Microsoft Releases Emergency Security Updates for Windows 10, Server

Microsoft has quietly pushed out two emergency security updates to fix remote code execution bugs in Microsoft Windows Codecs Library. Windows Codecs Library handles how the OS compresses large multimedia files such as photos and videos, and then decodes them for playback within applications. The...

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...

Beyond Zoom: How Safe Are Slack and Other Collaboration Apps?

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to worsen, remote-collaboration platforms – now fixtures in many workers’ “new normal” – are facing more scrutiny. Popular video-conferencing app Zoom may currently be in the cybersecurity hot seat, but other collaboration tools, such as Slack, Trello, WebEx...

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...

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...

It’s Time for Your SOC to Level Up

Given an ever-increasing cyberattack surface, a global security workforce shortage, as well as an increased frequency and sophistication of attacks, security operations centers SOCs need to leverage better tools – namely artificial intelligence AI – in order to manage threats. An organization’s S...

NSO Group President Defends Controversial Tactics

In a rare public appearance by Shiri Dolev, the president of the secretive NSO Group Technologies, the company leader vented over what she called “false myths” about the firm. Dolev also took indirect aim at secure messaging platforms, offered by the likes of Facebook, explaining surveillance...

Fingerprints of 1M Exposed in Public Biometrics Database

Researchers discovered the personal and biometrics data of more than a million people left publicly exposed on a database owned by Suprema, a biometric security company. Data includes facial recognition and fingerprint information collected by the UK metropolitan police, small local businesses an...

FDA Warns of Potentially Fatal Flaws in Medtronic Insulin Pumps

The Food and Drug Administration FDA has issued an emergency alert, warning that Medtronic MiniMed insulin pumps are vulnerable to potentially life-threatening cyberattacks. Specifically impacted are Medtronic’s MiniMed insulin pumps, the MiniMed 508 insulin pump and MiniMed Paradigm series insul...

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...

Snapchat Privacy Blunder Piques Concerns About Insider Threats

Snap, the company behind the popular Snapchat social media app, has found itself in hot water after a recent report revealed that Snap employees were abusing their access to private user data – which includes location data, saved Snaps and phone numbers. According to a Thursday Motherboard report...

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:...

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...

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...

Energy, Nuclear Targeted with Template Injection Attacks

Days after news broke last week that advanced, persistent threat actors penetrated nuclear facilities, researchers are explaining techniques used by adversaries to gain toeholds in similar targets in energy. Cisco Talos reported Friday that email-based attacks, leveraging template injection...

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...

Researchers Outline New Italian RAT uWarrior

Details have come to light about a new remote access Trojan called uWarrior that arrives embedded in a rigged .RTF document. Researchers with Palo Alto Networks’ research division, Unit 42, described the malware and how it appears to have emanated from an “unknown actor of Italian origin,” in a...

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...

April 2015 Microsoft Patch Tuesday Security Bulletins

Microsoft has patched a critical vulnerability in the Windows HTTP protocol stack, known as HTTP.sys, which could have devastating consequences once it’s inevitably publicly exploited. The bulletin, MS15-034, is one of four critical bulletins issued today by Microsoft. Experts warn that exploitin...

Fixes for IE, Flash Player in October Patch Tuesday Release

Microsoft and Adobe issued their monthly patch Tuesday releases today, and Microsoft posted eight bulletins, three of which are considered critical including the now-monthly cumulative Internet Explorer update, addressing 24 vulnerabilities in various products. Adobe has fixes for three...

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...

Ten Years After Gates's Memo, Effects Still Being Felt

Ten years. That’s a really long time. Think about what you were doing 10 years ago. Can you even remember? Maybe you were in college or high school, or cripes, even grade school. Or maybe you were working in security already, trying to figure out why your network kept getting overrun by viruses a...

Charming Kitten Sharpens Its Claws with PowerShell Backdoor

The Iranian advanced persistent threat APT Charming Kitten is sharpening its claws with a new set of tools, including a novel PowerShell backdoor and related stealth tactics, that show the group evolving yet again. The new tools may signal that it’s getting ready to pounce on new victims,...

Apple macOS Flaw Allows Kernel-Level Compromise

Apple has patched a vulnerability in macOS can allow attackers to bypass a key OS protection and install a malicious rootkit to perform arbitrary operations on a device, researchers from Microsoft have discovered. The problem—dubbed “Shrootless”–is associated with a security technology called...

Human Fraud: Detecting Them Before They Detect You

This is Part II of a two-part blog series taking readers inside the criminal enterprise that is account-takeover fraud. For part I, please click here. In my last blog, we focused on the initial phases of the account-takeover ATO kill chain – recon, weaponization and delivery – and how attackers...

Linux Kernel Bug Opens Door to Wider Cyberattacks

An information-disclosure security vulnerability has been discovered in the Linux kernel, which can be exploited to expose information in the kernel stack memory of vulnerable devices. Specifically, the bug CVE-2020-28588 exists in the /proc/pid/syscall functionality of 32-bit ARM devices running...

Swiss Army knife For Information Security: What is Comprehensive Protection?

Written by Sergey Ozhegov, CEO of SearchInform In the early days of information security, we used to rely on antivirus and firewall in our arsenal. Once I even “caught” a leak with the help of the firewall logs: I noticed an atypically large data upload and found out that the user was uploading...

SonicWall Breach Stems from ‘Probable’ Zero-Days

UPDATE SonicWall is investigating “probable” zero-day flaws in its remote access security products that have been targeted by “highly-sophisticated” attackers. The company says it is investigating the attack and will update customers within 24 hours. The security company said it is currently...

Rare Bootkit Malware Targets North Korea-Linked Diplomats

A firmware bootkit has been spotted in the wild, targeting diplomats and members of non-governmental organizations NGOs from Africa, Asia and Europe. It has turned out to be part of a newly uncovered framework called MosaicRegressor. According to researchers from Kaspersky, code artifacts in some...

Facebook Privacy Glitch Gave 5K Developers Access to ‘Expired’ Data

Facebook is facing yet another privacy faux pas in how its users’ data is collected and used by third-party apps. The social media giant said that it recently discovered that 5,000 developers received data from Facebook users — long after their access to that data should have expired. In 2018, on...

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...

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...

Intel Fixes High-Severity Flaws in NUC, Discontinues Buggy Compute Module

Intel has stomped out high-severity flaws in its Next Unit Computing NUC mini PC firmware, and in its Modular Server MFS2600KISPP Compute Module. Overall, Intel addressed nine vulnerabilities across six products in its April security update – two of those being high-severity, and the rest being...

Cisco Warns of High-Severity SD-WAN Flaws

Cisco Systems has fixed three high-severity vulnerabilities in its software-defined networking for wide-area network SD-WAN solutions for business users. If exploited, the flaws could enable bad actors to execute commands with root privileges on affected systems. To exploit the vulnerabilities...

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...

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...

Silent Librarian Retools Phishing Emails to Hook Student Credentials

Silent Librarian is targeting university students in full force with a revamped phishing campaign. The threat group, aiming to steal student login credentials, is using new tricks that bring more credibility to its phishing emails and helping it avoid detection. The threat group also known as TA4...

China's Sway Over Tech Companies Tested with Apple, Blizzard

At least two American tech companies, Apple and gaming giant Blizzard, have come under fire – from different quarters – for wading into waters surrounding the Hong Kong protests that have been ongoing since June. The situation is shaping up to be a test for the American tech sector’s commitment t...

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...

Intel Patches High-Severity Flaws in Media SDK, Mini PC

Intel has released security updates addressing two high-severity vulnerabilities in its Intel Media Software Development Kit SDK and Intel NUC mini PC. Overall, the chip giant on Tuesday patched four flaws across its products; the most severe of these vulnerabilities exist in Intel’s Media Softwa...

Free Cynet Threat Assessment for Mid-sized and Large Organizations

If you cannot see what’s happening in your network, your ability to make smart security decisions will suffer. Many vendors offer threat assessment options, but they usually require an investment of time and resources. One vendor out there – Cynet – is offering a no-cost threat assessment to...

ThreatList: Half of All Attacks Aim at Supply Chain

Increasingly sophisticated attacks that target supply chains, counter-incident response and lateral movement within a network are quickly becoming the new normal in the corporate security threat landscape. That’s according to Carbon Black’s latest quarterly Global Incident Response Threat Report,...

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...

ToRPEDO Privacy Attack on 4G/5G Networks Affects All U.S. Carriers

Privacy-breaking flaws in the 4G and 5G mobile protocols could allow attackers to intercept calls, send fake amber alerts or other notifications, track location and more, according to a research team from Purdue University and the University of Iowa. In a paper presented at Mobile World Congress ...

Bluetooth Hack Leaves Many Smart Locks, IoT Devices Vulnerable To MitM Attacks

Sławomir Jasek with research firm SecuRing is sounding an alarm over the growing number of Bluetooth devices used for keyless entry and mobile point-of-sales systems that are vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks. Jasek said the problem is traced back to devices that use the Bluetooth Low Energ...

Bash Botnet Exploit Found, Bash Patches Incomplete

The urgency to patch systems against the Bash zero-day vulnerability has been cranked to 10 after reports of an exploit in the wild have been made public by AusCERT, the Computer Emergency Response Team of Australia. This seems to reflect a similar finding posted by a researcher who goes by the...

More on Office 2003 Zero Day Vulnerability Patch

This week’s patch and security advisory for a vulnerability in Microsoft Office is the perfect example of why enterprise administrators need to take Microsoft’s criticality ratings as a suggestion and not gospel. Microsoft pushed security update MS13-051 through on Tuesday with a rating of...

Microsoft accused of downplaying IIS flaw

A security researcher from nCircle is accusing Microsoft of gamesmanship in its description of an unpatched IIS vulnerability in the way the WebDAV extension decodes a requested URL. The end result is that a successful exploit would allow a hacker to bypass authentication and gain unauthorized...