The favored textual content and code modifying software program EmEditor was just lately focused in a provide chain assault that resulted within the distribution of infostealer malware.
Developed by Redmond-based Emurasoft, Inc., EmEditor is a high-performance Home windows software designed for coding, textual content modifying, and processing giant recordsdata.
In a safety incident discover posted on the official web site on December 22, the software program’s builders warned that people who had downloaded EmEditor utilizing the ‘obtain now’ button between December 19, 18:39 PT, and December 22, 12:50 PT, could have been served a malicious installer.
“In case you downloaded the installer from the [Download Now] button on the EmEditor homepage throughout this era, it’s potential {that a} totally different file with out our digital signature was downloaded. This can be a conservative estimate, and in actuality the affected interval could have been narrower and restricted to a particular timeframe,” the discover reads.
Primarily based on Emurasoft’s evaluation, the URL behind the ‘Obtain Now’ button was modified to level to a malicious .msi file hosted in a unique location on the EmEditor web site.
The pretend installer had the identical title and was related in dimension to the real installer, however was signed with a certificates belonging to a unique firm.
When run, the malicious installer executed a PowerShell command designed to obtain and execute a file from a pretend EmEditor area.
The Chinese language cybersecurity firm Qianxin has investigated the assault and warned enterprises and authorities organizations concerning the potential menace. The safety agency famous that the editor has a major consumer base in China.
Qianxin’s evaluation confirmed that the malicious .msi file contained a script designed to gather system data, together with recordsdata from the Desktop, Paperwork, and Downloads folders. Information corresponding to VPN configurations, browser data, and credentials for Home windows and functions corresponding to Zoho Mail, Discord, Slack, Groups, Zoom, WinSCP, PuTTY, Telegram, and Steam are additionally collected. Commercial. Scroll to proceed studying.
The safety agency identified that the malware checks the system’s language, and it terminates if it’s set to former Soviet nations or Iran.
Qianxin researchers additionally discovered that when it collects data, the malicious script deploys a browser extension named ‘Google Drive Caching’, which has been described as a fully-featured information-stealing malware.
This malicious extension is used for persistence and allows the attackers to gather system data, browser historical past and bookmarks, and cookies.
As well as, the extension has clipboard hijacking performance that permits it to interchange cryptocurrency addresses with ones owned by the attacker. It’s additionally able to logging keystrokes and stealing Fb advert accounts.
Qianxin has not shared any data on attribution, however its description means that the availability chain assault was performed by profit-driven cybercriminals reasonably than a state-sponsored APT. Nevertheless, the cybersecurity business says the traces between the 2 menace actor classes are more and more blurred.
Indicators of compromise (IoCs) for the EmEditor assault can be found from Qianxin and Emurasoft.
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