- CISA Issues Supply Chain Compromise Alert, Forms Coordination Group with Other Government Agencies
January 21, 2021
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) recently issued an alert regarding an advanced persistent threat (APT) compromising government agencies, critical infrastructures, and private sector organizations. According to CISA, the APT actor is accountable for the compromise of the SolarWinds Orion supply chain. The actor is also responsible for the abuse of commonly used authentication mechanisms. ...
- Raindrop Backdoor: New Malware Discovered in SolarWinds Investigation
January 20, 2021
Symantec, a division of Broadcom, has uncovered an additional piece of malware used in the SolarWinds attacks which was used against a select number of victims that were of interest to the attackers. Raindrop (Backdoor.Raindrop) is a loader which delivers a payload of Cobalt Strike. Raindrop is very similar to the already documented Teardrop tool, but ...
- XDR investigation uncovers PlugX, unique technique in APT attack
January 20, 2021
Advanced persistent threats (APT) are known — and are universally dreaded — for their stealth. Actors behind such attacks actively innovate their techniques to evade detection and ensure that they maintain a foothold inside an environment as long as possible. Through the Apex One with Endpoint Sensor (iES), we discovered one such incident wherein an ...
- Sophisticated Hacks Against Android, Windows Reveal Zero-Day Trove
January 13, 2021
Google researchers have detailed a major hacking campaign that was detected in early 2020, which mounted a series of sophisticated attacks, some using zero-day flaws, against Windows and Android platforms. Working together, researchers from Google Project Zero and the Google Threat Analysis Group (TAG) uncovered the attacks, which were “performed by a highly sophisticated actor,” Ryan ...
- Sunburst backdoor – code overlaps with Kazuar
January 11, 2021
On December 13, 2020, FireEye published a blog post detailing a supply chain attack leveraging Orion IT, an infrastructure monitoring and management platform by SolarWinds. In parallel, Volexity published an article with their analysis of related attacks, attributed to an actor named “Dark Halo”. FireEye did not link this activity to any known actor; instead, ...
- Adversary Infrastructure Report 2020: A Defender’s View
January 8, 2021
Recorded Future tracks the creation and modification of new malicious infrastructure for a multitude of post-exploitation toolkits, custom malware frameworks, and open-source remote access trojans. The effort has been ongoing since 2017, when Insikt Group created methodologies to identify the deployments of open-source remote access trojans (RATs). Recorded Future collected over 10,000 unique command and control ...
- North Korean hackers launch RokRat Trojan in campaigns against the South
January 7, 2021
A North Korean hacking group is utilizing the RokRat Trojan in a fresh wave of campaigns against the South Korean government. The Remote Access Trojan (RAT) has been connected to attacks based on the exploit of a Korean language word processor commonly used in South Korea for several years; specifically, the compromise of Hangul Office documents ...
- Major Gaming Companies Hit with Ransomware Linked to APT27
January 5, 2021
A recent slew of related ransomware attacks on top videogame companies has been associated with the notorious Chinese-linked APT27 threat group, suggesting that the advanced persistent threat (APT) is swapping up its historically espionage centralized tactics to adopt ransomware, a new report says. Researchers noticed the “strong links” to APT27 when they were brought in as ...
- Lazarus covets COVID-19-related intelligence
December 23, 2020
As the COVID-19 crisis grinds on, some threat actors are trying to speed up vaccine development by any means available. We have found evidence that actors, such as the Lazarus group, are going after intelligence that could help these efforts by attacking entities related to COVID-19 research. While tracking the Lazarus group’s continuous campaigns targeting various ...
- Sunburst: connecting the dots in the DNS requests
December 19, 2020
On December 13, 2020 FireEye published important details of a newly discovered supply chain attack. An unknown attacker, referred to as UNC2452 or DarkHalo planted a backdoor in the SolarWinds Orion IT software. This backdoor, which comes in the form of a .NET module, has some really interesting and rather unique features. We spent the past ...
- Microsoft Caught Up in SolarWinds Spy Effort, Joining Federal Agencies
December 18, 2020
Microsoft has become the latest victim of the ever-widening SolarWinds-driven cyberattack that has impacted rafts of federal agencies and tech targets. Its president, Brad Smith, warned late Thursday to expect many more victims to come to light as investigations continue. Adversaries were able to use SolarWinds’ Orion network management platform to infect users with a stealth ...
- SUPERNOVA: SolarStorm’s Novel .NET Webshell
December 17, 2020
The SolarStorm actors behind the supply chain attack on SolarWinds’ Orion software have demonstrated a high degree of technical sophistication and attention to operational security, as well as a novel combination of techniques in the potential compromise of approximately 18,000 SolarWinds customers. As published in the original disclosure, the attackers were observed removing their initial ...
- Japan-Linked Organizations Targeted in Long-Running and Sophisticated Attack Campaign
December 17, 2020
A large-scale attack campaign is targeting multiple Japanese companies, including subsidiaries located in as many as 17 regions around the globe in a likely intelligence-gathering operation. Companies in multiple sectors are targeted in this campaign, including those operating in the automotive, pharmaceutical, and engineering sector, as well as managed service providers (MSPs). The scale and sophistication of ...
- Using MITRE ATT&CK to Identify an APT Attack
December 15, 2020
Security teams and researchers depend on publicly documented analyses of tools, routines, and behaviors to update themselves on the latest findings in the cybersecurity landscape. Published information serves as a reference for the known tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) to install defenses against advance persistent threats (APTs) and prevent attacks that are likely to occur ...
- Threat Brief: SolarStorm and SUNBURST Customer Coverage
December 14, 2020
On Sunday, Dec. 13, FireEye released information related to a breach and data exfiltration originating from an unknown actor FireEye is calling UNC2452. Unit 42 tracks this and related activity as the group named SolarStorm, and has published an ATOM containing the observed techniques, IOCs and relevant courses of action in the Unit 42 ATOM ...
- Highly Evasive Attacker Leverages SolarWinds Supply Chain to Compromise Multiple Global Victims With SUNBURST Backdoor
December 13, 2020
Executive Summary We have discovered a global intrusion campaign. We are tracking the actors behind this campaign as UNC2452. FireEye discovered a supply chain attack trojanizing SolarWinds Orion business software updates in order to distribute malware we call SUNBURST. The attacker’s post compromise activity leverages multiple techniques to evade detection and obscure their activity, but these efforts also ...
- Facebook doxes APT32, links Vietnam’s primary hacking group to local IT firm
December 11, 2020
In a surprising and unexpected announcement on Thursday, the Facebook security team has revealed the real identity of APT32, one of today’s most active state-sponsored hacking group, believed to be linked to the Vietnamese government. The company said it took this step after it detected APT32 using its platform to spread malware in attempts to infect ...
- Chinese APT suspected of supply chain attack on Mongolian government agencies
December 10, 2020
A Chinese state-sponsored hacking group, also known as an APT, is suspected of having breached a Mongolian software company and compromised a chat app used by hundreds of Mongolian government agencies. The attack is believed to have taken place earlier this year, in June, according to a report published today by Slovak security firm ESET. The hackers ...
- FireEye reveals that it was hacked by a nation state APT group
December 9, 2020
Leading cybersecurity company FireEye disclosed today that it was hacked by a threat actor showing all the signs of a state-sponsored hacking group. The attackers were able to steal Red Team assessment tools FireEye uses to test customers’ security and designed to mimic tools used by many cyber threat actors. FireEye is one of several security firms ...
- Norway: Russian APT28 state hackers likely behind Parliament attack
December 9, 2020
Russian-backed hacking group APT28 has likely brute-forced multiple Norwegian Parliament (Stortinget) email accounts on August 24, 2020, according to the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST, short for Politiets Sikkerhetstjeneste). Attackers gained access to a limited number of Stortinget email accounts of representatives and employees as disclosed by Stortinget director Marianne Andreassen. A statement published on the parliament’s ...
