Threat Source newsletter (Oct. 15, 2020)
Summary: Cisco Talos' Oct. 15, 2020 Threat Source newsletter covers Microsoft's October Patch Tuesday, which disclosed just under 100 vulnerabilities, 14 of them rated critical, and details the Lemon Duck botnet campaign, which uses a Monero cryptocurrency mining payload and spreads via infected RTF email files, psexec, WMI and SMB exploits including Eternal Blue and SMBGhost. The newsletter also announces Talos election security recommendations for local, state and national officials and previews talks on cloud-connected ICS vulnerability research and dual-use tools.
What's compelling: Lemon Duck's use of Eternal Blue and SMBGhost means unpatched Windows 10 systems remain reachable by a miner that also deploys Mimikatz to expand its pool - the same month Microsoft shipped 14 critical fixes among nearly 100 vulnerabilities.
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