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:
- I know what you did last summer, MuddyWater blending in the crowd
April 29, 2019
MuddyWater is an APT with a focus on governmental and telco targets in the Middle East (Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon) and also a few other countries in nearby regions (Azerbaijan, Pakistan and Afghanistan). MuddyWater first surfaced in 2017 and has been active continuously, targeting a large number of organizations. First stage infections ...
- ‘Karkoff’ Is the New ‘DNSpionage’ With Selective Targeting Strategy
April 24, 2019
The cybercriminal group behind the infamous DNSpionage malware campaign has been found running a new sophisticated operation that infects selected victims with a new variant of the DNSpionage malware. First uncovered in November last year, the DNSpionage attacks used compromised sites and crafted malicious documents to infect victims’ computers with DNSpionage—a custom remote administrative tool that uses ...
- Operation ShadowHammer: a high-profile supply chain attack
April 23, 2019
In late March 2019, we briefly highlighted our research on ShadowHammer attacks, a sophisticated supply chain attack involving ASUS Live Update Utility, which was featured in a Kim Zetter article on Motherboard. The topic was also one of the research announcements made at the SAS conference, which took place in Singapore on April 9-10, 2019. Now it is time to ...
- Source code of Carbanak trojan found on VirusTotal
April 23, 2019
The source code of one of the world’s most dangerous malware strains has been uploaded and left available on VirusTotal for two years, and almost nobody has noticed. It was discovered by security researchers from US cyber-security firm FireEye, analyzed for the past two years, and made public today, so other members of the cyber-security community ...
- FINTEAM: Trojanized TeamViewer Against Government Targets
April 23, 2019
Recently, Check Point researchers spotted a targeted attack against officials within government finance authorities and representatives in several embassies in Europe. The attack, which starts with a malicious attachment disguised as a top secret US document, weaponizes TeamViewer, the popular remote access and desktop sharing software, to gain full control of the infected computer. By investigating ...
- Old-school cruel: Dodgy PDF email attachments enjoying a renaissance
April 19, 2019
The last few months have seen a big increase in malware attacks using PDF email attachments, according to security firm SonicWall. “Increasingly, email, Office documents and now PDFs are the vehicle of choice for malware and fraud in the cyber landscape,” said the outfit’s Bill Conner. There’s nothing new in this, of course, but many recent attacks ...