A US federal agency was successfully targeted by a previously unknown backdoor malware called Firestarter, according to CISA cybersnoops and their UK counterparts – neither of which disclosed the agency’s name.
Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies include NASA; Homeland Security itself (cyberworkers at CISA are part of an operational unit in Homeland Security); the FBI; the DoJ; the IRS; the Department of Veteran Affairs; the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); and more. Described as a backdoor with remote access capabilities, Firestarter was named after Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) and Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD), the two products the malware targeted.
Read more…
Source: The Register News
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- FBI nuked web shells from hacked Exchange Servers without telling owners
April 13, 2021
A court-approved FBI operation was conducted to remove web shells from compromised US-based Microsoft Exchange servers without first notifying the servers’ owners. On March 2nd, Microsoft released a series of Microsoft Exchange security updates for vulnerabilities actively exploited by a hacking group known as HAFNIUM. These vulnerabilities are collectively known as ProxyLogon and were used by threat ...
- NAME:WRECK DNS vulnerabilities affect over 100 million devices
April 13, 2021
Security researchers today disclosed nine vulnerabilities affecting implementations of the Domain Name System protocol in popular TCP/IP network communication stacks running on at least 100 million devices. Collectively referred to as NAME: WRECK, the flaws could be leveraged to take offline affected devices or to gain control over them. The vulnerabilities were found in widespread TCP/IP stacks ...
- Critical security alert: If you haven’t patched old Fortinet VPN vulnerability, assume your network is compromised
April 12, 2021
Cyber criminals and nation-state cyber-espionage operations are actively scanning for unpatched vulnerabilities in Fortinet VPNs; organisations that use Fortigate firewalls on their network, and have yet to apply a critical security update released almost two years ago, should assume they’ve been compromised and act accordingly. The alert from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) follows a ...
- Google Chrome blocks port 10080 to stop NAT Slipstreaming attacks
April 8, 2021
Google Chrome is now blocking HTTP, HTTPS, and FTP access to TCP port 10080 to prevent the ports from being abused in NAT Slipstreaming 2.0 attacks. Last year, security researcher Samy Kamkar disclosed a new version of the NAT Slipstreaming vulnerability that allows scripts on malicious websites to bypass visitors’ NAT firewall and gain access to ...
- New Cring ransomware hits unpatched Fortinet VPN devices
April 7, 2021
A vulnerability impacting Fortinet VPNs is being exploited by a new human-operated ransomware strain known as Cring to breach and encrypt industrial sector companies’ networks. Cring ransomware (also known as Crypt3r, Vjiszy1lo, Ghost, Phantom) was discovered by Amigo_A in January and spotted by the CSIRT team of Swiss telecommunications provider Swisscom. The Cring operators drop customized Mimikatz ...
- SAP Bugs Under Active Cyberattack, Causing Widespread Compromise
April 6, 2021
Active cyberattacks on known vulnerabilities in SAP systems could lead to full control of unsecured SAP applications, researchers are warning. Adversaries are carrying out a range of attacks, according to an alert from SAP and security firm Onapsis issued Tuesday – including theft of sensitive data, financial fraud, disruption of mission-critical business processes and other operational ...