Aug 12 2023

THIS CODE LETS HACKERS REMOTELY PLAY MUSIC ON LEXMARK PRINTERS AND SPY ON USERS

Category: Cyber Spy,Hacking,Printer security — disc7 @ 2:52 pm
This code lets hackers remotely play music on Lexmark printers and spy on users

Researchers in the field of information security at Horizon3 have made public the proof-of-concept (PoC) code for a major privilege escalation vulnerability (CVE-2023-26067) found in Lexmark printers. On a device that has not been patched, this vulnerability, which has a CVSS score of 8.0, might enable an attacker to get elevated access if the device is not updated.

Incorrect validation of user-supplied information is what led to the vulnerability in the system. This vulnerability might be exploited by the attacker by having the attacker make a specially crafted request to the printer. Once the vulnerability has been exploited, the attacker has the potential to get escalated rights on the device, which might give them the ability to execute arbitrary code, spill credentials, or obtain a reverse shell.

Configurations prone to vulnerability
An initial Setup Wizard is shown on the display of the user’s Lexmark printer the very first time it is turned on by the user. This wizard walks the user through the process of configuring several system settings, such as the language, as well as giving them the opportunity to setup an administrative user.
If the user makes the selection “Set Up Later,” the printer will provide “Guest” users access to all of the features and pages available through the web interface of the printer. If the user selects “Set up Now,” the printer will prevent them from accessing a significant portion of their accessible capability until they have authenticated themselves.

Even if the user chooses to “Set Up Later,” they still have the option of configuring their credentials using the web interface if they so want. On the other hand, a credential that is set up in this way will not, by default, impose any limits on the “Guest” account. This indicates that several critical functions, such as access to the vulnerable endpoint /cgi-bin/fax_change_faxtrace_settings, are still available to the public.

He looked at devices that were listed on Shodan as well as those that were in our client base when we were trying to determine what configuration was the one that was used in the real world the most. When you search “Lexmark 3224” on Shodan, it will display all of the printers that have the online interface accessible. The vast majority of these accessible printers were configured in a way that made them susceptible to attack. The similar pattern was seen with each of  customers that integrate Lexmark printers into their own corporate networks.

Horizon3 has conducted extensive research on this vulnerability and discovered many different ways that it may be chained by cunning and smart adversaries. A article on Horizon3’s blog that was written on Friday and published on Friday gives insight on the layered complexity of this vulnerability. Take a look at the following to get an idea of what prospective attackers may do:

  • Credential Dumping: By exploiting this weakness, attackers are able to obtain sensitive credentials, which is the first step that might lead to more extensive and destructive breaches.
  • Gain Access to Reverse Shells Attackers are able to build a reverse shell after they have gained control of a device. This allows them to further extend the extent of their control and access inside a network.
  • Surprisingly, this vulnerability even gives attackers the ability to play music on the devices that are afflicted by the issue. Despite the fact that this may appear little, it serves to highlight the degree of power that might be achieved by exploiting this vulnerability.

Horizon3 has taken things a step further by posting a Proof-of-Concept (PoC) code on their website, which illustrates how the CVE-2023-26067 vulnerability may be exploited maliciously. The disclosure of the proof-of-concept code is a double-edged sword, despite the fact that there have been no efforts made publically known or reported to exploit this in the wild.

60 different HP printer models of inkjet, LaserJet Pro, and PageWide Pro printers allow threat actors to take control of network remotely. Patch these two flaws

Firmware upgrades have been made available by Lexmark in order to fix this issue. If you own a Lexmark printer, you need to check the firmware version and make sure it is updated to the most recent version as soon as you can. On the Lexmark website, you’ll be able to discover the most recent firmware update for your printer. The vulnerability posed by this issue poses a significant risk to Lexmark printers. It is quite possible that threat actors who are resourceful and motivated will move fast to exploit this vulnerability. If you want to keep your printers safe from harm, it is essential to keep the firmware on them up to date as quickly as possible.

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Tags: LEXMARK PRINTERS

Jul 12 2023

The Spies Who Loved You: Infected USB Drives to Steal Secrets

Category: Cyber Spy,Spyware — disc7 @ 12:28 pm

https://www.mandiant.com/resources/blog/infected-usb-steal-secrets

In the first half of 2023, Mandiant Managed Defense has observed a threefold increase in the number of attacks using infected USB drives to steal secrets. Mandiant tracked all of the cases and found that the majority of the incidents could be attributed to several active USB-based operation campaigns affecting both the public and private sectors globally.

Previously, we covered one of the campaigns that leverages USB flash drives as an initial infection vector and concentrates on the Philippines. In this blog post, we are covering two additional USB-based cyber espionage campaigns that have been observed by Managed Defense: 

  • SOGU Malware Infection via USB Flash Drives Across Industries and Geographies

    This is the most prevalent USB-based cyber espionage attack using USB flash drives and one of the most aggressive cyber espionage campaigns targeting both public and private sector organizations globally across industry verticals. It uses USB flash drives to load the SOGU malware to steal sensitive information from a host.

    Mandiant attributes this campaign to TEMP.Hex, a China-linked cyber espionage actor. TEMP.Hex likely conducted these attacks to collect information in support of Chinese national security and economic interests. These operations pose a risk to a variety of industries, including construction and engineering, business services, government, health, transportation, and retail in Europe, Asia, and the United States.
     
  • SNOWYDRIVE Malware Infection via USB Flash Drives, Targets Oil and Gas Organizations in Asia

    This campaign uses USB flash drives to deliver the SNOWYDRIVE malware. Once SNOWYDRIVE is loaded, it creates a backdoor on the host system, giving attackers the ability to remotely issue system commands. It also spreads to other USB flash drives and propagates throughout the network.

    Mandiant attributes this campaign to UNC4698, a threat actor that has targeted oil and gas organizations in Asia. Once the actor has gained access to the system, they execute arbitrary payloads using the Windows Command Prompt, use removable media devices, create local staging directories, and modify the Windows registry. 

SOGU Malware Infection via USB Flash Drives Across Industries and Geographies

Managed Defense first observed this campaign while hunting for suspicious file write events in common directories that threat actors use for their malware, tools, or utilities.

Figure 2: Managed Defense investigation breakdown by industry

Pegasus: How a Spy in Your Pocket Threatens the End of Privacy, Dignity, and Democracy

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Tags: Infected USB Drives, Pegasus, Steal Secrets

Apr 04 2023

I THINK SOMEONE IS SPYING ME USING AIRTAG, WHAT SHOULD I DO?

Category: Cyber Spy,Spyware — DISC @ 9:16 am
I think someone is spying me using AirTag, what should I do?

Keeping track of your most vital belongings, such as your keys, wallet, remote controls, and even motorcycles, may be made easier with the assistance of an Apple AirTag. Yet, allegations that they were utilized to monitor individuals without first obtaining their permission threw an unfavorable light on the utilization and implementation of these technologies. It’s possible that your iPhone will warn you before you have to take any action if you have reason to believe that someone is monitoring your whereabouts via an AirTag. If you believe that you may be in danger because someone is following you without your permission and you feel that you should call law authorities, Apple may provide further information about the owner of the AirTag.

You will be notified of this

If you have an iPhone and you are being tracked by an AirTag, your phone may send you a notification that says “AirTag discovered moving with you.” This will occur if all of the following conditions are met:

The AirTag has been detached from its rightful owner.
iPhone of yours is awake.
When you move the AirTag, it will make a sound.
This may also occur with other accessories that are compatible with Find My Network, such as AirPods, AirPods Pro, or AirPods Max. When you move any of these goods when they are not being handled by their owners, each of them will make a sound.

Verify that the Tracking Notifications feature is turned on.
In the event that you do not get an alert, it is possible that you will need to complete the following procedures in order to guarantee that your tracking alerts are activated:

Go to the Settings menu, and then pick Privacy.
To activate Location Services, choose Location Services from the menu.
Go to the System Services menu.
Put your iPhone in find mode and activate the Notable Places feature.
Return to the Settings menu, and then choose Bluetooth.
Bluetooth must be on.
Last but not least, open the Locate My app and choose yourself.
Activate the Tracking Alerts on your browser.

Try out the app called “Find My.”
When AirTags get separated from their owners, they will produce a sound whenever they are moved in order to assist others in locating them. After confirming that Step 2 has finished, you may open the Locate My app and check to see if the AirTag is located if you think you may have heard an AirTag or another sound that you are unable to identify and suspect it may be an AirTag.

Make AirTag produce a sound.
If you have been notified that an AirTag was traveling with you and are checking the Find My app, you have the option to play a sound on the device in order to locate it more quickly. You can monitor other people’s AirTags by using the Find My app, which you may access by touching on the alert, selecting continue, and then tapping Locate Nearby.

Check all the details about AirTag 
When you have the AirTag in your line of sight, you may access the information it contains on your iPhone or any other smartphone that supports NFC. You will need to bring the top of your iPhone close to the white side of the AirTag that you have located and wait for it to identify it. A notice displays beside a webpage that contains the owner’s last four digits of their phone number in addition to the AirTag’s serial number. If this is a lost AirTag, the owner may have included their contact information so that the person who found it may get in touch with them.

Inactivate the AirTag.
If the owner of an AirTag disables it, they will no longer be able to see its current position or get updates about it. Just removing the battery is all that is required to deactivate the AirTag. You may do this by first opening the AirTag by depressing the button on top and then removing the battery by turning the lid counterclockwise.

Researcher publishes way to bypass Apple AirTag anti-spying protection

You will be able to determine the position of another person’s iPhone so long as your AirTag is in close proximity to that device. And with Apple’s recent release of an official app for monitoring AirTags on Android devices, you don’t even need an iDevice to accomplish that anymore! Yet, there is one very significant exception to this rule.

With Apple Music, the Beats app, and an application for transitioning to iOS, Tracker Detect is one of the few Apple applications that can be downloaded and used on Android devices. If you wish to zero in on a specific rogue AirTag, you can use the app to play a sound on it, and you can also use the app to monitor neighboring rogue AirTags using it. From that point on, you have the option of scanning the AirTag using an NFC reader or turning it off by removing its battery. The functionality is really fundamental, despite the fact that it is rather cool looking. Since it does not have an auto-scan feature, you will not get alerts about nearby missing AirTags as you would on an iPhone. This means that in order to look for a tag, you will need to manually launch the application first. One may argue that this renders the Tracker Detect app rather worthless since a large number of individuals in the reviews part of the app believe that it ought to be able to auto-scan. Spending your day manually searching your immediate environment for AirTags every five minutes is not the most effective use of your time.

It’s not even like there are roadblocks in the way of making that happen on Android phones; all you need is Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). And enabling auto-scanning for AirTags on non-Apple devices and having those devices participate to Apple’s Find My network would also considerably increase the success of finding AirTags in general. Download the application from the Google Play Store right now if you have an Android device and want to be able to scan AirTags with it.

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Tags: AIRTAG

Jul 25 2022

Office macro security: on-again-off-again feature now BACK ON AGAIN!

Category: Cyber Spy — DISC @ 8:28 am
Office macro security: on-again-off-again feature now BACK ON AGAIN!

The phrase Office macros is a harmless-sounding, low-tech name that refers, in real life, to program code you can squirrel away inside Office files so that the code travels along with the text of a document, or the formulas of a spreadsheet, or the slides in a presentation…

…and even though the code is hidden from sight in the file, it can nevertheless sneakily spring into life as soon as you use the file in any way.

Those hidden macros, indeed, can be configured (by the sender, not by the recipient, you understand!) to trigger automatically when the file is opened; to override standard items in Office’s own menu bar; to run secondary programs; to create network connections; and much more.

Almost anything, in fact, that you could do with a regular .EXE file, which is the sort of file that few of us would willingly accept via email at all, even from someone we knew, and that most of us would be deeply cautious about downloading from a website we didn’t already know and trust.

Fighting back against cybercriminals

Thanks to macros and the hidden programming power they provide, Office documents have been widely used by cybercriminals for implanting malware since the 1990s.

Curiously, though, it took Microsoft 20 years (actually, closer to 25, but we’ll be charitable and round it down to two decades) to block Office macros by default in files that arrived over the internet.

As regular Naked Security readers will know, we were as keen as mustard about this simple change of heart, proclaiming the news, back in February 2022, with the words, “At last!”

To be fair, Microsoft already had an operating system setting that you could use to turn on this safety feature for yourself, but by default it was off.

Enabling it was easy in theory, but not straightforward in practice, especially for small businesses and home users.

Either you needed a network with a sysadmin, who could turn it on for you using Group Policy, or you had to know exactly where to go and what to tweak by yourself on your own computer, using the policy editor or hacking the registry yourself.

So, turning this setting on by default felt like an uncontroversial cybersecurity step forward for the vast majority of users, especially given that the few who wanted to live dangerously could use the aforementioned policy edits or registry hacks to turn the security feature back off again.

Apparently, however, these “few” turned out [a] to be more numerous than you might have guessed and [b] to have been more inconvenienced by the change than you might have expected:

https://twitter.com/NakedSecurity/status/1548992597129043970?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1548992597129043970%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnakedsecurity.sophos.com%2F2022%2F07%2F23%2Foffice-macro-security-on-again-off-again-feature-now-back-on-again%2F

Notably, many people using cloud servers (including, of course, Microsoft’s own online data storage services such as SharePoint and OneDrive) had got used to using external servers, with external servernames, as repositories that their friends or colleagues were expected to treat as if they were internal, company-owned resources.

Remember that old joke that “the cloud” is really just shorthand for “someone else’s computer”? Turns out that there’s many a true word spoken in jest.

Organisations that relied on sharing documents via cloud services, and who hadn’t taken the appropriate precautions to denote which external servers should be treated as official company sources…

…found their macros blocked by default, and voiced their displeasure loudly enough that Microsoft officially relented around the middle of 2022.

Within 20 weeks, a change that cybersecurity experts had spent 20 years hoping for had been turned off once more:

What to do?

The hows, whys and wherefores of Office macro security are now officially explained in two Microsoft documents:

Beginning Security with Microsoft Technologies: Protecting Office 365, Devices, and Data

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Tags: Office macro security

Jul 11 2022

US Gov’t Flip-Flops on NSO Group Sale to L3Harris

Category: Cyber Spy,Spyware — DISC @ 2:26 pm
US Gov’t Flip-Flops on NSO Group Sale to L3Harris

US Gov’t Flip-Flops on NSO Group Sale to L3Harris

by Richi Jennings on July 11, 2022

NSO Group, notorious makers of the notorious Pegasus spyware, has been in acquisition talks with a huge U.S. government defense contractor you’ve never heard of: L3Harris Technologies, Inc. Doesn’t that give you a warm, tingly feeling inside?

Pictured is Christopher E. “Call Me Chris” Kubasik, L3Harris’s chairman and CEO. He’s no doubt disappointed that the White House put the kibosh on the deal—especially as other bits of the government gave tacit approval (or so we’re told).

But is everything quite as it seems? In today’s SB Blogwatch, we pay attention to the man behind the curtain.

Your humble blogwatcher curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment. Not to mention: WINBOOT.AVI

POTUS Vs. CIA and FBI

What’s the craic? Mark Mazzetti, Ronen Bergman and Susan C. Beachy report—“Defense Firm Said U.S. Spies Backed Its Bid for Pegasus Spyware Maker”:

“L3Harris and NSO declined to comment”
A team of executives from an American military contractor quietly … in recent months [attempted] a bold but risky plan: purchasing NSO Group, the cyber hacking firm that is as notorious as it is technologically accomplished. … They started with the uncomfortable fact that the United States government had put NSO on a blacklist just months earlier [because it] had acted “contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States,” the Biden administration said.
…
But five people familiar with the negotiations said that the L3Harris team had brought with them a surprising message: … American intelligence officials, they said, quietly supported its plans to purchase NSO, whose technology over the years has been of intense interest to … the F.B.I. and the C.I.A. [But news of the] talks to purchase NSO seemed to blindside White House officials, [who] said they were outraged … and that any attempt by American defense firms to purchase [NSO Group] would be met by serious resistance.
…
While not a household defense industry name … L3Harris earns billions each year from American government contracts. … The company once produced a surveillance system called Stingray.
…
L3Harris and NSO declined to comment. … A spokeswoman for Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, declined to comment. … The Commerce Department declined to give specifics about any discussions.

One arm of the government doesn’t know what another is doing? Say it ain’t so! Stephanie Kirchgaessner says it’s so—“US defence firm ends talks to buy NSO”:

“Definitive pushback”
A person familiar with the talks said L3 Harris had vetted any potential deal for NSO’s technology with its customers in the US government and had received some signals of support from the American intelligence community. [But,] sources said, L3Harris had been caught off guard when a senior White House official expressed strong reservations about any potential deal.
…
Once L3Harris understood the level of “definitive pushback”, a person familiar with the talks said, “there was a view … that there was no way L3 was moving forward with this. … If the government is not aligned, there is no way for L3 to be aligned,” the person said.

What’s the big problem? Duncan Riley drives the point home:

“Could have resulted in the blacklisting being lifted”
A deal for all or part of NSO would not be as simple as the two companies agreeing to terms, requiring permission from both the U.S. and Israeli governments. … NSO Group, with its Pegasus spyware, has been one of the most controversial cybersecurity companies of recent times. Pegasus is a form of software that uses zero-day or unpatched exploits to infect mobile devices.
…
The deal falling apart may also leave NSO in a difficult situation: With the blacklisting in place, the company is limited in whom it can sell Pegasus to and what technology it can purchase. In contrast, an acquisition by an American company could have resulted in the blacklisting being lifted.

Wait, what? John Scott-Railton holds his horses:

“NSO spent years pretending they changed”
WHOA: Deal … tanked.
…
[It] helps explain recent signs of desperation from the spyware company. [An] American defense contractor acquiring a demonstrably-uncontrollable purveyor of insecurity would be … atrocious for human rights [and] bad for … counterintelligence.
…
This is not a company that prioritizes America’s national security. And it doesn’t play well with our tech sector. … NSO spent years pretending they changed … while using all available tricks to hide the fact that they kept doing … risky biz and dictator deals.

ELI5? Look on u/Ozymandias606’s words, ye mighty, and despair:

“Biden visits Israel tomorrow”
Pegasus is a hacking tool [that] can turn anyone’s phone into a tracking and recording device without the owner clicking a link. [It] has been sold to governments over the past several years [who] used Pegasus to spy on journalists and activists.
…
The Commerce Department added Pegasus’ creator to a blacklist that has been slowly choking the company. … A US defense contractor later offered to buy Pegasus – and claims they had explicit permission from US intelligence agencies to do so under a number of conditions, [which] include turning over the software’s source code to the “Five Eyes” cybersecurity alliance.
…
So, a handful of Western nations … were trying to control access to a cyber weapon that appears to take control of any phone in the world. … Biden visits Israel tomorrow – his first visit to the country.

Are you hinting what I think you’re hinting? This Anonymous Coward rents the curtain (but is behind on the payments): [You’re fired—Ed.]

Unfortunately, many Americans are still in denial about what the US govt routinely do. … This is simply Tiktok 2.0 (or Alstrom 3.0).
…
Anyone who looked at history will recognise the same pattern had happened many times already, including Alstrom in France. US will buy out any company, by force or by trickery, that took lead in any area the US deemed important.

Still, we have Lockdown Mode now. Nothing to worry about, right? Wrong, says u/NidoKangJr:

Lockdown mode is nothing. It can’t work. If the software is compromised, letting software be the security can’t work. Every cell phone really needs to have 3 mechanical switches and a removable battery. 1 switch for power, 1 for the mic and 1 for the camera.

What next? The Combat Desert Penguin—@wolverine_salty—ponders alternative buyers:

Is Thiel interested?

Meanwhile, with a similarly snarky stance, here’s kmoser:

So when is Elon Musk going to make them an offer?

Report: L3Harris Drops Plans to Buy Israel-Based Hacking Tool Maker NSO - GovCon Wire

Pegasus Spyware – ‘A Privacy Killer’ 

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Tags: L3Harris, NSO Group, Pegasus spyware

Jun 23 2022

NSO Group told lawmakers that Pegasus spyware was used by at least 5 European countries

Category: Cyber Spy,Spyware — DISC @ 8:23 am
NSO Group told lawmakers that Pegasus spyware was used by at least 5 European countries

The Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group revealed that its Pegasus spyware was used by at least five European countries.

The controversial Israeli surveillance vendor NSO Group told the European Union lawmakers that its Pegasus spyware was used by at least five countries in the region.

NSO Group’s General Counsel Chaim Gelfand admitted that the company had “made mistakes,” but that after the abuses of its software made the headlines it has canceled several contracts.

“We’re trying to do the right thing and that’s more than other companies working in the industry,” Gelfand told members of the PEGA committee. “Every customer we sell to, we do due diligence on in advance in order to assess the rule of law in that country. But working on publicly available information is never going to be enough.”

In April, the Parliament set up a new inquiry committee investigating the use of Pegaus spyware and equivalent surveillance software used to spy of phones belonging to politicians, diplomats, and civil society members. The spyware was used to target several European leaders, including Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, and Spanish political groups, Hungary, and Poland.

NSO Group

In February, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) authority called for a ban on the development and the use of surveillance software like the Pegasus spyware in the EU.

The abuse of this kind of solution poses a serious threat to fundamental rights, particularly on the rights to privacy and data protection. 

“It comes from the EDPS’ conviction that the use of Pegasus might lead to an unprecedented level of intrusiveness, which threatens the essence of the right to privacy, as the spyware is able to interfere with the most intimate aspects of our daily lives.” states the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS). 

“Pegasus constitutes a paradigm shift in terms of access to private communications and devices, which is able to affect the very essence of our fundamental rights, in particular the right to privacy.”

Privacy advocated and cybersecurity experts demonstrated the use of the Pegasus in surveillance campaigns worldwide targeting journalists, political figures, dissidents, and activists.

The bad news is that the business of digital surveillance is growing in scaring and uncontrolled way. Recently, experts spotted other surveillance malware infecting systems worldwide, such as the HERMIT spyware that was linked to an Italian firm.

If you want to read more info on the Pegasus spyware give a look at a report investigating Pegasus spyware impacts on human rights has been launched by the Council of Europe on the occasion of the summer session of the Parliamentary Assembly.

The report was prepared by the Information Society Department with contributions from Tamar Kaldani the former Personal Data Protection Inspector and the State Inspector of Georgia, currently serving as the first Vice-chair of the Consultative Committee of Convention 108 and Zeev Prokopets – an Israeli executive, product designer, software developer and entrepreneur.

“An investigation report released by a global consortium26 revealed that 200 journalists worldwide had been targeted using Pegasus spyware. The Office of the UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression also noted the number of victims of attempted spying through Pegasus, including Mexican journalists, human rights defenders and opposition leaders.27 “The numbers vividly show the abuse is widespread, placing journalists’ lives, those of their families and associates in danger, undermining freedom of the press and shutting down critical media,” – said Secretary-general of Amnesty International.” concludes the report. “The right to freedom of expression and information, as guaranteed by Article 10 of the Convention, constitutes one of the essential foundations of a democratic society and one of the basic conditions for its progress and the development of every individual.”

And it’s like, what … 12, 13,000 total targets a year max, exec says

Pegasus Spyware – ‘A Privacy Killer’ 

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Tags: A Privacy Killer, NSO Group, Pegasus spyware

Apr 19 2022

NSO Group Pegasus spyware leverages new zero-click iPhone exploit in recent attacks

Category: Cyber Spy,Spyware — DISC @ 8:23 am
NSO Group Pegasus spyware leverages new zero-click iPhone exploit in recent attacks

Researchers reported that threat actors leveraged a new zero-click iMessage exploit to install NSO Group Pegasus on iPhones belonging to Catalans.

Researchers from Citizen Lab have published a report detailing the use of a new zero-click iMessage exploit, dubbed HOMAGE, to install the NSO Group Pegasus spyware on iPhones belonging to Catalan politicians, journalists, academics, and activists.

The previously undocumented zero-click iMessage exploit HOMAGE works in attacks against iOS versions before 13.2.

The experts speculate the HOMAGE exploit was used since the last months of 2019, and involved an iMessage zero-click component that launched a WebKit instance in the com.apple.mediastream.mstreamd process, following a com.apple.private.alloy.photostream lookup for a Pegasus email address. 

The experts at the Citizen Lab, in collaboration with Catalan civil society groups, have identified at least 65 individuals targeted or infected with spyware. 63 of them were targeted or infected with the Pegasus spyware, and four others with the spyware developed by another surveillance firm named Candiru. The researchers reported that at least two of them were targeted or infected with both surveillance software.

Victims included Members of the European Parliament, Catalan Presidents, legislators, jurists, and members of civil society organisations, the threat actors also targeted family members.

The researchers also noticed that the content used in the bait SMS messages suggests access to targets personal information, including the Spanish governmental ID numbers.

“With the targets’ consent, we obtained forensic artefacts from their devices that we examined for evidence of Pegasus infections. Our forensic analysis enables us to conclude with high confidence that, of the 63 people targeted with Pegasus, at least 51 individuals were infected.” reads the report published by Citizen Lab.

“We are not aware of any zero-day, zero-click exploits deployed against Catalan targets following iOS 13.1.3 and before iOS 13.5.1.”

This isn’t the first time that Catalans were targeted by the NSO Group Pegasus Spyware, Citizen Lab has previously reported “possible cases of domestic political espionage” after detecting infections with the popular surveillance software. Multiple Catalans were targeted with Pegasus through the 2019 WhatsApp attack, at the time the spyware leveraged exploits for the 

CVE-2019-3568
 vulnerability.

The Citizen Lab doesn’t explicitly attribute the attacks to a specific threat actor, but the nature of the targets suggests a link with Spanish authorities. All the targets were of interest to the Spanish government and experts pointed out that the specific timing of the targeting matches events of specific interest to the Spanish government.

“While we do not currently attribute this operation to specific governmental entities, circumstantial evidence suggests a strong nexus with the government of Spain, including the nature of the victims and targets, the timing, and the fact that Spain is reported to be a government client of NSO Group.” concludes the report.

NSO Group pegasus spyware

Pegasus Spyware – ‘A Privacy Killer’ 

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Apr 12 2022

NSO Group Spied on European Union—on French Orders?

Category: Cyber Espionage,Cyber Spy,Spyware — DISC @ 10:46 am
NSO Group Spied on European Union—on French Orders?

An espionage attempt was made by an NSO Group customer to hack the phones of senior EU officials. Although there’s some suggestion that it might have been QuaDream—a similar Israeli spyware firm.

Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders (pictured) seems to have been the main target, along with several of his staffers at the Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers. They were warned of the attack five months ago—by Apple.

But who ordered the hack? Might it have been the French government? In today’s SB Blogwatch, we’re shocked—SHOCKED—to discover un peu d’espionnage fratricide.

Your humble blogwatcher curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment. Not to mention: Shrimp can lobster.

What Did Didier Do?

What’s the craic? Raphael Satter and Christopher Bing claim this exclusive for Reuters—“Senior EU officials were targeted with Israeli spyware”:

“Remotely and invisibly take control of iPhones”
Among them was Didier Reynders, a senior Belgian statesman who has served as the European Justice Commissioner since 2019. … At least four other [Justice and Consumers] commission staffers were also targeted.
…
The commission became aware of the targeting following messages issued by Apple to thousands of iPhone owners in November telling them they were “targeted by state-sponsored attackers.” … The warnings triggered immediate concern at the commission. … A senior tech staffer sent a message to colleagues with background about Israeli hacking tools: … “Given the nature of your responsibilities, you are a potential target.”
…
Recipients of the warnings were targeted between February and September 2021 using ForcedEntry, an advanced piece of software that was used by Israeli cyber surveillance vendor NSO Group to help foreign spy agencies remotely and invisibly take control of iPhones. A smaller Israeli spyware vendor named QuaDream also sold a nearly identical tool.

So which was it? And why? Lucas Ropek shrugs—“Sophisticated Spyware Attack”:

“Comes at potentially the worst possible time”
It’s not totally clear why these officials were targeted or who used the malware against them. … NSO has denied that it had any involvement. … Reuters also reached out to QuaDream … but did not get any sort of comment or response.
…
The claims that EU officials were targeted with NSO Group software comes at potentially the worst possible time for the company as it continues to battle both legal and financial troubles, as well as multiple government investigations. … NSO is now appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court in a new effort to rid itself of a hefty lawsuit filed by … WhatsApp, [which] sued NSO in October of 2019 after the surveillance firm’s malware was allegedly discovered on some 1,400 users’ phones. … The company is also currently battling another lawsuit from Apple filed last November on similar grounds.

Government investigations? Malcolm Owen isn’t scared to say whodunnit—“EU officials’ iPhones were targets of NSO Group’s spyware”:

“Use of surveillance software”
The discovery of the misuse of NSO Group’s tools certainly doesn’t help the company’s profile following the Pegasus scandal, when it was found the tool was used by governments to spy on journalists, activists, and government opponents, instead of for fighting crime. The adoption of Pegasus and other tools by government agencies led to lawmakers in the U.S. asking Apple and the FBI about the latter’s acquisition of NSO Group tools.
…
Meanwhile, the European Parliament will be launching a committee on April 19 to investigate the use of surveillance software in European member states.

The European Union, huh? FOHEng thinks this should be a teachable moment:

Many of these same EU people think The App Store should be forced to open, increasing the vectors for … exploits to make it into devices. They’re as stupid as some US Senators, who aren’t allowed to sideload Apps on their devices over security concerns, yet want to force Apple to allow this. They are truly delusional.
…
Third party stores with Apps being vetted for security? An oxymoron if ever there was one. … You think iOS third party stores are going to somehow be secure and Apps checked?

Worthless politicians? zeiche seems to think so:

“No big deal until it happens to me.” This story has been unfolding slowly for years, yet these EU officials didn’t seem too bothered until Apple notified them about their phones being hacked. … Thanks for all the concern.

But what of Apple in all this? Heed the prognostications of Roderikus:

More fines for offering a platform that is basically compromised while being marketed as “safe.”

However, mikece is triggered by a certain word in the Reuter hed:

Throwing the adjective “Israeli” into the title is misleading as it suggest the state of Israel is somehow involved. … Blaming Israel for this is like blaming Japan for all of the Toyota Hiluxes converted into gun platforms around the world.

Yet we’ve still not dealt with the “who” question. For this, we turn to Justthefacts:

CitizenLab did some clever geographic fingerprinting, and have a list of which countries are doing this. … Out of these, the credible list is: France, Greece, Netherlands, Poland, UK, USA.

The target was the European Justice Minister from 2019 onwards. He doesn’t have military or external trade secrets. Neither the UK nor USA are impacted in any way by what goes on in his office. So it’s either France, Greece, Netherlands, Poland.

If you have a look at the heat-map produced by CitizenLab, it’s the French government snooping on the EU. What were you expecting?

Nor the “why”: What else do we know about the named victim? ffkom ffills us in: [You’re ffired—Ed.]

Didier Reynders is [one of] those politicians who have continuously undermined EU data protection laws by agreeing to sham contracts like “Safe Harbour” and “Privacy Shield,” … knowing those were contradicting EU law … and not worth the paper they were written on. He, personally, is also responsible for not enforcing … GDPR.
…
It serves Mr. Reynders right that his data is exposed, just as much as he has helped to expose EU citizen’s data.

Ultimate spyware' — How Pegasus is used for surveillance


Tags: European Union, NSO Group Spied

Feb 17 2022

European Data Protection Supervisor call for bans on surveillance spyware like Pegasus

Category: Cyber Spy,Spyware — DISC @ 2:55 pm
European Data Protection Supervisor call for bans on surveillance spyware like Pegasus

The European Data Protection Supervisor authority called for a ban on the development and the use of Pegasus-like commercial spyware.

The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) authority this week called for a ban on the development and the use of surveillance software like the Pegasus spyware in the EU.

Pegasus is a surveillance malware developed by the Israeli surveillance NSO Group that could infect both iPhones and Android devices, it is sold exclusively to the governments and law enforcement agencies.

The abuse of this kind of solution poses a serious threat to fundamental rights, particularly on the rights to privacy and data protection. 

“It comes from the EDPS’ conviction that the use of Pegasus might lead to an unprecedented level of intrusiveness, which threatens the essence of the right to privacy, as the spyware is able to interfere with the most intimate aspects of our daily lives.” states the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS). 

“Pegasus constitutes a paradigm shift in terms of access to private communications and devices, which is able to affect the very essence of our fundamental rights, in particular the right to privacy.”

Privacy advocated and cybersecurity experts demonstrated the use of the Pegasus in surveillance campaigns worldwide targeting journalists, political figures, dissidents, and activists.

Pegasus was used by governments with dubious human rights records and histories of abusive behaviour by their state security services.

The surveillance software allows to completely take over the target device and spy on the victims. Developers of surveillance solutions leverage zero-click zero-day exploits to silently compromise the devices without any user interaction. Pegasus is known to have used KISMET and FORCEDENTRY exploits to infect the devices of the victims.

NSO Group has repeatedly claimed that its software is sold exclusively to law enforcement and intelligence agencies to fight crime and terrorism, in so-called “life-saving mission.”

According to a series of disclosures by the business publication Calcalist in recent weeks, dozens of citizens in the country were targeted by Israel Police with the NSO Group’s spyware to gather intelligence without a search warrant authorizing the surveillance.

“National security cannot be used as an excuse to an extensive use of such technologies nor as an argument against the involvement of the European Union.” continues EDPS.

EDPS urges tight control over the use of surveillance and hacking tools to prevent and disincentive unlawful use.

Finnish diplomats’ devices infected with Pegasus spyware

El Salvador journalists hacked with NSO’s Pegasus spyware

Pegasus: Google reveals how the sophisticated spyware hacked into iPhones without user’s knowledge

The Pegasus project: key takeaways for the corporate world

Pegasus Spyware – ‘A Privacy Killer’

Tags: Pegasus spyware, Spyware, The European Data Protection Supervisor authority

Jan 28 2022

Finnish diplomats’ devices infected with Pegasus spyware

Category: Cyber Spy,Spyware — DISC @ 10:25 am
Finnish diplomats’ devices infected with Pegasus spyware

Finland Ministry for Foreign Affairs revealed that devices of Finnish diplomats have been infected with NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware.

Finland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs revealed that the devices of some Finnish diplomats have been compromised with the infamous NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware.

The diplomats were targeted with the popular surveillance software as part of a cyber-espionage campaign.

“Finnish diplomats have been targets of cyber espionage by means of the Pegasus spyware, developed by NSO Group Technologies, which has received wide publicity. The highly sophisticated malware has infected users’ Apple or Android telephones without their noticing and without any action from the user’s part. Through the spyware, the perpetrators may have been able to harvest data from the device and exploit its features.” reads a statement published by the Ministry.

According to the statement, threat actors have stolen data from the infected devices belonging to employees working in Finnish missions abroad. The attacks were spotted following an investigation that started in the autumn of 2021, anyway, according to the government experts the campaign is no longer active.

The announcement pointed out that the data transmitted or stored on diplomats’ devices are either public or classified at the lowest level of classified information (level 4).

Finland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs warns that even if the information is not directly classified, the information itself and its source may be subject to diplomatic confidentiality.

“The Ministry for Foreign Affairs is continually monitoring events and activities in its operating environment and assessing related risks. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs monitors its services and strives to prevent harmful activities.  The preparation of and decisions on foreign and security policy, in particular, are matters that attract much interest, which may also manifest itself as unlawful intelligence.” concludes the Ministry. “The Ministry responds to the risk by various means, but complete protection against unlawful intelligence is impossible.”

In December, Apple warned that the mobile devices of at least nine US Department of State employees were compromised with NSO Group ‘s Pegasus spyware.

Tags: Finnish diplomats, Pegasus spyware

Dec 20 2021

Pegasus: Google reveals how the sophisticated spyware hacked into iPhones without user’s knowledge

Category: Backdoor,Cyber crime,Cyber Espionage,Cyber Spy,Cyber surveillance,Cyberweapons,Hacking,Malware,Spyware — DISC @ 11:33 am
  • Pegasus spyware was allegedly used by governments to spy upon prominent journalists, politicians and activists.
  • A Google blog has revealed how the sophisticated software was used to attack iPhone users.
  • The software used a vulnerability in iMessages to hack into iPhones without the user’s knowledge.

The Pegasus spyware, developed by Israel’s NSO group, made headlines for being used by governments and regimes across the world including India to spy on journalists, activists, opposition leaders, ministers, lawyers and others. The spyware is accused of hacking into the phones of at least 180 journalists around the world, of which 40 are notable Indian personalities.

Now, a Google blog from the Project Zero team called the attacks technically sophisticated exploits and assessed the software to have capabilities rivalling spywares previously thought to be accessible to only a handful of nations.

The company has also faced multiple lawsuits including one in India where the Supreme Court (SC) set up a three-member panel headed by former SC judge RV Raveendran to probe whether the software was used by the government to spy on journalists and other dissidents.

Apart from India, Apple has also sued the Israeli firm after having patched its security exploit. The company was also banned in the United States after the details of the spyware were revealed. Let’s take a look at how this advanced snooping technology discretely worked on iPhones.

How Pegasus hacked iPhones

According to the Project Zero blog, a sample of the ForcedEntry exploit was worked upon by the team and Apple’s Security Engineering and Architecture (SEAR) group. Pegasus attacks on iPhones were possible due to the ForcedEntry exploit.

Best iPhone in 2021: Which model is right for you? | ZDNet

Pegasus is a spyware (Trojan/Script) that can be installed remotely on devices running on Apple ‘ s iOS & Google ‘ s Android operating systems. It is developed and marketed by the Israeli technology firm NSO Group. NSO Group sells Pegasus to ” vetted governments ” for ” lawful interception ” , which is understood to mean combating terrorism and organized crime, as the firm claims, but suspicions exist that it is availed for other purposes. Pegasus is a modular malware that can initiate total surveillance on the targeted device, as per a report by digital security company Kaspersky. It installs the necessary modules to read the user’s messages and mail, listen to calls, send back the browser history and more, which basically means taking control of nearly all aspects of your digital life. It can even listen in to encrypted audio and text files on your device that makes all the data on your device up for grabs.

Tags: A Privacy Killer, hacked iphone, NSO Group, Pegasus spyware

Nov 17 2021

Hackers Compromised Middle East Eye News Website to Hack Visitors, Researchers Say

Category: Cyber Spy,Information Security,Spyware — DISC @ 12:11 am

Cybersecurity researchers tracked a hacking campaign spanning more than a year that hit around 20 websites – Israeli spyware vendor Candiru, recently blacklisted by the US, waged “watering hole” attacks on UK and Middle East websites critical of Saudi Arabia and others 

A group of hackers compromised a popular London-based news website that focuses on the Middle East with the goal of hacking its visitors, according to researchers. 

IMAGE: JUSTIN SETTERFIELD/GETTY IMAGES

On Tuesday, cybersecurity firm ESET published a report detailing the hacking campaign, which spanned from March 2020 until August of this year. During this time, according to the report, hackers compromised around 20 websites, including Middle East Eye, a popular independent news site that covers the Middle East and Africa and is based in the UK. 

The hackers compromised these websites in what are technically known as watering hole attacks, a type of cyberattack where hackers use legitimate websites to target people who visit them. In this case, the hackers did not target all visitors of the websites, but only specific ones, according to ESET.

“We were never able to get the final payload. So it shows that attackers are very careful in the selection of the targets,” Matthieu Faou, a researcher at ESET, told Motherboard in a phone call. 

Because the researchers could not retrieve the malware, “we don’t know who are the final targets,” Faou said. 

ESET researchers explained in the report that the hackers also compromised several government websites in Iran, Syria, and Yemen, as well as the sites of an Italian aerospace company and a South African government owned defense conglomerate—all websites with links to the Middle East. The hackers, according to ESET, may have been customers of the Israeli spyware vendor Candiru, a company that was recently put on a denylist by the US Government. 

Candiru is one of the most mysterious spyware providers out there. The company has no website, and it has allegedly changed names several times. Candiru offers “high-end cyber intelligence platform dedicated to infiltrate PC computers, networks, mobile handsets,” according to a document seen by Haaretz. The Israeli newspaper was the first one to report Candiru’s existence in 2019. Since then, several cybersecurity companies and groups such as Kaspersky Lab, Microsoft, Google, and Citizen Lab, have tracked its malware.  

7 Steps to Removing Spyware by Nick Laughter

Sep 23 2021

How to protect the corporate network from spyware

Category: Cyber Spy,Spyware — DISC @ 1:55 pm
How to protect the corporate network from spyware

There are a range of security policies for dealing with users’ smartphones, from the most restrictive approach – no smartphone access allowed – to an open approach that allows personal phones to connect to the internal corporate network. We suggest that the right solution is somewhere in between.

You may have read about the Pegasus spyware in the news; the NSO Group’s software exploits flaws in iOS (iPhones) to gain access to data on an unsuspecting target’s phone. NSO sells Pegasus to governments, ostensibly to track criminals, but it’s often used by repressive regimes to spy on their opponents, political figures, and activists.

In the past, Pegasus infections were primarily achieved by sending a link to the victim’s phone; when the target clicked on it, they would trigger an exploit that would allow attackers to gain root access to the phone. Once the spyware obtains root access, it can read messages on apps like iMessage, WhatsApp, Telegram, Gmail and others. A sophisticated command and control network can report back to the operator and control the phone as well.

Reducing the risk

What Is Pegasus? All About the Infamous Software (Infographic)

anti-spyware A Complete Guide

How To Protect Yourself From Adware Or Spyware

Tags: anti-spyware, Pegasus spyware, Spyware and Adware

Aug 26 2021

Samsung can remotely disable their TVs worldwide using TV Block

Category: cyber security,Cyber Spy,Cyber Threats — DISC @ 1:39 pm
Samsung can remotely disable their TVs worldwide using TV Block

Samsung says that it can disable any of its Samsung TV sets remotely using TV Block, a feature built into all television products sold worldwide.

This was revealed by the South Korean multinational in a press release issued earlier this month in response to the July South African riots that led to large-scale looting, which also impacted Samsung warehouses and stores.

“TV Block is a remote, security solution that detects if Samsung TV units have been unduly activated, and ensures that the television sets can only be used by the rightful owners with a valid proof of purchase,” Samsung said.

“The aim of the technology is to mitigate against the creation of secondary markets linked to the sale of illegal goods, both in South Africa and beyond its borders. This technology is already pre-loaded on all Samsung TV products.”

As Samsung explains, the goal behind remotely disabling stolen TV sets is to limit looting and “third party purchases,” and ensuring that the TVs can only be used by “rightful owners with a valid proof of purchase.”

How TV Block works

Tags: Samsung can remotely disable, Smart TV, Smart TV Security, TV Block

Aug 02 2021

Female journalists and activists say they had their private photos shared on social media by governments seeking to intimidate and silence them.

Category: Cyber Spy,Spyware — DISC @ 10:27 am
Image: Alya Alhwait, Alaa Al-Siddiq, Ghada Oueiss, Loujain Al-Hathloul

Female journalists and activists say they had their private photos shared on social media by governments seeking to intimidate and silence them.

‘I will not be silenced’: Women targeted in hack-and-leak attacks speak out about spyware

Ghada Oueiss, a Lebanese broadcast journalist at Al-Jazeera, was eating dinner at home with her husband last June when she received a message from a colleague telling her to check Twitter. Oueiss opened up the account and was horrified: A private photo taken when she was wearing a bikini in a jacuzzi was being circulated by a network of accounts, accompanied by false claims that the photos were taken at her boss’s house.

Over the next few days she was barraged with thousands of tweets and direct messages attacking her credibility as a journalist, describing her as a prostitute or telling her she was ugly and old. Many of the messages came from accounts that appeared to support Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, known as MBS, including some verified accounts belonging to government officials.

“I immediately knew that my phone had been hacked,” said Oueiss, who believes she was targeted in an effort to silence her critical reporting on the Saudi regime. “Those photos were not published anywhere. They were only on my phone.”

“I am used to being harassed online. But this was different,” she added. “It was as if someone had entered my home, my bedroom, my bathroom. I felt so unsafe and traumatized.”

Source: Female journalists and activists say they had their private photos shared on social media by governments seeking to intimidate and silence them.

You Are Being Targeted – How to Keep Yourself Safe in a Connected World! (Survival and Security Series Book 1) by [Harvey Toogood]

Privacy

Tags: journalists targeted, Pegasus spyware, private photos shared on social media by governments, Spyware

Jul 20 2021

NSO Group Hacked

Category: Cyber Espionage,Cyber Spy,Cybercrime,Cyberweapons,Hacking,Malware,Smart Phone — DISC @ 1:36 pm
NSO Group Hacked

There’s a lot to read out there. Amnesty International has a report. Citizen Lab conducted an independent analysis. The Guardian has extensive coverage. More coverage.

Worldwide probe finds tech by Israel's NSO Group targeted media, politicians | The Times of Israel

Most interesting is a list of over 50,000 phone numbers that were being spied on by NSO Group’s software. Why does NSO Group have that list? The obvious answer is that NSO Group provides spyware-as-a-service, and centralizes operations somehow. Nicholas Weaver postulates that “part of the reason that NSO keeps a master list of targeting…is they hand it off to Israeli intelligence.”

This isn’t the first time NSO Group has been in the news. Citizen Lab has been researching and reporting on its actions since 2016. It’s been linked to the Saudi murder of Jamal Khashoggi. It is extensively used by Mexico to spy on — among others — supporters of that country’s soda tax.

 here’s a tool that you can use to test if your iPhone or Android is infected with Pegasus. (Note: it’s not easy to use.)

7 Steps to Removing Spyware

7 Steps to Removing Spyware by Nick Laughter

Spyware and Adware

Spyware and Adware

Tags: Amnesty International, mobile spyware, NSO Group Hacked, rouge anti-spyware, Spyware, Spyware and Adware

Mar 22 2021

FCC Boots Chinese Telecom Companies, Citing Security

Category: Cyber Attack,Cyber Communication,Cyber Espionage,cyber security,Cyber Spy,Cyber surveillance,Cyber Threats,Cyber War,Cybercrime — DISC @ 11:01 am
FCC Boots Chinese Telecom Companies, Citing Security

he Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau on March 12 identified five Chinese companies they said posed a threat to U.S. national security. These companies are: Huawei Technologies Co., ZTE Corp., Hytera Communications Corp., Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co. and Dahua Technology Co.

The declaration, according to the FCC, is in accordance with the requirements of the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 2019, which requires the FCC to “publish and maintain a list of communications equipment and services that pose an unacceptable risk to national security or the security and safety of U.S. persons.”

In June 2020, the FCC designated both ZTE and Huawei as national security threats. “… [B]ased on the overwhelming weight of evidence, the Bureau has designated Huawei and ZTE as national security risks to America’s communications networks—and to our 5G future,” said then-FCC chairman Ajit Pai. Pai continued, “Both companies have close ties to the Chinese Communist Party and China’s military apparatus, and both companies are broadly subject to Chinese law obligating them to cooperate with the country’s intelligence services.  The Bureau also took into account the findings and actions of congress, the executive branch, the intelligence community, our allies, and communications service providers in other countries. We cannot and will not allow the Chinese Communist Party to exploit network vulnerabilities and compromise our critical communications infrastructure. Today’s action will also protect the FCC’s Universal Service Fund—money that comes from fees paid by American consumers and businesses on their phone bills—from being used to underwrite these suppliers, which threaten our national security.”

ZTE’s petition for reconsideration in November 2020 was immediately rejected. Huawai also petitioned for reconsideration, and their appeal was rejected in December 2020, after a few weeks of deliberation.

FCC Boots Chinese Telecom Companies, Citing Security

Tags: Chinese Telecom

Mar 17 2021

Chinese cyberspies go after telco providers, 5G secrets

Category: Cyber Espionage,Cyber Spy — DISC @ 6:55 am

A Chinese cyber-espionage group has shifted operations from targeting Vatican officials and Catholic organizations to telecom providers across Asia, Europe, and the US.

The group, known in the cybersecurity community as Mustang Panda or RedDelta, has been targeting employees of telecom companies since last fall, as a gateway inside organizations, with the end goal of stealing 5G-related information.

Chinese group targeted telco employees with job offers

According to a technical report published today by security firm McAfee and titled “Operation Diànxùn” [PDF], the Mustang Panda group primarily relied on luring telco employees to a malicious site masquerading as Huawei’s careers page.

The phishing site would ask users to install a Flash software update hosted on a malicious site, and this file would later download and install a .NET backdoor, which would communicate with the attacker’s remote infrastructure via a Cobalt Strike beacon.

McAfee said the point of these attacks was to gain a foothold on a telcos’ internal networks.

“We believe that this espionage campaign is aimed at stealing sensitive or secret information in relation to 5G technology,” the company said today.

Attacks were observed against telcos in Southeast Asia, Europe, and the US; however, McAfee said it observed the group also showing “strong interest in German, Vietnamese, and India telecommunication companies.”

Source: Chinese cyberspies go after telco providers, 5G secrets

Tags: 5G secrets, Chinese cyberspies

Feb 26 2021

Microsoft releases open-source CodeQL queries to assess Solorigate compromise

Category: Botnet,Cyber Attack,Cyber Espionage,Cyber Spy,Cyber surveillance,Cyber Threats,Cyber War,Cybercrime — DISC @ 10:54 am
Microsoft releases open-source CodeQL queries to assess Solorigate compromise

Microsoft announced the release of open-source CodeQL queries that it experts used during its investigation into the SolarWinds supply-chain attack

In early 2021, the US agencies FBI, CISA, ODNI, and the NSA released a joint statement that blames Russia for the SolarWinds supply chain attack.

The four agencies were part of the task force Cyber Unified Coordination Group (UCG) that was tasked for coordinating the investigation and remediation of the SolarWinds hack that had a significant impact on federal government networks.

The UCG said the attack was orchestrated by an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actor, likely Russian in origin.

According to the security experts, Russia-linked threat actors hacked into the SolarWinds in 2019 used the Sundrop malware to insert the Sunburst backdoor into the supply chain of the SolarWinds Orion monitoring product.

Microsoft, which was hit by the attack, published continuous updates on its investigation, and now released the source code of CodeQL queries, which were used by its experts to identify indicators of compromise (IoCs) associated with Solorigate.

“In this blog, we’ll share our journey in reviewing our codebases, highlighting one specific technique: the use of CodeQL queries to analyze our source code at scale and rule out the presence of the code-level indicators of compromise (IoCs) and coding patterns associated with Solorigate.” reads the blog post published by Microsoft. “We are open sourcing the CodeQL queries that we used in this investigation so that other organizations may perform a similar analysis. Note that the queries we cover in this blog simply serve to home in on source code that shares similarities with the source in the Solorigate implant, either in the syntactic elements (names, literals, etc.) or in functionality.”

Microsoft releases open-source CodeQL queries to assess Solorigate compromise

Tags: CodeQL, Solorigate compromise

Feb 15 2021

Chinese Supply-Chain Attack on Computer Systems

Category: Cyber Attack,Cyber Espionage,Cyber Spy — DISC @ 11:41 am
Chinese Supply-Chain Attack on Computer Systems

Bloomberg News has a major story about the Chinese hacking computer motherboards made by Supermicro, Levono, and others. It’s been going on since at least 2008. The US government has known about it for almost as long, and has tried to keep the attack secret:

China’s exploitation of products made by Supermicro, as the U.S. company is known, has been under federal scrutiny for much of the past decade, according to 14 former law enforcement and intelligence officials familiar with the matter. That included an FBI counterintelligence investigation that began around 2012, when agents started monitoring the communications of a small group of Supermicro workers, using warrants obtained under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, according to five of the officials.

There’s lots of detail in the article, and I recommend that you read it through.

Tags: Chinese espionage, Supply-Chain Attack

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