TrickBot Switches to a New Windows 10 UAC Bypass to Evade Detection

The TrickBot trojan has evolved again to bolster its ability to elude detection, this time adding a feature that can bypass Windows 10 User Account Control UAC to deliver malware across multiple workstations and endpoints on a network, researchers have discovered. Researchers at Morphisec Labs te...

Iranian Hackers Target U.S. Gov. Vendor With Malware

Iran-linked threat actor APT34 has been observed sending targeted, malicious email attachments to customers and employees of a company that works closely with U.S. government agencies. The company in question is U.S.-based Westat, a professional services company that provides research services to...

LoRaWAN for IoT: Beware Encryption Misconfigurations and Security Pitfalls

UPDATE The LoRaWAN protocol, which efficiently supports low-power wireless devices over wide area networks, has become standard in the world of the industrial internet of things IoT. One of its benefits is its support for end-to-end encryption. However, researchers are warning that while LoRaWAN...

TrickBot Evolves to Go After SSH Keys

The TrickBot info-stealing malware has updated its password grabber to target data from OpenSSH and OpenVPN applications. OpenSSH is a connectivity tool for remote login with the SSH protocol; it encrypts all traffic to eliminate eavesdropping. OpenVPN meanwhile is used for secure private...

Google Discloses Android Camera Hijack Hack

Researchers have disclosed a high-severity issue that could allow attackers to hijack the Google Camera App, the built-in smartphone camera for Android phones. The issue was fixed for Google-manufactured phones in July – but Google said patches are still rolling out to smartphones in the broader...

Google Enlists Help to Fight Bad Android Apps

After years of unsuccessfully battling malware and bad apps in the Google Play store and on more than 2.5 billion Android devices, Google is finally doing something about it. The tech giant this week unveiled an alliance with three companies with specific expertise in endpoint security to help...

Magecart Group Targets Routers Behind Public Wi-Fi Networks

A faction of the Magecart threat group is testing code that targets routers used to provide free or paid Wi-Fi services in public spaces and hotels. If successful, attackers would able to compromise these commercial-grade routers and be able to siphon payment data of users joining Wi-Fi networks ...

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...

WhatsApp, Telegram Coding Blunders Can Expose Personal Media Files

Though WhatsApp and Telegram tout themselves as secure messaging services, faulty developer coding that allows cyberattackers to intercept media files sent on the Android versions of the services like photos and videos, documents and voice memos undercuts that claim. The security weakness, dubbed...

Apple Disables Walkie-Talkie App Due to Eavesdropping Flaw

Apple has temporarily disabled the Walkie-Talkie feature from the Apple Watch due to a vulnerability that could allow potential attackers to eavesdrop in on iPhone calls, a TechCrunch report said. The Apple Watch Walkie-Talkie app allows users to converse with friends in real-time, without having...

WWDC 2019: Apple Takes Aim at Facebook on Privacy

Apple took a swipe at Facebook at its Worldwide Developers’ Conference WWDC on Monday, unveiling fresh privacy features for the upcoming version of its iOS operating system for iPhone and iPad iOS 13. Most notably, it took the wraps off of an authentication mechanism that will allow users to sign...

Google Patches 11 Critical RCE Android Vulnerabilities

Remote code-execution RCE vulnerabilities dominated Google’s December Android Security Bulletin. The flaws are part of a total of 53 unique bugs patched by the Android security team, with a total number of 11 critical bugs – six of which are RCE flaws tied to the operating system’s Media Framewor...

GreyEnergy Spy APT Mounts Sophisticated Effort Against Critical Infrastructure

A new APT group, dubbed GreyEnergy by researchers, has emerged as a successor to the infamous BlackEnergy APT group, which was behind the electric grid cyberattack and resulting power outage in the Ukraine in December 2015. However, GreyEnergy’s focus and targeting revolve around cyber-espionage...

Critical Flaws in Syringe Pump, Device Gateways Threaten Patient Safety

Two previously undocumented, critical vulnerabilities in widely deployed medical devices have sparked patient-safety and data-privacy concerns. Flaws in the Qualcomm Life Capsule Datacaptor Terminal Server and the Becton Dickinson BD Alaris TIVA Syringe Pump have been acknowledged by the vendors...

New Dridex Variant Emerges With An FTP Twist

A variant of the Dridex banking trojan recently popped up in an email campaign, with an unusual twist: The attackers used compromised FTP sites for hosting malicious documents, according to researchers at Forcepoint. It was a notable departure from the norm of using HTTP links and could represent...

Google Patches Critical 'Broadpwn' Bug in July Security Update

Google released a security patch Wednesday that addresses a critical vulnerability dubbed “Broadpwn” found in millions of Android devices that could allow remote attackers to execute code on targeted devices. The so-called Broadpwn bug is tied to a vulnerability in Broadcom’s BCM43xx family of Wi...

Attackers Mining Cryptocurrency Using Exploits for Samba Vulnerability

Unknown attackers are using a recently patched vulnerability in Samba to spread a resource-intensive cryptocurrency mining utility. To date, the operation has netted the attackers just under $6,000 USD, but the number of compromised computers is growing, meaning that a significant number of Samba...

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...

Pornhub Hack Earns Researchers $22,000

A PHP vulnerability that exposed adult website PornHub’s user data to hackers and allowed for code execution on servers hosting the site, earned a trio of German researchers $22,000 as part of a bug bounty program. PHP patched the vulnerability in June. The flaw is tied to a use-after-free memory...

Charney on Trustworthy Computing: 'I Was the Architect of These Changes'

Scott Charney, the head of Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing efforts, said that he was the one who decided it was time to move the TwC group in a new direction and integrate the security functions more deeply into the company as a whole. “I was the architect of these changes. This is not about th...

Era Ends With Break Up of Trustworthy Computing Group at Microsoft

In a move that has surprised many in the security community, Microsoft has disbanded its Trustworthy Computing unit, the group that was responsible for the pioneering work that helped reverse the company’s security reputation and make Windows a much more secure and reliable computing platform. Th...

Epic Operation Kicks Off Multistage Turla APT Campaign

The Turla APT campaign has baffled researchers for months as to how its victims are compromised. Peaking during the first two months of the year, Turla has targeted municipal governments, embassies, militaries and other high-value targets worldwide, with particular concentrations in the Middle Ea...

A Decade of Microsoft Patch Tuesday Security Updates

On Oct. 9, 2003, Microsoft announced its new security patching process that would end up being a catalyst for significant change in the information security community. Ten years ago, the program was announced with a press release that promised “Improved patch management processes, policies and...

Vasillis Pappas Wins $200,000 Microsoft Blue Hat Prize

LAS VEGAS–Microsoft on Thursday handed out three rather large checks to a trio of security researchers, the largest one–$200,000–going to Vasillis Pappas who won the company’s first Blue Hat Prize competition for defensive technologies. Pappas’s kBouncer ROP mitigation technology edged out...

Mitigating the Slowloris HTTP DoS Attack

Enterprise IT security staffs looking for some mitigation for the newly released HTTP DoS tool may have a few options. The analysts at the SANS Internet Storm Center are recommending that organizations running Web servers that are vulnerable to the tool’s attack make some basic configuration...

Living Off the Land: How to Defend Against Malicious Use of Legitimate Utilities

Living-off-the-land binaries LOLBins are no joke: Cyberattackers have been increasingly making use of them to hide their malicious work from security solutions. It’s time for threat hunters and IT security staff to familiarize themselves with how these are used in the attack chains of some of the...

FBI: Another Zoho ManageEngine Zero-Day Under Active Attack

Another Zoho ManageEngine zero-day vulnerability is under active attack from an APT group, this time looking to override legitimate functions of servers running ManageEngine Desktop Central and elevate privileges — with an ultimate goal of dropping malware onto organizations’ networks, the FBI ha...

Rickroll Grad Prank Exposes Exterity IPTV Bug

UPDATE When Township High School District 214 in Illinois got rickrolled all at once across its six different schools just before graduation, it was more than a meticulously executed senior prank. Cybersecurity star-in-the-making and recent high-school graduate Minh Duong found, and was able to...

Phishing Attacks Spawn Three New Malware Strains

Two waves of global financial phishing attacks that swamped at least 50 organizations in December have delivered three new malware families, according to a report from FireEye’s Mandiant cybersecurity team. On Tuesday, the team said that they’ve dubbed the hitherto-unseen malware strains...

Flubot Spyware Spreading Through Android Devices

Android mobile phone users across the U.K. and Europe are being targeted by text messages containing a particularly nasty piece of spyware called “Flubot,” according to the U.K.’s National Cyber Security Centre. And the U.S. could be the next target. Victims are asked to download a fake app from ...

Conti Gang Demands $40M Ransom from Florida School District

UPDATE The Conti Gang has demanded a $40 million ransom from a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., school district after a ransomware attack last month. Attackers stole personal information from students and teachers, disrupted the district’s networks, and caused some services to be unavailable. The incident...

FortiGate VPN Default Config Allows MitM Attacks

Default configurations of Fortinet’s FortiGate VPN appliance could open organizations to man-in-the-middle MitM attacks, according to researchers, where threat actors could intercept important data. According to the SAM IoT Security Lab, the FortiGate SSL-VPN client only verifies that the...

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...

Attackers Horn in on MFA Bypass Options for Account Takeovers

An uptick in business email compromise attacks is being attributed to successful compromises of multi-factor authentication MFA and conditional access controls, according to researchers. While brute-forcing and password spraying techniques are the most common way to mount account takeovers, more...

4 Unpatched Bugs Plague Grandstream ATAs for VoIP Users

UPDATE Multiple high-severity vulnerabilities in the Grandstream HT800 series of Analog Telephone Adaptors ATAs threaten home office and midrange users alike, with outages, eavesdropping and device takeover. The HT800 series of ATAs is designed for everyone from home or small-office users to...

Vermont Taxpayers Warned of Data Leak Over the Past Three Years

The Vermont Department of Taxes may have been exposing taxpayer data that could be used in credential scams for more than three years due to a vulnerability in its online tax filing system. A notice PDF posted on the department’s website warned taxpayers who filed a Property Transfer Tax return...

Home Chef Serves Up Data Breach for 8 Million Records

Mail-order meal kits have become even more popular as the coronavirus pandemic has kept people home and cooking on a regular basis. Unfortunately, one of these, the popular Kroger’s Home Chef service, recently served up a side of data breach along with its perfectly measured ingredients. Accordin...

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...

Official Government COVID-19 Mobile Apps Hide a Raft of Threats

A rash of COVID-19 Android mobile apps have emerged that are aimed at helping citizens in Iran, Italy and Colombia track symptoms and virus infections. However, they’re also putting people’s privacy and the security of their data at risk, researchers have found. Security researchers at the ZeroFO...

Video: Ransomware a Growing Industrial Security Threat

SAN FRANCISCO – Today, Operational Technology OT and Information Technology systems are merging and changing security playbooks. Here at RSA Conference 2020, Waterfall Security‘s CEO and co-founder Lior Frenkel describes the front lines of the convergence. Frenkel maintains that just as more...

Apple Takes Heat Over 'Vulnerable' iOS Cut-and-Paste Data

Any cut-and-paste data temporarily stored to an iPhone or iPad’s memory can be accessed by all apps installed on the specific device – even malicious ones. That data can then reveal private information such as a user’s GPS coordinates, passwords, banking data or a spreadsheet copied into an email...

Active Attacks Target Popular Duplicator WordPress Plugin

Active exploits are targeting a recently patched flaw in the popular WordPress plugin Duplicator, which has more than 1 million active installations. So far, researchers have seen 60,000 attempts to harvest sensitive information from victims. Researchers at Wordfence who discovered the in-the-wil...

Burning Man Tickets for $225? Yep, Too Good to Be True

Burning Man aficionados anxious to get their tickets squared away for the 2020 “experience” should beware: Fake concert organizers are offering passes in what researchers say is a very convincing and sophisticated scam effort. Burning Man, which bills itself as a “vibrant participatory metropolis...

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,...

‘Fleeceware’ Apps Downloaded 600M Times from Google Play

Google has made a concerted effort in recent months to try to eliminate bad apps for its Android mobile platform on the Google Play store—something the company historically has battled. However, fleeceware apps—which trick users into paying excessive amounts of money for simple apps with...

News Wrap: Voice Assistant Laser Hack, Twitter Insider Threats, Data Breach Fine Fails

Threatpost editors break down the top news stories for the week ended Nov. 8. The hot stories of the week include: Despite trillions of dollars in data-breach fine payouts, each year the number of compromised companies and individuals with private data exposed rise – a Threatpost feature looks at...

Cybercrime Tool Prices Bump Up in Dark Web Markets

Prices have been rising in the last two years for longstanding tools available on the Dark Web to help bad actors commit cyber attacks and fraud, alongside newer innovations that are emerging to bolster crimes like ransomware and SIM swapping, new research has found. Keeping track of these trends...

Senate Passes Bill Aimed At Combating Ransomware Attacks

The U.S. Senate has approved new legislation aimed at helping government agencies and private-sector companies combat ransomware attacks. The legislation comes as local governments and schools continue to be hit by sophisticated – and in some cases coordinated – ransomware attacks. The proposed...

State Farm Falls Victim to Credential-Stuffing Attack

State Farm Insurance is notifying customers that accounts have been compromised by hackers in a credential-stuffing attack. Credential-stuffing is accomplished by hackers who take advantage of users who often reuse the same passwords across multiple online accounts. The cyberattackers use stolen...

Mass Spoofing Campaign Abuses Walmart Brand

An ongoing domain name spoofing campaign is taking aim at retail giant Walmart and other big fish, with more than 540 malicious domains being used to harvest consumer information. The scam domains are mimicking legitimate sites in name and appearance, in hopes of fooling visitors into entering...