#FactCheck -AI-Generated Video Falsely Shows Car Stuck on Delhi–Jaipur Highway Signboard
Executive Summary
A shocking video showing a car hanging from a highway signboard is going viral on social media. The clip allegedly shows a black Mahindra Thar stuck on an overhead direction signboard on the Delhi–Jaipur Highway (NH-48). Social media users are widely sharing the video, claiming it shows a real road accident. However, a research by CyberPeace found the viral claim to be false. Our findings reveal that the circulating video is not real but AI-generated.
Claim
Social media users are sharing the clip as footage of an actual road accident. A viral post on X (formerly Twitter) claims that the incident took place on the Delhi–Jaipur Highway, showing a black Mahindra & Mahindra Thar lodged in a highway signboard.
- https://x.com/SenBaijnath/status/2024098520006029504
- https://archive.ph/cmr5e
Fact Check
On closely examining the viral video, several inconsistencies were observed that are commonly associated with AI-generated content. For instance, it appears highly improbable for a heavy vehicle to get stuck precisely at the center of a signboard at such a height. Despite the scale of the alleged incident, traffic on the highway below continues moving normally without any disruption. Additionally, the text visible on the right side of the signboard appears distorted and unusually written. To further verify the authenticity of the video, we analysed it using the AI detection tool Hive Moderation, which indicated a 99.9% probability that the video was AI-generated.
Another AI image detection tool, WasitAI, also found that the visuals in the viral clip were largely AI-generated.
Conclusion
Based on our research and available evidence, it is clear that the viral video showing a Mahindra Thar hanging from a highway signboard is not real but AI-generated.
Related Blogs
Executive Summary:
The video that allegedly showed cars running into an Indian flag while Pakistan flags flying in the air in Indian states, went viral on social media but it has been established to be misleading. The video posted is neither from Kerala nor Tamil Nadu as claimed, instead from Karachi, Pakistan. There are specific details like the shop's name, Pakistani flags, car’s number plate, geolocation analyses that locate where the video comes from. The false information underscores the importance of verifying information before sharing it.
Claims:
A video circulating on social media shows cars trampling the Indian Tricolour painted on a road, as Pakistani flags are raised in pride, with the incident allegedly taking place in Tamil Nadu or Kerala.
Fact Check:
Upon receiving the post we closely watched the video, and found several signs that indicated the video was from Pakistan but not from any place in India.
We divided the video into keyframes and found a shop name near the road.
We enhanced the image quality to see the shop name clearly.
We can see that it’s written as ‘Sanam’, also we can see Pakistan flags waving on the road. Taking a cue from this we did some keyword searches with the shop name. We found some shops with the name and one of the shop's name ‘Sanam Boutique’ located in Karachi, Pakistan, was found to be similar when analyzed using geospatial Techniques.
We also found a similar structure of the building while geolocating the place with the viral video.
Additional confirmation of the place is the car’s number plate found in the keyframes of the video.
We found a website that shows the details of the number Plate in Karachi, Pakistan.
Upon thorough investigation, it was found that the location in the viral video is from Karachi, Pakistan, but not from Kerala or Tamil Nadu as claimed by different users in Social Media. Hence, the claim made is false and misleading.
Conclusion:
The video circulating on social media, claiming to show cars trampling the Indian Tricolour on a road while Pakistani flags are waved, does not depict an incident in Kerala or Tamil Nadu as claimed. By fact-checking methodologies, it has been confirmed now that the location in the video is actually from Karachi, Pakistan. The misrepresentation shows the importance of verifying the source of any information before sharing it on social media to prevent the spread of false narratives.
- Claim: A video shows cars trampling the Indian Tricolour painted on a road, as Pakistani flags are raised in pride, taking place in Tamil Nadu or Kerala.
- Claimed on: X (Formerly known as Twitter)
- Fact Check: Fake & Misleading
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Overview:
WazirX is the platform for cryptocurrencies, based in India that has been hacked, and it made a loss of more than $230 million in cryptocurrency. This case concerned an unauthorized transaction with a multisignature or multisig, wallet controlled through Liminal’a digital asset management platform. These attacking incidents have thereafter raised more questions on the security of the Cryptocurrency exchanges and efficiency of the existing policies and laws.
Wallet Configuration and Security Measures
This wallet was breached and had a multisig setting meaning that more than one signature was needed to authorize a transaction. Specifically, it had six signatories: five are funded by WazirX and one is funded by Liminal. Every transaction needed the approval of at least three signatories of WazirX, all of whom had addressed security concerns by using Ledger’s hardware wallets; while the Liminal, too, had a signatory, for approval.
To further increase the level of security of the transactions, a whitelisting policy was introduced, only limited addresses were authorized to receive funds. This system was rather vulnerable, and the attackers managed to grasp the discrepancy between the information available through Liminal’s interface and the content of the transaction to seize unauthorized control over the wallet and implement the theft.
Modus Operandi: Attack Mechanics
The cyber attack appears to have been carefully carried out, with preliminary investigations suggesting the following tactics:
- Payload Manipulation: The attackers apparently substituted the transaction’s payload during signing; hence, they can reroute the collected funds into an unrelated wallet.
- Chain Hopping: To make it much harder to track their movements, the attackers split large amounts of money across multiple blockchains and broke tens of thousands of dollars into thousands of transactions involving different cryptocurrencies. This technique makes it difficult to trace people and things.
- Zero Balance Transactions: There were also some instances where it ended up with no Ethereum (ETH) in the balance and such wallets also in use for the purpose of further anonymization of the transactions.
- Analysis of the blockchain data suggested the enemy might have been making the preparations for this attack for several days prior to their attack and involved a high amount of planning.
Actions taken by WazirX:
Following the attack, WazirX implemented a series of immediate actions:
- User Notifications: The users were immediately notified of the occurrence of the breach and the possible risk it posed to them.
- Law Enforcement Engagement: The matters were reported to the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal and specific authorities of which the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In).
- Service Suspension: WazirX had suspended all its trading operations and user deposits’ and withdrawals’ to minimize further cases and investigate.
- Global Outreach: The exchange contacted more than 500 cryptocurrency exchanges and requested to blacklist the wallet’s addresses linked to the theft.
- Bounty Program: A bounty program was announced to encourage people to share information that can enable the authorities to retrieve the stolen money. A maximum of 23 million dollars was placed on the bounty.
Further Investigations
WazirX stated that it has contracted the services of cybersecurity professionals to help in the prosecution process of identifying and compensating for the losses. The exchange is still investigating the forensic data and working with the police for tracking the stolen assets. Nevertheless, the prospects of full recovery may be quite questionable primarily because of complexity of the attack and the methods used by the attackers.
Precautionary measures:
The WazirX cyber attack clearly implies that there is the necessity to improve the security and the regulation of the cryptocurrency industry. As exchanges become increasingly targeted by hackers, there is a pressing need for:
- Stricter Security Protocols: The commitment to technical innovations, such as integration of MFA, as well as constant monitoring of the users’ wallets’ activities.
- Regulatory Oversight: Formalization of the laws that require proper security for the cryptocurrency exchange platforms to safeguard their users as well as their investments.
- Community Awareness: To bypass such predicaments, there is a need to study on emergent techniques in spreading awareness, particularly in cases of scams or phishing attempts that are likely to follow such breaches.
Conclusion:
The cyber attack on WazirX in the field of cryptocurrency market, shows weaknesses and provides valuable lessons for enhancing the security. This attack highlights critical vulnerabilities in cryptocurrency exchanges, even though employing advanced security measures like multisignature wallets and whitelisting policies. The attack's complexity, involving payload manipulation, chain hopping, and zero balance transactions, underscores the attackers' meticulous planning and the challenges in tracing stolen assets. This case brings a strong message regarding the necessity of solid security measures, and constant attention to security in the rapidly growing world of digital assets. Furthermore, the incident highlights the importance of community awareness and education on emerging threats like scams and phishing attempts, which usually follow such breaches. By fostering a culture of vigilance and knowledge, the cryptocurrency community can better defend against future attacks.
Reference:
https://wazirx.com/blog/important-update-cyber-attack-incident-and-measures-to-protect-your-assets/
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/wazirx-cyberattack-in-depth-analysis-jyqxf
Executive Summary:
CVE 2024-3094 is a backdoor vulnerability recently found in Kali Linux installations that happened between March 26th to 29th. This vulnerability was found in XZ package version 5.6.0 to 5.6.1. It could allow the malicious actor to compromise SSHD authentication, and grant unauthorized access to the entire system remotely. The users who have installed or updated Kali Linux during the said time are advised to update their system to safeguard against this vulnerability.
The Dangerous Backdoor
The use of the malicious implant found in XZ Utils as a remote code execution tool makes it more dangerous, because of its ability to compromise the affected systems. Initially, researchers believed the vulnerability enabled an authentication bypass for the OpenSSH server (SSHD) process. However, further analysis revealed it is better characterized as a remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability.
The backdoor intercepts the RSA_public_decrypt function, verifies the host's signature using a fixed Ed448 key, and if successful, executes malicious code passed by the attacker via the system() function. This leaves no trace in SSHD logs and makes it difficult to detect the vulnerability.
Impacted Linux Distributions
The compromised versions of XZ Utils have been found in the following Linux distributions released in March 2024:
- Kali Linux (between March 26 and March 29)
- openSUSE Tumbleweed and openSUSE MicroOS (March 7 to March 28)
- Fedora 41, Fedora Rawhide, and Fedora Linux 40 beta
- Debian (testing, unstable, and experimental distributions only)
- Arch Linux container images (February 29 to March 29)
- Meanwhile, distributions such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), SUSE Linux Enterprise, openSUSE Leap, and Debian Stable are not believed to be affected.
How Did This Happen?
The malicious code appears to have been inserted by taking advantage of a typical control transfer vulnerability. The original maintainer of the XZ Libs project on GitHub handed over control of the repository to an account that had been contributing to various data compression-related projects for several years. It was at this point that the backdoor was implanted in the project code.
Fortunately, the Potential Disaster Was Averted
As per Igor Kuznetsov, head of Kaspersky's Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT), the vulnerability CVE-2024-3094 is considered as the largest scale attack that has happened in the Linux ecosystem history. Because it targeted the primary remote management tool for Linux servers on the internet which is SSH servers.
As this vulnerability was detected in the testing and rolling distributions in the short period of time, where the latest software packages are used. This results to the minimum damage to the linux users and so far no case of CVE-2024-3094 being actively exploited have been detected.
Staying Safe
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) advises that users who installed or updated the affected operating systems in March immediately roll back to XZ Utils 5.4.6 version and be on alert for any malicious activity. It is recommended to change the passwords in the case of a distribution where a weak version of XZ Utils has been installed.
The Yara rule has been released to detect any infected systems by CVE-2024-3094 Vulnerability.
Conclusion
The discovery of the XZ Utils backdoor provides a reminder to be vigilant in the open source software environment. This supply chain attack highlights the importance of strong security measures, elaborate code reviews, and regular distribution of security updates to provide shield against such vulnerabilities. Always staying informed and taking the necessary precautions, Linux users can mitigate the potential impact of this vulnerability to keep their systems safe.
References :
- https://thehackernews.com/2024/03/urgent-secret-backdoor-found-in-xz.html
- https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2024/03/29/cve-2024-3094-linux-backdoor/
- https://www.kali.org/blog/about-the-xz-backdoor/
- https://www.kaspersky.com/blog/cve-2024-3094-vulnerability-backdoor/50873/
- https://www.rapid7.com/blog/post/2024/04/01/etr-backdoored-xz-utils-cve-2024-3094/
