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:
- FBI: Senior U.S. Officials Continue to be Impersonated in Malicious Messaging Campaign
December 19, 2025
This is an update to Public Service Announcement I-051525-PSA, released May 15, 2025, which can be found here. Activity dating back to 2023 reveals malicious actors have impersonated senior U.S. state government, White House, and Cabinet level officials, as well as members of Congress to target individuals, including officials’ family members and personal acquaintances. If ...
- Police arrest suspect over Microsoft 365 cyber attack
December 19, 2025
The Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC) has apprehended a suspected cyber fraudster linked to coordinated attacks on Microsoft 365 email platforms used by corporate organisations. The arrest followed an intelligence-led investigation triggered by credible information from Microsoft Corporation in the United States, conveyed through the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The intelligence exposed the ...
- UK: NHS GP software supplier hit by cyber attack
December 19, 2025
DXS International which provides healthcare technology for the NHS has disclosed a cyber attack, which has led to data being stolen. The UK-based company provides software that helps to reduce costs for doctors and primary care physicians and is used by around 2,000 GPs which oversee the care of around 17 million patients. In a filing ...
- Denmark blames Russia for cyberattacks on water utility and local government websites
December 18, 2025
The Danish government has accused Russia of being behind two “destructive and disruptive” cyber-attacks in what it describes as “very clear evidence” of a hybrid war. The Danish Defence Intelligence Service (DDIS) announced on Thursday that Moscow was behind a cyber-attack on a Danish water utility in 2024 and a series of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks ...
- Critical vulnerabilities in Fortinet CVE-2025-59718, CVE-2025-59719 exploited in the wild
December 18, 2025
A recently disclosed pair of vulnerabilities affecting Fortinet devices—CVE-2025-59718 and CVE-2025-59719—are drawing urgent attention after confirmation of their active exploitation in the wild. The vulnerabilities carry a critical CVSSv3 score and allow an unauthenticated remote attacker to bypass authentication using a crafted SAML message, ultimately gaining administrative access to the device. Current information indicates that the ...
- From Linear to Complex: An Upgrade in RansomHouse Encryption
December 17, 2025
RansomHouse is a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation run by a group that we track as Jolly Scorpius. Recent samples of the associated binaries used in RansomHouse operations reveal a significant upgrade in encryption. This article explores the upgrade of RansomHouse encryption and the potential impact for defenders. Jolly Scorpius uses a double extortion strategy. This strategy combines ...
