Author: VictorAdmin5

“On January 7, 2025, CrowdStrike identified a phishing campaign exploiting its recruitment branding to deliver malware disguised as an “employee CRM application.” The attack begins with a phishing email impersonating CrowdStrike recruitment, directing recipients to a malicious website. Victims are prompted to download and run a fake application, which serves as a downloader for the cryptominer XMRig”, reads the report published by CrowdStrike.

The email tricks recipients by claiming they have been selected for a junior developer role and must join a recruitment call by downloading a CRM tool via an embedded link. The phishing message directs the victims to a malicious website that appears to offer download options for both Windows and macOS.

However, regardless of the chosen option, a Windows executable written in Rust is downloaded. The application serves as a downloader for XMRig. The CrowdStrike researchers noticed it uses evasion mechanisms, such as detecting whether an anti-malware tool is running. If these checks are passed, the executable displays a fake error message. Then executable proceeds to download additional payloads to achieve persistence and run the XMRig miner.

The company recommended avoiding any interviews carried out through instant message or email, and refusing to download any software for an interview. It also stressed the importance of verifying the authenticity of any CrowdStrike hiring communications by contacting recruiting@crowdstrike.com.

Read more about it here.

ShadowServer researchers reported that over 3.3 million POP3 and IMAP mail servers lack TLS encryption, exposing them to network sniffing attacks.

POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3) and IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) are two protocols used to access emails from mail servers.

With POP3, the e-mails are downloaded to the local device and often deleted from the mail server. With IMAP, emails remain on the server, with synchronized access across user devices.

TLS (Transport Layer Security) is a cryptographic protocol designed to provide secure communication over a computer network. It is widely used to secure data transmitted over the internet, such as emails, web browsing, instant messaging, and file transfers.

ShadowServer scanned the internet for hosts running a POP3 service on port 110/TCP or 995/TCP without TLS support. Users connecting to these mail servers may be sending their credentials unencrypted, where they could be intercepted by adversaries.

“This means that passwords used for mail access may be intercepted. Additionally, service exposure may enable password guessing attacks against the server”, reads the post published by ShadowServer.

“If you receive this report from us, please enable TLS support for POP3 as well as consider whether the service needs to be enabled at all or moved behind a VPN.”

“We have started notifying about hosts running POP3/IMAP services without TLS enabled, meaning usernames/passwords are not encrypted when transmitted. We see around 3.3M such cases with POP3 & a similar amount with IMAP (most overlap).”

Read more about it here.

A massive cyberattack led the state of Rhode Island to take down its online portal used by residents to obtain social services such as SNAP and Medicaid benefits, as well as health insurance purchased through HealthSource RI.

The cyberattack began on December 5, 2024, when Deloitte, the developer and maintainer of RIBridges system, alerted state officials to suspicious activity. Initially, it was unclear whether sensitive data had been accessed. Over the following days, Deloitte implemented additional security measures while investigating the breach.

On December 10, hackers provided a screenshot of file folders as proof of their access, prompting Deloitte to confirm that the RIBridges system had been compromised. Further analysis revealed a high probability that the stolen files contained personally identifiable information (PII). By December 13, Deloitte identified malicious code within the system, leading the state to shut down RIBridges to mitigate further damage and begin remediation.

While the exact infiltration method is still under investigation, early findings suggest that the attackers exploited vulnerabilities in the system’s architecture, likely either through phishing emails targeting administrative accounts or through unpatched software weaknesses. The malware deployed by the cyber criminals enabled unauthorized access and allowed the attackers to exfiltrate data unnoticed for several days.

The FBI and other federal agencies are assisting in the investigation, while Deloitte works to remediate the vulnerabilities and restore RIBridges

Read more about it here.

On December 4, 2024, hacker group Brain Cipher added Deloitte UK to its Tor-based leaked web site. The gang claimed to have stolen one terabyte of compressed data from the company.

A Deloitte spokesperson addressed these claims, stating that the source of data is a single client’s system, which is not connected to the company’s network. The company emphasized that “No Deloitte systems have been impacted”, based on their ongoing investigation.

The hackers are threatening to make the stolen files available unless a ransom is paid, and it set a deadline of December 15 for Deloitte to respond.

The Brain Cipher hacker group has been active since at least April 2024. On June 20, 2024, the group targeted an Indonesian data center, causing the disruption of around 210 critical government services, including customs and immigration. The cyber attack also caused significant airport delays. The Brain Cipher ransomware group initially demanded an $8 million ransom but later released the decryptor for free.

Read more about it here.

Ugandan officials confirmed on November 28, 2024 that the national central bank suffered a security breach by financially motivated threat actors. State minister for finance Henry Musasizi confirmed the hack and said the police’s Criminal Investigations Department and the Auditor General were probing the incident.

State-owned New Vision newspaper reported that hackers, identifying themselves as “Waste”, accessed the bank’s IT systems and illicitly transferred the funds into accounts in Japan and the UK. It is quite possible that the hack was a result of an insiders job. In total, the hackers stole 62 billion Ugandan shillings ($16.8 million) from the central bank. One batch of about $7 million was sent to a bank account in the UK; it was subsequently frozen and is now considered as recovered. A second batch of about $6 million was sent to a bank in Japan; it has not been recovered because the fraudsters on the Japanese side presented “solid and sufficient” paperwork to prove that their transaction was legit.

Read more about it here.

Wordfence researchers issued on November 14, 2024 a warning about vulnerability CVE-2024-10924, having CVSS Score of 9.8, in the Really Simple Security plugin that affects over 4 million WordPress web sites. The Really Simple Security plugin, formerly Really Simple SSL, is a popular WordPress tool that enhances website security with features like login protection, real-time vulnerability detection, and two-factor authentication. If exploited, it allows an attacker to remotely gain full administrative access to a site running the plugin. The vulnerability was discovered by Wordfence’s researcher István Márton.

The flaw is due to improper user check error handling in the two-factor REST API actions with the ‘check_login_and_get_user’ function. “Unfortunately, one of the features adding two-factor authentication was insecurely implemented making it possible for unauthenticated attackers to gain access to any user account, including an administrator account, with a simple request when two-factor authentication is enabled,” Márton said.

Ironically, this vulnerability only impacts WordPress sites who have enabled “Two-Factor Authentication” in the plugin settings.

CVE-2024-10924 impacts plugin versions from 9.0.0 and up to 9.1.1.1 of the “free”, “Pro” and “Pro Multisite” releases. The flaw was fixed in version 9.1.2. Security updates were released on November 12 (Pro versions) and November 14 (free version).

Read more about it here.

Amazon disclosed on November 11, 2024 a data breach that exposed employee information after the data was allegedly stolen during the May 2023 MOVEit Transfer attacks. The company said that the data was stolen from a third-party property management vendor. The MOVEit vulnerability (CVE-2023-34362), first exploited in May 2023, allowed unauthenticated attackers to gain unauthorized access to vulnerable systems. This critical SQL injection flaw enabled cybercriminals to bypass security measures and potentially steal sensitive data from thousands of organizations worldwide.

The Amazon employee information involved was employee work contact information, for example work email addresses, desk phone numbers, and building locations.

Amazon did not disclose the number of impacted employees.

A threat actor using the handle Nam3L3ss leaked over 2.8 million records containing Amazon employee data on the hacking forum BreachForums.

Read more about it here.

Interbank, one of Peru’s leading financial institutions, has confirmed a data breach after a threat actor who hacked into its systems leaked stolen data online.

Interbank disclosed a data breach after a threat actor going by the moniker ‘kzoldyck’ claimed the leak of 3.7 TB of company data. The alleged stolen data includes account IDs, birth dates, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and IP addresses, as well as credit card and CVV numbers, credit card expiry dates, info on bank transactions, and other sensitive information, including plaintext credentials.

Interbank announced that it had resumed its mobile and online platforms after recent outages and assured customers that their funds were not impacted by the security incident.

The threat actor confirmed that Interbank refused to pay the ransom after a two-week negotiation.

Interbank, formally known as the Banco Internacional del Perú Service Holding S.A.A., is a leading Peruvian provider of financial services and has over 2 million customers.

Read more about it here.

US based financial services giant company Fidelity Investments warns 77,099 individuals of a data breach that exposed their personal information. The company revealed via a breach notification filed with the Office of the Maine Attorney General that it was hit by a breach on August 17, 2024, which the firm detected on August 19. A letter sent to the 77,099 customers caught up in the breach confirmed that the attackers stole personal information related to them.

Fidelity said that a third party had accessed and obtained certain information without authorization by using two customer accounts they recently set up. This implies that threat actors exploited “Broken Access Control”, the number one attack vector in OWASP’s Top 10 Web Application Security Risks. One of the risks associated with this is permitting the viewing or editing of someone else’s account by providing its unique identifier. After detecting the activity, the company terminated access to those accounts and launched an investigation with help from outside security experts.

Compromised information included names, Social Security Numbers, financial account data, and drivers license information. Fidelity confirmed that financial data was not exposed and Fidelity customer accounts were not hacked.

Read more about it here.

American peer-to-peer payments and money transfer company MoneyGram confirmed on September 21, 2024 that a cyberattack caused its services to become unavailable. The company has taken some of its systems offline since September 20 to contain the attack, and services were fully restore on September 26.

MoneyGram now confirms on its web site that the cyberattack exposed customer data, including customer name, contact info (such as phone numbers, email and postal addresses), dates of birth, government IDs, Social Security numbers, and transaction details:

“The impacted information included certain affected consumer names, contact information (such as phone numbers, email and postal addresses), dates of birth, a limited number of Social Security numbers, copies of government-issued identification documents (such as driver’s licenses), other identification documents (such as utility bills), bank account numbers, MoneyGram Plus Rewards numbers, transaction information (such as dates and amounts of transactions) and, for a limited number of consumers, criminal investigation information (such as fraud). The types of impacted information varied by affected individual.”

The company said it is proactively working to contain and remediate the attack with the help of external cybersecurity experts. The company already notified law enforcement about the data breach.

Read more about it here.