Attackers are increasingly exploiting Windows shortcut (LNK) files for malware delivery. Palo Alto Unit 42 telemetry revealed 21,098 malicious LNK samples in 2023, which surged to 68,392 in 2024.
In this article, Unit 42 researchers present an in-depth investigation of LNK malware, based on analysis of 30,000 recent samples. Windows shortcut files use the .lnk file extension and function as a virtual link that allows people to easily access other files without having to navigate through multiple folders on a Windows host. The flexibility of LNK files makes them a powerful tool for attackers, as they can both execute malicious content and masquerade as legitimate files to deceive victims into unintentionally launching malware.
Read more…
Source: Palo Alto Unit 42
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest news and insights delivered right to your inbox.
Related:
- TicTacToe Dropper
February 14, 2024
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 system and are employed to obfuscate final payloads during load and initial execution. Droppers within this ...
- Bank Of America Warns Customers Of Data Breach Following 2023 Hack
February 13, 2024
A November 2023 breach at IT consulting and service provider Infosys McCamish Systems has now been confirmed to have led to a data breach impacting Bank of America customers. The number of Bank of America customers impacted by the breach, including personally identifiable information such as social security numbers, account numbers, date of birth and addresses, ...
- CVE-2023-47218: QNAP QTS and QuTS Hero Unauthenticated Command Injection (FIXED)
February 13, 2024
Rapid7 has identified an unauthenticated command injection vulnerability in the QNAP operating system known as QTS and QuTS hero. QTS is a core part of the firmware for numerous QNAP entry- and mid-level Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices, and QuTS hero is a core part of the firmware for numerous QNAP high-end and enterprise NAS devices. ...
- Community Alert: Ongoing Malicious Campaign Impacting Azure Cloud Environments
February 12, 2024
Over the past weeks, Proofpoint researchers have been monitoring an ongoing cloud account takeover campaign impacting dozens of Microsoft Azure environments and compromising hundreds of user accounts, including senior executives. This post serves as a community warning regarding the attack and offers suggestions that affected organizations can implement to protect themselves from it. Proofpoint researchers detected ...
- UK: Contact details and national security numbers could have been stolen from Southern Water customers following cyber attack
February 12, 2024
The announcement, which went live on Southern Water’s website earlier today (February 12), confirms that ‘a limited part’ of the company’s server estate is at risk following an illegal intrusion earlier this year. Apologising for the breach, a spokesperson confirmed that the company is working with “expert technical advisers to confirm who is at risk,” and ...
- US Government Accounting Office says it was notified of data breach by IT contractor CGI Federal
February 12, 2024
The U.S. Government Accounting Office says it was notified of a data breach by IT contractor GCI Federal. Reuters could not immediately ascertain the size and scope of the breach. The GAO said that about 6,000 people, “primarily current and former GAO employees from 2007 to 2017,” had been affected but did not immediately respond when ...