News Wrap: WhatsApp, Microsoft, Intel and Cisco Flaws

This week was filled with flaws, flaws and more flaws: From a zero-day under active exploit in the WhatsApp messaging app, to Patch Tuesday glitches addressed by Microsoft. Threatpost breaks down the top vulnerabilities of the week, including: A WhatsApp zero-day vulnerability being exploited in...

RSA Conference 2019: BleedingBit Flaws Continue to Plague Firms

UPDATE SAN FRANCISCO – Mobile key platform UniKey has patched vulnerabilities related to the infamous BleedingBit attack in its platform. BleedingBit is an issue in Bluetooth Low-Energy chips made by Texas Instruments and used in millions of wireless access points, which was disclosed in November...

Ukraine-Russia Cyber Warzone Splits Cyber Underground

The Russia-Ukraine cyber warzone has split the Conti ransomware gang into warring factions, leading to a Ukrainian member spilling 60,000 of the group’s internal chat messages online. On Monday, vx-underground – an internet collection of malware source code, samples and papers that’s generally...

Discord CDN and API Abuses Drive Wave of Malware Detections

Discord has a malware problem. And although the platform is predominantly used by gamers, it turns out even users who have never interacted with Discord are at risk. Discord creates servers or specific groups or communities of users who can send voice, text and other media messages between one...

Electrolux, Others Conned Out of Big Money by BEC Scammer

A 64-year-old business email compromise BEC guru has plead guilty in Houston to bilking appliance giant Electrolux and one other company out of a combined half a million dollars — in addition to other fraud schemes. Kenenty Hwan Kim a.k.a. Myung Kim admitted in federal court the Southern District...

SMS Attack Spreads Emotet, Steals Bank Credentials

Attackers are sending SMS messages purporting to be from victims’ banks – but once they click on the links in the text messages, they are asked to hand over their banking credentials and download a file that infects their systems with the Emotet malware. Emotet has continued to evolve since its...

Critical Exim Flaw Opens Millions of Servers to Takeover

UPDATE Researchers are urging users to upgrade their Exim servers immediately after millions of servers were found to be vulnerable to a critical flaw that could allow a remote, unauthenticated attacker to take full control of them. Exim, which is free software used on Unix-like operating systems...

New SWAPGS Side-Channel Attack Bypasses Spectre and Meltdown Defenses

Millions of newer Intel microprocessors manufactured after 2012 are vulnerable to a new type of side-channel attack dubbed SWAPGS. SWAPGS is similar to existing side-channel attacks such as Spectre and Meltdown and similarly could allow a hacker to gain access to sensitive data such as passwords...

Critical RCE Flaw in Palo Alto Gateways Hits Uber

A remote code-execution RCE vulnerability has been uncovered in the GlobalProtect portal and GlobalProtect Gateway interface security products from Palo Alto Networks. It’s an unusual zero-day case, having been previously unknown but inadvertently fixed in later releases — but some large companie...

IBM Patches Critical, High-Severity Flaws in Spectrum Protect

IBM has disclosed critical and high-severity vulnerabilities in Spectrum Protect, Big Blue’s security tool under the umbrella of its Spectrum data storage software branding. The most severe of these flaws could cause a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on impacted systems. Overall, IBM...

Adobe Fixes 24 Critical Flaws in Acrobat Reader, Flash, Shockwave Player

Adobe has fixed 24 critical arbitrary code execution vulnerabilities across multiple products, including Acrobat Reader, Adobe Flash, and Adobe Shockwave Player. Overall, Adobe issued fixes for 43 different CVE numbers across eight different products, Tuesday, as part of a regularly-scheduled...

Host of Flaws Found in CUJO Smart Firewall

Multiple vulnerabilities have been uncovered in the CUJO Smart Firewall, which is a security hardware device aimed at protecting home networks against malware, phishing websites and hacking attempts. CUJO is widely available, including on Amazon where it has racked up 1,000+ customer reviews. The...

Highly Critical Drupal CMS Flaw Affects Millions of Websites

The Drupal open-source content management system platform has issued an advisory for a highly critical remote-code execution RCE flaw in the Drupal core. The vulnerability CVE-2019-6340 arises from the fact that “some field types do not properly sanitize data from non-form sources,” according to...

Data Breach Bonanza: Dating Apps, Equifax, Mass Credential Dumps

In a week full of cyber-incidents and marked by the Valentine’s Day holiday, data breach news was surging. Equifax may have been hacked by spies, two huge credential spills on the Dark Web did their part to endanger people online and several companies admitted to data exposures, data breaches and...

Prepare to Defend Your Network Against Swarm-as-a-Service

The digital world we now inhabit creates unprecedented opportunities – both for good and for ill. One of these possibilities is swarm-based tools that can be used to either attack or defend the network. This possibility, or set of possibilities, has arisen due to dramatic advances in swarm-based...

Zero-Day Flash Exploit Targeting Middle East

A zero-day vulnerability is being exploited in the wild in targeted attacks against Windows users in the Middle East, researchers warned Thursday. The Flash Player vulnerability CVE-2018-5002, a stack-based buffer overflow bug that could enable arbitrary code execution, was patched earlier today ...

Unpatched Bugs, Windows XP End of Life and Public Disclosure

Windows XP security support ends Tuesday and until now, most of the public hand-wringing over XP’s end-of-life has been about the potential for malware outbreaks against unpatched vulnerabilities that have been stockpiled by hackers anxiously awaiting April 8, 2014. But what about vulnerabilities...

CISA, FBI: State-Backed APTs Are Exploiting Critical Zoho Bug

The FBI, CISA and the U.S. Coast Guard Cyber Command CGCYBER warned today that state-backed advanced persistent threat APT actors are likely among those who’ve been actively exploiting a newly identified bug in a Zoho single sign-on and password management tool since early last month. At issue is...

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...

Security Bug Allows Attackers to Brick Kubernetes Clusters

A vulnerability in one of the Go libraries that Kubernetes is based on could lead to denial of service DoS for the CRI-O and Podman container engines. The bug CVE-2021-20291 affects the Go library called “containers/storage.” According to Aviv Sasson, the security researcher at Palo Alto’s Unit 4...

Cyberpunk 2077 Headaches Grow: New Spyware Found in Fake Android Download

Threat actors continue to take advantage of the hype surrounding the release of the videogame Cyberpunk 2077 in a variety of ways. The latest twist is ransomware targeting Android devices disguised as a legitimate download of the new open-world game. Kaspersky researcher Tatyana Shishkova...

Microsoft Warns Threat Actors Continue to Exploit Zerologon Bug

Threat attackers continue to exploit the Microsoft Zerologon vulnerability, a situation that’s been a persistent worry to both the company and the U.S. government over the last few months. Both on Thursday renewed their pleas to businesses and end users to update Windows systems with a patch...

Newsletter WordPress Plugin Opens Door to Site Takeover

Newsletter, a WordPress plugin with more than 300,000 installations, has a pair of vulnerabilities that could lead to code-execution and even site takeover. The Newsletter plugin offers site admins a visual editor that can be used to create newsletters and email campaigns from within WordPress...

Connected Home Hubs Open Houses to Full Remote Takeover

Three different connected home hubs – Fibaro Home Center Lite, Homematic Central Control Unit CCU2 and Elko’s eLAN-RF-003 – are vulnerable in their older versions to serious bugs that would allow information disclosure, man-in-the-middle MiTM attacks and unauthenticated remote code execution RCE,...

MGM Grand Breach Leaked Details of 10.6 Million Guests Last Summer

A hacking forum this week published details of more than 10.6 million guests who stayed at MGM Resorts, the result of a breach due to unauthorized access to a cloud server that occurred at the famous Las Vegas hotel and casino last summer. The incident—revealed in a published report on ZDNet...

Google Discloses Chrome Flaw Exploited in the Wild

UPDATE Google is warning users of a high-severity vulnerability in its Chrome browser that is currently being exploited by attackers to hijack computers. The flaw CVE-2019-13720, discovered by security researchers Anton Ivanov and Alexey Kulaev at Kaspersky, exists in Google Chrome’s audio...

Rash of Exploits Targets Critical vBulletin RCE Bug

A critical remote code execution RCE bug affecting default 5.x versions of vBulletin CVE-2019-16759 is being actively exploited in the wild, allowing unauthenticated attackers to take control of web hosts. A zero-day proof-of-concept code was anonymously published on Monday, ahead of vBulletin...

Iran-Linked APT34 Invites Victims to LinkedIn for Fresh Malware Infections

A recent phishing campaign by Iran-linked threat actor APT34 made use of a savvy approach: Asking victims to join their social network. According to FireEye, the adversaries masqueraded as a Cambridge University lecturer, including setting up a LinkedIn page, in order to gain victims’ trust. From...

Critical WordPress Plugin Flaw Allows Complete Website Takeover

A critical vulnerability in popular WordPress plugin Simple Social Buttons enables non-admin users to modify WordPress installation options – and ultimately take over websites. Simple Social Buttons enables users to add social-media sharing buttons to various locations of their websites. The plug...

Record Oracle Patch Update Addresses ShadowBrokers, Struts 2 Vulnerabilities

Oracle released its biggest Critical Patch Update ever on Tuesday, and with it came added urgency in the form of patches for the Solaris vulnerabilities exposed by the ShadowBrokers last week, as well as the recent Apache Struts 2 vulnerability, also under public attack. In all, Oracle admins hav...

MS10-015 Restart Issues Are the Result of Rootkit Infection

Microsoft on Thursday confirmed that the blue screen of death issues that affected a slew of users after the latest batch of Patch Tuesday updates is the result of an existing infection by the Alureon rootkit. There was widespread speculation after the patch release that simply installing the...

Microsoft warns of dangerous DirectShow flaw, attacks

Microsoft today warned that hackers are using rigged QuickTime media files to exploit an unpatched vulnerability in DirectShow, the APIs used by Windows programs for multimedia support. The company has activated its security response process to deal with the zero-day attacks has issued a pre-patc...

Severe WordPress Plug-In UpdraftPlus Bug Threatens Backups

The WordPress plug-in “UpdraftPlus” was patched on Wednesday to correct a vulnerability that left sensitive backups at risk, potentially exposing personal information and authentication data. UpdraftPlus is a tool for creating, restoring and migrating backups for WordPress files, databases,...

Amazon Kindle Vulnerable to Malicious EBooks

A security flaw in Amazon’s Kindle e-reader made it vulnerable to malicious eBooks, opening the door to turning the devices into bots, compromising personal information and more. That’s according to Check Point researcher Slava Makkaeveev, who released the findings Friday. Check Point disclosed t...

Apple Patches Actively Exploited Zero-Day in iOS, MacOS

Apple patched a zero-day flaw on Monday, found in both its iOS and macOS platforms that’s being actively exploited in the wild and can allow attackers to take over an affected system. The memory-corruption flaw, tracked as CVE-2021-30807, is found in the IOMobileFrameBuffer extension which exists...

2 More Google Chrome Zero-Days Under Active Exploitation

Google is asking Chrome desktop users to prepare to update their browsers once again as two more zero-day vulnerabilities have been identified in the software. Both allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to compromise an affected system via the web. And both are being actively exploited in the...

Vastaamo Breach: Hackers Blackmailing Psychotherapy Patients

Cybercriminals have hacked the systems of psychotherapy giant Vastaamo – and are now reaching out to therapy patients, threatening to dump their patient files if they do not pay a ransom. Finland-based Vastaamo, which has more than 40,000 psychotherapy patients, said on its website that its...

Apple Accidentally Notarizes Shlayer Malware Used in Adware Campaign

Apple accidentally approved one of the most popular Mac malware threats – OSX.Shlayer – as part of its security notarization process. The Apple notary service is an automated system on recent macOS versions that scans software ranging from macOS apps, kernel extensions, disk images and installer...

Mobile Carrier Customer Service Ushers in SIM-Swap Fraud

Mobile carriers have left the door wide open to SIM-swap attacks, particularly when it comes to prepaid accounts, researchers have found. SIM swapping is a form of fraud that allows crooks to bypass SMS-based two-factor authentication 2FA and crack online banking or other high-value accounts...

Popular File-Sharing Service WeTransfer Used in Malicious Spam Campaigns

Hackers are abusing the popular file-sharing service called WeTransfer to circumvent defensive email gateways that are designed to block spam messages with malicious URLs. Researchers have observed an uptick in attacks targeting banking, power and media industries using this technique. The hack...

Implementing Bug Bounty Programs: The Right and Wrong Approaches

While bug-bounty programs may seem like a cure-all solution for companies looking discover vulnerabilities in their systems more efficiently, the fact remains that a program could overwhelm a firm’s internal security team and cause other major headaches if implemented the wrong way. “You have to...

Microsoft Zero-Day Patch for JET Bug Incomplete, Claims Firm

UPDATE Microsoft patched a zero-day in its JET Database Engine this week – but the patch was incomplete, according to researchers at 0patch. The company has developed a micropatch that corrects that hole, it said Friday. The memory corruption vulnerability CVE-2018-8423 could allow remote...

On xDedic, a Flash Zero Day, Facial Recognition, and More

Mike Mimoso and Chris Brook discuss the news of the week, including a password issue at Github, the xDedic marketplace, another Flash zero day, and how the poorly the FBI is doing with facial recognition software. Download: ThreatpostNewsWrapJune172016.mp3 Music by Chris Gonsalves...

Has Anyone Seen a Missing Scroll Bar? Phony Flash Update Redirects to Malware

Microsoft said it has received 70,000 reports this week of a new Trojan disguised as an Adobe Flash Player update that will change your browser’s home page and redirect a Web session to an attacker’s page. There are several clues something is amiss, namely part of the GUI for the supposed Flash 1...

Microsoft Issues FixIt For XML Flaw

With attackers already exploiting the MSXML zero-day vulnerability, which affects a wide range of products, Microsoft has issued a FixIt tool for the bug that it is encouraging users to install as they prepare a full patch for the flaw. The vulnerability is a critical one, and, because it’s prese...

Microsoft Ships Anti-Exploit Tool for IT Admins

LAS VEGAS — Microsoft today released a new tool to help IT administrators backport anti-exploit mitigations like ASLR Address Space Layout Randomization and DEP Data Execution Prevention to older versions of Windows. The tool, called Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit EMET works by applying...

Authorities Fully Behead Hydra Dark Marketplace

German authorities have taken down the Hydra marketplace – a popular destination on the Dark Web for trading in illicit goods and services, including cyberattack tools and stolen data. This week, they were able to commandeer and take offline underpinning infrastructure such as servers, plus insta...

ADT Security Camera Flaws Open Homes to Eavesdropping

UPDATE Researchers have publicly disclosed security flaws found in ADT-owned LifeShield security cameras, which, if exploited, could have allowed a local attacker to eavesdrop on victims’ conversations or tap into a live video feed. The LifeShield brand is owned by security giant ADT. Specificall...

MacOS Users Targeted By OceanLotus Backdoor

A macOS backdoor variant has been uncovered that relies of multi-stage payloads and various updated anti-detection techniques. Researchers linked it to the OceanLotus advanced persistent threat APT group. The Vietnam-backed OceanLotus also known as APT 32 has been around since at least 2013, and...

Variant of Paradise Ransomware Targets Office IQY Files

A new variant of the Paradise ransomware attacks rarely-targeted Microsoft Office Excel IQY files, providing a new and relatively inobtrusive way to infiltrate and hijack an organization’s network, researchers have found. Lastline Labs’ James Haughom discovered the variant in December in a spam...