The Malware tag covers malware families, infrastructure analysis, incident impact, disruption efforts, and defensive guidance to reduce cybersecurity risk.
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Background for this topic.
Malware is software intentionally created or modified to perform unauthorized or harmful actions on a computer, device, or network. The term covers distinct families and functions, including viruses, worms, trojans, spyware, botnet clients, and ransomware; a single sample may combine several capabilities. Its behavior—not its label—determines the security concern: it may execute code, persist, alter or encrypt data, steal credentials, or provide unauthorized remote access.
For practitioners, malware reporting is most useful when it identifies the family or tool conservatively and provides evidence such as affected platforms, samples, infrastructure, or observed behavior. Defenses include promptly patching vulnerable software, restricting execution and privileges, monitoring endpoints and networks, maintaining tested backups, and isolating suspected systems for analysis. Detection should use behavior and verified indicators rather than names alone, since variants change. If malware processes personal or regulated data, investigations should also address privacy, evidence preservation, and applicable reporting obligations.
The threat actors associated with the Gootkit malware have made "notable changes" to their toolset, adding new components and obfuscations to their infection chains
Security researchers have identified a new data-wiping malware they named SwiftSlicer that aims to overwrite crucial files used by the Windows operating system. [...]
Ukraine has come under a fresh cyber onslaught from Russia that involved the deployment of a previously undocumented Golang-based data wiper dubbed SwiftSlicer
The Ukrainian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-UA) found a cocktail of five different data-wiping malware strains deployed on the network of the country's national news agency (Ukrinform) on January 17th. [...]
The variant is “wormable” and can infect USB devices to hide itself from the Windows OS
Security researchers have analyzed a variant of the PlugX malware that can hide malicious files on removable USB devices and then infect the Windows hosts they connect to. [...]
Cybersecurity researchers have discovered the real-world identity of the threat actor behind Golden Chickens malware-as-a-service, who goes by the online persona "badbullzvenom." eSentire's Threat Response Unit (TRU), in an exhaustive report published following a 16-month-long investigation, said it "found multiple mentions of the badbullzvenom account being shared between two people." The
Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a PlugX sample that employs sneaky methods to infect attached removable USB media devices in order to propagate the malware to additional systems
Orcus is a Remote Access Trojan with some distinctive characteristics. The RAT allows attackers to create plugins and offers a robust core feature set that makes it quite a dangerous malicious program in its class
Cybersecurity researchers have unearthed a new Python-based attack campaign that leverages a Python-based remote access trojan (RAT) to gain control over compromised systems since at least August 2022
Hackers have leveraged a critical remote code execution vulnerability in Realtek Jungle SDK 134 million attacks trying to infect smart devices in the second half of 2022. [...]
A new Python-based malware has been spotted in the wild featuring remote access trojan (RAT) capabilities to give its operators control over the breached systems. [...]
SANS Institute meets fast-growing demand for cyber security training in Latin America Sponsored Post The scale of cybersecurity threats facing Latin America was brought into focus by recently when it published details of NICKEL, a "China-based threat actor". The malware was used to attack global organisations with "a large amount of activity" targeting Central and South America, including Mexico and Brazil.…
A threat actor tracked as DEV-0569 uses Google Ads in widespread, ongoing advertising campaigns to distribute malware, steal victims' passwords, and ultimately breach networks for ransomware attacks. [...]
Denis Emelyantsev, a 36-year-old Russian man accused of running a massive botnet called RSOCKS that stitched malware into millions of devices worldwide, pleaded guilty to two counts of computer crime violations in a California courtroom this week. The plea comes just months after Emelyantsev was extradited from Bulgaria, where he told investigators, “America is looking for me because I have enormous information and they need it.”
Hackers cleverly cobbled together a suite of open source software — including a novel RAT — and hijacked servers owned by ordinary businesses.
The tech giant confirmed it intends to implement these plans by March 2023
Organizations in East Asia are being targeted by a likely Chinese-speaking actor dubbed DragonSpark while employing uncommon tactics to go past security layers
The Emotet malware operation has continued to refine its tactics in an effort to fly under the radar, while also acting as a conduit for other dangerous malware such as Bumblebee and IcedID
Microsoft is working on adding XLL add-in protection for Microsoft 365 customers by including automated blocking of all such files downloaded from the Internet. [...]