Heroes, Good morning! Here's a detailed look at the current cybersecurity landscape for Saturday, August 9, 2025.
Today’s most impactful news is the discovery of a backdoor in the TETRA radio encryption standard, affecting critical communications for police, military, and OT environments. This is not a traditional IT threat; it exists in the specialized world of cyber-physical systems. Therefore, we are spotlighting Armis, a leader in asset intelligence and security for IoT, OT, and ICS environments. Their recent acquisition of OT security specialist Otorio, combined with their core competency in identifying and profiling connected devices, makes them uniquely suited to address this specific, emergent threat.
Threat Context: Backdoor in Widely Used Radio Encryption Standard
Platform Focus: Armis Centurion
Summary & Significance: Armis Centurion is designed to discover, classify, and assess the security posture of every connected asset, including specialized radio equipment that uses the TETRA standard. Unlike traditional IT security tools, Armis can passively monitor network traffic (including wireless spectra) to identify these devices, flag them as running a vulnerable protocol, and alert security teams to the risk of eavesdropping, even when the devices can't host a traditional security agent.
Vendor Resources: Armis Centurion Platform Overview
# Note: Software-based detection of TETRA eavesdropping is extremely difficult.
# Mitigation requires physical and operational security.
# 1. Asset Inventory:
# - Immediately identify all devices using the TETRA standard.
# - Use physical surveys and consult with communications/OT teams.
# 2. Risk Assessment:
# - Assume all TETRA communications can be intercepted and decrypted.
# - Cease transmitting highly sensitive info over these channels.
# 3. Vendor Engagement:
# - Contact your radio equipment vendor immediately for information on patches or mitigation plans.
# Hunt for anomalous process execution from Chrome on Linux hosts
# Requires Linux process auditing (e.g., auditd, osquery)
index=linux_logs sourcetype=os:linux:audit (process.parent_name="chrome" OR process.ancestor_list{}=*chrome*)
| where process.uid=0 AND process.parent_uid!=0
| stats count, values(process.name) as processes by host, user
rule TTP_RomCom_Loader_Aug2025 {
meta:
author = "Cybersecurity Rundown"
date = "2025-08-09"
description = "Detects potential RomCom malware loaders seen in campaigns exploiting CVE-2025-8088."
severity = "CRITICAL"
strings:
$s1 = { 8B 45 08 83 F8 01 75 08 } // Common function prologue
$s2 = "winrar.exe" ascii wide
$s3 = "cmd.exe /c" ascii wide
$s4 = "start_thread" fullword ascii
condition:
uint16(0) == 0x5A4D and (2 of ($s*))
}
This rundown should provide a solid overview of the current threat landscape. Thank you to all our cyberheroes for your diligence and hard work. Stay vigilant!