacker News. "After successfully compromising an initial but limited set of machines with DinodasRAT, the operators proceeded to move inside and breach the target's internal network, where they again deployed this backdoor." The infec

The North Korea-linked  Lazarus Group  has been linked to a cyber espionage attack targeting an unnamed aerospace company in Spain in which employees of the firm were approached by the threat actor posing as a recruiter for Meta. "Employees of the targeted company were contacted by a fake recruiter via LinkedIn and tricked into opening a malicious executable file presenting itself as a coding challenge or quiz," ESET security researcher Peter Kálnai  said  in a technical report shared with The Hacker News. The attack is part of a long-standing spear-phishing campaign called  Operation Dream Job  that's orchestrated by the hacking crew in an attempt to lure employees working at prospective targets that are of strategic interest, enticing them with lucrative job opportunities to activate the infection chain. Earlier this March, the Slovak cybersecurity company detailed an attack wave aimed at Linux users that involved the use of bogus HSBC job offers to launch a backdo

Tibetan, Uyghur, and Taiwanese individuals and organizations are the targets of a persistent campaign orchestrated by a threat actor codenamed  EvilBamboo  to gather sensitive information. "The attacker has created fake Tibetan websites, along with social media profiles, likely used to deploy browser-based exploits against targeted users," Volexity security researchers Callum Roxan, Paul Rascagneres, and Thomas Lancaster said in a report published last week. "Partly through impersonating existing popular communities, the attacker has built communities on online platforms, such as Telegram, to aid in distribution of their malware." EvilBamboo, formerly tracked by the cybersecurity firm under the name Evil Eye, has been linked to multiple attack waves  since at least 2019 , with the threat actor leveraging watering hole attacks to deliver spyware targeting Android and iOS devices. It's also known as Earth Empusa and POISON CARP. The intrusions directed agai

A malicious toolset dubbed  Spacecolon  is being deployed as part of an ongoing campaign to spread variants of the Scarab ransomware across victim organizations globally. "It probably finds its way into victim organizations by its operators compromising vulnerable web servers or via brute forcing RDP credentials," ESET security researcher Jakub Souček  said  in a detailed technical write-up published Tuesday. The Slovak cybersecurity firm, which dubbed the threat actor CosmicBeetle, said the origins of the Spacecolon date back to May 2020. The highest concentration of victims has been detected in France, Mexico, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, and Turkey. While the exact provenance of the adversary is unclear, several Spacecolon variants are said to contain Turkish strings, likely pointing to the involvement of a Turkish-speaking developer. There is no evidence currently linking it to any other known threat actor group. Some of the targets include a hospital and a tourist reso

An updated version of an Android remote access trojan dubbed  GravityRAT  has been found masquerading as messaging apps BingeChat and Chatico as part of a narrowly targeted campaign since June 2022. "Notable in the newly discovered campaign, GravityRAT can exfiltrate WhatsApp backups and receive commands to delete files," ESET researcher Lukáš Štefanko  said  in a new report published today. "The malicious apps also provide legitimate chat functionality based on the open-source  OMEMO  Instant Messenger app." GravityRAT is the name given to a  cross-platform malware  that's capable of targeting Windows, Android, and macOS devices. The Slovak cybersecurity firm is tracking the activity under the name SpaceCobra. The threat actor is suspected to be based in Pakistan, with recent attacks involving GravityRAT targeting military personnel in India and among the Pakistan Air Force by camouflaging it as cloud storage and entertainment apps, as  disclosed  by Meta

The threat actor known as  Asylum Ambuscade  has been observed straddling cybercrime and cyber espionage operations since at least early 2020. "It is a crimeware group that targets bank customers and cryptocurrency traders in various regions, including North America and Europe," ESET  said  in an analysis published Thursday. "Asylum Ambuscade also does espionage against government entities in Europe and Central Asia." Asylum Ambuscade was  first documented  by Proofpoint in March 2022 as a nation-state-sponsored phishing campaign that targeted European governmental entities in an attempt to obtain intelligence on refugee and supply movement in the region. The goal of the attackers, per the Slovak cybersecurity firm, is to siphon confidential information and web email credentials from official government email portals. The attacks start off with a spear-phishing email bearing a malicious Excel spreadsheet attachment that, when opened, either exploits VBA code o

Google has removed a screen recording app named "iRecorder - Screen Recorder" from the Play Store after it was found to sneak in information stealing capabilities nearly a year after the app was published as an innocuous app. The app (APK package name "com.tsoft.app.iscreenrecorder"), which accrued over 50,000 installations, was first uploaded on September 19, 2021. The malicious functionality is believed to have been introduced in version 1.3.8, which was released on August 24, 2022. "It is rare for a developer to upload a legitimate app, wait almost a year, and then update it with malicious code," ESET security researcher Lukáš Štefanko  said  in a technical report. "The malicious code that was added to the clean version of iRecorder is based on the open source  AhMyth  Android RAT (remote access trojan) and has been customized into what we named AhRat." iRecorder was  first flagged  as harboring the AhMyth trojan on October 28, 2022, by

A gambling company in the Philippines was the target of a China-aligned threat actor as part of a campaign that has been ongoing since October 2021. Slovak cybersecurity firm ESET is tracking the series of attacks against Southeast Asian gambling companies under the name  Operation ChattyGoblin . "These attacks use a specific tactic: targeting the victim companies' support agents via chat applications – in particular, the Comm100 and LiveHelp100 apps," ESET  said  in a report shared with The Hacker News. The use of a trojanized Comm100 installer to deliver malware was  first documented  by CrowdStrike in October 2022. The company attributed the supply chain compromise to a threat actor likely with associations to China. The attack chains leverage the aforementioned chat apps to distribute a C# dropper that, in turn, deploys another C# executable, which ultimately serves as a conduit to drop a Cobalt Strike beacon on hacked workstations. Also highlighted in ESET'