Our first network security analysis of the popular Chinese social media platform, RedNote, revealed numerous issues with the Android and iOS versions of the app. Most notably, we found that both the Android and iOS versions of RedNote fetch viewed images and videos without any encryption, which enables network eavesdroppers to learn exactly what content users are browsing. We also found a vulnerability in the Android version that enables network attackers to learn the contents of files on users’ devices. We disclosed the vulnerability issues to RedNote, and its vendors NEXTDATA, and MobTech, but did not receive a response from any party. This report underscores the importance of using well-supported encryption implementations, such as transport layer security (TLS). We recommend that users who are highly concerned about network surveillance from any party refrain from using RedNote until these security issues are resolved.
One of the challenges with investigating cybercrime is the infrastructure the adversaries leverage to conduct attacks. Cybercriminal infrastructure has evolved drastically over the last 25 years, which now involves hijacking web services, content distribution networks (CDNs), residential proxies, fast flux DNS, domain generation algorithms (DGAs), botnets of IoT devices, the Tor network, and all sorts of nested services.
This blog shall investigate a small UK-based hosting provider known as BitLaunch as an example of how challenging it can be to tackle cybercriminal infrastructure. Research into this hosting provider revealed that they appear to have a multi-year history of cybercriminals using BitLaunch to host command-and-control (C2) servers via their Anonymous VPS service.
Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center discovered an active and successful device code phishing campaign by a threat actor we track as Storm-2372. Our ongoing investigation indicates that this campaign has been active since August 2024 with the actor creating lures that resemble messaging app experiences including WhatsApp, Signal, and Microsoft Teams. Storm-2372’s targets during this time have included government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), information technology (IT) services and technology, defense, telecommunications, health, higher education, and energy/oil and gas in Europe, North America, Africa, and the Middle East. Microsoft assesses with medium confidence that Storm-2372 aligns with Russian interests, victimology, and tradecraft.
This follows a series of high-impact arrests targeting Phobos ransomware:An administrator of Phobos was arrested in South Korea in June 2024 and extradited to the United States in November of the same year. He is now facing prosecution for orchestrating ransomware attacks that encrypted critical infrastructure, business systems, and personal data for ransom.A key Phobos affiliate was arrested in Italy...
A fresh post on the Kraken ransomware group’s leak website refers to data stolen in a 2022 cyberattack, Cisco says.
The data, a list of credentials apparently exfiltrated from Cisco’s systems, appeared over the weekend on a new data leak site operated by the Kraken ransomware group.
“Cisco is aware of certain reports regarding a security incident. The incident referenced in the reports occurred back in May 2022, and we fully addressed it at that time,” a Cisco spokesperson said, responding to a SecurityWeek inquiry.
In the span of just weeks, the US government has experienced what may be the most consequential security breach in its history—not through a sophisticated cyberattack or an act of foreign espionage, but through official orders by a billionaire with a poorly defined government role. And the implications for national security are profound. First, it was reported that people associated with the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) had accessed the US Treasury computer system, giving them the ability to collect data on and potentially control the department’s roughly ...
Starting in mid-January 2025, Volexity identified several social-engineering and spear-phishing campaigns by Russian threat actors aimed at compromising Microsoft 365 (M365) accounts. These attack campaigns were highly targeted and carried out in a variety of ways. The majority of these attacks originated via spear-phishing emails with different themes. In one case, the eventual breach began with highly tailored outreach via Signal.Through its investigations, Volexity discovered that Russian threat actors were impersonating a variety of individuals
Between December 2024 and January 2025, Recorded Future’s Insikt Group identified a campaign exploiting unpatched internet-facing Cisco network devices primarily associated with global telecommunications providers. Victim organizations included a United States-based affiliate of a United Kingdom-based telecommunications provider and a South African telecommunications provider. Insikt Group attributes this activity to the Chinese state-sponsored threat activity group tracked by Insikt Group as RedMike, which aligns with the Microsoft-named group Salt Typhoon. Using Recorded Future® Network Intelligence, Insikt Group observed RedMike target and exploit unpatched Cisco network devices vulnerable to CVE-2023-20198, a privilege escalation vulnerability found in the web user interface (UI) feature in Cisco IOS XE software, for initial access before exploiting an associated privilege escalation vulnerability, CVE-2023-20273, to gain root privileges. RedMike reconfigures the device, adding a generic routing encapsulation (GRE) tunnel for persistent access.