Playbook for the Secure Enterprise

CyberSecurity Latest Rundown

Heroes, it's safe to keep your white hats on after Labor Day. Encouraged, even. Here's a detailed look at the current cybersecurity landscape for September 2, 2025.

HIGH SEVERITY ITEMS

• Amazon Disrupts Hacking Campaign by Russian APT Midnight Blizzard (APT29)

  Date & Time: 2025-09-02T12:12:12Z

  Amazon has taken action to disrupt a phishing campaign conducted by the Russian state-sponsored group Midnight Blizzard, also known as APT29 or Cozy Bear. The threat actor used compromised websites to redirect victims and trick them into granting device authorization on their Microsoft accounts. This action highlights the ongoing collaboration between cloud providers and threat intelligence groups to counter sophisticated nation-state threats.

  CVE Details: n/a

  Source: securityweek.com

EXECUTIVE INSIGHTS

• Radical Candor in Security: Lessons from BSidesSF 2025

  Date & Time: 2025-09-02T15:00:00Z

  This analysis from BSides San Francisco 2025 explores applying the 'Radical Candor' management philosophy to cybersecurity organizations. The approach advocates for direct, empathetic communication to build trust and improve team effectiveness, a crucial element for high-stress environments like a Security Operations Center (SOC). Leaders can use these principles to foster a more resilient and collaborative security culture.

  Source: securityboulevard.com

• Strategic Decision: Agentless vs. Agent-Based Cloud Asset Discovery

  Date & Time: 2025-09-02T06:22:41Z

  For leaders managing dynamic cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP), the choice between agent-based and agentless asset discovery is a key strategic decision. Agentless methods offer broad, rapid visibility with lower overhead, while agent-based solutions provide deeper, real-time data at the cost of deployment complexity. Understanding this trade-off is essential for achieving comprehensive cloud security posture management without hindering operational agility.

  Source: kratikal.com

• The Importance of Non-Human Identity (NHI) Lifecycle Management

  Date & Time: 2025-09-01T21:00:00Z

  Managing the lifecycle of non-human identities—such as API keys, service accounts, and machine tokens—is a critical but often overlooked aspect of modern cybersecurity. Unmanaged or poorly secured NHIs represent a significant attack surface for lateral movement and privilege escalation. Establishing a formal lifecycle management program is crucial for reducing risk in automated and cloud-native environments.

  Source: entro.security

VENDOR SPOTLIGHT

• Spotlight Rationale: Cloudflare is selected for its direct and successful mitigation of the record-breaking 11.5 Tbps DDoS attack reported today. This event underscores the critical importance of specialized, at-scale DDoS protection services in the current threat landscape.

  Threat Context: Cloudflare Mitigates Record-Breaking 11.5 Tbps DDoS Attack

  Platform Focus: Cloudflare - DDoS Mitigation and Web Application Security

  Cloudflare's globally distributed network is designed to absorb and neutralize massive volumetric attacks far from the intended target's infrastructure. By leveraging its vast capacity and automated mitigation systems, it can filter malicious traffic like the recent UDP flood while allowing legitimate user traffic to pass through uninterrupted. This capability is essential for any organization that relies on internet-facing services for its operations.

  Actionable Platform Guidance: Organizations using Cloudflare should review and implement layered defense strategies. This includes pre-configuring WAF rules to block common attack vectors, setting up aggressive rate-limiting rules for sensitive endpoints, and ensuring the "I'm Under Attack" mode is understood and can be activated quickly by the security team during an incident.

  Source: securityaffairs.com, securityweek.com

DETECTION & RESPONSE KIT

• ⚠️ Disclaimer: Test all detection logic in non-production environments before deployment.

  1. Vendor Platform Configuration - Cloudflare

  [copy]

  # Cloudflare DDoS & WAF Hardening Steps
  
  # 1. Enable "I'm Under Attack" Mode (During an active attack)
  #    - Navigate to: Firewall > Settings
  #    - Set Security Level to "I'm Under Attack"
  #    - This will present a JavaScript challenge to all visitors, blocking most bots.
  
  # 2. Configure Rate Limiting Rules (Proactive defense)
  #    - Navigate to: Firewall > Tools > Rate Limiting
  #    - Create a rule for sensitive paths (e.g., /login, /api/*)
  #    - Example: If requests to /login/api from one IP > 10 in 1 minute, then Block for 15 minutes.
  
  # 3. Create a WAF Custom Rule to Block UDP Floods (If applicable at Layer 7)
  #    - Navigate to: Firewall > WAF > Create rule
  #    - Rule Name: Block_Suspected_UDP_Reflection_Traffic
  #    - Field: (http.request.full_uri) | Operator: contains | Value: "suspicious_pattern"
  #    - Action: Block
  #    - Note: Most UDP flood mitigation is automatic at Layers 3/4.
  
  # 4. Verification:
  #    - Monitor Firewall Analytics for blocked requests and rate-limited IPs.
  #    - Ensure legitimate services are not impacted by new rules.

  2. YARA Rule for ValleyRAT Loader (Conceptual)

  [copy]

  rule Detect_ValleyRAT_Loader_BYOVD {
  meta:
  description = "Detects potential artifacts associated with the ValleyRAT malware loader used in BYOVD attacks by Silver Fox."
  author = "Threat Rundown"
  date = "2025-09-02"
  reference = "https://thehackernews.com/2025/09/silver-fox-exploits-microsoft-signed.html"
  strings:
  $s1 = "ValleyRAT" ascii wide
  $s2 = "WatchDog.sys" ascii wide // Associated vulnerable driver
  $s3 = { 6A 00 6A 01 6A 02 E8 ?? ?? ?? ?? 83 C4 0C } // Example function prologue pattern
  condition:
  uint16(0) == 0x5A4D and (1 of ($s*))
  }

  3. SIEM Query — UDP Flood Anomaly Detection

  [copy]

  // Splunk SPL Example
  index=firewall OR index=netflow (protocol=udp OR transport=udp)
  | stats dc(src_ip) as source_ip_count, sum(bytes) as total_bytes by dest_ip, dest_port
  | where source_ip_count > 1000 AND total_bytes > 1073741824 // Thresholds: >1000 source IPs and >1GB of traffic in search window
  | sort - total_bytes
  | `comment("This query identifies potential UDP flood targets by looking for an abnormally high number of unique source IPs and total bytes sent to a single destination IP/port.")`

  4. PowerShell Script — Scan for Vulnerable WatchDog Driver

  [copy]

  <#
  .SYNOPSIS
  Scans a list of computers for the presence of the known vulnerable WatchDog driver associated with the Silver Fox BYOVD attack.
  .DESCRIPTION
  Queries the Win32_SystemDriver WMI class to check if the driver service is present and reports its status.
  #>
  
  $vulnerableDriver = "WatchDog"
  $computers = "localhost" # Add remote computers: "SERVER01", "WKSTN05"
  
  Write-Host "[*] Starting scan for vulnerable driver: $vulnerableDriver"
  
  foreach ($computer in $computers) {
  if (Test-Connection -ComputerName $computer -Count 1 -Quiet) {
  try {
  $driver = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_SystemDriver -ComputerName $computer -Filter "Name = '$vulnerableDriver'" -ErrorAction Stop
  if ($driver) {
  Write-Host "[!] VULNERABLE DRIVER FOUND on $computer"
  $driver | Format-List Name, DisplayName, State, PathName
  } else {
  Write-Host "[-] Vulnerable driver not found on $computer."
  }
  } catch {
  Write-Warning "Could not query WMI on $computer. Error: $_"
  }
  } else {
  Write-Warning "Could not connect to $computer."
  }
  }
  
  Write-Host "[*] Scan complete."

  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!