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Authentication Bug Opens Android Smart-TV Box to Data Theft

A critical bug in the Hindotech HK1 TV Box would allow root-privilege escalation thanks to improper access control. A successful exploit would allow attackers to steal social-networking account tokens, Wi-Fi passwords, cookies, saved passwords, user-location data, message history, emails, contact...

Hackers Dump 20GB of Intel's Confidential Data Online

More than 20 gigabytes of proprietary data and source code from chipmaker Intel Corp. was dumped online by a third party, likely the result of a data breach from earlier this year. The announcement of the “first 20gb release in a series of large Intel leaks” was made by user and IT consultant...

Garmin Pays Up to Evil Corp After Ransomware Attack — Reports

Garmin, the GPS and aviation tech specialist, reportedly negotiated with Evil Corp for an decryption key to unlock its files in the wake of a WastedLocker ransomware attack. The attack, which started on July 23, knocked out Garmin’s fitness-tracker services, customer-support outlets and commercia...

Apple Security Research Device Program Draws Mixed Reactions

Apple’s long anticipated Security Research Device program has launched, giving select security researchers access to testable iPhones that will make it easier for them to find iOS vulnerabilities. The program offers security researchers specially configured iPhones with shell access, and special...

The Enemy Within: How Insider Threats Are Changing

Insider threats are ramping up – with new kinds of concerns in this category beginning to emerge. This is happening against a heady backdrop: Makeshift home offices, a cavalcade of new distractions and a tectonic shift to the cloud have recently collided to create an entirely new world for...

Report: ‘BlueLeaks’ Exposes Sensitive Data From Police Departments

Thousands of sensitive police department files – including police and FBI reports – were published on Friday by DDoSecrets Distributed Denial of Secrets, a self-proclaimed “transparency collective” that publishes covert data. The almost 270 gigabytes of data, dubbed “BlueLeaks,” is reportedly fro...

News Wrap: Fake Minneapolis Police Breach, Zoom End-To-End Encryption Debate

Threatpost editors Lindsey O’Donnell-Welch and Tara Seals discuss the top security news stories of the week, including: Reports emerged earlier this week that the Minneapolis police department had been breached by hacktivist group Anonymous. Security expert Troy Hunt debunked the reports, however...

Innovative Spy Trojan Targets European Diplomatic Targets

A fresh malware trojan has emerged, built from the same code base as the stealthy COMPFun remote access trojan RAT. The malware is using spoofed visa applications to hit diplomatic targets in Europe and may be the work of the Turla APT. According to researchers at Kaspersky, the fake visa...

New Android Malware Targets PayPal, CapitalOne App Users

An Android mobile malware has been uncovered that steals payment data from users of popular financial apps like PayPal, Barclays, CapitalOne and more. The infostealer, called EventBot, has targeted users of more than 200 different banking, money-transfer services and general cryptocurrency wallet...

TA505 Crime Gang Deploys SDBbot for Corporate Network Takeover

The TA505 cybercrime group has ramped up its attacks lately, with a set of campaigns bent on spreading the persistent SDBbot remote-access trojan RAT laterally throughout an entire corporate environment, researchers said. SDBbot RAT is a custom job that has been observed in TA505 attacks since at...

'Unbreakable' Smart Lock Draws FTC Ire for Deceptive Security Claims

The Federal Trade Commission has slapped Tapplock, the maker of smart padlocks that it bills as “unbreakable,” with an official complaint that could lead to fines down the road. The agency alleges that the company engaged in false and deceptive claims about its security practices, after the lock...

Authorities Eye Using Mobile Phone Tracking COVID-19's Spread

Authorities in the United States and Israel are eyeing ways to use mobile-phone and other location-based data to help control the spread of the new coronavirus COVID-19, raising serious privacy concerns about the practice of using and sharing people’s personal data during the time of a global...

Download Guide: Advanced Threat Protection Beyond the AV

At a certain point, almost every organization reaches the conclusion that there is a need to move past just the standard AV and firewall stack in order to soundly protect their environment. The common practice in recent years is to gain extra protection through implementing either EDR\EPP solutio...

Forrester: Keeping Smart Cities Safe From Hacks

SAN FRANCISCO – Municipalities today are dealing with an unanticipated number of cyberthreats, Merritt Maxim, an analyst at Forrester, said last week at the RSA Conference 2020. Local and state governments are increasingly being targeted by ransomware attacks, phishing emails and business email...

Ring Mandates 2FA After Rash of Hacks

Connected doorbell-maker Ring is now requiring two-factor authentication 2FA for all users when they sign into their accounts. The new requirement comes after Ring faced a backlash in December following a rash of disturbing hacks and security issues tied to the smart doorbell. While Amazon-owned...

Google Sets Record High in Bug-Bounty Payouts

Google paid out $6.5 million in bug-bounty rewards in 2019, which doubles the internet behemoth’s previous annual top total. It has also highlighted additional bonuses that are now in effect for Chrome and Android. Last year saw some notable changes for Google’s Vulnerability Reward Programs VRPs...

Cynet Empowers IT Resellers and Service Providers to Become Fully Qualified MSSPs

As cyber incidents increase in scope and impact, more and more organizations come to realize that outsourcing their defenses is the best practice—significantly increasing the Managed Security Service Provider MSSP market opportunities. Until recently, IT integrators, VARs, and MSPs haven’t...

A Practical Guide to Zero-Trust Security

Employees are demanding that employers enable flexible workstyles. Apps are moving to the cloud. A company’s device and application mix are increasingly heterogeneous. All of these factors are breaking down the enterprise security perimeter, rendering traditional security approaches obsolete, and...

Amazon's Blink Smart Security Cameras Open to Hijack

Multiple high-severity vulnerabilities have been discovered in Amazon-owned Blink XT2 security camera systems, which if exploited could give attackers complete control over them. The internet of things IoT cameras not to be confused with the Blink open-source browser engine, consist of a wireless...

ThreatList: Most Retail Hardware Bug Bounty Flaws Are Critical

Almost all of hardware vulnerabilities – 90 percent – that were submitted to retail bug bounty programs so far this year were categorized as critical, showing that Point of Sale systems and other retail hardware assets remain a serious security issue. That’s due to the fact that retail hardware...

CISO and Security Vendor Relationships are Good for a Laugh in New Comic Videos

It’s not easy being a CISO. One could say “intense” might be the perfect descriptor for the CISO work environment. Tasked with the unenviable job of keeping the organization safe, carrying the burden of failed protection and taking hits for successful breaches, CISOs can never rest. They are...

Apple Updates Privacy Policies After Siri Audio Recording Backlash

Apple is taking steps to improve the privacy of audio collected by its Siri voice assistant, on the heels of backlash around a program that let contractors listen into Siri conversations. On Wednesday, the phone giant apologized for violating users’ privacy through the program, which was...

Microsoft Launches Azure DevOps Bug Bounty Program

Microsoft lifted the curtain on a new Azure DevOps bug bounty program, designed to sniff out flaws in its Azure DevOps online services and servers. Azure DevOps is a cloud service launched in 2018 that enables collaboration on code development across the breadth of a development lifecycle...

Recently-Patched Adobe ColdFusion Flaw Exploited By APT

An Adobe ColdFusion vulnerability, patched two months ago, was being exploited in the wild by a China-linked APT group, researchers found. The vulnerability, CVE-2018-15961, is a critical unrestricted file upload bug that could also lead to arbitrary code-execution, researchers at Volexity, who...

Google Patches Critical Vulnerabilities in Android OS

Google patched six critical remote code execution flaws in its Android operating system as part of its October Android Security Bulletin. Four of those remote code execution flaws are tied to Android’s Media framework and impact a wide range of Android devices including Google’s Pixel and Nexus...

Phishing Spy Campaign Targets Top Mideast Officials

Researchers have discovered a phishing campaign that infected Android devices with custom surveillance-ware bent on extracting data from top officials, primarily in the Middle East. Researchers at Lookout Security told Threatpost that the tool, dubbed Stealth Mango, has been used to collect over ...

Researchers Hacked Amazon’s Alexa to Spy On Users, Again

A malicious proof-of-concept Amazon Echo Skill shows how attackers can abuse the Alexa virtual assistant to eavesdrop on consumers with smart devices – and automatically transcribe every word said. Checkmarx researchers told Threatpost that they created a proof-of-concept Alexa Skill that abuses...

Microsoft Patches Critical Windows DNS Client Vulnerabilities

Three critical Windows DNS client vulnerabilities were patched today by Microsoft, closing off an avenue where an attacker could relatively simply respond to DNS queries with malicious code and gain arbitrary code execution on Windows clients or Windows Server installations. The flaws were...

No Fix Planned For LabVIEW Bug, Says National Instruments

Automated test equipment and virtual instrumentation software behemoth National Instruments said it will not patch software that security researchers at Cisco Talos said is flawed and could result in code execution by third-party attackers. The affected software is LabVIEW, a leading program...

Mozilla Fixes 32 Vulnerabilities in Firefox 54

Mozilla fixed 32 vulnerabilities, including a critical bug that could have resulted in a crash, with the release Tuesday of Firefox 54, the latest version of its flagship browser. The critical bug, a use-after-free vulnerability, was dug up by longtime bug hunter Nils. The vulnerability...

Unpatched WordPress Password Reset Vulnerability Lingers

A zero-day vulnerability exists in WordPress Core that in some instances could allow an attacker to reset a user’s password and gain access to their account. Researcher Dawid Golunski of Legal Hackers disclosed the vulnerability on Wednesday via his new ExploitBox service. All versions of...

SquirrelMail Remote Code Execution Vulnerability Patched

Developers behind the PHP-based webmail package SquirrelMail patched a remote code execution vulnerability that could let attackers execute arbitrary commands on the target and compromise the system on Thursday. Dawid Golunski, a researcher with Legal Hackers discovered the vulnerability and...

Exploit Kit Activity Quiets, But is Far From Silent

Over the past six months, the roar of exploit kits has quieted to a whimper. But that doesn’t mean exploit kit threats are nonexistent. According to security experts, gangs behind them are regrouping, tweaking code and finding fresh software exploits to target. Here are the exploit kits and explo...

Code Execution Vulnerability Found in Libpurple IM Library

A severe vulnerability has been disclosed in libpurple, the library used in the development of a number of popular instant messaging clients, including Pidgin and Adium for the macOS platform. Adium 1.5.10.2 is vulnerable and can be exploited to run arbitrary code remotely. A researcher who goes ...

Outlook Web Access Two-Factor Authentication Bypass Exists

Enterprises running Exchange Server have been operating under a false sense of security with regard to two-factor authentication implementations on Outlook Web Access OWA adding an extra layer of protection. A design weakness has been exposed that can allow an attacker to easily bypass 2FA and...

St. Jude Faces New Claim Heart Devices are Hackable

St. Jude Medical is facing fresh allegations its heart implant devices are vulnerable to cyberattacks. The claims were introduced by the defense as part of St. Jude’s defamation lawsuit against short seller Muddy Waters and security firm MedSec. In a legal filing submitted Monday, experts hired b...

Chrome 53 Fixes Address Spoofing Vulnerability, 32 Other Bugs

Google continued its onslaught of summer Chrome patches Wednesday when it pushed out version 53 of the browser, fixing 33 bugs, half of which were rated “high” severity by the company. Google paid at least $56,500 in rewards to researchers who discovered vulnerabilities in the browser this time...

VMware vCenter Server Patch Reissue

VMware on Saturday reissued a patch from October that incompletely addressed a critically rated remote code execution vulnerability in vCenter Server. The original vulnerability, CVE-2015-2342, was a poorly configured JMX RMI service in vCenter Server that was remotely accessible. The flaw allowe...

OpenSSL Patches Five Flaws, Adds Protection Against Logjam Attack

The OpenSSL project has patched several moderate- and low-severity security vulnerabilities and also has added protection against the Logjam attack in new releases of the software. Most of the vulnerabilities fixed in the new releases are denial-of-service bugs, but one of them can potentially...

Microsoft Brings Perfect Forward Secrecy to Windows

Microsoft yesterday added four cryptographic cipher suites to its default priority ordering list in Windows, a move that brings Perfect Forward Secrecy to the operating system. Update 3042058 is available for now only on the Microsoft Download Center, affording users the opportunity to test the...

December 2014 Microsoft Patch Tuesday Advance Notification

Microsoft made patch news on two fronts last month with an unusual emergency patch for a critical vulnerability in Kerberos, and for a missing fix for an Exchange bug that was promised in its November advanced notification. In the December advance notification, released today, an elevation...

Adobe Releases Emergency Flash Player Patch

Adobe today revised a security bulletin it released more than a month ago, adding a patch for a code-execution vulnerability in Flash Player already included in some exploit kits. French researcher Kafeine found the exploits in the Angler and Nuclear kits less than a week after Adobe released an...

Vulnerability in Viber Allows Snooping of Images, Videos

UPDATE – Viber, a messaging and VoIP application similar to WhatsApp, is in the middle of patching a vulnerability that could allow an attacker to view sensitive information shared between users like images, videos and location information. The problem is that information transferred by Viber is...

Hacked Media Sites Serving Fake AV Malware

Websites belonging to a number of Washington, D.C.-area media outlets have been compromised in a series of opportunistic attacks with criminals using a watering-hole tactic to spread scareware, or phony antivirus software. Popular D.C. radio station WTOP, sister station Federal News Radio, and th...

Oracle Releases 86 Patches in its January Critical Patch Update

This week’s relentless onslaught of security patches continued late Tuesday afternoon when Oracle released its quarterly Critical Patch Update, a healthy dose of 86 security updates across all major product lines including Oracle Database and MySQL Server. The most serious may be a critical...

Adobe Patches Four ColdFusion Flaws Exploited in Wild

Adobe delivered a security hotfix for its ColdFusion application server today, repairing a host of vulnerabilities being exploited in the wild. The company had recommended a series of mitigations in a Jan. 7 advisory as a stopgap until today’s hotfix was released. Two of the vulnerabilities affec...

Rocra Espionage Malware Campaign Uncovered After Five Years of Activity

For five years, it hid in the weeds of networks used by Eastern European diplomats, government employees and scientific research organizations, stealing data and infecting more machines in an espionage campaign rivaling Flame and others of its ilk. The campaign, called Rocra or Red October by...

Exploit Code, Metasploit Module Out for Ruby on Rails Flaws

Just two days after the disclosure of a string of serious vulnerabilities in Ruby on Rails, researchers have released proof-of-concept exploit code for a couple of the flaws and the team at Metasploit have released a module for the penetration testing framework that exploit one of the bugs, as...

Use of Java Zero-Day Flaws Tied to Nitro Attack Crew

Researchers say that one of the attack groups using the two new Java zero-day vulnerabilities is the same group that was behind an earlier targeted attack campaign from 2011. That group was traced back to China and was essentially running a spear-phishing campaign, but now the crew, known as Nitr...