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A new Rust-based information stealer malware called Fickle Stealer has been observed being delivered via multiple attack chains with the goal of harvesting sensitive information from compromised hosts. Fortinet FortiGuard Labs said it's aware of four different distribution methods -- namely VBA dropper, VBA downloader, link downloader, and executable downloader -- with some of them using a PowerShell script to bypass User Account Control (UAC) and execute Fickle Stealer. The PowerShell script ("bypass.ps1" or "u.ps1") is also designed to periodically send information about the victim, including country, city, IP address, operating system version, computer name, and username to a Telegram bot controlled by the attacker. The stealer payload, which is protected using a packer, runs a series of anti-analysis checks to determine if it's running in a sandbox or a virtual machine environment, following which it beacons out to a remote server to exfiltrate da

A critical security flaw in the Rust standard library could be exploited to target Windows users and stage command injection attacks. The vulnerability, tracked as  CVE-2024-24576 , has a CVSS score of 10.0, indicating maximum severity. That said, it only impacts scenarios where batch files are invoked on Windows with untrusted arguments. "The Rust standard library did not properly escape arguments when invoking batch files (with the bat and cmd extensions) on Windows using the Command API," the Rust Security Response working group  said  in an advisory released on April 9, 2024. "An attacker able to control the arguments passed to the spawned process could execute arbitrary shell commands by bypassing the escaping." The flaw impacts all versions of Rust before 1.77.2. Security researcher  RyotaK  has been credited with discovering and reporting the bug to the CERT Coordination Center ( CERT/CC ). RyotaK said the vulnerability – codenamed BatBadBut – impacts

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,

Google has announced support for what's called a  V8 Sandbox  in the Chrome web browser in an effort to address memory corruption issues. The sandbox, according to V8 security technical lead Samuel Groß,  aims  to prevent "memory corruption in V8 from spreading within the host process." The search behemoth has  described  V8 Sandbox as a lightweight, in-process sandbox for the JavaScript and WebAssembly engine that's designed to mitigate common V8 vulnerabilities. The idea is to limit the impact of V8 vulnerabilities by restricting the code executed by V8 to a subset of the process' virtual address space ("the sandbox") and isolating it from the rest of the process. Shortcomings affecting V8 have accounted for a significant chunk of the zero-day vulnerabilities that Google has  addressed  between  2021  and  2023 , with as many as 16 security flaws discovered over the time period. "The sandbox assumes that an attacker can arbitrarily and conc

Apple macOS users are the target of a new Rust-based backdoor that has been operating under the radar since November 2023. The backdoor,  codenamed   RustDoor  by Bitdefender, has been found to impersonate an update for Microsoft Visual Studio and target both Intel and Arm architectures. The exact initial access pathway used to propagate the implant is currently not known, although it's said to be distributed as FAT binaries that contain Mach-O files. Multiple variants of the malware with minor modifications have been detected to date, likely indicating active development. The earliest sample of RustDoor dates back to November 2, 2023. It comes with a wide range of commands that allow it to gather and upload files, and harvest information about the compromised endpoint. Some versions also include configurations with details about what data to collect, the list of targeted extensions and directories, and the directories to exclude. The captured information is then exfiltrate

Cybersecurity researchers have shed light on a Rust version of a cross-platform backdoor called  SysJoker , which is assessed to have been used by a Hamas-affiliated threat actor to target Israel amid the ongoing war in the region. "Among the most prominent changes is the shift to Rust language, which indicates the malware code was entirely rewritten, while still maintaining similar functionalities," Check Point  said  in a Wednesday analysis. "In addition, the threat actor moved to using OneDrive instead of Google Drive to store dynamic C2 (command-and-control server) URLs." SysJoker was  publicly documented  by Intezer in January 2022, describing it as a C++ backdoor capable of gathering system information and establishing contact with an attacker-controlled server by accessing a text file hosted on Google Drive that contains a hard-coded URL. "Being cross-platform allows the malware authors to gain advantage of wide infection on all major platforms," VMware  said  last year. "S

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered further links between BlackCat (aka ALPHV) and BlackMatter ransomware families, the former of which emerged as a replacement following international scrutiny last year. "At least some members of the new  BlackCat  group have links to the BlackMatter group, because they modified and reused a custom exfiltration tool [...] and which has only been observed in BlackMatter activity," Kaspersky researchers  said  in a new analysis. The tool, dubbed Fendr, has not only been upgraded to include more file types but also used by the gang extensively to steal data from corporate networks in December 2021 and January 2022 prior to encryption, in a popular tactic called double extortion. The findings come less than a month after Cisco Talos researchers  identified  overlaps in the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) between BlackCat and BlackMatter, describing the new ransomware variant as a case of "vertical business expansion.&qu

The maintainers of the Rust programming language have released a security update for a high-severity vulnerability that could be abused by a malicious party to purge files and directories from a vulnerable system in an unauthorized manner. "An attacker could use this security issue to trick a privileged program into deleting files and directories the attacker couldn't otherwise access or delete," the Rust Security Response working group (WG)  said  in an  advisory  published on January 20, 2021. Rust 1.0.0 through Rust 1.58.0 is affected by this vulnerability. The flaw, which is tracked as  CVE-2022-21658  (CVSS score: 7.3), has been credited to security researcher Hans Kratz, with the team pushing out a fix in  Rust version 1.58.1  shipped last week. Specifically, the issue stems from an improperly implemented check to prevent recursive deletion of symbolic links (aka  symlinks ) in a standard library function named "std::fs::remove_dir_all." This results

Details have emerged about what's the first Rust-language-based ransomware strain spotted in the wild that has already amassed "some victims from different countries" since its launch last month. The ransomware, dubbed  BlackCat , was  disclosed  by MalwareHunterTeam. "Victims can pay with Bitcoin or Monero," the researchers said in a series of tweets detailing the file-encrypting malware. "Also looks they are giving credentials to intermediaries" for negotiations. BlackCat, akin to many other variants that have sprung before it, operates as a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS), wherein the core developers recruit affiliates to breach corporate environments and encrypt files, but not before stealing the said documents in a double extortion scheme to pressure the targets into paying the requested amount or risk exposure of the stolen data should the companies refuse to pay up. Security researcher Michael Gillespie  called  it a "very sophisticated

Cybersecurity researchers on Monday disclosed a new malspam campaign distributing a fresh variant of a malware loader called "Buer" written in Rust, illustrating how adversaries are constantly honing their malware toolsets to evade analysis. Dubbed "RustyBuer," the malware is propagated via emails masquerading as shipping notices from DHL Support, and is said to have affected no fewer than 200 organizations across more than 50 verticals since early April. "The new Buer variant is written in Rust, an efficient and easy-to-use programming language that is becoming increasingly popular," Proofpoint researchers  said  in a report shared with The Hacker News. "Rewriting the malware in Rust enables the threat actor to better evade existing Buer detection capabilities." First introduced in August of 2019,  Buer  is a modular malware-as-a-service offering that's sold on underground forums and used as a first-stage downloader to deliver additiona

Google on Tuesday announced that its open source version of the Android operating system will add support for Rust programming language in a bid to prevent memory safety bugs. To that end, the company has been building parts of the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) with Rust for the past 18 months, with plans in the pipeline to scale this initiative to cover more aspects of the operating system. "Managed languages like Java and Kotlin are the best option for Android app development," Google  said . "The Android OS uses Java extensively, effectively protecting large portions of the Android platform from memory bugs. Unfortunately, for the lower layers of the OS, Java and Kotlin are not an option." Stating that code written in C and C++ languages requires robust isolation when parsing untrustworthy input, Google said the technique of containing such code within a tightly constrained and unprivileged sandbox can be expensive, causing latency issues and additional