A week in security (July 19 – July 25)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Stopransomwaredotgov, a one-stop hub for ransomware resources Beware, crypto-scammer seeks foreigner with BLOCK CHAIN ACCOUNT Remcos RAT delivered via Visual Basic US, EU, UK, NATO blame China for “reckless” exchange attacks HiveNightmare zero-day lets anyone be...

Apple Issues Urgent iPhone Updates; None for Pegasus Zero-Day

iPhone users, drop what you’re doing and update now: Apple has issued a warning about a ream of code-execution vulnerabilities – some of which are remotely exploitable – and experts are emphatically recommending an ASAP update to version 14.7 of iOS and iPadOS. Unfortunately, you aren’t getting a...

Indictments, Attribution Unlikely to Deter Chinese Hacking

The federal government is fighting back against what it says are China-based cyberattacks against U.S. universities and companies with indictments and a “naming-and-shaming” approach — but researchers aren’t convinced the efforts will come to much in terms of deterring future activity. On Monday,...

Researchers: NSO Group’s Pegasus Spyware Should Spark Bans, Apple Accountability

News of a zero-click zero-day in Apple’s iMessage feature being incorporated into the notorious Pegasus mobile spyware from NSO Group has drawn a variety of reactions from the security community, including concerns about the security of Apple’s closed ecosystem, and varying views on NSO Group’s...

US and Global Allies Accuse China of Massive Microsoft Exchange Attack

The U.S. government and its key allies, including the European Union, the U.K., and NATO, formally attributed the massive cyberattack against Microsoft Exchange email servers to state-sponsored hacking crews working affiliated with the People's Republic of China's Ministry of State Security MSS. ...

Leaked NSO Group Data Hints at Widespread Pegasus Spyware Infections

Israeli-based NSO Group is being blasted in a groundbreaking report that alleges that the company’s controversial Pegasus malware is being used to target activists, journalists, business executives and politicians on a widespread level, using a variety of exploits — including a zero-click zero-da...

“Seven or eight” zero-days: The failed race to fix Kaseya VSA, with Victor Gevers, Lock and Code S02E13

Kaseya VSA included at least “seven or eight” privately known zero-day vulnerabilities before it suffered a widespread ransomware attack that impacted hundreds of businesses, said Victor Gevers, chair of the Dutch Institute for Vulnerability Disclosure, or DIVD, a volunteer-run organization that...

Researcher Uncovers Yet Another Unpatched Windows Printer Spooler Vulnerability

Merely days after Microsoft sounded the alarm on an unpatched security vulnerability in the Windows Print Spooler service, possibly yet another zero-day flaw in the same component has come to light, making it the fourth printer-related shortcoming to be discovered in recent weeks. "Microsoft...

Google issues patches for Chrome flaw for Windows, Mac and Linux

By Waqas Along with a patch for a zero-day bug in the Chrome browser, Google has addressed seven other flaws in its recent update. This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: Google issues patches for Chrome flaw for Windows, Mac and Linux...

Episode 125: Critical SQL Injection Vulnerability Patched in WooCommerce

A critical SQL injection vulnerability was discovered in WooCommerce, the most popular e-Commerce plugin used by over 5 million WordPress sites. The WordPress.org team pushed a forced security update ensuring that over 90 versions of WooCommerce were patched. The REvil ransomware gang targeted a...

Windows 0-Days Used Against Dissidents in Israeli Broker’s Spyware

A set of unique spyware strains created by an Israeli firm and allegedly used by governments around the world to surveil dissidents has been defanged by Microsoft, the software giant said. The private company, called variously Candiru, Grindavik, Saito Tech and Taveta and dubbed “Sourgum” by...

Israeli Firm Helped Governments Target Journalists, Activists with 0-Days and Spyware

Two of the zero-day Windows flaws rectified by Microsoft as part of its Patch Tuesday update earlier this week were weaponized by an Israel-based company called Candiru in a series of "precision attacks" to hack more than 100 journalists, academics, activists, and political dissidents globally. T...

Update Your Chrome Browser to Patch New Zero‑Day Bug Exploited in the Wild

Google has pushed out a new security update to Chrome browser for Windows, Mac, and Linux with multiple fixes, including a zero-day that it says is being exploited in the wild. The latest patch resolves a total of eight issues, one of which concerns a type confusion issue in its V8 open-source an...

The SolarWinds Hackers Used an iOS Flaw to Compromise iPhones

Security researchers say the group exploited a zero-day in Apple’s operating system to target European government officials over LinkedIn...

Safari Zero-Day Used in Malicious LinkedIn Campaign

Threat actors used a Safari zero-day flaw to send malicious links to government officials in Western Europe via LinkedIn before researchers from Google discovered and reported the vulnerability. That’s the word from researchers from Google Threat Analysis Group TAG and Google Project Zero, who...

Google Details iOS, Chrome, IE Zero-Day Flaws Exploited Recently in the Wild

Threat intelligence researchers from Google on Wednesday shed more light on four in-the-wild zero-days in Chrome, Safari, and Internet Explorer browsers that were exploited by malicious actors in different campaigns since the start of the year. What's more, three of the four zero-days were...

China Taking Control of Zero-Day Exploits

China is making sure that all newly discovered zero-day exploits are disclosed to the government. Under the new rules, anyone in China who finds a vulnerability must tell the government, which will decide what repairs to make. No information can be given to "overseas organizations or individuals"...

Update Your Windows PCs to Patch 117 New Flaws, Including 9 Zero-Days

Microsoft rolled out Patch Tuesday updates for the month of July with fixes for a total of 117 security vulnerabilities, including nine zero-day flaws, of which four are said to be under active attacks in the wild, potentially enabling an adversary to take control of affected systems. Of the 117...

Chinese Hackers Exploited Latest SolarWinds 0-Day in Targeted Attacks

Microsoft on Tuesday disclosed that the latest string of attacks targeting SolarWinds Serv-U managed file transfer service with a now-patched remote code execution RCE exploit is the handiwork of a Chinese threat actor dubbed "DEV-0322." The revelation comes days after the Texas-based IT monitori...

SolarWinds Issues Hotfix for Zero-Day Flaw Under Active Attack

SolarWinds has issued a hotfix for a zero-day remote code execution RCE vulnerability already under active, yet limited, attack on some of the company’s customers. Microsoft alerted the company about the flaw, which affects its Serv-U Managed File Transfer Server and Serv-U Secured FTP products...