A previously unknown China-linked threat actor dubbed ‘Unfading Sea Haze’ has been targeting military and government entities since 2018.

Bitdefender researchers discovered a previously unknown China-linked threat actor dubbed ‘Unfading Sea Haze’ that has been targeting military and government entities since 2018. The threat group focuses on entities in countries in the South China Sea, experts noticed TTP overlap with operations attributed to APT41.

Bitdefender identified a troubling trend, attackers repeatedly regained access to compromised systems, highlighting vulnerabilities such as poor credential hygiene and inadequate patching practices.

Unfading Sea Haze remained undetected for over five years, despite extensive artifact cross-referencing and public report analysis, no traces of their prior activities were found.

Unfading Sea Haze’s targets confirms an alignment with Chinese interests. The group utilized various variants of the Gh0st RAT, commonly associated with Chinese actors.

A notable technique involved running JScript code through SharpJSHandler, similar to a feature in the “funnyswitch” backdoor linked to APT41. Both methods involve loading .NET assemblies and executing JScript code, suggesting shared coding practices among Chinese threat actors.

However, these findings indicate a sophisticated threat actor possibly connected to the Chinese cyber landscape.

The researchers cannot determine the initial method used by Unfading Sea Haze to infiltrate victim systems because the initial breach happened over six years ago, making hard to recover forensic evidence.

However, the researchers determined that one of methods used by the threat actors to regaining access to the target organizations are spear-phishing emails. The messages use specially crafted archives containing LNK files disguised as regular documents. When clicked, the LNK files would execute malicious commands. The experts observed multiple spear-phishing attempts between March and May 2023.

Some of the email attachment names used in the attacks are:

• SUMMARIZE SPECIAL ORDERS FOR PROMOTIONS CY2023
• Data
• Doc
• Startechup_fINAL

The payload employed in the attacks is a backdoor named SerialPktdoor, however, in March 2024, the researchers observed the threat actors using a new initial access archive files. These archives mimicked the installation process of Microsoft Defender or exploited current US political issues.

The backdoor runs PowerShell scripts and performs operations on files and directories.

“These LNK files execute a PowerShell command line” reads the report. “This is a clever example of a fileless attack that exploits a legitimate tool: MSBuild.exe. MSBuild, short for Microsoft Build Engine, is a powerful tool for automating the software build process on Windows. MSBuild reads a project file, which specifies the location of all source code components, the order of assembly, and any necessary build tools.”

The threat actors maintain persistence through scheduled tasks, in order to avoid detection attackers used task names impersonating legitimate Windows files. The files are combined with DLL sideloading to execute a malicious payload.

Attackers also manipulate local Administrator accounts to maintain persistence, they were spotted enabling the disabled local Administrator account, followed by resetting its password.

Unfading Sea Haze has notably begun using Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) tools, particularly ITarian RMM, since at least September 2022 to compromise targets’ networks. This approach represents a significant shift from typical nation-state tactics. Additionally, experts collected evidence that they may have established persistence on web servers, such as Windows IIS and Apache httpd, likely using web shells or malicious modules. However, the exact persistence mechanisms remain unclear due to insufficient forensic data.

The Chinese threat actor has developed a sophisticated collection of custom malware and hacking tools. Since at least 2018, they used SilentGh0st, TranslucentGh0st, and three variants of the .NET agent SharpJSHandler supported by Ps2dllLoader. In 2023, they replaced Ps2dllLoader with a new mechanism using msbuild.exe and C# payloads from a remote SMB share. The attackers also replaced fully featured Gh0stRat variants to more modular, plugin-based versions called FluffyGh0st, InsidiousGh0st (available in C++, C#, and Go), and EtherealGh0st.

“One of the payloads delivered by Ps2dllLoader is SharpJSHandler.” reads the report. “SharpJSHandler operates by listening for HTTP requests. Upon receiving a request, it executes the encoded JavaScript code using the Microsoft.JScript library.

Our investigation also uncovered two additional variations that utilize cloud storage services for communication instead of direct HTTP requests. We have found variations for DropBox and for OneDrive. In this case, SharpJSHandler retrieves the payload periodically from a DropBox/OneDrive account, executes it, and uploads the resulting output back to the same location.

These cloud-based communication methods present a potential challenge for detection as they avoid traditional web shell communication channels.”

The threat actors used both custom malware and off-the-shelf tools to gather sensitive data from victim machines.

One of the malware used for data collection is a keylogger called xkeylog, they also used a web browser data stealer, a tool to monitor the presence of portable devices, and a custom tool named DustyExfilTool.

The attackers are also able to target messaging applications like Telegram and Viber. They first terminate the processes for these apps (telegram.exe and viber.exe), then use rar.exe to archive the application data.

“The Unfading Sea Haze threat actor group has demonstrated a sophisticated approach to cyberattacks. Their custom malware arsenal, including the Gh0st RAT family and Ps2dllLoader, showcases a focus on flexibility and evasion techniques.” concludes the report. “The observed shift towards modularity, dynamic elements, and in-memory execution highlights their efforts to bypass traditional security measures. Attackers are constantly adapting their tactics, necessitating a layered security approach.”

Pierluigi Paganini

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, China)

Ivanti on Tuesday rolled out fixes to address multiple critical security flaws in Endpoint Manager (EPM) that could be exploited to achieve remote code execution under certain circumstances. Six of the 10 vulnerabilities – from CVE-2024-29822 through CVE-2024-29827 (CVSS scores: 9.6) – relate to SQL injection flaws that allow an unauthenticated attacker within the same network to

A researcher discovered a consumer-grade spyware app on the check-in systems of at least three Wyndham hotels across the US.

The security researcher Eric Daigle discovered a commercial spyware app, called pcTattletale, on the check-in systems of at least three Wyndham hotels across the US, TechCrunch first reported. Parents often use the app to monitor their children’s online activities or by employers to keep track of employee productivity and internet usage.

Daigle discovered the commercial surveillance software on the hotel check-in systems while investigating consumer-grade spyware (aka stalkerware). 

pcTattletale is a software program designed for monitoring and recording the activities of computer users.

The software was used by someone to capture screenshots of the hotel booking systems, including guest details. Daigle also discovered a vulnerability in the monitoring software that allows anyone to access the screenshots taken by the app.

“PCTattletale is a simple stalkerware app. Rather than the sophisticated monitoring of many similarly insecure competitors it simply asks for permission to record the targeted device (Android and Windows are supported) on infection. Afterward the observer can log in to an online portal and activate recording, at which point a screen capture is taken on the device and played on the target’s browser.” wrote Daigle in a post. “I recently discovered a serious vulnerability in PCTattletale’s API allowing any attacker to obtain the most recent screen capture recorded from any device on which PCTattletale is installed. It is distinct from the IDOR previously discovered by Jo Coscia, and makes it trivial to actually obtain captures from other devices.”

Daigle attempted to report the flaw to pcTattletale, but the company has not responded. He shared limited details about the screenshot bug in a blog post, intentionally omitting specifics to prevent malicious exploitation.

“The screenshots from two Wyndham hotels, seen by TechCrunch, show the names and reservation details of guests on a web portal provided by travel tech giant Sabre. The screenshots of the web portals also display guests’ partial payment card numbers.” reported TechCrunch. “Another screenshot showed access to a third Wyndham hotel’s check-in system, which at the time was logged into Booking.com’s administration portal used to manage a guest’s reservation.”

It’s unclear who installed the malware on the hotel systems and what is his motivation.

Pierluigi Paganini

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, consumer-grade spyware app)

Microsoft on Wednesday outlined its plans to deprecate Visual Basic Script (VBScript) in the second half of 2024 in favor of more advanced alternatives such as JavaScript and PowerShell. "Technology has advanced over the years, giving rise to more powerful and versatile scripting languages such as JavaScript and PowerShell," Microsoft Program Manager Naveen Shankar said. "These languages

A critical security vulnerability in Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager could allow threat actors to bypass authentication.

A critical vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-29849 (CVSS score: 9.8), in Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager could allow attackers to bypass authentication.

Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager is a centralized management and reporting tool designed to simplify the administration of Veeam Backup & Replication environments. It offers a web-based interface that allows users to manage multiple Veeam Backup & Replication servers, monitor backup jobs, and generate reports.

“This vulnerability in Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager allows an unauthenticated attacker to log in to the Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager web interface as any user.” reads the advisory published by the vendor.

The company has addressed the following vulnerabilities in Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager:

• CVE-2024-29850 (CVSS score: 8.8) – the flaw allows account takeover via NTLM relay.
• CVE-2024-29851 (CVSS score: 7.2) – the flaw allows a high-privileged user to steal the NTLM hash of the Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager service account if that service account is anything other than the default Local System account.
• CVE-2024-29852 (CVSS score: 2.7) – the flaw allows a privileged user to read backup session logs.

The four vulnerabilities have been addressed with the release of version 12.1.2.172. The company also provided the following mitigation:

• This vulnerability can be mitigated by halting the Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager software.
  To do this, stop and disable the following services:
  • VeeamEnterpriseManagerSvc (Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager)
  • VeeamRESTSvc (Veeam RESTful API Service)
    _{Note: Do not stop the ‘Veeam Backup Server RESTful API Service’.}
• Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager is compatible with managing Veeam Backup & Replication servers running an older version than Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager. Therefore, if the Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager software is installed on a dedicated server, Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager can be upgraded to version 12.1.2.172 without the need to upgrade Veeam Backup & Replication immediately.
• Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager can be uninstalled if it is not in use.

Pierluigi Paganini

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Veeam)

File Integrity Monitoring (FIM) is an IT security control that monitors and detects file changes in computer systems. It helps organizations audit important files and system configurations by routinely scanning and verifying their integrity. Most information security standards mandate the use of FIM for businesses to ensure the integrity of their data. IT security compliance involves adhering to

Resecurity warns of a surge in malicious cyber activity targeting the election in India, orchestrated by several independent hacktivist groups

Resecurity has identified a spike of malicious cyber activity targeting the election in India, which is supported by multiple independent hacktivist groups who arrange cyber-attacks and publication of stolen personal identifiable information (PII) belonging to Indian citizens on the Dark Web.

India, with a population of over 1.4 billion and a GDP of over 3.417 trillion USD, has become a prime target for cyberattacks during its general elections scheduled between 19 April and 1 June 2024.

Multiple independent hacktivist groups are targeting India’s elections with influence and public opinion manipulation campaigns, Resecurity reports. The campaigns are designed to sway voters’ opinions and undermine trust in the democratic process. Attackers have also defaced websites and leaked data to launch influence campaigns against India’s government leaders, said researchers.

Around 16 different independent hacktivist groups are targeting Indian elections, including Anon Black Flag Indonesia, Anonymous Bangladesh, and Morocco Black Cyber Army, among others.

“These 16 groups have targeted multiple law enforcement, government, healthcare, financial, educational, and private sector organizations in India, taking advantage of geopolitical narratives before recent elections,” researchers noted.

Resecurity observed that the Ahadun-Ahad 2.0 Team has published Indian Voter ID cards on Telegram, which are issued by the Election Commission of India to 18+ individuals domiciled in India. The source of the data is unclear, but they suspect it is linked to compromised third-party entities. Earlier, cybercriminals have stolen AADHAAR, PAN, driving licenses, and NOC documents from the Dark Web, including 36 GB of personally identifiable information (PII) belonging to Indian citizens.

The data, primarily in graphic form with victims’ selfies, could be used to spread false information, undermine trust in the electoral process, and profit from selling stolen information on the dark web. Resecurity alerted law enforcement and federal authorities to the leaked data.

Besides graphical data files, including voter registration records and credentials from Voter Portal, the actors also leaked large data sets containing voters’ credentials collected using infostealers. Such malware programs, including Nexus, Medusa, Redline, Lumma, and Racoon, are designed to steal sensitive information such as login credentials and financial data. Specific signatures identified in leaked data sets may confirm that they originate not from any vulnerable election systems, but likely from compromised consumers with malicious code. The compromised credentials could have been obtained by intercepting login forms on popular Internet browsers or by accessing password storage on compromised devices. At some point, threat actors were aiming to leak a big number of voters’ records to create a perception that elections systems are vulnerable. In fact, the origin of these credentials is on the consumer side, as many Internet users are getting infected with malware due to poor network hygiene and lack of cybersecurity awareness.

Researchers also observed public opinion manipulation campaigns targeting Indian government leaders, using data leaks, website defacements, and political narratives. These ‘cyber-guerilla’ tactics blur attribution and operate under the ‘false flag’ of independent hacktivists aiming to create social conflict between Indian and Muslim populations.

Resecurity has summarized the key risk indicators of malicious activity to increase cybersecurity awareness among Indian citizens, encouraging them not to react to any claims or narratives originating from unreliable sources planted by cybercriminals, which could affect their votes.

The full report is available here: https://www.resecurity.com/blog/article/cybercriminals-are-targeting-elections-in-india-with-influence-campaigns

Pierluigi Paganini

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, India)

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a previously undocumented threat group called Unfading Sea Haze that's believed to have been active since 2018. The intrusion singled out high-level organizations in South China Sea countries, particularly military and government targets, Bitdefender said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "The investigation revealed a troubling

A threat actor is targeting organizations in Africa and the Middle East by exploiting Microsoft Exchange Server flaws to deliver malware.

Positive Technologies researchers observed while responding to a customer’s incident spotted an unknown keylogger embedded in the main Microsoft Exchange Server page. The keylogger was used to collect account credentials. Further investigation allowed to identify over 30 victims in multiple countries, most of whom were linked to government agencies. According to the researchers, the malware campaign targeting MS Exchange Server has been active since at least 2021. The researchers can’t attribute this campaign to a specific group, however, they observed that most victims are in Africa and the Middle East.

Some of the countries targeted by this campaign are Russia, the U.A.E., Kuwait, Oman, Niger, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Mauritius, Jordan, and Lebanon.

The threat actors exploited the ProxyShell vulnerabilities (CVE-2021-34473, CVE-2021-34523, and CVE-2021-31207) in Microsoft Exchange Server to inject an info stealer. They added keylogger code to the server’s main page by embedding it into the clkLgn() function.

The attackers also added a code that processes the results of the stealer in the logon.aspx file, then the code redirects account credentials in a file accessible from the internet.

“You can check for potential compromise by searching for the stealer code on the main page of your Microsoft Exchange server.” concludes the report from Positive Technologies. “If your server has been compromised, identify the account data that has been stolen and delete the file where this data is stored by hackers. You can find the path to this file in the logon.aspx file. Make sure you are using the latest version of Microsoft Exchange Server, or install pending updates.”

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, MS Exchange Server)

Rockwell Automation is urging its customers to disconnect all industrial control systems (ICSs) not meant to be connected to the public-facing internet to mitigate unauthorized or malicious cyber activity. The company said it's issuing the advisory due to "heightened geopolitical tensions and adversarial cyber activity globally." To that end, customers are required to take immediate

GitHub addressed a vulnerability in the GitHub Enterprise Server (GHES) that could allow an attacker to bypass authentication.

GitHub has rolled out security fixes to address a critical authentication bypass issue, tracked as CVE-2024-4985 (CVSS score: 10.0), in the GitHub Enterprise Server (GHES).

GitHub Enterprise Server (GHES) is a self-hosted version of GitHub designed for use within organizations. It provides the full capabilities of GitHub, including source code management, version control, collaboration tools, and continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD), but allows organizations to host the platform on their own infrastructure. This setup is ideal for companies that require more control over their data, enhanced security, and customization to meet internal compliance and regulatory requirements.

The authentication bypass vulnerability impacts GHES when using SAML single sign-on with encrypted assertions. An attacker can trigger the issue to forge SAML responses, granting them site administrator privileges without prior authentication.

“On instances that use SAML single sign-on (SSO) authentication with the optional encrypted assertions feature, an attacker could forge a SAML response to provision and/or gain access to a user with administrator privileges.” reads the advisory published by the company. “Please note that encrypted assertions are not enabled by default. Instances not utilizing SAML SSO or utilizing SAML SSO authentication without encrypted assertions are not impacted. Exploitation of this vulnerability would allow unauthorized access to the instance without requiring prior authentication.”

The company pointed out that encrypted assertions are not enabled by default and that the vulnerability only affects installs using SAML single sign-on (SSO) or those that use SAML SSO authentication with encrypted assertions. Encrypted assertions are a security measure that allows encrypting the messages that the SAML identity provider (IdP) sends SAML SSO.

The vulnerability affected all GHES versions before 3.13.0 and was addressed with the release of versions 3.9.15, 3.10.12, 3.11.10, and 3.12.4. The issue was reported through the GitHub Bug Bounty program.

Pierluigi Paganini

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, GitHub Enterprise Server)

Since the first edition of The Ultimate SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) Checklist was released three years ago, the corporate SaaS sprawl has been growing at a double-digit pace. In large enterprises, the number of SaaS applications in use today is in the hundreds, spread across departmental stacks, complicating the job of security teams to protect organizations against

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new cryptojacking campaign that employs vulnerable drivers to disable known security solutions (EDRs) and thwart detection in what's called a Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver (BYOVD) attack. Elastic Security Labs is tracking the campaign under the name REF4578 and the primary payload as GHOSTENGINE. Previous research from Chinese

The digital imaging products manufacturer OmniVision disclosed a data breach after the 2023 ransomware attack.

OmniVision Technologies is a company that specializes in developing advanced digital imaging solutions. In 2023, OmniVision employed 2,200 people and had an annual revenue of $1.4 billion. OmniVision Technologies Inc. is an American subsidiary of Chinese semiconductor device and mixed-signal integrated circuit design house Will Semiconductor. The company designs and develops digital imaging products for use in mobile phones, laptops, netbooks and webcams, security and surveillance cameras, entertainment, automotive and medical imaging systems.

In 2023, the imaging sensors manufacturer was the victim of a Cactus ransomware attack.

Last week, OmniVision notified the California Office of the Attorney General. The threat actors had access to the company systems between September 4 and September 30, 2023, when they deployed ransomware.

“On September 30, 2023, OVT became aware of a security incident that resulted in the encryption of certain OVT systems by an unauthorized third party. In response to this incident, we promptly launched a comprehensive investigation with the assistance of third-party cybersecurity experts and notified law enforcement. At the same time, we took proactive measures to remove the unauthorized party and ensure the security of OVT systems.” reads the data Breach Notification. “This in-depth investigation determined that an unauthorized party took some personal information from certain systems between September 4, 2023, and September 30, 2023. On April 3, 2024, after completion of this comprehensive review, we determined that some of your personal information was involved.”

At this time is unclear the number of the impacted individuals.

In October, 2023, the Cactus ransomware group added OmniVision to the list of victims on its Tor leak site. As proof of the data breach, the extortion group published data samples, including passport images, NDAs, contracts, and other documents.

Then, after the failure of the alleged negotiation, the gang released all the stolen data for free, however, OmniVision is currently no longer listed on the Cactus ransom leak site.

As a result of the incident, OmniVision implemented more monitoring solutions to detect suspicious activity and prevent recurrence. The company is also updating security policies, migrating some systems to the cloud, and requiring additional security awareness training. Although there is no evidence of fraudulent use of the personal information of the impacted individuals, the company is offering complimentary credit monitoring and identity restoration services for 24 months.

The Cactus ransomware operation has been active since March 2023, Kroll researchers reported that the ransomware strain is notable for the use of encryption to protect the ransomware binary.

Cactus ransomware uses the SoftPerfect Network Scanner (netscan) to look for other targets on the network along with PowerShell commands to enumerate endpoints. The ransomware identifies user accounts by viewing successful logins in Windows Event Viewer, it also uses a modified variant of the open-source PSnmap Tool.

The Cactus ransomware relies on multiple legitimate tools (e.g. Splashtop, AnyDesk, SuperOps RMM) to achieve remote access and uses Cobalt Strike and the proxy tool Chisel in post-exploitation activities.

Once the malware has escalated the privileges on a machine, the threat actors use a batch script to uninstall popular antivirus solutions installed on the machine.

Cactus uses the Rclone tool for data exfiltration and used a PowerShell script called TotalExec, which was used in the past by BlackBasta ransomware operators, to automate the deployment of the encryption process.

In early January, the Cactus ransomware group claimed to have hacked Coop, one of the largest retail and grocery providers in Sweden.

Pierluigi Paganini

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, data breach)

An unknown threat actor is exploiting known security flaws in Microsoft Exchange Server to deploy a keylogger malware in attacks targeting entities in Africa and the Middle East. Russian cybersecurity firm Positive Technologies said it identified over 30 victims spanning government agencies, banks, IT companies, and educational institutions. The first-ever compromise dates back to 2021. "This

Taiwanese company QNAP has rolled out fixes for a set of medium-severity flaws impacting QTS and QuTS hero, some of which could be exploited to achieve code execution on its network-attached storage (NAS) appliances. The issues, which impact QTS 5.1.x and QuTS hero h5.1.x, are listed below - CVE-2024-21902 - An incorrect permission assignment for critical resource

Popular enterprise services provider Zoom has announced the rollout of post-quantum end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for Zoom Meetings, with support for Zoom Phone and Zoom Rooms coming in the future. "As adversarial threats become more sophisticated, so does the need to safeguard user data," the company said in a statement. "With the launch of post-quantum E2EE, we are doubling down on

Users of Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager are being urged to update to the latest version following the discovery of a critical security flaw that could permit an adversary to bypass authentication protections. Tracked as CVE-2024-29849 (CVSS score: 9.8), the vulnerability could allow an unauthenticated attacker to log in to the Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager web interface as

CISA adds NextGen Healthcare Mirth Connect deserialization of untrusted data vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added a NextGen Healthcare Mirth Connect vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.

The issue, tracked as CVE-2023-43208, is a Deserialization of Untrusted Data Vulnerability.

Deserialization of untrusted data vulnerability is a security flaw that occurs when an application deserializes data from an untrusted source without properly validating or sanitizing it. Deserialization is the process of converting serialized data (data formatted for storage or transmission) back into an object or data structure that a program can use.

The flaw impacts NextGen Healthcare Mirth Connect before version 4.4.1, an unauthenticated remote attacker can trigger the issue to achieve code execution.

US CISA also addressed recently disclosed Google Chromium V8 Type Confusion Vulnerability (CVE-2024-4947).

The vulnerability CVE-2024-4947 is a type confusion that resides in V8 JavaScript engine. The vulnerability was reported by Vasily Berdnikov (@vaber_b) and Boris Larin (@oct0xor) of Kaspersky on May 13, 2024.

“Google is aware that an exploit for CVE-2024-4947 exists in the wild,” reads the advisory published by Google.

According to Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 22-01: Reducing the Significant Risk of Known Exploited Vulnerabilities, FCEB agencies have to address the identified vulnerabilities by the due date to protect their networks against attacks exploiting the flaws in the catalog.

Experts recommend also private organizations review the Catalog and address the vulnerabilities in their infrastructure.

CISA orders federal agencies to fix these vulnerabilities by June 10, 2024.

Pierluigi Paganini

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, CISA)

Apple and the satellite-based broadband service Starlink each recently took steps to address new research into the potential security and privacy implications of how their services geo-locate devices. Researchers from the University of Maryland say they relied on publicly available data from Apple to track the location of billions of devices globally — including non-Apple devices like Starlink systems — and found they could use this data to monitor the destruction of Gaza, as well as the movements and in many cases identities of Russian and Ukrainian troops.

At issue is the way that Apple collects and publicly shares information about the precise location of all Wi-Fi access points seen by its devices. Apple collects this location data to give Apple devices a crowdsourced, low-power alternative to constantly requesting global positioning system (GPS) coordinates.

Both Apple and Google operate their own Wi-Fi-based Positioning Systems (WPS) that obtain certain hardware identifiers from all wireless access points that come within range of their mobile devices. Both record the Media Access Control (MAC) address that a Wi-FI access point uses, known as a Basic Service Set Identifier or BSSID.

Periodically, Apple and Google mobile devices will forward their locations — by querying GPS and/or by using cellular towers as landmarks — along with any nearby BSSIDs. This combination of data allows Apple and Google devices to figure out where they are within a few feet or meters, and it’s what allows your mobile phone to continue displaying your planned route even when the device can’t get a fix on GPS.

With Google’s WPS, a wireless device submits a list of nearby Wi-Fi access point BSSIDs and their signal strengths — via an application programming interface (API) request to Google — whose WPS responds with the device’s computed position. Google’s WPS requires at least two BSSIDs to calculate a device’s approximate position.

Apple’s WPS also accepts a list of nearby BSSIDs, but instead of computing the device’s location based off the set of observed access points and their received signal strengths and then reporting that result to the user, Apple’s API will return the geolocations of up to 400 hundred more BSSIDs that are nearby the one requested. It then uses approximately eight of those BSSIDs to work out the user’s location based on known landmarks.

In essence, Google’s WPS computes the user’s location and shares it with the device. Apple’s WPS gives its devices a large enough amount of data about the location of known access points in the area that the devices can do that estimation on their own.

That’s according to two researchers at the University of Maryland, who theorized they could use the verbosity of Apple’s API to map the movement of individual devices into and out of virtually any defined area of the world. The UMD pair said they spent a month early in their research continuously querying the API, asking it for the location of more than a billion BSSIDs generated at random.

They learned that while only about three million of those randomly generated BSSIDs were known to Apple’s Wi-Fi geolocation API, Apple also returned an additional 488 million BSSID locations already stored in its WPS from other lookups.

UMD Associate Professor David Levin and Ph.D student Erik Rye found they could mostly avoid requesting unallocated BSSIDs by consulting the list of BSSID ranges assigned to specific device manufacturers. That list is maintained by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), which is also sponsoring the privacy and security conference where Rye is slated to present the UMD research later today.

Plotting the locations returned by Apple’s WPS between November 2022 and November 2023, Levin and Rye saw they had a near global view of the locations tied to more than two billion Wi-Fi access points. The map showed geolocated access points in nearly every corner of the globe, apart from almost the entirety of China, vast stretches of desert wilderness in central Australia and Africa, and deep in the rainforests of South America.

The researchers said that by zeroing in on or “geofencing” other smaller regions indexed by Apple’s location API, they could monitor how Wi-Fi access points moved over time. Why might that be a big deal? They found that by geofencing active conflict zones in Ukraine, they were able to determine the location and movement of Starlink devices used by both Ukrainian and Russian forces.

The reason they were able to do that is that each Starlink terminal — the dish and associated hardware that allows a Starlink customer to receive Internet service from a constellation of orbiting Starlink satellites — includes its own Wi-Fi access point, whose location is going to be automatically indexed by any nearby Apple devices that have location services enabled.

The University of Maryland team geo-fenced various conflict zones in Ukraine, and identified at least 3,722 Starlink terminals geolocated in Ukraine.

“We find what appear to be personal devices being brought by military personnel into war zones, exposing pre-deployment sites and military positions,” the researchers wrote. “Our results also show individuals who have left Ukraine to a wide range of countries, validating public reports of where Ukrainian refugees have resettled.”

In an interview with KrebsOnSecurity, the UMD team said they found that in addition to exposing Russian troop pre-deployment sites, the location data made it easy to see where devices in contested regions originated from.

“This includes residential addresses throughout the world,” Levin said. “We even believe we can identify people who have joined the Ukraine Foreign Legion.”

Levin and Rye said they shared their findings with Starlink in March 2024, and that Starlink told them the company began shipping software updates in 2023 that force Starlink access points to randomize their BSSIDs.

Starlink’s parent SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment. But the researchers shared a graphic they said was created from their Starlink BSSID monitoring data, which shows that just in the past month there was a substantial drop in the number of Starlink devices that were geo-locatable using Apple’s API.

They also shared a written statement they received from Starlink, which acknowledged that Starlink User Terminal routers originally used a static BSSID/MAC:

“In early 2023 a software update was released that randomized the main router BSSID. Subsequent software releases have included randomization of the BSSID of WiFi repeaters associated with the main router. Software updates that include the repeater randomization functionality are currently being deployed fleet-wide on a region-by-region basis. We believe the data outlined in your paper is based on Starlink main routers and or repeaters that were queried prior to receiving these randomization updates.”

The researchers also focused their geofencing on the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, and were able to track the migration and disappearance of devices throughout the Gaza Strip as Israeli forces cut power to the country and bombing campaigns knocked out key infrastructure.

“As time progressed, the number of Gazan BSSIDs that are geolocatable continued to decline,” they wrote. “By the end of the month, only 28% of the original BSSIDs were still found in the Apple WPS.”

In late March 2024, Apple quietly updated its website to note that anyone can opt out of having the location of their wireless access points collected and shared by Apple — by appending “_nomap” to the end of the Wi-Fi access point’s name (SSID). Adding “_nomap” to your Wi-Fi network name also blocks Google from indexing its location.

Asked about the changes, Apple said they have respected the “_nomap” flag on SSIDs for some time, but that this was only called out in a support article earlier this year.

Rye said Apple’s response addressed the most depressing aspect of their research: That there was previously no way for anyone to opt out of this data collection.

“You may not have Apple products, but if you have an access point and someone near you owns an Apple device, your BSSID will be in [Apple’s] database,” he said. “What’s important to note here is that every access point is being tracked, without opting in, whether they run an Apple device or not. Only after we disclosed this to Apple have they added the ability for people to opt out.”

The researchers said they hope Apple will consider additional safeguards, such as proactive ways to limit abuses of its location API.

“It’s a good first step,” Levin said of Apple’s privacy update in March. “But this data represents a really serious privacy vulnerability. I would hope Apple would put further restrictions on the use of its API, like rate-limiting these queries to keep people from accumulating massive amounts of data like we did.”

The UMD researchers said they omitted certain details from their study to protect the users they were able to track, noting that the methods they used could present risks for those fleeing abusive relationships or stalkers.

“We observe routers move between cities and countries, potentially representing their owner’s relocation or a business transaction between an old and new owner,” they wrote. “While there is not necessarily a 1-to-1 relationship between Wi-Fi routers and users, home routers typically only have several. If these users are vulnerable populations, such as those fleeing intimate partner violence or a stalker, their router simply being online can disclose their new location.”

The researchers said Wi-Fi access points that can be created using a mobile device’s built-in cellular modem do not create a location privacy risk for their users because mobile phone hotspots will choose a random BSSID when activated.

“Modern Android and iOS devices will choose a random BSSID when you go into hotspot mode,” he said. “Hotspots are already implementing the strongest recommendations for privacy protections. It’s other types of devices that don’t do that.”

For example, they discovered that certain commonly used travel routers compound the potential privacy risks.

“Because travel routers are frequently used on campers or boats, we see a significant number of them move between campgrounds, RV parks, and marinas,” the UMD duo wrote. “They are used by vacationers who move between residential dwellings and hotels. We have evidence of their use by military members as they deploy from their homes and bases to war zones.”

A copy of the UMD research is available here (PDF).

Update, May 22, 4:54 p.m. ET: Added response from Apple.

GitHub has rolled out fixes to address a maximum severity flaw in the GitHub Enterprise Server (GHES) that could allow an attacker to bypass authentication protections. Tracked as CVE-2024-4985 (CVSS score: 10.0), the issue could permit unauthorized access to an instance without requiring prior authentication. "On instances that use SAML single sign-on (SSO) authentication with the

The Blackbasta extortion group claims to have hacked Atlas, one of the largest national distributors of fuel in the United States.

Atlas is one of the largest national fuel distributors to 49 continental US States with over 1 billion gallons per year.

The Blackbasta extortion group added the company to the list of victims on its Tor leak site, as the researcher Dominic Alvieri reported.

Atlas Oil allegedly breached by Basta.

Atlas is one of the largest national distributers of fuel to 49 continental US States with over 1 billion gallons per year.

Sunoco is the largest at 8 billion gallons. pic.twitter.com/5OUODUt3fu

— Dominic Alvieri (@AlvieriD) May 20, 2024

The gang claims to have stolen 730GB of data from ATLAS, including Corporate data: Accounts, HR, Finance, Executive, department data, and users and employees’ data.

The gang published a series of documents as proof of the hack, including people’s ID cards, data sheets, payroll payment requesters and a picture of the folder exfiltrated from the victim’s systems.

The oil company has yet to disclose the alleged incident.

Black Basta has been active since April 2022, like other ransomware operations, it implements a double-extortion attack model.  

In November 2022, Sentinel Labs researchers reported having found evidence that links the Black Basta ransomware gang to the financially motivated hacking group FIN7.

In November 2022, experts at the Cybereason Global SOC (GSOC) team observed a surge in Qakbot infections as part of an ongoing aggressive Qakbot malware campaign that leads to Black Basta ransomware infections in the US.

The attack chain starts with a QBot infection, The operators use the post-exploitation tool Cobalt Strike to take over the machine and finally deploy the Black Basta ransomware. The attacks began with a spam/phishing email containing malicious URL links.

The researchers noticed that once obtained access to the network, the threat actor moves extremely fast. In some cases observed by Cybereason, the threat actor obtained domain administrator privileges in less than two hours and moved to ransomware deployment in less than 12 hours.

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Atlas Oil)

A new attack campaign dubbed CLOUD#REVERSER has been observed leveraging legitimate cloud storage services like Google Drive and Dropbox to stage malicious payloads. "The VBScript and PowerShell scripts in the CLOUD#REVERSER inherently involves command-and-control-like activities by using Google Drive and Dropbox as staging platforms to manage file uploads and downloads," Securonix

The persistent threat actors behind the SolarMarker information-stealing malware have established a multi-tiered infrastructure to complicate law enforcement takedown efforts, new findings from Recorded Future show. "The core of SolarMarker's operations is its layered infrastructure, which consists of at least two clusters: a primary one for active operations and a secondary one likely

One of the enduring challenges of building modern applications is to make them more secure without disrupting high-velocity DevOps processes or degrading the developer experience. Today’s cyber threat landscape is rife with sophisticated attacks aimed at all different parts of the software supply chain and the urgency for software-producing organizations to adopt DevSecOps practices that deeply

File Integrity Monitoring (FIM) is an IT security control that monitors and detects file changes in computer systems. It helps organizations audit important files and system configurations by routinely scanning and verifying their integrity. Most information security standards mandate the use of FIM for businesses to ensure the integrity of their data. IT security compliance involves adhering to

A critical security flaw has been disclosed in the llama_cpp_python Python package that could be exploited by threat actors to achieve arbitrary code execution. Tracked as CVE-2024-34359 (CVSS score: 9.7), the flaw has been codenamed Llama Drama by software supply chain security firm Checkmarx. "If exploited, it could allow attackers to execute arbitrary code on your system,

A vulnerability in the Fluent Bit Utility, which is used by major cloud providers, can lead to DoS, information disclosure, and potentially RCE.

Tenable researchers have discovered a severe vulnerability in the Fluent Bit utility, which is used on major cloud platforms.

Fluent Bit is an open-source, lightweight, and high-performance log processor and forwarder. It is designed to collect, process, and ship logs and other types of data from various sources to different destinations. Fluent Bit is part of the Fluentd ecosystem and is optimized for resource efficiency, making it suitable for environments with limited resources, such as IoT devices, edge computing, and containerized applications.

The tool had over 3 billion downloads as of 2022 and approximately has 10 million new deployments each day.

The utility is used by major organizations such as VMware, Cisco, Adobe, Walmart, Splunk, Intel, Arm, Adobe and LinkedIn, and almost any cloud service provider, including AWS, Microsoft, and Google Cloud.

Researchers at cybersecurity firm Tenable have discovered a vulnerability in the Fluent Bit utility, called Linguistic Lumberjack, which is tracked CVE-2024-4323 (CVSS score of 9.8).

The vulnerability can trigger a denial-of-service (DoS) condition, lead to an information disclosure, and potentially remote code execution (RCE).

Tenable discovered the vulnerability in the Fluent Bit monitoring API that allows users or services with access to it to launch a Denial of Service (DoS) attack or obtain potentially sensitive information.

Fluent Bit’s monitoring API allows administrators to query and monitor internal service information through various HTTP endpoints, such as those for service uptime and plugin metrics. However, the researchers discovered that endpoints /api/v1/traces and /api/v1/trace, which manage trace configurations, can be accessed by any user with API access.

The vulnerability arises during the parsing of requests to these endpoints, where the data types of input names are not properly validated. They are mistakenly assumed to be valid strings (MSGPACK_OBJECT_STRs). The researchers discovered that an attacker can pass non-string values, such as integers, in the “inputs” array, leading to memory corruption issues. Specifically, the flb_sds_create_len() function can misinterpret the values, causing potential vulnerabilities.

“In their lab environment, the researchers were able to reliably exploit this issue to crash the service and cause a denial of service scenario. They were also able to retrieve chunks of adjacent memory, which are returned in the HTTP responses. While this is generally unlikely to reveal anything other than previous metrics requests, the researchers were able to occasionally retrieve partial secrets during their testing, indicating that this issue could potentially leak sensitive information.” reads the report published by Tenable. “As for the remote code execution possibilities of this issue, exploitation is dependent on a variety of environmental factors such as host architecture and operating system. While heap buffer overflows such as this are known to be exploitable, creating a reliable exploit is not only difficult, but incredibly time intensive. The researchers believe that the most immediate and primary risks are those pertaining to the ease with which DoS and information leaks can be accomplished.”

The flaw was introduced in version 2.0.7 and exists thru 3.0.3. It is addressed in the main source branch and is expected in release 3.0.4.

Tenable also published a proof-of-concept (PoC) to trigger a DoS condition.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Fluent Bit)

 Microsoft on Monday confirmed its plans to deprecate NT LAN Manager (NTLM) in Windows 11 in the second half of the year, as it announced a slew of new security measures to harden the widely-used desktop operating system. "Deprecating NTLM has been a huge ask from our security community as it will strengthen user authentication, and deprecation is planned in the second half of 2024," the