As a cybersecurity analyst, you are tasked with investigating a data breach targeting your organization’s Openfire messaging server.
Attackers have exploited a vulnerability in the server, compromising sensitive communications and potentially exposing critical data.
Today, we dive into a host-based forensics investigation − a curious case of a breach inside the enterprise environment of a company called TechSynergy.
They have detected an anomaly after an employee engaged with an unexpected email attachment. This triggered a series of covert operations within the network, including unusual account activity and system alterations.
LLMs are powerful. And expensive. Every token counts, and if you’re building something that uses an LLM API (Claude, OpenAI, Gemini or PaLM, Mistral, etc.), malicious users can abuse it to burn through your credits. This is especially true for apps that take user input and feed it to the model. The trick is that […]
Today we’re looking at the XLMRat malware. It is a remote access trojan (hence the RAT part) built to be small, sneaky, and stupidly persistent. It typically rides in via phishing or social engineering, often disguised as something mundane, like a JPG or TXT file. It targets Windows systems and speaks fluent PowerShell. It’s popular […]
Today we’re looking at the BlueSky ransomware, a strain of malicious software that encrypts files on a victim’s system, rendering them inaccessible until a ransom is paid. First detected in June 2022, it shares similarities with other notorious ransomware families like Conti and Babuk. BlueSky spreads through methods such as phishing emails, malicious links, and network […]
In this blog post, we’ll walk through a Blue Team lab challenge hosted by CyberDefenders, specifically investigating a breach scenario involving DanaBot malware. The challenge is presented by CyberDefenders (https://cyberdefenders.org) and can be found here: https://cyberdefenders.org/blueteam-ctf-challenges/danabot. Note: This post is not sponsored by or affiliated with CyberDefenders. Initially, I knew very little about DanaBot. Turns out […]
When most of us hear “NIST guidelines”, our first reaction might be “another boring PDF I’ll never open again“. My first encounter with NIST Special Publication 800-190 happened when I was studying for the GIAC GCSA exam, which is focused on DevSecOps and container security. The SP 800-190 is refreshingly different. It isn’t just another […]
As a long-term fan of Yubikeys, I quickly got curious about this relatively new concept called “passkeys“. Big companies like Apple, Amazon, and Mastercard are nudging their users to adopt passkeys and use them instead of passwords. The “instead of passwords” part really got me curious! Since forever, passwords have been a part of our […]
Picture this: your software application is running smoothly in production, serving thousands of users. Then, you hear about a new critical vulnerability affecting open-source libraries, and panic sets in. Is your application exposed? If so, which part is at risk? Without a clear map of your software’s components, answering these questions can feel like searching […]
Introducing a Security Awareness program is becoming increasingly important for organizations as the cybersecurity landscape changes rapidly. This undertaking becomes even more challenging if the security team is new to the organization and operates on a limited budget. In this blog post, I share my experience implementing a security awareness program enriched by extensive research […]