The Hacker News.

"Authorities seize domains of popular hacking forums in major cybercrime crackdown."

Views expressed in this cybersecurity, cyber crime update are those of the reporters and correspondents.  Accessed on 30 January 2025, 1529 UTC.

Content and Source:  https://thehackernews.com

Russ Roberts (https://www.hawaiicybersecurityjournal.net).

 

Authorities Seize Domains of Popular Hacking Forums in Major Cybercrime Crackdown

Jan 30, 2025 Online Fraud / Cybercrime

An international law enforcement operation has dismantled the domains associated with various online platforms linked to cybercrime such as Cracked, Nulled, Sellix, and StarkRDP. The effort has targeted the following domains - www.cracked.io www.nulled.to www.mysellix.io www.sellix.io www.starkrdp.io Visitors to these websites are now greeted by a seizure banner that says they were confiscated as part of Operation Talent that involved authorities from Australia, France, Greece, Italy, Romania, Spain, and the United States, along with Europol. "This website, as well as the information on the customers and victims of the website, has been seized by international law enforcement partners," the message reads. Both Nulled and Cracked have been used to peddle various hack tools, such as ScrubCrypt, a malware obfuscation engine that has been observed delivering stealer malware in the past. The maintainers of Cracked confirmed the development on their Telegram channel...

Lightning AI Studio Vulnerability Allowed RCE via Hidden URL Parameter

Jan 30, 2025 Vulnerability / Cloud Security

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed a critical security flaw in the Lightning AI Studio development platform that, if successfully exploited, could allow for remote code execution. The vulnerability, rated a CVSS score of 9.4, enables "attackers to potentially execute arbitrary commands with root privileges" by exploiting a hidden URL parameter, application security firm Noma said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "This level of access could hypothetically be leveraged for a range of malicious activities, including the extraction of sensitive keys from targeted accounts," researchers Sasi Levi, Alon Tron, and Gal Moyal said. The issue is embedded in a piece of JavaScript code that could facilitate unfettered access to a victim's development environment, as well as run arbitrary commands on an authenticated target in a privileged context. Noma said it found a hidden parameter called "command" in user-specific URLs – e.g., "lightn...

See The Future of Real-Time Cloud Security

Palo Alto NetworksSecOps / Threat Prevention

Nearly every business runs in the cloud, adversaries have followed. Join the ultimate cybersecurity transformation event.

SOC Analysts - Reimagining Their Role Using AI

Jan 30, 2025 AI Security / SOC Automation

The job of a SOC analyst has never been easy. Faced with an overwhelming flood of daily alerts, analysts (and sometimes IT teams who are doubling as SecOps) must try and triage thousands of security alerts—often false positives—just to identify a handful of real threats. This relentless, 24/7 work leads to alert fatigue, desensitization, and increased risk of missing critical security incidents. Studies show that 70% of SOC analysts experience severe stress, and 65% consider leaving their jobs within a year . This makes retention a major challenge for security teams, especially in light of the existing shortage of skilled security analysts . On the operational side, analysts spend more time on repetitive, manual tasks like investigating alerts, and resolving and documenting incidents than they do on proactive security measures. Security teams struggle with configuring and maintaining SOAR playbooks as the cyber landscape rapidly changes. To top this all off, tool overload and siloed ...

DeepSeek AI Database Exposed: Over 1 Million Log Lines, Secret Keys Leaked

Jan 30, 2025 Artificial Intelligence / Data Privacy

Buzzy Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) startup DeepSeek , which has had a meteoric rise in popularity in recent days, left one of its databases exposed on the internet, which could have allowed malicious actors to gain access to sensitive data. The ClickHouse database "allows full control over database operations, including the ability to access internal data," Wiz security researcher Gal Nagli said . The exposure also includes more than a million lines of log streams containing chat history, secret keys, backend details, and other highly sensitive information, such as API Secrets and operational metadata. DeepSeek has since plugged the security hole following attempts by the cloud security firm to contact them. The database, hosted at oauth2callback.deepseek[.]com:9000 and dev.deepseek[.]com:9000, is said to have enabled unauthorized access to a wide range of information. The exposure, Wiz noted, allowed for complete database control and potential privilege escalati...

Unpatched PHP Voyager Flaws Leave Servers Open to One-Click RCE Exploits

Jan 30, 2025 Web Security / Vulnerability

Three security flaws have been disclosed in the open-source PHP package Voyager that could be exploited by an attacker to achieve one-click remote code execution on affected instances. "When an authenticated Voyager user clicks on a malicious link, attackers can execute arbitrary code on the server," Sonar researcher Yaniv Nizry said in a write-up published earlier this week. The identified issues, which remain unpatched to date despite responsible disclosure on September 11, 2024, are listed below - CVE-2024-55417 - An arbitrary file write vulnerability in the "/admin/media/upload" endpoint CVE-2024-55416 - A reflected cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the "/admin/compass" endpoint CVE-2024-55415 - An arbitrary file leak and deletion vulnerability  A malicious attacker could leverage Voyager's media upload feature to upload a malicious file in a manner that bypasses MIME type verification, and make use of a polyglot file that ap...

New Aquabot Botnet Exploits CVE-2024-41710 in Mitel Phones for DDoS Attacks

Jan 30, 2025 Vulnerability / IoT Security

A Mirai botnet variant dubbed Aquabot has been observed actively attempting to exploit a medium-severity security flaw impacting Mitel phones in order to ensnare them into a network capable of mounting distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2024-41710 (CVSS score: 6.8), a case of command injection in the boot process that could allow a malicious actor to execute arbitrary commands within the context of the phone. It affects Mitel 6800 Series, 6900 Series, 6900w Series SIP Phones, and Mitel 6970 Conference Unit. It was addressed by Mitel in mid-July 2024. A proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit for the flaw became publicly available in August. Outside of CVE-2024-41710, some of the other vulnerabilities targeted by the botnet include CVE-2018-10561, CVE-2018-10562, CVE-2018-17532, CVE-2022-31137, CVE-2023-26801, and a remote code execution flaw targeting Linksys E-series devices.  "Aquabot is a botnet that was built off the Mirai fram...

Discover Hidden Browsing Threats: Free Risk Assessment for GenAI, Identity, Web, and SaaS Risks

Jan 22, 2025Risk Assessment / Browser Security

As GenAI tools and SaaS platforms become a staple component in the employee toolkit, the risks associated with data exposure, identity vulnerabilities, and unmonitored browsing behavior have skyrocketed. Forward-thinking security teams are looking for security controls and strategies to address these risks, but they do not always know which risks to prioritize. In some cases, they might have blind spots into the existence of risks. To help, a new complimentary risk assessment is now available. The assessment will be customized for each organization's browsing environment, evaluating their risk and providing actionable insights. Security and IT teams can leverage the assessment to strengthen their security posture, inform their decision-making, evangelize across the organization, and plan next steps. The assessment results in a report that includes a high-level overview of key risks, including insecure use of gen AI, sensitive data leakage risks through the browser, SaaS app usage, ...

Lazarus Group Uses React-Based Admin Panel to Control Global Cyber Attacks

Jan 29, 2025 Threat Intelligence / Malware

The North Korean threat actor known as the Lazarus Group has been observed leveraging a "web-based administrative platform" to oversee its command-and-control (C2) infrastructure, giving the adversary the ability to centrally supervise all aspects of their campaigns. "Each C2 server hosted a web-based administrative platform, built with a React application and a Node.js API," SecurityScorecard's STRIKE team said in a new report shared with The Hacker News. "This administrative layer was consistent across all the C2 servers analyzed, even as the attackers varied their payloads and obfuscation techniques to evade detection." The hidden framework has been described as a comprehensive system and a hub that allows attackers to organize and manage exfiltrated data, maintain oversight of their compromised hosts, and handle payload delivery. The web-based admin panel has been identified in connection with a supply chain attack campaign dubbed Operation ...

AI in Cybersecurity: What's Effective and What's Not – Insights from 200 Experts

Jan 29, 2025 Threat Detection / Artificial Intelligence

Curious about the buzz around AI in cybersecurity? Wonder if it's just a shiny new toy in the tech world or a serious game changer? Let's unpack this together in a not-to-be-missed webinar that goes beyond the hype to explore the real impact of AI on cybersecurity. Join Ravid Circus , a seasoned pro in cybersecurity and AI, as we peel back the layers of AI in cybersecurity through a revealing survey of 200 industry insiders. This isn't your average tech talk; it's a down-to-earth, insightful discussion about what AI is actually doing for us today. Why Tune In? Get the Inside Scoop: How are real-world security teams using AI right now? Learn about the genuine perks and the real snags, from data hiccups to transparency troubles. Boost Your Cyber Defenses: Discover which cybersecurity corners AI is revolutionizing the most. It's about pinpointing where AI can really beef up your security measures. Walk Away With a Game Plan: This isn't just about high-level idea...

New SLAP & FLOP Attacks Expose Apple M-Series Chips to Speculative Execution Exploits

Jan 29, 2025 Vulnerability / Threat Intelligence

A team of security researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology and Ruhr University Bochum has demonstrated two new side-channel attacks targeting Apple silicon that could be exploited to leak sensitive information from web browsers like Safari and Google Chrome. The attacks have been codenamed Data Speculation Attacks via Load Address Prediction on Apple Silicon ( SLAP ) and Breaking the Apple M3 CPU via False Load Output Predictions ( FLOP ). Apple was notified of the issues in May and September 2024, respectively. The vulnerabilities, like the previously disclosed iLeakage attack, build on Spectre , arising when speculative execution "backfires," leaving traces of mispredictions in the CPU's microarchitectural state and the cache. Speculative execution refers to a performance optimization mechanism in modern processors that are aimed at predicting the control flow the CPU should take and execute instructions along the branch beforehand. In the event of a mi...

How Interlock Ransomware Infects Healthcare Organizations

Jan 29, 2025 Incident Response / Threat Intelligence

Ransomware attacks have reached an unprecedented scale in the healthcare sector, exposing vulnerabilities that put millions at risk. Recently, UnitedHealth revealed that 190 million Americans had their personal and healthcare data stolen during the Change Healthcare ransomware attack, a figure that nearly doubles the previously disclosed total.  This breach shows just how deeply ransomware can infiltrate critical systems, leaving patient trust and care hanging in the balance. One of the groups that targets this already fragile sector is the Interlock ransomware group. Known for their calculated and sophisticated attacks, they focus on hospitals, clinics, and other medical service providers. Interlock Ransomware Group: An Active Threat to Healthcare The Interlock ransomware group is a relatively recent but dangerous player in the world of cybercrime, known for employing double-extortion tactics.  This method involves encrypting a victim's data to disrupt operations and th...

Critical Cacti Security Flaw (CVE-2025-22604) Enables Remote Code Execution

Jan 29, 2025 Vulnerability / Threat Intelligence

A critical security flaw has been disclosed in the Cacti open-source network monitoring and fault management framework that could allow an authenticated attacker to achieve remote code execution on susceptible instances. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2025-22604, carries a CVSS score of 9.1 out of a maximum of 10.0. "Due to a flaw in the multi-line SNMP result parser, authenticated users can inject malformed OIDs in the response," the project maintainers said in an advisory released this week. "When processed by ss_net_snmp_disk_io() or ss_net_snmp_disk_bytes(), a part of each OID will be used as a key in an array that is used as part of a system command, causing a command execution vulnerability." Successful exploitation of the vulnerability could permit an authenticated user with device management permissions to execute arbitrary code in the server, and steal, edit, or delete sensitive data. CVE-2025-22604 affects all versions of the software prior to and includ...