Threat Reports

2022 Threat Roundup Report: The Emergence of Mixed IT/IoT Threats

Mar. 28, 2023

In 2022, cyberattacks grew in intensity, sophistication and frequency. The adoption of new connected devices by organizations in 2023 is likely to pose even greater challenges. To help organizations of all sizes prepare, Forescout’s Vedere Labs has analyzed data gathered in 2022 about cyberattacks, exploits and malware and shared insights via our 2022 Threat Roundup.

Common Ransomware TTPS

Mar. 22, 2023

Forescout’s Vedere Labs analyzes TTPs commonly used in ransomware attacks and gives specific mitigation recommendations, including detection with Forescout XDR. While the TTPs used have remained mostly constant, ransomware has been evolving rapidly since 2020, with the increased use of double extortion, zero-day exploits and targeted attacks on specific organizations vs. casting a wide net.

VMware ESXi Servers: A Major Attack Vector for Ransomware

Mar. 9, 2023

Vedere Labs provides details on the recent ransomware campaign targeting VMware ESXi virtualization servers, or hypervisors, and analyzes two payloads used in these attacks: variants of the Royal and Clop ransomware. We also present the TTPs used by attackers in this campaign, discuss mitigation recommendations and list IOCs that can be used for detection or threat hunting.

Royal Ransomware – Analysis of One of the Most Active Ransomware Groups in Late 2022 and Early 2023

Jan. 10, 2023

The Royal ransomware threat actor group, initially tracked as DEV-0569, emerged in early 2022 and has been very active in late 2022-early 2023. It uses double extortion to gain access to a victim’s environment, encrypt their data, exfiltrate sensitive data and demand a ransom to decrypt files. This report analyzes the group’s encryptor payload and TTPs and presents threat hunting opportunities for network defenders.

The Increasing Threat Posed by Hacktivist Attacks: An Analysis of Targeted Organizations, Devices and TTPs

Dec. 1, 2022

Hacktivists expanded their arsenal in 2022 to become much more than a nuisance to critical infrastructure owners – and reach into unexpected industries thanks to the widespread use of IoT and OT equipment. This report describes examples of active hacktivist groups; presents the device types, specific models and protocols these groups have targeted; discusses their TTPs and provides mitigation recommendations.

The Riskiest Connected Devices in Enterprise Networks

Oct. 12, 2022

In this report, Vedere Labs identifies the five riskiest connected devices in four categories: IT, IoT, OT and IoMT. We update our findings from 2020 with new entries such as hypervisors and human machine interfaces that represent trends including critical vulnerability and increased OT connectivity.

Internet Exposure of Medical Devices and Systems

Sept. 26, 2022

Vedere Labs found more than 7,000 exposed medical devices and systems on the internet, including PACS, healthcare integration engines, EMRs and medication dispensing systems.

Industroyer2 and INCONTROLLER (PIPEDREAM): In-depth Technical Analysis of the ICS-specific Malware

Jul. 13, 2022

Industroyer2 leverages OS-specific wipers and a dedicated module to communicate over the IEC-104 industrial protocol. INCONTROLLER is a full toolkit containing modules to send instructions to or retrieve data from ICS devices using industrial network protocols, such as OPC UA, Modbus, CODESYS, Machine Expert Discovery and Omron FINS. Additionally, Industroyer2 has a highly targeted configuration, while INCONTROLLER is much more reusable across different targets.

Killnet: Analysis of Attacks from a Prominent Pro-Russian Hacktivist Group

Jun. 2, 2022

In this threat report, Forescout’s Vedere Labs analyzes attacks by pro-Russian hacktivist group Killnet and shows how to mitigate risk of DDoS and other attacks. Killnet stands out as one of the most active groups since Russian invaded Ukraine and has gained notoriety for DDoSing the websites of western critical infrastructure operators such as airports, banks, energy providers and governmental agencies.

Emotet: The Return of the World’s Most Dangerous Malware

May. 12, 2022

According to CISA, Emotet is among the most costly and destructive malware used against the private and public sectors, and Europol calls it the world’s most dangerous malware. This report shows the result of a dynamic analysis of an Emotet Epoch4 loader sample and presents a list of IoCs extracted from that sample, with recommended mitigations.

Analysis of an ALPHV Incident

Apr. 22, 2022

This report analyzes the files and tools used by an affiliate of the ALPHV ransomware group (aka BlackCat) during an attack that involved penetrating a SonicWall firewall and encrypting a VMware ESXi environment. New findings break down the malware's sophisticated behavior and present ways to avoid damage.

Night Sky Ransomware

Apr. 12, 2022

The Night Sky ransomware was first reported by MalwareHunterTeam on January 1, 2022. Victims were asked to contact the attackers on contact[.]nightsky[.]cyou to pay for the ransom. If the victims refused to pay, attackers threatened to expose their data on a leak site. This is known as a double extortion ransomware. Night Sky provides an interesting view into the relationships among several ransomware families.

LAPSUS$

Mar. 30, 2022

LAPSUS$ is a hacking group that has been active since 2021 and has breached several high-profile organizations, starting with major Brazilian government agencies and companies, then moving on to global businesses such as Microsoft, Nvidia and Okta. This loose collective of hackers is notable for using social engineering techniques and focusing on data exfiltration and public extortion rather than data encryption. This briefing reports on the group's victims, methods and indicators of compromise, and provides mitigation recommendations.

Analysis of Conti Leaks

Mar. 11, 2022

This report is the result of an analysis of the chats, tutorials and tools used by the Conti ransomware groups and leaked via the Twitter handle “ContiLeaks” since the end of February 2022. The report presents intelligence about the group’s organization, attack techniques and victims which can help network defenders to detect and mitigate attacks from Conti and other similar ransomware groups. It does not rely on automatic translation of leaked chats...

Monitoring Cyber Activities Connected to The Russian-Ukrainian Conflict

Mar. 3, 2022

Vedere Labs, Forescout’s threat intelligence and research team, is closely monitoring the evolution of cyber activities connected to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. We continue to gather information regarding active threats; tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs); Indicators of Compromise (IoCs); and mitigations.

Top Defense Evasion Techniques

Jul. 25, 2022

An analysis of the top 10 observed defense evasion techniques used by adversaries in malware campaigns and recommendations for detection and mitigation.

TrickBot Banking Trojan

Apr. 8, 2021

An analysis of TrickBot, a dangerous, customizable banking trojan distributed via spear phishing –artifacts and behaviors, techniques, monitoring and mitigation.

Formbook Infostealer

Feb. 23, 2021

An analysis of Formbook infostealer malware – main execution stages and techniques, key artifacts and behaviors, attachment types and exploited vulnerabilities.

Thanos Ransomware

Jul. 17, 2020

An analysis of the Thanos RaaS, which users can customize to suit their needs. It can evade detection, encrypt and exfiltrate data, and spread over a LAN.

TeamTNT

Oct. 19, 2020

An analysis of TeamTNT, the 1st cryptojacking worm to steal AWS credentials, including its main attack phases, artifacts, techniques and goals.

TA505 APT

Sept. 1, 2020

An analysis of TA505 APT, known for largescale, worldwide spam campaigns that distribute malware; including its attack vectors, techniques and characteristics.

SunCrypt Ransomware

Sept. 23, 2020

An analysis of a fileless variant of SunCrypt ransomware that uses the PowerShell process to extract and run a SunCrypt payload, making it hard to detect.

StrongPity Spyware

Aug. 7, 2020

An analysis of the StrongPity spyware distributed by the Promethium advanced persistence threat (APT) through spear phishing and watering hole attacks.

PonyFinal Ransomware

Jun. 15, 2020

An analysis of the techniques used by PonyFinal, a Java-based ransomware that targets large organizations.

Maze Ransomware

Jul. 7, 2020

An analysis of the Maze group and multiple variants of its ransomware, which targets Windows systems of large companies and publishes victims’ sensitive data.

Kinsing Cloud Cryptojacker

Apr. 27, 2021

An analysis of the Kinsing cloud cryptojacker, a hard-to-detect Linux-based malware, along with best practices for prevention, detection and mitigation.

Egregor Ransomware

Jan. 29, 2021

An analysis of the Egregor RaaS group and the techniques it uses to gain access, avoid detection and exfiltrate data to extort large companies.

BIG-IP

Jul. 2, 2020

How to detect and mitigate CVE-2020-5902, a BIG-IP remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability that has a CVSSv2 score of 10.0 – CRITICAL.

Linux Ransomware

Mar. 2022

An analysis of prominent Linux ransomware variants, which rely on vulnerability exploitation for infection, with a detailed look at REvil RaaS.

Agent Tesla RAT

Feb. 8, 2021

An analysis of the Agent Tesla remote access trojan (RAT), a popular keylogger and information stealer, with recom AgentTesla RAT mendations for detection and mitigation.

The APT36 Crimson Remote Access Trojan (RAT)

Dec. 9, 2020

An analysis of multiple variants of APT36’s Crimson remote access trojan (RAT), which exfiltrates files and system data and transfers it to its C2 server.

Credential Harvesting Attacks

May 1, 2020

An analysis of the techniques used to craft spear phishing attacks to steal user credentials, and the most effective ways to detect and prevent them. 

APT 10

Jul. 1, 2019

An analysis of Chinese cyber espionage group APT10 including the utilities, malware, and tools and TTPs it uses to steal trade secrets and intellectual property.