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Kaspersky finds Malware that resides in your RAM | https://thehackernews.com/2012/03/kaspersky-finds-malware-that-resides-in.html | Kaspersky finds Malware that resides in your RAM
Kaspersky Lab researchers have discovered a drive-by download attack that evades hard-drive checkers by installing malware that lives in the computer's memory. The 'fileless' bot is more difficult for antivirus software to detect, and resides in memory until the machine is rebooted.
This Malware doesn't create any files on the affected systems was dropped on to the computers of visitors to popular news sites in Russia in a drive-by download attack.Drive-by download attacks are one of the primary methods of distributing malware over the web. They usually exploit vulnerabilities in outdated software products to infect computers without requiring user interaction.
The attack code loaded an exploit for a known Java vulnerability (CVE-2011-3544), but it wasn't hosted on the affected websites themselves. Once the malware infected a Microsoft machine, the bot disabled User Account Control, contacted a command and control server and downloaded the 'Lurk' Trojan. The malware also attacked Apple devices.
The Java exploit's payload consisted of a rogue DLL that was loaded and attached on the fly to the legitimate Java process.Normally this malware is rare, because it dies when the system is rebooted and the memory is cleared. But the hackers do not really care because there is a good chance that most victims would revisit the infected news websites.Once the malicious DLL loaded into memory it sends data and receives instructions from a command and control server over HTTP.
| Malware |
Samsung 'Find My Mobile' Flaw Allows Hacker to Remotely Lock Your Device | https://thehackernews.com/2014/10/samsung-find-my-mobile-flaw-allows.html | The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is warning users of a newly discovered Zero-Day flaw in the Samsung Find My Mobile service, which fails to validate the sender of a lock-code data received over a network.
The Find My Mobile feature implemented by Samsung in their devices is a mobile web-service that provides samsung users a bunch of features to locate their lost device, to play an alert on a remote device and to lock remotely the mobile phone so that no one else can get the access to the lost device.
The vulnerability in Samsung's Find My Mobile feature was discovered by Mohamed Abdelbaset Elnoby (@SymbianSyMoh), an Information Security Evangelist from Egypt. The flaw is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) that could allow an attacker to remotely lock or unlock the device and even make the device rings too.
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF or XSRF) is an attack that tricks the victim into loading a page that contains a specially crafted HTML exploit page. Basically, an attacker will use CSRF attack to trick a victim into clicking a URL link that contains malicious or unauthorized requests.
The malicious link have the same privileges as the authorized user to perform an undesired task on the behalf of the victim, like change the victim's e-mail address, home address, or password, or purchase something. CSRF attack generally targets functions that cause a state change on the server but it can also be used to access victim's sensitive data.
"In this way, the attacker can make the victim perform actions that they didn't intend to, such as logout, purchase item, change account information, retrieve account information, or any other function provided by the vulnerable website," Elnoby said.
The researcher has also provided a proof-of-concept (POC) video that will give you a detail explanation on How the researcher made the attack work on Samsung's Find My Mobile feature.
According to the researcher, the first attack to remotely lock victim's device is critical if exploited because the attackers are able to lock victim's device with a lock code of their own choice, forcing the victim to do a recovery for the lock code with his Google Account.
The US-CERT/NIST identified the vulnerability in the Samsung Find My Mobile as CVE-2014-8346 and rated the severity of the flaw as HIGH, whereas the exploitability score of the flaw is 10.0.
"The Remote Controls feature on Samsung mobile devices does not validate the source of lock-code data received over a network, which makes it easier for remote attackers to cause a denial of service (screen locking with an arbitrary code) by triggering unexpected Find My Mobile network traffic," the security advisory issued by the NIST states.
| Vulnerability |
75% of the 'Left to Get Hacked' Redis Servers Found Infected | https://thehackernews.com/2018/06/redis-server-hacking.html | Despite the continual emergence of new cyber attacks because of misconfigured servers and applications, people continue to ignore security warnings.
A massive malware campaign designed to target open Redis servers, about which researchers warned almost two months ago, has now grown and already hijacked at least 75% of the total servers running publicly accessible Redis instances.
Redis, or REmote DIctionary Server, is an open source, widely popular data structure tool that can be used as an in-memory distributed database, message broker or cache. Since it is designed to be accessed inside trusted environments, it should not be exposed on the Internet.
Dubbed RedisWannaMine, a similar malware leveraging same loophole was discovered in late March by data center security vendor Imperva and designed to drop a cryptocurrency mining script on the targeted servers—both database and application.
According to Imperva's March blog post, this cryptojacking threat was "more complex in terms of evasion techniques and capabilities. It demonstrates a worm-like behavior combined with advanced exploits to increase the attackers' infection rate and fatten their wallets."
A newly published report from the same security firm has now revealed that three-quarters of the open Redis servers accessible from the Internet (over port 6379) contain malicious sets of a key-value pair in the memory, indicating despite multiple warnings administrators continue to leave their servers vulnerable to hackers.
Out of total compromised servers, 68 percent systems were found infected using similar keys, named "backup1, backup2, backup3," which were attacked from a medium-sized botnet located at China (86% of IPs), according to the data Imperva collected from their self-set-up publicly available Redis servers to serve as a honeypot.
Moreover, the attackers have now found using the compromised servers as a proxy to scan and find vulnerabilities, including SQL injection, cross-site scripting, malicious file uploads, and remote code executions, in other websites.
The new attack works by setting a malicious key-value pair in the memory and saving it as a file in the /etc/crontabs folder that forces the server to execute the file.
"Attackers usually set values that include commands to download external remote resource and run it. Another popular type of command is adding SSH keys, so the attacker can remotely access the machine and take it over," Nadav Avital, security research team leader at Imperva, explains in a blog post.
To protect Redis servers from falling victim to such attacks, administrators are advised never to expose their servers to the Internet, but if required, apply authentication mechanism to prevent unauthorized access.
Also, since Redis doesn't use encryption and stores data in plain text, you should never store any sensitive data on these servers.
"Security issues commonly arise when people don't read the documentation and migrate services to the cloud, without being aware of the consequences or the adequate measures that are needed to do so," Avital said.
| Cyber_Attack |
Unpatchable Flaw in Modern Cars Allows Hackers to Disable Safety Features | https://thehackernews.com/2017/08/car-safety-hacking.html | Today, many automobiles companies are offering vehicles that run on the mostly drive-by-wire system, which means a majority of car's functions—from instrument cluster to steering, brakes, and accelerator—are electronically controlled.
No doubt these auto-control systems make your driving experience much better, but at the same time, they also increase the risk of getting hacked.
Car Hacking is a hot topic, though it is not new for security researchers who hack cars. A few of them have already demonstrated how to hijack a car remotely, how to disable car's crucial functions like airbags, and even how to remotely steal cars.
Now, security researchers have discovered a new hacking trick that can allow attackers to disable airbags and other safety systems of the connected cars, affecting a large number of vendors and vehicle models.
A team of researchers from Trend Micro's Forward-looking Threat Research (FTR) team, in collaboration with Politecnico di Milano and Linklayer Labs, discovered a critical security vulnerability in the CAN (controller area network) protocol that car components use to communicate to one another within the car's network.
Hackers Can Remotely Take Control of Smart Cars
Initially developed in 1983 and put into production in 1989, the CAN standard manages the majority of the electrical subsystems and control units found in a significant number of modern smart cars.
If exploited, the vulnerability could eventually allow attackers to turn off crucial safety functions of a vehicle, such as airbags, power-steering, parking sensors, and the anti-lock brakes—or almost any computerised component that's connected to the car's CAN bus.
Since the CAN standard is being used in "practically every light-duty vehicle currently in circulation today," the fundamental security flaw affects all modern, internet-connected vehicles, rather than just a particular vendor.
How Your Smart Car Can Get Hacked?
The hack particularly targets the messaging system in CAN, in which messages, including errors, are called "frames."
"Our attack focuses on how CAN handles errors. Errors arise when a device reads values that do not correspond to the original expected value on a frame," Trend Micro researcher Federico Maggi writes in a blog post.
"When a device detects such an event, it writes an error message onto the CAN bus in order to "recall" the errant frame and notify the other devices to entirely ignore the recalled frame."
By overloading the system with error messages, attackers can make a device to go into a Bus Off state, cutting it off from the greater CAN system and making it inoperable.
This, in turn, allows attackers to deactivate essential systems like the airbag system or the anti-lock braking system, which could result in dangerous and even fatal situations.
The attack requires a "specially-crafted attack device" to be introduced via local access, which is only possible if the attacker has access to your vehicle.
However, researchers believe that current transportation trends like ride-sharing, carpooling, and car renting have made the scenario much easier.
It's a Design Flaw — Can't Be Patched!
Since the vulnerability exists in the design of the CAN bus messaging protocol used in CAN controller chips, the issue can not be directly patched with an OTA (on-the-air) upgrade or dealer recall.
Patching this design flaw requires changes in the CAN standards and an entire generation of vehicles using this specification. So, unfortunately, there is no remedy to the problem yet.
However, the researchers recommended car manufacturers to adopt some network countermeasures, which would mitigate such attacks, but not entirely.
"Car manufacturers can only mitigate the attack we demonstrated by adopting specific network countermeasures, but cannot eliminate it entirely," the researchers said.
"To eliminate the risk entirely, an updated CAN standard should be proposed, adopted, and implemented. This whole process would likely require another generation of vehicles."
Researchers also suggest car makers even to consider adding a layer of encryption to the CAN bus protocol that will make messages harder to mimic, as part of a long-term security solution.
| Vulnerability |
Syrian Malware and Darkcomet RAT : They can't blame the Developers | https://thehackernews.com/2012/02/syrian-malware-and-darkcomet-rat-they.html | Syrian Malware and Darkcomet RAT : They can't blame the Developers
Two days before we reported about The Syrian Malware - programs used to target the Syrian opposition. According to Report, They steal the identities of opposition activists, then impersonate them in online chats, then they gain the trust of other users, pass out Trojan horse viruses and encourage people to open them.
Telecomix agents Reverse-engineered that malware and Found that Darkcomet RAT (Remote Administration Tool) version was 3.3 was Injected in SFX (SelF-eXtracting) archives as 1122333.exe injects this binary program into the Windows process "svchost.exe".
Telecomix blame Jean-Pierre aka DarkCoderSc (Developer of Darkcomet) for creating this tool by saying "Jean-Pierre, please, next time you thing about writing some "espionnage software" think about life at stakes here and do something useful instead with your talent."
In Response Jean-Pierre write on a blog post, "i would like to say publicly that i'm very sorry about this i never thought and i never knew that they use my free software (proper word would be hijacked) for doing this.". "i code software because it is my passion i feel comfortable to doing this, i don't do this for money even if i could sell it i don't, i just sell for a chip price a support and thats all, i have nothing else to win."
Not even this, DarkCoderSc deciding to shut down his Project : Darkcomet, But we strongly believe and supporting DarkCoderSc to keep running this Project. This Tool was never developed for being a weapon for cyber war. The contribution of Jean-Pierre is Revolutionary in IT security. Don't let people bring you down. They can't Blame the Developers !
| Malware |
Alleged Skynet Botnet creator arrested in Germany | https://thehackernews.com/2013/12/alleged-skynet-botnet-creator-arrested.html | The German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) has arrested a gang of cyber criminals believed to be responsible for creating the Skynet Botnet.
Skynet was first detected by Security Firm G DATA in December 2012. It is a variant of the famous Zeus malware to steal banking credentials with DDoS attack and Bitcoin mining capabilities. The Botnet was controlled from an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) server hidden behind Tor network in order to evade sinkholing.
According to a press release from German police, they arrested two people suspected of illegally generating Bitcoins worth nearly $1 million using a modified version of existing malware i.e. Skynet Botnet.
German police conducted raids earlier this week on 3rd December and found evidence of other hacking activities i.e. Fraud and distribution of copyrighted pornographic material. A third person is under suspicion but has not been arrested.
However, Police didn't mention Skynet Botnet in their press release, but just a day after the arrest, Thomas Siebert - Security Researcher at G DATA has also confirmed that the Skynet Botnet authors were arrested by the German Police on 3rd December, 2013.
On 6th December, twitter account of Skynet author tweeted:
'You have the wrong guy. Use this tweet as evidence to do the right thing and release him.'
According to MalwareTech blog post, 'It would seem the tweet is an automated message or he requested a friend post it in the event of his arrest.'
Last year, hacker on a Reddit post described that they have successfully compromised more than 15,000 systems and once infected, the malware downloads Bitcoin miners, exploit computational resources of the victim system and uses them in the mining process.
"My Botnet only mines if the computer is unused for 2 minutes and if the owner gets back it stops mining immediately, so it doesn't suck your fps at MW3. Also its mines as low priority so movies don't lag. I also set up a very safe threshold, the cards work at around 60% so they don't get overheated and the fans don't spin as crazily."
A Botnet network behind the Tor network makes it much harder for researchers and law enforcement agencies to identify the malware operators and to shut down the server.
It is not clear at the time of writing that Skynet Botnet servers are taken down or not by the German Police, but we have not seen any tweet from the author's account since 6th December.
Stay Tuned to +The Hacker News ! We will let you know the related updates about the case.
| Malware |
Critical iOS vulnerability in Configuration Profiles pose malware threat | https://thehackernews.com/2013/03/critical-ios-vulnerability-in.html | Israeli mobile security start-up Skycure has exposed a vulnerability that could allow hackers to control and spy on iPhones. A major security vulnerability for iOS configuration profiles pose malware threat.
The vulnerability affects a file known as mobileconf files, which are used by cell phone carriers to configure system-level settings. These can include Wi-Fi, VPN, email, and APN settings. Apple used to use them to deliver patches, and carriers sometimes use them to distribute updates.
Adi Sharabani, CEO and co-founder of Skycure, made a demonstration that how sensitive information, including the victim's exact location, could be retrieved, while also controlling the user's iPhone.
In Demo, he setup a fake website with a prompt to install a configuration profile and sent the link out to Victim. After installing it, he found out they were able to pull passwords and other data without his knowledge.
These malicious profiles can be emailed or downloaded from Web pages and after being installed, and attacker able to change a large number of iPhone settings.
If used maliciously, these profiles can be very dangerous. Even though their use is approved by Apple, they aren't subject to the standard sandboxing rules that apply to third party App Store apps and websites.
Other than an attack on privacy, this could lead to more dangerous consequences as an example, it is quite easy to change a GPS destination while driving and send the smartphone owner to a location the attacker chooses.
| Vulnerability |
DDoSCoin — New Crypto-Currency Pays Users for Participating in DDoS Attacks | https://thehackernews.com/2016/08/ddoscoin-cryptocurrency.html | It's 2016, and now, you can earn some dollars by contributing into well-organized DDoS attack scheme.
Do you know while mining Bitcoins you are actually contributing a significant computational power to keep the Bitcoin network running?
In Bitcoins, the miners actually build and maintain massive public ledger containing a record of every Bitcoin transaction in history.
When one user tries to send Bitcoins to another user, the miners validate the transfer by checking the ledger to make sure the sender is not transferring money he/she does not have, adding the transaction to the ledger and then finally sealing it behind layers and layers of computational work to protect that ledger from getting compromised or hacked.
So for this, miners are rewarded with Bitcoins.
So, basically, you are contributing the massive amount of computing power that keeps the Bitcoin transactions running and makes you earn some cryptocurrency in return as an incentive.
However, Bitcoin has long been criticized for not utilizing that huge amount of computational power into something useful as well.
To utilize all those CPU cycles, a few years back researchers came forward with another cryptocurrency, called "PrimeCoin."
In PrimeCoin, the miners' computational power is not only used to keep the transaction running but also used to find the long chain of the prime number, which plays a great role in encryption and cryptography.
But, this time, a pair of curious researchers recently proposed the weirdest concept:
A malicious digital currency that can be mined only if the miners participate in Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against preselected target websites make them temporarily unavailable by flooding them with Millions of simultaneous requests.
Proof-of-DDoS: Participate in DDoS Attack and Earn Reward
DDoSCoin, developed by Eric Wustrow and Benjamin VanderSloot from the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of Michigan, is a theoretical cryptocurrency that rewards a miner for opening a large number of TLS connections to target web servers.
The malicious proof-of-work (which the duo called "Proof-of-DDoS") model used by DDoSCoin miners functions only with websites that support TLS 1.2, and since over half of the top million websites support TLS 1.2 version of the protocol, it will be easy for miners to earn the reward.
"In modern versions of TLS, the server signs a client-provided parameter during the handshake, along with server-provided values used in the key exchange of the connection," the researchers wrote in the paper DDoSCoin: Cryptocurrency with a Malicious Proof-of-Work [PDF], allowing the client to prove that it has participated in the DDoS attack against the target server.
In this way, the new system will reward users who prove they have participated in a DDoS attack.
Miners with DDoSCoin blocks could then trade their cryptocurrencies for other, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, the researchers suggested.
The researchers presented their paper at the Usenix 2016 security conference, noting that Bitcoin's computationally intensive proof-of-DDoS "does not contribute to any useful problems besides securing the currency from attack."
How to Setup DDoS Targets in DDoSCoin?
If you want to set up a target for DDoS, you can use the PAY_TO_DDOS transaction that includes two arguments:
Domain of the victim website.
The number of TLS connections that need to be established.
These transactions are recorded as DDoSCoin blocks inside a database (or blockchain). Now, miners only need to select one of the blocks, launch attacks, and thus receive DDoSCoin as a reward for fulfilling the transaction.
What If Everybody wants to DDoS Everybody?
Now, the question here is: How this cryptocurrency will decide, which target should get DDoSed on priority?
According to researchers, multiple miners must participate and decide together which domain to be attacked.
Future Schemas and DDoS Frameworks
Till now, we have seen multiple hire-for-DDoS services in the underground market, where anyone willing to take down a targeted website can just pay hackers and get their job done.
At the current, this paper is only a theoretical concept, and the DDoSCoin crypto-currency currently does not exist.
However, I can predict that soon we would see similar business models by blackhat hackers, where to earn money, people would themselves join botnet networks to contribute their bandwidth for DDoS attacks.
| Cyber_Attack |
$30 Child Toy is enough to hack FBI Radios | https://thehackernews.com/2011/08/30-child-toy-is-enough-to-hack-fbi.html | $30 Child Toy is enough to hack FBI Radios
The portable radios used by many federal law enforcement agents have major security flaws that allowed researchers to intercept hundreds of hours of sensitive traffic sent without encryption over the past two years, according to a new study being released today.
A new report on the findings has been released by team leader and computer science professor Matt Blaze from the University of Pennsylvania. That details how a child's toy, the $30 IM Me can be used to jam radios used by the FBI and Homeland Security.
"We monitored sensitive transmissions about operations by agents in every Federal law enforcement agency in the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security," wrote the researchers, who were led by computer science professor Matt Blaze and plan to reveal their findings Wednesday in a paper at the Usenix Security Symposium in San Francisco.
Members of the research group say they have contacted the Department of Justice, Homeland Security and other agencies. The group has created a website with information law enforcement groups can use to help mitigate the problems. A paper published last year also warned about security weaknesses in the radios.
Read more at [Source]
| Vulnerability |
Ransomware malware targeting Skype users | https://thehackernews.com/2012/10/ransomware-malware-targeting-skype-users.html | Security firm Trend Micro discovered a new worm targeting Skype users with spam messages designed to infect machines with the Dorkbot ransomware has been discovered. A malicious worm is taking advantage of the Skype API to spam out messages that link to a ZIP files ie. skype_06102012_image.zip or skype_08102012_image.zip, which is actually detected as Troj/Agent-YCW or Troj/Agent-YDC by Antivirus.
According to definition - Ransomware is a form of malware in which rogue software code effectively holds a user's computer hostage until a "ransom" fee is paid. Ransomware often infiltrates a PC as a computer worm or Trojan horse that takes advantage of open security vulnerabilities. Most ransomware attacks are the result of clicking on an infected e-mail attachment or visiting a hacked website.
The message contains the question:
"lol is this your new profile pic? h__p://goo.gl/{BLOCKED}5q1sx?img=username"
or
"moin, kaum zu glauben was für schöne fotos von dir auf deinem profil h__p://goo.gl/{BLOCKED}5q1sx?img=username"
A list of worm files used in campaign:
hxxp :/ / goo.gl / SAOmJ
⇒ hxxp :/ / hotfile.com/dl/174771453/720762e/skype_03102012_image.zip.html
hxxp :/ / goo.gl / frbXD
⇒ hxxp :/ / hotfile.com/dl/174868532/a8009ef/skype_04102012_image.zip.html
hxxp :/ / goo.gl / agsIb
⇒ hxxp :/ / hotfile.com/dl/174887318/f59c5c2/skype_04102012_image.zip.html
hxxp :/ / goo.gl / AzaqI
⇒ hxxp :/ / hotfile.com/dl/175002041/debb544/skype_05102012_image.zip.html
hxxp :/ / goo.gl/QYV5H
⇒ hxxp :/ / hotfile.com/dl/175082698/230fce5/skype_05102012_image.zip.html
hxxp :/ / goo.gl / UPhHf
⇒ hxxp :/ / hotfile.com/dl/175180403/4b2da19/skype_06102012_image.zip.html
hxxp :/ / goo.gl/5q1sx
⇒ hxxp :/ / hotfile.com/dl/175339084/d951071/skype_08102012_image.zip.html
The executable installs a variant of the Dorkbot worm (also known as NRGbot), which appears to initiate large scale click-fraud activity on each compromised machine as well as recruiting it into a botnet. The Dorkbot variant infects the machine with ransomware that locks the user out and encrypts their files, before going on to charge them $200 to unlock the machine.
Ransomware is becoming an increasingly common tool in cyber criminals arsenal.
Few past news related to Ransomware:
First Irish language Ransomware Malware demanding €100 for unlock
New Ransom malware infecting computers
Ransomware replaces Window
s MBR and asking users for Money
| Malware |
How to Hack WiFi Password from Smart Doorbells | https://thehackernews.com/2016/01/doorbell-hacking-wifi-pasword.html | The buzz around The Internet of Things (IoT) is growing, and it is growing at a great pace.
Every day the technology industry tries to connect another household object to the Internet. One such internet-connected household device is a Smart Doorbell.
Gone are the days when we have regular doorbells and need to open the door every time the doorbell rings to see who is around.
However, with these Internet-connected Smart Doorbells, you get an alert on your smartphone app every time a visitor presses your doorbell and, in fact, you can also view who's in front of your door.
Moreover, you can even communicate with them without ever opening the door. Isn't this amazing? Pretty much.
But what if your doorbell Reveals your home's WiFi password?
Use Smart Doorbell to Hack WiFi Password
Until now, we have seen how hackers and researchers discovered security holes in Smart Cars, Smart refrigerators, Smart kettles and Internet-connected Toys, raising questions about the security, privacy, and potential misuse of IoTs.
Now, security researchers at UK consultancy Pen Test Partners have discovered a critical security hole in Wi-Fi-enabled video doorbell that could be used to expose the home network password of users.
The security hole is uncovered in Ring – a modern IoT Smart doorbell that connects to the user's home WiFi network, allowing them to view who is in front of the door with the help of their mobile device, even if the user is not at home.
Additionally, the Smart doorbell also gives users option to hook up to some smart door locks, so users can let their guests or family members into their home even if they are not in the house.
Researchers were impressed by the functionality of Ring, though shocked when analysed the security of the device that allowed them to discover the home user's WiFi password.
Press Button, Access a URL and Get WiFi Password!
As researchers explain, with the help of screw gauge, anyone can detach the doorbell mounted on the outside of the house and press the orange button (given on its back), which puts the device's wireless component in AP (Access Point) mode.
"Pressing the setup button [puts] the doorbell's wireless module (a Gainspan wireless unit) into a setup mode, in which it acts as a Wi-Fi access point," the company's consultant David Lodge explains in a blog post.
You can then use your mobile phone to connect to the server, via a specific URL (https://192.168.240.1/gainspan/system/config/network).
When accessed, the above URL will reveal the wireless module's configuration file in the web browser, including the home WiFi network's SSID and PSK (Pre-Shared Key, a.k.a. password) in clear text.
Now, you just need to do is put the Smart doorbell back on the house's wall and disappear.
Since home WiFi networks have always been trusted by their owners who connect their devices to them, having access to this network, hackers can launch other malicious attacks against the victim's workstations, and other smart devices.
Researchers reported the security hole to Ring that resolved the issue via a firmware update released just two weeks after they were notified.
| Vulnerability |
Gootkit RAT Using SEO to Distribute Malware Through Compromised Sites | https://thehackernews.com/2021/03/gootkit-rat-using-seo-to-distribute.html | A framework notorious for delivering a banking Trojan has received a facelift to deploy a wider range of malware, including ransomware payloads.
"The Gootkit malware family has been around more than half a decade – a mature Trojan with functionality centered around banking credential theft," Sophos researchers Gabor Szappanos and Andrew Brandt said in a write-up published today.
"In recent years, almost as much effort has gone into improvement of its delivery method as has gone into the NodeJS-based malware itself."
Dubbed "Gootloader," the expanded malware delivery system comes amid a surge in the number of infections targeting users in France, Germany, South Korea, and the U.S.
First documented in 2014, Gootkit is a Javascript-based malware platform capable of carrying out an array of covert activities, including web injection, capturing keystrokes, taking screenshots, recording videos, as well as email and password theft.
Over the years, the cybercrime tool has evolved to gain new information-stealing features, with the Gootkit loader repurposed in combination with REvil/Sodinokibi ransomware infections reported last year.
While campaigns using social engineering tricks to deliver malicious payloads are a dime a dozen, Gootloader takes it to the next level.
The infection chain resorts to sophisticated techniques that involve hosting malicious ZIP archive files on websites belonging to legitimate businesses that have been gamed to appear among the top results of a search query using manipulated search engine optimization (SEO) methods.
What's more, the search engine results point to websites that have no "logical" connection to the search query, implying that the attackers must be in possession of a vast network of hacked websites. In one case spotted by the researchers, an advice for a real estate agreement surfaced a breached neonatal medical practice based in Canada as the first result.
"To ensure targets from the right geographies are captured, the adversaries rewrite website code 'on the go' so that website visitors who fall outside the desired countries are shown benign web content, while those from the right location are shown a page featuring a fake discussion forum on the topic they've queried," the researchers said.
Clicking the search result takes the user to a fake message board-like page that matches not only the search terms used in the initial query but also includes a link to the ZIP file, which contains a heavily obfuscated Javascript file that initiates the next stage of compromise to inject the fileless malware fetched from a remote server into memory.
This takes the form of a multi-stage evasive approach that begins with a .NET loader, which comprises a Delphi-based loader malware, which, in turn, contains the final payload in encrypted form.
In addition to delivering the REvil ransomware and the Gootkit trojan, multiple campaigns have been spotted currently leveraging the Gootloader framework to deliver the Kronos financial malware in Germany stealthily, and the Cobalt Strike post-exploitation tool in the U.S.
It's still unclear as to how the operators gain access to the websites to serve the malicious injects, but the researchers suspect the attackers may have obtained the passwords by installing the Gootkit malware or purchasing stolen credentials from underground markets, or by leveraging security flaws in present in the plugins used alongside content management system (CMS) software.
The findings have been echoed by Microsoft in a series of tweets, noting it's "seeing numerous extensive hands-on-keyboard attacks emanating from the Gootkit malware, which is distributed via drive-by downloads as a JavaScript within a ZIP file."
"The developers behind Gootkit appear to have shifted resources and energy from delivering just their own financial malware to creating a stealthy, complex delivery platform for all kinds of payloads, including REvil ransomware," said Gabor Szappanos, threat research director at Sophos.
"This shows that criminals tend to reuse their proven solutions instead of developing new delivery mechanisms. Further, instead of actively attacking endpoint tools as some malware distributors do, the creators of Gootloader have opted for convoluted evasive techniques that conceal the end result," he added.
| Cyber_Attack |
Web hosting administration company InterWorx Hacked ! | https://thehackernews.com/2011/03/web-hosting-administration-company.html | Web hosting administration company InterWorx Hacked !
Web-hosting administration outfit InterWorx has warned users to change their passwords following a deep penetrating hack attack.
The assault on the firm's support desk database exposed users' login credentials because the support desk software was storing email and password data in plain text. Users were strongly advised to change their passwords on any site they accessed using the same login credentials as they used with InterWorx.
The compromise – which ran between 28 February and 5 March – gave hackers admin control of websites administered through InterWorx, a facility they soon set about abusing in order to distribute malware.
In a notice warning of the breach, InterWorx warns that a "few clients" have had their servers "modified to distribute malware javascript, as a direct result of this attack".
InterWorx apologised for the breach in an email sent to users on Thursday and forwarded toEl Reg. Breaches at web service firms that result in requests to change up passwords are far from unusual. The InterWorx breach is on the serious end of such breaches; the only silver lining is that its billing portal was run off a separate, segregated server and not hit by the attack.
The web-hosting services firm has promised a full security review in the wake of the incident.
US-based InterWorx provides a web-hosting control panel that is designed to make work easier for website administrators. The technology incorporates high-availability clustered features absent from some competing services.
| Malware |
Cyber criminals targeting another cryptocurrency 'Primecoin' with malicious miners | https://thehackernews.com/2014/01/cyber-criminals-targeting-another.html | Like Bitcoin, There are numerous other cryptocurrency similar in nature, including MasterCoin, ProtoShares, Litecoin, Peercoin, BitBar and many more.
One of them is Primecoin (sign: Ψ; code: XPM), a peer-to-peer open source cryptocurrency that implements a scientific computing proof-of-work system. Unlike Bitcoin or other virtual currencies, only Primecoin provides a proof of work that has intrinsic value. It generates a special form of prime number chains, known as 'Cunningham chains & bi-twin chains' and has a real world importance in mathematical research.
Worldwide famous RSA Encryption basically uses two prime numbers for generating a RSA key pair. If you are able to factorize the public key and find these prime numbers, you will then be able to find the private key. Thus, the whole Security of RSA encryption is based on the length of prime numbers. So, Primecoin plays a great role for crypto researchers to get large... and a very large number of Primes.
Like other cryptocurrency miners, Primecoin miners are also available and in simple terms, just put your computer to work to find prime numbers chain and make money.
After Bitcoin, the increasing public attention of other cryptocurrency did not go unnoticed by the Cyber criminals who have begun unleashing Primecoin mining malware.
Mehrdad Yazdizadeh, a security researcher from antivirus firm 'Panda Security' told The Hacker News that he has found few malicious Primecoin miners available on the Internet for Download from some Chinese websites and Torrents.
"Primecoin miners are written in python and other scripting languages are using a variety of methods to infect the users' systems i.e. Brute-forcing, privilege escalation, modify SQL tables". He said.
Those infected systems can be used as a botnet network to perform further attacks. Another interesting feature of this malware is the ability to host SQL server through XP_cmdshell of MSSQL.
"On execution, the malware will inject the SQL server to cmd.exe, svchost.exe, explorer.exe and similar process to hide itself as rootkits" he added.
Users affected by this malware will experience abnormally high CPU usage on their computers as a result of the infection.
Further analyses showed that the malware creates a process that call "sqlservr.exe", pointing to another file i.e. "primecoin.conf", which contains the credential and the IP address of the malware's master to communicate.
"Even if a user will delete sqlservr.exe or the conf folder, it will recover itself again and again. Also, malware is capable to enable the windows Guest account automatically" he said.
He found thousands of login (mostly failed to login) activities in a infected machine via the windows event, seems that Malware is facilitating the attacker to brute force the system user accounts for privilege escalation.
He collected some of the attacker's IP addresses from where the brute-force attack was triggered:
59.53.67.154
59.53.67.154
59.53.67.13
58.218.199.248
58.218.199.248
23.91.24.39
23.228.193.83
23.228.193.82
222.78.223.84
222.214.218.50
222.163.193.37
220.178.30.230
220.178.30.230
220.178.30.230
216.99.158.69
216.99.150.238
"I saw an attempt was made to reset an account's password. It tried to download more malicious files from other servers, " he said.
More features he noticed are:
Replicating itself through file systems
Killing the antivirus and security programs
According to the virus total report currently almost none of the Antivirus products are able to detect it:
Report-1
Report-2
Report-3
Report-4
Report-5
Update: Mehrdad informed us that Panda Antivirus is now able to detect this malware. Users are advised to keep their system/networks behind the shield of Firewall/IPS/IDS and install 'Panda Cloud Cleaner' for remove this threat.
| Malware |
Mobile malware on the rise, McAfee Q4 Threats Report | https://thehackernews.com/2012/02/mobile-malware-on-rise-mcafee-q4.html | McAfee Q4 Threats Report, Mobile malware on the rise
The number of new malware releases slowed during the final three months of 2011, but was higher than expected for the year. Computer and mobile security firm McAfee has warned "no organisation,platform or device" is immune from malware attacks as it released its Q4 2011 Threats Report.
Mobile malware hit more than 400 unique samples in Q4, up from over 100 in the third quarter, and less than 50 samples in the first quarter of last year. McAfee also found that PC malware counts declined during Q4, and were lower than in Q4 of 2010. Even so, the total number of unique malware samples is more than 75 million as of Q4, the report says.
"On a global basis, we are conducting more of our personal and business transactions through mobile devices, and this is creating new security risks and challenges in how we safeguard our commercial and personal data," said Vincent Weafer, senior vice-president of McAfee Labs.
McAfee Labs recorded an average of 9,300 new bad websites per day in Q4, up from 6,500 in the previous quarter. The vast majority of new malicious sites were hosted in the US, followed by the Netherlands, Canada, South Korea and Germany.
McAfee noted that both SQL injection and cross-site scripting attacks were increasingly observed over the quarter, while corporate espionage and hacktivist attacks also look set to climb in 2012."We saw some advances in cybercrime toolkits, as well as events that may have involved national governments," the company said in its report.
| Malware |
Samsung Galaxy S II (AT&T) trusted pattern lock Security Bypassed | https://thehackernews.com/2011/09/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-at-trusted-pattern.html | Samsung Galaxy S II (AT&T) trusted pattern lock Security Bypassed
Major security flaw found in AT&T's upcoming Samsung Galaxy S II device. Guys at BGR noticed that the information on the upcoming AT&T version of the Samsung Galaxy S II isn't so safe behind a once trusted pattern lock, and that it can quite simply be bypassed.
All you have to do : Wake the device using the lock key, then let the screen time out, then wake it again with the lock key and you can access all the data.
AT&T's Version of Samsung Galaxy S II is confirmed to have this security flaw, but the Sprint version or other does not suffer from this.Even I just check my own Samsung Galaxy S II (Indian Version), Yeah - ITS SAFE :)
Video Demonstration
[Source]
| Vulnerability |
Small satellite terminals (VSAT) are vulnerable to Cyber attack | https://thehackernews.com/2014/01/small-satellite-terminals-vsat-are.html | The Military Units that rely on very small aperture terminals (VSATs) for satellite communications in remote areas are vulnerable to cyber attack.
Researchers from cyber intelligence company IntelCrawler recently identified nearly 3 million VSATs, many of them in the United States, and found that about 10,000 of them could be easily accessed because of configuration weaknesses.
"We have scanned the whole IPv4 address space since 2010 and update the results in our Big Data intelligence database, including details about the satellite operator's network ranges, such as INMARSAT, Asia Broadcast Satellite, VSAT internet iDirect, Satellite HUB Pool, and can see some vulnerabilities,"
Researchers have warned that terminals having data transmission rate 4kbps to 16 Mbps used in narrow and broadband data transmission are vulnerable to cyber attack.
VSATs are most commonly used to transmit narrowband data such as credit card, polling or RFID data or broadband data for VoIP or video using the Satellites in geosynchronous orbit generally used for Television & Radio broadcast, direct broadcast, military communication. Its name originated from the relatively small dish antenna with a diameter no longer than 10 feet (3 meters).
IntelCrawler claimed that VSAT can be easily hacked because of poor password policy & default settings. Vulnerable terminals can be used for a planned cyber-attack, to be more precise on distributed network and infrastructure.
Dan Clements, IntelCrawler's President said:
"Many VSAT devices have Telnet access with very poor password strength, many times using default factory settings,"
"Intrusions to such open devices can allow you to monitor all the network traffic related to the exact device or host, sometimes with very sensitive information, which can lead to a compromise of the internal network,"
"The door might be six inches open, and of course you're not going in, but you can see there's a vulnerability there,"
"There's a lot of information that could be used in a nefarious way," Clements said. "Certainly you could put together a plan to go after certain grids or dams or power plants and have access to the centralized network at some point."
According to the report, there are more than 313 open UHP VSAT, 9045 open terminals (HUGHES) and 1,142 terminals (SatLink), that can be easily hacked by malicious attackers.
HUGHES is one of the largest manufacturers of VSATs which are mostly used in offline ATMs by several national central banks. Physical locations of a number of VSATs can be easily searched on Google maps and Google Earth, which could allow attackers to plan more sophisticated physical attacks.
"They are also widely spread in the industrial sector, such as energy, oil and gas, where the whole infrastructure is based on distributed environments located in different regions, cities or sometimes continents. According to statistics, there are 2,931,534 active VSAT terminals in the world now, with the majority installed in the US." according to the The Comsys VSAT report.
IntelCrawler also found network ranges of government and classified communications, e.g. Ministry of Civil Affairs of China infrastructure in ranges belongs to Shanghai VSAT Network Systems Co. LTD, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey in Turksat VSAT Services, that poses critical threat to National Security.
| Vulnerability |
'The Hacker News' Weekly Roundup — 14 Most Popular Stories | https://thehackernews.com/2015/09/cyber-security-hacking.html | To make the last week's top cyber security threats and challenges available to you in one shot, we are once again here with our weekly round up.
Last week, we came across lots of cyber security threats like the XCodeGhost malware in Apple's App Store and lockscreen bypass bug in iOS 9 and iOS 9.0.1 that made us sad, but…
…we were also thrilled by latest developments such as Microsoft's new Linux-based operating system Azure Cloud Switch (ACS), unhackable MicroKernel "SeL4", and Facebook 'Dislike or Empathy Button'.
I recommend you to read the entire thing (just click 'Read More' because there's some valuable advice in there as well).
Here's the list:
1. Microsoft Developed its Own Linux Operating System
One of the trending news of last week. Microsoft built its own Linux-based operating system known as Azure Cloud Switch (ACS).
The company described ACS as a "cross-platform, modular operating system for data center networking built on Linux," or simply, a "commodity switch software stack for data center networks".
The aim of developing a Linux-based operating system is to make it easier and simpler to control the hardware from multiple vendors (such as Switches) that power their cloud-based services. For working and functions of ACS, Read more…
2. D-Link Publishes its Private Code-Signing Keys on the Internet
Taiwan-based networking equipment manufacturer D-Link accidently published its Private code signing keys inside its open-source firmware packages.
As a result, an online user successfully developed a Windows application, which he was able to sign with the D-Link code signing keys, which was valid at the time.
Besides that code signing private keys, the user also discovered pass-phrases into the source code needed to sign the software. For in-depth information, Read more…
3. Unhackable Bug-Free MicroKernel – SeL4
Security Researchers, Mathematicians and Aviation gurus from Boeing and Rockwell Collins joined a team of dedicated NICTA researchers to create an open source, unhackable MicroKernel dubbed "SeL4."
SeL4 (Secure Microkernel Project) is a 3rd Generation MicroKernel designed to detect & foil hacking attempts. It supports various L4 microkernels features and promises high-performance with robust Security mechanisms that are even harder to Crack.
For an in-depth explanation, Read more…
4. AVG Antivirus Plans to Collect & Sell Your Personal Data to Advertisers
Remember, Nothing comes for Free! "Free" is just a relative term, as one of the world's most famous anti-virus companies has now admitted.
Czech Republic-based antivirus firm AVG updated its privacy policy in which it openly admits to collect and sell your data to online advertisers for the purpose of making money from its free anti-virus software.
The so-called "non-personal data" includes your browser and search history, meta-data, advertising ID associated with your device, Internet Service Provider (ISP) or Mobile Network you use and information regarding other apps you have on your device. For more information, Read more…
5. Aw, Snap! This 16-Character String can Crash Your Google Chrome
Security researcher Andris Atteka discovered a simple way to crash your Chrome browser — a small string of special characters.
Yes, a small string of 16 characters (https://a/%%30%30) caused your Chrome browser to crash. However, Google patched the flaw now, but the researcher didn't receive any bounty, as the bug was not a real security threat. Read more…
6. WIN $1 Million Bounty For Hacking the New iOS 9 iPhone
Yes, $1,000,000.00 Reward for finding zero-day hacks for iPhones and iPads.
Security firm Zerodium, a startup by the infamous security firm "VUPEN", announced a total of $3 Million ($3,000,000) bounty rewards for exploits and jailbreaks for Apple's latest mobile operating system iOS 9.
To know how you can Win this bounty reward, Read more…
7. 4000 Malicious iOS Store Apps Linked to CIA?
With the discovery of 39 malware infected iOS apps, FireEye researchers discovered nearly 4000 compromised iOS apps that were infected with same XCodeGhost malware.
XCodeGhost, a very harmful and dangerous piece of malware, was distributed through legitimate iOS Apps via counterfeit versions of Apple's app developer toolkit called Xcode.
It isn't clear that the attackers of XCodeGhost are linked to CIA, but the technique used by XCodeGhost is similar to that developed by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) researchers, disclosed by the leaked documents provided by Edward Snowden.
For in-depth information, Read more…
8. Here's How Facebook 'Dislike or Empathy Button' Would Look Like
Excited about having Facebook Dislike or Empathy button to your Facebook Profile and News Feed?
Facebook will soon offer you this feature, But if you are thinking that Facebook Dislike button is going to be a thumbs-down, then you are wrong.
As Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg says, "We did not want to just build a Dislike button [as] we do not want to turn Facebook into a forum where people are voting up or down on people's posts."
Instead of thumbs down to express disapproval or pity, it could be Emojis. How? Read more…
9. How to Access Private Photos and Contacts in iOS Device Without a Passcode
Last week, iPhone user Jose Rodriguez found a new and quite simple way of bypassing the lockscreen of an iOS device running Apple's latest iOS 9 operating system, allowing you to access the device's photos and contacts in 30 seconds or less.
Few days after, Apple released its first update to iOS 9 mobile operating system that addressed several bugs but, unfortunately, the latest update iOS 9.0.1 didn't fix the lockscreen bypass vulnerability.
To prove this, Rodriguez published a new video that detailed a step-by-step explanation on how to bypass the passcode on iOS 9 as well as iOS 9.0.1 device, using the benevolent nature of Apple's personal assistant Siri.
For detailed explanation, Read more…
10. Fingerprints of 5.6 Million Federal Employees Stolen in OPM Hack
Few month ago, a massive data breach in the US Office of Personnel Management affected more than 21 Million federal employees, who had their personal, and highly sensitive private information hijacked.
However, now the US officials are admitting that more than 5.6 Million Fingerprints of its federal employees were also stolen in the data breach took place in April this year. The number is bigger than previously reported that some 1.1 Million Fingerprints were taken. Read more…
11. Lenovo Caught Pre-Installing Spyware on its Laptops
Lenovo has once again been caught pre-installing spyware on its laptops and workstations from Lenovo ThinkPad, ThinkCentre, and ThinkStation series without the user's permission or knowledge.
Lenovo embedded a tracking software program, called "Lenovo Customer Feedback Program 64," categorized as Spyware, into its laptops and workstations that operate daily on these systems.
For more details on What this software does?, and How to Remove this software, Read more…
12.China developed a Linux OS that totally Looks Like Windows XP
Yes, China has created its own Desktop Operating System, dubbed "NeoKylin", tagged as a substitute to Windows XP by Quartz, who got an opportunity to have a hands-on experience of its 'community version' OS.
NeoKylin is developed by Shanghai-based China Standard Software Company, and the operating system is already running on more than 40 percent of commercial units sold in the country by Dell.
How NeoKylin looks like and similar is NeoKylin to Windows XP, Read more…
13. The World's First $9 Computer has Started Shipping
C.H.I.P. – Computer Hardware in Products – a $9 Linux-based, super-cheap computer has started shipping.
Dave Rauchwerk, CEO of Next Thing Co., said that the first run of CHIP computers is beginning to be distributed to early backers within few days.
For specifications and capabilities of C.H.I.P., Read more…
14. North America Runs Completely Out of IPv4 Internet Addresses
The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) announced the final exhaustion of their free pool of IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4) addresses.
The free pool of IPv4 addresses has reached zero, i.e., the availability of IPv4 addresses no more exists.
This is just the start of an era of IPv6, which was first invented in about two decades ago, and features much longer addresses (e.g. FE80:0000:0000:0000:0202:B3FF:FE1E:8329).
This simply means that IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) could offer a total available pool of 340 Trillion Trillion Trillion addresses, providing capacity for a very long time. Read more…
| Malware |
Thousands of websites defaced after Belgium and Netherland domain registrars hacked | https://thehackernews.com/2013/07/thousands-of-websites-defaced-after.html | On Tuesday, The Foundation for Internet Domain Registration (.NL) in the Netherlands (SIDN) was compromised and some malicious files were uploaded to their server by hackers.
According to a blog post, SQL injection vulnerability was used to compromise one of the website (25jaarvan.nl) on same server initially, that allows hacker to temporarily access to the domain name registration system.
"The DRS web application was shut down and zone file publication was temporarily suspended.", company said. "As a result of our precautionary action, some areas of the website that registrars use to download registrarship-related data have been unavailable since Tuesday evening."
In another cyber attack on Tuesday, several Belgium websites was also got defaced by another group of hackers. Domain Registrar behind Belgium i.e DNS.be was compromised by attackers.
The hackers were able to infiltrate and modify a DNS server, pointing all of the websites to a single website displaying the deface message.
"user data or the registration platform had not been compromised", DNS.be said in a statement. "We immediately deleted the deface files and we took the necessary precautions to block further malicious access to the website."
| Vulnerability |
FormBook—Cheap Password Stealing Malware Used In Targeted Attacks | https://thehackernews.com/2017/10/formbook-password-stealer.html | It seems sophisticated hackers have changed the way they conduct targeted cyber operations—instead of investing in zero-days and developing their malware; some hacking groups have now started using ready-made malware just like script kiddies.
Possibly, this could be a smart move for state-sponsored hackers to avoid being attributed easily.
Security researchers from multiple security firms, including Arbor Networks and FireEye, independently discovered a series of malware campaigns primarily targeting aerospace, defence contractors and manufacturing sectors in various countries, including the United States, Thailand, South Korea and India.
What's common? All these attack campaigns, conducted by various hacking groups, eventually install same information and password stealer malware—dubbed FormBook—on the targeted systems.
FormBook is nothing but a "malware-as-as-service," which is an affordable piece of data-stealing and form-grabbing malware that has been advertised in various hacking forums since early 2016.
Anyone can rent FormBook for just $29 per week or $59 per month, which offers a range of advanced spying capabilities on target machines, including a keylogger, password stealer, network sniffer, taking the screenshots, web form data stealer and more.
According to the researchers, attackers in each campaign are primarily using emails to distribute the FormBook malware as an attachment in different forms, including PDFs with malicious download links, DOC and XLS files with malicious macros, and archive files (ZIP, RAR, ACE, and ISOs) containing EXE payloads.
Once installed on a target system, the malware injects itself into various processes and starts capturing keystrokes and extracts stored passwords and other sensitive data from multiple applications, including Google Chrome, Firefox, Skype, Safari, Vivaldi, Q-360, Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, 3D-FTP, FileZilla and WinSCP.
FormBook continuously sends all the stolen data to a remote command and control (C2) server which also allows the attacker to execute other commands on the targeted system, including start processes, shutdown and reboot the system, and stealing cookies.
"One of the malware's most interesting features is that it reads Windows' ntdll.dll module from disk into memory, and calls its exported functions directly, rendering user-mode hooking and API monitoring mechanisms ineffective," FireEye says.
"The malware author calls this technique "Lagos Island method" (allegedly originating from a userland rootkit with this name)."
According to the researchers, FormBook was also seen downloading other malware families such as NanoCore in the last few weeks.
The attackers can even use the data successfully harvested by FormBook for further cybercriminal activities including, identity theft, continued phishing operations, bank fraud and extortion.
FormBook is neither sophisticated, nor difficult-to-detect malware, so the best way to protect yourself from this malware is to keep good antivirus software on your systems, and always keep it up-to-date.
| Malware |
Latest Internet Explorer zero-day linked to Elderwood Project | https://thehackernews.com/2013/01/latest-internet-explorer-zero-day.html | Last week we have seen ongoing attacks was exploiting a vulnerability in Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7, and Internet Explorer 8 that came to light after the Council on Foreign Relations website was hacked and was hosting the code. Symantec has linked exploits to the group responsible for a spate of recent espionage attacks Dubbed the "Elderwood Project".
In May 2012, Amnesty International's Hong Kong website was compromised & used to serve up a malicious SWF file that exploited CVE-2012-1875, a vulnerability affecting Internet Explorer. A few months later in Sep 2012, the same group behind that attack was responsible for using another IE zero-day CVE-2012-4969.
Microsoft issued a temporary Fix-it patch for the vulnerability but now researchers are claiming that they have bypassed the patch and were able to compromise a fully patched system. Name comes from a source code variable used by the attackers. In the past, the group has used a mix of spear-phishing emails and watering hole attacks to infect vulnerable systems and has a lengthy history of using zero-day bugs as part of their attacks.
The group, believed to be based in China, has targeted U.S. defense contractors and their partners in the supply chain, including manufacturers of mechanical components. The latest zero-day was used as part of a so-called "watering hole" attack against the website for the policy think tank Council on Foreign Relations, the influential membership group that helps shape U.S. foreign policy.
Microsoft is working on a full patch for the flaw, which, unfortunately, will not make it in time for next week's Patch Tuesday monthly round of Microsoft updates.
| Vulnerability |
427 Million Myspace Passwords leaked in major Security Breach | https://thehackernews.com/2016/06/myspace-passwords-leaked.html | MySpace has suffered a major data breach in which hundreds of Millions of users have had their account details compromised.
You may have forgotten Myspace and have not thought of it in years after Facebook acquired the market, but Myspace was once-popular social media website.
On Tuesday, Myspace confirmed that the company was hacked in 2013 and that the stolen Myspace username and password combinations have been made available for sale in an online hacker forum.
The hacker, nicknamed Peace, who is selling the database of about 360 Million Myspace accounts with 427 million passwords, is the same hacker who was recently in the news for leaking 164 Million LinkedIn and 65 Million Tumblr accounts.
"We believe the data breach is attributed to Russian Cyberhacker 'Peace'," Myspace wrote in a blog post. "Email addresses, Myspace usernames, and Myspace passwords for the affected Myspace accounts created prior to June 11, 2013 on the old Myspace platform are at risk."
The data breach in Myspace is believed to be the largest leaks of passwords ever and even if you have not visited Myspace in years, your personal information is up for sale online.
Like LinkedIn, the stolen Myspace passwords were also stored in SHA1 with no "salting." Salting is a process that makes passwords much harder to crack.
Myspace said it has taken "significant steps" to strengthen its users' account security since the data breach in 2013 and now the company uses double-salted hashes to store passwords.
I strongly advise users who tend to reuse the same passwords between sites to set new passwords on those websites immediately.
| Data_Breaches |
Process Doppelgänging: New Malware Evasion Technique Works On All Windows Versions | https://thehackernews.com/2017/12/malware-process-doppelganging.html | A team of security researchers has discovered a new malware evasion technique that could help malware authors defeat most of the modern antivirus solutions and forensic tools.
Dubbed Process Doppelgänging, the new fileless code injection technique takes advantage of a built-in Windows function and an undocumented implementation of Windows process loader.
Ensilo security researchers Tal Liberman and Eugene Kogan, who discovered the Process Doppelgänging attack, presented their findings today at Black Hat 2017 Security conference held in London.
Process Doppelgänging Works on All Windows Versions
Apparently, Process Doppelgänging attack works on all modern versions of Microsoft Windows operating system, starting from Windows Vista to the latest version of Windows 10.
Tal Liberman, the head of the research team at enSilo, told The Hacker New that this malware evasion technique is similar to Process Hollowing—a method first introduced years ago by attackers to defeat the mitigation capabilities of security products.
In Process Hollowing attack, hackers replace the memory of a legitimate process with a malicious code so that the second code runs instead of the original, tricking process monitoring tools and antivirus into believing that the original process is running.
Since all modern antivirus and security products have been upgraded to detect Process Hollowing attacks, use of this technique is not a great idea anymore.
On the other hand, Process Doppelgänging is an entirely different approach to achieve the same, by abusing Windows NTFS Transactions and an outdated implementation of Windows process loader, which was originally designed for Windows XP, but carried throughout all later versions of Windows.
Here's How the Process Doppelgänging Attack Works:
Before going further on how this new code injection attack works, you need to understand what Windows NTFS Transaction is and how an attacker could leverage it to evade his malicious actions.
NTFS Transaction is a feature of Windows that brings the concept of atomic transactions to the NTFS file system, allowing files and directories to be created, modified, renamed, and deleted atomically.
NTFS Transaction is an isolated space that allows Windows application developers to write file-output routines that are guaranteed to either succeed completely or fail completely.
According to the researcher, Process Doppelgänging is a fileless attack and works in four major steps as mentioned below:
Transact—process a legitimate executable into the NTFS transaction and then overwrite it with a malicious file.
Load—create a memory section from the modified (malicious) file.
Rollback—rollback the transaction (deliberately failing the transaction), resulting in the removal of all the changes in the legitimate executable in a way they never existed.
Animate—bring the doppelganger to life. Use the older implementation of Windows process loader to create a process with the previously created memory section (in step 2), which is actually malicious and never saved to disk, "making it invisible to most recording tools such as modern EDRs."
Process Doppelgänging Evades Detection from Most Antiviruses
Liberman told The Hacker News that during their research they tested their attack on security products from Windows Defender, Kaspersky Labs, ESET NOD32, Symantec, Trend Micro, Avast, McAfee, AVG, Panda, and even advance forensic tools.
In order to demonstrate, the researchers used Mimikatz, a post-exploitation tool that helps extract credentials from the affected systems, with Process Doppelgänging to bypass antivirus detection.
When the researchers ran Mimikatz generally on a Windows operating system, Symantec antivirus solution caught the tool immediately, as shown below:
However, Mimikatz ran stealthy, without antivirus displaying any warning when executed using Process Doppelgänging, as shown in the image at top of this article.
Liberman also told us that Process Doppelgänging works on even the latest version of Windows 10, except Windows 10 Redstone and Fall Creators Update, released earlier this year.
But due to a different bug in Windows 10 Redstone and Fall Creators Update, using Process Doppelgänging causes BSOD (blue screen of death), which crashes users' computers.
Ironically, the crash bug was patched by Microsoft in later updates, allowing Process Doppelgänging to run on the latest versions of Windows 10.
I don't expect Microsoft to rush for an emergency patch that could make some software relying on older implementations unstable, but Antivirus companies can upgrade their products to detect malicious programs using Process Doppelgänging or similar attacks.
This is not the very first time when enSilo researchers have discovered a malware evasion technique. Previously they discovered and demonstrated AtomBombing technique which also abused a designing weakness in Windows OS.
In September, enSilo researchers also disclosed a 17-year-old programming error in Microsoft Windows kernel that prevented security software from detecting malware at runtime when loaded into system memory.
| Malware |
How to Minimize Web Application Security Risk ! | https://thehackernews.com/2012/10/how-to-minimize-web-application.html | With Web applications remaining a popular target for attackers, Web app security sometimes seems like a digital version of the "Good, the Bad and the Ugly." Vulnerabilities in web applications are now the largest vector of enterprise security attacks.
Web application security is much more challenging than infrastructure. The top Web application vulnerabilities occur and re-occur time and again. Items such as Cross Site Scripting (XSS), SQL Injection (SQLi) and file inclusion are common vulnerabilities and show up frequently. In his view, the majority of Web application security problems can be solved by applying well known security technology approaches.
According to survey results, only 51 percent of organizations currently have coders conduct security testing, and only 40 percent of organizations report they test during development. Vulnerabilities like these fall often outside the traditional expertise of network security managers.
To help you understand how to minimize these risks, Qualys provides this guide "Web Application Security; How to Minimize Prevalent Risk of Attacks" as a primer to web application security.
The guide covers:
Typical web application vulnerabilities
Comparison of options for web application vulnerability detection
QualysGuard Web Application Scanning solution
Download Handbook !
| Cyber_Attack |
Tilon/SpyEye2 Banking Trojan Usage Declining after SpyEye Author Arrest | https://thehackernews.com/2014/02/tilonspyeye2-banking-trojan-usage.html | Today, when we come across various malware, exploit kits and botnets that are in the wild, we think about an effective Antivirus solution or a Security Patch, but the most effective solution is always "The arrest of malware authors and culprits who are involved in the development of Malware."
Tilon has been an active malware family that was spotted first time in 2012, was specially designed to filch money from online bank accounts, that earlier various researchers found to be the new version of Silon, is none other than the SpyEye2 banking Trojan, according to researchers at security firm Delft Fox-IT.
Tilon a.k.a SpyEye2 is the sophisticated version of SpyEye Trojan. Majority functional part of the malware is same as of the SpyEye banking Trojan that was developed by a 24-year-old Russian hacker 'Aleksandr Andreevich Panin' or also known as Gribodemon, who was arrested in July 2013.
'SpyEye', infected more than 1.4 million Computers worldwide since 2009, designed to steal people's identities and financial information, including online banking credentials, credit card information, user names, passwords and PINs. It secretly infects the victim's computer and gives the remote control to the cybercriminals who remotely access the infected computer through command and control servers and steal victims' personal and financial information through a variety of techniques, including web injects, keystroke loggers, and credit card grabbers without authorization.
Researchers have confirmed that, the team who had developed the SpyEye is the same who created Tilon, and that is why it was labeled as SpyEye2.
"The team behind its creation was similar, however, reinforced with at least one better skilled programmer," said the researchers, adding, "The management of SpyEye2 is done through a single, unified interface, which has been completely redesigned but still contains a few of the unique features of the original SpyEye."
An interesting part of SpyEye2, which the researchers found 'slightly funny', is that the malware check for the removal of the older version of SpyEye installed in the infected system and replace it with the new version, i.e. SpyEye2 with better stability features.
"No other malware families are checked for removal. Early versions of the original SpyEye were likewise equipped with a feature to remove older versions of ZeuS installed on the infected system," researchers say.
According to the researchers, "only the Loader portion of Tilon is sourced from Silon, but this is where the similarity ends. As shown above and further illustrated in the Appendices, the body (i.e., functional portion) of Tilon was actually based on SpyEye."
Also, another reason to consider Tilon as SpyEye's variant is its success, which was in the wild from 2012 to 2014, and suddenly seems to be over as the SpyEye author arrested last year.
Fox-IT researchers say, "the arrests, like Gribodemon and other key figures in the underground economy, such as Paunch, the author of the popular Blackhole Exploit Kit, is the key to decreasing the worldwide activity around online crime."
It doesn't mean that the malware won't circulate its fraudulent activity in the future, but will finally come to an end after nearly a year of declining usage.
| Malware |
Researchers Uncover Cyber Espionage Operation Aimed At Indian Army | https://thehackernews.com/2020/09/cyberattack-indian-army.html | Cybersecurity researchers uncovered fresh evidence of an ongoing cyberespionage campaign against Indian defense units and armed forces personnel at least since 2019 with an aim to steal sensitive information.
Dubbed "Operation SideCopy" by Indian cybersecurity firm Quick Heal, the attacks have been attributed to an advanced persistent threat (APT) group that has successfully managed to stay under the radar by "copying" the tactics of other threat actors such as the SideWinder.
Exploiting Microsoft Equation Editor Flaw
The campaign's starting point is an email with an embedded malicious attachment — either in the form of a ZIP file containing an LNK file or a Microsoft Word document — that triggers an infection chain via a series of steps to download the final-stage payload.
Aside from identifying three different infection chains, what's notable is the fact that one of them exploited template injection and Microsoft Equation Editor flaw (CVE-2017-11882), a 20-year old memory corruption issue in Microsoft Office, which, when exploited successfully, let attackers execute remote code on a vulnerable machine even without user interaction.
Microsoft addressed the issue in a patch released in November 2017.
As is often the case with such malspam campaigns, the attack relies on a bit of social engineering to bait the user into opening a seemingly realistic Word document that claims to be about the Indian government's defense production policy.
What's more, the LNK files have a double extension ("Defence-Production-Policy-2020.docx.lnk") and come with document icons, thereby tricking an unsuspecting victim into opening the file.
Once opened, the LNK files abuse "mshta.exe" to execute malicious HTA (short for Microsoft HTML Applications) files that are hosted on fraudulent websites, with the HTA files created using an open-sourced payload generation tool called CACTUSTORCH.
A Multi-stage Malware Delivery Process
The first stage HTA file includes a decoy document and a malicious .NET module that executes the said document and downloads a second-stage HTA file, which in turn checks for the presence of popular antivirus solutions before copying Microsoft's credential back and restore utility ("credwiz.exe") to a different folder on the victim machine and modifying the registry to run the copied executable every time upon startup.
Consequently, when this file gets executed, not only does it side-load a malicious "DUser.dll" file, it also launches the RAT module "winms.exe," both of which are obtained from the stage-2 HTA.
"This DUser.dll will initiate the connection over this IP address '173.212.224.110' over TCP port 6102," the researchers said.
"Once successfully connected, it will [...] then proceed for performing various operations based on the command received from C2. For example, if C2 sends 0, then it collects the Computer Name, Username, OS version etc. and sends it back to C2."
Stating the RAT shared code-level similarities with Allakore Remote, an open-sourced remote-access software written in Delphi, Quick Heal's Seqrite team noted that the Trojan employed Allakore's RFB (remote frame buffer) protocol to exfiltrate data from the infected system.
Possible Links to Transparent Tribe APT
In addition, a few attack chains are also said to have dropped a previously unseen .NET-based RAT (called "Crimson RAT" by Kaspersky researchers) that comes equipped with a wide range of capabilities, including access files, clipboard data, kill processes, and even execute arbitrary commands.
Although the modus operandi of naming DLL files shares similarities with the SideWinder group, the APT's heavy reliance on the open-sourced toolset and an entirely different C2 infrastructure led the researchers to conclude with reasonable confidence that the threat actor is of Pakistani origin — specifically the Transparent Tribe group, which has been recently linked to several attacks targeting the Indian military and government personnel.
"Thus, we suspect that the actor behind this operation is a sub-division under (or part of) Transparent-Tribe APT group and are just copying TTPs of other threat actors to mislead the security community," Quick Heal said.
| Cyber_Attack |
Android 4.3 and Earlier versions Vulnerable to Critical Code-Execution Flaw | https://thehackernews.com/2014/06/android-43-and-earlier-versions.html | A critical code-execution vulnerability almost affecting everyone those are not running the most updated version of Google Android, i.e. Android version 4.4 also known as KitKat.
After nine months of vulnerability disclosure to the Android security team, researchers of the Application Security team at IBM have finally revealed all the possible details of a serious code-execution vulnerability that still affects the Android devices running versions 4.3 and earlier, which could allow attackers to exfiltrate sensitive information from the vulnerable devices.
"Considering Android's fragmented nature and the fact that this was a code-execution vulnerability, we decided to wait a bit with the public disclosure," said Roee Hay, a security research group leader at IBM.
The researchers found the stack buffer overflow vulnerability that resides in the Android's KeyStore storage service, which according to the Android developers' website is the service code running in Android responsible for storing and securing device's cryptographic keys.
CAUSE OF THE CRITICAL FLAW
According to the researchers, the vulnerability occurred due the absent bounds check for a stack buffer created by the "KeyStore::getKeyForName" method.
"This function has several callers, which are accessible by external applications using the Binder interface (e.g., 'android::KeyStoreProxy::get'). Therefore, the 'keyName' variable can be controllable with an arbitrary size by a malicious application," Hay said. "The 'encode_key' routine that is called by 'encode_key_for_uid' can overflow the 'filename' buffer, since bounds checking is absent."
ANDROID VULNERABILITY IMPACT
While IBM's researchers haven't seen this vulnerability being exploited in the wild yet. But if successfully exploited, would compromise a device completely allowing an attacker to execute malicious code of their choice under the keystore process.
Consequently, the attacker could gain access to the device's sensitive information such as device's lock-screen credentials, encrypted and decrypted master keys, data and hardware-backed key identifiers from the memory, as well as the ability to carry out cryptographic operations such as arbitrary signing of data on behalf of the users.
ATTACK VECTOR
While this could be accomplished only with the use of a malicious application, but there are a number of obstacles for the working exploit to overcome.
That means, a malicious application must have ability to bypass memory-based protections native to the operating system including Data Execution Prevention (DEP) and Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR).
DEP is an exploit mitigation that limits where code can be executed and helps prevent certain malicious exploits, but the attackers have had success using shellcode or Return Oriented Programming (ROP) attacks in order to bypass DEP.
While, ASLR specifically reduces buffer overflow attacks that exploit vulnerabilities like the one elaborated in this article. ASLR randomizes the memory locations used by system files and other programs, making it much harder for an attacker to correctly guess the location of a given process.
An attacker would also need to overcome the stack canaries present in Android, which is used to detect stack buffer overflow bugs such as this one before execution of malicious code can occur. Moreover, Android also makes use of encoding, which is also an obstacle for the attacker to overcome.
"However, the Android KeyStore is respawned every time it terminates," Hay cautions. "This behavior enables a probabilistic approach; moreover, the attacker may even theoretically abuse ASLR to defeat the encoding."
LATEST UPDATE - ANDROID 4.4.4
Currently Google is rolling out Android KitKat 4.4.4 with build number KTU84P (branch kitkat-mr2.1-release) to several Nexus devices, including Nexus 4, 5, 7, and 10. Latest update primarily addresses the OpenSSL CCS Injection Vulnerability (CVE-2014-0224), which was discovered in OpenSSL after the Heartbleed bug was uncovered.
So if you haven't updated your OS, this might be a good time to do it. Users can check to see if the update is available for their device by accessing Settings > About Phone > System Updates.
| Vulnerability |
Killapache: DDOS tool - Half of the Internet is vulnerable now ! | https://thehackernews.com/2011/08/killapache-ddos-tool-half-of-internet.html | Killapache: DDOS tool - Half of the Internet is vulnerable now !
The Apache Software Foundation has announced a denial-of-service vulnerability that affects all versions of the ubiquitous Apache web server, leaving up to 65% of all websites vulnerable. A unknown flaw in the code for processing byte range headers allows versions 2.2.x of the Apache Web Server to be crippled from a single PC. A suitable "Apache Killer" Perl script that impressively demonstrates the problem.
How does killapache DDOS tool work?
killapache sends GET requests with multiple "byte ranges" that will claim large portions of the system's memory space. A "byte range" statement allows a browser to only load certain parts of a document, for example bytes 500 to 1000. It is normally used while downloading large files. This method is used by programs such as download clients to resume downloads that have been interrupted; it is designed to reduce bandwidth requirements. However, it appears that stating multiple unsorted components in the header can cause an Apache server to malfunction.
There is no patch yet released for this vulnerability on apache, but a few work arounds have been found. These have been posted by The Apache Software Foundation and can be used until a stable fix is released.The vulnerability works by exploiting a feature in web servers that gives you the ability to pause and resume your downloads. These days if you have to stop downloading something part-way through you can generally pick up where you left off and you don't have to start again from scratch.
Download killapache
| Vulnerability |
Hacker threatens to sell data of 3.7 Million Israeli Bank Customers, demands extortion money in Bitcoin | https://thehackernews.com/2013/12/hacker-Israeli-Bank-botnet-malware-extortion-bitcoin.html | Data breaches and security incidents are a constant in the headlines these days. Hackers and cyber criminals are motivated by status or money and finding new innovative and more creative attacks to achieve this.
One of them are, Digital Bank robbery - where the thieves didn't need masks and guns to pull off the job, all they need are - Hacking Skills, a computer and the Internet. Another way is Cyber extortion - threat of attack against an enterprise or a bank, coupled with a demand for money to avert or stop the attack.
According to Haaretz news, A Hacker - who is the operator of a biggest botnet malware network in the Israel, has threatens 3 major Israeli banks, i.e. Israel Discount Bank, Bank Yahav and the First International Bank of Israel.
"Bank received an e-mail message threatening that unless they handed over a certain sum in Bitcoins by the end of next week, a list of customers' details would be given to hostile elements."
Banks database, network and websites were not breached in this case, rather the hacker claimed that he holds a huge financial trojan botnet network in Israel that have already infected millions of systems across the nation and collected a massive dump of stolen personal information, passwords, banking information and credit card numbers of 3.7 Million users.
The hacker has demanded the payoff in Bitcoin, a untraceable virtual currency, perfect for blackmailers and cyber criminals. Bitcoin is not backed by any central bank or government and can be transferred "peer to peer" between any two people anywhere.
Banks declined to comment on the report and immediately reported the threat to the Israel Police. According to the source, some of them do not see the threat as serious. Bank of Israel held a meeting on Tuesday on the issue, we will update you soon about their next step with a new article.
Cyber attacks are becoming more and more advanced and sophisticated, more or less any company in the world is on the list of targets to rob. You should keep updating your knowledge about the cyber world to Stay Safe from all threats.
| Malware |
Warning — Facebook Color Changer App is Just a Scam, Infects 10000 Users | https://thehackernews.com/2014/08/warning-facebook-color-changer-app-is_9.html | Scammers have again targeted more than one billion active users of the popular social networking giant Facebook, to infect as many victims as possible.
This time, an old Facebook scam is back in action once again!
Malicious Facebook "Color Changer" app has resurfaced again on the popular social networking site Facebook, this time compromising more than 10,000 people worldwide.
The malicious app promises users to change the characteristic blue colour of Facebook's header and interface to one of nine other colours including pink, purple, green, yellow, orange and black, in order to infect users' phones and computers with malicious software.
Researchers at China-based Internet company Cheetah Mobile have detected the "Facebook colour changer" that tricks Facebook users into downloading the app via a malicious phishing site.
The phishing website targets users in two ways:
First of all, it steals the users' Facebook Access Tokens by asking them to view a color changer tutorial video,which allows hacker to connect to the victim's Facebook friends.
If the user doesn't watch the video, the site then tries to get them to download the malicious color changer application, in order to infect their systems with malware.
However, PC users are lead to a bogus site to download a pornographic video player, and Android device users are issued a warning saying their device has been infected and advised to download a suggested application.
According to the researchers at Cheetah Mobile, the problem stems from "a vulnerability that lives in Facebook's app page itself, allowing hackers to implant viruses and malicious code into Facebook-based applications that directs users to phishing sites."
The new color changer app has affected Facebook users in several countries but this is not the very first time it has happened before, according to Cheetah Mobile's security researchers.
Facebook has become Number 1 social networking website with more than one billion active users this year. Hundreds of people join the social networking website everyday. On the other hand, with the increase in popularity, Facebook also serves as a great and useful platform for scammers and falling victim to such scams is very simple.
So here's what you can do in order to protect yourself from this threat. Follow these steps:
Realize there's no way to customize your Facebook with an app
Do not click any link which suggests otherwise
Even if the link suggests it's heading toward an Official Facebook Page - DO NOT TRUST IT
But, for those who have already installed the app should uninstall the app straight away and change their Facebook account password. To prevent further problems we suggest you to completely turn off Facebook's apps platform, and install a trusted security application to your devices.
Remember, there is absolutely no friendly way to change the color of your Facebook. You can only customize your Facebook account or page by adding any of your other profile photo and a different header image through your normal Facebook settings - That's it!
| Malware |
Microsoft Says Russian Hackers Using Unpatched Windows Bug Disclosed by Google | https://thehackernews.com/2016/11/windows-zeroday-exploit.html | Google's Threat Analysis Group publically disclosed on Monday a critical zero-day vulnerability in most versions of Windows just 10 days after privately disclosed both zero days to Microsoft and Adobe.
While Adobe rushed an emergency patch for its Flash Player software on October 26, Microsoft had yet to release a fix.
Microsoft criticized Google's move, saying that the public disclosure of the vulnerability — which is being exploited in the wild — before the company had time to prepare a fix, puts Windows users at "potential risk."
The result? Windows Vista through current versions of Windows 10 is still vulnerable, and now everybody knows about the critical vulnerability.
Now, Microsoft said that the company would be releasing a patch for the zero-day flaw on 8th November, as part of its regular round of monthly security updates.
Russian Hackers are actively exploiting critical Windows kernel bug
Microsoft acknowledged the vulnerability in a blog post on Tuesday, in which the company said that the Windows kernel bug was being actively exploited by a well-known sophisticated hacking group previously linked to the Russian government.
Terry Myerson, executive vice president of Microsoft's Windows and Devices group, said the flaw was being exploited on a "low-volume scale" by Strontium group, also known as Fancy Bear, Sofacy, and APT 28, in targeted attacks.
Fancy Bear is the same hacking group which has also been accused by the United States Intelligence community of hacking the US Democratic National Committee, Clinton Campaign Chair John Podesta, and former Secretary of State Colin Powell, among others.
Myerson noted that Fancy Bear abusing the Google-reported flaw had been sending spear-phishing emails in order to trick recipients into clicking on malicious links or opening bogus attachments, which end them up installing malware on their machines or disclosing their personal information.
The vulnerability (CVE-2016-7855) is a local privilege escalation bug exists in the Windows operating system kernel, which can be exploited by malware to gain admin access on any Windows system.
Once exploited, the flaw can be used to escape the sandbox protection and execute malicious code on the compromised Windows machine.
Wait another Week for Windows zero-day patch
Microsoft encouraged its customers to upgrade to Windows 10, as the Edge browser on Windows 10 Anniversary Update is not affected by the Windows kernel flaw.
Microsoft engineers are working on a Windows patch, but in the meantime, there is little you can do in order to protect yourself from this attack observed in the wild.
"We have coordinated with Google and Adobe to investigate this malicious campaign and to create a patch for down-level versions of Windows," Myerson said. "Along these lines, patches for all versions of Windows are now being tested by many industry participants, and we plan to release them publicly on the next Update Tuesday, Nov 8."
For now, you are advised to update Chrome and Adobe Flash, or remove it completely, and until Microsoft issues a fix, be careful what software you download, what websites you visit, and particularly what email links you click.
For more details about the critical vulnerability, you can head on to read Microsoft's official blog post.
| Vulnerability |
Malicious Advertisements Found on Java.com, Other High-Profile Sites | https://thehackernews.com/2014/08/malicious-advertisement-found-on_29.html | A New York-based online ad network company AppNexus, that provides a platform specializing in real-time online advertising, has again been spotted as the origin of a recent "malvertising" campaign that makes use of the Angler Exploit Kit to redirect visitors to malicious websites hosting the Asprox malware.
AppNexus servers process 16 billion ad buys per day, making it the biggest reach on the open web after Google. Back in May, AppNexus was serving malicious ads targeting Microsoft's Silverlight platform. The world's largest Internet Video Subscription service Netflix runs on Silverlight, and because of its popularity, hackers have been loading exploit kits with Silverlight.
As part of this campaign, users of several high-profile websites including Java.com, Deviantart.com, TMZ.com, Photobucket.com, IBTimes.com, eBay.ie, Kapaza.be and TVgids.nl, last week were redirected to websites serving malicious advertisements that infected visitors by installing botnet malware on their computer, said security company Fox-IT.
"These websites have not been compromised themselves, but are the victim of malvertising. This means an advertisement provider, providing its services to a small part of a website, serves malicious advertisement aimed at infecting visitors with malware," researchers at Fox-IT said in a blog post.
Angler exploit kits are available on the underground black forums and are used in various malicious campaigns to own websites and redirect users off to websites hosting banking malware and other types of malicious code in order to victimize them.
"Please note, a visitor does not need to click on the malicious advertisements in order to get infected. This all happens silently in the background as the ad is loaded by the user's browser," researchers warned.
According to the Researchers, Angler first checks whether the victim's browser supports an outdated versions of Java, Adobe Flash Player or Microsoft Silverlight, and then silently install a variant of the Asprox botnet malware.
Asprox is generally a spam botnet that was involved in multiple high-profile attacks on various websites in order to spread malware. The malware recently has been modified for click-fraud and cyber criminals are using it to spread malware through email attachments with exploit kits. It also has other malicious functionality including scanning websites for vulnerabilities and stealing log-in credentials stored on computers.
"Asprox has gone through many changes and modifications which includes spam modules, website scanning modules and even credential stealing modules," Fox-IT said. "This history and current events show Asprox is still actively being developed and used."
Once visited on a site hosting the malicious ad, users are redirected in the background to ads[.]femmotion[.]com, which then redirects to the exploit kit on a number of other domains, the gloriousdead[.]com and taggingapp[.]com.
"All the exploit kit hosts were observed using port 37702. Running exploit kits on high ports at best prevents certain network tools from logging the HTTP connections, as these are typically configured to monitor only HTTP ports," Fox-IT said. "It does mean this exploit kit is blocked on a lot of corporate networks as they do not allow for browsing outside the normal HTTP ports, port 80 (or proxy ports) and 443 for SSL."
In order to show targeted advertisements to users, advertisers engage in an automatic, real-time bidding process, which makes malicious advertisements more difficult to track. "In the case of this malvertising campaign the malicious advertisers were the highest bidders," Fox-IT says.
Hackers used a method called "retargeting", which is actually used by Digital Advertising agencies to rotate the ads shown to the same visitor when they access a specific page multiple times.
"The way it works is that a user with an interesting set of tracking cookies and other metadata for a certain adprovider is retargetted from the original advertisement content on the website to the modified or personalized data," Fox-IT researchers said. "We have seen examples where the website that helped with the ad redirect to infect a user had no idea it was helping the delivery of certain content for a certain ad provider."
| Malware |
HP LaserJet Pro Printers remotely exploitable to gain unauthorized access to Wi-Fi and Printer Data | https://thehackernews.com/2013/08/hacking-HP-printers-Vulnerability-wifi-password.html | Do you own an HP printer? If so, it may be vulnerable to Hackers. Multiple HP LaserJet Pro Printers are printer vulnerable to hackers according to a new advisory posted by the vendor, dubbed as CVE-2013-4807 (SSRT101181).
Researcher 'Micha Sajdak' of Securitum.pl have found a security hole HP LaserJet printers that allows a remote hacker to extract the admin password in plain text, among other information like WiFi settings including the WPS PIN.
The main issue is with some of the networked HP LaserJet printers, having hidden URLs hardcoded in the firmware, which can be accessed without authentication. The vulnerability could be exploited remotely to gain unauthorized access to data.
For example : https://IP_ADDRESS/dev/save_restore.xml
Where the password seems to be encrypted, but the value contains a hex representation of the admin password in plain text, i.e. 0x746573746f7765 = testowe.
Also, If a printer is WiFi enabled, then the WiFi info can be extracted from using below url:
https://IP_ADDRESS:8080/IoMgmt/Adapters/wifi0/WPS/Pin
Affected models are HP LaserJet Pro P1102w, HP LaserJet Pro P1606dn, HP LaserJet Pro CP1025nw, HP LaserJet Pro M1212nf MFP, HP LaserJet Pro M1213nf MFP, HP LaserJet Pro M1214nfh MFP, HP LaserJet Pro M1216nfh MFP, HP LaserJet Pro M1217nfw MFP, HP LaserJet Pro M1218nfs MFP, and Possibly others too.
HP has provided an updated printer firmware version: 20130703 to resolve this issue.
| Vulnerability |
The Mask, a malware campaign that remained undetected for 7 Years | https://thehackernews.com/2014/02/the-mask-malware-campaign-that-remained.html | A Sophisticated cyber spying operation, 'The Mask', that has been under the mask for about 7 years targeting approximately 31 countries, has now been 'unmasked' by researchers at Kaspersky Labs.
The Researchers believe that the program has been operational since 2007 and is seems to be sophisticated nation-state spying tool that targeted government agencies and diplomatic offices and embassies before it was disclosed last month.
In the unveiling document published by Kaspersky, they found more than 380 unique victims, including Government institutions, diplomatic offices/embassies, private companies, research institutions, activists etc.
The name "Mask" comes from the Spanish slang word "Careto" ("Ugly Face" or "Mask") which the authors included in some of the malware modules.
Developers of the 'Mask' aka 'Careto' used complex tool-set which includes highly developed malware, bootkit, rootkit etc. that has the ability to sniff encryption keys, VPN configuration, SSH keys and RDP file via intercept network traffic, keystrokes, Skype conversation, PGP keys, WI-Fi traffic, screen capturing, monitoring all file operations, that makes it unique and dangerous and more sophisticated than DUQU malware.
The malware targets files having an extension:
*.AKF, *.ASC, *.AXX, *.CFD, *.CFE, *.CRT, *.DOC, *.DOCX, *.EML, *.ENC, *.GMG, *.GPG, *.HSE, *.KEY, *.M15, *.M2F, *.M2O, *.M2R, *.MLS, *.OCFS, *.OCU, *.ODS, *.ODT, *.OVPN, *.P7C, *.P7M, *.P7Z, *.PAB, *.PDF, *.PGP, *.PKR, *.PPK, *.PSW, *.PXL, *.RDP, *.RTF, *.SDC, *.SDW, *.SKR, *.SSH, *.SXC, *.SXW, *.VSD, *.WAB, *.WPD, *.WPS, *.WRD, *.XLS, *.XLSX.
Victims of this malware found in: Algeria, Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Egypt, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Guatemala, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States and Venezuela.
The malware remains untraceable for about 7 years and was able to infect Mac OS X version, Linux, Windows, iPad/iPhone and android running devices.
According to the researchers, the Mask Malware was designed to infect the 32- and 64-bit Windows versions, Mac OS X and Linux versions, but researchers believe that possibly there may be more versions for Android and iPhones (Apple iOS) platforms.
In its main binary a CAB file having shlink32 and shlink64 dll files are found during the research from which the malware extract one of them, depending upon the architecture of the victim's machine and install it as objframe.dll.
It includes the most sophisticated backdoor SGH, which is designed to perform a large surveillance function and except this it has DINNER module which gets executed via APC remote calls and reload 'chef' module responsible for network connectivity and 'waiter' modules responsible for all logical operations.
Another backdoor called SBD (Shadowinteger's Backdoor) which uses open source tools like netcat is included in the malware. To infect Linux versions, Mozilla Firefox plugin "af_l_addon.xpi" was used and was hosted on "linkconf[dot]net"
Spear phishing, a favorite attack used by most cyber attackers like SEA, was used to distribute this malware. Users were lured to click some malicious websites that contain a number of exploits to compromise their systems.
Kaspersky research found linkconf.net, redirserver.net and swupdt.com as hosting exploits. These websites don't infect the visitor, instead attacker hosts the exploit in a folder which cannot be navigated using the web, but they direct the link to that exploit in the phishing email.
To mask the attack into real, attackers use a fake SSL certificate of some unknown company TecSystem Ltd valid since 2010 and sometimes they also use subdomains to mask the attack appear more real; in which they simulate newspaper subsections that may include SPAIN's main Newspaper, The Washington Post and The Register etc.
Kaspersky had performed this research with more interest due to the reason that the malware has tried to exploit the vulnerability in its product i.e. Workstation products prior version 6.0.4.*, and KAV/KIS 8.0 versions.
"In case of the Careto implant, the C&C communication channel is protected by two layers of encryption. The data received from the C&C server is encrypted using a temporary AES key, which is also passed with the data and is encrypted with an RSA key. The same RSA key is used to encrypt the data that is sent back to the C&C server. This double encryption is uncommon and shows the high level of protection implemented by the authors of the campaign." they said.
During the research and investigation of this malware, CC servers were found down, which shows that attacker group was monitoring all aspects related to the malware activity. Since there are no identified patterns in these attacks and who is behind these activities is yet a matter of investigation for the researchers out there.
| Malware |
Permanent Reverse TCP Backdoor for IPhone and IPad | https://thehackernews.com/2012/04/permanent-reverse-tcp-backdoor-for.html | Security Expert from Coresec explains the use of a Permanent Reverse TCP Backdoor "sbd-1.36" for IPhone and IPad developed by Michel Blomgren.
sbd is a Netcat-clone, designed to be portable and offer strong encryption. It runs on Unix-like operating systems and on Microsoft Win32. sbd features AES-128-CBC + HMAC-SHA1 encryption (by Christophe Devine), program execution (-e option), choosing source port, continuous reconnection with delay, and some other nice features. Only TCP/IP communication is supported.
Steps to pwn the Iphone:
1. Install packages iphone-gcc using "apt-get install iphone-gcc" & make "apt-get install make"
2. Download sbd backdoor to the device using Wget from here & Untar - "tar -zxvf sbd-1.36.tar.gz"
3.) Sbd configuration before the compilation, See details here.
4.) Compilation process - "make darwin"
5. Configuration to RunAtLoad using LaunchDaemons (for permanent access)
6. Gaining access to victim (from Linux box)
Get the Source Code here and Instructions to Use.
| Malware |
How Facebook Ticker exposing your information and behavior without your knowledge | https://thehackernews.com/2011/10/how-facebook-ticker-exposing-your.html | How Facebook Ticker exposing your information and behavior without your knowledge
Nelson Novaes Neto, a Brazilian (independent) Security and Behavior Research have analyze a privacy issue in Facebook Ticker that allows any person chasing you without your knowledge or consent . He explain that this is not a code vulnerability, but here the whole issue is related to users privacy.
Nelson said on his blog "This tool - monitor others began to run when it introduced a new feature called Ticker. This new feature (Ticker) does not respect the privacy settings and it now Comments (updates), add friends, likes and can be seen by others (friend *) anyone without your permission. * You really know a friend tell me if it is real or fake profile - cloned?"
Nelson Give Proof of Concept with a very creative real life scenario. Check out a live demonstration, where a "novel" explains how the issue of privacy (you can use any browser to play it).
Description: This is a scenario where your online behavior can be exposed without their knowledge through the new tool in Facebook called Ticker. I used four Facebook profiles to create this POC (proof of concept), where a woman was cheating on her husband on Facebook.
Synopsis: A couple are a Facebook user, each with its own profile. One day her husband found his wife adding her ex-boyfriend as a friend and started talking to him. After her husband's become really angry, removed his wife's ex-boyfriend's profile.
The wife also discovered that all comments (updates), added Likes and friends were available in your profile (Wall - Wall) and visible to everyone her friend. She then removed all the updates (updates) and blocked new updates to be published automatically on your profile (Wall). Thus, her husband, so it could not be updated of their shares of his wife.
After Facebook launched this new tool called Ticker, a friend of the couple (as have the two friends) saw that updates the wife of his friend appear in real time ticker, and told him his wife again added the ex-boyfriend and I was talking to him, writing in his posts and vice versa. The husband checked the profile of the wife, but found nothing there. His friend said that this new tool (Ticker) lets you see updates from anyone on your list of friends, as well as users that have been noted for his friends.
What is happening? As the husband could not see anything (updates it) in the profile of his wife, but your friend can see everything from this thing called Ticker?
Video Demonstration :
The issue is now public , because according to Nelson, he reported this privacy issue to Facebook Secutiry team a few months ago and until now he haven't get any positive response from facebook. He said "Considering I respect some code of ethics (that protect society, commonwealth and infrastructure.) I think it was going completely against users desires and worth to be shared with everyone."
| Vulnerability |
TeaMp0isoN : NASA forum is Vulnerable SQL injection, Admin Hacked ! | https://thehackernews.com/2011/08/teamp0ison-nasa-forum-is-vulnerable-sql.html | TeaMp0isoN : NASA forum is Vulnerable SQL injection, Admin Hacked !
TeaMp0isoN Hackers crew today Reveal on twitter that the discussion forum on NASA website at https://worldwind35.arc.nasa.gov/forum/ is Vulnerable to SQL injection. The discussion Forum script is Powered by Vbulletin. According to hacker, He use Vbulletin 4.0.x => 4.1.3 (messagegroupid) SQL injection Vulnerability Exploit for hacking the Database of Forum . Hacker also expose the Login details of Admin of website on Pastie .
| Vulnerability |
Cyber espionage by Chinese hackers in neighbouring nations is on the rise | https://thehackernews.com/2021/06/cyber-espionage-by-chinese-hackers-in.html | A string of cyber espionage campaigns dating all the way back to 2014 and likely focused on gathering defense information from neighbouring countries have been linked to a Chinese military-intelligence apparatus.
In a wide-ranging report published by Massachusetts-headquartered Recorded Future this week, the cybersecurity firm's Insikt Group said it identified ties between a group it tracks as "RedFoxtrot" to the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Unit 69010 operating out of Ürümqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the country.
Previously called the Lanzhou Military Region's Second Technical Reconnaissance Bureau, Unit 69010 is a military cover for a Technical Reconnaissance Bureau (TRB) within China's Strategic Support Force (SSF) Network Systems Department (NSD).
The connection to PLA Unit 69010 stems from what the researchers said were "lax operational security measures" adopted by an unnamed suspected RedFoxtrot threat actor, whose online persona disclosed the physical address of the reconnaissance bureau and has had a history of affiliating with the PLA's former Communications Command Academy in Wuhan.
RedFoxtrot is noted to target government, defense, and telecommunications sectors across Central Asia, India, and Pakistan, with intrusions in the last six months directed against three Indian aerospace and defense contractors as well as major telecommunications providers and government agencies in Afghanistan, India, Kazakhstan, and Pakistan.
"Activity over this period showed a particular focus on Indian targets, which occurred at a time of heightened border tensions between India and the People's Republic of China," the researchers said.
Attacks staged by the adversary involved an assortment of open- and closed-source tools that have been shared across Chinese cyber espionage groups, including PlugX, Royal Road RTF weaponizer, QUICKHEAL, PCShare, IceFog, and Poison Ivy RAT.
Also observed is the use of AXIOMATICASYMPTOTE infrastructure, which encompasses a modular Windows backdoor called ShadowPad that has been previously attributed to APT41 and subsequently shared between other Chinese state-backed actors.
Furthermore, domains registered by RedFoxtrot — "inbsnl.ddns[.]info" and "adtl.mywire[.]org" — suggest that the threat actor may have set its sights on Indian telecom service provider Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and a Bengaluru-based company called Alpha Design Technologies Limited (ADTL) that specializes in research and development of missile, radar, and satellite systems.
The development comes more than three months after another China-linked threat group, dubbed RedEcho, was uncovered targeting India's power grid, including a power plant run by National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Limited and New Delhi-based Power System Operation Corporation Limited.
| Cyber_Attack |
Researcher finds a way to Delete and Modify Facebook Messages Sent to Other Users | https://thehackernews.com/2016/06/delete-facebook.html | Sometimes I receive emails from our readers who wanted to know how to hack Facebook account, but just to delete some of their messages they have sent to their friends or colleagues mistakenly or under wrong circumstances like aggression.
How to hack a Facebook account? It is probably the biggest "n00b" question you will see on the Internet.
The solution for this query is hard to find — but recently researchers have shown that how you can modify or alter your messages once you have pressed the SEND button in Facebook Messenger.
According to the researcher Roman Zaikin from cyber security firm Check Point, a simple HTML tweak can be used to exploit Facebook online chat as well as its Messenger app, potentially allowing anyone to modify or delete any of his/her sent message, photo, file, and link.
Though the bug is simple, it could be exploited by malicious users to send a legitimate link in a Facebook chat or group chat, and later change it to a malicious link that could lead to a malware installation, tricking victims into infecting their systems.
Here's How the Exploit Works:
The exploit works on the way Facebook assigns identities to chat messages. Each chat message has a unique "message_id" identifier that could be revealed by sending a request to www.facebook.com/ajax/mercury/thread_info.php.
Once message_id is identified, an attacker could alter its respective message content and send it back to Facebook servers which accept the new content as legitimate and push it back to the victim's PC or mobile device.
Video Demonstration:
"By exploiting this vulnerability, cyber criminals could change a whole chat thread without the victim realizing," said Oded Vanunu, Head of Products Vulnerability Research at Check Point.
"What's worse. The hacker could implement automation techniques to continually outsmart security measures for long-term chat alterations. We applaud Facebook for such a rapid response and putting security first for their users."
Researchers discovered the vulnerability earlier this month and notified Facebook about the flaw.
The social networking giant promptly moved to fix the vulnerability, though Facebook explained that the flaw only affected its Messenger app on Android.
"Based on our investigation, this simple misconfiguration in the Messenger app on Android turned out to be a low-risk issue, and it's already been fixed," Facebook wrote in its blog post published Tuesday.
Additionally, Facebook claims the vulnerability could not be exploited to infect its users' PCs with malicious software, as the company is using anti-spam and anti-virus filters to detect malware and spams.
| Malware |
Nearly Half of the Norway Population Exposed in HealthCare Data Breach | https://thehackernews.com/2018/01/healthcare-data-breach.html | Cybercriminals have stolen a massive trove of Norway's healthcare data in a recent data breach, which likely impacts more than half of the nation's population.
An unknown hacker or group of hackers managed to breach the systems of Health South-East Regional Health Authority (RHF) and reportedly stolen personal info and health records of some 2.9 million Norwegians out of the country's total 5.2 million inhabitants.
Health South-East RHA is a healthcare organisation that manages hospitals in Norway's southeast region, including Østfold, Akershus, Oslo, Hedmark, Oppland, Buskerud, Vestfold, Telemark, Aust-Agder and Vest-Agder.
The healthcare organisation announced the data breach on Monday after it had been alerted by HelseCERT, the Norwegian CERT department for its healthcare sector, about an "abnormal activity" against computer systems in the region.
HelseCERT also said the culprits behind the data breach are "advanced and professional" hackers, although it is still unknown as to whether they were managed to exfiltrate data successfully and if so, how many people may have been impacted.
So far there's also no evidence if the stolen data theft has had any consequences for or effects on patients' safety. However, the healthcare organisation assured that security "measures had been taken to limit the damage caused by the burglary."
"We are in a phase where we try to get an overview. It's far too early to say how big the attack is. We are working to acquire knowledge of all aspects, " NorCERT director Kjetil Nilsen told Norwegian publication VG.
"Everything indicates that it is an advanced player who has the tools and ability to perform such an attack. It can be advanced criminals. There is a wide range of possibilities."
Why Do Hackers Want Your Health Data?
Digital healthcare has been growing to satisfy the demands of connected healthcare technology that provides better treatment and improved patient care.
We know that any organisation with a computer is at risk from cyber-attacks both from criminals wanting to extort money and state-sponsored hackers wanting to cause chaos.
Since the healthcare sector is part of the critical national infrastructure, alongside water, electricity and transport, it becomes an attractive target for hackers.
Believe it or not, your medical records are worth more to hackers than your stolen credit card details on the dark web markets.
Financial data has a finite lifespan, but the information contained in health care records—which includes names, birth dates, policy numbers, diagnosis codes, social security number and billing information—has a much longer shelf life and is rich enough for identity theft.
Fraudsters can use this data to create fake identities to do all illegal kinds of stuff in your name, combine a patient number with a false provider number and file fake claims with insurers, and even file fake tax returns using your stolen addresses, phone numbers and employment history.
How to Protect Yourself After a Data Breach?
If you are a one of those affected by the healthcare breach, you will have to remain vigilant against fraud for the rest of your lives, because the risk of identity theft isn't short term, unlike in case of credit cards fraud.
You may follow the following steps to protect yourself:
1) Monitor Your Accounts: Watch out if someone using your information do not ever try to take over or transfer money out of your existing accounts. Don't forget that thieves with stolen details on you can get through your security questions, including the last four digits of your social and street address. Also, watch for any unauthorised activity or transfers on your current financial accounts.
2) File Your Taxes Early: With the stolen information in the hands, cyber thieves could hook your tax refund by filing your taxes early and claiming it for themselves. So, to avoid any such problems, file your taxes as early as possible.
3) Stay Vigilant: The foremost thing to protect against any breach is to stay vigilant, as nobody knows when or where your stolen identities will be used. So, affected consumers will simply have to stay mindful forever.
| Data_Breaches |
Rogue software update cause Malware attack on Japanese Nuclear Power Plant | https://thehackernews.com/2014/01/rogue-software-update-cause-malware_9.html | The most critical and worst target of a State-sponsored cyber-attacks could be Hospitals, Dams, Dykes and Nuclear power stations and this may cause military conflicts between countries.
According to Japan Today, The Monju nuclear power plant in Tsuruga, Japan was accidentally targeted by a malware on 2nd January, when a worker updated the system to the latest version of the video playback program.
Monju Nuclear Plant is a sodium-cooled fast reactor, was launched in April 1994. It has not been operational for most of the past 20 years, after an accident in which a sodium leak caused a major fire.
Employees over there are only left with a regular job of company's paperwork and maintenance. So the malware could have stolen only some sensitive documents, emails, training records and employees' data sheets. The Malware command-and-control server suspected to be from South Korea.
The malware itself is not much sophisticated like Stuxnet or Duqu, but the unmanaged software update and patch management system can seriously lead to a critical cyber attack. Even being isolated from the Internet does not prevent you from being infected.
One of the best examples of flawed Internal policies is Stuxnet, one of the most infamous pieces of malware ever created to destroy Iranian Nuclear plants and infected the systems through a USB stick only.
Also in November, The Kaspersky revealed that Russian astronauts carried a removable device into space which infected systems on the space station.
| Cyber_Attack |
Spammers using Facebook Messenger to Spread Locky Ransomware | https://thehackernews.com/2016/11/locky-ransomware-facebook.html | If you came across any Facebook Message with an image file (exactly .SVG file format) send by any of your Facebook friends, just avoid clicking it.
An ongoing Facebook spam campaign is spreading malware downloader among Facebook users by taking advantage of innocent-looking SVG image file to infect computers.
If clicked, the file would eventually infect your PC with the nasty Locky Ransomware, a family of malware that has quickly become one of the favorite tools among criminals due to its infecting capabilities.
Discovered by malware researcher Bart Blaze, the attack campaign uses Facebook Messenger to spread a malware downloader called Nemucod that takes the form of .SVG image files.
Why SVG file? Hackers considered SVG (or Scalable Vector Graphics) files for spreading the malware downloader, because SVG has the ability to contain embedded content such as JavaScript, and can be opened in a modern web browser.
Crooks added their malicious JavaScript code right inside the image file itself, which was actually a link to an external file.
If clicked, the malicious image file would redirect you to a website mimicking YouTube, but with completely different URL.
Like a typical way to deliver malware infection, the site would push a popup, asking you to download and install a certain codec extension in Google Chrome in order to view the video. The malicious extension used two names, Ubo and One.
Once installed, the extension gives the attackers ability to alter your data regarding websites they visit, as well as takes advantage of browser's access to your Facebook account in order to secretly message all your Facebook friends with the same SVG image file.
What's even worse? Peter Kruse, another malware researcher and colleague of Blaze, noted that the SVG image file containing the Nemucod downloader, in some cases, then ultimately downloads a copy of Locky ransomware on victim's PC.
Locky ransomware is one of the most popular ransomware that locks all files on a victim's computer with RSA-2048 and AES-1024 encryption algorithms and unlocks them until the ransom is paid to attackers.
It is not clear at this moment how the SVG files managed to bypass Facebook's file whitelist extension filter, but both Google and Facebook's security team has already been notified of the attack.
How to Remove the Malicious Extensions?
While Google has already removed the malicious extensions from its Chrome Store, Facebook will hopefully soon block it entirely.
Update: A spokesperson from Facebook provided a statement to The Hacker News, which reads:
"We maintain a number of automated systems to help stop harmful links and files from appearing on Facebook, and we are already blocking these ones from our platform. In our investigation, we determined that these were not in fact installing Locky malware—rather, they were associated with Chrome extensions. We have reported the bad browser extensions to the appropriate parties."
He also said that the assertion that this malicious Chrome extension was installing the Locky malware is incorrect. Also, the company believes that the impact of the attack on Facebook has been very limited, as it requires an additional step to install software onto victim's browser or computer.
If you are one of those who had been tricked into installing one of the two malicious extensions, you can remove it immediately.
To remove the offending extension, just go to Menu → More Tools → Extensions and check for the extension and remove it.
However, if you have been unlucky and you would have ended up with the Locky ransomware and the only way for restoring your files is: A regular backup. If not, you are screwed up!
Blaze advises, "As always, be wary when someone sends you just an 'image' – especially when it is not how he or she would usually behave."
| Malware |
security researchers found yet another vulnerability in JAVA after update | https://thehackernews.com/2012/09/security-researchers-found-yet-another.html | Oracle released an emergency patch on Thursday for previously unknown Java vulnerabilities that cybercriminals had targeted with popular exploit kits within hours after the bugs' existence became public, security researchers found yet another vulnerability that can be exploited to run arbitrary code on systems that have the runtime installed.
Security researchers from Poland-based security firm Security Explorations claim to have discovered a vulnerability in the Java 7 security update released Thursday that can be exploited to escape the Java sandbox and execute arbitrary code on the underlying system.
While so far the vulnerability has only been found being used against Windows, other platforms such as the Mac OS could potentially be targeted through the same exploit. Security Explorations sent a report about the vulnerability to Oracle on Friday together with a proof-of-concept exploit, Adam Gowdiak, the security company's founder and CEO said Friday via email.
The company doesn't plan to release any technical details about the vulnerability publicly until Oracle addresses it, Gowdiak said. According to Gowdiak, Security Explorations privately reported 29 vulnerabilities in Java 7 to Oracle back in April, including the two that are now actively exploited by attackers.
The new vulnerability discovered by Security Explorations in Java 7 Update 7 can be combined with some of the vulnerabilities left unpatched by Oracle to achieve a full JVM sandbox bypass again.
Security researchers have always warned that if vendors take too much time to address a reported vulnerability it might be discovered by the bad guys in the meantime, if they don't already know about it.
| Vulnerability |
Cyber Espionage Group Targets Asian Countries With Bitcoin Mining Malware | https://thehackernews.com/2018/02/cyber-espionage-asia.html | Security researchers have discovered a custom-built piece of malware that's wreaking havoc in Asia for past several months and is capable of performing nasty tasks, like password stealing, bitcoin mining, and providing hackers complete remote access to compromised systems.
Dubbed Operation PZChao, the attack campaign discovered by the security researchers at Bitdefender have been targeting organizations in the government, technology, education, and telecommunications sectors in Asia and the United States.
Researchers believe nature, infrastructure, and payloads, including variants of the Gh0stRAT trojan, used in the PZChao attacks are reminiscent of the notorious Chinese hacker group—Iron Tiger.
However, this campaign has evolved its payloads to drop trojan, conduct cyber espionage and mine Bitcoin cryptocurrency.
The PZChao campaign is attacking targets across Asia and the U.S. by using similar attack tactics as of Iron Tiger, which, according to the researchers, signifies the possible return of the notorious Chinese APT group.
Since at least July last year, the PZChao campaign has been targeting organizations with a malicious VBS file attachment that delivers via highly-targeted phishing emails.
If executed, the VBS script downloads additional payloads to an affected Windows machine from a distribution server hosting "down.pzchao.com," which resolved to an IP address (125.7.152.55) in South Korea at the time of the investigation.
The threat actors behind the attack campaign have control over at least five malicious subdomains of the "pzchao.com" domain, and each one is used to serve specific tasks, like download, upload, RAT related actions, malware DLL delivery.
The payloads deployed by the threat actors are "diversified and include capabilities to download and execute additional binary files, collect private information and remotely execute commands on the system," researchers noted.
The first payload dropped on the compromised machines is a Bitcoin miner, disguised as a 'java.exe' file, that mines cryptocurrency every three weeks at 3 AM, when most people are not in front of their systems.
For password stealing, the malware also deploys one of two versions of the Mimikatz password-scraping utility (depending on the operating architecture of the affected machine) to harvest passwords and upload them to the command and control server.
PZChao's final payload includes a slightly modified version of Gh0st remote access trojan (RAT) which is designed to act as a backdoor implant and behaves very similar to the versions detected in cyber attacks associated with the Iron Tiger APT group.
The Gh0st RAT is equipped with massive cyber-espionage capabilities, including:
Real-time and offline remote keystroke logging
Listing of all active processes and opened windows
Listening in on conversations via microphone
Eavesdropping on webcams' live video feed
Allowing for remote shutdown and reboot of the system
Downloading binaries from the Internet to remote host
Modifying and stealing files and more.
All of the above capabilities allows a remote attacker to take full control of the compromised system, spy on the victims and exfiltrate confidential data easily.
While the tools used in the PZChao campaign are a few years old, "they are battle-tested and more than suitable for future attacks," researchers say.
Active since 2010, Iron Tiger, also known as "Emissary Panda" or "Threat Group-3390," is a Chinese advanced persistent threat (APT) group that was behind previous campaigns resulting in the theft of massive amounts of data from the directors and managers of US-based defense contractors.
Similar to the PZChao campaign, the group also carried out attacks against entities in China, the Philippines, and Tibet, besides attacking targets in the U.S.
For further insights, you can read the detailed technical paper [PDF] published by Bitdefender.
| Malware |
Ransomware Hijacks Hotel Smart Keys to Lock Guests Out of their Rooms | https://thehackernews.com/2017/01/ransomware-hotel-smart-lock.html | What's the worst that could happen when a Ransomware hits a Hotel?
Recently, hundreds of guests of a luxurious hotel in Austria were locked in or out of their rooms when ransomware hit the hotel's IT system, and the hotel had no choice left except paying the attackers.
Today, we are living in a digital age that is creating a digital headache for people and organizations around the world with cyber attacks and data breaches on the rise.
Ransomware is one of them.
The threat has been around for a few years, but during 2016, it has turned into a noxious game of Hackers to get paid effortlessly by targeting hospitals, Universities, private businesses and even police departments and making hundreds of millions of dollars.
Now, the Romantik Seehotel Jäegerwirt 4-Star Superior Hotel has admitted it paid €1,500 (£1,275/$1,600) in Bitcoin ransom to cybercriminals who managed to break into their network and hack their electronic key card system that prevented its guests from entering or leaving their rooms.
The luxury hotel with a beautiful lakeside setting on the Alpine Turracher Hoehe Pass in Austria, like several other hotels in the industry, has a modern IT system that includes key cards for its hotel doors, which could not be programmed.
Also Read: This Tool Detects Never-Seen-Before Ransomware Before It Encrypts Your Data
According to the hotel management, the hotel has been hit multiple times by hackers, but this time they managed to take down the entire key system, preventing its guests to getting in or going out of their rooms, reported The Local.
Besides gaining control of the electronic key system, the hackers even gained control over the general computer system, shutting down all hotel computers, including the reservation system and the cash desk system.
Once the hotel made the payment, the system was completely restored that allowed the hotel staff to gain access to the network and hotel guests to enter and exit their rooms.
What's interesting? Even after the hotel fulfilled the hackers demand, the hackers left a backdoor to the hotel system in an attempt to conduct another cyber attack later.
Fortunately, the security standards of the hotel had been improved by its IT department, and critical networks had been separated to thwart the attack, giving attackers no chance to harm the hotel again.
Furious hotel managers decided to go public with the incident to warn others about the dangers of cyber attack, with Managing Director Christoph Brandstaetter said:
"The house was totally booked with 180 guests; we had no other choice. Neither police nor insurance helps you in this case.
The restoration of our system after the first attack in summer has cost us several thousand Euros. We did not get any money from the insurance so far because none of those to blame could be found.
Every euro that is paid to blackmailers hurts us. We know that other colleagues have been attacked, who have done similarly."
The Ransomware had stolen the nights of many businesses and organizations, as they would often be blamed to fight up to this nasty threat.
Ransomware criminals often demand the ransom in Bitcoin (BTC) for the surety of not getting caught, as Bitcoin transactions are non-trackable due to its decentralized nature.
The frequent payment to Ransomware encourages criminals to stash the cash and develop a more enticing framework for the next target. So, instead of paying or encouraging this scheme, keep your software and systems updated and avoid clicking suspicious links.
| Cyber_Attack |
Vulnerability in World Largest Video Site Turned Million of Visitors into DDoS Zombies | https://thehackernews.com/2014/04/vulnerability-in-worlds-largest-site.html | An application layer or 'layer 7' distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks is one of the most complicated web attack that disguised to look like legitimate traffic but targets specific areas of a website, making it even more difficult to detect and mitigate.
Just Yesterday Cloud-based security service provider 'Incapsula' detected a unique application layer DDoS attack, carried out using traffic hijacking techniques. DDoS attack flooded one of their client with over 20 million GET requests, originating from browsers of over 22,000 Internet users.
What makes this case especially interesting is the fact that the attack was enabled by persistent XSS vulnerability in one of the world's largest and most popular site - one of the domains on Alexa's "Top 50" list.
XSS vulnerability to Large-Scale DDoS Attack
Incapsula has not disclosed the name of vulnerable website for security reasons, but mentioned it as a high profile video content provider website, allows its users to sign-up and sign-in with their own profiles.
The DDoS attack was enabled by a Persistent XSS (Cross site scripting) vulnerability that allowed the attacker to inject a malicious JavaScript code into the
tag associated with the profile image.
So, as each time a legitimate visitor arrived to any webpage on the vulnerable domain (e.g. pages where attacker has commented from his profile), attacker's profile image will also load into the visitor's browser and it would automatically execute the injected JavaScript which in turn injects a hidden iframe with the address of the DDoSers C&C domain.
According to Incapsula, attackers are using a Ajax-script based DDoS tool, that force browser to issue a DDoS request at the rate of one request per second.
"Obviously one request per second is not a lot. However, when dealing with video content of 10, 20 and 30 minutes in length and with thousands of views every minute, the attack can quickly become very large and extremely dangerous." researchers explained.
So to make it a large scale DDoS attack, attacker strategically posted comments on the popular video pages, effectively created a self-sustaining botnet comprising tens of thousands of hijacked browsers, operated by unsuspecting human visitors who were only there to watch a few funny cat videos.
Intercepting the Attack
The attack was blocked by Incapsula's progressive challenges and behaviour-based security algorithms, made that much more effective by the predictable behaviour of the DDoS tool. "By intercepting the malicious requests, we were also able to trace back the attack's source. We did this by replacing the content of the target URL with a snippet of our own JavaScript, which reported the original referral source – leading us to the abused video website. " they said,
Researchers also mentioned that attackers behind recent DDoS attack have upgraded their DDoS tool to a much more robust version. "This leads us to believe that what we saw yesterday was a sort of POC test run. " Incapsula quickly reached out to the vulnerable video website support team to patch the flaw.
UPDATE:
Incapsula has exposed that vulnerable video website was Sohu.com - China's eighth largest website and currently the 27th most visited website in the world.
| Vulnerability |
15-year-old Boy Arrested in connection with TalkTalk Cyber Attack | https://thehackernews.com/2015/10/talktalk-hacker-arrested.html | The arrest is the first major outcome since TalkTalk – the biggest phone and broadband provider in the UK with more than 4 Million customers – had suffered a serious data breach.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and the investigating officers from the Metropolitan police's cyber crime unit (MPCCU) have arrested a 15-year-old boy in connection with the latest cyber attack on TalkTalk.
The press release issued by the police said the boy was detained in County Antrim at about 4.20pm on Monday on suspicion of committing offences under the Computer Misuse Act.
The Computer Misuse Act 1990 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, according to which any computer misuse offences like:
Unauthorised access to computer material.
Unauthorised access with the intent to commit further offences.
Unauthorised acts with the intent to impair, or with recklessness as to impairing, operation of the computers, and other electronic devices.
...Are considered as criminal doings and anyone charged under the Computer Misuse Act is liable to get a serious punishment of being imprisoned and payment of a hefty fine.
"The teenager was arrested on suspicion of offences under the Computer Misuse Act 1990," the police said on the arrest. "He was taken into custody at a County Antrim police station where he will be interviewed. A search of the address is under way and enquiries continue."
The recent data breach in TalkTalk puts the Bank Details and Personally Identifiable Information (PII) of its 4 Million customers at risk.
It is also believed that some part of the information retrieved by the hackers was stored in an unencrypted form by TalkTalk group.
This isn't the first time when TalkTalk suffered a data breach, the telecom company became the target of the hackers the third time since the past one year.
In the latest hack the alleged hackers also demanded ransom in Bitcoins.
Security experts believe that the recent data breach may have taken place due to SQL injection (SQLi) attack, a method used to inject SQL commands to breach the database and get access to the users' personal data.
On learning about the 15-year-old's arrest, TalkTalk group reportedly said, "We know this has been a worrying time for customers and we are grateful for the swift response and hard work of the police. We will continue to assist in the ongoing investigation."
After being victimised, the Chief Executive of TalkTalk Diana Mary Harding gives a statement stressing on the seriousness of the need of cyber security:
"This is happening to a huge number of organisations all the time. The awful truth is that every company, every organisation in the UK needs to spend more money and put more focus on cyber security -- it is the crime of our era."
"In some ways I would love to say this is just a TalkTalk issue, I'd love to believe this is just us – but it isn't," she added.
As a prevention measure, the affected TalkTalk customers are highly recommended to change their passwords as soon as possible and keep an eye on their bank accounts over the next few months.
| Data_Breaches |
Flipboard Database Hacked — Users' Account Information Exposed | https://thehackernews.com/2019/05/flipboard-data-breach-hacking.html | Flipboard, a popular social sharing and news aggregator service used by over 150 million people, has disclosed that its databases containing account information of certain users have been hacked.
According to a public note published yesterday by the company, unknown hackers managed to gain unauthorized access to its systems for nearly 10 months—between June 2, 2018, and March 23, 2019, and then again on April 21-22, 2019.
The hackers then potentially downloaded database containing Flipboard users' real name, usernames, cryptographically (salted hash) protected passwords and email addresses, including digital tokens for users who linked their Flipboard account to a third-party social media service.
According to a breach notification email sent out to affected users and seen by The Hacker News, the company has now reset passwords for all users as a precautionary measure, forcing users to create a new strong password for their accounts.
"You can continue to use Flipboard on devices from which you are already logged in. When you access your Flipboard account from a new device or the next time you log into Flipboard after logging out of your account, you will be asked to create a new password," the company said.
Flipboard also said it had not seen unauthorized access to any third-party account and still in the process of determining the total number of affected users.
The company has also decided to replace or delete all digital tokens, making them no longer valid and therefore cannot be misused.
"We have not found any evidence the unauthorized person accessed third-party account(s) connected to users' Flipboard accounts. As a precaution, we have replaced or deleted all digital tokens," the post read.
"If you connected your Flipboard account to a third-party account to see its content, you may notice in some cases that you need to reconnect it."
"Notably, Flipboard does not collect from users, and this incident did not involve, government-issued IDs (such as Social Security numbers or driver's license numbers), or payment card, bank account, or other financial information."
The company did not disclose the total number of users affected by the breach but said next time when you log into your Flipboard account you are required to update the password for your account.
Also, if you are making use of the same username and password combination as of Flipboard for any other online service, you are recommended to change your password there as well.
The company has notified law enforcement about the incident and is still investigating to know how hackers managed to gain access to their systems in the first place or what vulnerabilities they exploited.
| Data_Breaches |
German Developer responsible for HeartBleed Bug in OpenSSL | https://thehackernews.com/2014/04/german-developer-responsible-for.html | We have already read so many articles on Heartbleed, one of the biggest iNternet threat that recently came across by a team of security engineers at Codenomicon, while improving the SafeGuard feature in Codenomicon's Defensics security testing tools.
The story has taken every media attention across the World, as the bug opened doors for the cyber criminals to extract sensitive data from the server's memory and almost every major site have been affected by it.
UNINTENTIONAL BIRTH OF HEARTBLEED
More than two years ago, German programmer Robin Seggelmann introduced a new feature called "Heartbeat" in the most secured open source encryption protocol, OpenSSL, which is used by several social networks, search engines, banks and other websites to enable secure connections while transmitting data. But introducing heartbeat feature cost him dearly, as here the most critical bug resides.
Dr. Seggelmann allegedly was just trying to improve OpenSSL and working on an update and while submitting the updates enabling heartbeat feature, an "oversight" led to an error that unintentionally created the "Heartbleed" vulnerability, according to The Guardian.
Heartbleed is the encryption flaw that left large number of cryptographic keys and private data such as usernames, passwords, and credit card numbers, from the most important sites and services on the Internet open for hackers, forcing some security researchers to warn internet users against using even their everyday sites for the next few days until the problem is fully solved.
The developer is responsible for what may be the biggest Internet vulnerability in recent history, but it was just a single programming error in the new feature as he didn't notice the missing validation and unfortunately the same skipped by the code reviewer as well before introducing it in the new released version.
"I am responsible for the error," Robin Seggelmann told Guardian, "because I wrote the code and missed the necessary validation by an oversight. Unfortunately, this mistake also slipped through the review process and therefore made its way into the released version."
Robin Seggelmann submitted the code of OpenSSL with the heartbeat feature in an update on New Year's Eve, 2011. This means the most critical threat has been around for more than two years unnoticed.
NSA - A GAME CHANGER OR NOT?
Dr Seggelmann said it was obvious to assume that the bug was intentionally inserted, especially after various revelations by Edward Snowden of the surveillance activities carried out by the US National Security Agency (NSA) and other countries intelligence agencies.
"But in this case, it was a simple programming error in a new feature, which unfortunately occurred in a security relevant area," he said. "It was not intended at all, especially since I have previously fixed OpenSSL bugs myself, and was trying to contribute to the project."
Despite denying the code he put intentionally, he said it could be entirely possible that the government intelligence agencies had been making use of this critical flaw over the past two years.
"It is a possibility, and it's always better to assume the worst than best case in security matters, but since I didn't know [about] the bug until it was released and [I am] not affiliated with any agency, I can only speculate," he told The Sydney Morning Herald.
Update: NSA denies Report that Agency knew and exploited Heartbleed Vulnerability, "NSA was not aware of the recently identified Heartbleed vulnerability until it was made public,"
Related Important Articles:
How Heartbleed Bug Exposes Your Passwords to Hackers
How to Protect yourself from the 'Heartbleed' Bug
Heartbleed - OpenSSL Zero-day Bug leaves Millions of websites Vulnerable
| Vulnerability |
Kaseya Releases Patches for Flaws Exploited in Widespread Ransomware Attack | https://thehackernews.com/2021/07/kaseya-releases-patches-for-flaws.html | Florida-based software vendor Kaseya on Sunday rolled out urgent updates to address critical security vulnerabilities in its Virtual System Administrator (VSA) solution that was used as a jumping off point to target as many as 1,500 businesses across the globe as part of a widespread supply-chain ransomware attack.
Following the incident, the company had urged on-premises VSA customers to shut down their servers until a patch was available. Now, almost 10 days later the firm has shipped VSA version 9.5.7a (9.5.7.2994) with fixes for three new security flaws —
CVE-2021-30116 - Credentials leak and business logic flaw
CVE-2021-30119 - Cross-site scripting vulnerability
CVE-2021-30120 - Two-factor authentication bypass
The security issues are part of a total of seven vulnerabilities that were discovered and reported to Kaseya by the Dutch Institute for Vulnerability Disclosure (DIVD) earlier in April, of which four other weaknesses were remediated in previous releases —
CVE-2021-30117 - SQL injection vulnerability (Fixed in VSA 9.5.6)
CVE-2021-30118 - Remote code execution vulnerability (Fixed in VSA 9.5.5)
CVE-2021-30121 - Local file inclusion vulnerability (Fixed in VSA 9.5.6)
CVE-2021-30201 - XML external entity vulnerability (Fixed in VSA 9.5.6)
Besides fixes for the aforementioned shortcomings, the latest version also resolves three other flaws, including a bug that exposed weak password hashes in certain API responses to brute-force attacks as well as a separate vulnerability that could allow the unauthorized upload of files to the VSA server.
For additional security, Kaseya is recommending limiting access to the VSA Web GUI to local IP addresses by blocking port 443 inbound on the internet firewall for on-premises installations.
Kaseya is also warning its customers that installing the patch would force all users to mandatorily change their passwords post login to meet new password requirements, adding that select features have been replaced with improved alternatives and that the "release introduces some functional defects that will be corrected in a future release."
Besides the roll out of the patch for on-premises versions of its VSA remote monitoring and management software, the company has also instantiated the reinstatement of its VSA SaaS infrastructure. "The restoration of services is progressing according to plan, with 60% of our SaaS customers live and servers coming online for the rest of our customers in the coming hours," Kaseya said in a rolling advisory.
The latest development comes days after Kaseya cautioned that spammers are capitalizing on the ongoing ransomware crisis to send out fake email notifications that appear to be Kaseya updates, only to infect customers with Cobalt Strike payloads to gain backdoor access to the systems and deliver next-stage malware.
Kaseya has said multiple flaws were chained together in what it called a "sophisticated cyberattack", and while it isn't exactly clear how it was executed, it's believed that a combination of CVE-2021-30116, CVE-2021-30119, and CVE-2021-30120 was used to carry out the intrusions. REvil, a prolific ransomware gang based in Russia, has claimed responsibility for the incident.
The use of trusted partners like software makers or service providers like Kaseya to identify and compromise new downstream victims, often called a supply-chain attack, and pair it with file-encrypting ransomware infections has also made it one of the largest and most significant such attacks to date.
Interestingly, Bloomberg on Saturday reported that five former Kaseya employees had flagged the company about "glaring" security holes in its software between 2017 and 2020, but their concerns were brushed off.
"Among the most glaring problems was software underpinned by outdated code, the use of weak encryption and passwords in Kaseya's products and servers, a failure to adhere to basic cybersecurity practices such as regularly patching software and a focus on sales at the expense of other priorities," the report said.
The Kaseya attack marks the third time that ransomware affiliates have abused Kaseya products as a vector to deploy ransomware.
In February 2019, the Gandcrab ransomware cartel — which later evolved into Sodinokibi and REvil — leveraged a vulnerability in a Kaseya plugin for the ConnectWise Manage software to deploy ransomware on the networks of MSPs' customer networks. Then in June 2019, the same group went after Webroot SecureAnywhere and Kaseya VSA products to infect endpoints with Sodinokibi ransomware.
| Malware |
Hackers Steal Mimecast Certificate Used to Securely Connect with Microsoft 365 | https://thehackernews.com/2021/01/hackers-steal-mimecast-certificate-used.html | Mimecast said on Tuesday that "a sophisticated threat actor" had compromised a digital certificate it provided to certain customers to securely connect its products to Microsoft 365 (M365) Exchange.
The discovery was made after the breach was notified by Microsoft, the London-based company said in an alert posted on its website, adding it's reached out to the impacted organizations to remediate the issue.
The company didn't elaborate on what type of certificate was compromised, but Mimecast offers seven different digital certificates based on the geographical location that must be uploaded to M365 to create a server Connection in Mimecast.
"Approximately 10 percent of our customers use this connection," the company said. "Of those that do, there are indications that a low single digit number of our customers' M365 tenants were targeted."
Mimecast is a cloud-based email management service for Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Office 365, offers users email security and continuity platform to safeguard them from spam, malware, phishing, and targeted attacks.
The compromised certificate is used to verify and authenticate Mimecast Sync and Recover, Continuity Monitor, and Internal Email Protect (IEP) products to M365 Exchange Web Services.
A consequence of such a breach could result in a man-in-the-middle (MitM) attack, where an adversary could potentially take over the connection and intercept email traffic, and even steal sensitive information.
As a precaution to prevent future abuse, the company said it's asked its customers to delete the existing connection within their M365 tenant with immediate effect and re-establish a new certificate-based connection using the new certificate that it has made available.
"Taking this action does not impact inbound or outbound mail flow or associated security scanning," Mimecast stated in its advisory.
An investigation into the incident is ongoing, with the company noting that it will work closely with Microsoft and law enforcement as appropriate.
The development comes as Reuters, citing sources, said the hackers who compromised Mimecast were the same group that breached U.S. software maker SolarWinds and a host of sensitive U.S. government agencies.
"Our investigation is ongoing and we don't have anything additional to share at this time," a spokesperson for the company told The Hacker News.
UPDATE (26 Jan, 2021): Mimecast Breach Linked to SolarWinds Hack
Mimecast on Tuesday formally confirmed that the attackers behind the SolarWinds hack were responsible for compromising a digital certificate the firm provided to secure connections to Microsoft 365 (M365) Exchange.
"Our investigation has now confirmed that this incident is related to the SolarWinds Orion software compromise and was perpetrated by the same sophisticated threat actor," the company said in an update.
"Although we are not aware that any of the encrypted credentials have been decrypted or misused, we are advising customers hosted in the United States and United Kingdom to take precautionary steps to reset their credentials."
The investigation revealed that the threat actor accessed and potentially exfiltrated certain encrypted service account credentials created by customers hosted in the U.S. and the United Kingdom.
The credentials are used to establish connections from Mimecast tenants to on-premise and cloud services, such as LDAP, Azure Active Directory, Exchange Web Services, POP3 journaling, and SMTP-authenticated delivery routes.
"It is clear that this incident is part of a highly sophisticated large-scale attack and is focused on specific types of information and organizations."
Besides Mimecast, Palo Alto Networks and Fidelis Cybersecurity have also confirmed trojanized versions of the SolarWinds Orion software in their environments, taking the number of cybersecurity vendors targeted by the hackers to seven.
| Cyber_Attack |
You can Hack into a Linux Computer just by pressing 'Backspace' 28 times | https://thehackernews.com/2015/12/hack-linux-grub-password.html | So what would anyone need to bypass password protection on your computer?
It just needs to hit the backspace key 28 times, for at least the computer running Linux operating system.
Wait, what?
A pair of security researchers from the University of Valencia have uncovered a bizarre bug in several distributions of Linux that could allow anyone to bypass any kind of authentication during boot-up just by pressing backspace key 28 times.
This time, the issue is neither in a kernel nor in an operating system itself, but rather the vulnerability actually resides in Grub2, the popular Grand Unified Bootloader, which is used by most Linux systems to boot the operating system when the PC starts.
Also Read: GPU-based Linux Rootkit and Keylogger.
The source of the vulnerability is nothing but an integer underflow fault that was introduced with single commit in Grub version 1.98 (December 2009) – b391bdb2f2c5ccf29da66cecdbfb7566656a704d – affecting the grub_password_get() function.
Here's How to Exploit the Linux Vulnerability
If your computer system is vulnerable to this bug:
Just hit the backspace key 28 times at the Grub username prompt during power-up. This will open a "Grub rescue shell" under Grub2 versions 1.98 to version 2.02.
This rescue shell allows unauthenticated access to a computer and the ability to load another environment.
From this shell, an attacker could gain access to all the data on your computer, and can misuse it to steal or delete all the data, or install persistent malware or rootkit, according to researchers Ismael Ripoll and Hector Marco, who published their research on Tuesday.
Here's How to Protect Linux System
The Grub vulnerability affects Linux systems from December 2009 to the present date, though older Linux systems may also be affected.
Also Read: Is This Security-Focused Linux Kernel Really UnHackable?
The good news is the researchers have made an emergency patch to fix the Grub2 vulnerability. So if you are a Linux user and worried your system might be vulnerable, you can apply this emergency patch, available here.
Meanwhile, many major distributions, including Ubuntu, Red Hat, and Debian have also released emergency patches to fix the issue.
Linux is often thought to be a super secure operating system compare to others, and this Grub vulnerability could be a good reminder that it's high time to take physical security just as seriously as network security.
| Vulnerability |
Companies Could Face $22 Million Fine If They Fail to Protect Against Hackers | https://thehackernews.com/2017/08/data-breach-security-law.html | Over the past few years, massive data breaches have become more frequent and so common that pretty much every week we heard about some organisation being hacked or hacker dumping tens of millions of users records.
But even after this wide range of data breach incidents, many organisations fail to grasp the importance of data protection, leaving its users' sensitive data vulnerable to hackers and cyber criminals.
Not now! At least for organisations in Britain, as the UK government has committed to updating and strengthening its data protection laws through a new Data Protection Bill.
The British government has warned businesses that if they fail to take measures to protect themselves adequately from cyber attacks, they could face fines of up to £17 Million (more than $22 Million), or 4% of their global turnover—whichever amount is higher.
However, the financial penalties would be a last resort, and will not be applied to those organisations taking proper security measures and assessing the risks adequately, but unfortunately become a victim of cyber attack.
The penalties would be issued by the data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
"Our measures are designed to support businesses in their use of data and give consumers the confidence that their data is protected and those who misuse it will be held to account," Digital Minister Matt Hancock said in a government press release.
Hancock said this newly-proposed Data Protection Bill would:
Make it easier and simpler to withdraw consent for the use of personal data
Allow people to ask for their personal information held by organisations to be erased
Enable parents to give consent for their child's data to be used
Require "explicit" consent to be necessary for processing user's sensitive data
Expand the definition of "personal data" to include IP addresses, DNA and internet cookies
Strengthen and update Data Protection Law to reflect the changing nature and scope of the country's digital economy
Make it easier and free for users to require companies to disclose the personal data they hold on them
Make it easier for users to move data between service providers
The proposal is being considered as part of a government consultation launched on Tuesday by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport for deciding how to implement the Network and Information Systems (NIS) Directive from next May.
This is separate from the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) that are aimed at protecting data rather than services.
The GDPR will replace the British Data Protection Act 1998 from 25 May 2018 and the government have confirmed that Brexit will not change this.
This new proposal is mainly focused on ensuring critical infrastructures, like transport, health, energy, and water are protected from cyber attacks that could result in major disruption to services, as was seen in Ukraine last year.
The proposal will also cover other cyber threats affecting IT infrastructures such as power failures, hardware failures and environmental hazards.
The move comes after the British NHS ( National Health Service) became the highest-profile victim of the recent WannaCry ransomware attack, which resulted in the shutdown of hospitals and operations, patient records being made unavailable and ambulances being diverted.
| Cyber_Attack |
Experts Uncover Malware Attacks Targeting Corporate Networks in Latin America | https://thehackernews.com/2021/07/experts-uncover-malware-attacks.html | Cybersecurity researchers on Thursday took the wraps off a new, ongoing espionage campaign targeting corporate networks in Spanish-speaking countries, specifically Venezuela, to spy on its victims.
Dubbed "Bandidos" by ESET owing to the use of an upgraded variant of Bandook malware, the primary targets of the threat actor are corporate networks in the South American country spanning across manufacturing, construction, healthcare, software services, and retail sectors.
Written in both Delphi and C++, Bandook has a history of being sold as a commercial remote access trojan (RAT) dating all the way back to 2005. Since then, numerous variants have emerged on the threat landscape and put to use in different surveillance campaigns in 2015 and 2017, allegedly by a cyber-mercenary group known as Dark Caracal on behalf of government interests in Kazakhstan and Lebanon.
In a continuing resurgence of the Bandook Trojan, Check Point last year disclosed three new samples — one of which supported 120 commands — that were utilized by the same adversary to hit government, financial, energy, food industry, healthcare, education, IT, and legal institutions located in Chile, Cyprus, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Singapore, Switzerland, Turkey, and the U.S.
The latest attack chain commences with prospective victims receiving malicious emails with a PDF attachment, which contains a shortened URL to download a compressed archive hosted on Google Cloud, SpiderOak, or pCloud and the password to extract it. Extracting the archive reveals a malware dropper that decodes and injects Bandook into an Internet Explorer process.
Interestingly, the latest variant of Bandook analyzed by ESET contains 132 commands, up from the 120 commands reported by Check Point, implying that the criminal group behind the malware are advancing their malicious tools with improved capabilities and striking power.
"Especially interesting is the ChromeInject functionality," said ESET researcher Fernando Tavella. "When the communication with the attacker's command and control server is established, the payload downloads a DLL file, which has an exported method that creates a malicious Chrome extension. The malicious extension tries to retrieve any credentials that the victim submits to a URL. These credentials are stored in Chrome's local storage."
Some of the main commands that the payload is capable of processing include listing directory contents, manipulating files, taking screenshots, controlling the cursor on the victim's machine, installing malicious DLLs, terminating running processes, downloading files from a specific URL, exfiltrating the results of the operations to a remote server, and even uninstalling itself from the infected machines.
If anything, the development is yet another sign that adversaries can still leverage old crimeware solutions to facilitate attacks.
"[Bandook's] involvement in different espionage campaigns [...] shows us that it is still a relevant tool for cybercriminals," the researchers opined. "Also, if we consider the modifications made to the malware over the years, it shows us the interest of cybercriminals to keep using this piece of malware in malicious campaigns, making it more sophisticated and more difficult to detect."
| Malware |
Facebook Helps FBI to shuts down Butterfly botnet theft $850 millions | https://thehackernews.com/2012/12/facebook-helps-fbi-to-shuts-down.html | The U.S. Department of Justice said on Tuesday that they've arrested 10 suspects from from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, New Zealand, Peru, the United Kingdom, and the United States involved in a global botnet operation that infected more than 11 million systems. The ring is said to have caused more than $850m in losses in one of the largest cyber crime hauls in history.
Officials said international cyber crime rings linked to Butterfly (aka Mariposa) botnet, first discovered in December 2008 and shut down a year later, infected over 12 million PCs worldwide and was spread primarily through file-sharing and instant messaging attacks. It also harvested financial information from over 800,000 victims.
FBI said, "Facebook's security team provided assistance to law enforcement throughout the investigation by helping to identify the root cause, the perpetrators, and those affected by the malware. Yahos targeted Facebook users from 2010 to October 2012, and security systems were able to detect affected accounts and provide tools to remove these threats."
How Butterfly actually fly ? A botnet is a network of computers that have been infected by a virus that allows a hi-tech criminal to use them remotely. Butterfly botnet spread itself using variants of Yahos (virus that spreads itself by sending links via social networks and instant messaging), then victims clicked on that malicious link, launching Yahos attack. The malware which in some variants disguised itself as an NVIDIA video driver, then downloaded and installed the botnet controls and browser exploits that captured users' credit card and bank account information.
Variations on the Yahos malware have been infecting users for years, spreading initially via instant messenger platforms like AIM and Yahoo! messenger.
Experts say cybercrime is on the rise around the world as PC and mobile computing become more prevalent, and as more and more financial transactions shift online.
| Malware |
Alert — There's A New Malware Out There Snatching Users' Passwords | https://thehackernews.com/2021/04/alert-theres-new-malware-out-there.html | A previously undocumented malware downloader has been spotted in the wild in phishing attacks to deploy credential stealers and other malicious payloads.
Dubbed "Saint Bot," the malware is said to have first appeared on the scene in January 2021, with indications that it's under active development.
"Saint Bot is a downloader that appeared quite recently, and slowly is getting momentum. It was seen dropping stealers (i.e. Taurus Stealer) or further loaders (example), yet its design allows [it] to utilize it for distributing any kind of malware," said Aleksandra "Hasherezade" Doniec, a threat intelligence analyst at Malwarebytes.
"Furthermore, Saint Bot employs a wide variety of techniques which, although not novel, indicate some level of sophistication considering its relatively new appearance."
The infection chain analyzed by the cybersecurity firm begins with a phishing email containing an embedded ZIP file ("bitcoin.zip") that claims to be a bitcoin wallet when, in fact, it's a PowerShell script under the guise of .LNK shortcut file. This PowerShell script then downloads the next stage malware, a WindowsUpdate.exe executable, which, in turn, drops a second executable (InstallUtil.exe) that takes care of downloading two more executables named def.exe and putty.exe.
While the former is a batch script responsible for disabling Windows Defender, putty.exe contains the malicious payload that eventually connects to a command-and-control (C2) server for further exploitation.
The obfuscation present in each stage of the infection, coupled with the anti-analysis techniques adopted by the malware, allows the malware operators to exploit the devices they were installed on without attracting attention.
Besides performing "self defense checks" to verify the presence of a debugger or a virtual environment, Saint Bot is designed to not execute in Romania and select countries within the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russia, and Ukraine.
The list of commands supported by the malware include —
downloading and executing other payloads retrieved from the C2 server
updating the bot malware, and
uninstalling itself from the compromised machine
While these capabilities may seem very small, the fact that Saint Bot serves as a downloader for other malware makes it dangerous enough.
Interestingly, the payloads themselves are fetched from files hosted on Discord, a tactic that has become increasingly common among threat actors, who are abusing legitimate functions of such platforms for C2 communications, evade security, and deliver malware.
"When files are uploaded and stored within the Discord CDN, they can be accessed using the hardcoded CDN URL by any system, regardless of whether Discord has been installed, simply by browsing to the CDN URL where the content is hosted," researchers from Cisco Talos disclosed in an analysis earlier this week, thus turning software like Discord and Slack into lucrative targets for hosting malicious content.
"Saint Bot is yet another tiny downloader," Hasherezade said. "[It is] not as mature as SmokeLoader, but it is quite new and currently actively developed. The author seems to have some knowledge of malware design, which is visible by the wide range of techniques used. Yet, all the deployed techniques are well-known and pretty standard, [and] not showing much creativity so far."
| Cyber_Attack |
Another Critical Flaw in Drupal Discovered — Update Your Site ASAP! | https://thehackernews.com/2019/02/hacking-drupal-vulnerability.html | Developers of Drupal—a popular open-source content management system software that powers millions of websites—have released the latest version of their software to patch a critical vulnerability that could allow remote attackers to hack your site.
The update came two days after the Drupal security team released an advance security notification of the upcoming patches, giving websites administrators early heads-up to fix their websites before hackers abuse the loophole.
The vulnerability in question is a critical remote code execution (RCE) flaw in Drupal Core that could "lead to arbitrary PHP code execution in some cases," the Drupal security team said.
While the Drupal team hasn't released any technical details of the vulnerability (CVE-2019-6340), it mentioned that the flaw resides due to the fact that some field types do not properly sanitize data from non-form sources and affects Drupal 7 and 8 Core.
It should also be noted that your Drupal-based website is only affected if the RESTful Web Services (rest) module is enabled and allows PATCH or POST requests, or it has another web services module enabled.
If you can't immediately install the latest update, then you can mitigate the vulnerability by simply disabling all web services modules, or configuring your web server(s) to not allow PUT/PATCH/POST requests to web services resources.
"Note that web services resources may be available on multiple paths depending on the configuration of your server(s)," Drupal warns in its security advisory published Wednesday.
"For Drupal 7, resources are for example typically available via paths (clean URLs) and via arguments to the "q" query argument. For Drupal 8, paths may still function when prefixed with index.php/."
However, considering the popularity of Drupal exploits among hackers, you are highly recommended to install the latest update:
If you are using Drupal 8.6.x, upgrade your website to Drupal 8.6.10.
If you are using Drupal 8.5.x or earlier, upgrade your website to Drupal 8.5.11
Drupal also said that the Drupal 7 Services module itself does not require an update at this moment, but users should still consider applying other contributed updates associated with the latest advisory if "Services" is in use.
Drupal has credited Samuel Mortenson of its security team to discover and report the vulnerability.
| Vulnerability |
U.S. Charges 6 Russian Intelligence Officers Over Destructive Cyberattacks | https://thehackernews.com/2020/10/russian-hackers.html | The US government on Monday formally charged six Russian intelligence officers for carrying out destructive malware attacks with an aim to disrupt and destabilize other nations and cause monetary losses.
The individuals, who work for Unit 74455 of the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), have been accused of perpetrating the "most disruptive and destructive series of computer attacks ever attributed to a single group," according to the Justice Department (DoJ).
All the six men — Yuriy Sergeyevich Andrienko, Sergey Vladimirovich Detistov, Pavel Valeryevich Frolov, Anatoliy Sergeyevich Kovalev, Artem Valeryevich Ochichenko, and Petr Nikolayevich Pliskin — have been charged with seven counts of conspiracy to conduct computer fraud and abuse, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, damaging protected computers, and aggravated identity theft.
"The object of the conspiracy was to deploy destructive malware and take other disruptive actions, for the strategic benefit of Russia, through unauthorized access ('hacking') of victim computers," the prosecutors said.
"In furtherance of the conspiracy, Andrienko, Detistov, Frolov, Kovalev, Ochichenko, Pliskin, and others known and unknown to the grand jury procured, maintained, and utilized servers, email accounts, malicious mobile applications, and related hacking infrastructure to engage in spear-phishing campaigns and other network intrusion methods against computers used by the victims."
Five years ago, Russian hackers belonging to Sandworm (aka APT28, Telebots, Voodoo Bear or Iron Viking) group attacked Ukraine's power grid, Ministry of Finance, and State Treasury Service using malware such as BlackEnergy, Industroyer, and KillDisk, before embarking on a spree of destructive cyberattacks — including unleashing NotPetya in 2017 and targeting the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics with phishing campaigns and "Olympic Destroyer" malware.
The six individuals have been accused of developing components for NotPetya, Olympic Destroyer, KillDisk malware, as well as preparing spear-phishing campaigns directed against the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games, resulting in damage and disruption to computer networks across France, Georgia, the Netherlands, Republic of Korea, Ukraine, the UK, and the US.
"For example, the NotPetya malware impaired Heritage Valley's provision of critical medical services to citizens of the Western District of Pennsylvania through its two hospitals, 60 offices, and 18 community satellite facilities," the DoJ said. "The attack caused the unavailability of patient lists, patient history, physical examination files, and laboratory records."
"Heritage Valley lost access to its mission-critical computer systems (such as those relating to cardiology, nuclear medicine, radiology, and surgery) for approximately one week and administrative computer systems for almost one month, thereby causing a threat to public health and safety," it added.
The total damages brought about by NotPetya is pegged to more than $10 billion to date, crippling several multinational companies like Maersk, Merck, FedEx's TNT Express, Saint-Gobain, Mondelēz, and Reckitt Benckiser.
In a similar development, the UK government also formally accused the GRU of perpetrating cyber reconnaissance against officials and organizations at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games earlier this summer before they were postponed next year due to COVID-19.
This is not the first time GRU has come under the DoJ scanner. Two years back, the US government charged seven officers working for the military intelligence agency for conducting sophisticated computer intrusions against US entities as part of an influence and disinformation campaign designed to counter anti-doping efforts.
| Malware |
Millions Of Smartphones Using Broadcom Wi-Fi Chip Can Be Hacked Over-the-Air | https://thehackernews.com/2017/04/broadcom-wifi-hack.html | Millions of smartphones and smart gadgets, including Apple iOS and many Android handsets from various manufacturers, equipped with Broadcom Wifi chips are vulnerable to over-the-air hijacking without any user interaction.
Just yesterday, Apple rushed out an emergency iOS 10.3.1 patch update to address a serious bug that could allow an attacker within same Wifi network to remotely execute malicious code on the Broadcom WiFi SoC (Software-on-Chip) used in iPhones, iPads, and iPods.
The vulnerability was described as the stack buffer overflow issue and was discovered by Google's Project Zero staffer Gal Beniamini, who today detailed his research on a lengthy blog post, saying the flaw affects not only Apple but all those devices using Broadcom's Wi-Fi stack.
Beniamini says this stack buffer overflow issue in the Broadcom firmware code could lead to remote code execution vulnerability, allowing an attacker in the smartphone's WiFi range to send and execute code on the device.
Attackers with high skills can also deploy malicious code to take full control over the victim's device and install malicious apps, like banking Trojans, ransomware, and adware, without the victim's knowledge.
In his next blog post that's already on its way, Beniamini will explain how attackers can use their assumed control of the Wi-Fi SoC in order to further escalate their privileges into the application processor, taking over the host's operating system.
Over-the-Air Broadcom Wi-Fi SoC Hack
According to the researcher, the firmware running on Broadcom WiFi SoC can be tricked into overrunning its stack buffers, which allowed him to send carefully crafted WiFi frames, with abnormal values, to the Wi-Fi controller in order to overflow the firmware's stack.
Beniamini then combined this value with the frequent timer firings of the chipset to gradually overwrite specific chunks of device's memory (RAM) until his malicious code is executed.
So, to exploit the flaw, an attacker needs to be within the WiFi range of the affected device to silently take over it.
"While the firmware implementation on the Wi-Fi SoC is incredibly complex, it still lags behind in terms of security," Beniamini explains. "Specifically, it lacks all basic exploit mitigations – including stack cookies, safe unlinking and access permission protection."
The researcher also detailed a proof-of-concept Wi-Fi remote code execution exploit in the blog post and successfully performed it on a then-fully updated (now fixed) Nexus 6P, running Android 7.1.1 version NUF26K – the latest available Nexus device at the time of testing in February.
The flaw is one of the several vulnerabilities discovered by Beniamini in the firmware version 6.37.34.40 of Broadcom Wi-Fi chips.
Security Patch for Nexus & iOS Released; Others Have to Wait!
Google Project Zero team reported the issue to Broadcom in December. Since the flaw is in Broadcom's code, smartphone makers had to wait for a patch from the chip vendor before testing the patch and pushing it out to their own user base.
Both Apple and Google addressed the vulnerability with security updates released on Monday, with Google delivering updates via its Android April 2017 Security Bulletin and Apple releasing the iOS 10.3.1 update.
The flaw still affects most Samsung flagship devices, including Galaxy S7 (G930F, G930V), Galaxy S7 Edge (G935F, G9350), Galaxy S6 Edge (G925V), Galaxy S5 (G900F), and Galaxy Note 4 (N910F), the researcher says.
For more technical details head on to the blog post published by Google Project Zero team today.
| Vulnerability |
Warning ! Facebook virus Zeus targets bank accounts | https://thehackernews.com/2013/06/warning-facebook-virus-zeus-targets.html | The infamous Zeus malware has once again resurfaced as per Symantec and is capable of draining your bank accounts.
Zeus propagates through phishing messages that originate from an account that has been phished. Such a phished account will then start automatically sending messages to friends with links to ads telling them to check out a video or product.
Of course, you should not click as doing so will get your account phished as well. The program is sophisticated enough that it can replace a bank's Web site with a mimicked page of its very own. The fake page can then ask for social security number information and other data that is then sold on the black market.
According to Trend Micro the pages are being hosted by the Russian criminal gang known as the Russian Business Network.
Zeus was first detected in 2007 and it is spreading online. If you click on the Zeus virus, it is designed to steal your password and drain your bank account. Facebook is aware of the rising issue, but does not appear to be taking much action on it.
Eric Feinberg, founder of the advocacy group Fans Against Kounterfeit Enterprise (FAKE) said he has tried to alert Facebook to the problem, with increased urgency, but wasn't satisfied with their response.
Additionally, Windows users, be extra careful. The virus is said to specifically target Windows devices and will not work on Mac OS X or Linux.
The virus has badly affected USA and UK, and has moderately affected India, Russia, Canada, and France. Countries such as Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Indonesia, and a few more European and South-East Asian countries are less affected.
| Malware |
Dozens of Severe Flaws Found in 4 Popular Open Source VNC Software | https://thehackernews.com/2019/11/vnc-remote-software-hacking.html | Four popular open-source VNC remote desktop applications have been found vulnerable to a total of 37 security vulnerabilities, many of which went unnoticed for the last 20 years and most severe could allow remote attackers to compromise a targeted system.
VNC (virtual network computing) is an open source graphical desktop sharing protocol based on RFB (Remote FrameBuffer) that allows users to remotely control another computer, similar to Microsoft's RDP service.
The implementation of the VNC system includes a "server component," which runs on the computer sharing its desktop, and a "client component," which runs on the computer that will access the shared desktop.
In other words, VNC allows you to use your mouse and keyboard to work on a remote computer as if you are sitting in front of it.
There are numerous VNC applications, both free and commercial, compatible with widely used operating systems like Linux, macOS, Windows, and Android.
Considering that there are currently over 600,000 VNC servers accessible remotely over the Internet and nearly 32% of which are connected to industrial automation systems, cybersecurity researchers at Kaspersky audited four widely used open source implementation of VNC, including:
LibVNC
UltraVNC
TightVNC 1.x
TurboVNC
After analyzing these VNC software, researchers found a total of 37 new memory corruption vulnerabilities in client and server software: 22 of which were found in UltraVNC, 10 in LibVNC, 4 in TightVNC, just 1 in TurboVNC.
"All of the bugs are linked to incorrect memory usage. Exploiting them leads only to malfunctions and denial of service — a relatively favorable outcome," Kaspersky says. "In more serious cases, attackers can gain unauthorized access to information on the device or release malware into the victim's system.
Some of the discovered security vulnerabilities can also lead to remote code execution (RCE) attacks, meaning an attacker could exploit these flaws to run arbitrary code on the targeted system and gain control over it.
Since the client-side app receives more data and contains data decoding components where developers often make errors while programming, most of the vulnerabilities affect the client-side version of these software.
On the other hand, the server-side relatively contains a small code base with almost no complex functionality, which reduces the chances of memory-corruption vulnerabilities.
However, the team discovered some exploitable server-side bugs, including a stack buffer overflow flaw in the TurboVNC server that makes it possible to achieve remote code execution on the server.
But, exploiting this flaw requires authentication credentials to connect to the VNC server or control over the client before the connection is established.
Therefore, as a safeguard against attacks exploiting server-side vulnerabilities, clients are recommended not to connect to untrusted or untested VNC servers, and administrators are required to protect their VNC servers with a unique, strong password.
Kaspersky reported the vulnerabilities to the affected developers, all of which have issued patches for their supported products, except TightVNC 1.x that is no longer supported by its creators. So, users are recommended to switch to version 2.x.
| Vulnerability |
First-Ever Ransomware For Smart Thermostat is Here — It's Hot! | https://thehackernews.com/2016/08/hacking-thermostat.html | Internet of Things (IoT) is the latest buzz in the world of technology, but they are much easier to hack than you think.
Until now we have heard many scary stories of hacking IoT devices, but how realistic is the threat?
Just think of a scenario where you enter in your house, and it's sweltering, but when you head on to check the temperature of your thermostat, you find out that it has been locked to 99 degrees.
And guess what?
Your room thermostat is demanding $300 in Bitcoins to regain its control.
Congratulations, Your Thermostat has been Hacked!
This is not just a hypothetical scenario; this is exactly what Ken Munro and Andrew Tierney of UK-based security firm Pen Test Partners have demonstrated at the DEFCON 24 security conference in Las Vegas last Saturday.
Two white hat hackers recently showed off the first proof-of-concept (PoC) ransomware that infects a smart thermostat.
Ransomware is an infamous piece of malware that has been known for locking up computer files and then demanding a ransom, usually in Bitcoins, in order to unlock them.
But, over time the threat has changed its way to the mobile world, infecting smartphones, and even smart TVs.
The hackers chose a US thermostat with a large LCD display that runs a modified version of Linux, and has an SD card slot to allow its users to load custom settings or wallpapers, which they said, "makes it so easy to hack."
The duo found that the thermostat did not really check the files running and executing on it, which allowed them to load malware into the thermostat, locking the screen and showing a classic ransom note.
"So we put in a huge executable by loading a 7MB Javascript file, but this is not plain Javascript so you can query the SQL database so it can execute Linux commands," Tierney told Infosecurity Magazine.
"It heats to 99 degrees, and asks for a PIN to unlock which changes every 30 seconds. We put an IRC botnet on it, and the executable dials into the channel and uses the MAC address as the identifier, and you need to pay one Bitcoin to unlock."
Since every process inside the thermostat application runs with root privileges, a malicious hacker does not require any special privilege escalation vulnerabilities to compromise the device.
The researchers took advantage of a vulnerability in the particular thermostat's system, but they declined to publicly disclose it, since they have not got a chance to file a bug report with the thermostat manufacturer and get it fixed yet.
However, the two plan to report the bug today, on Monday. They also said the patch should be easy to deploy.
The downside, though, is that installing the ransomware, currently, requires the hackers to either have physical access to the thermostat or trick the victim into loading malicious files on the device on his own.
Since Internet of Things is currently being deployed in a large variety of uses throughout your home, businesses, hospitals, and even entire cities that are called Smart Cities, it gives attackers a large number of entry points to affect you some or the other way.
But, if deployed securely, it could do miracles… even save your life.
Tesla Autopilot Saved a Life
Just take a recent example of Tesla smart car.
Tesla Model X owner, 37-year-old attorney Joshua Neally, claimed the car's Autopilot feature (self-driving mode) got him to the hospital during a medical emergency.
However, the downside of such self-driven technology is that it can be hacked by crooks and we can not ignore them because we have seen a number of smart car hacking incidents in the past.
Previous research demonstrated hackers capabilities to hijack smart cars remotely and control its steering, brakes, and transmission, and even disable car's crucial functions like airbags by exploiting security flaws affecting significant automobiles.
The bottom line:
Being cyber savvy could let you enjoy the new world of connected devices while helping you stay safe online.
| Malware |
Smartwatch Maker Garmin Shuts Down Services After Ransomware Attack | https://thehackernews.com/2020/07/garmin-ransomware-attack.html | Garmin, the maker of fitness trackers, smartwatches and GPS-based wearable devices, is currently dealing with a massive worldwide service interruption after getting hit by a targeted ransomware attack, an employee of the company told The Hacker News on condition of anonymity.
The company's website and the Twitter account say, "We are currently experiencing an outage that affects Garmin.com and Garmin Connect."
"This outage also affects our call centers, and we are currently unable to receive any calls, emails or online chats. We are working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible and apologize for this inconvenience."
As a result, the company yesterday was forced to temporarily shut down some of its connected services, including Garmin Express, Garmin Connect mobile, and the website—restricting millions of its users from accessing the cloud services or even syncing their watches locally to the app.
Though not much information is available on technicalities of the cyber attack, some local media reports claim hackers have managed to compromise the company's application and database servers with ransomware.
It also says Garmin has sent announcements to its IT staff in Taiwan-based factories announcing the next two days of planned maintenance, i.e., July 24 and 25.
Multiple sources in the cybersecurity community suggest that the cyberattack may have involved WastedLocker, one of the targeted ransomware gang, known as the Evil Corp or Dridex.
The modus operandi of the attackers behind WastedLocker involves compromising corporate networks, performing privilege escalation, and then using lateral movement to install ransomware on valuable systems before demanding millions of dollars in ransom payment.
According to experts at SentinelOne, WastedLocker is a relatively new ransomware family active for the last few months and has since been attacking high-value targets across numerous industries.
WastedLocker uses JavaScript-based SocGholish toolset to deliver payload by masquerading as system or software updates, exploits UAC bypass techniques to elevate privileges, and leverages Cobalt Strike for lateral movements.
"All the security technology in the world is not going to protect against determined attackers. 97% of losses stem from socially-engineered attacks and over 90% are initiated by email," Lucy Security CEO Colin Bastable shared a comment with The Hacker News.
"There are no front lines in cyberwarfare – we are all fair game for bad actors, and no entity or person is safe from cyber-attack. Train your people to detect and resist ransomware attacks – just as you patch systems, patch your people with regular, varied, continuous and well-planned security awareness training to make them part of your defenses," Bastable added.
Gurucul CEO Saryu Nayyar also suggested the same:
"You just don't know when the bad guys are going to attack and who will be their next victim. However, what we do know is every organization is susceptible to ransomware attacks."
"So, do what you can to prepare and respond. Hopefully, Garmin has a daily backup regimen for the company's systems and data. That's table stakes. If you get hit, at least you can recover your data."
Garmin has not yet officially confirmed whether the incident is a ransomware attack or not, but we have contacted the company and will update the story as soon as we receive more information on this incident.
| Cyber_Attack |
Hacktivist Group Anonymous (#OpISIS) Takes Down Islamic State (ISIS) Social Media Accounts | https://thehackernews.com/2015/02/anonymous-isis-cyber-attack.html | The hacktivist group Anonymous has launched a massive cyber attack against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) — the radical Islamic terrorist group who were responsible for the terrorist attack against the Paris offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
With huge social media presence, ISIS is the most active terror group on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram accounts. But unluckily, over dozens of Facebook and Twitter accounts linked to ISIS has recently been taken by the Anonymous group.
In a video appeared on Youtube, Anonymous group and RedCult announced the operation #OpISIS and claimed to have carried out cyber attack against hundreds of Twitter and Facebook accounts used by ISIS for its own propaganda and to recruit new members.
According to the video, Operation #OpISIS is coordinated by "Muslims, Christians, Jews" alike and a masked individual discusses the aim of the campaign.
They are "hackers, crackers, Hacktivist, phishers, agents, spies, or just the guy next door… students, administrators, workers, clerks, unemployed, rich, poor." They are also "young, or old, gay or straight… from all races, countries, religions, and ethnicity. United as one, divided by zero," video explains.
A list of more than hundred Twitter and Facebook accounts suspected to belong to Islamic militants has been released by Anonymous. Twitter has already suspended more than 1500 ISIS accounts since the group released the first list in June, 2014 and dozens of militant recruiting websites were knocked offline using collective DDoS Attack.
Thousands of Twitter accounts associated with terrorist group Islamic State (ISIS) are still active and spreading jihadist propaganda despite a campaign by the hacktivist collective Anonymous to take them down.
According to Anonymous, it's just the beginning of their operation and warned ISIS that there will be "more to come."
We will hunt you, take down your sites, accounts, emails, and expose you…
From now on, no safe place for you online…
You will be treated like a virus, and we are the cure…
We own the internet…
We are Anonymous; we are Legion; we do not forgive, we do not forget, Expect us.
However, ISIS supporters are circulating a new social media guide with instructions for acquiring accounts undetected.
In June, Hacktivist collective Anonymous launched a campaign to take down social media accounts and websites associated with ISIS terrorists as a response to the recent Charlie Hebdo attacks under operation #OpCharlieHebdo.
Anonymous hackers also threatened to target Saudi Arabia and related nations for funding and supporting ISIS group. In a previous note they explained, "We are unable to target ISIS because they predominantly fight on the ground. But we can go after the people or states who fund them."
| Cyber_Attack |
WordPress Analytics Plugin Leaves 1.3 Million Sites Vulnerable to Hackers | https://thehackernews.com/2015/02/wordpress-slimstat-plugin.html | A critical vulnerability has been discovered in one of the most popular plugins of the the WordPress content management platform that puts more than one Million websites at risks of being completely hijacked by the attackers.
The vulnerability actually resides in most versions of a WordPress plugin called Wettable Powder Slimstat (WP-Slimstat). While there are more than 70 million websites on the Internet currently running WordPress, more than 1.3 Million of them use the 'WP-Slimstat' Plugin, making it one of the popular plugins of WordPress for powerful real-time web analytic.
All the WP-Slimstat versions prior to the latest release of Slimstat 3.9.6 contain an easily guessable 'secret' key which is used to sign data sent to and from the visiting end-user computers, explained in a blog post published Tuesday by Web security firm Sucuri.
Once the weak 'secret' key is break, an attacker could perform an SQL injection attack against the target website in order to grab highly sensitive information from victim's database, including encrypted passwords and the encryption keys used to remotely administer websites.
"If your website uses a vulnerable version of the plugin, you're at risk," Marc-Alexandre Montpas, a senior vulnerability researcher at Sucuri, wrote.
"Successful exploitation of this bug could lead to Blind SQL Injection attacks, which means an attacker could grab sensitive information from your database, including username, (hashed) passwords and, in certain configurations, WordPress Secret Keys (which could result in a total site takeover)."
The WP-Slimstat 'secret' key is just an MD5 hash version of the plugin's installation timestamp. With the use of sites like Internet Archive, a hacker could easily identify the year a target vulnerable website was put on the Internet.
This would left an attacker with about 30 Million values to test, that could be completed in about 10 minutes with most modern CPUs. Once the secret key has been detected, the attacker can use the key to tug sensitive data out of the database.
Users who run their websites on the WordPress content management system and have this popular WP-Slimstat plugin installed are being cautioned to upgrade their websites immediately in order to protect your website from this dangerous vulnerability.
| Vulnerability |
Listen to your instincts when it comes to the Web | https://thehackernews.com/2012/02/listen-to-your-instincts-when-it-comes.html | Listen to your instincts when it comes to the web
Lee Ives from Security-FAQs talk about Internet Security in January Edition of The Hacker News Magazine.
When you are on the web the best thing that you can do is to go with your instincts. In real life, when we walk around, we usually go with our gut to make sure that we stay out of danger. If something does not seem right we usually "sense" it for lack of a better term. This is not something that is new. This is how we survived in the wilderness all of those many years ago. We made sure that we stayed safe by following our instincts and doing the right thing. All of these years later and that same advice still holds up to be true.
But like we said in the previous paragraph, you have to worry about following your instincts when you are on the web as well. There are many different kinds of pitfalls that you can encounter when you are on the web. It doesn't matter whether it is meeting the wrong type of person or it is downloading the wrong type of file. The dangers that you face on the web can go beyond virtual and can easily become something that you deal with in real life.
What your instincts can help you avoid
There are several different types of malware that float around the internet on a daily basis. They just sit out there waiting for either you to discover them or for you to make a mistake and get caught downloading them. But do not make the mistake and think that all of the malwares out there are the same. No, they are all different. The ones that you can really avoid with the help of your gut are the ones that are delivered through social manipulation.
People think that hackers are people who do not like to interact with others. That is only a stereotype and is not true at all. Most of the attacks that you see on the web are initiated by social interaction. While yes, most of the social interaction of these attacks is through the web it does not always stay that way. Some of these attacks are schemes to try and get you to give up money or information. This means that they will try and actually talk to you through the use of web cams or through the use of talk software such as Skype. If you are in the same area they will actually try to meet with you. This is called social hacking and it is something that is practiced all of the time. As a matter of fact, one of the most well known hackers of all time, Kevin Mitnick, biggest strength was his ability to social hack.
But social hacks are not the only ones that you can avoid through the use of your gut. You can also avoid tech based hacks as well. You can do this by listening to your inner self when it comes to what links to click on and what files to download. If you are unsure about a click, then most of the time you should not do it. This is especially true if you are on a web site that you have never visited before. But even well known web sites can give you this feeling as well. If you are on a site like Facebook and the link that you see seems weird then do not click it. Listen to your gut and avoid all of the problems that not listening can bring.
You do not have to be a computer genius to do a little computer security. Most of the problems that you run across can be avoided entirely by just doing a simple little thing like following your instincts.
About the Author:
Lee Ives is an internet security blogger from London, England. He started his web site a couple of years ago as a means of communicating security topics to the average internet user in a way that they would understand.
Contrary to some people's expectations he works in retail and not the security industry which goes to show how just about anyone can accumulate a great deal of knowledge about how to protect themselves online if they are prepared to look for the answers. For those who are too busy to look, many answers can be found on his site at : https://www.security-faqs.com
| Malware |
Wawa Breach: Hackers Put 30 Million Stolen Payment Card Details for Sale | https://thehackernews.com/2020/01/wawa-credit-card-breach.html | Remember the recent payment card breach at Wawa convenience stores?
If you're among those millions of customers who shopped at any of 850 Wawa stores last year but haven't yet hotlisted your cards, it's high time to take immediate action.
That's because hackers have finally put up payment card details of more than 30 million Wawa breach victims on sale at Joker's Stash, one of the largest dark web marketplaces where cybercriminals buy and sell stolen payment card data.
As The Hacker News reported last month, on 10th December Wawa learned that its point-of-sale servers had malware installed since March 2019, which stole payment details of its customers from potentially all Wawa locations.
At that time, the company said it's not aware of how many customers may have been affected in the nine-month-long breach or of any unauthorized use of payment card information as a result of the incident.
Now it turns out that the Wawa breach marked itself in the list of largest credit card breaches ever happened in the history of the United States, potentially exposing 30 million sets of payment records.
According to threat intelligence firm Gemini Advisory, on 27th January 2020, hackers started uploading stolen payment card data from Wawa at Joker's Stash marketplace, titled as 'BIGBADABOOM-III,' which reportedly includes card numbers, expiration dates, and cardholder names.
"While the majority of those records were from US banks and were linked to US-based cardholders, some records also linked to cardholders from Latin America, Europe, and several Asian countries," Gemini Advisory said.
"Non-US-based cardholders likely fell victim to this breach when traveling to the United States and transacting with Wawa gas stations during the period of exposure."
"The median price of US-issued records from this breach is currently $17, with some of the international records priced as high as $210 per card."
In the latest statement released yesterday, Wawa confirmed that the company is aware of reports of criminal attempts to sell customers' payment card data and to help further protect its customers, the company has 'alerted payment card processors, payment card brands and card issuers to heighten fraud monitoring activities.'
"We continue to encourage our customers to remain vigilant in reviewing charges on their payment card statements and to promptly report any unauthorized use to the bank or financial institution that issued their payment card by calling the number on the back of the card," Wawa said.
Customers who bought anything from any of the Wawa convenience stores between March and December last year are advised to block the affected cards and request a new one from your respective financial institution.
| Data_Breaches |
Vulnerability in HTC website allow attacker to hijack accounts | https://thehackernews.com/2012/12/vulnerability-in-htc-website-allow_28.html | Thamatam Deepak (Mr.47™) reported a Cross site scripting (XSS) Vulnerability and cookie handling in HTC website, that allow an attacker to HTC website hijack accounts. Mr. Deepak is a 16 years old whitehat hacker, listed in Apple Hall of Fame with 'The Hacker News' researcher Mohit Kumar this month.
Cross-Site Scripting attacks are a type of injection problem, in which malicious scripts are injected into the otherwise benign and trusted web sites. The malicious script can access any cookies, session tokens, or other sensitive information retained by your browser. This vulnerability may be used by attackers to bypass access controls such as the same origin policy.
Cross site scripting is very common web application vulnerability, Yesterday our security researcher, Christy Philip Mathew reported about multiple xss in official latest versions of cPanel and WHM.
As reported by Whitehat hacker Deepak, there are multiple xss in HTC website, that allow an attacker to inject malicious scripts. Moreover, another vulnerability - Cookies Handling make it more easy for an attack to hijack accounts of HTC users.
Some sample vulnerable links are as show below:
Link 1
Link 2
Link 3
At time of reporting, these flaws are fixed by vendor after reported by hacker and was working on Google Chrome perfectly. More interesting fact is that , one XSS is also available on HTC PRODUCT SECURITY page, where HTC said "At HTC, we recognize how important it is to protect your privacy and security. We understand that secure products are essential in maintaining the trust you place in us to provide products and services to you."
For proof of concept, we created an account on HTC website, Import the cookies in a text file and logout from website. On other system, I just import the cookies from same text file. Then, I open the HTC website and found that I am again logged-in without password authentication. i.e One can reuse the same cookies again and again for authentication until its expiry date and Cross site scripting vulnerability allow attack to steal cookies remotely by use of some social engineering tricks.
Similar cookie handling vulnerability was reported by 'The Hacker News' Security researchers Christy Philip Mathew and Mohit Kumar last month in Hotmail and Outlook with proof of concepts.
| Vulnerability |
Researchers Unmask Hackers Behind APOMacroSploit Malware Builder | https://thehackernews.com/2021/02/researchers-unmask-hackers-behind.html | Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed a new kind of Office malware distributed as part of a malicious email campaign that targeted more than 80 customers worldwide in an attempt to control victim machines and steal information remotely.
The tool — dubbed "APOMacroSploit" — is a macro exploit generator that allows the user to create an Excel document capable of bypassing antivirus software, Windows Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI), and even Gmail and other email-based phishing detection.
APOMacroSploit is believed to be the work of two French-based threat actors "Apocaliptique" and "Nitrix," who are estimated to have made at least $5000 in less than two months selling the product on HackForums.net.
About 40 hackers in total are said to be behind the operation, utilizing 100 different email senders in a slew of attacks targeting users in more than 30 different countries. The attacks were spotted for the first time at the end of November 2020, according to cybersecurity firm Check Point.
"The malware infection begins when the dynamic content of the attached XLS document is enabled, and an XLM macro automatically starts downloading a Windows system command script," the firm said in a Tuesday report.
This system command script is retrieved from cutt.ly, which directs to servers hosting multiple BAT scripts that have the nickname of the customers attached to the filenames. The scripts are also responsible for executing the malware ("fola.exe") on Windows systems, but not before adding the malware location in the exclusion path of Windows Defender and disabling Windows cleanup.
In one of the attacks, the malware — a Delphi Crypter followed by a second-stage remote access Trojan called BitRAT — was found hosted on a Bulgarian website catering to medical equipment and supplies, implying that the attackers breached the website to store the malicious executable.
The idea of using "crypters" or "packers" has become increasingly popular among threat actors to not only compress but also to make malware samples more evasive and reverse engineer.
BitRAT, which was formally documented last August, comes with features to mine cryptocurrencies, hack webcams, log keystrokes, download and upload arbitrary files, and remotely control the system via a command-and-control server, which in this case resolved to a sub-domain of a legitimate Bulgarian website for video surveillance systems.
Further investigation by Check Point involved chasing the digital trail left by the two operators — including two League of Legends player profiles — ultimately leading the researchers to unmask the real identity of Nitrix, who revealed his actual name on Twitter when he posted a picture of a ticket he bought for a concert in December 2014.
While Nitrix is a software developer from Noisy-Le-Grand with four years of experience as a software developer, Apocaliptique's use of alternative names such as "apo93" or "apocaliptique93" has stirred up possibilities that the individual may also be a French resident, as "93" is the colloquial name for the French department of Seine-Saint-Denis.
Check Point Research said it has alerted law enforcement authorities about the identities of the attackers.
| Cyber_Attack |
Critical PHPMailer Flaw leaves Millions of Websites Vulnerable to Remote Exploit | https://thehackernews.com/2016/12/phpmailer-security.html | A critical vulnerability has been discovered in PHPMailer, which is one of the most popular open source PHP libraries to send emails used by more than 9 Million users worldwide.
Millions of PHP websites and popular open source web applications, including WordPress, Drupal, 1CRM, SugarCRM, Yii, and Joomla comes with PHPMailer library for sending emails using a variety of methods, including SMTP to their users.
Discovered by Polish security researcher Dawid Golunski of Legal Hackers, the critical vulnerability (CVE-2016-10033) allows an attacker to remotely execute arbitrary code in the context of the web server and compromise the target web application.
"To exploit the vulnerability an attacker could target common website components such as contact/feedback forms, registration forms, password email resets and others that send out emails with the help of a vulnerable version of the PHPMailer class," Golunski writes in the advisory published today.
Golunski responsibly reported the vulnerability to the developers, who have patched the vulnerability in their new release, PHPMailer 5.2.18.
All versions of PHPMailer before the critical release of PHPMailer 5.2.18 are affected, so web administrators and developers are strongly recommended to update to the patched release.
Since The Hacker News is making the first public disclosure of the vulnerability in the news following Golunski advisory and millions of websites remain unpatched, the researcher has put on hold more technical details about the flaw.
However, Golunski has promised to release more technical details about the vulnerability in coming days, including a proof-of-concept exploit code and video demonstration that will show the attack in action.
We will update this article with additional information on the PHPMailer vulnerability, exploit code and video demonstration, once the researcher makes it public.
Update: Exploit Code for PHPMailer RCE Released
Golunski has released Proof-of-Concept (PoC) exploit code for PHPMailer remote code execution vulnerability.
"A successful exploitation could let remote attackers gain access to the target server in the context of the web server account which could lead to a full compromise of the web application," Golunski said.
You can find exploit code here.
| Vulnerability |
A New SolarWinds Flaw Likely Had Let Hackers Install SUPERNOVA Malware | https://thehackernews.com/2020/12/a-new-solarwinds-flaw-likely-had-let.html | An authentication bypass vulnerability in the SolarWinds Orion software may have been leveraged by adversaries as a zero-day to deploy the SUPERNOVA malware in target environments.
According to an advisory published yesterday by the CERT Coordination Center, the SolarWinds Orion API that's used to interface with all other Orion system monitoring and management products suffers from a security flaw (CVE-2020-10148) that could allow a remote attacker to execute unauthenticated API commands, thus resulting in a compromise of the SolarWinds instance.
"The authentication of the API can be bypassed by including specific parameters in the Request.PathInfo portion of a URI request to the API, which could allow an attacker to execute unauthenticated API commands," the advisory states.
"In particular, if an attacker appends a PathInfo parameter of 'WebResource.adx,' 'ScriptResource.adx,' 'i18n.ashx,' or 'Skipi18n' to a request to a SolarWinds Orion server, SolarWinds may set the SkipAuthorization flag, which may allow the API request to be processed without requiring authentication."
It's worth noting that SolarWinds' updated security advisory on December 24 made note of an unspecified vulnerability in the Orion Platform that could be exploited to deploy rogue software such as SUPERNOVA. But exact details of the flaw remained unclear until now.
In the past week, Microsoft disclosed that a second threat actor might have been abusing SolarWinds' Orion software to drop an additional piece of malware called SUPERNOVA on target systems.
It was also corroborated by cybersecurity firms Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 threat intelligence team and GuidePoint Security, both of whom described it as a .NET web shell implemented by modifying an "app_web_logoimagehandler.ashx.b6031896.dll" module of the SolarWinds Orion application.
While the legitimate purpose of the DLL is to return the logo image configured by a user to other components of the Orion web application via an HTTP API, the malicious additions allow it to receive remote commands from an attacker-controlled server and execute them in-memory in the context of the server user.
"SUPERNOVA is novel and potent due to its in-memory execution, sophistication in its parameters and execution and flexibility by implementing a full programmatic API to the .NET runtime," Unit 42 researchers noted.
The SUPERNOVA web shell is said to be dropped by an unidentified third-party different from the SUNBURST actors (tracked as "UNC2452") due to the aforementioned DLL not being digitally signed, unlike the SUNBURST DLL.
The development comes as government agencies and cybersecurity experts are working to understand the full consequences of the hack and piece together the global intrusion campaign that has potentially ensnared 18,000 of SolarWinds' customers.
FireEye, which was the first company to uncover the SUNBURST implant, said in an analysis that the actors behind the espionage operation routinely removed their tools, including the backdoors, once legitimate remote access was achieved — implying a high degree of technical sophistication and attention to operational security.
Evidence unearthed by ReversingLabs and Microsoft had revealed that key building blocks for the SolarWinds hack were put in place as early as October 2019 when the attackers laced a routine software update with innocuous modifications to blend in with the original code and later made malicious changes that allowed them to launch further attacks against its customers and to steal data.
To address the authentication bypass vulnerability, it's recommended that users update to the relevant versions of the SolarWinds Orion Platform:
2019.4 HF 6 (released December 14, 2020)
2020.2.1 HF 2 (released December 15, 2020)
2019.2 SUPERNOVA Patch (released December 23, 2020)
2018.4 SUPERNOVA Patch (released December 23, 2020)
2018.2 SUPERNOVA Patch (released December 23, 2020)
For customers who have already upgraded to the 2020.2.1 HF 2 or 2019.4 HF 6 versions, it's worth noting that both the SUNBURST and SUPERNOVA vulnerabilities have been addressed, and no further action is required.
| Cyber_Attack |
How Hacking Team and FBI planned to Unmask A Tor User | https://thehackernews.com/2015/07/fbi-hacking-team-tor-network.html | The huge cache of internal files recently leaked from the controversial Italian surveillance software company Hacking Team has now revealed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) purchased surveillance software from the company.
The leaked documents contains more than 1 Million internal emails, including emails from FBI agent who wanted to unmask the identity of a user of Tor, the encrypted anonymizing network widely used by activists to keep their identities safe, but also used to host criminal activities.
Unmasking Tor User
In September last year, an FBI agent asked Hacking Team if the latest version of its Remote Control System (RCS), also known as Galileo - for which the company is famous for, would be capable to reveal the True IP address of a Tor user.
The FBI agent only had the proxy IP address of the target, as according to FBI, the target may be using Tor Browser Bundle (TBB) or some other variant. So, the agent wanted to infect the target's computer by making him download a malicious file.
"We'll need to send him an email with a document or PDF [attachment] to hopefully install the scout [Hacking Team's software]," the FBI agent wrote in the email.
In response to the FBI agent query, A Hacking Team staff member said that once the target's computer is infected, "if he is using TBB you will get the real IP address of the target. Otherwise, once the scout is installed…you can inspect from the device evidence the list of installed programs."
FBI Spent $775,000 on Hacking Team's Spying Tools
So far, it isn't known whether the agents were succeeded in revealing the IP address of the target Tor user or who the target was, but internal emails clearly indicates that this FBI agent took full advantage of Hacking Team's service to unmask Tor users.
"[The FBI] continue to be interested in new features all the more related to TOR, [virtual private networks] VPN and less click infections," the same FBI agent said in other emails. "In the past their targets were 20 per cent on TOR, now they are 60 per cent on TOR."
Overall, the FBI has spent nearly $775,000 on Hacking Team's spy tools since 2011, Wired reports, although the internal emails indicate that the Remote Control System (RCS) tools were used as a "back up" for some other system the agency is already using.
Remote Control System (RCS), or Galileo, is the advanced and sophisticated spyware tool for which the Hacking Team is famous. It came loaded with lots of zero-day exploits and have the ability to monitor the computers of its targets remotely.
| Malware |
Key infrastructure systems of 3 US cities Under Attack By Hackers | https://thehackernews.com/2011/12/key-infrastructure-systems-of-3-us.html | Key infrastructure systems of 3 US cities Under Attack By Hackers
BBC News Reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced recently that key infrastructure systems of three US cities had been accessed by hackers. Such systems commonly known as Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) are increasingly being targeted by hackers.
At a recent cybersecurity conference, Michael Welch, deputy assistant director of the FBI's cyber division, said "hackers had accessed crucial water and power services.The hackers could theoretically have dumped sewage into a lake or shut off the power to a shopping mall."
"We just had a circumstance where we had three cities, one of them a major city within the US, where you had several hackers that had made their way into SCADA systems within the city," Welch told delegates at the Flemings Cyber Security conference."Essentially it was an ego trip for the hacker because he had control of that city's system and he could dump raw sewage into the lake, he could shut down the power plant at the mall a wide array of things," he added.
In the city of South Houston, Texas, a hacker named pr0f claimed to have broken into a control system that supplied water to the town. Pr0f claimed the system had only been protected by a three-character password which "required almost no skill" to get around.
Security experts predict there will be a rise in such attacks."Such systems have become a target partly because of all the chatter about the lack of security. Hackers are doing it out of curiosity to see how poorly they are protected," said by senior security consultant at Sophos.
However the firms that run SCADA systems, such as Siemens, often advise against changing passwords because the threat from malware is not a big a problem as if passwords are changed.
[Source]
| Malware |
Android Bitcoin-Mining Malware found on Google Play Store | https://thehackernews.com/2014/04/android-bitcoin-mining-malware-found-on.html | Google always bound to face trouble over the wide and open nature of its app checking policies on Google Play Store, and despite so many security measures, the search engine giant mostly fails to recognize the Android malware that are lurking around its Google Play store in vast numbers.
Recently, Google had offered users refund and additional credit of $5 for the bogus antivirus app 'Virus Sheild' that potentially defrauded more than 10,000 Android users who have downloaded the app from the Google play store. The step taken by Google is really appreciated, as the refunding cost Google around $269,000.
Now, it has been found that a number of malicious Android apps on the Google Play store secretly turn users' android devices into small rigs contributing to a large-scale crypto currency mining operation.
CRYPTO MINER IN ANDROID APP
Security researchers from an anti-malware firm Lookout have identified various malware apps at Google Play Store, which they dubbed as 'BadLepricon' containing hidden crypto miner that stealthily exploit users' android device to perform the cumbersome computational process without their knowledge.
BadLepricon malware was specially designed to be delivered via wallpaper apps and researchers found it in five separate apps masquerading as 'Live Wallpaper Apps' that had more than 100 of downloads each, according to a blog post published Thursday.
"These apps did fulfill their advertised purpose in that they provided live wallpaper apps, which vary in theme from anime girls to 'epic smoke' to attractive men," Meghan Kelly, a Lookout security communications manager, wrote in a company blog post. "However, without alerting you in the terms of service, BadLepricon enters into an infinite loop where -- every five seconds -- it checks the battery level, connectivity, and whether the phone's display was on."
DETECTING MOBILE MALWARE
So, if you found your mobile devices overheated harder than usual, then you may have malicious wallpaper installed in your Smartphones that could be secretly mining cryptocurrency without your knowledge, and once your device connects to the internet, the mining capabilities kick into action in the background.
Due to an increase in the value of digital coins, cyber criminals has added it in their watchlist and making every effort to steal your virtual money. As we know, coin mining is the key component for digital currencies and such malware does not steal data. Instead, they are capable of mining Bitcoin, Litecoin and Dogecoin using the victim's device.
Google expeditiously removed the malicious apps as soon as Lookout Mobile security firm reported it. This is not first time when an Android malware is targeting users' Smartphones for mining crypto-currencies. Few weeks back researchers from the Antivirus firm Trend micro also spotted two such apps named - 'Songs' and 'Prized' on Google play store that mined the Litecoin and Dogecoin cryptocurrencies without users' knowledge, and was downloaded by more than one million users.
| Malware |
Hijacking Servers Remotely with Hikit advanced persistent threat | https://thehackernews.com/2012/08/hijacking-servers-remotely-with-hikit.html | Security researchers have revealed the existence of an advanced persistent threat that has been making the rounds since April 2011. Backdoor.Hikit is a dangerous backdoor Trojan that will damage infected system and files. Usually, Backdoor. Hikit will open backdoor to allow remote attackers to connect to the infected system and carry out harmful activities, such as stealing information or destroying files and programs.
It is really stubborn those antiviruses often fail to delete it for good, for it runs secretly and automatically when Windows boots without your knowledge or consent and can disguise it as fake system files or processes. Besides, many other threats, such as adware, redirecting virus, Trojan variants from family, such as Trojan Horse Generic 27.PN, BackDoor.Hupigon5.CJMY, Trojan.Zeroaccess.C, Trojan:win64/Sirefef.E and so on, which is really a threat to system and data security.
According to experts from security firm Symantec, it all starts with the unknown dropper which installs a DLL backdoor onto the compromised device. This backdoor then installs the driver component that allows the attacker to communicate with the infected computer.
Unlike many other pieces of malware, Hikit doesn't attempt to contact its command and control server once it infects a device. Instead, the kernel is designed to wait for the attacker to initiate communications, significantly reducing the threat's operational capabilities.
Backdoor.Hikit is compromised of four components:
Unknown dropper that compromises a system and installs a malicious dynamic-link library (DLL) file
DLL that implements back door functionality and installs a kernel driver
Kernel driver that monitors network traffic for connections from an attacker
Client tool that attackers use to connect to the back door
It is greatly possible that your online saved accounts and passwords, personal and financial information will be exposed and transfer to remote hackers, which will lead to identified thief. To secure your computer and keep it away from any threats, you must get rid of Backdoor.Hikit without any hesitation.
Symantec is continuing to investigate this threat and will provide more information when available.
| Vulnerability |
WordPress Security: Brute Force Amplification Attack Targeting Thousand of Blogs | https://thehackernews.com/2015/10/WordPress-BruteForce-Amplification.html | Most of the times, we have reported about WordPress vulnerabilities involving vulnerable plugins, but this time security researchers have discovered Brute Force Amplification attacks on the most popular CMS (content management system) platform.
Researchers from security firm Sucuri have found a way to perform Brute Force amplification attacks against WordPress' built-in XML-RPC feature to crack down administrator credentials.
XML-RPC is one of the simplest protocols for securely exchanging data between computers across the Internet. It uses the system.multicall method that allows an application to execute multiple commands within one HTTP request.
A number of CMS including WordPress and Drupal support XML-RPC.
But…
The same method has been abused to amplify their Brute Force attacks many times over by attempting hundreds of passwords within just one HTTP request, without been detected.
Amplified Brute-Force Attacks
This means instead of trying thousands of usernames and password combinations via login page (which can be easily blocked by banning IPs), hackers can use the XML-RPC protocol in conjunction with the system.multicall method that allows them to:
Go undetected by normal brute-force mitigation products
Try hundreds of thousands of username and password combinations with few XML-RPC requests.
"With only 3 or 4 HTTP requests, the attackers could try thousands of passwords, bypassing security tools that are designed to look and block brute force attempts," Sucuri's researchers wrote in a blog post.
The company witnessed the first attack of this kind at the beginning of last month, which then sky-rocketed to around 60,000 per day by the start of this month.
How to Prevent Brute-Force Amplification Attack via XML-RPC
To protect yourself against such threat, simply block all access to XML-RPC.
If you are not using any plugin that uses the xmlrpc.php file, just head on to rename/delete it. But, if you are using plugins such as JetPack, blocking xmlrpc.php may result in some broken functionality on your website.
So, webmasters could block XML-RPC system.multicall requests using a WAF (web application firewall). This will protect you against the amplification methods.
| Vulnerability |
More Android vulnerabilities exposed [Video Demonstration] | https://thehackernews.com/2011/09/more-android-vulnerabilities-exposed.html | More Android vulnerabilities exposed [Video Demonstration]
It's been more than a month since researchers reported two serious security vulnerabilities in Android, but so far there's no indication when they will be purged from the Google-spawned operating system that's the world's most popular smartphone platform.
Oberheide and Lanier are set to teach a two-day mobile security training course at SOURCE Barcelona this November where they will presumably refer to this and other Android vulnerabilities. Let's hope, for the sake of Android's reputation, that these things are resolved much sooner.
The first vulnerability is known as a "Permission escalation vulnerability", and allows attackers to install additional "arbitrary applications with arbitrary permissions", without first asking the user if they want to permit such actions. This would allow attackers to access call records, texts, web browsing history and media stored on the device.
The second bug only affects the Samsung Nexus S smartphone. It lets attackers gain root access on the device, providing them with full control over the handset. Google has yet to address the security issues.
| Vulnerability |
Update Your Safari Browser to Patch Two Dozen of Critical Vulnerabilities | https://thehackernews.com/2014/04/update-your-safari-browser-to-patch-two.html | So, is your Safari Web Browser Updated?? Make sure you have the latest web browser updated for your Apple Macintosh systems, as Apple released Safari 6.1.3 and Safari 7.0.3 with new security updates.
These Security updates addresses multiple vulnerabilities in its Safari web browser, which has always been the standard browser for Mac users.
This times not five or ten, in fact about two dozen. Apple issued a security update to patch a total of 27 vulnerabilities in Safari web browser, including the one which was highlighted at Pwn2Own 2014 hacking competition.
The available updates replace the browser running OSX 10.7 and 10.8 with the latest versions of browser 6.1.3, and OSX 10.9 with 7.0.3.
Among the 27 vulnerabilities, the most remarkable vulnerability addressed in the update is CVE-2014-1303, a heap-based buffer overflow that can be remotely exploited and could lead to bypass a sandbox protection mechanism via unspecified vector.
This vulnerability is the one used by Liang Chen of "Keen Team," a Shanghai-based group of security researchers who hacked Safari on the second day of Pwn2Own hacking competition this year held in March 12-13 at the CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver, resulting in a $65,000 reward.
The vulnerabilities involved memory corruption errors in the WebKit, which if exploited by a malicious or specially crafted website, could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on the victim's machine or completely crashing of the software as a result of DoS condition. This could also be a great starting step for injecting malware onto the victims' computer.
Another notable vulnerability is CVE-2014-1713, reported by the French security firm VUPEN, known for selling zero-day exploits, typically to law enforcement and government intelligence agencies, and HP's Zero Day Initiative.
VUPEN also exploited several targets in this year's Pwn2Own competition, including Chrome, Adobe Flash and Adobe Reader, and Microsoft's Internet Explorer, taking home $400,000 of the total contest payout for the IE 11 zero-day.
More than half of the bugs were fixed by the Google Chrome Security team in this latest Apple updates, as both Google's Chrome browser and Safari are powered by the WebKit framework.
Apple also specially mentioned a different flaw discovered by Ian Beer of Google's Project Zero, which could enable an attacker running arbitrary code in the WebProcess to read arbitrary files despite Safari's sandbox restrictions.
Last month, Apple issued iOS 7.1 update for iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches to patch several vulnerabilities, including the one in the mobile Safari.
Apple has released software updates and instructions on obtaining the updates at the following links: Software Updates and Safari 6.1.3 and 7.0.3. so, apple users are advised to update their Safari browser as soon as possible.
| Vulnerability |
New Apache Web Server Bug Threatens Security of Shared Web Hosts | https://thehackernews.com/2019/04/apache-web-server-security.html | Mark J Cox, one of the founding members of the Apache Software Foundation and the OpenSSL project, today posted a tweet warning users about a recently discovered important flaw in Apache HTTP Server software.
The Apache web server is one of the most popular, widely used open-source web servers in the world that powers almost 40 percent of the whole Internet.
The vulnerability, identified as CVE-2019-0211, was discovered by Charles Fol, a security engineer at Ambionics Security firm, and patched by the Apache developers in the latest version 2.4.39 of its software released today.
The flaw affects Apache HTTP Server versions 2.4.17 through 2.4.38 and could allow any less-privileged user to execute arbitrary code with root privileges on the targeted server.
"In Apache HTTP Server 2.4 releases 2.4.17 to 2.4.38, with MPM event, worker or prefork, code executing in less-privileged child processes or threads (including scripts executed by an in-process scripting interpreter) could execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the parent process (usually root) by manipulating the scoreboard. Non-Unix systems are not affected," the advisory says.
Though the researcher has not yet released a working Proof-of-Concept (PoC) exploit code for this flaw, Charles today published a blog post explaining how an attacker can exploit this flaw in 4 before mentioned steps:
Obtain R/W access on a worker process,
Write a fake prefork_child_bucket structure in the SHM,
Make all_buckets[bucket] point to the structure,
Await 6:25AM to get an arbitrary function call.
According to Cox, the vulnerability is more concerning for shared web hosting services, where malicious customers or a hacker with ability to execute PHP or CGI scripts on a website can make use of the flaw to gain root access on the server, eventually compromising all other websites hosted on the same server.
Besides this, the latest Apache httpd 2.4.39 version also patches three low and two other important severity issues.
The second important flaw (CVE-2019-0217) could allow "a user with valid credentials to authenticate using another username, bypassing configured access control restrictions."
The third vulnerability is a mod_ssl access control bypass (CVE-2019-0215), "a bug in mod_ssl when using per-location client certificate verification with TLSv1.3 allowed a client supporting Post-Handshake Authentication to bypass configured access control restrictions."
We have seen how previous disclosures of severe flaws in web application frameworks have resulted in PoC exploits being published within a day and exploitation in the wild, putting critical infrastructure as well as customers' data at risk.
Therefore, web hosting services, organizations managing their own servers and website administrators are strongly advised to upgrade their Apache HTTP instances to the latest versions as soon as possible.
| Vulnerability |
Dark Tequila Banking Malware Uncovered After 5 Years of Activity | https://thehackernews.com/2018/08/mexico-banking-malware.html | Security researchers at Kaspersky Labs have uncovered a new, complex malware campaign that has been targeting customers of several Mexican banking institutions since at least 2013.
Dubbed Dark Tequila, the campaign delivers an advanced keylogger malware that managed to stay under the radar for five years due to its highly targeted nature and a few evasion techniques.
Dark Tequila has primarily been designed to steal victims' financial information from a long list of online banking sites, as well as login credentials to popular websites, ranging from code versioning repositories to public file storage accounts and domain registrars.
The list of targeted sites includes "Cpanels, Plesk, online flight reservation systems, Microsoft Office 365, IBM Lotus Notes clients, Zimbra email, Bitbucket, Amazon, GoDaddy, Register, Namecheap, Dropbox, Softlayer, Rackspace, and other services," the researchers say in a blog post.
The malware gets delivered to the victims' computers in the first place either via spear-phishing or infected USB devices.
Once executed, a multi-stage payload infects the victim's computer only after certain conditions are met, which includes checking if the infected computer has any antivirus or security suite installed or is running in an analysis environment.
Besides this, "the threat actor behind it strictly monitors and controls all operations. If there is a casual infection, which is not in Mexico or is not of interest, the malware is uninstalled remotely from the victim's machine," the researchers say.
The Dark Tequila malware basically includes 6 primary modules, as follows:
1. C&C – This part of the malware manages communication between the infected computer and the command and control (C&C) server and also responsible for monitoring man-in-the-middle attacks to defend against malware analysis.
2. CleanUp – While performing evasion techniques, if the malware detects any 'suspicious' activity—like running on a virtual machine or debugging tools—it performs a full cleanup of the infected system, removing the persistence service as well as forensic evidence of its presence.
3. Keylogger – This module has been designed to monitor the system and logs keystrokes to steal login credentials for a preloaded list of websites—both banking as well as other popular sites.
4. Information Stealer – This password stealing module extracts saved passwords from email and FTP clients, as well as browsers.
5. The USB Infector – This module replicates itself and infects additional computers via USB drives. It copies an executable file to a removable drive that runs automatically when plugged to other systems.
6. Service Watchdog – This module is responsible for making sure that the malware is running properly.
According to the researchers, the Dark Tequila campaign is still active and can be deployed in any part of the world to attack any target "according to the interests of the threat actor behind it."
To protect yourself, you are recommended to always be vigilant of suspicious emails and keep a good antivirus solution to protect against such threats before they infect you or your network.
Most importantly, avoid connecting untrusted removable and USB devices to your computer, and consider disabling auto-run on USB devices.
| Malware |
Android Forums hacked, User Credentials Stolen | https://thehackernews.com/2012/07/android-forums-hacked-user-credentials.html | Phandroid's Android Forums Web site is hacked and user account details stolen, according to a notice posted online. The data includes the user names, e-mail addresses, hashed passwords, and registration IP addresses of the forums' more than 1 million users.
If you are one of them, you should change your password: go to your UserCP or use the Forgot your password?. Furthermore, if you use the same e-mail address and password combination elsewhere, you should change it there as well.
"I have some unfortunate news to pass along," the post reads. "Yesterday I was informed by our sever/developer team that the server hosting Androidforums.com was compromised and the website's database was accessed. While the breach is most likely harmless, there are important and potential pitfalls, and we want to provide as much helpful information to our users as possible (without getting too technical)."
Phandroid will continue to investigate what happened. The exploit used has been identified and resolved. All code that resides in the database and the file system has been thoroughly reviewed for malicious edits and uploads.
Recently, the social Q&A Web site Formspring said that it was the victim of a hack that yielded hashed passwords for around 420,000 of its users. Yahoo warned users of its Yahoo Voice service of a breach in which 400,000 plaintext passwords were stolen from the company and posted online.
| Vulnerability |
Watch Out! Zyxel Firewalls and VPNs Under Active Cyberattack | https://thehackernews.com/2021/06/watch-out-zyxel-firewalls-and-vpns.html | Taiwanese networking equipment company Zyxel is warning customers of an ongoing attack targeting a "small subset" of its security products such as firewall and VPN servers.
Attributing the attacks to a "sophisticated threat actor," the firm noted that the attacks single out appliances that have remote management or SSL VPN enabled, namely in the USG/ZyWALL, USG FLEX, ATP, and VPN series running on-premise ZLD firmware, implying that the targeted devices are publicly accessible over the internet.
"The threat actor attempts to access a device through WAN; if successful, they then bypass authentication and establish SSL VPN tunnels with unknown user accounts, such as 'zyxel_slIvpn', 'zyxel_ts', or 'zyxel_vpn_test', to manipulate the device's configuration," Zyxel said in an email message, which was shared on Twitter.
As of writing, it's not immediately known if the attacks are exploiting previously known vulnerabilities in Zyxel devices or if they leverage a zero-day flaw to breach the systems. Also unclear is the scale of the attack and the number of users affected.
To reduce the attack surface, the company is recommending customers to disable HTTP/HTTPS services from the WAN and implement a list of restricted geo-IP to enable remote access only from trusted locations.
Earlier this year, Zyxel patched a critical vulnerability in its firmware to remove a hard-coded user account "zyfwp" (CVE-2020-29583) that could be abused by an attacker to login with administrative privileges and compromise the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the device.
The development comes as enterprise VPNs and other network devices have become a top target of attackers in a series of campaigns aimed at finding new avenues into corporate networks, giving the threat actors the ability to laterally move across the network and gather sensitive intelligence for espionage and other financially-motivated operations.
| Cyber_Attack |
Newly Uncovered 'MoneyTaker' Hacker Group Stole Millions from U.S. & Russian Banks | https://thehackernews.com/2017/12/bank-hackers.html | Security researchers have uncovered a previously undetected group of Russian-speaking hackers that has silently been targeting Banks, financial institutions, and legal firms, primarily in the United States, UK, and Russia.
Moscow-based security firm Group-IB published a 36-page report on Monday, providing details about the newly-disclosed hacking group, dubbed MoneyTaker, which has been operating since at least May 2016.
In the past 18 months, the hacking group is believed to have conducted more than 20 attacks against various financial organisations—stolen more than $11 Million and sensitive documents that could be used for next attacks.
According to the security firm, the group has primarily been targeting card processing systems, including the AWS CBR (Russian Interbank System) and SWIFT international bank messaging service (United States).
"Criminals stole documentation for OceanSystems' FedLink card processing system, which is used by 200 banks in Latin America and the US." Group-IB says in its report.
Group-IB also warned that the MoneyTaker attacks against financial organizations appear to be ongoing and banks in Latin America could be their next target.
MoneyTaker: 1.5 Years of Silent Operations
Since its first successful attack in May last year, MoneyTaker has targeted banks in California, Illinois, Utah, Oklahoma, Colorado, South Carolina, Missouri, North Carolina, Virginia and Florida, primarily targeting small community banks with limited cyber defenses.
Even after a large number of attacks against so many targets, MoneyTaker group managed to keep their activities concealed and unattributed by using various publicly available penetration testing and hacking tools, including Metasploit, NirCmd, psexec, Mimikatz, Powershell Empire, and code demonstrated as proof-of-concepts at a Russian hacking conference in 2016.
"To propagate across the network, hackers used a legitimate tool psexec, which is typical for network administrators." Group-IB says in its report.
Besides using open-source tools, the group has also been heavily utilizing Citadel and Kronos banking trojans to deliver a Point-of-Sale (POS) malware, dubbed ScanPOS.
"Upon execution, ScanPOS grabs information about the current running processes and collects the user name and privileges on the infected system. That said, it is primarily designed to dump process memory and search for payment card track data. The Trojan checks any collected data using Luhn's algorithm for validation and then sends it outbound to the C&C server."
"The group uses 'fileless' malware only existing in RAM and is destroyed after reboot. To ensure persistence in the system MoneyTaker relies on PowerShell and VBS scripts - they are both difficult to detect by antivirus and easy to modify. In some cases, they have made changes to source code 'on the fly' – during the attack,"
"To escalate privileges up to the local administrator (or SYSTEM local user), attackers use exploit modules from the standard Metasploit pack, or exploits designed to bypass the UAC technology. With local administrator privileges they can use the Mimikatz program, which is loaded into the memory using Meterpreter, to extract unencrypted Windows credentials."
Moreover, MoneyTaker also makes use of SSL certificates generated using names of well-known brands—including as Bank of America, Microsoft, Yahoo and Federal Reserve Bank—to hide its malicious traffic.
The hacking group also configure their servers in a way that malicious payloads can only be delivered to a predetermined list of IP addresses belonging to the targeted company. Also, it relies on PowerShell and VBS scripts to ensure persistence in the targeted system.
The very first attack, which Group-IB attributes to MoneyTaker was conducted in May 2016, when the group managed to gain access to First Data's STAR—the largest U.S. bank transfer messaging system connecting ATMs at over 5,000 organizations—and stole money.
In January 2017, the similar attack was repeated against another bank.
Here's how the attack works:
"The scheme is extremely simple. After taking control over the bank's network, the attackers checked if they could connect to the card processing system. Following this, they legally opened or bought cards of the bank whose IT system they had hacked," Group-IB explains.
"Money mules – criminals who withdraw money from ATMs – with previously activated cards went abroad and waited for the operation to begin. After getting into the card processing system, the attackers removed or increased cash withdrawal limits for the cards held by the mules."
The money mules then removed overdraft limits, which made it possible for them to overdraw cash even with debit cards. Using these cards, they "withdrew cash from ATMs, one by one."
According to the report, the average money stolen by MoneyTaker from United States banks alone was about $500,000, and more than $3 million was stolen from at least three Russian banks.
The report also detailed an attack against a Russian bank, wherein the MoneyTaker group used a modular malware program to target the AWS CBR (Automated Work Station Client of the Russian Central Bank)—a Russian interbank fund transfer system similar to SWIFT.
The modular tool had capabilities to search for payment orders and modify them, replace original payment details with fraudulent ones, and carefully erase malware traces after completing its tasks.
While it is still unclear how MoneyTaker managed to get its foothold in the corporate network, in one specific case, the entry point of compromise of the bank's internal network was the home computer of the bank's system administrator.
Group-IB believes that the hackers are now looking for ways to compromise the SWIFT interbank communication system, although it found no evidence of MoneyTaker behind any of the recent cyber attacks on SWIFT systems.
| Malware |
Pakistan-linked hackers targeted Indian power company with ReverseRat | https://thehackernews.com/2021/06/pakistan-linked-hackers-targeted-indian.html | A threat actor with suspected ties to Pakistan has been striking government and energy organizations in the South and Central Asia regions to deploy a remote access trojan on compromised Windows systems, according to new research.
"Most of the organizations that exhibited signs of compromise were in India, and a small number were in Afghanistan," Lumen's Black Lotus Labs said in a Tuesday analysis. "The potentially compromised victims aligned with the government and power utility verticals."
Some of the victims include a foreign government organization, a power transmission organization, and a power generation and transmission organization. The covert operation is said to have begun at least in January 2021.
The intrusions are notable for a number of reasons, not least because in addition to its highly-targeted nature, the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) adopted by the adversary rely on repurposed open-source code and the use of compromised domains in the same country as the targeted entity to host their malicious files.
At the same time, the group has been careful to hide their activity by modifying the registry keys, granting them the ability to surreptitiously maintain persistence on the target device without attracting attention.
Explaining the multi-step infection chain, Lumen noted the campaign "resulted in the victim downloading two agents; one resided in-memory, while the second was side-loaded, granting threat actor persistence on the infected workstations."
The attack commences with a malicious link sent via phishing emails or messages that, when clicked, downloads a ZIP archive file containing a Microsoft shortcut file (.lnk) and a decoy PDF file from a compromised domain.
The shortcut file, besides displaying the benign document to the unsuspecting recipient, also takes care of stealthily fetching and running an HTA (HTML application) file from the same compromised website.
The lure documents largely describe events catering to India, disguising as a user manual for registering and booking an appointment for COVID-19 vaccine through the CoWIN online portal, while a few others masquerade as the Bombay Sappers, a regiment of the Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army.
Irrespective of the PDF document displayed to the victim, the HTA file — itself a JavaScript code based on a GitHub project called CactusTorch — is leveraged to inject a 32-bit shellcode into a running process to ultimately install a .NET backdoor called ReverseRat that runs the typical spyware gamut, with capabilities to capture screenshots, terminate processes, execute arbitrary executables, perform file operations, and upload data to a remote server.
The custom-developed framework also comes with a third component in which a second HTA file is downloaded from the same domain to deploy the open-source AllaKore remote agent, potentially in an alternative attempt to maintain access to the compromised network.
"While this threat actor's targets have thus far remained within the South and Central Asian regions, they have proven effective at gaining access to networks of interest," the researchers said. "Despite previously relying upon open-source frameworks such as AllaKore, the actor was able to remain effective and expand its capabilities with the development of the Svchostt agent and other components of the ReverseRat project."
| Malware |
Facebook profiles can be hijacked by Chrome extensions malware | https://thehackernews.com/2012/03/facebook-profiles-can-be-hijacked-by.html | Facebook profiles can be hijacked by Chrome extensions malware
Cybercriminals are uploading malicious Chrome browser extensions to the official Chrome Web Store and use them to hijack Facebook accounts, according to security researchers from Kaspersky Lab. The rogue extensions are advertised on Facebook by scammers and claim to allow changing the color of profile pages, tracking profile visitors or even removing social media viruses.
The attacks manifest as suggestions to download Facebook apps. Those apps are, alas, not real. Instead they are malware and, in one case, a malware-laden Chrome extension hosted in Google's very own Chrome Web Store. To do that, they must follow a series of steps, which include installing a fake Adobe Flash Player Chrome extension. The launchpad for the fake Flash Player is a Facebook app called "Aprenda". If Aprenda is installed it redirects users to Chrome Web Store, encouraging them to install the fake Flash extension.
"This last one caught our attention not because it asks the user to install a malicious extension, but because the malicious extension is hosted at the official Google's Chrome Web Store. If the user clicks on 'install application' he will be redirected to the official store. The malicious extension presents itself as "Adobe Flash Player", wrote Fabio Assolini. "Be careful when using Facebook. And think twice before installing a Google Chrome extension," he adds.
Uploading multiple rogue extensions on the Chrome Web Store and running several Facebook spam campaigns to advertise them allows attackers to quickly compromise thousands of accounts. The malware operates in much the same way as other Facebook scams, such as inviting friends to install it, however the purpose of the highjacking accounts is to generate fraudulent "Likes" which are sold for about US$27 per 1,000.
Now, the extension Assolini found was concentrated in Brazil, where Chrome enjoys 45% of the browser market and Facebook is by far the most popular social network. That does not, however, mean that the problem is isolated to Brazil. The malicious extension was installed in numerous countries, including the U.S..
With these potential security risks in mind, "Think twice before installing a Google Chrome extension".
| Malware |
Critical Flash Player Update to fix 11 Security Holes | https://thehackernews.com/2011/05/critical-flash-player-update-to-fix-11.html | Critical Flash Player Update to fix 11 Security Holes
Adobe has released another batch of security updates for its ubiquitous Flash Playersoftware. This "critical" patch fixes at least 11 vulnerabilities, including one that reports suggest is being exploited in targeted email attacks.
In the advisory that accompanies this update, Adobe said "there are reports of malware attempting to exploit one of the vulnerabilities, CVE-2011-0627, in the wild via a Flash (.swf) file embedded in aMicrosoft Word (.doc) or Microsoft Excel (.xls) file delivered as an email attachment targeting the Windows platform. However, to date, Adobe has not obtained a sample that successfully completes an attack."
The vulnerabilities exist in Flash versions 10.2.159.1 and earlier for Windows, Mac, Linuxand Solaris. To learn which version of Flash you have, visit this link. The new version for most platforms is 10.3.181.14; Android users should upgrade to Flash Player 10.3.185.21available by browsing to the Android Marketplace on an Android phone; Google appears to have updated Chrome users automatically with this version of Flash back on May 6 (Chrome versions 11.0.696.68 and later have the newest Flash version).
Remember that if you use Internet Explorer in addition to other browsers, you will need to apply this update twice: Once to install the Flash Active X plugin for IE, and again to update other browsers, such as Firefox and Opera. Updates are available by browsing with the appropriate browser to the Flash Player Download Center. Bear in mind that updating via the Download Center involves installing Adobe's Download Manager, which may try to foist additional software. If you'd prefer to update manually, the direct installers for Windows should be available at this link. If you run into problems installing this update, you'll want to uninstall previous versions of Flash Player and then try again.
Adobe says Flash Player 10.3 includes a new auto-update notification mechanism for the Macintosh platform, which should alert Mac users to new Flash updates (this feature has been available on the Windows platform for a while now).
Source : https://krebsonsecurity.com/
| Malware |
Hackers Are Using Android Malware To Spy On Israeli Military Personnel | https://thehackernews.com/2017/02/android-malware-israeli-military.html | A group of highly sophisticated state-sponsored hackers is spying on the Israeli military by hacking into the personal Android phones of individual soldiers to monitor their activities and steal data.
A newly released research by Lookout and Kaspersky suggests that more than 100 Israeli servicemen from the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) are believed to have been targeted with spyware.
Dubbed ViperRAT, the malware has specifically been designed to hijack Israeli soldiers' Android-based smartphones and remotely exfiltrate data of high value, including photos and audio recordings, directly from the compromised devices.
Modus Operandi Identified
According to the security firms, IDF personnel had been compromised by social engineering techniques — where the soldiers were lured via Facebook Messenger and other social networks into entering communications with hackers who posed as attractive women from various countries like Canada, Germany, and Switzerland.
The soldiers were then tricked into installing a trojanized version of two different, typically legitimate Android chat apps, SR Chat and YeeCall Pro, for easier communication.
The malware has also been distributed using a dropper hidden in other Android smartphone applications including a billiards game, an Israeli Love Songs player, and a Move To iOS app, which are common to Israeli citizens and available in the Google Play store.
The app then scanned soldiers' smartphones and downloaded another malicious application that masqueraded as an update for one of the already installed apps, such as WhatsApp, and tricked victims to allow various permissions in order to carry out surveillance.
This, in turn, allowed the attackers to execute on demand commands, enabling them to control phone's microphone and camera, eavesdrop on soldiers' conversations, and peer into live camera footage.
Besides this, the ViperRAT malware gathers a broad range of data from compromised devices including geolocation, call log, personal photos, SMS messages, cell phone tower information, network and device metadata, internet browsing, and app download history.
According to researchers, the hackers were able to successfully establish a widespread cyber espionage campaign by compromising dozens of mobile devices from Samsung, HTC, LG and Huawei belonging to over 100 Israeli soldiers.
Besides, almost 9,000 files stolen from compromised devices (roughly 97 percent) that were exfiltrated from compromised devices were identified by Lookout researchers as being highly encrypted images, which were taken using the device camera.
However, it's likely the IDF is not the only target.
The ViperRAT attack campaign started in July and continued to date, according to Kaspersky researchers.
Is Hamas Behind the Cyber-Spying Operation?
The IDF closely worked with Kaspersky Labs and Lookout to investigate this incident and theorized that Hamas was behind these attacks. However, Lookout researchers have come to doubt that theory.
According to Lookout researchers, "Based on tradecraft, the modular structure of code and use of cryptographic protocols [AES and RSA encryption] the actor appears to be quite sophisticated."
Researchers say Hamas is not known for sophisticated mobile capabilities, which makes it unlikely they are directly responsible for ViperRAT.
The IDF is currently working together with both Lookout and Kaspersky to identify infected targets and protect against further attacks, but there is one simple way to protect against ViperRAT: don't download apps from untrusted third-party sources.
| Malware |
Exfiltrating Data from Air-Gapped Computers Using Screen Brightness | https://thehackernews.com/2020/02/hacking-air-gapped-computers.html | It may sound creepy and unreal, but hackers can also exfiltrate sensitive data from your computer by simply changing the brightness of the screen, new cybersecurity research shared with The Hacker News revealed.
In recent years, several cybersecurity researchers demonstrated innovative ways to covertly exfiltrate data from a physically isolated air-gapped computer that can't connect wirelessly or physically with other computers or network devices.
These clever ideas rely on exploiting little-noticed emissions of a computer's components, such as light, sound, heat, radio frequencies, or ultrasonic waves, and even using the current fluctuations in the power lines.
For instance, potential attackers could sabotage supply chains to infect an air-gapped computer, but they can't always count on an insider to unknowingly carry a USB with the data back out of a targeted facility.
When it comes to high-value targets, these unusual techniques, which may sound theoretical and useless to many, could play an important role in exfiltrating sensitive data from an infected but air-gapped computer.
How Does the Brightness Air-Gapped Attack Work?
In his latest research with fellow academics, Mordechai Guri, the head of the cybersecurity research center at Israel's Ben Gurion University, devised a new covert optical channel using which attackers can steal data from air-gapped computers without requiring network connectivity or physically contacting the devices.
"This covert channel is invisible, and it works even while the user is working on the computer. Malware on a compromised computer can obtain sensitive data (e.g., files, images, encryption keys, and passwords), and modulate it within the screen brightness, invisible to users," the researchers said.
The fundamental idea behind encoding and decoding of data is similar to the previous cases, i.e., malware encodes the collected information as a stream of bytes and then modulate it as '1' and '0' signal.
In this case, the attacker uses small changes in the LCD screen brightness, which remains invisible to the naked eye, to covertly modulate binary information in morse-code like patterns
"In LCD screens each pixel presents a combination of RGB colors which produce the required compound color. In the proposed modulation, the RGB color component of each pixel is slightly changed."
"These changes are invisible, since they are relatively small and occur fast, up to the screen refresh rate. Moreover, the overall color change of the image on the screen is invisible to the user."
The attacker, on the other hand, can collect this data stream using video recording of the compromised computer's display, taken by a local surveillance camera, smartphone camera, or a webcam and can then reconstruct exfiltrated information using image processing techniques.
As shown in the video demonstration shared with The Hacker News, researchers infected an air-gapped computer with specialized malware that intercepts the screen buffer to modulate the data in ASK by modifying the brightness of the bitmap according to the current bit ('1' or '0').
You can find detailed technical information on this research in the paper [PDF] titled, 'BRIGHTNESS: Leaking Sensitive Data from Air-Gapped Workstations via Screen Brightness,' published yesterday by Mordechai Guri, Dima Bykhovsky and Yuval Elovici.
Air-Gapped Popular Data Exfiltration Techniques
It's not the first time Ben-Gurion researchers came up with a covert technique to target air-gapped computers. Their previous research of hacking air-gap machines include:
PowerHammer attack to exfiltrate data from air-gapped computers through power lines.
MOSQUITO technique using which two (or more) air-gapped PCs placed in the same room can covertly exchange data via ultrasonic waves.
BeatCoin technique that could let attackers steal private encryption keys from air-gapped cryptocurrency wallets.
aIR-Jumper attack that takes sensitive information from air-gapped computers with the help of infrared-equipped CCTV cameras that are used for night vision.
MAGNETO and ODINI techniques use CPU-generated magnetic fields as a covert channel between air-gapped systems and nearby smartphones.
USBee attack that can be used to steal data from air-gapped computers using radio frequency transmissions from USB connectors.
DiskFiltration attack that can steal data using sound signals emitted from the hard disk drive (HDD) of the targeted air-gapped computer;
BitWhisper that relies on heat exchange between two computer systems to stealthily siphon passwords or security keys;
AirHopper that turns a computer's video card into an FM transmitter to capture keystrokes;
Fansmitter technique that uses noise emitted by a computer fan to transmit data; and
GSMem attack that relies on cellular frequencies.
| Malware |
Hackers Stole 50 Million Facebook Users' Access Tokens Using Zero-Day Flaw | https://thehackernews.com/2018/09/facebook-account-hack.html | Logged out from your Facebook account automatically? Well you're not alone…
Facebook just admitted that an unknown hacker or a group of hackers exploited a zero-day vulnerability in its social media platform that allowed them to steal secret access tokens for more than 50 million accounts.
UPDATE: 10 Important Updates You Need To Know About the Latest Facebook Hacking Incident.
In a brief blog post published Friday, Facebook revealed that its security team discovered the attack three days ago (on 25 September) and they are still investigating the security incident.
The vulnerability, whose technical details has yet not been disclosed and now patched by Facebook, resided in the "View As" feature—an option that allows users to find out what other Facebook users would see if they visit your profile.
According to the social media giant, the vulnerability allowed hackers to steal secret access tokens that could then be used to directly access users' private information without requiring their original account password or validating two-factor authentication code.
Secret access tokens "are the equivalent of digital keys that keep people logged in to Facebook, so they don't need to re-enter their password every time they use the app."
To prevent its users' accounts, Facebook has already reset access tokens for nearly 50 million affected Facebook accounts and an additional 40 million accounts, as a precaution.
"We're taking this incredibly seriously and wanted to let everyone know what's happened and the immediate action we've taken to protect people's security," Facebook said.
"As a result, around 90 million people will now have to log back in to Facebook, or any of their apps that use Facebook Login. After they have logged back in, people will get a notification at the top of their News Feed explaining what happened."
The "View as" feature has also temporarily been disabled, at the time of writing. Facebook has also notified law enforcement officials of the security breach.
Since the investigation is still in the early stages, Facebook has yet to determine whether the attackers misused the stolen access tokens for 50 million accounts or if any information was accessed.
Facebook is already under heavy fire since the revelation that consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica had misused data of 87 million Facebook users to help Donald Trump win the US presidency in 2016.
The Cambridge Analytica scandal led to public outcry for lawmakers to hold Facebook accountable for its data-management practices, raising questions about whether Facebook can be trusted to protect the personal data of its 2 billion users.
And now, the recent revelation has once again underlines the failure of the social-media giant to protect its users' information while generating billions of dollars in revenue from the same information.
| Data_Breaches |
Cyber espionage by Chinese hackers in neighbouring nations is on the rise | https://thehackernews.com/2021/06/cyber-espionage-by-chinese-hackers-in.html | A string of cyber espionage campaigns dating all the way back to 2014 and likely focused on gathering defense information from neighbouring countries have been linked to a Chinese military-intelligence apparatus.
In a wide-ranging report published by Massachusetts-headquartered Recorded Future this week, the cybersecurity firm's Insikt Group said it identified ties between a group it tracks as "RedFoxtrot" to the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Unit 69010 operating out of Ürümqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the country.
Previously called the Lanzhou Military Region's Second Technical Reconnaissance Bureau, Unit 69010 is a military cover for a Technical Reconnaissance Bureau (TRB) within China's Strategic Support Force (SSF) Network Systems Department (NSD).
The connection to PLA Unit 69010 stems from what the researchers said were "lax operational security measures" adopted by an unnamed suspected RedFoxtrot threat actor, whose online persona disclosed the physical address of the reconnaissance bureau and has had a history of affiliating with the PLA's former Communications Command Academy in Wuhan.
RedFoxtrot is noted to target government, defense, and telecommunications sectors across Central Asia, India, and Pakistan, with intrusions in the last six months directed against three Indian aerospace and defense contractors as well as major telecommunications providers and government agencies in Afghanistan, India, Kazakhstan, and Pakistan.
"Activity over this period showed a particular focus on Indian targets, which occurred at a time of heightened border tensions between India and the People's Republic of China," the researchers said.
Attacks staged by the adversary involved an assortment of open- and closed-source tools that have been shared across Chinese cyber espionage groups, including PlugX, Royal Road RTF weaponizer, QUICKHEAL, PCShare, IceFog, and Poison Ivy RAT.
Also observed is the use of AXIOMATICASYMPTOTE infrastructure, which encompasses a modular Windows backdoor called ShadowPad that has been previously attributed to APT41 and subsequently shared between other Chinese state-backed actors.
Furthermore, domains registered by RedFoxtrot — "inbsnl.ddns[.]info" and "adtl.mywire[.]org" — suggest that the threat actor may have set its sights on Indian telecom service provider Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and a Bengaluru-based company called Alpha Design Technologies Limited (ADTL) that specializes in research and development of missile, radar, and satellite systems.
The development comes more than three months after another China-linked threat group, dubbed RedEcho, was uncovered targeting India's power grid, including a power plant run by National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Limited and New Delhi-based Power System Operation Corporation Limited.
| Malware |
Pakistan-linked hackers targeted Indian power company with ReverseRat | https://thehackernews.com/2021/06/pakistan-linked-hackers-targeted-indian.html | A threat actor with suspected ties to Pakistan has been striking government and energy organizations in the South and Central Asia regions to deploy a remote access trojan on compromised Windows systems, according to new research.
"Most of the organizations that exhibited signs of compromise were in India, and a small number were in Afghanistan," Lumen's Black Lotus Labs said in a Tuesday analysis. "The potentially compromised victims aligned with the government and power utility verticals."
Some of the victims include a foreign government organization, a power transmission organization, and a power generation and transmission organization. The covert operation is said to have begun at least in January 2021.
The intrusions are notable for a number of reasons, not least because in addition to its highly-targeted nature, the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) adopted by the adversary rely on repurposed open-source code and the use of compromised domains in the same country as the targeted entity to host their malicious files.
At the same time, the group has been careful to hide their activity by modifying the registry keys, granting them the ability to surreptitiously maintain persistence on the target device without attracting attention.
Explaining the multi-step infection chain, Lumen noted the campaign "resulted in the victim downloading two agents; one resided in-memory, while the second was side-loaded, granting threat actor persistence on the infected workstations."
The attack commences with a malicious link sent via phishing emails or messages that, when clicked, downloads a ZIP archive file containing a Microsoft shortcut file (.lnk) and a decoy PDF file from a compromised domain.
The shortcut file, besides displaying the benign document to the unsuspecting recipient, also takes care of stealthily fetching and running an HTA (HTML application) file from the same compromised website.
The lure documents largely describe events catering to India, disguising as a user manual for registering and booking an appointment for COVID-19 vaccine through the CoWIN online portal, while a few others masquerade as the Bombay Sappers, a regiment of the Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army.
Irrespective of the PDF document displayed to the victim, the HTA file — itself a JavaScript code based on a GitHub project called CactusTorch — is leveraged to inject a 32-bit shellcode into a running process to ultimately install a .NET backdoor called ReverseRat that runs the typical spyware gamut, with capabilities to capture screenshots, terminate processes, execute arbitrary executables, perform file operations, and upload data to a remote server.
The custom-developed framework also comes with a third component in which a second HTA file is downloaded from the same domain to deploy the open-source AllaKore remote agent, potentially in an alternative attempt to maintain access to the compromised network.
"While this threat actor's targets have thus far remained within the South and Central Asian regions, they have proven effective at gaining access to networks of interest," the researchers said. "Despite previously relying upon open-source frameworks such as AllaKore, the actor was able to remain effective and expand its capabilities with the development of the Svchostt agent and other components of the ReverseRat project."
| Cyber_Attack |
Balaji Plus Cloud Antivirus Released - Mix of 32 antivirus Engines for ultra Protection | https://thehackernews.com/2011/09/balaji-plus-cloud-antivirus-released.html | Balaji Plus Cloud Antivirus Released - Mix of 32 antivirus Engines for ultra Protection
Leo Impact Launch World first Antivirus scanning software which protects your PC from viruses, trojans, spyware, rootkits and other malicious programs (zero day exploits) by using 32+ antivirus on cloud. Most of time you can install and use only 2 to 3 antivirus in one system, not more so virus author bypass top antivirus but Balajiplus is Free service by Leo impact Security for Corporate Social Responsibility to protect your digital life using multiple antivirus scanners on cloud. Collective Intelligence, Balaji Antivirus Plus proprietary cloud-scanning technology that automatically collects and processes millions of malware samples, lies at the core of Balaji Cloud Antivirus. In recent comparative tests conducted by both AV-Test.org and AV-Comparatives.org, Balaji Antivirus Security's detection and protection scores rank consistently amongst the top security solutions.
Balajiplus Cloud scanner use following Latest 32+ antivirus engine
Ad-Adware
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ClamAV
COMODO Internet Security
Dr.Web
CA Internet Security
F-PROT Antivirus
F-Secure Internet Security
G Data InternetSecurity 2011
IKARUS Security Software
Kaspersky Internet Security
McAfee Total Protection
Microsoft Security Essentials
ESET NOD32 Antivirus
Norman Security Suite
Norton Internet Security
Panda Cloud Antivirus
Quick Heal
Rising AntiVirus 2011
SOLO ANTI-VIRUS
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| Malware |
Dukascopy: Forex Swiss Bank Vulnerable to SQL Injection | https://thehackernews.com/2011/07/dukascopy-forex-swiss-bank-vulnerable.html | Dukascopy: Forex Swiss Bank Vulnerable to SQL Injection
SQL Injection Vulnerability found in Dukascopy by zSecure Team. Dukascopy offers direct access to the Swiss Foreign Exchange Marketplace. This market provides the largest pool of ECN spot forex liquidity available for banks, hedge funds, other institutions and professional traders. To accommodate the existing banking relationships of it's clients, Dukascopy offers full Prime Broker capability with give up facility, by utilizing an extensive network of banking partners.
Dukascopy Bank provides access to the very first Decentralized Marketplace technology (SWFX – Swiss Forex Marketplace), combining the liquidity of clients, centralized marketplaces and a number of banks. Through its marketplace solution, the Swiss Forex Bank & Marketplace proposes to every client to act as liquidity consumer and/or liquidity provider. Dukascopy Bank provides a transparent and anonymous trading environment.
Proof Of Concept :
Content Removed because of Legal Issues....
| Vulnerability |
Hacking PayPal accounts to steal user Private data | https://thehackernews.com/2013/05/hacking-paypal-accounts-to-steal-users.html | If you're making a lot of money and you want to keep records of your transactions, then using PayPal's Reporting system you can effectively measure and manage your business.
Nir Goldshlager, founder of Breaksec and Security Researcher reported critical flaws in Paypal Reporting system that allowed him to steal private data of any PayPal account.
Exploiting the vulnerabilities he discovered, allowed him to access the financial information of any PayPal user including victim's shipping address Email addresses, Phone Number, Item name, Item Amount, Full name, Transaction ID, Invoice ID, Transaction, Subject, Account ID, Paypal Reference ID etc.
He found that PayPal is using the Actuate Iportal Application (a third party app) to display customer reports, so Nir downloaded the trial version of this app for testing purpose from its official website.
After going deeply through the source code of trial version, Nir located a file named getfolderitems.do that allowed him to access user's data without credentials.
Nir found that, Getfolderitems.do file having an ID parameter of 7-8 numeric characters which can be manipulated get the secret token id of respective user with same ID. i.e getfolderitems.do?id=392302.
After getting the secret token ID of victim's account, he use the folder parameter i.e getfolderitems.do?folder=/users/secretokenidoftheuser to access victim's private data, because Paypal blocked access to the users folder directly without token i.e getfolderitems.do?folder=/users/.
i.e URL : https://business.paypal.com/acweb/getfolderitems.do?folder=/users/tokenidofthevictim/ , where tokenidofthevictim is the secret token of the victim.
This flaw that has been exploited for demo purpose only, is now fixed by Security team of Paypal.
| Vulnerability |
Snowden used web crawler tool to access and download 1.7 million Secret NSA Files | https://thehackernews.com/2014/02/snowden-used-web-crawler-tool-to-access.html | National Security Agency (NSA) – the one that had ruled over the privacy of the entire world from countries to individuals, the one with master access to read anyone's data, intruded into large fiber networks, and can target anyone, at any time, at any place; but lapsed somewhere in protecting its own privacy and security of the confidential data.
If I am wrong, then from where did Snowden gets hold over roughly 1.7 million NSA's confidential files in sequence?
According to the Intelligence officials who has investigated the insider theft by Snowden, noticed that he had accessed all these documents using some 'web crawler', a freely available automated tool also known as spiders, which used to search, index and backup a website, "scraped data out of our systems" he said. "We do not believe this was an individual sitting at a machine and downloading this much material in sequence," he added.
He used the web crawler tool against NSA's internal network and 'probably he had also made use of the passwords of some colleagues or supervisor' in order to download every possible document available at NSA.
The above report was published yesterday by the New York Times and is really shocking because an Intelligence Agency whose job is to protect the Nation from sophisticated cyber attacks, itself failed to detect Snowden's "insider attack", who used a cheaper software to grab it all.
According to Luke Harding, a correspondent for The Guardian and the author of "The Snowden Files" book, "He was either very lucky or very strategic" and Mr. Snowden sought his job at Booz Allen because "to get access to a final tranche of documents," he needed "greater security privileges than he enjoyed in his position at Dell."
In a statement Snowden Said, "It's ironic that officials are giving classified information to journalists in an effort to discredit me for giving classified information to journalists. The difference is that I did so to inform the public about the government's actions, and they're doing so to misinform the public about mine."
Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency said, "Everything that he touched, we assume that he took," said General Flynn, including details of how the military track terrorists, of enemies' vulnerabilities and of American defenses against improvised explosive devices. "We assume the worst case." he said.
Earlier the Government warned that their systems were vulnerable to such attacks, when four years back Bradley Manning also used similar techniques i.e. 'wget' to download millions of Classified Military and State Department documents and forwarded them to WikiLeaks, but apparently the God-like powered agency took no lesson from such disclosure, is shocking.
| Cyber_Attack |
Almost Half A Million Delhi Citizens' Personal Data Exposed Online | https://thehackernews.com/2019/02/mongodb-delhi-database-leaked.html | Exclusive — A security researcher has identified an unsecured server that was leaking detailed personal details of nearly half a million Indian citizens... thanks to another MongoDB database instance that company left unprotected on the Internet accessible to anyone without password.
In a report shared with The Hacker News, Bob Diachenko disclosed that two days ago he found a 4.1 GB-sized highly sensitive database online, named "GNCTD," containing information collected on 458,388 individuals located in Delhi, including their Aadhaar numbers and voter ID numbers.
Though it's not clear if the exposed database is linked to the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD), Diachenko found that the database contains references and email addresses with "transerve.com" domain for users registered with "senior supervisor," and "super admin" designations.
Based upon the information available on Transerve Technologies website, it is a Goa-based company that specializes in smart city solutions and advanced data collection technology.
The company's data collector, precision mapping and location intelligence tool help businesses across various sectors and Governments agencies to utilize Geo-location data to make smart decisions intelligently.
The leaked database contains the following tables:
EB Users (14,861 records)
Households (102,863 records)
Individuals (458,388 records)
Registered Users (399 records)
Users (2,983 records)
Analyzed by Diachenko, one of the database tables containing registered users includes email addresses, hashed passwords and usernames for administrator access.
"The most detailed information contained in 'Individuals' collection which was basically a pretty detailed portrait of a person, incl. health conditions, education, etc.," Diachenko said.
"Households collection contained fields such as 'name', 'house no', 'floor number', 'geolocation', area details, 'email_ID' of a supervisor, 'is the household cooperating for survey' field, 'type of latrine', 'functional water meter', 'ration card number', 'internet facility available' and even 'informan name' field."
"It remains unknown just how long database was online and if anyone else accessed it," Diachenko said.
When Transerve didn't respond to the responsible disclosure sent via email, Diachenko contacted Indian CERT, which further coordinated with the company to take its exposed database offline immediately.
"The danger of having an exposed MongoDB or similar NoSQL databases is a huge risk. We have previously reported that the lack of authentication allowed the installation of malware or ransomware on thousands of MongoDB servers," Diachenko said.
"The public configuration allows the possibility of cybercriminals to manage the whole system with full administrative privileges. Once the malware is in place, criminals could remotely access the server resources and even launch a code execution to steal or completely destroy any saved data the server contains."
MongoDB is the most popular, open-source NoSQL database used by companies of all sizes, from eBay and Sourceforge to The New York Times and LinkedIn.
This isn't the first time when MongoDB instances are found exposed to the Internet. In recent years, we have published several reports where unprotected database servers have already exposed billions of records.
None of this is MongoDBs fault, as administrators are always advised to follow the security checklist provided by the MongoDB maintainers.
On older versions of MongoDB before version 2.6.0, the default configuration makes the database listening on a publicly accessible port, where admins are supposed to reconfigure it appropriately for online use, but, unfortunately, many don't.
| Data_Breaches |
ColdFusion Zero day vulnerability : Remote File Disclosure of Password Hashes | https://thehackernews.com/2012/01/coldfusion-zero-day-vulnerability.html | ColdFusion Zero day vulnerability : Remote File Disclosure of Password Hashes
Yesterday Blackhatacademy Released Fully automated MySQL5 boolean based enumeration tool. Today Another post expose the most critical ColdFusion vulnerability affects about a tenth of all ColdFusion servers at the present. It chains together multiple exploits, and it provides a 30 second window into the Administrator panel. The ColdFusion Administrator panel can then be used to write out a shell.
ColdFusion Markup Language is an interpreted language utilizing a Java backend. It allows direct access to Java via its cfscript tags, while simultaneously offering a simple web wrapper. It is vulnerable to a variety of attacks, but mainly LFD and SQLi. ColdFusion scripts are commonly run as an elevated user, such as NT-Authority\SYSTEM (Windows) or root (Linux), making them especially susceptible to web-based attacks.
Patching a ColdFusion instance from the LFD->Bypass->RCE exploit can only be done on ColdFusion 8. No other versions can be patched. That being said, the official Adobe patch can be downloaded here.
| Vulnerability |
14 Ways to Evade Botnet Malware Attacks On Your Computers | https://thehackernews.com/2019/12/botnet-malware-attacks.html | Cybercriminals are busy innovators, adapting their weapons and attack strategies, and ruthlessly roaming the web in search of their next big score.
Every manner of sensitive information, such as confidential employee records, customers' financial data, protected medical documents, and government files, are all subject to their relentless threats to cybersecurity.
Solutions span a broad spectrum, from training email users to ensuring a VPN kill switch is in place, to adding extensive advanced layers of network protection.
To successfully guard against severe threats from hackers, worm viruses to malware, such as botnet attacks, network managers need to use all tools and methods that fit well into a comprehensive cyber defense strategy.
Of all the menaces mentioned above to a website owner's peace of mind, botnets arguably present the most unsettling form of security risk. They're not the mere achievements of malicious amateur cybercriminals.
They're state-of-the-dark-art cyber-crafts. What's most rattling about them, perhaps, is their stealth, their ability to lurk around seeking vulnerabilities to exploit invisibly.
How Do Botnets Work?
Proliferating botnets is not one of the more straightforward strategic hacking weapons. Botnets are subtle data-extracting malware. They infiltrate networks, unauthorisedly access computers, and allow malware to continue operating without disruption for users, while they steal data and funnel it outside the victim network and into awaiting "botmasters," evading detection throughout the process.
What Can You Do to Stop Botnets?
The front line of cyber defense has got to be manned by people — real people working at their computers, doing their everyday tasks in the office.
The best defense against ever-evolving threats is to educate the users who are the perpetrators' prime targets. These particular front lines span the spectrum of web interactions, from email to social media.
It's recommended to implement a strategy that incorporates as many of the following approaches, from some basics to more sophisticated solutions, as practicable for your organization:
1. Be Sure Your VPN Has a Kill Switch in Place
A virtual private network (VPN) allows users to access confidential information by connecting to the VPN via the public network. Your VPN provider should have a VPN kill switch in place to keep sensitive data, such as your IP address, from inadvertently being transmitted through an unsecured connection.
2. Develop a Robust System to Capture and Block Fraudulent Emails
A business email compromise is such a common attack strategy that it has its own acronym, and the numbers of BEC scam incidents are continuously rising. This kind of attack is tough to defend against.
Solutions to BEC detection and elimination require effective classification and policies for blocking suspicious email senders, content, and attachments.
Install defensive gateway web tools such as WebSense, McAfee, to help block receipt of email from undesired sources and block requests from being sent out to addresses that are reputed to be possible sources of malware.
3. Build a Culture of Diligent Defense Against BEC
Social manipulation is reportedly among the most common methods criminals use to wage attacks on email accounts.
They've long figured out that clicking on email attachments is a reflex for many busy users. So, shore up the security of your system by:
Expecting users to open email attachments, even if your organization has an official policy, buried in a handbook somewhere—maybe about thinking before clicking and more prominently promote the policy.
Provide training and frequent updates to employees on their options for helping network security, for example, using strong passwords.
Teach users how to obtain help and to use real-time solutions to isolate and avoid the kinds of attacks that exploit network users.
Teach users to be diligent in reporting suspicious emails. Include examples of email attacks and simulations in your training, to help people learn to identify attacks, and provide extra support for users whose accounts appear to be the most vulnerable.
4. Switch to Manual Software Installation
It could be unpopular advice, but some organizations should disable the automatic installation of software via the AutoRun feature based on their threat landscape.
Disallowing AutoRun from automatically installing software can help prevent a computer's operating systems from indiscriminately launching unwanted commands from unknown external sources.
5. Enable the Windows Firewall
Installing the Windows firewall is fundamental for baseline protection against incoming security threats. Users may want to disable the Windows firewall to prevent it from blocking network connections they want to make.
If your networked computers have alternative adequate firewall protection, then it may be preferable or even necessary to disable the Windows firewall.
The critical point here is to have appropriately configured firewall protection in place.
6. Compartmentalize Within the Network
Consider network compartmentalization. In today's work environments, many, perhaps most, computer stations have to communicate with one other between departments, often many times daily.
However, limiting or eliminating that ability for machines that don't need that kind of broad access can go far in helping stop botnets from spreading throughout your network.
To the extent possible:
Minimize your network's risk by forming virtual local area networks (VLANs).
Use your access control list (ACL) filters to restrict access to objects and limit threat exposure.
7. Use Data Filtering
Botnet malware usually works by establishing interactions with at least one remote command-and-control server, which hackers also use to extract sensitive information illegally.
To block the malicious interactions and thwart the criminal activity, use data filtering on information exiting your network.
Some viable approaches include:
An egress content filtering tool can be applied, forcing the flow of your organization's web traffic through the filter and prevent information from exiting your organization's network.
A data loss prevention (DLP) solution can also be used to monitor unauthorized accesses and breaches, stopping them from leaking information.
8. Break Domain Trust Relationships
Eliminate password trusts to regain tighter control over your local accounts. Cautiously controlling your local administrator account is essential to cutting off threats and eradicating them.
Inactivating the automatic ability of computers to interconnect shuts off the route used by botnets to circulate through an internal network.
In networks, where some or many computers contain highly sensitive data, this can provide a secure alternative to defend against botnet attacks.
9. Employ Additional Layers of Prevention
Put additional layers of protection to help prevent botnets from ensconcing themselves in your system, focus on shoring up the network, for example, at specific points of contact that are especially vulnerable, such as routes from certain hardware or software components.
A couple of things to keep in mind:
Host-based intrusion detection systems are exceptionally efficient, but they're also expensive, and typically difficult to deploy successfully.
These tools cannot correct gaps or other existing technical deficiencies in an operating system.
10. Enhance and Increase Network Monitoring
Closely monitoring the network, information on how connected users are operating within an organization, arms network defense solutions significantly.
Having a deeper understanding of how everything and everyone is ordinarily interacting makes it much easier to detect unusual activity quickly when a botnet or other malware intrusion has begun.
Ideally, 24-hour monitoring of network activity should be the policy, employing data collection tools that detect anomalous behavior and block attempts to infiltrate the system.
Consider pricing remote cybersecurity services, to provide the extent and quality of network monitoring equipment and expertise that may be more than in-house IT facilities and/or staff alone can provide around the clock.
11. Control Network Accesses with Proxy Servers
Creating a supporting exit point through which Internet access can be monitored creates reinforcement for monitoring efforts. Routing outbound information through a proxy server can head off cybercriminals' attempts to circumvent your network security.
Filtering content through a proxy server is a practical option for most networks, although, of course, it may not be realistic to stop every bit of potentially problematic outbound information.
12. Apply the Least Privilege Principles
Generally speaking, access rights should be based on the needs of the users' functions. Having an administrator that is not the same person as the user of a particular workstation makes it much more difficult for malware to be spread by downloading.
It also makes it harder to use AutoRun tactics to exploit a system. It further makes it more challenging for perpetrators to spread malware from one infiltrated computer workstation to others by employing a user's network account credentials.
13. Monitor Responses to Domain Name System Queries
Maintain monitoring of workstations' queries to DNS servers is an excellent approach to identifying symptoms of botnet infiltration. For example, monitor for low time-to-live (TTL).
Unusually low TTL values can be an indicator of botnet penetration. By carefully monitoring for low TTL, your systems administrator can take action to counter the attack and eliminate botnets before the infestation spreads.
14. Stay Informed of Emergent Threats
Keep yourself and your IT team apprised of new local, national, and global cyber threats that begin sweeping across regions. For example, reportedly, the incidences of cybercriminals using URLs in emails to infiltrate internal networks were much higher than perpetrators' use of attachments.
More generally, a staggering percentage of the successful thefts of information from internal networks over the past year has been through the use of botnets.
Staying up to date with news on new and evolving cyber-threats is the first order of activity network management professionals must consistently maintain, to be effective in protecting an organization's system.
Going Forward More Securely
To protect the people who've trusted you with their sensitive personal information, protect your organization from liability, and protect your brand's reputation, you need to defend on all fronts.
Use the above and other strategies, methods, and tools for ensuring that you maintain an effective defense against cyber-attacks waged through email, mobile access points, social platforms, and any other media.
As mentioned, botnets now account for a vast percentage of cybercrime. Using the approaches discussed above can go far in helping construct a fortified cybersecurity framework that can be scaled for any network budget and size.
| Cyber_Attack |
Critical Code Injection Flaw In Gnome File Manager Leaves Linux Users Open to Hacking | https://thehackernews.com/2017/07/linux-gnome-vulnerability.html | A security researcher has discovered a code injection vulnerability in the thumbnail handler component of GNOME Files file manager that could allow hackers to execute malicious code on targeted Linux machines.
Dubbed Bad Taste, the vulnerability (CVE-2017-11421) was discovered by German researcher Nils Dagsson Moskopp, who also released proof-of-concept code on his blog to demonstrate the vulnerability.
The code injection vulnerability resides in "gnome-exe-thumbnailer" — a tool to generate thumbnails from Windows executable files (.exe/.msi/.dll/.lnk) for GNOME, which requires users to have Wine application installed on their systems to open it.
Those who are unaware, Wine is a free and open-source software that allows Windows applications to run on the Linux operating system.
Moskopp discovered that while navigating to a directory containing the .msi file, GNOME Files takes the filename as an executable input and run it in order to create an image thumbnail.
For successful exploitation of the vulnerability, an attacker can send a crafted Windows installer (MSI) file with malicious VBScript code in its filename, which if downloaded on a vulnerable system would compromise the machine without further user interaction.
"Instead of parsing an MSI file to get its version number, this code creates a script containing the filename for which a thumbnail should be shown and executes that using Wine," Moskopp explains while demonstrating his PoC.
"The script is constructed using a template, which makes it possible to embed VBScript in a filename and trigger its execution."
The flaw can be exploited by potential hackers using other attack vectors as well, for example, by directly inserting a USB-drive with a malicious file stored on it, or delivering the malicious file via drive-by-downloads.
How to Protect Yourself from Bad Taste
Moskopp reported the vulnerability to the GNOME Project and the Debian Project. Both of them patched the vulnerability in the gnome-exe-thumbnailer file.
The vulnerability affects gnome-exe-thumbnailer before 0.9.5 version. So, if you run a Linux OS with the GNOME desktop, check for updates immediately before you become affected by this critical vulnerability.
Meanwhile, Moskopp also advised users to:
Delete all files in /usr/share/thumbnailers.
Do not use GNOME Files.
Uninstall any software that facilitates automatically execution of filenames as code.
Moskopp also advised developers to not use "bug-ridden ad-hoc parsers" to parse files, to "fully recognise inputs before processing them," and to use unparsers, instead of templates.
| Vulnerability |
First Android Malware Found Exploiting Dirty COW Linux Flaw to Gain Root Privileges | https://thehackernews.com/2017/09/dirty-cow-android-malware.html | Nearly a year after the disclosure of the Dirty COW vulnerability that affected the Linux kernel, cybercriminals have started exploiting the vulnerability against Android users, researchers have warned.
Publicly disclosed last year in October, Dirty COW was present in a section of the Linux kernel—a part of virtually every Linux distribution, including Red Hat, Debian, and Ubuntu—for years and was actively exploited in the wild.
The vulnerability allows an unprivileged local attacker to gain root access through a race condition issue, gain access to read-only root-owned executable files, and permit remote attacks.
However, security researchers from Trend Micro published a blog post on Monday disclosing that the privilege escalation vulnerability (CVE-2016-5195), known as Dirty COW, has now been actively exploited by a malware sample of ZNIU, detected as AndroidOS_ZNIU.
This is the first time we have seen a malware sample to contain an exploit for the vulnerability designed to compromise devices running on the mobile platform.
This Dirty Cow Exploit found in Over 1,200 Android Apps
The malware uses the Dirty COW exploit to root Android devices via the copy-on-write (COW) mechanism in Android's Linux kernel and install a backdoor which can then be used by attackers to collect data and generate profit through a premium rate phone number.
Trend Micro researchers detected the ZNIU malware in more than 1,200 malicious Android apps—some of which disguised themselves as pornography and gaming apps—alongside host websites containing malware rootkits that exploit Dirty Cow.
While the Dirty Cow flaw impacts all versions of the Android operating system, the ZNIU's Dirty Cow exploit only affects Android devices with ARM/X86 64-bit architecture. However, the recent exploit can be used to bypass SELinux and plant backdoors.
"We monitored six ZNIU rootkits, four of which were Dirty COW exploits. The other two were KingoRoot, a rooting app, and the Iovyroot exploit (CVE-2015-1805)," the researchers said.
"ZNIU used KingoRoot and Iovyroot because they can root ARM 32-bit CPU devices, which the rootkit for Dirty COW cannot."
Here's How the ZNIU's Dirty Cow exploit Works
Once downloaded and installed, the ZNIU malware-carrying app communicates with its command-and-control (C&C) server to check for code updates, while simultaneously the Dirty Cow exploit provides local privilege escalation to gain root access on the device, bypass system restrictions and "plant a backdoor for potential remote control attacks in the future."
The malware also harvests the carrier information of the user and attempts to send payments via premium SMS messages that were directed to a dummy company in China.
Once the SMS transaction is over, the malware also deletes the messages from the device in order to erase evidence of any compromise.
The researchers found the malware has already infected more than 5,000 Android users across 40 countries in recent weeks, with the majority of victims found in China and India, while other resides in the United States, Japan, Canada, Germany and Indonesia.
Google has released an update for Android that, among other fixes, officially fixes the Dirty COW vulnerability. The tech giant also confirmed that its Play Protect now protects Android users against this malware.
The easiest way to prevent yourself from being targeted by such clever malware is to avoid downloading apps from third-party sources and always stick to the official Google Play Store.
| Malware |
Subsets and Splits