TicTacToe Dropper

While analyzing malware samples collected from several victims, the FortiGuard team identified a grouping of malware droppers used to deliver various final-stage payloads throughout 2023. Malware droppers are malicious software designed to deliver and execute additional malware on a victim Read More …

Hacked Microsoft test account was assigned admin privileges

The hackers who recently broke into Microsoft’s network and monitored top executives’ email for two months did so by gaining access to an aging test account with administrative privileges, a major gaffe on the company’s part, a researcher said. The Read More …

HP Enterprise was hacked by the same Russian state-sponsored group that targeted Microsoft

HP Enterprise was infiltrated by a hacking group linked to Russian intelligence last year, the business IT company has revealed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The threat actor is believed to be Midnight Blizzard, also known as Cozy Read More …

Microsoft actions following attack by nation state actor Midnight Blizzard

The Microsoft security team detected a nation-state attack on our corporate systems on January 12, 2024, and immediately activated our response process to investigate, disrupt malicious activity, mitigate the attack, and deny the threat actor further access. Microsoft has identified Read More …

Financially motivated threat actors misusing App Installer

Since mid-November 2023, Microsoft Threat Intelligence has observed threat actors, including financially motivated actors like Storm-0569, Storm-1113, Sangria Tempest, and Storm-1674, utilizing the ms-appinstaller URI scheme (App Installer) to distribute malware. In addition to ensuring that customers are protected from Read More …

How Outlook notification sounds can lead to zero-click exploits

An Akamai researcher has found two vulnerabilities in Windows that can be combined to achieve a full, zero-click remote code execution (RCE) in Outlook. Both vulnerabilities were responsibly disclosed to Microsoft and addressed in the August 2023 and October 2023 Read More …

Microsoft patches 34 vulnerabilities, including one zero-day

December’s Patch Tuesday is a relatively quiet one on the Microsoft front. Redmond has patched 34 vulnerabilities with only four rated as critical. One vulnerability, a previously disclosed unpatched vulnerability in AMD central processing units (CPUs), was shifted by AMD Read More …

Analyzing AsyncRAT’s code injection into aspnet_compiler.exe across multiple incident response cases

During their recent investigations, the Trend Micro Managed XDR (MxDR) team handled various cases involving AsyncRAT, a Remote Access Tool (RAT) with multiple capabilities,  such as keylogging and remote desktop control, that make it a substantial threat to victims. This Read More …

TA422’s Dedicated Exploitation Loop – the Same Week After Week

Starting in March 2023, Proofpoint researchers have observed the Russian advanced persistent threat (APT) TA422 readily use patched vulnerabilities to target a variety of organizations in Europe and North America. TA422 overlaps with the aliases APT28, Forest Blizzard, Pawn Storm, Read More …

Update now! Microsoft patches 3 actively exploited zero-days

Another important update round for this month’s Patch Tuesday. Microsoft has patched a total of 63 vulnerabilities in its operating systems. Five of these vulnerabilities qualify as zero-days, with three listed as being actively exploited. Microsoft considers a vulnerability to Read More …