Better Security, Together

Amid a significant resurgence, both Bumblebee and Latrodectus malware have adopted advanced phishing techniques, leveraging multi-stage infection chains and fileless strategies to evade traditional security measures and establish persistence. These malware families increasingly exploit cloud infrastructure, which further complicates detection and response efforts within affected organizations.

Bumblebee, functioning as a loader malware, now employs a “fileless” infection technique, deploying LNK files and PowerShell commands within ZIP archives attached to phishing emails. This approach enables in-memory code execution, bypassing file-based detection mechanisms. Additionally, it leverages LOLBins (Living-Off-the-Land Binaries) to execute malicious tasks through trusted applications, making detection even more challenging and boosting its persistence on compromised systems.

Latrodectus, also known as “Black Widow,” uses DocuSign-themed phishing emails embedded with JavaScript, triggering the download of malicious DLL files. Once infiltrated, Latrodectus utilizes dynamic API calls, encrypted C2 communication, and anti-debugging mechanisms to obfuscate its presence and sustain persistence. Furthermore, it integrates cloud services, such as Microsoft Azure, to host payloads and coordinate infection, complicating incident response due to its decentralized and stealthy infrastructure.

Fortinet has confirmed a critical security vulnerability affecting FortiManager, tracked as CVE-2024-47575 (CVSS score: 9.8), commonly referred to as FortiJump, which has been exploited in zero-day attacks. This flaw arises from a missing authentication issue in the FortiGate to FortiManager (FGFM) protocol, potentially allowing remote, unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary code or commands via specially crafted requests.

The vulnerability impacts FortiManager versions 7.x and 6.x, as well as FortiManager Cloud versions 7.x and 6.x. It also affects several older FortiAnalyzer models (1000E, 1000F, 2000E, 3000E, 3000F, 3000G, 3500E, 3500F, 3500G, 3700F, 3700G, and 3900E) that have the FGFM service enabled and are configured to allow communication with FortiManager. Reports indicate that this vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild. However, there is currently no evidence that it has been used to deploy malware or backdoors on affected systems.