Gatekeeper Bug in MacOS Mojave Allows Malware to Execute

Researcher Filippo Cavallarin disclosed a bug in the macOS security feature Gatekeeper that allows malicious code execution on systems running the most recent version of Mojave 10.14.0. MacOS Gatekeeper is an Apple security feature that enforces code signing and verifies downloads and apps before...

Goodbye Passwords: Hello Identity Management

Keeping track of user names and passwords sounds easy, but it is not. In a world where protected network resources are accessed by employees on mobile devices, outside contractors, web applications and internet of things IoT devices – passwords just don’t cut it anymore. The stakes are high:...

Salesforce Woes Linger as Admins Clean Up After Service Outage

After a massive service outage on Friday, software-as-a-service giant Salesforce restored partial access to its affected customers over the weekend, while admins continued with cleanup into Monday. The outage was brought on by a scripting error that affected all Pardot marketing automation softwa...

Behind the Naming of ZombieLoad and Other Intel Spectre-Like Flaws

There was a lot more to the name game behind choosing titles for ZombieLoad, Spectre and Meltdown than picking cool and edgy attack titles. If you have ever wondered why they were named what they were, Threatpost tracked down one of the researchers behind the naming convention and discovery and...

Google's April Android Security Bulletin Warns of 3 Critical Bugs

Google has fixed three critical remote code execution bugs in its Android operating system, which could allow a remote attacker to hijack a vulnerable system simply by sending a malicious file. The flaws are part of Google’s April Android Security Bulletin, which includes patches for three critic...

Zero-Days in Counter-Strike Client Used to Build Major Botnet

A proprietor of a Counter-Strike gaming server promotion service has used multiple zero-days in the Counter-Strike client to create a large botnet. The network is made up of fake game servers for the popular online multiplayer game. The attacker has had quite a bit of success. In a recent analysi...

Forrester: Ransomware Set to Resurge As Firms Pay Off Attacks

SAN FRANCISCO – Ransomware may be poised to return as a top scourge for companies, as more and more of them pay up after an attack in an effort to minimize the cost of recovery. That’s just one insight gleaned from an interview at RSA Conference 2019 last week with Josh Zelonis, senior analyst at...

NotPetya Linked to Industroyer Attack on Ukraine Energy Grid

The massive NotPetya ransomware outbreak that crippled organizations around the world last year turns out to have links to the Industroyer backdoor, which targets industrial control systems ICS and took down the Ukrainian power grid in Kiev in 2016. In fact, the same threat actor – dubbed TeleBot...

Critical MySQL Vulnerability Disclosed

A researcher has published details and a limited proof-of-concept exploit for a critical vulnerability in MySQL that has been patched by some vendors, but not yet by Oracle. The vulnerability allows an attacker to remotely or locally exploit a vulnerable MySQL database and execute arbitrary code,...

Microsoft Patches USB-Related Flaw Used in Targeted Attacks

It used to be that dropping a USB stick in a parking lot in the hope that someone plugs the malicious peripheral into an important computer was the realm of penetration testers and ambitious nation-state actors. That’s just not so anymore. The practice has gone mainstream, even infiltrating popul...

Darkhotel APT Group Targeting Top Executives in Long-Term Campaign

APT groups tend to be grouped together in a large amorphous blob of sinister intentions and similar targets, but not all APT crews are created equal. Researchers have identified a group that’s been operating in Asia for at least seven years and has been using hotel networks as key infection point...

Microsoft Protects User Accounts with New Security Features

Microsoft announced yesterday that it will complement the two-factor authentication it enabled for account holders in April with additional security features designed to deny account hijacking and unauthorized access. Windows PC and mobile users, along with Outlook, SkyDrive, Xbox, Skype and othe...

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...

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...

FTC to Go After Companies that Ignore Log4j

The Federal Trade Commission FTC will muster its legal muscle to pursue companies and vendors that fail to protect consumer data from the risks of the Log4j vulnerabilities, it warned on Tuesday. “The FTC intends to use its full legal authority to pursue companies that fail to take reasonable ste...

Zero Day in Ubiquitous Apache Log4j Tool Under Active Attack

An excruciating, easily exploited flaw in the ubiquitous Java logging library Apache Log4j could allow unauthenticated remote code execution RCE and complete server takeover — and it’s being exploited in the wild. The flaw first turned up on sites that cater to users of the world’s favorite game,...

Bluetooth Bugs Open Billions of Devices to DoS, Code Execution

Researchers have disclosed a group of 16 different vulnerabilities collectively dubbed BrakTooth, which impact billions of devices that rely on Bluetooth Classic BT for communication. According to an academic paper from the University of Singapore, the bugs are found in the closed commercial BT...

16-Year-Old HP Printer-Driver Bug Impacts Millions of Windows Machines

Researchers have released technical details on a high-severity privilege-escalation flaw in HP printer drivers also used by Samsung and Xerox, which impacts hundreds of millions of Windows machines. If exploited, cyberattackers could bypass security products; install programs; view, change, encry...

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...

VMware Rolls a Fix for Formerly Critical Zero-Day Bug

VMware has patched a zero-day bug that was disclosed in late November – an escalation-of-privileges flaw that impacts Workspace One and other platforms, for both Windows and Linux operating systems. VMware has also revised the CVSS severity rating for the bug to “important,” down from critical. T...

VMware Fixes Critical Flaw in ESXi Hypervisor

VMware has hurried out fixes for a critical flaw in its ESXi hypervisor, a few weeks after it was found during China’s Tianfu Cup hacking competition. The use-after-free vulnerability CVE-2020-4004 has a CVSS score of 9.3 out of 10, making it critical. It exists in the eXtensible Host Controller...

Dickey's BBQ Breach: Meaty 3M Payment Card Upload Drops on Joker's Stash

Popular U.S. smoked-meat franchise Dickey’s Barbecue Pit has been hit with a data breach, with cybercriminals posting the fat cap of the compromised data – 3 million payment cards – on the popular Joker’s Stash underground marketplace this week. The Dallas-based franchise, which is a subsidiary o...

PowerPoint ‘Weakness’ Opens Door to Malicious Mouse-Over Attack

A researcher is sounding the alarm over what he believes could be a novel attack vector which allows a hacker to manipulate a PowerPoint file to download and begin the installation of malware, simply by hovering over a hypertext link. The technique does require a victim to accept one pop-up...

FIN6 and TrickBot Combine Forces in 'Anchor' Attacks

Researchers say, two cybercriminal groups, FIN6 and the operators of the TrickBot malware, have paired up together to target several organizations with TrickBot’s malware framework called “Anchor.” The two threat groups joining forces is a “new and dangerous twist” in an existing trend of...

Revamped HawkEye Keylogger Swoops in on Coronavirus Fears

There’s a new variant of the HawkEye keylogging malware making the rounds, featuring expanded info-stealing capabilities. Its operators are looking to capture the zeitgeist around the novel coronavirus. It’s being distributed using spam that purports to be an “alert” from the Director-General of...

Firefox Bug Opens iPhone AirPods to Third-Party Snooping

Five high-severity bugs were fixed in the Firefox web browser with the release of version 74 by the Mozilla Foundation on Tuesday. In addition, Mozilla reported a quirky moderate-severity flaw that allows hackers to target iPhone users and collect data tied to connected AirPods, if in use. In...

Microsoft Outlook for Android Bug Opens Door to XSS

Users of the Microsoft Outlook for Android app should update their apps to avoid a range of attacks. The bug CVE-2019-1460 would allow an attacker to perform cross-site scripting XSS attacks on the affected systems and run scripts in the security context of the current user, according to...

Pitney Bowes Hit with Ransomware Attack

Shipping services company Pitney Bowes was hit with a ransomware attack that disrupted customer access to key services, the company said Monday. The attack comes on the heels of an FBI advisory on Oct. 2 that U.S. companies should be on alert for ransomware attacks, which are increasing in...

Strangest Phishing Lures of 2019: From Divorce Papers to Real Estate Decoys

Hackers aren’t just targeting infrastructure anymore – they’re actively playing on the emotions of people, whether it’s a consumer who desperately wants to lose weight to an employee who is nervous he will lose his job if he doesn’t do exactly what his boss says. That’s according to Proofpoint’s...

News Wrap: Deepfake CEO Voice Scam, Facebook Phone Data Exposed

In this week’s news wrap ended Sept. 6, the Threatpost team breaks down the biggest news of the week, including: Cybercrooks successfully fooling a company into a large wire transfer using an AI-powered deepfake of a chief executive’s voice and Facebook, Microsoft and a number of universities...

Black Hat 2019: WhatsApp Users Still Open to Message Manipulation

LAS VEGAS – Researchers at Black Hat USA 2019 demoed how known vulnerabilities in WhatsApp could still be exploited in several attacks that manipulate chats. Facebook-owned WhatsApp is a popular end-to-end encrypted messaging platform with at least 1.5 billion users. Researchers with Check Point...

Researcher Bypasses Instagram 2FA to Hack Any Account

A researcher earned a $30,000 bug bounty from Facebook after discovering a weakness in the Instagram mobile recovery process that would allow account takeover for any user, via mass brute-force campaigns. Independent researcher Laxman Muthiyah took a look at Instagram’s mobile recovery flow, whic...

ThreatList: Top 8 Threat Actors Targeting Canada in 2019

Banking and financial services in Canada are being targeted in geo-specific attacks looking to spread varying forms of malware, according to researchers tracking thousands of malicious email campaigns between January 2019 to May 2019. In particular, campaigns are typically launched by...

'Unhackable' Biometric USB Offers Up Passwords in Plain Text

A USB stick dubbed eyeDisk that uses iris recognition to unlock the drive claims to be “unhackable” – only, it isn’t. In fact, a simple Wireshark analysis revealed the device’s password – in plain text. David Lodge of Pen Test Partners noticed the product on Kickstarter, where it amassed enough...

Researcher: Not Hard for a Hacker to Capsize a Ship at Sea

Maritime transport still contributes in an important way to the world’s economy, with on-time shipments influencing everything from commodities availability and spot pricing to the stability of small countries. Unfortunately, capsizing a ship with a cyberattack is a relatively low-skill enterpris...

Microsoft Addresses NTLM Bugs That Facilitate Credential Relay Attacks

NTLM has a long history of serious vulnerabilities and of causing anxiety for Windows and UNIX server admins. Their collective angst is unlikely to lessen today with the disclosure of a pair of new vulnerabilities in the protocol suite. Microsoft today patched one of the issues among its Patch...

Critical Cisco Contact Center Bug Threatens Customer-Service Havoc

A critical security bug affecting Cisco’s Unified Contact Center Enterprise UCCE portfolio could allow privilege-escalation and platform takeover. Cisco UCCE is an on-premises customer-service platform capable of supporting up to 24,000 customer-service agents using channels that include inbound...

VPN Exposes Data for 1M Users, Leading to Researcher Questioning

Free virtual private network VPN service Quickfox, which provides access to Chinese websites from outside the country, exposed the personally identifiable information PII of more than a million users in just the latest high-profile VPN security failure. The incident has some security practitioner...

Microsoft Rushes Fix for ‘PetitPotam’ Attack PoC

Microsoft was quick to respond with a fix to an attack dubbed “PetitPotam” that could force remote Windows systems to reveal password hashes that could then be easily cracked. To thwart an attack, Microsoft recommends system administrators stop using the now deprecated Windows NT LAN Manager NTLM...

Scammers Pose as Meal-Kit Services to Steal Customer Data

Attackers are piggybacking off the booming market for meal-kit delivery services since the pandemic, and sending SMS phishing messages doctored up to look like they’re legitimate correspondence from popular brand names — including HelloFresh and Gousto. This is just another example of why the wor...

WhatsApp Discloses 6 Bugs via Dedicated Security Site

Facebook-owned WhatsApp has fixed six previously undisclosed vulnerabilities in its chat platform, revealing the move on a new dedicated security advisory site aimed at informing its more than 2 million users about bugs and keeping them updated on app security. The site is part of an effort by...

First-Ever Russian BEC Gang, Cosmic Lynx, Uncovered

Researchers say they have discovered the first-ever reported Russian business email compromise BEC cybercriminal ring, showing that sophisticated attackers beyond the usual Nigerian scammers are setting their sights on the email-based attack vector. The BEC gang is called Cosmic Lynx, and has bee...

Unpatched Wi-Fi Extender Opens Home Networks to Remote Control

A popular Wi-Fi extender for the home has multiple unpatched vulnerabilities, including the use of a weak, default password, according to researchers. Also, two of the bugs could allow complete remote control of the device. The flaws have been found in Tenda PA6 Wi-Fi Powerline extender, version...

Unpatched Bugs in Oracle iPlanet Open Door to Info-Disclosure, Injection

A pair of vulnerabilities in Oracle’s iPlanet Web Server have been disclosed that can lead to sensitive data exposure and image injections onto web pages if exploited. However, no patch is forthcoming for either flaw. The bugs CVE-2020-9315 and CVE-2020-9314 are specifically found in the web...

Mootbot Botnet Targets Fiber Routers with Dual Zero-Days

The Mootbot botnet has been using a pair of zero-day exploits to compromise multiple types of fiber routers. According to researchers, other botnets have attempted to do the same, but have so far failed. According to researchers at NetLab 360, the operators of the Mootbot botnet in late February...

Malicious Google Web Extensions Harvest Cryptowallet Secrets

Large campaigns that are spreading malicious browser extensions are abusing Google Ads and well-known cryptocurrency brands to draw in victims. Extensions can be installed to add widgets or other functionality to web browsers; they offer the ability to do everything from setting a special search...

SFO Websites Hacked: Airport Discloses Data Breach

The San Francisco International Airport SFO disclosed this week two of its websites had been hacked and lead to the disclosure of some users’ login credentials at both sites. The attacks occurred in March and compromised were SFOConnect.com and SFOConstruction.com, both relatively low-traffic...

WordPress Plugin Bug in Popup Builder Threatens 100K Websites

Two vulnerabilities – including a high-severity flaw – have been patched in a popular WordPress plugin called Popup Builder. The more severe flaw could enable an unauthenticated attacker to infect malicious JavaScript into a popup – potentially opening up more than 100,000 websites to takeover...

Critical, Unpatched 'MDhex' Bugs Threaten Hospital Devices

A collection of six cybersecurity vulnerabilities in a range of GE Healthcare devices for hospitals has been discovered. Dubbed “MDhex” by the researchers at CyberMDX who discovered them, the bugs would allow attackers to disable the devices, harvest personal health information PHI, change alarm...