Mozilla Firefox 73 Browser Update Fixes High-Severity RCE Bugs

Mozilla has launched the latest version of its Firefox browser, which knocks out high-severity security flaws that leave systems open to attack by a remote adversary. The patched version of Mozilla’s browser, launched on Tuesday, is Firefox 73 and Firefox ESR 68.5. The Firefox ESR browser is its...

Fake Smart Factory Honeypot Highlights New Attack Threats

A honeypot set up to observe the current security landscape in smart manufacturing systems observed numerous threats—including cryptomining malware and ransomware—in just a few months, highlighting the new threats that industrial control systems ICS face with increased exposure to the internet...

15 Years Later, Metasploit Still Manages to be a Menace

The popular penetration testing and hacking framework Metasploit may be getting long in the tooth, but it hasn’t lost its bite in the hands of bad actors. According to researchers, hackers are still using the tool and a highly effective technique called Shikata Ga Nai Japanese for “nothing can be...

Apple iOS Patch Blunder Opens Updated iPhones to Jailbreaks

Apple’s most recent operating system update, iOS 12.4, accidentally unpatched a fix that had been issued in a previous update — leaving devices vulnerable to code execution and privilege-escalation attacks. The flaw also allows phones to be jailbroken — and a public jailbreak has just been releas...

Gamers Beware: Zero-Day in Steam Client Affects All Windows Users

UPDATE A researcher has dropped a zero-day vulnerability that affects the Steam game client for Windows, after Valve said it wouldn’t fix it. Valve then published a patch, that the same researcher said can be bypassed. The bug is a privilege-escalation vulnerability that can allow an attacker to...

Top 5 Configuration Mistakes That Create Field Days for Hackers

Sometimes it’s the little things that lead to big consequences. When it comes to cybersecurity, hacks more often than not stem from minor missteps – or even completely preventable, obvious mistakes. Common security mistakes and overlooked misconfigurations can open the door for attackers to drop...

DHS Shortens Deadline For Gov Agencies to Fix Critical Flaws

A Department of Homeland Security DHS order now requires agencies to remediate critical vulnerabilities discovered on their systems in 15 days – cutting in half the previous deadline of 30 days. That’s according to a Tuesday binding directive, which is a compulsory order for federal, executive...

Malware Payloads Hide in Images: Steganography Gets a Reboot

One of the challenges of cybersecurity is that overfocusing on one threat trend means that another one can sneak up on you. This is especially problematic as our networks and the attack surface expands. Beyond threat vectors, though, we also need to pay attention to the entire spectrum of threat...

Impact of New Linux Kernel DCCP Vulnerability Limited

Linux providers are busy developing and pushing out patches for a vulnerability in an obscure networking protocol that could allow a local attacker to crash the kernel and elevate privileges. Google software engineer Andrey Konovalov privately disclosed the vulnerability on Monday. The...

Misunderstanding APT Indicators of Compromise

Threatpost Op-Ed is a regular feature where experts contribute essays and commentary on what’s happening in security and privacy. Today’s contributors are Dave Dittrich and Katherine Carpenter. Reports of APT activities detail compromises spanning multiple organizations, sectors, industry...

ZeroAccess Returns, Resumes Click-Fraud Activity

Long thought dead, the peer-to-peer P2P ZeroAccess botnet has resurfaced, and as of just a few weeks ago, has returned to propagating click-fraud scams. Researchers with Dell’s SecureWorks revealed Wednesday that they witnessed the botnet restart itself from March 21 to July 2, 2014 and that...

Oracle Patches 88 Vulnerabilities, Including Some that Allow Remote Exploits Without Authentication

Oracle yesterday released 88 security fixes for vulnerabilities — including several that allow for remote access without authentication — across its portfolio as part of its quarterly Critical Patch Update. “Due to the threat posed by a successful attack, Oracle strongly recommends that customers...

Multiple BusyBox Security Bugs Threaten Embedded Linux Devices

Researchers have discovered 14 critical vulnerabilities in a popular program used in embedded Linux applications, all of which allow for denial of service DoS and 10 that also enable remote code execution RCE, they said. One of the flaws also could allow devices to leak info, according to...

Critical Azure Cosmos DB Bug Allows Full Cloud Account Takeover

A critical security vulnerability in Microsoft’s Azure cloud database platform – Cosmos DB – could have allowed full remote takeover of accounts, with admin rights to read, write and delete any information to a database instance. According to researchers at Wiz, any Azure customer could access...

Cisco Issues Critical Fixes for High-End Nexus Gear

Cisco Systems released six security patches tied to its high-end 9000 series networking gear ranging in importance from critical, high and medium severity. The most serious of the bugs patched by Cisco rated 9.1 out of 10 could allow a remote and unauthenticated adversary to read or write arbitra...

NSA Warns Public Networks are Hacker Hotbeds

The U.S. National Security Agency is offering advice to security teams looking for wireless best practices to protect corporate networks and personal devices. The recommendations, while pedestrian in scope, do offer system administrators a solid cheat sheet to share with their work-from-home crow...

HPE Fixes Critical Zero-Day in SIM

Hewlett Packard Enterprise HPE has fixed a critical zero-day remote code execution RCE flaw in its HPE Systems Insight Manager SIM software for Windows that it originally disclosed in December. HPE SIM is a tool that enables remote support automation and management for a variety of HPE servers,...

WeSteal: A Cryptocurrency-Stealing Tool That Does Just That

Some cybercriminals try, at least, to cover their dirty work with a threadbare “this will throw off the lawsuits” blanket of legitimacy. For example, phone-tracking tools that silently install and operate and which are supposedly meant for parents to legally watch out for their kids in actuality,...

Nvidia Warns: Severe Security Bugs in GPU Driver, vGPU Software

Nvidia has disclosed a group of security vulnerabilities in the Nvidia graphics processing unit GPU display driver, which could subject gamers and others to privilege-escalation attacks, arbitrary code execution, denial of service DoS and information disclosure. Meanwhile, the Nvidia virtual GPU...

Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome Roll Out Password Protection Tools

Two major browsers –Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome – are rolling out default features, which they say will better help notify users if their password has been compromised as part of a breach or database exposure. Edge and Chrome’s moves signify a bigger push by browsers to solve the big “passwo...

The TLS 1.2 Deadline is Looming, Do You Have Your Act Together?

In the pantheon of security configuration duties for organizations running internet assets, maintaining the latest TLS encryption protocols to keep the cryptographic apparatus at full strength is one of the most fundamental. TLS provides cover for the most sensitive personal and financial...

Troves of Zoom Credentials Shared on Hacker Forums

Hackers have a new favorite topic of conversation on underground forums: How to obtain – and leverage – valuable credentials for Zoom, Skype, Webex and other web conferencing platforms increasingly used by remote workers. That’s what Etay Maor, chief security officer at IntSights, has discovered...

TikTok Banned By U.S. Army Over China Security Concerns

With backlash swelling around TikTok’s relationship with China, the United States Army this week announced that U.S. soldiers can no longer have the social media app on government-owned phones. TikTok, a social media app used to create and share short form videos, is owned by Beijing-based parent...

Echobot IoT Botnet Casts a Wide Net with Raft of Exploit Additions

A variant of the Mirai Internet of Things IoT botnet known as “Echobot” has added 13 more vulnerability exploits to its bag of infiltration tricks, according to researchers. These target a range of devices, including routers, firewalls, IP cameras, server management utilities, a programmable logi...

CISA Pushing U.S. Agencies to Adopt Vulnerability Disclosure Policies

The U.S. government’s cybersecurity agency has issued a draft directive mandating all agencies to develop vulnerability disclosure policies, which would give ethical hackers clear guidelines for submitting bugs found in government systems. Security experts hope that the directive will light a fir...

CISO/CIO: Get an iPad and Apple Watch with an App Monitoring your Security 24/7

If you are a CISO or CIO, you need to know what is going on with your organizational security. Together with that, you cannot afford to be inundated with alerts, messages and other data whenever something happens. On the one hand, you need to be in the know, because cyberattacks can occur at any...

Post GandCrab, Cybercriminals Scouring the Dark Web for the Next Top Ransomware

Ransomware continues to be a top threat, with Friday’s ransomware attack on 23 Texas local government and agencies and two in June on dual Florida cities – Lake City and Riviera Beach, resulting in a decision to pay off the hackers — acting as perfect examples of just how lucrative this type of...

Mirai Botnet Sees Big 2019 Growth, Shifts Focus to Enterprises

The infamous Mirai internet of things botnet is spiking in growth while changing up its tactics, techniques and procedures so far in 2019, to target more and more enterprise-level hardware, It’s a state of affairs that presents a greater concern than ever before given the ongong migration to the...

Post-Ransomware Attack, Florida City Pays $600K

A Florida city, hit by a ransomware attack that crippled its computer systems for three weeks, voted this week to pay the attackers the requested ransom of $600,000. Riviera Beach, a city in Florida populated by 35,000, was hit by the ransomware attack May 29 after a city employee clicked on a...

Is 'Sign in with Apple' Marketing Spin or Privacy Magic? Experts Weigh In

Apple’s “Sign in with Apple” feature promises to protect user privacy – and while many are looking at that claim as more of a marketing move than anything else, authentication experts say it has the potential to have an enormous impact on the data privacy ecosystem. The giant from Cupertino took...

Facial Recognition 'Consent’ Doesn’t Exist, Threatpost Poll Finds

Half of respondents in a recent Threatpost poll said that they don’t believe consent realistically exists when it comes to real-life facial recognition. The recent poll of 170 readers comes as facial recognition applications continue to pop up in the real world – from airports to police forces...

Financial Apps are Ripe for Exploit via Reverse Engineering

A white hat hacker reverse engineered 30 mobile financial applications and found sensitive data buried in the underlying code of nearly all apps examined. With this information a hacker could, for example, recover application programming interface API keys and use them to attack the vendor’s...

Threatpost Poll: Is It Impossible to Secure Mobile Devices?

Between applications and operating systems, a slew of mobile threats continue to pop up – and when it comes to security, it’s getting harder and harder for enterprises to keep up. Just in the past week, Apple patched a massive flaw in its FaceTime allowing a bad actor to eavesdrop on victims; whi...

Vendors Share Patch Updates on Spectre and Meltdown Mitigation Efforts

Intel, Amazon, Microsoft and others are playing down concerns over the impact of the massive Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities affecting computers, servers and mobile devices worldwide. The two flaws, Spectre and Meltdown, are far reaching and impact a wide range of microprocessors used in the...

Microsoft November Patch Tuesday Fixes 20 Critical Vulnerabilities

Microsoft tackled 53 vulnerabilities with today’s Patch Tuesday bulletin. Remote code execution bugs dominated this month’s patches, representing 25 fixes. In total, 20 of Microsoft’s security fixes were rated critical. Notable are four vulnerabilities with public exploits identified by Microsoft...

OpenSSL Patches High-Severity OCSP Bug, Mitigates SWEET32 Attack

A vulnerability in the OpenSSL implementation of the Online Certificate Status Protocol OCSP was patched this week, closing a denial-of-service weakness in affected servers. The patch was the most severe of 14 released yesterday by OpenSSL. OCSP is an alternative in many cases to Certificate...

Swagger Vulnerability Leads to Arbitrary Code Injection

An unexpected behavior in a relatively new and popular open source API framework called Swagger could lead to code execution, researchers at Rapid7 said. The company today disclosed some details on the vulnerability, and released a Metasploit exploit module and a proposed patch written by...

Dennis Fisher and Mike Mimoso on the End of the Patch Tuesday Era, Section 215 and More

Dennis Fisher and Mike Mimoso talk about the end of the Patch Tuesday era for most Microsoft customers, the appeals court ruling on Section 215 metadata collection and Dennis’s idea for a security industry commission. Download: digitalunderground201.mp3 Music by Chris Gonsalves...

Microsoft Reads User Email without Warrant

Late last week it emerged that Microsoft had searched through the contents of a French blogger’s Hotmail account in order to track down the source of a leak of proprietary information from the Redmond, Wash., tech giant. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and transparency advocates have expressed...

Alex Lanstein on the Rustock Botnet Takedown

Dennis Fisher talks with Alex Lanstein of FireEye about this week’s takedown of the Rustock botnet, the important legal precedent it helped set with Microsoft’s lawsuit and the mechanics behind the operation and dismantling of large-scale botnets. Podcast audio courtesy of sykboy65 Subscribe to t...

Microsoft Fills Windows, Office Holes with March Patch Release

Microsoft Corp. issued their monthly security bulletins on Tuesday, with fixes for four known vulnerabilities in the company’s Windows operating system, Office suite and Remote Desktop Connection products. The March patch release included three bulletins: MS11-015, 016 and 017. Only one, MS11-015...

Microsoft Adds Tracking Protection to IE 9

Microsoft has pushed out a new release candidate of Internet Explorer 9 that includes two new privacy protections designed to enable consumers to prevent tracking by some Web sites. The new IE 9 release candidate has two separate, but related, technologies aimed at giving users more control over...

Apple Mega Patch Covers 88 Mac OS X Vulnerabilities

Apple Mega Patch Covers 88 Mac OS X Vulnerabilities Apple today released one of its biggest Mac OS X security updates in recent memory, covering a whopping with fixes for 88 documented vulnerabilities. The Mac OS X v10.6.3 update, which is considered “critical,” covers flaws that could lead to...

Inside Microsoft's July Security Patch Batch

Microsoft released six security bulletins today — three rated Critical and three rated Important. Two of the issues are being actively exploited on the Internet and four of the issues are client-side vulnerabilities, which means the exploit can only occur if a user visits an evil website or opens...

Microsoft Takedown Domains Used in Cyberattack Against Ukraine

Microsoft seized seven domains it claims were part of ongoing cyberattacks by what it said are state-sponsored Russian advanced persistent threat actors that targeted Ukrainian-related digital assets. The company obtained court orders to take control of the domains it said were used by Strontium,...

Gaming, Banking Trojans Dominate Mobile Malware Scene

The number of cyberattacks launched against mobile users was down last year, researchers have found — but don’t pop the champagne just yet. The decline was offset by jacked-up, more sophisticated, more nimble mobile nastiness. In a Monday report, Kaspersky said that its researchers have observed ...

Kill Cloud Risk: Get Everybody to Stop Fighting Over App Security - Podcast

Brought to you by Uptycs. Underwriters of Threatpost podcasts do not assert any editorial control over content. Applications are cybercriminals’ favorite ways to crack open targeted organizations. Yet no single team or process can assure the rollout of safe cloud applications. From code design to...

Fortress Home Security Open to Remote Disarmament

A pair of vulnerabilities in the Fortress S03 WiFi Home Security System could allow cyberattackers to remotely disarm the system, leaving homes open to unlawful entry. The Fortress platform is a consumer-grade home security system that allows users to mix and match various sensors, IP cameras and...

Google Warns Mac, Windows Users of Chrome Zero-Day Flaw

Google is hurrying out a fix for a vulnerability in its Chrome browser that’s under active attack – its third zero-day flaw so far this year. If exploited, the flaw could allow remote code-execution and denial-of-service attacks on affected systems. The vulnerability exists in Blink, the browser...

Mysterious Silver Sparrow Malware Found Nesting on 30K Macs

Hard on the heels of a macOS adware being recompiled to target Apple’s new in-house processor, researchers have discovered a brand-new family of malware targeting the platform. Curiously, in the samples seen so far by analysts at Red Canary, the malware dubbed Silver Sparrow has been executing on...