Second NSA Crypto Tool Found in RSA BSafe

A team of academics released a study on the maligned Dual EC DRBG algorithm used in RSA Security’s BSafe and other cryptographic libraries that includes new evidence that the National Security Agency used a second cryptographic tool alongside Dual EC DRBG in Bsafe to facilitate spying. Allegation...

Google Fixes Four High-Risk Flaws in Chrome Before Pwn2Own

Google has fixed several serious security vulnerabilities in Chrome 33, just ahead of the Pwn2Own hacking competition at CanSecWest this week, which surely will reveal several more new bugs in the browser. The company’s Chrome browser is always at the top of the target list for contestants in...

New APT Campaign Dubbed The Mask Called Most Sophisticated Seen to Date

PUNTA CANA–A group of high-level, nation-state attackers has been targeting government agencies, embassies, diplomatic offices and energy companies with a cyber-espionage campaign for more than five years that researchers say is the most sophisticated APT operation they’ve seen to date. The attac...

12 Flaws Fixed in Google Chrome

Google has fixed 12 security vulnerabilities in Chrome, including six high-risk bugs. The new version of the browser includes a number of fixes for bugs discovered by external researchers as well as by Google’s own internal security team. Two of the more serious vulnerabilities patched in Chrome...

IE Zero Day Used in Targeted Attacks Against Japanese Firms

Attackers exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser have compromised several popular local Japanese media outlets and have infected systems belonging to government, high tech and manufacturing organizations in Japan. Researchers at FireEye said the attacks appea...

Critical IE, Windows Kernel Flaws Patched

For the second month in a row, Microsoft has released a cumulative update for Internet Explorer, patching a number of critical remote code execution vulnerabilities in the browser, including one previously disclosed. It also patched a serious kernel mode driver vulnerability that could enable...

Adobe Patches Two Critical Flash Player Vulnerabilities

Adobe released yet another security update for its Flash Player product, it’s third this month, earlier today. The emergency update patches three vulnerabilities, including two critical CVE-2013-0643 and CVE-2013-0648 that are targeting Flash Player in Mozilla’s Firefox browser and could let an...

Critical Vulnerability Fixed in Chrome 23

It’s Patch Tuesday, and not just for Microsoft and Adobe. Google also patched a number of security vulnerabilities in its Chrome browser today, including one critical flaw and three high-severity ones. The most serious vulnerability that Google fixed in Chrome 23 is a crash in the browser’s histo...

Computer Virus Blacks Out Qatari Gas Producer

An “unknown virus” has shutdown the entire computer network of the world’s second largest liquefied natural gas LNG producer, RasGas, according to news reports. RasGas is based in Qatar, a peninsular nation located within the larger Arabian Peninsula. The LNG producer has reportedly been offline...

Apache Fixes Two Security Flaws in Version 2.4.3

The Apache Software Foundation has fixed two vulnerabilities in its ubiquitous Web server, including a cross-site scripting bug that could enable an attacker to upload files to a remote server. The new version of the Apache HTTP Server also includes updates that resolve dozens of other,...

Traffic Sniffing, Not Botnet, May Have Led to Android Spam Run

It’s not every day that you get a security story that involves Yahoo, Google and Microsoft, but that’s what has happened with the claims from a Microsoft official that there was an Android-based botnet in existence sending spam from compromised devices. Now it seems that the spam emanating from...

Google Releases Chrome 20 With Fixes for 20 Security Vulnerabilities

Google has released version 20 of its Chrome browser, and has fixed a nice, symmetrical 20 flaws in the browser, including 13 high-risk bugs. Google also paid out $8,000 in rewards to researchers who reported bugs. A large number of the bugs fixed in Chrome 20 are use-after-free vulnerabilities i...

Trivial Password Flaw Leaves MySQL Databases Exposed

There is a trivially exploitable vulnerability in MySQL that enables an attacker to gain root access to the database server. The bug, which recently was patched, stems from an error in the way that MySQL and MariaDB handle passwords, giving an attacker a chance of getting root access by supplying...

Months After A Patch, Targeted Attacks Still Using Adobe Flash Bug

More than three months after it was patched, attackers are still using a vulnerability in Adobe’s Flash product in targeted, ‘APT-style’ attacks. The vulnerability, identified as CVE-2012-0754 was patched in February and linked to targeted attacks weeks later. But new attacks targeting unpatched...

Attackers Targeting Windows Media Bug With Malware

Security researchers have seen attackers going after the newly patched CVE-2012-0003 vulnerability in the Windows Media Player. The flaw, which was patched earlier this month by Microsoft, is a critical one that can enable remote code execution, and it affects a wide range of Windows systems. Whe...

Attackers Reused Adobe Reader Exploit Code From 2009 In Extremely Targeted Hacks

The targeted attack that exploited a previously unknown vulnerability in Adobe’s Reader application last month was extremely focused on defense industrial base firms, and affected just a handful of systems, according to a company spokesman. Fewer than 20 machines, spread across a number of firms ...

Weaknesses in Webkit Becoming Problematic

Attackers interested in getting the most bang for their buck focus on ubiquitous software. Microsoft’s Office, Adobe’s Acrobat and Oracle’s Java have all become popular platforms exploited by cybercriminals intent on compromising end users’ systems. Another platform has quietly made its way onto...

Analysis of the New Adobe Flash Attacks

When Adobe warned customers earlier this week about a newly discovered vulnerability in the Flash Player software, company officials said that there were already attacks underway against the bug. Those attacks are using malicious Flash files buried in Word documents and Microsoft’s security...

Critical Office Hole Patched In November Release

Microsoft issued its monthly patch on Tuesday, releasing three security bulletins to fix security holes in a range of products, including a critical hole in versions of the Microsoft Office Suite. The three bulletins, MS10-087, 088 and -089 fixed a total of 11 vulnerabilities, five in Microsoft...

Adobe Accelerates Patch Schedule for Critical Flash Bug

Adobe has moved up the release date for the patch for the critical bug in Adobe Flash Player revealed last week, and now plans to have a fix ready on Thursday. The company still plans to patch Reader two weeks from now. The vulnerability in Flash also exists in Reader and researchers said last we...

Apple Zaps JailbreakMe Bugs in Record Time

Less than two weeks after exploits for a pair of serious security vulnerabilities were fitted into an automated JailbreakMe.com exploit, Apple has rushed out a patch to block the jailbreaking of iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices. The iOS 3.2.2 for iPad and iOS 4.0.2 iPhone and iPod Touch update...

Huge Increase Seen in Attacks on Windows Help Center Flaw

Attackers are ramping up their attempts to exploit the recently disclosed vulnerability in the Windows Help and Support Center in Windows XP. There have been targeted attacks against the flaw for two weeks now, but experts have noticed a major increase in the volume and spread of them in recent...

PostgreSQL Vulnerabilities Fixed

PostgreSQL 7 and 8 users are advised to update their installations as the development team has released new versions which fix a vulnerability classed as moderately severe in PL/perl and PL/tcl. CVE-2010-1169, CVE-2010-1447 and CVE-2010-1170 reports detail the vulnerabilities involved. Read the...

Apple Safari

Buffer overflow in ImageIO in Apple Mac OS X 10.5 before 10.5.8, and Safari before 4.0.3, allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service application crash via an image with crafted EXIF metadata. Apple Safari, possibly before 4.0.3, on Mac OS X does not properly...

The Root of the Botnet Epidemic

Over the course of a few days in February 2000, a lone hacker was able to bring some of the Web’s larger sites to their knees, using just a few dozen machines and some relatively primitive software to cripple Yahoo, eBay, Etrade, Amazon, ZDnet and others for hours at a time. No one knew it at the...

Human Error Blamed for Leak of 1 Billion Records of Chinese Citizens

A prominent Chinese tech CEO has cited human error as the likely reason hackers got their hands on the personal data of 1 billion people in China from a Shanghai police database and then put some of it up for sale on illicit online markets. A government developer wrote a blog post on the China...

Black Basta Ransomware Teams Up with Malware Stalwart Qbot

A newcomer on the ransomware scene has coopted a 14-year-old malware variant to help it maintain persistence on a targeted network in a recent attack, researchers have found. Black Basta, a ransomware group that emerged in April, leveraged Qbot, a.k.a. Quakbot, to move laterally on a compromised...

Cyberattacks on Squid Game Minecraft Tourney Take Down Andorra’s Internet

A massive Minecraft tournament styled after the Netflix blockbuster Squid Game known, of course, as “SquidCraft” apparently inspired a distributed denial of service DDoS attack that took down the sole and state-owned internet service provider in Andorra. Internet-freedom monitoring company...

Sprawling Active Attack Aims to Take Over 1.6M WordPress Sites

An active attack against more than 1.6 million WordPress sites is underway, with researchers spotting tens of millions of attempts to exploit four different plugins and several Epsilon Framework themes. The goal, they said, is complete site takeover using administrative privileges. The scope of t...

80K Retail WooCommerce Sites Exposed by Plugin XSS Bug

The plugin “Variation Swatches for WooCommerce,” installed across 80,000 WordPress-powered retail sites, contains a stored cross-site scripting XSS security vulnerability that could allow cyberattackers to inject malicious web scripts and take over sites. Variation Swatches is designed to allow...

Invest in These 3 Key Security Technologies to Fight Ransomware

A recent survey by Fortinet revealed that two-thirds of organizations had been the target of at least one ransomware attack – and 85 percent are more concerned about a ransomware attack than any other form of cyberattack. And, the evolving threat landscape is cited as one of the top challenges in...

Proofpoint Phish Harvests Microsoft O365, Google Logins

Phishers are impersonating Proofpoint, the cybersecurity firm, in an attempt to make off with victims’ Microsoft Office 365 and Google email credentials. According to researchers at Armorblox, they spotted one such campaign lobbed at an unnamed global communications company, with nearly a thousan...

Squid Game Crypto Scammers Rip Off Investors for Millions

Players in the Squid Game cryptocurrency market have been eliminated — at least their investment has — by what cryptocurrency watchers have called a classic “rug-pull” scam. When SQUID tokens were first released last week, they were valued at a paltry $0.01 but promised entry into a game with the...

OpenSea ‘Free Gift’ NFTs Drain Cryptowallet Balances

Users of OpenSea, the world’s largest digital-collectible marketplace, have found their cryptocurrency wallets ripped off thanks to cyberattackers weaponizing security bugs that allowed them to highjack user accounts. The attacks revolved around boobytrapped art files, which circulated in the for...

Facebook Outage Drags Down Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, Oculus VR

As of Monday afternoon, Facebook had been flat on its face for hours, suffering a simultaneous worldwide outage not only on its main site, but also at its Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Oculus VR subsidiaries. We’re aware that some people are having trouble accessing Facebook app. We’re worki...

Apple AirTag Zero-Day Weaponizes Trackers

An unpatched stored cross-site scripting XSS bug in Apple’s AirTag “Lost Mode” could open up users to a cornucopia of web-based attacks, including credential-harvesting, click-jacking, malware delivery, token theft and more. That’s according to Bobby Rauch, an independent security researcher who...

Critical Cisco Bugs Allow Code Execution on Wireless, SD-WAN

Cisco is warning three critical security vulnerabilities affect its flagship IOS XE software, the operating system for most of its enterprise networking portfolio. The flaws impact Cisco’s wireless controllers, SD-WAN offering and configuration mechanisms in use for scads of products. The...

FamousSparrow APT Spies on Hotels, Governments

A cyberespionage group dubbed “FamousSparrow” by researchers has taken flight, targeting hotels, governments and private organizations around the world with a custom backdoor called, appropriately, “SparrowDoor.” It’s one of the advanced persistent threats APTs that targeted the ProxyLogon...

Large-Scale Phishing-as-a-Service Operation Exposed

Microsoft uncovered a large-scale, well-organization and sophisticated phishing-as-a-service PhaaS operation. The turnkey platform allows users to customize campaigns and develop their own phishing ploys so they can then use the PhaaS platform to help with phishing kits, email templates and hosti...

HP Omen Hub Exposes Millions of Gamers to Cyberattack

Millions of devices running the HP Omen Gaming Hub were using on a driver with a bug that could give attackers kernel-mode access without administrator privileges. HP has since released a patch, but a new report on the flaw CVE-2021-3437 from researchers from SentinelLabs details how the gaming...

Attackers Impersonate DoT in Two-Day Phishing Scam

Threat actors impersonated the U.S. Department of Transportation USDOT in a two-day phishing campaign that used a combination of tactics – including creating new domains that mimic federal sites so as to appear to be legitimate – to evade security detections. Between Aug. 16-18, researchers at...

Chaos Malware: Ransomware and Wiper

An under-construction malware called Chaos has been spotted, which is being advertised on an underground forum as being available for testing. While it calls itself ransomware, an analysis revealed that it’s actually more of a wiper. According to Trend Micro researcher Monte de Jesus, Chaos has...

Cutting Through the Noise from Daily Alerts

According to a survey run on IR and SOC teams, analysts are required to keep track of an average of 6.8 threat intelligence feeds and manually handle an excessive number of alerts. The average security operations team receives over 11,000 alerts per day. Most of an analyst’s time almost 70% is...

Hacked Data for 69K LimeVPN Users Up for Sale on Dark Web

The VPN provider known as LimeVPN has been hit with a hack affecting 69,400 user records, according to researchers. A hacker claims to have stolen the company’s entire customer database before knocking its website offline Threatpost confirmed that as of press time, the website was down. The stole...

Cyberpunk 2077 Hacked Data Circulating Online

New data from the February hack of CD Projekt Red, the videogame-development company behind Cyberpunk 2077 and the Witcher series, is circulating online. Earlier this year, the company suffered a ransomware attack in which a cyberattack group believed by some to be the HelloKitty gang “gained...

FBI Analyst Indicted for Theft of Osama bin Laden Threat Intel

An FBI analyst with top-secret security clearance illegally squirreled away national-security documents related to Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, cybersecurity and more in her home for years, the feds say. Kendra Kingsbury, who was working in the FBI’s Kansas City Division until being put on leave in...

Shifting Threats in a Changed World: Edge, IoT and Vaccine Fraud

Though it’s often hard to find group consensus, one thing everyone can agree on is a feeling of relief that we may be moving past the worst of the pandemic. While few want to look back on the darkest times, those months have continuing lessons to teach about cybersecurity. Like it or not, the...

DoJ Task Force: Taking Down the Ransomware Economy

Ransomware has reached crisis levels across business sectors and across the globe, but a public-private Ransomware Task Force aims to stem the tide of attacks by disrupting the crooks’ business model. Join Threatpost for “Fortifying Your Business Against Ransomware, DDoS & Cryptojacking Attacks” ...

Babuk Ransomware Gang Targets Washington D.C. Police

The Babuk gang of threat actors claims to have stolen more than 250 gigabytes of data from the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department MPD on Monday, including police reports, internal memos, and arrested people’s mug shots and personal details. According to Vice, the attackers published t...

Zero Trust: The Mobile Dimension

After embarking on a second unforeseen year of mass remote work, everyone is now accessing corporate resources through the cloud. To help enable this, organizations are introducing new technologies into their standard workflows. The COVID-19 pandemic presented a new realm of unmarked territory as...