Threat Labs News Roundup: March 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

BlackLotus bootkit targeting Windows 11

Researchers found that an UEFI bootkit known as BlackLotus is able to successfully bypass the UEFI Secure Boot on fully updated Windows 11 systems, being sold on forums for $5,000. Details

CVE-2023-21716 PoC released by security researcher

After the Microsoft Word RCE vulnerability (CVE-2023-21716) was fixed by Microsoft, the security researcher that discovered the vulnerability released a proof-of-concept (PoC) on Twitter. Details

Emotet returns after brief hiatus

After a brief hiatus, a new Emotet campaign was spotted, where attackers behind Emotet have added a technique known as binary padding to bypass detection. Details

Microsoft Outlook Zero-day Exploited by APT28

Microsoft warns about the Microsoft Outlook vulnerability (CVE-2023-23397) being exploited by APT28 (a.k.a. Fancy Bear, Pawn Storm), an APT group linked to Russia’s military intelligence service GRU. Details

Microsoft releases update for Acropalypse

Microsoft released an emergency security update to address a vulnerability known as Acropalypse (CVE-2023-28303), fixing an issue in the Snipping tool of Windows 10 and 11. Details

OpenAI confirms data breach on ChatGPT

OpenAI has confirmed a bug in ChatGPT that resulted in a data breach, where users could see data belonging to other users. Details

Cybersecurity Events in Ukraine

Russia bans foreign messaging apps

The Russian agency Roskomnadzor has warned that the use of foreign messaging applications, such as Discord, WhatsApp, and Teams, is being banned in Russian government and state agencies. Details

Russian disinformation campaign uncovered

Researchers have found a social engineering campaign that involves duping high-profile individuals who support Ukraine into making comments and performing embarrassing acts on videos, and then using those videos in misinformation campaigns. Details

Russian attackers shifting to cyber espionage

The State Service of Special Communication and Information Protection (SSSCIP) of Ukraine says that Russian attackers that failed to achieve their goals in 2022 are shifting from disruptive attacks to cyber espionage. Details

Russia-linked APT group targeting governments

Researchers found that a Russia-linked APT group named Winter Vivern is targeting government entities in Ukraine, Poland, Italy, and India in recent campaigns. Details

Russian spy ring dismantled by Polish counter-intelligence

A Russian spy ring that gathered intelligence on military equipment deliveries to Ukraine and was preparing acts of sabotage on behalf of Russia has been dismantled by Polish counter-intelligence. Details

Ukraine’s critical sectors attacked by new APT

Researchers found that a new APT group named Bad Magic has been targeting Ukraine’s government, agriculture, and transportation organizations located in Crimea, Lugansk, and Donetsk. Details

Russia worldwide cyberwar plans exposed

A Russian contractor leaked thousands of confidential documents that expose Russia military and intelligence agencies’ plans for using their tools in cyber attacks to conduct critical infrastructure disruptions, disinformation campaigns, and more. Details

Cloud-enabled Threats

RedLine Stealer abusing dropbox to target hospitality industry

Researchers found a RedLine Stealer campaign targeting the hospitality industry, where attackers use spear phishing emails to lure victims into downloading the malware from Dropbox. Details

PyPI malware abusing Discord and Transfer.sh

A malicious package hosted in Python Package Index (PyPI) was found delivering an information stealer and remote access trojan, abusing Discord to fetch the payload and transfer.sh for data exfiltration. Details

Attackers abusing AWS to steal confidential data

A new campaign dubbed as SCARLETEEL was discovered, where attackers are exploiting vulnerable public web applications hosted on AWS to steal proprietary software and credentials. Details

Abusing Google Cloud Platform for data exfiltration

Researchers have found that an attacker could exploit Google Cloud Platform (GCP) to exfiltrate sensitive data due to lack of visibility in Google storage logs. Details

Rhadamanthys and RedLine stealers delivered through Google Ads

New campaigns that are abusing Google Ads to deliver Rhadamanthys and RedLine infostealers were found, using a technique to mimic websites associated with Notepad++ and Blender 3D software. Details

BATLOADER abusing Google Ads to deliver multiple malware

BATLOADER has been observed abusing Google Ads to deliver Vidar Stealer and Ursnif payloads, spoofing multiple legitimate apps such as Adobe, ChatGPT, Spotify, Tableau, and Zoom. Details

YouTube abused to spread multiple malware

Researchers found that attackers are using AI-generated YouTube videos containing fake tutorials to spread multiple stealers, such as Raccoon, RedLine, and Vidar. Details

Adobe Acrobat Sign abused to deliver RedLine

A new campaign was found where attackers are abusing Adobe’s online document signing service to spread RedLine stealer. Details

Ransomware

FBI and CISA warns about Royal ransomware

The FBI and CISA have released a joint advisory about the increase of Royal ransomware attacks targeting critical U.S. infrastructure sectors, including healthcare, education and communication. Details

Play ransomware claims attack on City of Oakland

The Play ransomware group has claimed responsibility for the attack on the City of Oakland that disrupted IT systems in February 2023. Details

LockBit demanding $2 million as ransom

The LockBit ransomware group is demanding $2 million as ransom in return for the Pierce Transit stolen data, which was breached in February 2023. Details

Members of DoppelPaymer ransomware arrested

Germany and Ukraine authorities have arrested suspected core members of the DoppelPaymer ransomware group. Details

IceFire ransomware now targeting Linux

A new version of the recently discovered IceFire ransomware was discovered by researchers, able to encrypt files in Linux-based systems. Details 

Clop ransomware extorting GoAnywhere zero-day victims

The Clop ransomware group is extorting victims of the zero-day vulnerability in GoAnywhere file sharing software, where they claim to have stolen data from 130 companies. Details

Microsoft fixes zero-day used in Magniber ransomware attacks

The vulnerability tracked as CVE-2023-24880 that was being used by attackers to deploy Magniber ransomware payloads is now fixed by Microsoft. Details

BrianLian ransomware moving away from encryption

The BrianLian ransomware group is updating its operation by moving away from encryption and focusing on pure data-theft and extortion tactics. Details

Clop ransomware claims responsibility for attack on City of Toronto

The Clop RaaS group is claiming responsibility for a ransomware attack on the City of Toronto, where they used the GoAnywhere zero-day vulnerability. Details