fbpx
Frame-14

Privacy Ninja

        • DATA PROTECTION

        • CYBERSECURITY

        • Penetration Testing

          Secure your network against various threat points. VA starts at only S$1,000, while VAPT starts at S$4,000. With Price Beat Guarantee!

        • API Penetration Testing
        • Enhance your digital security posture with our approach that identifies and addresses vulnerabilities within your API framework, ensuring robust protection against cyber threats targeting your digital interfaces.

        • On-Prem & Cloud Network Penetration Testing
        • Boost your network’s resilience with our assessment that uncovers security gaps, so you can strengthen your defences against sophisticated cyber threats targeting your network

        • Web Penetration Testing
        • Fortify your web presence with our specialised web app penetration testing service, designed to uncover and address vulnerabilities, ensuring your website stands resilient against online threats

        • Mobile Penetration Testing
        • Strengthen your mobile ecosystem’s resilience with our in-depth penetration testing service. From applications to underlying systems, we meticulously probe for vulnerabilities

        • Cyber Hygiene Training
        • Empower your team with essential cybersecurity knowledge, covering the latest vulnerabilities, best practices, and proactive defence strategies

        • Thick Client Penetration Testing
        • Elevate your application’s security with our thorough thick client penetration testing service. From standalone desktop applications to complex client-server systems, we meticulously probe for vulnerabilities to fortify your software against potential cyber threats.

        • Source Code Review
        • Ensure the integrity and security of your codebase with our comprehensive service, meticulously analysing code quality, identifying vulnerabilities, and optimising performance for various types of applications, scripts, plugins, and more

        • Email Spoofing Prevention
        • Check if your organisation’s email is vulnerable to hackers and put a stop to it. Receive your free test today!

        • Email Phishing Excercise
        • Strengthen your defense against email threats via simulated attacks that test and educate your team on spotting malicious emails, reducing breach risks and boosting security.

        • Cyber Essentials Bundle
        • Equip your organisation with essential cyber protection through our packages, featuring quarterly breached accounts monitoring, email phishing campaigns, cyber hygiene training, and more. LAUNCHING SOON.

Fake jQuery Files Infect WordPress Sites With Malware

Fake jQuery Files Infect WordPress Sites With Malware

Security researchers have spotted counterfeit versions of the jQuery Migrate plugin injected on dozens of websites which contains obfuscated code to load malware.

These files are named jquery-migrate.js and jquery-migrate.min.js and present at the exact locations where JavaScript files are normally present on WordPress sites but are in fact malicious.

As of today, over 7.2 million websites use the jQuery Migrate plugin, which explains why attackers would disguise their malware under this popular plugin’s name.

Researchers spot fake jQuery files which are malware

This week security researchers Denis Sinegubko and Adrian Stoian spotted counterfeit jQuery files impersonating the jQuery Migrate plugin on dozens of websites.

To make detection challenging, these malicious files replace the original, legitimate files present at ./wp-includes/js/jquery/ on these websites, which is the directory where WordPress keeps jQuery files.

These files named jquery-migrate.js and jquery-migrate.min.js have obfuscated code further loading a mysterious analytics.js file with malicious code within.

Also Read: Compliance Course Singapore: Spotlight On The 3 Offerings

Although the full scale of this attack is yet to be determined, Sinegubko shared a search query that shows over three dozen pages currently infected with the malicious analytics script.

Contrary to its name, however, the analytics file does not have anything to do with gathering website metrics:

Malicious “analytics.js” contains more obfuscated code
Source: BleepingComputer

BleepingComputer analyzed some of the obfuscated code present in the file.

The code has references to “/wp-admin/user-new.php” which is WordPress administration page for creating new users. Moreover, the code accesses the _wpnonce_create-user variable which WordPress uses to enforce Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) protections.

Generally speaking, being able to obtain or set CSRF tokens would give attackers the ability to make forged requests on behalf of users.

Injecting scripts like these on a WordPress site lets attackers conduct a variety of malicious activities including anything from Magecart scams for credit card skimming to redirecting users to scam sites.

Users may be directed to fake surveys, tech support scams, be asked to subscribe to spam notification or download unwanted browser extensions.

But, more specifically in this case, the checkme() function attempts to redirect the user’s browser window to a malicious URL identified by BleepingComputer.

Particularly, line 15 of the analytics script (shown above) contains an encoded URL with its characters represented as ASCII numbers.

When decoded by BleepingComputer, the URL was identified to be:https://blow.talkingaboutfirms[.]ga/?sid=54745-33-674347-21&cid=378345&pidi=654368&aid=27833

NOTE: Readers are advised out of caution to refrain from navigating to the URL above.

The analytics.js script first redirects the user to this URL, which further takes the user through series of redirects to spam URLs.

Malicious analytics.js file further redirects the user to malicious URLs of prompting the allow notifications
Source: BleepingComputer

In examples seen by BleepingComputer, the pages repeatedly prompted the user to “Allow” browser notifications to verify they were not a robot, or led to fake surveys aimed at collecting user data.

Until the user clicks “Allow,” the redirect sequence keeps hopping them through different domains and webpages showing the user the same message in more creative ways.

Also Read: Considering Enterprise Risk Management Certification Singapore? Here Are 7 Best Outcomes

An example spam survey that the user is led to by this URL is shown below:

Fake survey enticing the user under pretense they have won a Samsung Galaxy S10 smartphone
Source: BleepingComputer

A search for this newly identified URL by BleepingComputer further revealed over two dozen websites which were infected with it.

The network of spam URLs used in the redirect sequence is also vast with multiple domains at play. BleepingComputer has not analyzed each one of these domains yet.

Low VirusTotal detection rate

As seen by BleepingComputer, at the time of writing the malicious analytics.js file in question, and the URL identified by us would fly under the radar of over 90% of antivirus engines, given low VirusTotal detection rates.

Therefore, performing security scans of your websites by relying on signature-based scanning alone may not be sufficient to detect counterfeit code lurking in your WordPress instances. 

Low detection rate for malicious “analytics.js”
Source: VirusTotal

It is not yet known how are these scripts injected or make their way into the webpages of compromised servers.

If your website uses WordPress or popular JavaScript plugins such as jQuery Migrate, it is a good idea to regularly perform thorough security audits and check for anomalies that may indicate signs of malicious activity.

Thanks to Mark Roze from Spyse for providing data on 7.2 million websites running the legitimate jQuery Migrate plugin.

0 Comments

KEEP IN TOUCH

Subscribe to our mailing list to get free tips on Data Protection and Data Privacy updates weekly!

Personal Data Protection

REPORTING DATA BREACH TO PDPC?

We have assisted numerous companies to prepare proper and accurate reports to PDPC to minimise financial penalties.
×

Hello!

Click one of our contacts below to chat on WhatsApp

× Chat with us