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:
- How Does Cybersecurity Impact Environmental Services and Infrastructure?
April 4, 2022
Environmental sustainability has become a significant concern for businesses today. Yet, many are not seeing the connection between sustainability efforts and cybersecurity. Despite how different they may seem, these two topics are intertwined. If environmental services and infrastructure don’t embrace better security, the consequences could be severe. If organizations hope to make a positive environmental impact, ...
- An In-Depth Look at ICS Vulnerabilities Part 2
April 4, 2022
In part one, Trend Micro researchers discussed ICS-CERT advisories from 2010 to 2021. Using MITRE Adversarial Tactics, Techniques, and Common Knowledge (ATT&CK) for ICS, determined the number of identified CVEs that affect the ICS environment. For this blog entry, Trend Micro look into the sectors affected, especially during 2021: Read more… Source: Trend Micro Related story: An In-Depth Look ...
- Borat RAT: Multiple threat of ransomware, DDoS and spyware
April 4, 2022
A new remote access trojan (RAT) dubbed “Borat” doesn’t come with many laughs but offers bad actors a menu of cyberthreats to choose from. RATs are typically used by cybercriminals to get full control of a victim’s system, enabling them to access files and network resources and manipulate the mouse and keyboard. Borat does all this ...
- Chinese hackers Deep Panda return with Log4Shell exploits, new Fire Chili rootkit
April 1, 2022
Deep Panda has launched new attacks this month that exploit Log4Shell to deploy the new Fire Chili rootkit. Deep Panda is a Chinese advanced persistent threat (APT) hacking group that has been active for at least a decade. The APT targets government, defense, healthcare, telecoms, and financial organizations, to name a few, for purposes including data ...
- Zyxel urges customers to patch critical firewall bypass vulnerability
April 1, 2022
Zyxel is urging customers to immediately patch a critical vulnerability in the vendor’s firewall software. In a security advisory published this week, the Taiwanese networking giant said the security flaw can lead to the circumvention of firewall protection in Zyxel USG, ZyWALL, FLEX, ATP, VPN, and NSG product lines. Tracked as CVE-2022-0342 and issued a critical severity ...
- Modem-wiping malware caused Viasat satellite broadband outage in Europe
April 1, 2022
Tens of thousands of Viasat satellite broadband modems that were disabled in a cyber-attack some weeks ago were wiped by malware with possible links to Russia’s destructive VPNFilter, according to SentinelOne. On February 24, as Russian troops invaded Ukraine, Viasat terminals in Europe and Ukraine were suddenly and unexpectedly knocked offline and rendered inoperable. This caused, ...