Within the ever-evolving cybersecurity panorama, 2023 witnessed a dramatic surge within the sophistication of cyber threats and malware. AT&T Cybersecurity Alien Labs reviewed the large occasions of 2023 and the way malware morphed this yr to attempt new methods to breach and wreak havoc.
This yr’s occasions stored cybersecurity specialists on their toes, from increasing malware variants to introducing new menace actors and assault methods. Listed below are a number of the most compelling developments, highlighting malware’s evolving capabilities and the challenges defenders face.
Highlights of the yr: Rising traits and notable incidents
Because the yr unfolded, a number of traits and incidents left an indelible mark on the cybersecurity panorama:
Exploiting OneNote for malicious payloads
Cybercriminals leveraged Microsoft OneNote to ship many malicious payloads to victims, together with Redline, AgentTesla, Quasar RAT, and others. This beforehand underutilized Workplace program turned a well-liked instrument on account of its low suspicion and widespread utilization.
search engine optimization poisoning and Google Advertisements
Malicious actors resorted to search engine optimization poisoning techniques, deploying phishing hyperlinks by Google Advertisements to deceive unsuspecting victims. These hyperlinks led to cloned, benign net pages, avoiding Google’s detection and remaining lively for prolonged intervals. Outstanding malware households, together with Raccoon Stealer and IcedID, capitalized on this technique.
Exploiting geopolitical occasions
Cybercriminals exploited the geopolitical local weather, significantly the Center East battle, as a lure for his or her assaults. This pattern mirrored the earlier yr’s Ukraine-related phishing campaigns and crypto scams.
APTs: State-sponsored espionage continues to current challenges
Superior Persistent Threats (APTs) continued to pose a major menace in 2023:
- Snake: CISA reported on the Snake APT, a complicated cyber-espionage instrument related to the Russian Federal Safety Service (FSB). This malware had been in use for almost 20 years.
- Volt Storm: A marketing campaign focusing on essential infrastructure organizations in america was attributed to Volt Storm, a state-sponsored actor based mostly in China. Their focus lay on espionage and knowledge gathering.
- Storm-0558: This extremely subtle intrusion marketing campaign, orchestrated by the Storm-0558 APT from China, infiltrated the e-mail accounts of roughly 25 organizations, together with authorities businesses.
Ransomware’s relentless rise
Ransomware remained a prevalent and profitable menace all year long:
- Cuba and Snatch: Ransomware teams like Cuba and Snatch focused essential infrastructure in america, inflicting concern for nationwide safety.
- ALPHV/BlackCat: Past search engine optimization poisoning, this group compromised the pc methods of Caesar and MGM casinos. In addition they resorted to submitting complaints with the US Securities and Trade Fee (SEC) in opposition to their victims, making use of further strain to pay ransoms.
- Exploiting new vulnerabilities: Cybercriminals wasted no time exploiting newly found vulnerabilities, akin to CVE-2023-22518 in Atlassian’s Confluence, CVE-2023-4966 (Citrix bleed), and others. These vulnerabilities turned gateways for ransomware assaults.
- Evolving ransomware households: New ransomware variants like Trash Panda emerged whereas present households tailored to focus on Linux and ESXi servers, additional increasing their attain.
Notable blogs of the yr
1. BlackGuard: Elevating Malware-as-a-Service
One of many yr’s standout tales was the evolution of BlackGuard, a formidable Malware-as-a-Service (MaaS) provided in underground boards and Telegram channels. This insidious instrument underwent a major improve, amplifying its capabilities. Already recognized for its skill to pilfer delicate information from browsers, video games, chats, and cryptocurrencies, the brand new BlackGuard variant upped the ante.
BlackGuard improved its Anti-Reversing and Sandboxing capabilities, making it much more elusive to safety specialists. Furthermore, it might now tamper with cryptocurrency wallets copied to the clipboard. This enhancement posed a extreme menace to cryptocurrency fanatics and buyers. Moreover, BlackGuard included superior Loader capabilities, enabling it to propagate by shared or detachable gadgets and masks its communications through private and non-private proxies or the nameless Tor community.
2. SeroXen: A RAT’s speedy ascent and fall
In a accident, 2023 witnessed the meteoric rise and fall of SeroXen, a brand new variant of the Quasar Distant Entry Trojan (RAT). This modified department of the open-source RAT added vital modifications to its unique framework, enhancing its capabilities.
SeroXen achieved fast notoriety, with a whole lot of samples recognized throughout the first few months of the yr. Nevertheless, shortly after the weblog highlighting its emergence was printed, the SeroXen web site introduced its shutdown and carried out a kill-switch, rendering contaminated PCs ineffective to malicious actors. It was a uncommon occasion the place the publication of analysis inadvertently led to the downfall of a malware instrument.
3. AdLoad: Mac methods was proxy servers
AT&T Cybersecurity Alien Labs uncovered a devious malware marketing campaign involving AdLoad. This malware ingeniously remodeled customers’ Mac methods into proxy servers, then offered to 3rd events, together with some with illicit functions. The menace actor behind AdLoad contaminated goal methods surreptitiously put in a proxy software within the background.
These contaminated methods have been subsequently provided to proxy firms, portraying themselves as respectable entities. Consumers exploited the advantages of those residential proxy botnets, having fun with anonymity, large geographical availability, and excessive IP rotation for conducting nefarious actions, together with SPAM campaigns.
Following the publication of the analysis weblog, an analogous marketing campaign focusing on Home windows methods emerged. The modus operandi mirrored that of the Mac model however was tailor-made for Home windows OS, considerably increasing the potential goal pool and the impression of the proxy community.
4. AsyncRAT: The persistent phishing menace
All through 2023, cybersecurity specialists noticed a steady inflow of phishing emails utilizing superior methods. These emails enticed victims to obtain a malicious JavaScript file, closely obfuscated and armed with anti-sandboxing measures to evade detection. These assaults aimed to execute an AsyncRAT shopper on the compromised methods, granting attackers full distant entry.
About us
AT&T Alien Labs is the menace intelligence unit of AT&T Cybersecurity. We assist gas our cybersecurity consulting and managed safety companies with probably the most up-to-date menace intelligence info. We work with the Open Menace Trade (OTX) to offer actionable and community-powered menace information. Watch the AT&T Cybersecurity weblog for extra observations and analysis from the Alien Labs workforce.
