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As that trend shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon, we can expect this to remain a very lucrative avenue for attackers.

Unlike other cybersecurity threats we’re used to bracing for around the holiday season, unauthorized coin mining attacks can affect shoppers who are up-to-date with security patches and even some running some security protections.

And unlike spam or phishing, these attacks also don’t require any lapse in vigilance by the user: they can happen simply by going to websites users know and trust.

The good news for retailers is that these attacks are wholly preventable.

And for shoppers, the impact of a successful attack is minimal: there are no lasting effects or impact, making it an annoyance at worst. But because of the potential impact on holiday shopping and the ease of attacks, unauthorized coin mining is an attack that retailers need to be aware of and take active steps for prevention this holiday season.

What Is Unauthorized Coin Mining?

The best way to understand the threat of unauthorized coin mining is to first understand its impact.

Unauthorized coin mining is an attack that can cause a user’s system to suddenly and unexpectedly slow down, sometimes significantly, when visiting a website.

In a worst case, the slow-down can be so severe that it can make a website basically unusable.

Obviously, this impact is potentially dire for shoppers and retailers as it directly impacts and harms the online shopping experience.

What causes this impact is when the website the user visits is running “coin miner” code.

“Coin miner” code is code used to “mine” for digital currency like bitcoin.

Mining provides the computing necessary to power the digital currency’s infrastructure.

Mining is also a computationally intensive process, meaning it takes a lot of system resources.

Because of this, people can earn digital currency credit in exchange for the use of their computing resources to power that digital currency’s infrastructure.

There are many kinds of coin mining software.

In this case, we are concerned about coin mining code that’s used on websites.

When the user visits the website, the code runs on their system and “mines” on behalf of others – either the website or someone else.

When this is done with the visitor’s full knowledge and consent, it’s a fair and reasonable exchange.

For instance, there are some websites that now use coin mining as an alternative to digital advertising to generate revenue.

In these cases, the coin mining is authorized; the website informs the user that, while on the site, his or her computing resources will be used to “mine” digital currency, and the site will receive the credits.

While the user will experience a slow-down as the coin mining software is run, it is (or should be) expected, because of the notification, and so done with the site visitor’s consent.

Where this becomes a problem is when coin mining is done without the user’s knowledge and consent.

In this case the coin mining is unauthorized: in essence, it’s an attack against the user’s resources.

How Do Unauthorized Coin Mining Attacks Happen?

Unauthorized coin mining attacks happen very simply: the website the user is visiting has special code on it that performs coin mining operations on the visitor’s computer while they’re on the website.

And, as noted before, this happens without the user’s knowledge or consent.

Because these attacks happen due to code on the website, that code is either there with the site owner’s knowledge and permission or not.

When unauthorized coin mining happens with the site owner’s knowledge and permission, it’s basically a malicious site.

That site’s owner is the attacker.

When we’re talking about online shopping, clearly there’s no threat here to the retailer: they’re the ones doing the attacking.

And for the shopper, it means you’re on an untrustworthy site and so open to all manner of risks beyond just unauthorized coin mining.

The real, significant situation shoppers and retailers need to think about this season is when unauthorized coin mining code is on a site without that site owner’s knowledge and permission.

Here the site itself has been attacked, and the site owners are also victims.

This is an attack against not just shoppers but the retailers operating online shopping sites.

How You Can Prevent Unauthorized Coin Mining Attacks If you’re a shopper, there are three things you can do to protect yourself against unauthorized coin mining attacks this holiday season: If you’re a retailer, preventing unauthorized coin mining attacks comes down to focusing on two tasks, both of which you should be doing anyway: Finally, if you’re a legitimate website that has chosen to implement coin mining to raise funds from your visitors, you can ensure that your visitors don’t think you’re engaged in unauthorized coin mining by doing three things: Conclusion Working to prevent cybercrime threats during the holiday season has become a standard part of what shoppers and retailers do every year.

This year, for the first time in many years, shoppers and retailers are facing a new threat, unauthorized coin mining, driven by the surge in digital currency prices.

While this threat can have a clear, negative impact on retailers and shoppers, the good news is that this threat is easily preventable and poses no lasting harm to consumers.

This is a case where forewarned is forearmed, and that forearming can result in effective prevention. Sign up to receive the latest news, cyber threat intelligence and research from us Please enter your email address!

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This post is also available in: 日本語 (Japanese) Intro

One of the most important “innovations” in malware in the past decade is what’s called a Domain Generation Algorithm (“DGA”)”.

DGA is an automation technique that attackers use to make it harder for defenders to protect against attacks.

While DGA has been in use for over 10 years now, it’s still a potent technique that has been a particular challenge for defenders to counter.

Fortunately, there are emerging technologies now that can better counter DGAs.

What is it?

A Domain Generation Algorithm is a program that is designed to generate domain names in a particular fashion.

Attackers developed DGAs so that malware can quickly generate a list of domains that it can use for the sites that give it instructions and receive information from the malware (usually referred to as “command and control” or C2).

Attackers use DGA so that they can quickly switch the domains that they’re using for the malware attacks.

Attackers do this because security software and vendors act quickly to block and take down malicious domains that malware uses.

Attackers developed DGA specifically to counter these actions.

In the past, attackers would maintain a static list of malicious domains; defenders could easily take that list and start blocking and taking down those sites.

By using an algorithm to build the list of domains, the attackers also make it harder for defenders to know or predict what domains will be used than if they had a simple list of domains.

To get that list of domains that the malware will use, defenders have to decode the algorithm which can be difficult.

Even then, taking down sites that malware using a DGA can be a challenge as defenders have to go through the process of working with ISPs to take down these malicious domains one by one.

Many DGAs are built to use hundreds or even thousands of domains.

And these domains are often up for only limited periods of time.

In this environment blocking and taking down DGA-related domains quickly becomes a game of “whack a mole” that is sometimes futile.

Why should I care, what can it do to me?

DGA by itself can’t harm you.

But it is an important piece that enables modern malware to try and evade security products and countermeasures.

The importance and usefulness of DGA is best shown by the fact that it’s been in regular and constant use since at least 2008.

DGA was a key component in the Conficker attacks in 2008 and 2009 and part of its success.

What can I do about it?

Because DGA is a technique the fuels malware attacks, the things you can do to help prevent malware can also help prevent DGA-fueled malware attacks: In addition, new technologies are being developed that can more directly counter DGA-fueled attacks, particularly for organizations.

In particular, security vendors are bringing automation to bear to counter the attackers’ automation.

New anti-DGA technologies that leverage machine learning and big data are capable of countering DGA’s automation with automated prediction of their own that can anticipate, block, assist with malicious site takedowns or even, in some cases, prevent those malicious sites from being used in the first place.

You can also learn more about these new technologies and look at deploying them as an additional layer of protection.

About: Threat Briefs are meant to help busy people understand real-world threats and how they can prevent them in their lives.

They’re put together by Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 threat research team and are meant for you to read and share with your family, friends, and coworkers so you can all be safer and get on with the business of your digital life. Got a topic you want us to write about for you, your friends, or your family?

Email us at u42comms@paloaltonetworks.com.

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Unit 42 released details about a vulnerability that affects Android devices running operating systems older than 8.0 Oreo.

The vulnerability leaves Android users at risk of falling victim to an Android Toast Overlay attack.

Patches are available that fix this vulnerability, so Android users should get the latest updates as soon as possible.

How it Works

The vulnerability affects the Toast feature on Android devices, an Android feature that allows display messages and notifications of other applications to “pop up,” and allows an attacker to employ an overlay attack.

An overlay attack happens when an attacker places a window over a legitimate application on the device.

Users will interact with the window, thinking they are performing their intended function, but they are actually engaging with the attackers overlay window and executing the attacker’s desired function.

You can see an example of how this would work in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Bogus patch installer overlying malware requesting administrative permissions This interaction can install malware or malicious software on the device, grant malware full administrative privileges or lock the user out and render the device unusable. In the past successful overlay attacks were typically dependent on two conditions: However, with this particular vulnerability, these conditions are no longer required for a successful attack.

This means that attackers can use this vulnerability in apps users get from places other than Google Play.

And when they install these malicious apps, they don’t have to ask for the “draw on top” permission.

How to Defend Against It Keeping devices updated is a general security best practice.

The Android Toast Overlay attack specifically targets outdated devices using versions prior to 8.0.

In order to defend against the Android Toast Overlay attack, update all Android devices to the latest version.

Additionally, avoid downloading malicious applications by only downloading from the Google Play store is another best practice you should always follow.

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This post is also available in: 日本語 (Japanese) Ransomware is one of the top threats in cybersecurity and a focus area for Palo Alto Networks.

In the current threat landscape, ransom payments are rising and organizations are seeking to protect themselves from threat actors.

In the 2021 Unit 42 Ransomware Threat Report, we detailed the observations and the trend of top ransomware families from January 2020-January 2021.

This post supplements that information based on observations from the first three months of 2021, and will discuss the propagation of different ransomware families we observed in the wild and the different types of extortion used.

We hope the information will help readers get a clear picture of current directions in ransomware trends.

In the first quarter (Q1) of 2021, Unit 42 detected 113 different ransomware families in the wild.

Based on the statistical data, the top 15 ransomware families only cover 52.3% of total ransomware cases.

This demonstrates the diversity of ransomware and emphasizes how difficult it is to expand ransomware detection coverage with static profiling.