Tag Archive for: manipulate

Crooks manipulate GitHub’s search results to distribute malware

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Crooks manipulate GitHub’s search results to distribute malware

Pierluigi Paganini
April 13, 2024

Researchers warn threat actors are manipulating GitHub search results to target developers with persistent malware.

Checkmarx researchers reported that threat actors are manipulating GitHub search results to deliver persistent malware to developers systems.

Attackers behind this campaign create malicious repositories with popular names and topics, they were observed using techniques like automated updates and fake stars to boost search rankings.

“By leveraging GitHub Actions, the attackers automatically update the repositories at a very high frequency by modifying a file, usually called “log”, with the current date and time or just some random small change. This continuous activity artificially boosts the repositories’ visibility, especially for instances where users filter their results by “most recently updated,” increasing the likelihood of unsuspecting users finding and accessing them.” reads the report published by Checkmarx. “While automatic updates help, the attackers combine another technique to amplify the effectiveness of their repo making it to the top results. The attackers employed multiple fake accounts to add bogus stars, creating an illusion of popularity and trustworthiness.”

To evade detection, threat actors concealed the malicious code in Visual Studio project files (.csproj or .vcxproj), it is automatically executed when the project is built.

GitHub malware

The researchers noticed that the payload is delivered based on the victim’s origin, and is not distributed to users in Russia.

In the recent campaign, the threat actors used a sizable, padded executable file that shares similarities with the “Keyzetsu clipper” malware.

The recent malware campaign involves a large, padded executable file that shares similarities with the “Keyzetsu clipper” malware, targeting cryptocurrency wallets.

On April 3rd, the attacker updated the code in one of their repositories, linking to a new URL that downloads a different encrypted .7z file. The archive contained an executable named feedbackAPI.exe.

Threat actors padded the executable with numerous zeros…

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The War for Headspace: NextGen cyberattacks aim to manipulate people’s minds 

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For thousands of years, the only two domains of war were land and sea. Nations fought battles with rudimentary weapons that were blunt, inaccurate or massive (siege weapons).

It was in World War I that a new domain – air – was added. Forty-three years later, in April 1961, space became the fourth domain when the Soviet Union launched Vostok 1 and Yuri Gagarin.

It would take another 50 years to add the next domain. In 2011, the United States Department of Defense officially incorporated cyberspace as the fifth domain of war. The advance of technology brought the ability to wage war and terrorism to our front door.

But it’s the next domain where future wars will begin. It’s a domain not constrained to a single geography, nation, or political party. This domain gets shaped throughout a lifetime, augmented by rapid technological change, and fueled by recent developments in generative AI.

The next domain is headspace. It’s where countries will wage the war for the mind. And someone will win before the first shots get fired. In this war, shaping the narrative will be as crucial as shaping the battlefield is to military planners. The ability to influence perception will become more valuable than the ability to tell the truth.

Disinformation has emerged as a new kind of warfare. Adversaries are leveraging it to erode truth and influence people to think and act in ways they might not have conceptualized. They are fueling Intimidation of those voicing opinions. And online violence has spilled over into real-world violence on a global scale.

The nature of the threat and the vectors of attacks are no longer just about ones and zeros. It’s evolving to the manipulation of perception to achieve a goal. It’s so vital to national security the Pentagon was exploring the ability to counter opinion and influence actions three months after 9-11.

Originally called the Office of Strategic Influence, it was a short-lived program that never got traction, especially after allegations of planting news stories, including false ones, around the globe.

Deceptions like these are not new tactics. During the Cold War, the ability to manipulate, influence, deceive, coerce and persuade the press was a staple,…

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How to manipulate Apple’s podcast charts, and get yourself a top-rated show

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How to manipulate Apple's podcast charts

Unpopular podcasts are manipulating Apple Podcasts to artificially inflate their ranking, and get themselves a coveted place towards the top of the charts.

Graham Cluley