Threatpost News Wrap Podcast For Feb. 1

Data privacy dominated the week of news ending Feb. 1. News headlines included both Facebook and Google finding themselves in hot water over distributing data-sucking apps on iOS devices. A severe flaw was also found in kid-tracking IoT smartwatches that could expose sensitive information for...

Adobe Patches Zero-Day Vulnerability in Flash Player

Adobe on Wednesday released several unscheduled fixes for Flash Player, including a critical vulnerability that it said is being exploited in the wild. The critical vulnerability, CVE-2018-15982, is a use-after-free flaw enabling arbitrary code-execution in Flash. “Adobe has released security...

Cisco Warns of Critical Vulnerability Revealed in WikiLeaks 'Vault 7' Data Dump

Cisco Systems warned customers on Friday of a critical vulnerability that could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code and obtain full control on more than 300 different models of its switches and routers. Cisco said it became aware of the vulnerability after WikiLeaks released its Vault 7...

Apache Attack Traffic Dropping, Limited to Few Sources

Malicious traffic stemming from exploits against the Apache Struts 2 vulnerability disclosed and patched this week has tapered off since Wednesday. Researchers at Rapid7 published an analysis of data collected from its honeypots situated on five major cloud providers and a number of private...

Adobe Patches Experience Manager; No Flash Update

Adobe rolled out its monthly patch release today, and the news isn’t necessarily what was patched, but what wasn’t. For the first time since January, Adobe did not release a security update for Flash Player. Given Flash’s legacy of being a target-rich environment for cybercriminals and advanced...

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 Giving .NET Users The Option to Shed RC4

Microsoft didn’t beat around the bush when it warned customers to stay away from the deprecated RC4 algorithm last fall. Now it’s giving those who use its .NET software framework an option to disable the cipher in Transport Layer Security TLS as well. In a security advisory issued on its Security...

Oracle Rushes Emergency Java Update to Patch McRAT Vulnerabilities

Oracle has once again released an emergency Java update to patch zero-day vulnerabilities in the browser plug-in, the fifth time it has updated the platform this year. Today’s update patches CVE-2013-1493 and CVE-2013-0809, the former was discovered last week being exploited in the wild for Java ...

Experts Downplay MySQL Database Zero-Days

A rash of zero-day exploits and vulnerabilities in the MySQL database were disclosed to the Full Disclosure mailing list over the weekend, but experts are saying they’re much ado about nothing. Of the half-dozen zero-days reported by a researcher known as King Cope, all but one require legitimate...

Microsoft to Fix Critical Word Flaw in October Patch Tuesday

Microsoft will release seven bulletins in the October Patch Tuesday next week, fixing 20 total vulnerabilities in Windows, Office, Lync and SQL Server. Only one of the bulletins is rated critical, while the six others are rated important. The one critical bulletin affects Microsoft Office 2003,...

Arms Race In Zero Days Spells Trouble For Privacy, Public Safety

Editor’s Note: This is the second of a two-part podcast with independent security researcher Chris Soghoian. In the first part of our podcast with independent security researcher Chris Soghoian, we talked about the way that the proliferation of “free” applications have forced consumers into the...

Katie Moussouris on Microsoft, Trustworthy Computing and the Evolution of the Security Community

Dennis Fisher talks with Microsoft’s Katie Moussouris about the way that the Trustworthy Computing effort at Microsoft has changed, how the security community has evolved since she got involved in the 1990s and the challenges–and fun–of being a woman in security. Podcast audio courtesy of sykboy6...

PHP Everywhere Bugs Put 30K+ WordPress Sites at Risk of RCE

Tens of thousands of WordPress sites are at risk from critical vulnerabilities in a widely used plug-in that facilitates the use of PHP code on a site. One of the bugs allows any authenticated user of any level – even subscribers and customers – to execute code that can completely take over a sit...

QNAP Is Latest to Get Dinged by OpenSSL Bugs Fallout

On Monday, QNAP put out two security advisories about OpenSSL remote-code execution and denial-of-service DoS bugs, fixed last week, that affect its network-attached storage NAS devices. The vulnerabilities are tracked as CVE-2021-3711 – a high-severity buffer overflow related to SM2 decryption–...

The Underground Economy: Recon, Weaponization & Delivery for Account Takeovers

This is Part I of a two-part blog series taking readers inside the criminal enterprise that is account-takeover fraud. For part II, please click here. With account takeover ATO attacks on the rise, stopping threat actors in the early phases of the kill chain will help today’s defenders gain an...

Lexmark Printers Open to Arbitrary Code-Execution Zero Day

Lexmark printers – those ubiquitous, inky office workhorses that fill homes and offices, and are found all the way on up to the federal government – have an unpatched vulnerability that could lead to serious, easy-to-execute attacks that require neither privileges nor user interaction and which c...

DarkSide Hits Toshiba; XSS Forum Bans Ransomware

For a ransomware gang whose servers were purportedly commandeered last week, DarkSide has had a server-fueled weekend, with a reported hit on Toshiba Business. Late on Thursday night came a post to the “Exploit” underground forum that looked, at least, to be from DarkSide. It described how the...

Critical WordPress-Plugin Bug Found in 'Orbit Fox' Allows Site Takeover

Two vulnerabilities one critical in a WordPress plugin called Orbit Fox could allow attackers to inject malicious code into vulnerable websites and/or take control of a website. Orbit Fox is a multi-featured WordPress plugin that works with the Elementor, Beaver Builder and Gutenberg site-buildin...

Cryptobugs Found in Numerous Google Play Store Apps

Researchers have discovered more than 300 apps on the Google Play Store breaking basic cryptography code using a new tool they developed to dynamically analyze it. Academics from Columbia University developed a custom tool, CRYLOGGER, that analyzes Android applications for unsafe use of...

Researchers Warn of High-Severity Dell PowerEdge Server Flaw

Researchers have disclosed details of a recently patched, high-severity Dell PowerEdge server flaw, which if exploited could allow an attacker to fully take over and control server operations. The web vulnerability was found in the Dell EMC iDRAC remote access controller, technology embedded with...

GDPR Compliance Site Leaks Git Data, Passwords

A website that gives advice on privacy regulation compliance has fixed a security issue that was exposing MySQL database settings — including passwords — to anyone on the internet. The website, GDPR.EU, is an advice site for organizations that are struggling to comply with the General Data...

Poorly Secured Docker Image Comes Under Rapid Attack

In a vivid example of why cloud infrastructure needs strong security, a simple Docker container honeypot was used for four different criminal campaigns in the span of 24 hours, in a recent lab test. Akamai security researcher Larry Cashdollar set up the Docker image to see what kind of notice it...

Travelex Pays $2.3M in Bitcoin to Hackers Who Hijacked Network in January

Travelex has paid out $2.3 million in Bitcoin to hackers to regain access to its global network after a malware attack at the new year knocked the global currency exchange offline and crippled its business during the month of January. The move—reported by the Wall Street Journal—may seem...

News Wrap: Valentine's Day Scams and Emotet's Wi-Fi Hack

Threatpost editors Tara Seals and Lindsey O’Donnell-Welch break down the top stories for this week, ended Feb. 14, including: Recent phishing scams – including ones with a romance hook – continue to trick victims, showing that phishing tactics still work in stealing millions from individuals,...

Pwn2Own Miami Contestants Haul in $180K for Hacking ICS Equipment

The very first Pwn2Own hacking competition that exclusively focuses on the industrial control systems ICS has kicked off in Miami. So far, a total of $180,000 has been awarded for pwning five different products. The contest hosts at Trend Micro’s Zero Day initiative ZDI have allocated more than...

Supply Chain Account Takeover: How Criminals Exploit Third-Party Access

Empower Your Suppliers Against Attack The average business shares data with a complex network of third parties, depending on their operational needs. In a survey of security and risk professionals, Forrester learned that the average business has 4,700 third-party partners with some access to...

Fake 'Windows Update' Installs Cyborg Ransomware

A malicious spam campaign that informs victims it contains a “critical Windows update” instead leads to the installation of Cyborg ransomware, researchers have found. Further, they were able to access its builder, which can be used to create malware variants. The email-based threat, discovered...

Lizard Squad Threatens UK's Labour Leader with Cyberattacks Against His Family

Lizard Squad, the well-known hacktivist cybergang, is pledging to mount personal cyberattacks on Britain’s Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn. As the UK continues to be roiled by Brexit debate ahead of a Dec. 12 general election, the Labour Party said on Tuesday that it had been targeted by a...

DEF CON and Feds Partner on Anonymous Bug Submission Program

Hacking conference organizer DEF CON Communications said it plans to roll out a global anonymous bug submission platform based on the SecureDrop communications tool. During a session at DEF CON in Las Vegas last week, conference founder Jeff Moss said the goal was to launch the yet-to-be-named...

Election Security Threats: From Misinformation to Voting Machine

Election security continues to be a top concern – from social media misinformation campaigns, to vulnerabilities in the actual voting machines themselves. At Black Hat USA 2019, Threatpost caught up with Matt Olney, director of threat intelligence at Cisco Talos, to discuss the challenges that...

Millions of Android Smartphones Vulnerable to Trio of Qualcomm Bugs

UPDATE Security researchers from Tencent’s Blade Team are warning Android smartphone and tablet users of flaws in Qualcomm chipsets, called QualPwn. The bugs collectively allow hackers to compromise Android devices remotely simply by sending malicious packets over-the-air – no user interaction...

Microsoft Lab Offers $300K For Working Azure Exploits

Las Vegas – In an attempt to sniff out bugs in its Azure cloud platform, Microsoft announced at Black Hat USA 2019 on Monday that it will offer rewards of up to $300,000 for researchers who launch successful test exploits for the platform. Microsoft has launched a dedicated Azure cloud host testi...

Project Zero Discloses High-Severity Apple macOS Flaw

Researchers have disclosed what they say is a high-severity security flaw in Apple’s MacOS operating system – which has not yet been patched. The flaw gives an attacker privileges to perform malicious actions on a mounted filesystem – without the victim knowing. The Google Project Zero team...

2019 Already Marred By Slew of Data Breach Incidents

It has been a busy year for data breaches already, and January isn’t even officially over. This past week has been no exception. In past seven days, in addition to the Airbus news that we previously reported, Discover Financial, IT management giant Rubrik, the City of St. John in New Brunswick,...

Google+ Privacy Snafu Leaves a Cloud Over the Tech Landscape

In the wake of Google shutting down its Google+ social networking platform after a privacy snafu, questions remain about the responsibility of tech giants when it comes to consumer data and its handling. A software bug in an API for the social site was discovered by Google’s own internal security...

Another Linux Kernel Bug Surfaces, Allowing Root Access

A high-severity cache invalidation bug in the Linux kernel has been uncovered, which could allow an attacker to gain root privileges on the targeted system. This is the second kernel flaw in Linux to debut in the last week; a local-privilege escalation issue was also recently discovered. The flaw...

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...

GHOST glibc Linux Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

A critical vulnerability has been found in glibc, the GNU C library, that affects all Linux systems dating back to 2000. Attackers can use this flaw to execute code and remotely gain control of Linux machines. The issue stems from a heap-based buffer overflow found in the nsshostnamedigitsdots...

Researcher Takes Wraps off Undisclosed Bash Vulnerabilities

The Bash bug has kept Linux and UNIX administrators busy deploying a half-dozen patches, worrying about numerous Shellshock exploits in the wild, and a laboring over a general uncertainty that the next supposed fix will break even more stuff. Researcher Michal Zalewski, a longtime bug-hunter, has...

South Korean Data Breach Compromises 27 Million

A data breach in South Korea appears to have impacted as many as 27 million citizens, roughly 70 percent of the nation’s population. Authorities with the South Jeolla Provincial Police Agency announced late last week that it had apprehended a 24-year-old, known simply as Kim, in addition to 15...

Mixed Reviews on Microsoft myBulletins Patch Service

Microsoft today released its new myBulletins service, an interface where IT administrators can customize security patch update information. While providing users with a slick GUI that allows for extensive filtering of patch information by the products in use inside an enterprise or small company,...

Tor Blacklisting Exit Nodes Vulnerable to Heartbleed Bug

The Tor Project has begun blacklisting exit nodes vulnerable to the Heartbleed vulnerability in OpenSSL. Researcher Collin Mulliner, with the Systems Security Lab at Northeastern University in Boston, published the results of an experiment he conducted using a publicly disclosed Heartbleed...

April 2014 Oracle Critical Patch Update

Software maker and database management company Oracle yesterday released its quarterly Critical Patch Update. The release resolves more than 100 security vulnerabilities, many of which received high common vulnerability scoring system base scores and should be applied as soon as possible. Product...

Microsoft Releases Free Threat Modeling Tool 2014

Threat modeling has been part of the security culture at Microsoft for the better part of a decade, an important piece of the Security Development Lifecycle that’s at the core of Trustworthy Computing. Today, Microsoft updated its free Threat Modeling Tool with a number of enhancements that bring...

White House Security Czar Howard Schmidt Retiring

Howard Schmidt, the top White House information security adviser, is retiring after more than two years on the job and several decades in security both in government and private industry. Schmidt is in his second stint as the White House security chief and he’s leaving at a time when cybersecurit...

Researcher Publishes Android Browser Exploit

UPDATE: A researcher at security firm Alert Logic has published code that could be used to compromise some versions of Google’s Android Operating System. The exploit, if properly adapted, could make Android phones vulnerable to remote attacks and compromises. Researcher MJ Keith published a Rever...

Microsoft Warns of Attacks Against ASP.NET Flaw

Microsoft is warning customers that it has seen ongoing attacks against the recently disclosed padding oracle vulnerability in ASP.NET and is encouraging them to implement a workaround that will help protect against the publicly disclosed exploit for the bug. The workaround that Microsoft has...

Windows Exploitation Part 2

In part two of his lecture on exploiting Microsoft Windows, Dino Dai Zovi discusses specific techniques for attacking Windows machines...

Attacker Breach ‘Dozens’ of GitHub Repos Using Stolen OAuth Tokens

GitHub revealed details tied to last week’s incident where hackers, using stolen OAuth tokens, downloaded data from private repositories. “We do not believe the attacker obtained these tokens via a compromise of GitHub or its systems because the tokens in question are not stored by GitHub in thei...

400 Banks’ Customers Targeted with Anubis Trojan

Customers of Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Capital One, along with nearly 400 other financial institutions, are being targeted by a malicious app disguised to look like the official account management platform for French telecom company Orange S.A. Researchers say this is just the...