An ongoing social engineering campaign is targeting software developers with bogus npm packages under the guise of a job interview to trick them into downloading a Python backdoor. Cybersecurity firm Securonix is tracking the activity under the name DEV#POPPER, linking it to North Korean threat actors.
Hackers Exploiting WP-Automatic Plugin Bug to Create Admin Accounts on WordPress Sites
Threat actors are attempting to actively exploit a critical security flaw in the ValvePress Automatic plugin for WordPress that could allow site takeovers. The shortcoming, tracked as CVE-2024-27956, carries a CVSS score of 9.9 out of a maximum of 10. It impacts all versions of the plugin prior to 3.92.0. The issue has been resolved in version 3.92.1 released on February 27, 2024, although the release notes make no mention of it. “This vulnerability, a SQL injection (SQLi) flaw, poses a severe threat as attackers can exploit it to gain unauthorized access to websites, create admin‑level user accounts, upload malicious files, and potentially take full control of affected sites,” WPScan said in an alert this week. According to the Automattic-owned company, the issue is rooted in the plugin’s user authentication mechanism, which can be trivially circumvented to execute arbitrary SQL queries against the database by means of specially crafted requests. In the attacks observed so far, CVE-2024-27956 is being used to unauthorized database queries and create new admin accounts on susceptible WordPress sites (e.g., names starting with “xtw”), which could then be leveraged for follow-on post-exploitation actions. This includes installing plugins that make it possible to upload files or edit code, indicating attempts to repurpose the infected sites as stagers. “Once a WordPress site is compromised, attackers ensure the longevity of their access by creating backdoors and obfuscating the code,” WPScan said. “To evade detection and maintain access, attackers may also rename the vulnerable WP‑Automatic file, making it difficult for website owners or security tools to identify or block the issue.” The file in question is “/wp‑content/plugins/wp‑automatic/inc/csv.php,” which is renamed to something like “/wp‑content/plugins/wp‑automatic/inc/csv65f82ab408b3.php.” That said, it’s possible that the threat actors are doing so in an attempt to prevent other attackers from exploiting the sites already under their control. CVE-2024-27956 was publicly disclosed by WordPress security firm Patchstack on March 13, 2024. Since then, more than 5.5 million attack attempts to weaponize the flaw have been detected in the wild. The disclosure comes as severe bugs have been disclosed in plugins like Email Subscribers by Icegram Express (CVE-2024-2876, CVSS score: 9.8), Forminator (CVE-2024-28890, CVSS score: 9.8), and User Registration (CVE-2024-2417, CVSS score: 8.8) that could be used to extract sensitive data like password hashes from the database, upload arbitrary files, and grant an authenticator user admin privileges. Patchstack has also warned of an unpatched issue in the Poll Maker plugin (CVE-2024-32514, CVSS score: 9.9) that allows for authenticated attackers, with subscriber-level access and above, to upload arbitrary files on the affected site’s server, leading to remote code execution. (The story was updated after publication to correct the plugin versions impacted by CVE-20
North Korea’s Lazarus Group Deploys New Kaolin RAT via Fake Job Lures
The North Korea-linked threat actor known as Lazarus Group employed its time-tested fabricated job lures to deliver a new remote access trojan called Kaolin RAT as part of attacks targeting specific individuals in the Asia region in summer 2023.
Major Security Flaws Expose Keystrokes of Over 1 Billion Chinese Keyboard App Users
Security vulnerabilities uncovered in cloud-based pinyin keyboard apps could be exploited to reveal users’ keystrokes to nefarious actors. The findings come from the Citizen Lab, which discovered weaknesses in eight of nine apps from vendors like Baidu, Honor, iFlytek, OPPO, Samsung, Tencent, Vivo, and Xiaomi. The only vendor whose keyboard app did not have any security shortcomings is that of Huawei’s.