Developing a Repeatable and Sustainable Security Exploitable Risk Reporting Program

Introduction The key to creating a practical Reporting Philosophy is/are well-written vulnerability management policies, standards, and guidelines. These are often referred to as a Security, Governance, Risk, and Compliance SGRC program and a well-defined risk exception and acceptance RA program,...

CVE-2021-44228: Apache Log4j2 Zero-Day Exploited in the Wild (Log4Shell)

Update Take advantage of our free service to quickly detect vulnerabilities in your external attack surface. Visit qualys.com/was-log4shell-help to get started. Update – December 22, 2021 7:53 PM ET A bug in external scanners could result in false negatives when unauthenticated Log4Shell scans we...

RANSOMWARE: Ranzy Locker

On 25 October 2021, the FBI released a report documenting their findings about a ransomware variant known as Ranzy Locker. While Ranzy Locker has not been used as prolifically as Conti or Darkside, it does leverage some of the same old ransomware tricks to attack its victims. In conjunction with...

Continuous Security Hardening and Monitoring for IBM® z/OS® Mainframes and Databases Using Qualys Policy Compliance

Mainframes are a key infrastructure component for many enterprises worldwide. Arguably the most secure, reliable, and efficient computing platform, mainframes hold some 70% of the worlds business-critical data. Even though they are highly secure and resilient, it’s a common misconception that...

It’s a Wrap! QSC 2021 Las Vegas Laid Out Problems, Solutions and Innovation

Although organizations have made moves toward it for years, digital transformation, in a way, has only just begun. The pandemic may have accelerated migration to the cloud but going forward business will drive continued transformation—and innovation. But to get the most out of the investments in...

Euronet Worldwide: Speedy, Global Response to Threats Reduces Risk

After years of using manual processes and systems to manage its IT inventory and track vulnerabilities, racking up costs, and increasing the complexity of asset and vulnerability management, Euronet Worldwide needed a way to get a single, accurate and timely view of risk exposure at the group...

QSC Day 2 Recap: Innovation Makes for Better Defense, Improves Resilience

If 2020 was the year of disruption, then 2021 was characterized by high-profile—and low-profile—cyberattacks against the likes of JBS Supply, Colonial Pipeline, and Kaseya. Three years that underscored the need for organizations not only to defend themselves but to become resilient to weather and...

Conti Ransomware

Conti is a sophisticated Ransomware-as-a-Service RaaS model first detected in December 2019. Since its inception, its use has grown rapidly and has even displaced the use of other RaaS tools like Ryuk. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA and the Federal Bureau of Investigati...

QSC Day 1 Recap: As Threats Intensify, Qualys Helps Organizations Shore Up Security

Cyberattacks are occurring more frequently. They’re also more damaging. And they’re only likely to get worse. Chris Krebs should know—for the two years he served as director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA, he was charged with sussing out threats, sounding the alarm t...

Security Automation Critical to the Digital Journey

QSC Day 1 Recap After a stressful two years of disruption and an uptick in damaging cyberattacks, security teams are overwhelmed and understaffed. As QSC 2021 kicks off in Las Vegas, Qualys President and CEO Sumedh Thakar explains how automation can relieve the burden and bolster companies’...

Microsoft & Adobe Patch Tuesday (November 2021) – Microsoft 55 Vulnerabilities with 6 Critical, 6 Zero-Days. Adobe 4 Vulnerabilities

Microsoft Patch Tuesday – November 2021 Microsoft patched 55 vulnerabilities in their November 2021 Patch Tuesday release, of which six are rated as critical severity and six were previously reported as zero-days. Critical Microsoft Vulnerabilities Patched CVE-2021-42298 - Microsoft Defender Remo...

Qualys Response to CISA Alert: Binding Operational Directive 22-01

Start your VMDR 30-day, no-cost trial today Overview On November 3, 2021, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA released a Binding Operational Directive 22-01, "Reducing the Significant Risk of Known Exploited Vulnerabilities." This directive recommends urgent and...

CSPM Evolution – Start Secure, Stay Secure

For the last several years, the Verizon DBIR report has identified misconfigurations, errors that are unintended actions by an internal party, as one of the top reasons for data breaches. This trend is further reinforced by the results of a recent survey conducted by Cybersecurity Insiders. They...

Apache HTTP Server Path Traversal & Remote Code Execution (CVE-2021-41773 & CVE-2021-42013)

On October 4, 2021, Apache HTTP Server Project released Security advisory on a Path traversal and File disclosure vulnerability in Apache HTTP Server 2.4.49 and 2.4.50 tracked as CVE-2021-41773 and CVE-2021-42013. In the advisory, Apache also highlighted “the issue is known to be exploited in the...

Apache Tomcat HTTP Request Smuggling Vulnerability (CVE-2021-33037)

A vulnerability CVE-2021-33037 discovered this year in Apache Tomcat causes incorrect parsing of the HTTP transfer-encoding request header in some circumstances, leading to the possibility of HTTP Request Smuggling HRS when used with a reverse proxy. HTTP Request Smuggling HRS is a web applicatio...

Vulnerability On-Demand Search Reporting & Easy Download options

Vulnerability reporting is different from any other aspect of a Vulnerability Management Program. The methodologies of Discover, Assess, Report and Remediate are critical components that should be included in the respective sections of a Vulnerability Report. Qualys VMDR Vulnerability Management...

Apple fixes zero-day in iOS and iPadOS 15.0.2 emergency release: Detect and Prioritize Vulnerabilities using VMDR for Mobile Devices

Apple recently released iOS and iPadOS 15.0.2 as an emergency security update that addresses 1 critical zero-day vulnerabilities, which is exploited in wild. Qualys recommends that security teams should immediately update all devices running iOS and iPadOS to the latest version. "Apple is aware o...

Microsoft & Adobe Patch Tuesday (October 2021) – Microsoft 74 Vulnerabilities with 3 Critical, 4 Zero-Days. Adobe 10 Vulnerabilities

Microsoft Patch Tuesday – October 2021 Microsoft patched 74 vulnerabilities in their October 2021 Patch Tuesday release, of which three are rated as critical severity and four were previously reported as zero-days. Critical Microsoft Vulnerabilities Patched CVE-2021-40449 - Win32k Elevation of...

Tenacity 2.0 – Emulating Threat groups

Introduction The previous article: Tenacity – An Adversary Emulation Tool for Persistence, walked us through the working of Tenacity, techniques it supports, and how it can help organizations and individuals to validate the risk posture. As with the second installment of the series, this post wil...

From Technical Features to Customer Security Metrics

Qualys solutions are packed with great functionality to deliver operational efficiency to all our customers, but the value does not end with bits and bytes. Qualys customers can count on Technical Account Managers to maximize the effectiveness of their subscription, and this post tells a story...

The Rise of Ransomware

With most employees still working from remote locations, ransomware attacks have increased steadily since the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the FBI’s 2020 Internet Crime Report 2400+ ransomware-related incidents in 2020 resulted in a loss of about 29 million dollars. These...

Assess Your Risk From Ransomware Attacks, Powered by Qualys Research

Ransomware attacks are among the most significant cyber threats facing businesses today. Recent warnings about Conti ransomware, issued by a joint cybersecurity advisory from the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA, FBI and National Security Agency, are a strong signal that...

QID Spotlight: Discover Azul Java Vulnerabilities

The Qualys vulnerability signatures team has released a new series of signatures detections for Azul Java, allowing security teams to identify Azul Java hosts and detect their vulnerabilities. Azul is a Java platform used for modern cloud enterprises. The platform is used for developing,...

NSO Pegasus iPhone Spyware Vulnerabilities Fixed by Apple – Detect & Prioritize Using VMDR for Mobile Devices

Apple recently released iOS and iPadOS 12.5.5, 15.0, which includes a security update that addresses almost 25 vulnerabilities, including several critical RCE and privilege escalation vulnerabilities. In 12.5.5, Apple fixed 3 critical zero-day vulnerabilities, which are used to deploy NSO Pegasus...

Prioritize Remediation with a Perceived-Risk Approach to Strengthen CyberSecurity Effectiveness

Minimizing Time To Remediate TTR is becoming one of the key metrics of security program effectiveness. This holistic measure represents many capabilities and is a good validation of your risk mitigation capacity because it captures how quickly you can respond to the most critical vulnerabilities...

Apache Struts 2 Double OGNL Evaluation Vulnerability (CVE-2020-17530)

A vulnerability CVE-2020-17530 discovered last year in the Object Graph Navigation Language OGNL evaluation function of Apache Struts versions 2.0.0 – 2.5.25 can be exploited by attackers to perform remote code execution. This RCE vulnerability doesn’t come packaged with Apache struts but is...

Improving Cybersecurity Practices by Managing the Asset Lifecycle

Securing enterprise environments continues to increase in importance. Attacks on infrastructure continue to increase and organizations need to focus more on prevention. While new vulnerabilities are continually being discovered, companies are also left vulnerable to attacks because their...

Detect & Prioritize NSO Pegasus iPhone Spyware Vulnerabilities Using VMDR for Mobile Devices

Apple recently released iOS and iPadOS 14.8 as a security update that addresses 2 critical zero-day vulnerabilities, which are used to deploy NSO Pegasus iPhone spyware. Qualys recommends that security teams should immediately update all devices running iOS and iPadOS to the latest version. "Appl...

Google Android September 2021 Security Patch Vulnerabilities: Discover and Take Remote Response Action Using VMDR for Mobile Devices

The recently released Android Security Bulletin for September 2021 addresses 40 vulnerabilities, out of which 7 are rated as critical vulnerabilities. The vulnerabilities affect open-source components such as the Android Framework, Android Media Framework, and Android System. The vulnerabilities...

Microsoft and Adobe Patch Tuesday (September 2021) – Microsoft 60 Vulnerabilities with 3 Critical, Adobe 61 Vulnerabilities

Microsoft Patch Tuesday – September 2021 Microsoft patched 60 vulnerabilities in their September 2021 Patch Tuesday release, and an additional 26 CVEs since September 1st. Among the 60 released in the September Patch Tuesday, 3 of them are rated as critical severity, one as moderate, and 56 as...

Optimize Vulnerability Remediation with Proactive Zero-Touch Patch

Vulnerability remediation is a complex task, and most organizations struggle to identify, prioritize and remediate vulnerabilities efficiently. With the rise in vulnerability discovery, there is a correlating increase in ransomware attacks initiated through unpatched vulnerabilities. This has led...

Google Android August 2021 Security Patch Vulnerabilities: Discover and Take Remote Response Action Using VMDR for Mobile Devices

The recently released Android Security Bulletin for August 2021 addresses 36 vulnerabilities, out of which 5 are rated as critical vulnerabilities. The vulnerabilities affect open-source components such as the Android Framework, Android Media Framework, and Android System. The vulnerabilities als...

Microsoft and Adobe Patch Tuesday (August 2021) – Microsoft 51 Vulnerabilities with 7 Critical, Adobe 29 Vulnerabilities

Microsoft Patch Tuesday – August 2021 Microsoft patched 51 vulnerabilities in their August 2021 Patch Tuesday release, and 7 of them are rated as critical severity. Three 0-day vulnerability patches were included in the release. Critical Microsoft Vulnerabilities Patched CVE-2021-36942 - Windows...

QID Spotlight: Discover CBL-Mariner Vulnerabilities using Qualys VMDR

The Qualys vulnerability signatures team has released a new series of signatures detections for CBL-Mariner Common Base Linux, allowing security teams to identify CBL-Mariner hosts and detect their vulnerabilities. CBL-Mariner Common Base Linux is developed by Microsoft and is a Linux distributio...

Tenacity – An Adversary Emulation Tool for Persistence

Persistence is one of the more sought-after techniques of an attacker or adversary. Persistence is achieved through a set of tactics or techniques that adversaries use to maintain their foothold on compromised systems across restarts, changed credentials, and other interruptions that could cut of...

Qualys Research Wins Two 2021 Pwnie Awards

The Qualys Research team won two Pwnie Awards today at Black Hat USA 2021 for discovering and responsibly disclosing these new vulnerabilities: Best Privilege Escalation Bug and Most Under-Hyped Research. The Qualys Research team received these awards: Best Privilege Escalation Bug Heap-based...

Securing Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS in Red Hat OpenShift with Qualys

Qualys full-stack security for Red Hat OpenShift adds visibility, actionable intelligence, and security auditing for Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS, the operating system that underpins OpenShift deployments for running containers securely. With this new offering, Qualys is now the first and only...

Qualys Research Nominated for Pwnie Awards 2021

The Qualys Research team has been nominated for five Pwnie Awards this year in three different categories. In addition to nominations for Best Privilege Escalation Bug 2 nominations and Best Server-Side Bug 2 nominations, the team is also nominated for Most Under-Hyped Research. Qualys is honored...

Top Black Hat USA Sessions for Qualys Customers

Black Hat USA is known for cutting-edge security research, and this year’s conference is no different. If you’re a Qualys customer, here are some Black Hat sessions we think youll find relevant. Next-Gen DFIR: Mass Exploits & Supplier Compromise An investigation of real “next-gen” digital forensi...

CISA Alert: Top Routinely Exploited Vulnerabilities

On July 28, 2021, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA released a cybersecurity advisory detailing the top 30 publicly known vulnerabilities that have been routinely exploited by cyber threat actors in 2020 and 2021. Organizations are advised to prioritize and apply...

iOS and iPadOS 14.7 and 14.7.1 Security Update: Discover Vulnerabilities and Take Remote Response Action Using VMDR for Mobile Devices

Apple recently released iOS and iPadOS 14.7 and 14.7.1 which include a security update that addresses almost 38 vulnerabilities, among them several critical RCE and privilege escalation vulnerabilities. Qualys recommends that security teams should immediately update all devices running iOS and...

Protect your Devices from Pegasus Spyware using VMDR for Mobile Devices’ Proactive Approach

Pegasus spyware is in the news, and it has been used to target devices of critical people from different sectors and countries including journalists, activists, politicians, and business executives. It has been said that a leaked list of 50,000 phone numbers of potential surveillance targets was...

CVE-2021-33910: Denial of Service (Stack Exhaustion) in systemd (PID 1)

The Qualys Research Team has discovered a stack exhaustion denial-of-service vulnerability in systemd, a near-ubiquitous utility available on major Linux operating systems. Any unprivileged user can exploit this vulnerability to crash systemd and hence the entire operating system a kernel panic...

Sequoia: A Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability in Linux’s Filesystem Layer (CVE-2021-33909)

The Qualys Research Team has discovered a sizet-to-int type conversion vulnerability in the Linux Kernel’s filesystem layer affecting most Linux operating systems. Any unprivileged user can gain root privileges on a vulnerable host by exploiting this vulnerability in a default configuration. Abou...

Google Android July 2021 Security Patch Vulnerabilities: Discover and Take Remote Response Action Using VMDR for Mobile Devices

The recently released Android Security Bulletin for July 2021 addresses 44 vulnerabilities, out of which 7 are rated as critical vulnerabilities. The vulnerabilities affect open-source components such as the Android Framework, Android Media Framework, and Android System. The vulnerabilities also...

Microsoft and Adobe Patch Tuesday (July 2021) – Microsoft 117 Vulnerabilities with 13 Critical, Adobe 26 Vulnerabilities

Microsoft Patch Tuesday – July 2021 Microsoft patched 117 vulnerabilities in their July 2021 Patch Tuesday release, and 13 of them are rated as critical severity. Critical Microsoft Vulnerabilities Patched CVE-2021-34448 – Scripting Engine Memory Corruption Vulnerability This is being actively...

Qualys API Best Practices: Host List Detection API

Host List Detection is your subscriptions list of hosts and their corresponding up-to-date detections including: 1. Confirmed Vulnerability Detections 2. Potential Vulnerability Detections 3. Information Gathered Detections about your system After extracting Host List Detection vulnerability data...

Kaseya REvil Ransomware Attack (CVE-2021-30116) – Automatically Discover and Prioritize Using Qualys VMDR®

On July 2, 2021, Kaseya announced its software had been compromised and was being used to attack the IT infrastructure of its customers. The REvil ransomware attack leveraged multiple zero-day vulnerabilities in Kaseya’s VSA Virtual System/Server Administrator product that helps Kaseya customers ...

Analyzing the REvil Ransomware Attack

Over the past year, there has been a rise in extortion malware, e.g. Nefilim and Darkside, which steal and threaten to publish sensitive data or encrypt it until a ransom is paid. Nowadays, cybercriminals use various techniques to gain their initial foothold within a network in the organization...

Microsoft Windows Print Spooler RCE Vulnerability (PrintNightmare-CVE-2021-34527) – Automatically Discover, Prioritize and Remediate Using Qualys VMDR®

Update July 9, 2021: Added "Registry Settings Check After Installing the Updates" section below. Original Post: On June 29, 2021, a zero-day exploit was observed on Microsoft Windows systems which allows authenticated users with a regular Domain User account to gain full SYSTEM-level privileges. ...