The February 2023 Patch Tuesday Security Update Review

Microsoft and Adobe have released several monthly security fixes and updates for their products. Let’s take a look at the highlights of this month’s Patch Tuesday as we review and discuss the security updates. Microsoft Patches for February 2023 Microsoft has patched 79 vulnerabilities this month...

Don’t forget about risk remediation of your macOS assets

Employees love for Macs has propelled tremendous growth for Apple. According to a recent study by Parallels, 55% of businesses use Mac devices themselves or explicitly approve of their use within the company. It is hard to believe Macs have been around for almost 4 decades. Largely introduced to...

Real-Time Defense of Multi-Cloud Environments From Malicious Attacks and Threats

Organizations today cannot detect real-time threats at runtime due to the multi-cloud infrastructure, resulting in the possibility of malicious actors exploiting the environment. It is imperative for the modern organization to have a solution to detect advanced run-time threats in real-time to...

Announcing General Availability of Qualys TotalCloud

Qualys TotalCloud is a CNAPP solution based on Qualys Cloud Platform that provides multi-cloud vulnerability detection and misconfiguration response, and today we are pleased to announce that TotalCloud is now generally available. TotalCloud Home Page Unified View of Multi-Cloud Risk Posture...

Blind SQL Injection – Content-Based, Time-Based Approaches

Blind SQL Injection Overview Blind SQL InjectionBSQL is a type of SQL Injection SQLI vulnerability, where an attacker exploits the application to extract information from the database. An application vulnerable to SQLI displays application-specific information in the response when it is exploited...

Introducing Enterprise TruRisk Management from Qualys

Since the release of Qualys VMDR 2.0 with TruRisk last year, our customers have quickly adopted it to perform cyber risk assessments across the entire enterprise. With detail-rich cyber risk visualization, customers can now pinpoint the areas of their business exposed to elevated levels of cyber...

Launching Qualys Cloud Threat Database

We are proud to announce the release of the Qualys Cloud Threat Database which correlates more than 25 different threat intelligence feeds into a single source for all Qualys products to leverage. This comprehensive vulnerability and threat intelligence database pulls from trusted sources such as...

Ransomware Targets Outdated VMware ESXi Hypervisors: Protect Your Systems Now!

Updated on February 8, 2023 at 2:40 PM Pacific Standard Time: This article has been updated with EVALUATE Vendor-Suggested Mitigation with Policy Compliance PC Updated on February 7, 2023 at 9:05 PM Pacific Standard Time: This article has been updated with the latest information on the...

macOS Patching Is Here!

In the past few years, many of our customers have seen a sharp increase in the number of Mac devices introduced to their environment. All those new Mac devices introduce new vulnerabilities that must be remediated. To keep up with the new volume of vulnerabilities, organizations had to opt-in, bu...

Is your FIM Solution Cost and Time Efficient?

Virtually every security professional and corporate executive is painfully aware of recent escalations in cybersecurity threats. No one wants to be a headline or get hit with the typical $4.5 million price tag to remediate an incident IBM Study. Almost every security team will agree that file...

CVE-2023-25136: Pre-Auth Double Free Vulnerability in OpenSSH Server 9.1

OpenSSH, the widely used open-source implementation of the Secure Shell SSH protocol, recently released version 9.2 on 2023-02-02 to address a pre-authentication vulnerability in the OpenSSH server version 9.1. This specific version of the OpenSSH server, which was released in October 2022, was...

Why FedRAMP High Authorization Can Ensure High Cybersecurity Maturity

The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program FedRAMP is a U.S. government initiative that promotes the adoption of secure cloud services across the U.S. federal government by providing a standardized approach to security and risk assessment for cloud technologies. FedRAMP reduces...

Managing Security Configuration Risk with the Most Comprehensive Configuration Compliance Solution!

Qualys leads the industry with 850 policies, 19000 controls, 350 technologies, and 100 frameworks Remote and hybrid work, digital transformation, and customer experience initiatives require rapid and continuous technology additions and changes. This requires continual additions of and deployments...

The January 2023 Oracle Critical Patch Update

This Oracle Critical Patch Update contains a group of patches for multiple security vulnerabilities that address 327 new security patches. Some of the vulnerabilities addressed this month impact various products. These patches address vulnerabilities in Oracle code and in third-party components...

Detection of Vulnerabilities in JavaScript Libraries

JavaScript is a popular programming language which is an integral component while developing interactive and dynamic web applications. It allows developers to create engaging and responsive user interfaces, handling complex web page elements, enhancing the overall functionality of the application...

The January 2023 Patch Tuesday Security Update Review

As we enter the first second Tuesday of the year, it is noteworthy that both Microsoft and Adobe have released their latest security updates and fixes. We invite you to join us as we review and discuss the particulars of these essential security patches. Microsoft Patches for January 2023 Microso...

Driving CISA Compliance with Qualys

How CyberSecurity Asset Management with External Attack Surface Management Improves Compliance for the Protection of National Infrastructure Since 2018, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA of the U.S. government has focused on reducing risk and building resilience to cyber a...

Implement Risk-Based Vulnerability Management with Qualys TruRisk™: Part 3

In this final blog of the series, we will discuss the importance of implementing effective risk-based remediation strategies to reduce the risk of vulnerabilities being exploited in your environment. In the earlier blogs, we covered how to operationalize Qualys TruRisk and to effectively visualiz...

BitRAT Now Sharing Sensitive Bank Data as a Lure

Introduction In June of 2022 Qualys Threat Research Unit TRU wrote an in-depth report on Redline, a commercial off the shelf infostealer that spreads via fake cracked software hosted on Discord’s content delivery network. Since then, we have continued to track similar threats to identify their...

Qualys Threat Research Unit: Threat Thursdays, December 2022

Welcome to the fourth edition of the Qualys Threat Research Unit’s TRU “Threat Research Thursday”, where we collect and curate notable new tools, techniques, procedures, threat intelligence, cybersecurity news, malware attacks, and more. This also happens to be the last edition for the year...

Implement Risk-Based Vulnerability Management with Qualys TruRisk™ : Part 2

This blog is a continuation of our first blog on implementing risk-based vulnerability management with Qualys TruRiskTM. In the first blog, we covered how to correctly tag and categorize assets for accurate risk assessment. Now that you have properly tagged your assets, Qualys TruRiskTM will...

The December 2022 Patch Tuesday Security Update Review

Welcome to the final second Tuesday of the year. As expected, Microsoft and Adobe have released their latest security updates and fixes. Take a break from your holiday preparations and join us as we review the details of the latest security patches. Microsoft Patches for December 2022 In this...

Dissecting the Empire C2 Framework

Introduction In this blog we will be taking a quick dive into Empire, a popular open-source post-exploitation framework. Empire provides an adversary with the capability to expand his foothold in a victim’s environment by leveraging hundreds of modules, RATs in multiple languages and stealthy C2...

Implement Risk-Based Vulnerability Management with Qualys TruRisk™ : Part 1

For today’s CISOs, managing cyber risk is Job 1 priority, and it’s a full-time concern. Security practitioners are spending a considerable amount of time responding to cybersecurity threats and finding ways to reduce risk from threats that are unknown. Earlier this year Qualys introduced Qualys...

The 9th Google Chrome Zero-Day Threat this Year – Again Just Before the Weekend

Google has released yet another security update for the Chrome desktop web browser to address a high-severity vulnerability that is being exploited in the wild. This is the ninth Chrome zero-day fixed this year by Google. This security bug CVE-2022-4262; QID 377804 is a Type Confusion vulnerabili...

Identify Server-Side Attacks Using Qualys Periscope

Qualys previously announced the introduction of Qualys Periscope in 2020. This technology allows Qualys Web Application Scanning WAS to detect out-of-band vulnerabilities such as server-side request forgery SSRF. Qualys Periscope provides confirmed detections for additional vulnerabilities, such ...

Effective Vulnerability Management with Stakeholder Specific Vulnerability Categorization (SSVC) and Qualys TruRisk

Security stakeholders across the globe have long relied on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System CVSS to prioritize vulnerabilities and assess their risk posture. The reason why the CVSS has become the standard for many security and vulnerability management teams alike is that this method is ea...

Snapd Race Condition Vulnerability in snap-confine’s must_mkdir_and_open_with_perms() (CVE-2022-3328)

The Qualys Threat Research Unit TRU has discovered a new vulnerability in snap-confine function on Linux operating systems, a SUID-root program installed by default on Ubuntu. Qualys recommends that security teams apply the patch for this vulnerability as soon as possible. In February 2022, Qualy...

Qualys Broadens Security Offerings for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure

As organizations increase their use of public cloud platforms, they encounter cloud-specific security and compliance threats, which can be challenging to address without the right tools and processes. Organizations’ cloud security difficulties lie in two main areas: Lack of visibility into their...

Don’t Spend Your Holiday Season Patching Chrome

As we come back from our Thanksgiving holidays, Google has released yet another security update for the Chrome desktop web browser to address a high-severity vulnerability that exists in the wild. This is the eighth Chrome zero-day fixed this year by Google. This security bug CVE-2022-4135; QID...

Ease Your Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Journey With Qualys

The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification CMMC is a cybersecurity training, certification, and assessment program from the United States Department of Defense DoD. CMMC is designed to provide increased assurance to the DoD that a contractor can adequately protect controlled unclassified...

QSC 2022: That’s a Wrap!

Over the years, the threat landscape has exploded, and bad actors have become increasingly sophisticated, making the demand for cloud security platforms - that save security teams time and increase efficiency - a must-have for every cyber arsenal. This was underscored last week at QSC 2022 Las...

QSC 2022: Listening to the Voice of the Customer

It would be redundant to state that today’s threat landscape is growing increasingly sophisticated and erratic. With all types of attacks becoming “commonplace,” the baseline for normal is abnormal. Bad actors are taking advantage of whatever attack vector they can whether that is a phishing...

QSC 2022: Qualys’ Threat Research Unit (TRU) – Our Shield Is Your Shield

Day two of QSC profiled the special launch of the Qualys Threat Research Unit, TRU. Taking the audience through a madcap tour of what the threat research unit is doing to provide intelligence and actionable insights into its census was Travis Smith, VP of Qualys Threat Research Unit. He dove deep...

QSC 2022 Day 1 Recap: Qualys Gives Organizations More Security in an Ever-Expanding Threat Landscape

The first day of Qualys’ annual security conference in Vegas was filled with a series of presentations by Qualys executives, product managers and customers’ stories about how they used the various security products. The keynotes given by Shark Tank celebrity businessman and CEO of Cyderes, Robert...

QSC 2022 Kickoff: Quantifying and Qualifying Digital Cyber Risks

Qualys’ annual security conference returned to a live-only event this week at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, and the keynote addresses started things off on a very practical note… about selling coconuts, toasters, and carbon monoxide detectors. The first two keynotes featured speeches from both...

November 2022 Patch Tuesday | Microsoft Releases 65 New Vulnerabilities with 10 Critical; Adobe Releases Zero Advisories (for the first time in six years).

Microsoft Patch Tuesday Summary Microsoft has fixed 65 new vulnerabilities aka flaws in the November 2022 update, including ten 10 vulnerabilities classified as Critical as they allow Denial of Service DoS, Elevation of Privilege EoP, and Remote Code Execution RCE. This months Patch Tuesday...

Get Your Patch Tuesday Vulnerabilities Patched on Tuesday

Every IT person is familiar with Patch Tuesdays. It’s the time of the month where IT needs to put their daily work aside and prepare for patching their entire IT environment. However, for many organizations Patch Tuesday is not a single event that occurs as an isolated point in time. It typically...

OpenSSL Vulnerability Recap

Last week a CRITICAL vulnerability in OpenSSL was pre-announced to give organizations a head start in coming up with a playbook for how to address the highest severity OpenSSL vulnerability since Heartbleed in 2014. A lot of effort was put in by vendors and organizations alike to come up with a...

Why Is Snapshot Scanning Not Enough?

As new scanning technologies are released, their supposed superiority is touted over the others. The problem is, however, that there is no best scanning technology, all of them have strengths and limitations. If recent claims from several vendors are believed, a “best” scanning method called...

Introducing TotalCloud – Cloud Security Simplified

The shift of business applications and on-premises infrastructure to the cloud has resulted in cloud security teams needing to manage the cyber security risks across the workloads, cloud services, resources, users, and applications. Today, security teams must deal with a set of siloed...

Qualys Research Alert: OpenSSL 3.0.7 – What You Need To Know

On Tuesday, November 1, 2022, the OpenSSL project released a new version of OpenSSL with version 3.0.7. This update patches two buffer overflow vulnerabilities which can be triggered in X.509 certificate verification. These vulnerabilities only apply to OpenSSL 3.x. Both these vulnerabilities are...

Don’t spend another weekend patching Chrome

As we head into the weekend, Google has released an emergency security update for the Chrome desktop web browser to address a high-severity vulnerability known to be exploited in the wild. This is the seventh Chrome zero-day fixed this year by Google. This security bug CVE-2022-3723; QID 377721 i...

Chrome Zero Day – Just Before the Weekend (again)

As we head into the weekend, Google has released an emergency security update for the Chrome desktop web browser to address a high-severity vulnerability known to be exploited in the wild. This is the seventh Chrome zero-day fixed this year by Google. This security bug CVE-2022-3723; QID 377721 i...

Qualys Research Team: Threat Thursdays, October 2022

Welcome to the third edition of the Qualys Research Team’s “Threat Research Thursday”, where we collect and curate notable new tools, techniques, procedures, threat intelligence, cybersecurity news, malware attacks, and more. Feedback on our second edition, Qualys Threat Research Thursday, is mor...

Text4Shell: Detect, Prioritize and Remediate The Risk Across On-premise, Cloud, Container Environment Using Qualys Platform

On 2022-10-13, Apache Security Team disclosed a critical vulnerability with CVE-2022-42889 affecting the popular Apache Commons Text library. This vulnerability is popularly named “Text4Shell” which when exploited can allow an unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code on the vulnerable...

Join Us November 7-10 for Qualys Security Conference 2022 Las Vegas!

Get ready for our annual event for cybersecurity professionals: Qualys Security Conference 2022 Las Vegas! This years theme is Get More Security which emphasizes simplifying security to drive better outcomes. At the event, you will experience two days of training followed by two days of keynotes,...

Fingerprinting Web Applications and APIs using Qualys Web Application Scanning

Decoding the impact of Fingerprinting Organizations develop an effective, actionable go-to-market plan to launch a profitable product into the target market. A go-to-market strategy predicts market demand by analyzing market research, competitor data, and previous examples. Without a solid...

Leeloo Multipath: Authorization bypass and symlink attack in multipathd (CVE-2022-41974 and CVE-2022-41973)

The Qualys Research Team has discovered two vulnerabilities in multipathd, the most important of which can be exploited for authorization bypass. Qualys recommends security teams apply patches for these vulnerabilities as soon as possible. The Qualys Research Team combined these two vulnerabiliti...

CVE-2022-42889: Detect Text4Shell via Qualys Container Security

A new critical vulnerability CVE-2022-42889 Text4Shell in Apache Commons Text library was reported by Alvaro Muñoz. The vulnerability, when exploited could result in remote code execution RCE applied to untrusted input due to insecure interpolation defaults. As a result, this CVE is rated at CVSS...