New POS Malware Designed To Strike Oracle Systems

The MalumPOS malware is a newly discovered attack tool with the ability to steal payment data from point-of-sale systems running a popular type of Oracle software, Trend Micro threat analyst Jay Yaneza said in a recent blog post.

Its prime target is Oracle’s MICROS platform, which is currently deployed on over 330,000 sites worldwide. The software is widely used in the U.S., especially within the hospitality, food and beverage, and retail industries, putting numerous high-profile companies and their customers at risk.

“In general, POS RAM scrapers like MalumPOS are designed to scrape off credit card data from an infected systems’ RAM. Every time the magnetic stripe of a credit card is swiped, the malware can steal stored data such as the cardholder’s name and account number,” Yaneza explained. “This data can then be exfiltrated and used to physically clone credit cards or, in some cases, commit fraudulent transactions like online purchases.”

According to Yaneza, some of the malware’s notable features include its ability to disguise itself in a system as “the “NVIDIA Display Driver” and sift through POS data to locate pertinent credit card information. One of the more concerning aspects of MalumPOS is that it is configurable by design, meaning cybercriminals can easily tweak the malware to breach any desired POS system.

“MalumPOS is selective in what data it scrapes, using regular expressions to find the valuable information, targeting Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, and Diner’s Club cards,” Finextra reported Tuesday (June 9).

It’s no secret POS malware is found to be a leading cause of many data breaches, but the threat continues to grow. Earlier this year, security researchers found two new families of POS malware that use a single component to seek out card data while another sends the coveted information directly to the cyber thieves.

Just this week major restaurant and retail establishment Eataly warned its customers about a recent malware attack, exposing many of them to the threat of fraudulent charges and identity theft.

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