Threat Labs News Roundup: April 2023

Summary

The purpose of the Netskope Threat Labs News Roundup series is to provide enterprise security teams an actionable brief on the top cybersecurity news from around the world. The brief includes summaries and links to the top news items spanning cloud-enabled threats, malware, and ransomware.

Top Stories

Microsoft takes down Cobalt Strike servers

Microsoft, Fortra, and Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center (Health-ISAC) are taking technical and legal actions against cracked and legacy Cobalt Strike servers that were being used by attackers to distribute malware and ransomware. Details

Microsoft patches zero-day abused by ransomware

Microsoft’s April 2023 security update patches 97 CVEs, including a zero-day vulnerability that was being actively exploited in ransomware attacks. Details

Critical vulnerability in popular WordPress plugin

A now patched vulnerability was found in the WordPress plugin Elementor, which has over 5 million installations, potentially allowing code execution by unauthenticated attackers through arbitrary file upload. Details

Google Chrome fixes a zero-day vulnerability

Google released an emergency update for Google Chrome to address a zero-day vulnerability that was being exploited since the beginning of 2023, which is being tracked as CVE-2023-2033. Details

Google takes down CryptBot malware infrastructure

Google started to take down the infrastructure of a malware known as CryptBot, which is an info stealer that was being used to infect Google Chrome users to steal sensitive data, including usernames, passwords, and credit card information. Details

Cybersecurity Events in Ukraine

Russian attackers targeting NATO and EU

Russian state-sponsored attackers tracked as APT29 (a.k.a. Cozy Bear) were linked to widespread attacks targeting European Union countries and NATO through spear phishing emails to deploy malware. Details

Russia accuses NATO of cyberattacks since 2022

The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has accused NATO countries, including the United States, of launching over 5,000 cyberattacks against Russian’s critical infrastructure since the beginning of 2022. Details

Google warns of Russia-linked attacks targeting Ukraine

Google Threat Analysis Group (TAG) has warned about Russia-linked attackers targeting hundreds of users in Ukraine with phishing campaigns aiming to spread disinformation and gather intelligence. Details

Pro-Russia attackers targeting Canadian gas pipeline

Leaked documents could indicate that a Pro-Russia group known as Zarya has allegedly targeted a Canadian gas pipeline in conjunction with Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). Details

Ukrainian citizen arrested for selling data to Russians

A Ukrainian man was arrested by the Ukranian cyber police for selling personal and sensitive data of over 300 million citizens of Ukraine and the European Union to Russians via Telegram. Details 

Russia-linked APT group targeting Ukraine with phishing

The Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT-UA) warned about a Russian-linked group tracked as APT28 targeting the Ukrainian government with spear-phishing attacks. Details

Cloud-enabled Threats

New MacOS malware abusing Telegram

A new MacOS malware named MacStealer was found abusing Telegram to steal sensitive information, including files, cryptocurrency wallets, and account passwords from common browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Brave. Details

Cryptocurrency malware distributed via NuGet packages

Researchers found a supply-chain attack targeting .NET developers through a cryptocurrency stealer malware distributed via 13 malicious NuGet packages. Details

Flaw in Microsoft Azure could expose storage accounts

A “by-design” flaw was discovered in Microsoft Azure, which could allow attackers to access storage accounts and perform malicious activities, such as lateral movements, data exfiltration and code execution. Details

Attackers abusing Facebook to spread RedLine stealer

A new RedLine Stealer campaign was found using hijacked Facebook business accounts and community pages to deliver RedLine Stealer via sponsored ads that promise free downloads of AI chatbots, like ChatGPT. Details

Attackers shifting from IoT to VPS to conduct DDoS attacks

According to CloudFlare, attackers are shifting from compromised IoT devices to breached cloud Virtual Private Servers to conduct hyper-volumetric DDoS attacks, which can be 5,000x stronger due to higher performance. Details

Attackers abusing YouTube and Telegram to sell malware

A modular malware named Legion, which is capable of SMTP server enumeration, remote code execution, and AWS services abuse, is being sold on Telegram and promoted through YouTube videos. Details

Tech support scams abusing Google Ads and Weebly

Researchers found that attackers are abusing Google Ads to target seniors using tech support scams through fake Weebly websites. Details

New malware abusing Telegram for C2 communication

A new info stealer malware named Zaraza, capable of stealing data from many browsers, is being sold on a Russian Telegram channel, and also abusing the popular messaging platform to conduct C2 communication. Details

YouTube videos abused to spread stealer malware

Researchers found that the Go-based info stealer malware Aurora is being delivered through a highly evasive loader, distributed via links added in the description of YouTube videos and other fake websites. Details

Bug in Google Cloud Platform exposes sensitive data

A security vulnerability in Google’s Cloud Platform (GCP), dubbed as GhostToken, could have allowed attackers to hijack OAuth tokens and access user’s personal data in different Google apps, such as Drive, Photos, and Gmail. Details

Ransomware

Fake ransomware group targeting U.S. organizations

A group known as Midnight is impersonating ransomware groups and using data breaches and allegedly stolen data to threaten U.S. companies. Details

BlackCat ransomware exploiting vulnerabilities in backup software

The BlackCat ransomware group (a.k.a. ALPHV) was found abusing three vulnerabilities in the Veritas Backup software to gain initial access in the targeted network. Details

Medusa ransomware targeting the Open University of Cyprus (OUC)

The ransomware group known as Medusa has claimed a cyberattack on the Open University of Cyprus (OUC), asking the amount of $100,000 as ransom. Details

Nokoyawa ransomware using Windows zero-day

Researchers found that a ransomware known as Nokoyawa was using a zero-day vulnerability on Windows, tracked as CVE-2023-28252, to elevate privileges in the system. Details

New PowerShell tool used by Vice Society ransomware

A new sophisticated PowerShell tool aimed to automate data theft in compromised systems is being used by the Vice Society ransomware group. Details

LockBit ransomware targeting MacOS

A ZIP file was found containing multiple LockBit encryptors that indicates that the attackers are starting to target MacOS systems. Details

New custom tools from Play ransomware

Two new custom tools developed in .NET were found used by the Play ransomware, named Grixba and VSS Copying Tool, which are used for system enumeration and to interact with the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS). Details

PaperCut servers abused to deliver ransomware

Microsoft has confirmed that the Lace Tempest group (a.k.a. DEV-0950) exploited PaperCut servers to deliver Cl0p and LockBit ransomware families. Details