Category Archives: Threat Research

X-Force Identifies Vulnerability in IoT Platform

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The last decade has seen an explosion of IoT devices across a multitude of industries. With that rise has come the need for centralized systems to perform data collection and device management, commonly called IoT Platforms. One such platform, ThingsBoard, was the recent subject of research by IBM Security X-Force. While there has been a […]

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X-Force Prevents Zero Day from Going Anywhere

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This blog was made possible through contributions from Fred Chidsey and Joseph Lozowski. The X-Force Vulnerability and Exploit Database shows that the number of zero days being released each year is on the rise, but X-Force has observed that only a few of these zero days are rapidly adopted by cyber criminals each year. While […]

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Patch Tuesday -> Exploit Wednesday: Pwning Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock (afd.sys) in 24 Hours

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‘Patch Tuesday, Exploit Wednesday’ is an old hacker adage that refers to the weaponization of vulnerabilities the day after monthly security patches become publicly available. As security improves and exploit mitigations become more sophisticated, the amount of research and development required to craft a weaponized exploit has increased. This is especially relevant for memory corruption […]

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When the Absence of Noise Becomes Signal: Defensive Considerations for Lazarus FudModule

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In February 2023, X-Force posted a blog entitled “Direct Kernel Object Manipulation (DKOM) Attacks on ETW Providers” that details the capabilities of a sample attributed to the Lazarus group leveraged to impair visibility of the malware’s operations. This blog will not rehash analysis of the Lazarus malware sample or Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) as […]

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Defining the Cobalt Strike Reflective Loader

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The Challenge with Using Cobalt Strike for Advanced Red Team Exercises While next-generation AI and machine-learning components of security solutions continue to enhance behavioral-based detection capabilities, at their core many still rely on signature-based detections. Cobalt Strike being a popular red team Command and Control (C2) framework used by both threat actors and red teams […]

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Backdoor Deployment and Ransomware: Top Threats Identified in X-Force Threat Intelligence Index 2023

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Deployment of backdoors was the number one action on objective taken by threat actors last year, according to the 2023 IBM Security X-Force Threat Intelligence Index — a comprehensive analysis of our research data collected throughout the year. Backdoor access is now among the hottest commodities on the dark web and can sell for thousands […]

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Direct Kernel Object Manipulation (DKOM) Attacks on ETW Providers

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Overview In this post, IBM Security X-Force Red offensive hackers analyze how attackers, with elevated privileges, can use their access to stage Windows Kernel post-exploitation capabilities. Over the last few years, public accounts have increasingly shown that less sophisticated attackers are using this technique to achieve their objectives. It is therefore important that we put […]

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Dissecting and Exploiting TCP/IP RCE Vulnerability “EvilESP”

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September’s Patch Tuesday unveiled a critical remote vulnerability in tcpip.sys, CVE-2022-34718. The advisory from Microsoft reads: “An unauthenticated attacker could send a specially crafted IPv6 packet to a Windows node where IPsec is enabled, which could enable a remote code execution exploitation on that machine.” Pure remote vulnerabilities usually yield a lot of interest, but […]

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Self-Checkout This Discord C2

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In November 2022, during an incident investigation involving a self-checkout point-of-sale (POS) system in Europe, IBM Security X-Force identified a novel technique employed by an attacker to introduce a command and control (C2) channel built upon Discord channel messages. Discord is a chat, voice, and video service enabling users to join and create communities associated […]

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A View Into Web(View) Attacks in Android

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James Kilner contributed to the technical editing of this blog. Nethanella Messer, Segev Fogel, Or Ben Nun and Liran Tiebloom contributed to the blog. Although in the PC realm it is common to see financial malware used in web attacks to commit fraud, in Android-based financial malware this is a new trend. Traditionally, financial malware […]

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