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:
- SantaStealer is Coming to Town: A New, Ambitious Infostealer Advertised on Underground Forums
December 15, 2025
Rapid7 Labs has identified a new malware-as-a-service information stealer being actively promoted through Telegram channels and on underground hacker forums. The stealer is advertised under the name “SantaStealer” and is planned to be released before the end of 2025. Open source intelligence suggests that it recently underwent a rebranding from the name “BluelineStealer.” The malware collects ...
- PayPal closes loophole that let scammers send real emails with fake purchase notices
December 15, 2025
After an investigation by BleepingComputer, PayPal closed a loophole that allowed scammers to send emails from the legitimate [email protected] email address. Following reports from people who received emails claiming an automatic payment had been cancelled, BleepingComputer found that cybercriminals were abusing a PayPal feature that allows merchants to pause a customer’s subscription. Read more… Source: Malwarebytes Labs Sign up ...
- French government hit by cyberattack
December 15, 2025
The French Interior Ministry has confirmed recently suffering a cyberattack, but the consequences are still being determined. The French Minister of Interior said the attack took place at night, between December 11 and December 12. Email servers were compromised, allowing threat actors to access some document files. However, it is currently unclear if they managed to ...
- LastPass 2022 Data Breach — 1.6 Million Users Exposed By Security Failure
December 14, 2025
Any data breach affecting 1.6 million people is big news, especially when it involves one of the most prominent password managers out there: LastPass. The U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office has just fined LastPass £1.2 million ($1.6 million) for failing to “implement sufficiently robust technical and security measures, which ultimately enabled a hacker to gain unauthorised access ...
- German Government Summons Russian Ambassador Over Major Cyberattack
December 12, 2025
The German government has formally summoned the Russian ambassador following the attribution of a significant cyberattack and coordinated disinformation campaign to Russian actors. This development comes amid heightened concerns regarding interference in Germany’s political processes and critical infrastructure. According to official statements, the cyberattack in question targeted the German Air Traffic Control (Deutsche Flugsicherung, DFS) in ...
- Lazarus, Kimsuky Conduct 58 Attacks Targeting South Korea
December 12, 2025
The North Korean hacking group Lazarus, affiliated with the Reconnaissance General Bureau, is strongly suspected to be behind a 4.45 billion Korean won hacking incident at the virtual asset exchange Upbit. It has been confirmed that Lazarus carried out at least 31 hacking attacks over the past year. According to AhnLab’s “2025 Cyber Threat Trends & ...
