Better Security, Together

Researchers have identified a new malware campaign exploiting GitHub to infiltrate the insurance and finance sectors. The attackers cleverly leverage legitimate, high-profile tax-related repositories to bypass standard security measures, employing the Remcos Remote Access Trojan (RAT) within phishing emails. This novel tactic utilizes the trusted nature of GitHub, avoiding conventional detection methods. The malware loader establishes persistence and can deploy further malicious payloads.

Researchers also highlight an increase in inventive phishing strategies, such as the use of ASCII- and Unicode-based QR codes, blob URLs, and the exploitation of legitimate online accommodation booking accounts for financial scams. Recent arrests suggest a highly organized criminal network, targeting vulnerable individuals for recruitment and utilizing advanced tools like the Telekopye Telegram bot for wide-reaching scam operations.

A recent macOS vulnerability -“HM Surf”, identified as CVE-2024-44133 (CVSS Score 5.5), allows attackers to bypass the operating system’s Transparency, Consent, and Control (TCC) technology, potentially exposing users’ sensitive data. This flaw targets the protection mechanisms for accessing services like the camera, microphone, and location without the user’s consent. Exploiting this vulnerability could enable attackers to gain unauthorized access to personal data stored in the Safari browser directory, raising security risks for macOS users.

The exploit involves manipulating key configuration files within the user’s home directory to bypass TCC protections, granting unrestricted access to sensitive services. Once an attacker gains control of these files, they can modify TCC settings that dictate access permissions, allowing them to stealthily gather data, run malicious code, or perform actions such as taking snapshots, tracking location, or streaming audio and video from the device without the user’s knowledge. Attackers can further leverage the flaw by hosting malicious websites over HTTPS to gain access to TCC-protected services via JavaScript, making this vulnerability a high-priority target for exploitation, especially by malware like Adload, which has been detected in the wild exploiting similar weaknesses.