Microsoft Warns of Email Attacks Executing Code Using an Old Bug

Microsoft is warning of a fresh email campaign that distributes malicious RTF files boobytrapped with an exploit dating back to a 2017 vulnerability, CVE-2017-11882. The exploit allows attackers to automatically run malicious code without requiring user interaction. “The CVE-2017-11882...

Users Urged to Update WordPress Plugin After Flaw Disclosed

UPDATE A vulnerability in a popular WordPress plugin called the WooCommerce Checkout Manager extension is potentially putting more than 60,000 websites at risk, researchers say. The WooCommerce Checkout Manager plugin allows WooCommerce users to customize and manage the fields on their checkout...

PS3 Players Ban: Victims of Surging Gaming Attacks

A reported breach of a Sony folder containing the serial ID numbers for every PlayStation 3 console appears to have led to users being inexplicably banned from the platform. This is just the latest in a shocking spike in attacks on unsuspecting gamers. Sony reportedly left a folder with every PS3...

Qualcomm Chip Bug Opens Android Fans to Eavesdropping

A vulnerability in a 5G modem data service could allow mobile hackers to remotely target Android users by injecting malicious code into a phone’s modem – gaining the ability to execute code, access mobile users’ call histories and text messages, and eavesdrop on phone calls. That’s according to...

Intel NUC Firmware Open to Privilege Escalation, DoS and Information Disclosure

Intel has patched seven high-severity vulnerabilities in the system firmware of its Intel NUC short for Next Unit of Computing, a mini-PC kit used for gaming, digital signage and more. Overall, the chip-maker patched 25 vulnerabilities across various platforms this week – including eight...

Chrome Zero-Day Under Active Attack: Patch ASAP

Google on Monday issued 11 security fixes for its Chrome browser, including a high-severity zero-day bug that’s actively being jumped on by attackers in the wild. In a brief update, Google described the weakness, tracked as CVE-2022-0609, as a use-after-free vulnerability in Chrome’s Animation...

Critical F5 BIG-IP Flaw Now Under Active Attack

Attackers are exploiting a recently-patched, critical vulnerability in F5 devices that have not yet been updated. The unauthenticated remote command execution flaw CVE-2021-22986 exists in the F5 BIG-IP and BIG-IQ enterprise networking infrastructure, and could allow attackers to take full contro...

Attackers Exploiting High-Severity Network Security Flaw, Cisco Warns

Cisco is warning that a high-severity flaw in its network security software is being actively exploited – allowing remote, unauthenticated attackers to access sensitive data. Patches for the vulnerability CVE-2020-3452 in question, which ranks 7.5 out of 10 on the CVSS scale, were released last...

Malware in Ad-Based Images Targets Mac Users

A massive adware campaign has so far impacted up to a million Mac users, using a tricky steganography technique to hide malware in image files. Researchers at Confiant and Malwarebytes said the attacks have been running since Jan. 11, using ads on the web and steganography to spread; steganograph...

Argo CD Security Bug Opens Kubernetes Cloud Apps to Attackers

A high-severity security vulnerability in Argo CD can enable attackers to access targets’ application-development environments, paving the way for stealing passwords, API keys, tokens and other sensitive information. Argo CD is a continuous-delivery platform deployed as a Kubernetes controller in...

PGP Ecosystem Targeted in ‘Poisoning’ Attacks

A long-feared attack vector used against Pretty Good Privacy, the framework used to authenticate and keep email messages private, is being exploited for the first time. The attack, which takes aim at keyserver verification directories, makes it impossible for Pretty Good Privacy PGP to work...

Microsoft Pushes Azure Users to Patch Linux Systems

Microsoft is warning customers that some Azure installations are vulnerable to a recently-disclosed critical Linux Exim mail server flaw that is under active attack. The warning comes after a widespread worm campaign was disclosed on Friday, targeting a flaw in the Exim mail transport agent MTA,...

U.S. Gov Issues Urgent Warning of DNS Hijacking Attacks

The Department of Homeland Security is ordering all federal agencies to urgently audit Domain Name System DNS security for their domains in the next 10 business days. The department’s rare “emergency directive,” issued Tuesday, warned that multiple government domains have been targeted by DNS...

VMWare Urges Users to Patch Critical Authentication Bypass Bug

VMware and experts alike are urging users to patch multiple products affected by a critical authentication bypass vulnerability that can allow an attacker to gain administrative access to a system as well as exploit other flaws. The bug—tracked as CVE-2022-31656—earned a rating of 9.8 on the CVSS...

BlackByte Tackles the SF 49ers & US Critical Infrastructure

The San Francisco 49ers were recently kneecapped by a BlackByte ransomware attack that temporarily discombobulated the NFL team’s corporate IT network on the Big Buffalo Wing-Snarfing Day itself: Superbowl Sunday. BlackByte – a ransomware-as-a-service RaaS gang that leases its ransomware to...

Claire's Customers Targeted with Magecart Payment-Card Skimmer

A Magecart credit-card skimmer was used to attack online customers of the retailer Claire’s for a month and a half, according to researchers. Claire’s – a purveyor of jewelry and accessories – closed its 3,000 physical retail locations worldwide on March 20, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. ...

Building a Fortress: 3 Key Strategies for IT Security

Last year and early spring has been undoubtedly tough for cybersecurity. We’ve seen one of – if not the – worst cyberattacks on U.S. companies and government agencies in the last decade; and the ProxyLogon Microsoft Exchange vulnerabilities continue to be dangerous. Knowing just how vulnerable ma...

5M WordPress Sites Running 'Contact Form 7' Plugin Open to Attack

A patch for the popular WordPress plugin called Contact Form 7 was released Thursday. It fixes a critical bug that allows an unauthenticated adversary to takeover a website running the plugin or possibly hijack the entire server hosting the site. The patch comes in the form of a 5.3.2 version...

Podcast: Why Securing Active Directory Is a Nightmare

This week, Microsoft rushed out a fix for a Windows NT LAN Manager exploit dubbed “PetitPotam” that forces remote Windows systems to reveal password hashes that can be easily cracked. The frenzy begs the question: Why is securing Microsoft Active Directory AD such a nightmare? When security...

Google Chrome Zero-Day Afflicts Windows, Mac Users

Google is warning of a zero-day vulnerability in its V8 open-source web engine that’s being actively exploited by attackers. A patch has been issued in version 88 of Google’s Chrome browser — specifically, version 88.0.4324.150 for Windows, Mac and Linux. This update will roll out over the coming...

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus Security Open to RCE

IBM has issued fixes for vulnerabilities in Spectrum Protect Plus, Big Blue’s security tool found under the umbrella of its Spectrum data storage software branding. The flaws can be exploited by remote attackers to execute code on vulnerable systems. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is a data-protection...

'Google' Sites Are the Latest Ploy by Card-Skimming Thieves

Malicious domains masquerading as Google sites are the latest ploy by payment card-skimming adversaries looking to dupe website visitors. According to analysts at Sucuri, cybercriminals are using typosquatting the practice of changing one letter in a trusted site name to use as a malicious URL to...

Researchers: PlugX More Prominent Than Ever

Existing in some form since 2008, the popular remote access tool PlugX has as notorious a history as any malware, but according to researchers the tool saw a spike of popularity in 2014 and is the go-to malware for many adversary groups. Many attacks, especially those occurring during the latter...

Microsoft Oct. Patch Tuesday Squashes 4 Zero-Day Bugs

Today is Microsoft’s October 2021 Patch Tuesday, and it delivers fixes for four zero-day vulnerabilities, one of which is being exploited in a far-reaching espionage campaign that delivers the new MysterySnail RAT malware to Windows servers. Microsoft reported a total of 74 vulnerabilities, three...

Google Chrome Bugs Open Browsers to Attack

Google has stomped out several serious code-execution flaws in its Chrome browser. To exploit the flaw, an attacker would merely need to convince a target to visit a specially crafted webpage via phishing or other social-engineering lures. Overall, Google’s release of Chrome 85.0.4183.121 for...

Microsoft June Patch Tuesday Fixes 129 Flaws in Largest-Ever Update

Microsoft has released patches for 129 vulnerabilities as part of its June Patch Tuesday updates – the highest number of CVEs ever released by Microsoft in a single month. Within the blockbuster security update, 11 critical remote code-execution flaws were patched in Windows, SharePoint server,...

Adobe’s Surprise Security Bulletin Dominated by Critical Patches

Adobe has dropped a mammoth out-of-band security update this week, addressing 92 vulnerabilities across 14 products. The majority of the disclosed bugs are critical-severity problems, and most allow arbitrary code execution ACE. Privilege escalation, denial-of-service and memory leaks/information...

Fake Netflix App on Google Play Spreads Malware Via WhatsApp

Malware disguised as a Netflix app, lurking on the Google Play store, spread through WhatsApp messages, researchers have discovered. According to a Check Point Research analysis released on Wednesday, the malware masqueraded as an app called “FlixOnline,” which advertised via WhatsApp messages...

Xerox DocuShare Bugs Allow Data Leaks

Xerox issued a fix for two vulnerabilities impacting its market-leading DocuShare enterprise document management platform. The bugs, if exploited, could expose DocuShare users to an attack resulting in the loss of sensitive data. On Wednesday, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency...

Critical Exim Flaw Opens Servers to Remote Code Execution

A patch has been issued for a critical flaw in the Exim email server software, which could potentially open Exim-based servers up to denial of service or remote code execution attacks. Exim, which is free software used on Unix-like operating systems including Linux or Mac OSX, serves as a mail...

News Wrap: Cartoon Network Hack, the Catholic Church and Jason Statham Scams

A slew of strange security news stories made headlines this week, from scams to hacks. The Threatpost team breaks down the top stories that made everyone scratch their heads, including: –Cartoon Network streaming websites being hacked to play Brazilian stripper videos. – A Catholic church in...

Golang Cryptomining Worm Offers 15% Speed Boost

A freshly discovered variant of the Golang crypto-worm was recently spotted dropping Monero-mining malware on victim machines; in a switch-up of tactics, the payload binaries are capable of speeding up the mining process by 15 percent, researchers said. According to research from Uptycs, the worm...

REvil Hits US Nuclear Weapons Contractor: Report

Sol Oriens, a subcontractor for the U.S. Department of Energy DOE that works on nuclear weapons with the National Nuclear Security Administration NNSA, last month was hit by a cyberattack that experts say came from the relentless REvil ransomware-as-a-service RaaS gang. The Albuquerque, N.M...

Equifax Confirms March Struts Vulnerability Behind Breach

Equifax said the culprit behind this summer’s massive breach of 143 million Americans was indeed CVE-2017-5638, an Apache Struts vulnerability patched back in March. The bug was widely assumed by experts to be the “U.S. website application vulnerability” implicated by the company last Thursday,...

APT41 Spies Broke Into 6 US State Networks via a Livestock App

USAHerds – an app used PDF by farmers to speed their response to diseases and other threats to their livestock – has itself become an infection vector, used to pry open at least six U.S. state networks by one of China’s most prolific state-sponsored espionage groups. In a report published by...

Oscar-Bait, Literally: Hackers Abuse Nominated Films for Phishing, Malware

Anticipation surrounding the upcoming 93rd Academy Awards broadcast on Sunday is being used by scammers to trick people into giving up their credentials — they think they’re about to stream Oscar-nominated films, but the reality turns out to be much different. Prior to the winners being announced...

Hackers Amp Up COVID-19 IP Theft Attacks

Attackers are looking to the healthcare space as a rich repository of intellectual property IP now more than ever, as critical research of COVID-19 therapeutics are developed and Pfizer, Moderna and other biotech firms begin to mass produce vaccines. Several incidents show that nation-states are...

Data Breach Lessons from the Trenches

In this webcast Threatpost editor Tom Spring examines the data breach epidemic with the help of noted breach hunter and cybersecurity expert Chris Vickery. He shares how companies can identify their own insecure data, remediate against a data breach and offers tips on protecting data against futu...

Gitrob Combs Github Repositories for Secret Company Data

Free online code repositories such as GitHub provide a valuable collaboration service for enterprise developers. But it’s also a trove of potentially sensitive company and project information that’s likely to warrant attention from hackers. An application security specialist from Berlin has...

DLL Hijacking Exploit Code Posted for PowerPoint, Other Apps

A day after Microsoft released information on the remotely exploitable DLL-hijacking vulnerability that affects dozens of Windows applications, researchers are starting to discover exactly which pieces of software are vulnerable. The list so far includes PowerPoint, Wireshark and some application...

Carrier IQ Hires a Chief Privacy Officer

Carrier IQ, a startup heavily bruised last fall by harsh criticism of its handset diagnostic software, today announced it’s hired a high-profile lawyer as its Chief Privacy Officer. According to a news release, Magnolia Mansourkia Mobley, a CIPP and former Verizon executive, will be tasked with...

Microsoft: Attackers Tried to Login to SolarWinds Serv-U Via Log4j Bug

Attackers are trying to log in to SolarWinds Serv-U file-sharing software via attacks exploiting the Log4j flaws. This is a confusing story: Initially, Microsoft had warned on Wednesday that attackers were exploiting a previously undisclosed vulnerability in the SolarWinds Serv-U file-sharing...

Single Malicious GIF Opened Microsoft Teams to Nasty Attack

Microsoft has fixed a subdomain takeover vulnerability in its collaboration platform Microsoft Teams that could have allowed an inside attacker to weaponize a single GIF image and use it to pilfer data from targeted systems and take over all of an organization’s Teams accounts. The attack simply...

FIDO: Here’s Another Knife to Help Murder Passwords

We all hate passwords, but none of us want to make logging into our accounts a hassle with extra time, steps and devices. That’s why the Fast Identity Online Alliance FIDO published a white paper PDF on Thursday, outlining different use cases for the adoption of their FIDO2 set of specifications...

Threat Actors Introduce Unique ‘Newbie’ Hacker Forum

A well-known private hacking forum has recently become more inclusive, introducing a new platform to help newbie threat actors flourish and hone their expertise, research has found. The discovery is unique, as private hacker forums tend to be the exclusive province of elite cybercriminals. Digita...

Critical Cisco VM Bug Allows Remote Takeover of Routers

A critical remote authentication-bypass vulnerability – with the highest possible severity level of 10 out of 10 on the CvSS scale – has been found in the Cisco REST API virtual service container for Cisco IOS XE Software. The bug CVE-2019-12643 affects the following hardware if running the REST...

Trove of Hotmail Passwords Posted Online

If you use Microsoft’s free Hotmail service, it may be time to change your password: Microsoft said Monday that several thousand Hotmail account credentials were posted online over the weekend. In a statement posted to its Windows Live Spaces blog, Microsoft said the company has determined that t...

Okta Says It Goofed in Handling the Lapsus$ Attack

On Friday, Okta – the authentication firm-cum-Lapsus$-victim – admitted that it “made a mistake” in handling the recently revealed Lapsus$ attack. The mistake: trusting that a service provider had told Okta everything it needed to know about an “unsuccessful” account takeover ATO at one of its...

BazarLoader Malware Abuses Slack, BaseCamp Clouds

The BazarLoader malware is leveraging worker trust in collaboration tools like Slack and BaseCamp, in email messages with links to malware payloads, researchers said. And in a secondary campaign aimed at consumers, the attackers have added a voice-call element to the attack chain. Join experts fr...

Apple, Google Both Track Mobile Telemetry Data, Despite Users Opting Out

Mobile device-tracking by Apple and Google take center stage in a report revealing that, despite both allowing users to opt out of sharing telemetry data – they do anyway. “Both iOS and Google Android transmit telemetry, despite the user explicitly opting out of this,” wrote researcher Douglas...