Last week in security news, researchers observed a new version of the Lazarus Group’s Dacls remote-access Trojan (RAT) targeting Mac users via a trojanized two-factor authentication (2FA) app. That wasn’t the only new piece of malware that made headlines last week. Security analysts also unveiled their discovery of a new ransomware family, a new internet of things (IoT) botnet written in Golang and a new mobile banking Trojan.

Top Story of the Week: Dacls RAT Begins Targeting Mac Users

Malwarebytes found that malicious actors were distributing the new Dacls RAT variant via a trojanized version of MinaOTP, a 2FA app that is commonly used by Chinese speakers. The malicious app, known as “TinkaOTP,” first caught security researchers’ attention back in early April. At the time of discovery, it produced no hits with any antivirus engines on VirusTotal.

This version of Dacls arrived with all six of the plugins employed by the RAT’s Linux variant for executing commands, managing files and performing other functions. However, it arrived with an additional SOCKS plugin that enabled the malware to proxy traffic from the victim to its command-and-control (C&C) server.

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Also in Security News

• LMS Plugin Vulnerabilities Allow Students to Access Data: Check Point Research performed a security audit of the LearnPress, LearnDash and LifterLMS WordPress learning management system (LMS) plugins. In the process, the research team uncovered several vulnerabilities that enabled a student or even an unauthenticated user to steal data, access student records and/or change their grades.
• VCrypt Leverages 7-Zip to Create Password-Protected Archives of Data Folders: Bleeping Computer learned of a new ransomware strain going after French users. This threat specifically abused the 7-Zip command-line program to create password-protected archives of the data folders that it had targeted.
• Automation Incorporated Into LockBit Ransomware’s Infection Chain: In an incident analyzed by McAfee Labs, malicious actors used a brute-force attack to target an organization with LockBit ransomware. This threat used automation to perform reconnaissance of the network and to instruct other hosts to effectively load the ransomware using a PowerShell command.
• Credit Card Skimmer Disguises Itself as a Favicon: Malwarebytes knew that something was wrong when its researchers spotted several e-commerce sites loading a Magento favicon from myicons[.]net, a domain that had previously been identified as malicious. A closer look revealed that this favicon loaded JavaScript credit card skimming code when presented with a checkout page.
• Kaiji Linux Malware Distinguishes Itself From Other IoT Botnets: Intezer found that the new Kaiji Linux malware was different from other IoT botnets. First, the threat was written in Golang — a rare programming language for IoT malware. Second, Kaiji limited its SSH brute-force attacks to target the root user only.
• Vulnerabilities Used by Malicious Actor to Target Nearly 1M WordPress Sites: In late April, Wordfence’s Threat Intelligence Team spotted a threat actor engaging in various attacks abusing cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities. A closer look revealed that the threat actor had been responsible for targeting 900,000 websites using similar attack attempts.
• Over 200 Personal Finance Apps Susceptible to EventBot: First detected by Cybereason, EventBot was capable of targeting Android devices and abusing Accessibility Services at the time of discovery in March 2020. These techniques enabled the malware to infect over 200 personal finance apps and even infiltrate cryptocurrency wallets such as Coinbase.
• Evil Clippy Shipping Spam Used to Distribute Dridex Payload: Votiro’s Research Team observed a phishing email campaign that appeared to originate from DHL, FedEx and other shipping giants. That campaign leveraged Evil Clippy to hide malicious macro code within Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and distribute a Dridex payload.

Security Tip of the Week: Augment Your Organization’s Malware Defenses

Security professionals can best protect their organizations against threats such as the Dacls RAT by investing in a security solution that extends the accuracy of manual analysis across the network. To do so, organizations can invest in tools that leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to spot more sophisticated attack attempts that would seek to move throughout the network.