Back in October 2022, Kaspersky GReAT was looking into a peculiar advertisement on a hacking forum. A cybercriminal had been advertising a UEFI bootkit, dubbed BlackLotus, that could bypass Secure Boot, for $5,000. Given the low price for such powerful capabilities, the cybersecurity community initially took this advertisement with a grain of salt. As no BlackLotus samples were found in the wild, no one could at the time verify the claims made in the forum post.
However, about half a year later, in March 2023, ESET confirmed that the BlackLotus advertisement was genuine. The researchers tracked down samples of this bootkit and confirmed that it can indeed bypass Secure Boot through a vulnerability called Baton Drop (CVE-2022-21894). As this vulnerability was still exploitable in 2023, Microsoft had to release multiple security updates to address it.
Read more…
Source: Kaspersky
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- CISA warns hackers are actively exploiting critical ‘Citrix Bleed 2’ security flaw
July 11, 2025
U.S. cybersecurity agency CISA says hackers are actively exploiting a critical-rated security flaw in a widely used Citrix product, and has given other federal government departments just one day to patch their systems. Security researchers have dubbed the bug “Citrix Bleed 2” for its similarity to a 2023 security flaw in Citrix NetScaler, a networking product ...
- Pro basketball player and 4 youths arrested in connection to ransomware crimes
July 10, 2025
Authorities in Europe have detained five people, including a former Russian professional basketball player, in connection with crime syndicates responsible for ransomware attacks. Until recently, one of the suspects, Daniil Kasatkin, played for MBA Moscow, a basketball team that’s part of the VTB United League, which includes teams from Russia and other Eastern European countries. Kasatkin ...
- UK: Arrests made after M&S, Co-op and Harrods cyber attacks
July 10, 2025
Four people, including three teenagers and a 20-year-old woman, have been arrested in connection with a wave of cyber attacks that crippled M&S, the Co-op and Harrods. The group allegedly unleashed ransomware that stole millions of customer records, shut down online orders and left supermarket shelves bare. The arrests included a 17-year-old British man from the ...
- GoldMelody’s Hidden Chords: Initial Access Broker In-Memory IIS Modules Revealed
July 8, 2025
Unit 42 researchers uncovered a campaign by an initial access broker (IAB) to exploit leaked Machine Keys — cryptographic keys used on ASP.NET sites — to gain access to targeted organizations. IABs breach organizations and then sell that access to other threat actors. This report analyzes the tools used in these attacks. Palo Alto track this ...
- Impostor uses AI to impersonate Rubio and contact foreign and US officials
July 8, 2025
The State Department is warning U.S. diplomats of attempts to impersonate Secretary of State Marco Rubio and possibly other officials using technology driven by artificial intelligence, according to two senior officials and a cable sent last week to all embassies and consulates. The warning came after the department discovered that an impostor posing as Rubio had ...
- NFC fraud threatens Philippines digital payments security
July 8, 2025
As contactless payments and digital wallets grow quickly in the Philippines, cyber-criminals are now targeting the country by abusing Near Field Communication (NFC) technologies. Resecurity, a global leader in cyber threat intelligence, issued a stark warning, urging Philippine regulators and financial institutions to heighten their defenses amid an alarming increase in NFC-enabled fraud, particularly from ...
