TippingPoint Threat Intelligence and Zero-Day Coverage – Week of June 5, 2017

This week marked the first time an airline misplaced my bags for a significant period of time. Inclement weather forced me to not only change my flight, but also change airlines. Unfortunately, my luggage didn’t get the memo. I dealt with two airlines to find my bags, and I eventually received my...

First-Ever Data Stealing Malware Found Using Intel AMT Tool to Bypass Firewall

It's not hard for a well-funded state-sponsored hacking group to break into corporate networks and compromise systems with malware, but what's challenging for them is to keep that backdoor and its communication undetectable from a firewall and other network monitoring applications. However, a...

How vulnerability research benefits both vendors and customers

Zero-day vulnerabilities - newly discovered exploits that haven't been previously identified - are now emerging more often. Worse still is the fact that these dangerous flaws sometimes aren't pinpointed until hackers have already exploited them. According to a prediction from Cybersecurity Ventur...

TippingPoint Threat Intelligence and Zero-Day Coverage – Week of May 29, 2017

“Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” It’s not exactly clear how Murphy’s Law originated, but it seems to always make an appearance at the one time you can’t afford for anything to go wrong. Your laptop starts to malfunction right as you need to finish a project this happened to yours truly...

ShadowBrokers Put Price on Monthly Zero Day Leaks

The threat posed by the first wave of ShadowBrokers leaks of Equation Group hacking tools was relatively benign. Some vendors had to scramble to patch zero days in older versions of products, but for the most part, the leaks and accompanying auction were more of a novelty. That obviously changed...

Shadow Brokers Launches 0-Day Exploit Subscriptions for $21,000 Per Month

As promised to release more zero-days exploits and hacking tools for various platforms starting from June 2017, the infamous hacking group Shadow Brokers is back with more information on how to subscribe and become a private member for receiving exclusive access to the future leaks. The Shadow...

TippingPoint Threat Intelligence and Zero-Day Coverage – Week of May 22, 2017

For those of you who follow the National Football League NFL, do you remember Super Bowl 47? I wasn’t exactly thrilled about the teams that played since I’m not a 49ers or Ravens fan. What was interesting about the game is that it was halted for over half an hour in the third quarter because of a...

ShadowBrokers Planning Monthly Exploit, Data Dump Service

Popcorn in hand, the ShadowBrokers say they’re taking in the WannaCry outbreak from the sidelines before starting in June a subscription service for new exploits and stolen data akin to a wine of the month club. In what’s become a signature periodic rant from the unknowns behind the leak of...

Shadow Brokers, Who Leaked WannaCry SMB Exploit, Are Back With More 0-Days

The infamous hacking collective Shadow Brokers – the one who leaked the Windows SMB exploit in public that led to last weekend's WannaCrypt menace – are back, this time, to cause more damage. In typically broken English, the Shadow Brokers published a fresh statement with full of frustration a fe...

TippingPoint Threat Intelligence and Zero-Day Coverage – Week of May 8, 2017

Although I’m still dreaming of the sandy beaches of Cancun, it’s time to get back to reality. Security vulnerabilities never take a holiday and this week is no exception. In addition to our normal Digital Vaccine DV package delivered earlier this week, we also issued an out-of-band DV package to...

Microsoft Issues Patches for Another Four Zero-Day Vulnerabilities

As part of this month's Patch Tuesday, Microsoft has released security patches for a total of 55 vulnerabilities across its products, including fixes for four zero-day vulnerabilities being exploited in the wild. Just yesterday, Microsoft released an emergency out-of-band update separately to pat...

Microsoft Plugs Three Zero Day Holes as Part of May Patch Tuesday

Microsoft patched three zero day vulnerabilities actively under attack today as part of its May Patch Tuesday release. Researchers with FireEye who uncovered the three vulnerabilities said the bugs were actively being exploited by threat actors Turla and APT28. Two of the zero day vulnerabilities...

EPS Processing Zero-Days Exploited by Multiple Threat Actors

In 2015, FireEye published details about two attacks exploiting vulnerabilities in Encapsulated PostScript EPS of Microsoft Office. One was a zero-day and one was patched weeks before the attack launched. Recently, FireEye identified three new zero-day vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office products...

EPS Processing Zero-Days Exploited by Multiple Threat Actors

In 2015, FireEye published details about two attacks exploiting vulnerabilities in Encapsulated PostScript EPS of Microsoft Office. One was a zero-day and one was patched weeks before the attack launched. Recently, FireEye identified three new zero-day vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office products...

Wormable Windows Zero Day Reported to Microsoft

Google Project Zero researcher Tavis Ormandy has a long legacy of finding unknown, critical software vulnerabilities to his credit. So when he calls a new bug the worst in recent memory, it’s likely not hyperbole. On Saturday, Ormandy tweeted that he and colleague Natalie Silvanovich has found a...

TippingPoint Threat Intelligence and Zero-Day Coverage – Week of May 1, 2017

As you read this blog, I am probably sitting on a beach in Cancun, Mexico getting a nice tan and not thinking about security well, maybe just a little. A couple of days before I left, I had to deal with the inevitable. It never fails – every time I am about to go on vacation, the urgency of thing...

Unpatched WordPress Password Reset Vulnerability Lingers

A zero-day vulnerability exists in WordPress Core that in some instances could allow an attacker to reset a user’s password and gain access to their account. Researcher Dawid Golunski of Legal Hackers disclosed the vulnerability on Wednesday via his new ExploitBox service. All versions of...

Advantech WebAccess

CVSS v3 7.1 ATTENTION: Remotely exploitable/low skill level to exploit. Vendor: Advantech Equipment: WebAccess Vulnerability: Absolute Path Traversal AFFECTED PRODUCTS The following WebAccess versions are affected: WebAccess Version 8.1 and prior. IMPACT Successful exploitation of this...

TippingPoint Threat Intelligence and Zero-Day Coverage – Week of April 24, 2017

There was a time when a person’s motivation to hack something was for financial reasons or for street cred. But now we’re seeing organizations that have other motivations. Pawn Storm is a cyber-espionage organization whose motives include foreign and domestic espionage, and influence on...

Pawn Storm: The Power of Social Engineering

In our latest report on Pawn Storm a.k.a. APT28, Fancy Bear, Strontium, etc., researchers expose the scope and scale of the cyber espionage group’s attacks but more importantly their cyber tradecraft. Our researchers have observed activity going back seven years targeting government, military,...