Cyberattacks Surge as Russian Hackers Exploit 2017 Bug and CVE-2024-43451, Deploying Remcos and Spark RATs

A recent surge in cyberattacks has been reported, with a focus on the exploitation of vulnerabilities by Russian-linked threat actors. Researchers from Fortinet identified a new phishing campaign that leverages a high-severity bug from 2017, facilitating the spread of a variant of the Remcos remote access trojan (RAT). Additionally, the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) issued a warning regarding the increasing number of cybercriminals exploiting previously unknown vulnerabilities to infiltrate networks. Another vulnerability, CVE-2024-43451, has also been actively exploited by Russian hackers to deploy the Spark RAT, raising concerns over potential credential theft and significant damage to affected systems. The NCSC's alert underscores the urgency of addressing these security threats as the landscape of cyberattacks evolves.