Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Flaw Patched

A patch for a critical Linux kernel flaw, present in the code since 2012, is expected to be pushed out today. The vulnerability affects versions 3.8 and higher, said researchers at startup Perception Point who discovered the vulnerability. The flaw also extends to two-thirds of Android devices, t...

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...

Angler Exploit Kit, Bedep Malware Inflating Video Views

A new sort of hacktivism emerged last week when experts from Trustwave published new research revealing that attackers are using the Angler exploit kit and the Bedep Trojan in order to drive artificial views to politically controversial videos. The motivation for the scheme, it appears, is to...

VMware Begins to Patch Bash Issues Across Product Line

Much like Heartbleed triggered vendors to issue out of band patches to remedy vulnerabilities that popped up earlier this year, Shellshock, the Bash vulnerability, has forced vendors’ hands in a similar fashion. Virtualization firm VMware issued a progress report on fixes for four different types...

August 2014 Microsoft Patch Tuesday Security Bulletins

Microsoft today released its monthly Patch Tuesday Security Bulletins, and the top priority is another cumulative update for Internet Explorer; this one patches 26 vulnerabilities, including one that’s been publicly reported, Microsoft said, and is likely being exploited. All of them are rated...

Energy Watering Hole Attack Used LightsOut Exploit Kit

A recent watering-hole attack targeted firms in the energy sector using a compromised site belonging to a law firm that works with energy companies and led victims to a separate site that used the LightsOut exploit kit to compromise their machines. The attack, which was active during late Februar...

Call for Ban on Vulnerable PHP SuperGlobal Variables

The ease with which PHP applications can be subverted should be pretty apparent by now given the number of botnets supported by compromised sites hosting PHP code. The biggest culprit in the PHP universe may be a set of nine variables called SuperGlobals that provide programmers with development...

Aumlib, Ixeshe Malware Updated in Targeted China Attacks

After a quiet period, the state-sponsored hacker group blamed for attacks on the New York Times late last year has begun a number of new campaigns that feature updated versions of malware used in attacks going back to 2009. Researchers at FireEye said the group, identified as APT 12 by forensics...

Ryan Naraine on Microsoft's New Bug Bounty Program

Dennis Fisher talks with Ryan Naraine about the new Microsoft bug bounty program, how it may affect prices for vulnerabilities on the private market and why it took the company so long to start the reward program. Download: digitalunderground116...

Fake Facebook Alert Emails Link to Black Hole Sites

Attackers are sending spoofed “pending notification” emails to Facebook users, claiming that the recipients overlooked some alert on the world’s largest social network, and providing them with a link that supposedly leads to the allegedly neglected content but which, in reality, funnels users to ...

Fake Automated Craigslist Email Notifications Link to Blackhole Exploit Kit

UPDATE: A big wave of emails purporting to be Craigslist notifications but containing links to websites hosting the Black Hole exploit kit hit the Internet yesterday, a day that already was filled with drama surrounding the LinkedIn password dump. The malicious emails, 150,000 of which were caugh...

Leaders from China, U.S. Meet, Agree to Rally Against Cyber Threats

In an attempt to clear the cybersecurity air, the United States and the People’s Republic of China agreed Monday to work in tandem to prevent future cyber threats. Meeting at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and General Liang Guanglie, China’s Minister of National Defense, insisted th...

Serious Remote PHP Bug Accidentally Disclosed

A serious remote-code execution vulnerability in PHP was accidentally disclosed Wednesday, leading to fears of an outbreak of attacks on sites that were built using vulnerable versions of PHP. The bug has been known privately since January when a team of researchers used it in a capture the flag...

New Java Malware Exploits Both Windows And Mac Users

Symantec has discovered a new form of Java malware that infects both Apple and Windows machines, according to research posted on the company’s Security Response blog. The entry, penned by researcher Takashi Katsuki, describes a strain of Java Applet malware that either drops a Python-based malwar...

Google Fixes More Than 30 Flaws in Chrome

Google has fixed more than 30 security vulnerabilities in its Chrome browser with a new version the company released on Friday. The company also paid out more than $14,000 in rewards to the various researchers who reported bugs that were fixed with Chrome 14.0.835.163. The new version of Chrome...

Apache Releases Version 2.2.21 With New Fix For Range Header Flaw

Two weeks after releasing a fix for the range-header denial-of-service flaw that was much-discussed on security forums and mailing lists, the Apache Software Foundation has pushed out another version of its popular Web server that includes a further fix for the same flaw. Apache 2.2.21 has a patc...

Xiaomi Phone Bug Allowed Payment Forgery

Smartphone maker Xiaomi, the world’s number three phone maker behind Apple and Samsung, reported it has patched a high-severity flaw in its “trusted environment” used to store payment data that opened some of its handsets to attack. Researchers at Check Point Research revealed last week in a repo...

Podcast: Inside the Hackers’ Toolkit

There is no question that companies are in the sights of would-be criminals looking to exploit them. While companies look at solutions and training to help keep the perimeter secure, the biggest fail point is often the employees, AKA the human element. In this Threatpost podcast, sponsored by...

iPhones Vulnerable to Attack Even When Turned Off

Attackers can target iPhones even when they are turned off due to how Apple implements standalone wireless features Bluetooth, Near Field Communication NFC and Ultra-wideband UWB technologies in the device, researchers have found. These features—which have access to the iPhone’s Secure Element SE...

Web Filtering & Compliances for Wi-Fi Providers

The demand for public Wi-Fi is increasing constantly due to the increase of smartphone owners and remote workers. Researchers at VPNMentor say that there are approximately 549 million Wi-Fi hotspots worldwide. Another survey by Semantic found that 87 percent of U.S. consumers have used the readil...

2FA Bypassed in $34.6M Crypto.com Heist

Early Thursday morning, Crypto.com acknowledged that it had lost $34.65 million worth of cash, Bitcoin and Ethereum after getting ransacked in an attack that slipped fat transactions past two-factor authentication 2FA. Users had complained over the weekend that their accounts had been drained:...

New Twists on Gift-Card Scams Flourish on Black Friday

Black Friday cyber-pariahs have revamped gift-card scams to better target modern online shoppers hungry for deals post-Thanksgiving. Experts warn new tactics include bogus gift-card generators that install malware designed to sniff out a victim’s cryptocurrency wallet address. Internet-based Blac...

U.S. Ban on Sales of Cyberattack Tools Is Anemic, Experts Warn

The launch of a standing offer to pay for Windows virtual private network VPN software zero-day exploits came to light this week, even as the U.S. mulls new regulations on the export of tools that could be used in cyberattacks against the U.S. or its interests. The developments signal that the U....

Tracking Malware and Ransomware Domains in 2021

In 2021, the threat of ransomware has loomed large. In many ways, it’s exactly what cybersecurity experts expected and predicted after the major cyber attacks of 2020—including hospital ransomware attacks on a healthcare industry hard-hit by both ransomware and Covid-19. But in other ways, this...

Lazarus Targets Job-Seeking Engineers with Malicious Documents

The notorious Lazarus advanced persistent threat APT group has been identified as the cybergang behind a campaign spreading malicious documents to job-seeking engineers. The ploy involves impersonating defense contractors seeking job candidates. Researchers have been tracking Lazarus activity for...

Fake Kaseya VSA Security Update Drops Cobalt Strike

A malware spam campaign is milking the Kaseya ransomware attacks against its Virtual System/Server Administrator VSA platform to spread a link pretending to be a Microsoft security update, along with an executable file that’s dropping Cobalt Strike, researchers warn. On Tuesday night, Malwarebyte...

Iran Media Websites Seized by U.S. in Disinformation Campaign

The Department of Justice has seized the domains of 36 Iranian media sites that officials say weren’t just operating in violation of sanctions, but were part of a widespread government-backed malign-influence operation targeting the U.S. The DoJ said that 33 of the sites are run by the Iranian...

Peloton’s Leaky API Spilled Riders’ Private Data

Peloton has hit a pothole. Its API was leaking riders’ private data, it ignored a vulnerability disclosure from a penetration testing company, and it partially fixed the hole but didn’t get around to telling the researcher until he reached out to a cybersecurity journalist for some help. This is...

Firewall Vendor Patches Critical Auth Bypass Flaw

Germany-based cybersecurity company Genua has fast-tracked a fix for a critical flaw in one of its firewall products. If exploited, the vulnerability could allow local attackers to bypass authentication measures and log in to internal company networks with the highest level of privileges. Genua...

Clubhouse Conversations Recorded, Researchers Warn

At nearly a year old, the invitation-only, audio-based social-media platform ClubHouse is grappling with security issues on multiple fronts, but the consensus among researchers is coming into focus: Assume your ClubHouse conversations are being recorded. The company confirmed to Bloomberg that ov...

Crypto Crook Hired Steven Seagal to Promote Scam, Now Faces Charges

Hundreds of investors in a fake cryptocurrency scam were bilked out of $11 million by John DeMarr, who advised them to invest in fake cryptocurrency “Bitcoiin,” took their money and spent it on a Porsche, jewelry and upgrades to his home, a criminal complaint from the Department of Justice allege...

Critical Bugs in Dell Wyse Thin Clients Allow Code Execution, Client Takeovers

Dell has patched two critical security vulnerabilities in its Dell Wyse Thin Client Devices, which are small form-factor computers optimized for connecting to a remote desktop. The bugs allow arbitrary code execution and the ability to access files and credentials, researchers said. Thin clients...

Universal Health Services Ransomware Attack Impacts Hospitals Nationwide

A ransomware attack has shut down Universal Health Services, a Fortune-500 owner of a nationwide network of hospitals. The attack occurred in the wee hours of the morning on Monday, according to reports coming in from employees on Reddit and other platforms. On Reddit, a discussion with hundreds ...

Cloud Leak Exposes 320M Dating-Site Records

Users of 70 different adult dating and e-commerce websites have had their personal information exposed, thanks to a misconfigured, publicly accessible Elasticsearch cloud server. In all, 320 million individual records were leaked online, researchers said. All of the impacted websites have one thi...

Bluetooth Bug Opens Devices to Man-in-the-Middle Attacks

A high-severity Bluetooth vulnerability has been uncovered, which could enable an unauthenticated attacker within wireless range to eavesdrop or alter communications between paired devices. The flaw CVE-2020-15802, discovered independently by researchers at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de...

CEOs Could Be Held Personally Liable for Cyberattacks that Kill

A full 75 percent of top brass at companies will be personally on the hook for cyber-physical security CSP incidents by 2024 – especially those that involve fatalities. That’s according to the Gartner research firm, which predicted this week that CEOs soon will no longer be able to hide behind...

Twitter: Hackers Accessed Private Messages for Elite Accounts

Hackers accessed direct messages DMs for 36 of the 130 high-profile users whose accounts were hacked in an unprecedented account breach last week, Twitter confirmed Wednesday. An elected official in the Netherlands was one of those whose DMs were compromised, the company tweeted in an update late...

Leak Exposes Private Data of Genealogy Service Users

A server containing information of users of a genealogy service has exposed the data of 60,000 users, putting them at risk for fraud, phishing and other cybercriminal activity. Research led by Avishai Efrat at WizCase has discovered the leak, which affected an open and unencrypted ElasticSearch...

Facebook's FTC-Mandated Privacy Committee Now in Effect

Facebook on Thursday said it has started to report its privacy practices to a newly formed, independent Privacy Committee. The creation of the independent committee was part of the company’s settlement a year ago with the Federal Trade Commission FTC over data privacy violations, which came in...

Sophisticated Info-Stealer Targets Air-Gapped Devices via USB

The Cycldek APT group has added a previously unknown malware dubbed USBCulprit to its arsenal, aimed at reaching air-gapped devices. Cycldek a.k.a. Goblin Panda, APT 27 and Conimes has been targeting governments in Southeast Asia since 2013, according to analysis from Kaspersky, and has been...

DoubleGun Group Builds Massive Botnet Using Cloud Services

An operation from the China-based cybercrime gang known as DoubleGun Group has been disrupted, which had amassed hundreds of thousands of bots that were controlled via public cloud services, including Alibaba and Baidu Tieba. NetLab 360 researchers, in a recent posting, said that it noticed DNS...

Copycat Site Serves Up Raccoon Stealer

Someone is targeting web denizens with a malicious, copycat Malwarebytes website, which serves up the Raccoon information stealer malware to unsuspecting visitors. According to the security firm itself, the attackers set up the domain “malwarebytes-free.com” with a domain registrar in Russia in...

Top Email Protections Fail in Latest COVID-19 Phishing Campaign

Threat actors continue to capitalize on fears surrounding the spread of the COVID-19 virus through a surge in new phishing campaigns that use spoofing tactics to effectively evade Proofpoint and Microsoft Office 365 advanced threat protections ATPs, researchers have found. The Cofense Phishing...

Let's Encrypt to Revoke Millions of TLS Certs

UPDATE Popular free certificate authority Let’s Encrypt said it will revoke 3 million Transport Layer Security TLS certificates Wednesday, because of a Certificate Authority Authorization CAA bug. The move could mean that millions of websites and machine identities that rely on those certificates...

Google: Efforts Against Bad Android Apps on Play Store Are Working

Some of the efforts Google has made over the past few years to bolster the security of Android app users as well as the mobile apps available on its Google Play store are starting to work, according to the tech giant. The company, which historically has struggled mightily to keep bad apps and...

Dutch Politician Could Get Three Years in Prison for Hacking iCloud Accounts

Prosecutors in the Netherlands are asking for three years in prison for a Dutch politician who hacked into women’s personal iCloud accounts and stole nude photos and other personal digital material belonging to them, then leaked some of it online. The public prosecutor of the North Holland Public...

Data-Enriched Profiles on 1.2B People Exposed in Gigantic Leak

An open Elasticsearch server has exposed the rich profiles of more than 1.2 billion people to the open internet. First found on October 16 by researchers Bob Diachenko and Vinny Troia, the database contains more than 4 terabytes of data. It consists of scraped information from social media source...

You've Been Served…with Subpoena-Themed Phishing Emails

A phishing campaign claiming to deliver emailed subpoenas is targeting insurance and retail companies. According to researchers, the phishing emails are spoofing the UK Ministry of Justice, aiming to capitalize on scare tactics to convince targets to click on an embedded link to “learn more about...

Emotet Resurgence Continues With New Tactics, Techniques and Procedures

The notorious banking trojan Emotet, that mysteriously disappeared over the summer, returned last month dropping a new collection of malware including information stealers, email harvesters, self-propagation mechanisms and ransomware. But since the malware returned from its hiatus, there was no...

Eye Clinic Breach Reveals Data of 20,000 Patients

A Utah eye clinic is in the process of informing 20,000 patients that they were the victims of a data breach that happened a year and a half ago and linked patients to a scam involving PayPal. The breach at the Utah Valley Eye Center in Provo, Utah, that exposed patient emails once again highligh...