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Hacker Who Hacked US Spy Chief, FBI & CIA Director Gets 5-Year in Prison | https://thehackernews.com/2017/09/crackas-with-attitude-hackers.html | Remember "Crackas With Attitude"?
The hacking group behind a series of embarrassing hacks that targeted personal email accounts of senior officials at the FBI, the CIA, and the White House, among other United States federal agencies in 2015.
A member of Crackas With Attitude, who was arrested last year in September, has now been sentenced to five years in federal prison.
Justin Liverman, a 25-year-old man from Morehead City, who was known under the online alias "D3F4ULT," was arrested last year along with another member of the group—Andrew Otto Boggs, 23, of North Wilkesboro, who allegedly used the handle "INCURSIO."
The duo hacked into multiple government organizations between October 2015 and February 2016. Boggs was sentenced to two years in prison on June 30, 2017, for his role.
Liverman pleaded guilty on January 6 this year to conspiracy to hack U.S. government computers and accounts and was sentenced to 5 years in prison on Friday. He will also be forced to pay $145,000 in restitution.
According to the plea agreement, "beginning in November 2015, Liverman conspired to attempt to intimidate and harass U.S. officials and their families by gaining unauthorized access to victims' online accounts, among other things."
"Liverman publicly posted online documents and personal information unlawfully obtained from a victim's personal account; sent threatening text messages to the same victim's cellphone; and paid an unlawful 'phonebombing' service to call the victim repeatedly with a threatening message," U.S. prosecutors in the Eastern District Court of Virginia said.
Crackas With Attitude targeted more than ten U.S. government officials including the following and caused more than $1.5 million in losses to victims:
Hacked into the AOL email of former CIA director John Brennan and released personal details.
Hacked into the personal emails and phone accounts of the former US spy chief James Clapper.
Broke into the AOL email of the Ex FBI Deputy Director Mark Giuliano.
The hacking group also leaked the personal details of 31,000 government agents belonging to almost 20,000 FBI agents, 9,000 Department of Homeland Security officers, and some number of DoJ staffers.
According to the federal officials, the hacking group used social engineering to trick victims into revealing their account numbers, passwords, and other sensitive details, using which they gained access to their accounts.
However, a 17-year-old British teenager, who is known as CRACKA and the leader of the "Crackas With Attitude" hacking group, is actually responsible for carrying out the above attacks. His prosecution is still ongoing in the United Kingdom.
| Cyber_Attack |
Google App Engine — More than 30 Vulnerabilities Discovered | https://thehackernews.com/2014/12/google-app-engine-hosting-security.html | Security researchers have discovered a number of critical vulnerabilities in the Java environment of the Google App Engine (GAE) that enables attackers to bypass critical security sandbox defenses.
Google App Engine is Google's PaaS (Platform as a Service) Cloud computing Platform for developing and hosting web applications in Google-managed data centers. GAE offers to run custom-built programs using a wide variety of popular languages and frameworks, out of which many are built on the Java environment.
The vulnerabilities was reported by Security Explorations, the same security research company that carried out multiple researches related to Java in past. The discovery was announced on the Full Disclosure security mailing list by Adam Gowdiak, founder and CEO of Security Explorations.
According to the security firm, the flaws can be exploited by attackers to achieve a complete Java VM security sandbox escape, as well as to execute an arbitrary code. The researchers estimate that the number of issues is "30+ in total."
By exploiting the vulnerabilities, security researchers were able to bypass Google App Engine whitelisting of JRE Classes and gain access to full JRE (Java Runtime Environment). They discovered 22 full Java VM security sandbox escape issues and were able to exploit 17 of them successfully.
Moreover, the researchers were able to execute native code, specifically to issue arbitrary library/system calls and to gain access to the files (binary/classes) comprising the JRE sandbox. They even siphoned off DWARF information from binary files, PROTOBUF definitions from Java classes and PROTOBUF definition from binary files among others.
However, the researchers have been unable to finish their research because Google suspended their test Google App Engine account.
"Unfortunately, we cannot complete our work due to the suspension of the "test" GAE account that took place today," Gowdiak wrote. "Without any doubt this is an opsec failure on our end (this week we did poke a little bit more aggressively around the underlying OS sandbox / issued various system calls in order to learn more about the nature of the error code 202, the sandbox itself, etc.)."
As Google has generally been supportive and helpful to the security research community, Researchers at the security firm believes that Google will allow them to complete their research and re-enable their Google App Engine account.
| Vulnerability |
To Protect Your Devices, A Hacker Wants to Hack You Before Someone Else Does | https://thehackernews.com/2017/04/vigilante-hacker-iot-botnet.html | It should be noted that hacking a system for unauthorised access that does not belong to you is an illegal practice, no matter what's the actual intention behind it.
Now I am pointing out this because reportedly someone, who has been labeled as a 'vigilante hacker' by media, is hacking into vulnerable 'Internet of Things' devices in order to supposedly secure them.
This is not the first time when any hacker has shown vigilance, as we have seen lots of previous incidents in which hackers have used malware to compromise thousands of devices, but instead of hacking them, they forced owners to make them secure.
Dubbed Hajime, the latest IoT botnet malware, used by the hacker, has already infected at least 10,000 home routers, Internet-connected cameras, and other smart devices.
But reportedly, it's an attempt to wrestle their control from Mirai and other malicious threats.
Mirai is an IoT botnet that threatened the Internet last year with record-setting distributed denial-of-service attacks against the popular DNS provider Dyn last October. The botnet designed to scan for IoT devices that are still using default passwords.
How the Hajime IoT Botnet Works
Hajime botnet works much like Mirai — it spreads via unsecured IoT devices that have open Telnet ports and uses default passwords — and also uses the same list of username and password combinations that Mirai botnet is programmed to use, with the addition of two more.
However, what's interesting about Hajime botnet is that, unlike Mirai, it secures the target devices by blocking access to four ports (23, 7547, 5555, and 5358) known to be vectors used to attack many IoT devices, making Mirai or other threats out of their bay.
Unlike Mirai, Hajime uses a decentralized peer-to-peer network (instead of command and control server) to issue commands and updates to infected devices, which makes it more difficult for ISPs and Internet backbone providers to take down the botnet.
Hajime botnet also takes steps to hide its running processes and files on the file system, making the detection of infected systems more difficult.
Besides this, Hajime botnet also lacks DDoS capabilities or any other hacking code except for the propagation code that lets one infected device search for other vulnerable devices and infects them.
One of the most interesting things about Hajime: the botnet displays a cryptographically signed message every 10 minutes or so on terminals. The message reads:
Just a white hat, securing some systems.
Important messages will be signed like this!
Hajime Author.
Contact CLOSED Stay sharp!
There's Nothing to Get Excited
No doubt, there's a temptation to applaud Hajime, but until users don't reboot their hacked devices.
Since Hajime has no persistence mechanism, which gets loaded into the devices' RAM, once the IoT device is rebooted, it goes back to its unsecured state, complete with default passwords and the Telnet port open to the world.
"One day a device may belong to the Mirai botnet, after the next reboot it could belong to Hajime, then the next any of the many other IoT malware/worms that are out there scanning for devices with hard coded passwords. This cycle will continue with each reboot until the device is updated with a newer, more secure firmware," the Symantec researchers explained.
There's another problem...
Hacking someone to prevent hacking is not a thing, that's why we are also concerned about a related amendment passed by the United States — Rule 41 — which grants the FBI much greater powers to legally break into computers belonging to any country, take data, and engage in remote surveillance.
So, the most concerning issue of all — Is there any guarantee that the author of Hajime will not add attack capabilities to the worm to use the hijacked devices for malicious purposes?
| Cyber_Attack |
IT Firm Manager Arrested in the Biggest Data Breach Case of Ecuador's History | https://thehackernews.com/2019/09/ecuador-data-breach.html | Ecuador officials have arrested the general manager of IT consulting firm Novaestrat after the personal details of almost the entire population of the Republic of Ecuador left exposed online in what seems to be the most significant data breach in the country's history.
Personal records of more than 20 million adults and children, both dead and alive, were found publicly exposed on an unsecured Elasticsearch server by security firm vpnMentor, which made the discovery during its large-scale mapping project.
For a country with a population of over 16 million people, the breach exposed details of almost every Ecuadorian citizen, including President Lenín Moreno as well as WikiLeaks CEO Julian Assange, who was given political asylum in the country in 2012.
The unsecured Elasticsearch server, which was based in Miami and owned by Ecuadorian company Novaestrat, contained 18GB cache of data appeared to have come from a variety of sources including government registries, an automotive association called Aeade, and an Ecuadorian national bank called Biess.
Data Breach Exposes Personal Data of Almost Entire Ecuador Population
The cache reportedly contained everything from full names, gender, dates and places of birth, phone numbers and addresses, to marital statuses, national identification numbers (similar to social security numbers), employment information, and details of education.
The cache also contained specific financial information related information to accounts held with the Ecuadorian national bank Biess, including person's bank account statuses, current balances and credit type, along with detailed information about individuals' family members.
vpnMentor notified the Ecuadorian Computer Incident Response Center (EcuCERT) of the breach, who then immediately informed Novaestrat, the online data consulting firm in the city of Esmeraldas who owned the unsecured server, which was later taken offline on September 11.
Authorities Investigating Company Allegedly Responsible for the Leak
As part of the investigation, Ecuadorian officials also said in a statement on Tuesday that they had arrested the manager of Novaestrat identified as William Roberto G and seized electronic equipment, computers, storage devices, and documentation during a raid at his home.
Roberto has been taken to the Ecuadorian capital, Quito, by the authorities for questioning and may face criminal charges.
Also, given the privacy concerns surrounding the incident, the country's Minister of Telecommunications said legal actions would be taken against the affected institutions to sanction private companies responsible for violating privacy and publicizing personal information without authorization.
The Minister of Telecommunications also said it is planning to pass a new data privacy law in the country, which they have been working for the past eight months, to protect the personal data of its citizens.
This is not the first time when the country has suffered a significant data security breach.
In 2016, hackers managed to steal $12 million from an Ecuadorian bank, Banco del Austro (BDA), by breaching its Swift payment system.
However, the latest Ecuador's breach recalled Bulgaria history's biggest data breach that took place on July 2019 and exposed personal and financial information of 5 million adult Bulgarian citizens out of its total population of 7 million people—that's over 70% of the country's population.
| Data_Breaches |
Critical SaltStack RCE Bug (CVSS Score 10) Affects Thousands of Data Centers | https://thehackernews.com/2020/05/saltstack-rce-vulnerability.html | Two severe security flaws have been discovered in the open-source SaltStack Salt configuration framework that could allow an adversary to execute arbitrary code on remote servers deployed in data centers and cloud environments.
The vulnerabilities were identified by F-Secure researchers earlier this March and disclosed on Thursday, a day after SaltStack released a patch (version 3000.2) addressing the issues, rated with CVSS score 10.
"The vulnerabilities, allocated CVE IDs CVE-2020-11651 and CVE-2020-11652, are of two different classes," the cybersecurity firm said.
"One being authentication bypass where functionality was unintentionally exposed to unauthenticated network clients, the other being directory traversal where untrusted input (i.e., parameters in network requests) was not sanitized correctly allowing unconstrained access to the entire filesystem of the master server."
The researchers warned that the flaws could be exploited in the wild imminently. SaltStack is also urging users to follow the best practices to secure the Salt environment.
Vulnerabilities in ZeroMQ Protocol
Salt is a powerful Python-based automation and remote execution engine that's designed to allow users to issue commands to multiple machines directly.
Built as a utility to monitor and update the state of servers, Salt employs a master-slave architecture that automates the process of pushing out configuration and software updates from a central repository using a "master" node that deploys the changes to a target group of "minions" (e.g., servers) en masse.
The communication between a master and minion occurs over the ZeroMQ message bus. Additionally, the master uses two ZeroMQ channels, a "request server" to which minions report the execution results and a "publish server," where the master publishes messages that the minions can connect and subscribe to.
According to F-Secure researchers, the pair of flaws reside within the tool's ZeroMQ protocol.
"The vulnerabilities described in this advisory allow an attacker who can connect to the 'request server' port to bypass all authentication and authorization controls and publish arbitrary control messages, read and write files anywhere on the 'master' server filesystem and steal the secret key used to authenticate to the master as root," the researchers said.
"The impact is full remote command execution as root on both the master and all minions that connect to it."
In other words, an attacker can exploit the flaws to call administrative commands on the master server as well as queue messages directly on the master publish server, thereby allowing the salt minions to run malicious commands.
What's more, a directory traversal vulnerability identified in the wheel module — which has functions to read and write files to specific locations — can permit reading of files outside of the intended directory due to a failure to properly sanitize file paths.
Detecting Vulnerable Salt Masters
F-Secure researchers said an initial scan revealed more than 6,000 vulnerable Salt instances exposed to the public internet.
Detecting possible attacks against susceptible masters, therefore, entails auditing published messages to minions for any malicious content. "Exploitation of the authentication vulnerabilities will result in the ASCII strings "_prep_auth_info" or "_send_pub" appearing in data sent to the request server port (default 4506)," it added.
It's highly recommended that Salt users update the software packages to the latest version.
"Adding network security controls that restrict access to the salt master (ports 4505 and 4506 being the defaults) to known minions, or at least block the wider Internet, would also be prudent as the authentication and authorization controls provided by Salt are not currently robust enough to be exposed to hostile networks," the researchers said.
| Vulnerability |
vBulletin Forum hacked with Zero Day vulnerability, caused Macrumors Forum Data breach | https://thehackernews.com/2013/11/vBulletin-hacked-Zero-Day-vulnerability.html | Last Tuesday, Popular Mac news website MacRumors's user forums was hacked and forum database has been compromised including the username, email and passwords belonging to all 860,000 registered users.
Yesterday, Inj3ct0r Team of Exploit Database website 1337Day claimed the responsibility for the hack and also claimed that they have also hacked the official website of vBulletin Forum using a Zero Day exploit.
"Macrumors.com was based on vBulletin CMS. We use our 0day exploit vBulletin, got password moderator. 860000 user data hacked too. The network security is a myth" he told me.
During the conversation, team leader told me that he has discovered a Zero Day Remote Code Execution vulnerability in vBulletin v4.x.x and 5.х.x, that allows an attacker to execute arbitrary code on the server end remotely.
On their exploit marketplace they are also selling this zero day exploit with Shell Upload payload at $7000 USD. "We found a critical vulnerability in all vBulletin versions 4.x.x and 5.х.x. We have successfully uploaded our shell on the official vbulletin server and dumped their database after getting root access. All those wishing to buy this vulnerability and patch their forums can get the exploit from our site." he added.
For proof of concept, they have shared some screenshots of vBulletin database and server shell, as shown below:
The official vBulletin team also admitted the breach and issued a warning note via e-mail and company forum post, urged customers to change their passwords as soon as possible.
"Very recently, our security team discovered sophisticated attacks on our network, involving the illegal access of forum user information, possibly including your password."
However, if somehow credentials are compromised of such forums or sites, many people use the same passwords for their other accounts, which provides the attacker with a much easier way to compromising the highest value targets. So always, please use different passwords for different websites.
Update : World biggest Hacking Conference DEF CON forum also goes down because of the vBulletin zero day exploit in the wild.
"We have disabled the forums until there is resolution on a possible vulnerability. Once we have a fix/patch installed, we'll re-open service. Thanks! Sorry about the down-time."
| Vulnerability |
Ransomware Virus Shuts Down Electric and Water Utility | https://thehackernews.com/2016/04/power-ransomware-attack.html | Ransomware has become an albatross around the neck, targeting businesses, hospitals, and personal computers worldwide and extorting Millions of Dollars.
Typical Ransomware targets victim's computer encrypts files on it, and then demands a ransom -- typically about $500 in Bitcoin -- in exchange for a key that will decrypt the files.
Guess what could be the next target of ransomware malware?
Everything that is connected to the Internet.
There is a huge range of potential targets, from the pacemaker to cars to Internet of the Things, that may provide an opportunity for cybercriminals to launch ransomware attacks.
Recently, the American public utility Lansing Board of Water & Light (BWL) has announced that the company has become a victim of Ransomware attack that knocked the utility's internal computer systems offline.
Also Read: FBI Suggests Ransomware Victims — 'Just Pay the Ransom'.
The attack took place earlier this week when one of the company's employees opened a malicious email attachment.
Once clicked, the malware installed on the computer and quickly began encrypting the organization's files, according to the Lansing State Journal.
BWL quickly decided to shut down its networks and suspend some services, including accounting and email service for its about 250 employees, in order to prevent further damages. Power and water shut-offs by BWL was also suspended.
Though the ransomware type is still unknown, the utility is currently working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and local law enforcement authorities to investigate the incident.
The company assured its 96,000 customers that no personal information related to its customers or employees has been compromised by the ransomware intrusion into the corporate computer network.
However, it is not yet clear whether the utility paid the Ransom in exchange of its data. The company said law enforcement has limited it from discussing the issue in public, at least for now.
| Cyber_Attack |
Paunch, the author of Blackhole Exploit kit arrested in Russia | https://thehackernews.com/2013/10/paunch-author-of-blackhole-exploit-kit.html | According to a Security Analyst 'Maarten Boone' working at Fox-IT company, the Developer of notorious Blackhole Exploit Kit developer 'Paunch' and his partners were arrested in Russia recently.
Blackhole Exploit Kit which is responsible for the majority of web attacks today, is a crimeware that makes it simple for just about anyone to build a botnet.
This Malware kit was developed by a hacker who uses the nickname "Paunch" and his Team, has gained wide adoption and is currently one of the most common exploit frameworks used for Web-based malware delivery.
The Blackhole exploit kit is a framework for delivering exploits via compromised or third-party websites, serve up a range of old and new exploits for Oracle's Java, Adobe's Flash and other popular software to take control of victim's machines.
It the point of writing No Police Authority or Press has confirmed the claim made by Maarten about the arrest of Malware author. Please Stay tuned to THN for updates about the Story.
In April, 2013 - Russian hackers and developers behind the Carberp botnet, that stole millions from bank accounts worldwide were also arrested.
| Malware |
18-Year-Old Hacker Gets 3 Years in Prison for Massive Twitter 'Bitcoin Scam' Hack | https://thehackernews.com/2021/03/18-year-old-hacker-gets-3-years-in.html | A Florida teen accused of masterminding the hacks of several high-profile Twitter accounts last summer as part of a widespread cryptocurrency scam pled guilty to fraud charges in exchange for a three-year prison sentence.
Graham Ivan Clark, 18, will also serve an additional three years on probation.
The development comes after the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) charged Mason Sheppard (aka Chaewon), Nima Fazeli (aka Rolex), and Clark (then a juvenile) with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.
Specifically, 30 felony charges were filed against Clark, including one count of organized fraud, 17 counts of communications fraud, one count of fraudulent use of personal information with over $100,000 or 30 or more victims, 10 counts of fraudulent use of personal information, and one count of access to computer or electronic device without authority.
On July 15, 2020, Twitter suffered one of the biggest security lapses in its history after the attackers managed to hijack nearly 130 high-profile Twitter accounts pertaining to politicians, celebrities, and musicians, including that of Barack Obama, Kanye West, Joe Biden, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, Uber, and Apple.
The broadly targeted hack posted similarly worded messages urging millions of followers of each profile to send money to a specific bitcoin wallet address in return for larger payback. The scheme netted about $117,000 in bitcoin before it was shut down.
Subsequent investigation into the incident revealed that Clark and the other attackers seized the accounts after stealing Twitter employees' credentials through a successful phone spear-phishing attack, subsequently using them to gain access to the company's internal network and account support tools, change user account settings, and take over control.
"By obtaining employee credentials, they were able to target specific employees who had access to our account support tools. They then targeted 130 Twitter accounts - Tweeting from 45, accessing the DM inbox of 36, and downloading the Twitter Data of 7," the company said on July 31.
Additionally, the three individuals attempted to monetize this entrenched access by selling the hijacked accounts on OGUsers, a forum notorious for peddling access to social media and other online accounts.
In light of the hacks, Twitter said it's making security improvements aimed at detecting and preventing inappropriate access to its internal systems, which were used by more than 1,000 employees and contractors as of early 2020.
"He took over the accounts of famous people, but the money he stole came from regular, hard-working people," Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren said in a statement. "Graham Clark needs to be held accountable for that crime, and other potential scammers out there need to see the consequences."
"In this case, we've been able to deliver those consequences while recognizing that our goal with any child, whenever possible, is to have them learn their lesson without destroying their future."
| Cyber_Attack |
Windows Error Crash Reports or Treasure of Zero-Day vulnerabilities for NSA? | https://thehackernews.com/2014/01/windows-error-crash-reports-or-treasure.html | I am sure that you all have been familiar with the above shown annoying Window Operating System error messages that many times pop ups on your screen while working on the system in case of process failure i.e. "The system has recovered from a serious error. A log of this error has been created. Please tell Microsoft about this problem"
The message that prompts ask the user to report the problem to Microsoft followed by the options to Send an error report or Not send. Most of the time Gentle users like you and me used to submit these error reports to aware the Microsoft about the problem. But What if these crash reports can be abused to identify the vulnerabilities of your system for Spying?
NSA is intercepting wide range of Internet Traffic including many Encrypted connections and naturally unencrypted also and surprisingly, by default Microsoft encrypts its reports, but the messages are transmitted unencrypted or over standard HTTP connections to watson.microsoft.com.
The latest revelations from the Snowden document leaks revealed by the German publication Der Spiegel described how the NSA's secret hacking unit called Tailored Access Operations Unit, or TAO Unit, breaking into a windows computer by gaining passive access to machines.
Der Spiegel's explains:
The automated crash reports are a "neat way" to gain "passive access" to a machine, the presentation continues. Passive access means that, initially, the only data the computer sends out into the Internet is captured and saved, but the computer itself is not yet manipulated. Still, even this passive access to error messages provides valuable insights into problems with a targeted person's computer and, thus, information on security holes that might be exploitable for planting malware or spyware on the unwitting victim's computer.
Microsoft has Windows Error Reporting (a.k.a. Dr. Watson) technology from Windows XP to later versions. Windows crash reports give up all kinds of information about your system, allowing them to know what software is installed on your PC, respective versions and whether the programs or OS have been patched.
Websense Security Firm observed the Windows Error Reporting system and find that it sends out its crash logs in the clear text:
This information includes:
Date
USB Device Manufacturer
USB Device Identifier
USB Device Revision
Host computer - default language
Host computer - Operating system, service pack and update version
Host computer - Manufacturer, model and name
Host computer - Bios version and unique machine identifier
Why should we care about this? Because System or application Crashes signal about various possible Zero-day vulnerabilities that could be exploited and this is the exact information that the NSA or anyone else needs when tailoring a specific attack against your system, or when designing some kind of malware to infect it.
Der Spiegel also added:
When TAO selects a computer somewhere in the world as a target and enters its unique identifiers (an IP address, for example) into the corresponding database, intelligence agents are then automatically notified any time the operating system of that computer crashes and its user receives the prompt to report the problem to Microsoft. An internal presentation suggests it is NSA's powerful XKeyscore spying tool that is used to fish these crash reports out of the massive sea of Internet traffic.
A Microsoft spokesperson asked to comment on the reports said, "Microsoft does not provide any government with direct or unfettered access to our customer's data. We would have significant concerns if the allegations about government actions are true."
Websense also recommends that Error report data should be encrypted with SSL at a minimum, ideally using TLS 1.2 in order to prevent it from NSA snooping. Alexander Watson, director of security research, Websense, will be presenting advanced findings related to this research at the 2014 RSA Conference in San Francisco.
How To Disable Error Reporting:
If you want to disable Windows Error Reporting, open Control Panel and search for "Problem reporting settings". Open that option and Select "Never check for solutions." However Microsoft does not recommend users do so, but it's your choice, neither it harms your system.
| Vulnerability |
Warning — Widely Popular ImageMagick Tool Vulnerable to Remote Code Execution | https://thehackernews.com/2016/05/imagemagick-exploit-hack.html | A serious zero-day vulnerability has been discovered in ImageMagick, a widely popular software tool used by a large number of websites to process user's photos, which could allow hackers to execute malicious code remotely on servers.
ImageMagick is an open-source image processing library that lets users resize, scale, crop, watermarking and tweak images.
The ImageMagick tool is supported by many programming languages, including Perl, C++, PHP, Python, Ruby and is being deployed by Millions of websites, blogs, social media platforms, and popular content management systems (CMS) such as WordPress and Drupal.
Slack security engineer Ryan Huber disclosed a zero-day flaw (CVE-2016–3714) in the ImageMagick image processing library that allows a hacker to execute malicious code on a Web server by uploading maliciously-crafted image.
For example, by uploading a booby-trapped selfie to a web service that uses ImageMagick, an attacker can execute malicious code on the website's server and steal critical information, snoop on user's accounts and much more.
In other words, only those websites are vulnerable that make use of ImageMagick and allow their users to upload images.
The exploit for the vulnerability has been released and named: ImageTragick.
"The exploit for this vulnerability is being used in the wild," Huber wrote in a blog post published Tuesday. "The exploit is trivial, so we expect it to be available within hours of this post."
He added "We have collectively determined that these vulnerabilities are available to individuals other than the person(s) who discovered them. An unknowable number of people having access to these vulnerabilities makes this a critical issue for everyone using this software."
The ImageMagick team has also acknowledged the flaw, saying the recent "vulnerability reports … include possible Remote Code Execution and ability to render files on the local system."
Though the team has not rolled out any security patches, it recommended that website administrators should add several lines of code to configuration files in order to block attacks, at least via the possible exploits.
Web administrators are also recommended to check the 'magic bytes' in files sent to ImageMagick before allowing the image files to be processed on their end.
Magic bytes are the first few bytes of a file used to identify the image type, such as GIF, JPEG, PNG.
The vulnerability will be patched in versions 7.0.1-1 and 6.9.3-10 of ImageMagick, which are due to be released by the weekend.
| Vulnerability |
XSS Vulnerability on Real Player Website by THEc7cREW | https://thehackernews.com/2011/05/xss-vulnerability-on-real-player.html | XSS Vulnerability on Real Player Website by THEc7cREW
THEc7cREW Found XSS Vulnerability on Real Player Website , Click Here to See the POC.
| Vulnerability |
Chrome Bug Allowed Hackers to Find Out Everything Facebook Knows About You | https://thehackernews.com/2018/08/google-chrome-vulnerability.html | With the release of Chrome 68, Google prominently marks all non-HTTPS websites as 'Not Secure' on its browser to make the web a more secure place for Internet users.
If you haven't yet, there is another significant reason to immediately switch to the latest version of the Chrome web browser.
Ron Masas, a security researcher from Imperva, has discovered a vulnerability in web browsers that could allow attackers to find everything other web platforms, like Facebook and Google, knows about you—and all they need is just trick you into visiting a website.
The vulnerability, identified as CVE-2018-6177, takes advantage of a weakness in audio/video HTML tags and affects all web browsers powered by "Blink Engine," including Google Chrome.
To illustrate the attack scenario, the researcher took an example of Facebook, a popular social media platform that collects in-depth profiling information on its users, including their age, gender, where you have been (location data) and interests, i.e., what you like and what you don't.
You must be aware of Facebook offering post targeting feature to page administrators, allowing them to define a targeted or restricted audience for specific posts based on their age, location, gender, and interest.
How the Browser Attack Works?
To demonstrate the vulnerability, the researcher created multiple Facebook posts with different combinations of the restricted audiences to categorize victims according to their age, location, interest or gender.
Now, if a website embeds all these Facebook posts on a web page, it will load and display only a few specific posts at the visitors' end based on individuals' profile data on Facebook that matches restricted audience settings.
For example, if a post—defined to be visible only to the Facebook users with age 26, male, having interest in hacking or Information Security—was loaded successfully, an attacker can potentially learn personal information on visitors, regardless of their privacy settings.
Though the idea sounds exciting and quite simple, there are no direct ways available for site administrators to determine whether an embedded post was loaded successfully for a specific visitor or not.
Thanks to Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS)—a browser security mechanism that prevents a website from reading the content of other sites without their explicit permission.
However, Imperva researcher found that since audio and video HTML tags don't validate the content type of fetched resources or reject responses with invalid MIME types, an attacker can use multiple hidden video or audio tags on a website to request Facebook posts.
Though this method doesn't display Facebook posts as intended, it does allow the attacker-controlled website to measure (using JavaScript) the size of cross-origin resources and number of requests to find out which specific posts were successfully fetched from Facebook for an individual visitor.
"With several scripts running at once — each testing a different and unique restriction — the bad actor can relatively quickly mine a good amount of private data about the user," Masses said.
"I found that by engineering sites to return a different response size depending on the currently logged user properties it is possible to use this method to extract valuable information."
A member from Google security team also pointed that the vulnerability could also work against websites using APIs to fetch user session specific information.
The core of this vulnerability has some similarities with another browser bug, patched in June this year, which exploited a weakness in how web browsers handle cross-origin requests to video and audio files, allowing attackers to read the content of your Gmail or private Facebook messages.
Imperva researcher reported the vulnerability to Google with a proof of concept exploit, and the Chrome team patched the issue in Chrome 68 release.
So, Chrome users are strongly recommended to update their browser to the latest version, if they haven't yet.
| Vulnerability |
Google Uncovers How Just Visiting Some Sites Were Secretly Hacking iPhones For Years | https://thehackernews.com/2019/08/hacking-iphone-ios-exploits.html | Beware Apple users!
Your iPhone can be hacked just by visiting an innocent-looking website, confirms a terrifying report Google researchers released earlier today.
The story goes back to a widespread iPhone hacking campaign that cybersecurity researchers from Google's Project Zero discovered earlier this year in the wild, involving at least five unique iPhone exploit chains capable of remotely jailbreaking an iPhone and implanting spyware on it.
Those iOS exploit chains were found exploiting a total of 14 separate vulnerabilities in Apple's iOS mobile operating system—of which 7 flaws resided in Safari web browser, 5 in the iOS kernel and 2 separate sandbox escape issues—targeting devices with almost every version in that time-frame from iOS 10 through to the latest version of iOS 12.
According to a deep-dive blog post published by Project Zero researcher Ian Beer, only two of the 14 security vulnerabilities were zero-days, CVE-2019-7287 and CVE-2019-7286, and unpatched at the time of discovery—and surprisingly, the campaign remained undetected for at least two years.
Though the technical details and background story of both then-zero-day vulnerabilities were not available at that time, The Hacker News warned about both the flaws in February after Apple released iOS version 12.1.4 to address them.
"We reported these issues to Apple with a 7-day deadline on 1 Feb 2019, which resulted in the out-of-band release of iOS 12.1.4 on 7 Feb 2019. We also shared the complete details with Apple, which were disclosed publicly on 7 Feb 2019," Beer says.
Now, as Google researcher explained, the attack was being carried out through a small collection of hacked websites with thousands of visitors per week, targeting every iOS user landing on those websites without discrimination.
"Simply visiting the hacked site was enough for the exploit server to attack your device, and if it was successful, install a monitoring implant," Beer says.
Once an iPhone user visited one of the hacked websites through the vulnerable Safari web browser, it triggered WebKit exploits for each exploit chain in an attempt to gain an initial foothold onto the user's iOS device and stage the privilege escalation exploits to further gain root access to the device, which is the highest level of access.
The iPhone exploits were used to deploy an implant primarily designed to steal files like iMessages, photos, and live GPS location data of users, and upload them to an external server every 60 seconds.
"There is no visual indicator on the device that the implant is running. There's no way for a user on iOS to view a process listing, so the implant binary makes no attempt to hide its execution from the system," Beers explains.
The spyware implant also stole the database files from the victim's device used by popular end-to-end encryption apps like Whatsapp, Telegram, and iMessage to store data, including private chats in the plaintext.
In addition, the implant also had access to users' device's keychain data containing credentials, authentication tokens, and certificates used on and by the device.
"The keychain also contains the long-lived tokens used by services such as Google's iOS Single-Sign-On to enable Google apps to access the user's account. These will be uploaded to the attackers and can then be used to maintain access to the user's Google account, even once the implant is no longer running," Beers says.
While the implant would be automatically wiped off from an infected iPhone upon rebooting thereby leaving no trace of itself, visiting the hacked site again would reinstall the implant.
Alternatively, as Beer explains, the attackers may "nevertheless be able to maintain persistent access to various accounts and services by using the stolen authentication tokens from the keychain, even after they lose access to the device."
Takeaway: Since Apple already patched the majority of vulnerabilities exploited by the uncovered iPhone exploits, users are always recommended to keep their devices up-to-date to avoid becoming victims of such attack chains.
Update: Apple Accuses Google of Spreading Misinformation
Apple released a bold statement regarding the "indiscriminate" iPhone hacking campaign that Google's Project Zero researchers disclosed earlier this week, accusing Google of creating the false impression of "mass exploitation."
Apple confirmed that the attack, but said it affected fewer than a dozen websites that focus on content related to the Uighur community, and also clarifies the watering hole sites attacks were only operational for a brief period, roughly two months, not "two years" as Google implies.
In response to Apple's latest statement, Google spokesperson also released and shared a statement with The Hacker News, saying:
"Project Zero posts technical research that is designed to advance the understanding of security vulnerabilities, which leads to better defensive strategies. We stand by our in-depth research which was written to focus on the technical aspects of these vulnerabilities. We will continue to work with Apple and other leading companies to help keep people safe online."
| Vulnerability |
Critical Flaws Found in VxWorks RTOS That Powers Over 2 Billion Devices | https://thehackernews.com/2019/07/vxworks-rtos-vulnerability.html | Security researchers have discovered almost a dozen zero-day vulnerabilities in VxWorks, one of the most widely used real-time operating systems (RTOS) for embedded devices that powers over 2 billion devices across aerospace, defense, industrial, medical, automotive, consumer electronics, networking, and other critical industries.
According to a new report Armis researchers shared with The Hacker News prior to its release, the vulnerabilities are collectively dubbed as URGENT/11 as they are 11 in total, 6 of which are critical in severity leading to 'devastating' cyberattacks.
Armis Labs is the same IoT security company that previously discovered the BlueBorne vulnerabilities in Bluetooth protocol that impacted more than 5.3 Billion devices—from Android, iOS, Windows and Linux to the Internet of things (IoT).
These vulnerabilities could allow remote attackers to bypass traditional security solutions and take full control over affected devices or "cause disruption on a scale similar to what resulted from the EternalBlue vulnerability," without requiring any user interaction, researchers told The Hacker News.
It's likely possible that many of you might have never heard of this operating system, but Wind River VxWorks is being used to run many everyday internet-of-things such as your webcam, network switches, routers, firewalls, VOIP phones, printers, and video-conferencing products, as well as traffic lights.
Besides this, VxWorks is also being used by mission-critical systems including SCADA, trains, elevators and industrial controllers, patient monitors, MRI machines, satellite modems, in-flight WiFi systems, and even the mars rovers.
URGENT/11 — Vulnerabilities in VxWorks RTOS
The reported URGENT/11 vulnerabilities reside in the IPnet TCP/IP networking stack of the RTOS that was included in VxWorks since its version 6.5, apparently leaving all versions of VxWorks released in the last 13 years vulnerable to device takeover attacks.
All 6 critical vulnerabilities let attackers trigger remote code execution (RCE) attacks, and remaining flaws could lead to denial-of-service, information leaks, or logical flaws.
Critical Remote Code Execution Flaws:
Stack overflow in the parsing of IPv4 options (CVE-2019-12256)
Four memory corruption vulnerabilities stemming from erroneous handling of TCP's Urgent Pointer field (CVE-2019-12255, CVE-2019-12260, CVE-2019-12261, CVE-2019-12263)
Heap overflow in DHCP Offer/ACK parsing in ipdhcpc (CVE-2019-12257)
DoS, Information Leak, and Logical Flaws:
TCP connection DoS via malformed TCP options (CVE-2019-12258)
Handling of unsolicited Reverse ARP replies (Logical Flaw) (CVE-2019-12262)
Logical flaw in IPv4 assignment by the ipdhcpc DHCP client (CVE-2019-12264)
DoS via NULL dereference in IGMP parsing (CVE-2019-12259)
IGMP Information leak via IGMPv3 specific membership report (CVE-2019-12265)
All these flaws can be exploited by an unauthenticated, remote attacker just by sending a specially crafted TCP packet to an affected device without requiring any user interaction or prior information regarding the targeted device.
However, each version of VxWorks since 6.5 is not vulnerable to all 11 flaws, but at least one critical RCE flaw affects each version of the real-time operating system.
"VxWorks includes some optional mitigations that could make some of the URGENT/11 vulnerabilities harder to exploit, but these mitigations are rarely used by device manufacturers," the researchers say.
Armis researchers believe URGENT/11 flaws might affect devices using other real-time operating systems as well, as IPnet was used in other operating systems prior to its acquisition by VxWorks in 2006.
How Can Remote Attackers Exploit VxWorks Flaws?
The exploitation of VxWorks IPnet vulnerabilities also depends upon the location of an attacker and the targeted vulnerable device; after all, the attacker's network packets should reach the vulnerable system.
According to the researchers, the threat surface of URGENT/11 flaws can be divided into 3 attack scenarios, as explained below:
Scenario 1: Attacking the Network's Defenses
Since VxWorks also powers networking and security devices such as switches, routers, and firewalls that are usually reachable over the public Internet, a remote attacker can launch a direct attack against such devices, taking complete control over them, and subsequently, over the networks behind them.
For example, there are over 775,000 SonicWall firewalls connected to the Internet at the time of writing that runs VxWorks RTOS, according to Shodan search engine.
Scenario 2: Attacking from Outside the Network Bypassing Security
Besides targeting Internet-connected devices, an attacker can also attempt to target IoT devices that are not directly connected to the Internet but communicates with its cloud-based application protected behind a firewall or NAT solution.
According to the researchers, a potential attacker can use DNS changing malware or man-in-the-middle attacks to intercept a targeted device' TCP connection to the cloud and launch a remote code execution attack on it.
Scenario 3: Attacking from within the Network
In this scenario, an attacker who already has positioned himself within the network as a result of a prior attack can launch attacks against affected VxWorks powered devices simultaneously even when they have no direct connection to the Internet.
"The vulnerabilities in these unmanaged and IoT devices can be leveraged to manipulate data, disrupt physical world equipment, and put people's lives at risk," said Yevgeny Dibrov, CEO and co-founder of Armis.
"A compromised industrial controller could shut down a factory, and a pwned patient monitor could have a life-threatening effect."
"To the best of both companies knowledge, there is no indication the URGENT/11 vulnerabilities have been exploited."
However, researchers also confirmed that these vulnerabilities do not impact other variants of VxWorks designed for certification, such as VxWorks 653 and VxWorks Cert Edition.
Armis reported these vulnerabilities to Wind River Systems responsibly, and the company has already notified several device manufacturers and released patches to address the vulnerabilities last month.
Meanwhile, affected product vendors are also in the process of releasing patches for their customers, which researchers believe will take time and be difficult, as is usually the case when it comes to IoT and critical infrastructure updates. SonicWall and Xerox have already released patches for its firewall devices and printers, respectively.
| Vulnerability |
Microsoft Says SolarWinds Hackers Accessed Some of Its Source Code | https://thehackernews.com/2020/12/microsoft-says-solarwinds-hackers.html | Microsoft on Thursday revealed that the threat actors behind the SolarWinds supply chain attack were able to gain access to a small number of internal accounts and escalate access inside its internal network.
The "very sophisticated nation-state actor" used the unauthorized access to view, but not modify, the source code present in its repositories, the company said.
"We detected unusual activity with a small number of internal accounts and upon review, we discovered one account had been used to view source code in a number of source code repositories," the Windows maker disclosed in an update.
"The account did not have permissions to modify any code or engineering systems and our investigation further confirmed no changes were made. These accounts were investigated and remediated."
The development is the latest in the far-reaching espionage saga that came to light earlier in December following revelations by cybersecurity firm FireEye that attackers had compromised its systems via a trojanized SolarWinds update to steal its Red Team penetration testing tools.
During the course of the probe into the hack, Microsoft had previously admitted to detecting malicious SolarWinds binaries in its own environment but denied its systems were used to target others or that attackers had access to production services or customer data.
Several other companies, including Cisco, VMware, Intel, NVIDIA, and a number of other US government agencies, have since discovered markers of the Sunburst (or Solorigate) malware on their networks, planted via tainted Orion updates.
The Redmond-based company said its investigation is still ongoing but downplayed the incident, adding "viewing source code isn't tied to elevation of risk" and that it had found evidence of attempted activities that were neutralized by its protections.
In a separate analysis published by Microsoft on December 28, the company called the attack a "cross-domain compromise" that allowed the adversary to introduce malicious code into signed SolarWinds Orion Platform binaries and leverage this widespread foothold to continue operating undetected and access the target's cloud resources, culminating in the exfiltration of sensitive data.
SolarWinds' Orion software, however, wasn't the only initial infection vector, as the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said the attackers used other methods as well, which have not yet been publicly disclosed.
The agency also released supplemental guidance urging all US federal agencies that still run SolarWinds Orion software to update to the latest 2020.2.1 HF2 version.
"The National Security Agency (NSA) has examined this version and verified that it eliminates the previously identified malicious code," the agency said.
| Malware |
Trojanized BitTorrent Software Update Hijacked 400,000 PCs Last Week | https://thehackernews.com/2018/03/windows-malware-hacking.html | A massive malware outbreak that last week infected nearly half a million computers with cryptocurrency mining malware in just a few hours was caused by a backdoored version of popular BitTorrent client called MediaGet.
Dubbed Dofoil (also known as Smoke Loader), the malware was found dropping a cryptocurrency miner program as payload on infected Windows computers that mine Electroneum digital coins for attackers using victims' CPU cycles.
Dofoil campaign that hit PCs in Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine on 6th March was discovered by Microsoft Windows Defender research department and blocked the attack before it could have done any severe damages.
At the time when Windows Defender researchers detected this attack, they did not mention how the malware was delivered to such a massive audience in just 12 hours.
However, after investigation Microsoft today revealed that the attackers targeted the update mechanism of MediaGet BitTorrent software to push its trojanized version (mediaget.exe) to users' computers.
"A signed mediaget.exe downloads an update.exe program and runs it on the machine to install a new mediaget.exe. The new mediaget.exe program has the same functionality as the original but with additional backdoor capability," the researchers explain in a blog post published today.
Researchers believe MediaGet that signed update.exe is likely to be a victim of the supply chain attack, similar to CCleaner hack that infected over 2.3 million users with the backdoored version of the software in September 2017.
Also, in this case, the attackers signed the poisoned update.exe with a different certificate and successfully passed the validation required by the legitimate MediaGet.
"The dropped update.exe is a packaged InnoSetup SFX which has an embedded trojanized mediaget.exe, update.exe. When run, it drops a trojanized unsigned version of mediaget.exe."
Once updated, the malicious BitTorrent software with additional backdoor functionality randomly connects to one (out of four) of its command-and-control (C&C) servers hosted on decentralized Namecoin network infrastructure and listens for new commands.
It then immediately downloads CoinMiner component from its C&C server, and start using victims' computers mine cryptocurrencies for the attackers.
Using C&C servers, attackers can also command infected systems to download and install additional malware from a remote URL.
The researchers found that the trojanized BitTorrent client, detected by Windows Defender AV as Trojan:Win32/Modimer.A, has 98% similarity to the original MediaGet binary.
Microsoft says behavior monitoring and AI-based machine learning techniques used by its Windows Defender Antivirus software have played an important role to detect and block this massive malware campaign.
| Malware |
Malicious Olympic 2012 Android Apps & Domains | https://thehackernews.com/2012/08/malicious-olympic-2012-android-apps.html | Whenever an important event takes place, new opportunities for cyber criminals, especially for those who develop attacks based on social engineering, arise. Currently, the whole world has its eyes glued to TV screens watching the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Anti-malware and anti-virus solutions provider Webroot has issued a warning that an app app called "London Olympics Widget," which is described as an app that displays aggregated Olympic news coverage. In fact, it's really just harvesting the user's contact list and device ID while reading up on SMS messages too.
The package name is 'com.games.London.Olympics.widget'. This app has a digital certificate claiming it was developed in New Delhi, India.
For this scam, cybercriminals create websites that are very appealing; some even look very professional that they make it seem that you are close to having access to live programming. Researchers explain that the crooks rely on black hat SEO techniques to make sure that their malicious websites show up among the first in search engine results.
The security firm has determined that close to 10,000 clicks have already been redirected to the fraudulent Olympics website.Overall, a number of 38,000 clicks have been redirected to such sites, the victims being spread out across 100 countries.
Webroot advises that consumers should take a close look at the author of the app and then search the name to see if it is in fact a reputable company and/or developer, as seen in the photo above. A way that consumers can protect themselves from becoming a victim of these types of online scams is by learning about social engineering so they can recognize it and avoid falling into these traps.
The official London 2012 mobile app can be downloaded from the site.
| Malware |
Malware Attack on South Korean Entities Was Work of Andariel Group | https://thehackernews.com/2021/06/malware-attack-on-south-korean-entities.html | A malware campaign targeting South Korean entities that came to light earlier this year has been attributed to a North Korean nation-state hacking group called Andariel, once again indicating that Lazarus attackers are following the trends and their arsenal is in constant development.
"The way Windows commands and their options were used in this campaign is almost identical to previous Andariel activity," Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky said in a deep-dive published Tuesday. Victims of the attack are in the manufacturing, home network service, media, and construction sectors.
Designated as part of the Lazarus constellation, Andariel is known for unleashing attacks on South Korean organizations and businesses using specifically tailored methods created for maximum effectivity. In September 2019, the sub-group, along with Lazarus and Bluenoroff, was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department for their malicious cyber activity on critical infrastructure.
Andariel is believed to have been active since at least May 2016.
North Korea has been behind an increasingly orchestrated effort aimed at infiltrating computers of financial institutions in South Korea and around the world as well as staging cryptocurrency heists to fund the cash-strapped country in an attempt to circumvent the stranglehold of economic sanctions imposed to stop the development of its nuclear weapons program.
The findings from Kaspersky build upon a previous report from Malwarebytes in April 2021, which documented a novel infection chain that distributed phishing emails weaponized with a macro embedded in a Word file that's executed upon opening in order to deploy malicious code concealed in the form of a bitmap (.BMP) image file to drop a remote access trojan (RAT) on targeted systems.
According to the latest analysis, the threat actor, besides installing a backdoor, is also said to have delivered file-encrypting ransomware to one of its victims, implying a financial motive to the attacks. It's worth noting that Andariel has a track record of attempting to steal bank card information by hacking into ATMs to withdraw cash or sell customer information on the black market.
"This ransomware sample is custom made and specifically developed by the threat actor behind this attack," Kaspersky Senior Security Researcher Seongsu Park said. "This ransomware is controlled by command line parameters and can either retrieve an encryption key from the C2 [server] or, alternatively, as an argument at launch time."
The ransomware is designed to encrypt all files in the machine with the exception of system-critical ".exe," ".dll," ".sys," ".msiins," and ".drv" extensions in return for paying a bitcoin ransom to gain access to a decrypt tool and unique key to unlock the scrambled files.
Kaspersky's attribution to Andariel stems from overlaps in the XOR-based decryption routine that have been incorporated into the group's tactics as early as 2018 and in the post-exploitation commands executed on victim machines.
"The Andariel group has continued to focus on targets in South Korea, but their tools and techniques have evolved considerably," Park said. "The Andariel group intended to spread ransomware through this attack and, by doing so, they have underlined their place as a financially motivated state-sponsored actor."
| Malware |
Chinese Android Smartphone comes with Pre-installed Spyware | https://thehackernews.com/2014/06/chinese-android-smartphone-comes-with.html | If US has banned its several major government departments, including NASA, Justice and Commerce Departments, from purchasing Chinese products and computer technology due to suspected backdoors, then they are not wrong at all.
A popular Chinese Android Smartphone comes pre-installed with a Trojan that could allow manufacturer to spy onto their users' comprising their personal data and conversations without any restrictions and users knowledge.
GOOGLE PLAY STORE OR A SPYING APP?
According to the researchers at the German security firm G Data, the Star N9500 smartphone, a popular and cheap handset device in China, comes pre-installed with Uupay.D Trojan horse, disguising as a version of the Google Play Store.
The trojan camouflage as the Google Play Store, so it enables Chinese Company to secretly install malicious apps, which creates the whole spectrum of abuse.
STEALING WITHOUT RESTRICTIONS
The nasty Spyware runs in the background and has capability to steal personal information, copy users' data, record calls automatically with unlimited time and send costly SMS to premium services, thereby sending all the stolen information to an anonymous server based in China.
The malware is also capable to activate the microphone on users' smartphone at any time in order to turn users' smartphone into a bugging device that allows hackers to hear anything you are saying near by the phone.
"The spy function is invisible to the user and cannot be deactivated," reads the blog post published yesterday. "This means that online criminals have full access to the smartphone and all personal data. Logs that could make an access visible to the users are deleted directly."
REMOVAL OF THE TROJAN NOT POSSIBLE
In addition, the malicious software allow preventing security updates from being downloaded and one can not disable the program. "The program also blocks the installation of security updates," claimed G Data.
Moreover, it is not possible to uninstall the trojan because it is embedded in the firmware of the Star-phone device.
"Unfortunately, removing the Trojan is not possible as it is part of the device's firmware and apps that fall into this category cannot be deleted," said Christian Geschkat, Product Manager at G Data. "This includes the fake Google Play Store app of the N9500."
CHEAP PRICE ATTRACTS USERS
The Star N9500 is an affordable copy of the Samsung Galaxy S4, which can be easily found at various online retailers such as eBay and Amazon for 130 to 165 euros and is also equipped with a variety of accessories, such as a second battery, car charger adapter and a second cover.
But considering the high technological standard of device, the low price comes as a surprise and the security researchers at G DATA believe that it is the cheap price of the mobile device that has made possible by the subsequent selling of data records stolen from the smartphone owner.
HOW TO CHECK IF YOU'RE AFFECTED
We recommend you to download an up-to-date Mobile Anti-virus software and scan your device for the trojan and if found return the device back from where you purchased.
Avoid buying Chinese and cheap products in order to keep your privacy and personal information away from the hands of cyber criminals and prying eyes.
| Malware |
TripAdvisor travel website infected with Gamarue malware, infect 2% Indian Internet Users | https://thehackernews.com/2012/11/tripadvisor-travel-website-infected.html | TripAdvisor Inc., a hotel-review website, recently became a victim of the bug, said Trend Micro Inc., an Internet security solutions provider. Many of TripAdvisor's users received spam mail with booking confirmations for hotels they had checked out on the website, 1.89% of Indian Internet Users have already been affected.
The email purporting to be in the name of one of the Hotels has a similar theme to its English counterpart as it contains confirmation and details on an alleged booking reservation. TripAdvisor, which is among India's top five travel brands as per digital market research firm ComScore Inc., globally has 60 million unique monthly visitors and 2.4 million unique users per month in India.
Gamarue is a family of malware that may be distributed by exploit kits, spammed emails or other malware, and has been observed stealing information from an affected user.
Trend Micro reported that one of their manager received the spam at his personal e-mail address but the address mentioned in the mail was false as the actual hotel does not even exist in India. This made it clear that it was spam mail and nothing more than that.
"A lot of e-commerce websites pay the price of being popular. Online travel and hotel market has become an attractive target for cybercriminals given the large volume of transactions on hotel and online sites. A frequent traveler who has done a hotel booking or checked reviews recently, in all probability, would be prompted to click that mail. When a user clicks the attachment in this spam mail, the malware known as Gamarue becomes active. It can steal from an affected user any information left behind on the emails and saved on user's system", said Suchita Vishnoi, Head Corporate Communications, Trend Micro.
The online travel and hotel market has become an attractive target for cyber criminals given the large volume of transactions on hotel and airline sites. One should be very smart and cautious while replying to their mails and should always confirm their source. It is a very easy trick, yet effective.
| Malware |
Patched WinRAR Bug Still Under Active Attack—Thanks to No Auto-Updates | https://thehackernews.com/2019/03/winrar-hacking-malware.html | Various cyber criminal groups and individual hackers are still exploiting a recently patched critical code execution vulnerability in WinRAR, a popular Windows file compression application with 500 million users worldwide.
Why? Because the WinRAR software doesn't have an auto-update feature, which, unfortunately, leaves millions of its users vulnerable to cyber attacks.
The critical vulnerability (CVE-2018-20250) that was patched late last month by the WinRAR team with the release of WinRAR version 5.70 beta 1 impacts all prior versions of WinRAR released over the past 19 years.
For those unaware, the vulnerability is "Absolute Path Traversal" bug that resides in the old third-party library UNACEV2.DLL of WinRAR and allows attackers to extract a compressed executable file from the ACE archive to one of the Windows Startup folders, where the malicious file would automatically run on the next reboot.
Therefore, to successfully exploit this vulnerability and take full control over the targeted computers, all an attacker needs to do is just convincing users into opening a maliciously-crafted compressed archive file using WinRAR.
Immediately after the details and proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit code went public, malicious attackers started exploiting the vulnerability in a malspam email campaign to install malware on users' computers running the vulnerable version of the software.
Now, security researchers from McAfee reported that they identified more than "100 unique exploits and counting" in the first week since the vulnerability was publicly disclosed, with most of the initial targets residing in the United States.
One recent campaign spotted by the researchers piggybacks on a bootlegged copy of an Ariana Grande's hit album, which is currently being detected as malware by only 11 security products, whereas 53 antivirus products fail to alert their users at the time of writing.
The malicious RAR file (Ariana_Grande-thank_u,_next(2019)_[320].rar) detected by McAfee extracts a list of harmless MP3 files to the victim's download folder but also drops a malicious EXE file to the startup folder, which has been designed to infect the targeted computer with malware.
"When a vulnerable version of WinRAR is used to extract the contents of this archive, a malicious payload is created in the Startup folder behind the scenes," the researchers explain.
"User Access Control (UAC) is bypassed, so no alert is displayed to the user. The next time the system restarts, the malware is run."
Unfortunately, such campaigns are still ongoing, and the best way to protect yourself from such attacks is to update your system by installing the latest version of the WinRAR software as soon as possible and avoid opening files received from unknown sources.
| Malware |
British Airways Fined £183 Million Under GDPR Over 2018 Data Breach | https://thehackernews.com/2019/07/british-airways-breach-gdpr-fine.html | Britain's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) today hit British Airways with a record fine of £183 million for failing to protect the personal information of around half a million of its customers during last year's security breach.
British Airways, who describes itself as "The World's Favorite Airline," disclosed a breach last year that exposed personal details and credit-card numbers of up to 380,000 customers and lasted for more than two weeks.
At the time, the company confirmed that customers who booked flights on its official website (ba.com) and British Airways mobile app between August 21 and September 5 had had their details stolen by attackers.
The cyberattack was later attributed to the infamous Magecart threat actor, one of the most notorious hacking groups specialized in stealing credit card details from poorly-secured websites, especially online eCommerce platforms.
Magecart hackers have been known for using digital credit card skimmer wherein they secretly insert a few lines of malicious code into the checkout page of a compromised website that captures payment details of customers and then sends it to a remote server.
Besides British Airways, Magecart groups have also been responsible for card breaches on sites belonging to high-profile companies like TicketMaster, Newegg, as well as sites belonging to other small online merchants.
In a statement released today, ICO said its extensive investigation found that a variety of information related to British Airways' customers was compromised by "poor security arrangements" at the company, including their names and addresses, log-ins, payment card data, and travel booking details.
"People's personal data is just that – personal. When an organization fails to protect it from loss, damage or theft, it is more than an inconvenience," Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham said.
"That's why the law is clear – when you are entrusted with personal data, you must look after it. Those that don't will face scrutiny from my office to check they have taken appropriate steps to protect fundamental privacy rights."
However, ICO also said that British Airways has cooperated with its investigation and has made improvements to the security arrangements since the last year data breach came to light.
Since the data breach happened after the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) took effect on May 2018, the fine of £183.39 million has been imposed on British Airways, which is the equivalent of 1.5% of the company's worldwide turnover for its 2017 financial year but is still less than the possible maximum of 4%.
In response to the ICO announcement, British Airways, owned by IAG, said the company was "surprised and disappointed" by the ICO penalty.
"British Airways responded quickly to a criminal act to steal customers' data," said British Airways chairman and chief executive Alex Cruz.
"We have found no evidence of fraud/fraudulent activity on accounts linked to the theft. We apologize to our customers for any inconvenience this event caused."
The company has 28 days to appeal the penalty.
Until now, the most significant penalty by the UK's data protection watchdog was £500,000, which was imposed on Facebook last year for allowing political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica to gather and misuse data of 87 million users improperly.
The same penalty of £500,000 was also imposed on credit reporting agency Equifax last year for its 2017's massive data breach that exposed the personal and financial information of hundreds of millions of its customers.
Since both the incidents in Facebook and Equifax occurred before GDPR took effect, £500,000 was the maximum penalty ICO can impose under the UK's old Data Protection Act.
| Data_Breaches |
iOS URL Scheme Could Let App-in-the-Middle Attackers Hijack Your Accounts | https://thehackernews.com/2019/07/ios-custom-url-scheme.html | Security researchers have illustrated a new app-in-the-middle attack that could allow a malicious app installed on your iOS device to steal sensitive information from other apps by exploiting certain implementations of Custom URL Scheme.
By default on Apple's iOS operating system, every app runs inside a sandbox of its own, which prevent all apps installed on the same device from accessing each other's data.
However, Apple offers some methods that facilitate sending and receiving very limited data between applications.
One such mechanism is called URL Scheme, also known as Deep Linking, that allows developers to let users launch their apps through URLs, like facetime://, whatsapp://, fb-messenger://.
For example, when you click "Sign in with Facebook" within an e-commerce app, it directly launches the Facebook app installed on your device and automatically process the authentication.
In the background, that e-commerce app actually triggers the URL Scheme for the Facebook app (fb://) and passes some context information required to process your login.
Researchers at Trend Micro noticed that since Apple does not explicitly define which app can use what keywords for their Custom URL Scheme, multiple apps on an iOS device can use single URL Scheme—which eventually could trigger and pass sensitive data to a completely different app unexpectedly or maliciously.
"This vulnerability is particularly critical if the login process of app A is associated with app B," the researchers said.
To demonstrate this, researchers illustrated an attack scenario, as shown in the image above, using an example of a Chinese retailer app "Suning" and its implementation of "Login with WeChat" feature, explaining how it is susceptible to hacking.
In Short, when the Suning app users choose to access their e-commerce account using WeChat, it generates a login-request and sends it to the WeChat app installed on the same device using the iOS URL Scheme for the messaging app. WeChat app then requests a secret login token from its server and sends it back to the Suning app for authentication.
Researchers found that since Suning always uses the same login-request query to request the secret token and WeChat does not authenticate the source of the login request, the implementation is vulnerable to the app-in-the-middle attack via the iOS URL Scheme, eventually allowing attackers gain unauthorized access to users' accounts.
"With the legitimate WeChat URL Scheme, a fake-WeChat can be crafted, and Suning will query the fake one for Login-Token. If the Suning app sends the query, then the fake app can capture its Login-Request URL Scheme.
"WeChat recognizes it, but it will not authenticate the source of the Login-Request. Instead, it will directly respond with a Login-Token to the source of the request. Unfortunately, the source could be a malicious app that is abusing the Suning URL scheme."
That means, a malicious app with the same Custom URL Scheme as a targeted application can trick other apps into sharing users' sensitive data with it or can perform unauthorized actions, potentially resulting in the loss of privacy, bill fraud, or exposure to pop-up ads.
"In our research, plenty of apps that our system audited were found taking advantage of this feature to show ads to victims. Potentially malicious apps would intentionally claim the URL Scheme associated with popular apps: wechat://, line://, fb://, fb-messenger://, etc. We identified some of these malicious apps," the researchers said.
Since the exploitability of this vulnerability totally depends upon the way a URL Scheme has been implemented, app developers and popular platforms are recommended to review their apps and validate fix for untrusted requests.
| Vulnerability |
Microsoft Patch Tuesday - 8 Security Updates, 4 critical vulnerabilities, including Internet Explorer zero-day | https://thehackernews.com/2013/10/October-Patch-Tuesday-Internet-Explorer-zero-day.html | October is turning out to be a busy month for patches. This month also marks the 10-year anniversary of the Patch Tuesday program, which Microsoft started in October of 2003.
Scheduled for tomorrow, Microsoft has announced that they will release eight security updates including four critical, addressing vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows, Internet Explorer (IE), Microsoft Office and its other products.
Bulletin 1 is almost certainly to a zero-day vulnerability CVE-2013-3893 that has been actively exploited by hackers in targeted attacks. Though Microsoft issued a temporary "Fix it" in September for the vulnerability,
Bulletins 2, 3 and 4 address vulnerabilities in a wide range of Microsoft products, including Windows XP, 7 and 8, and Windows Server 2003, 2008 and 2012.
Bulletins 5, 6 and 7 address vulnerabilities that could allow for remote code execution. Bulletin 8 addresses an information disclosure vulnerability in SIlverlight and is the least urgent of the eight patches.
Microsoft's pre-release notice provides more details of the affected software packages.
Adobe will also be releasing updates on Tuesday for Reader XI and Acrobat XI for Windows. Both are rated 2, which means it's a critical vulnerability, but not known to be in use.
| Vulnerability |
13 Anonymous Members indicted and accused of participating in 'Operation Payback' | https://thehackernews.com/2013/10/13-anonymous-members-indicted-and.html | A U.S. Grand jury indicted and accused 13 members of the hacking group Anonymous for allegedly participating in the cyber attacks against a number of websites as an anti-copyright campaign called "Operation Payback"
Hackers took down the sites by inflicting a denial of service, or DDoS, attack, including those belonging to the Recording Industry Association of America, Visa and MasterCard.
The attacks were in retaliation for the shutdown of "The Pirate Bay," a Sweden-based file-sharing website used to illegally download copyrighted material.
The DDoS Campaign was later extended to Bank of America and credit card companies such as Visa and MasterCard after they refused to process payments for WikiLeaks.
According to the indictment, the suspects are charged with conspiracy to intentionally cause damage to protected computers. Suspects downloaded and used software known as Low Orbit Ion Cannon, or LOIC, to launch distributed denial-of-service attacks, that flooded web servers with traffic and rendered sites unavailable for legitimate users.
Those charged ranged in age from 21 to 65 and lived in 13 different U.S. States, named in the indictment were Dennis Owen Collins, Jeremy Leroy Heller, Chen Zhiwei, Joshua Phy, Ryan Russel Gubele, Robert Audubon Whitfield, Anthony Tadros, Geoffrey Kenneth Commander, Austen Stamm, Timothy Robert McLain, Wade Carl Williams and Thomas Bell.
The court papers say that the hackers conspired to coordinate DDoS attacks in Internet Chat Relay (IRC) channels. The group caused an estimated $5,000 in damages and affected at least 10 protected computers.
"We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us,"
| Cyber_Attack |
New "PoSeidon" Point of Sale Malware Spotted in the Wild | https://thehackernews.com/2015/03/poseidon-point-of-sale-malware.html | A new and terribly awful breed of Point-of-Sale (POS) malware has been spotted in the wild by the security researchers at Cisco's Talos Security Intelligence & Research Group that the team says is more sophisticated and nasty than previously seen Point of Sale malware.
The Point-of-Sale malware, dubbed "PoSeidon", is designed in a way that it has the capabilities of both the infamous Zeus banking Trojan and BlackPOS malware which robbed Millions from US giant retailers, Target in 2013 and Home Depot in 2014.
PoSeidon malware scrapes memory from Point of Sale terminals to search for card number sequences of principal card issuers like Visa, MasterCard, AMEX and Discover, and goes on using the Luhn algorithm to verify that credit or debit card numbers are valid.
The malware then siphon the captured credit card data off to Russian (.ru) domains for harvesting and likely resale, the researchers say.
"PoSeidon is another in the growing number of malware targeting POS systems that demonstrate the sophisticated techniques and approaches of malware authors," researchers of Cisco's Security Solutions team wrote in a blog post.
"Attackers will continue to target POS systems and employ various obfuscation techniques in an attempt to avoid detection. As long as POS attacks continue to provide returns, attackers will continue to invest in innovation and development of new malware families."
The components of PoSeidon are illustrated in the diagram above.
Poseidon Point of Sale malware comprises of a Loader binary that maintains persistence on the target machine in an attempt to survive reboots and user logouts. The Loader then receives other components from the command and control servers.
A subsequently downloaded binary FindStr installs a Keylogger component which scans the memory of the PoS device for credit card number sequences.
The identified numbers are verified using the Luhn algorithm and then encrypted and sent to one of the given exfiltration servers, majority of which belongs to Russian domains:
linturefa.com
xablopefgr.com
tabidzuwek.com
lacdileftre.ru
tabidzuwek.com
xablopefgr.com
lacdileftre.ru
weksrubaz.ru
linturefa.ru
mifastubiv.ru
xablopefgr.ru
tabidzuwek.ru
In past few years, a number of Point of Sale malware has been spotted in the United States, collecting users' credit card magnetic stripe data, and selling them in underground black markets.
Network administrators should remain vigilant and must adhere to industry best practices so that they can protect themselves against advancing Point of Sale malware threats, the researchers say.
| Malware |
Mysterious malware that re-installs itself infected over 45,000 Android Phones | https://thehackernews.com/2019/10/remove-xhelper-android-malware.html | Over the past few months, hundreds of Android users have been complaining online of a new piece of mysterious malware that hides on the infected devices and can reportedly reinstall itself even after users delete it, or factory reset their devices.
Dubbed Xhelper, the malware has already infected more than 45,000 Android devices in just the last six months and is continuing to spread by infecting at least 2,400 devices on an average each month, according to the latest report published today by Symantec.
Here below, I have collected excerpts from some comments that affected users shared on the online forums while asking for how to remove the Xhelper Android malware:
"xhelper regularly reinstalls itself, almost every day!"
"the 'install apps from unknown sources' setting turns itself on."
"I rebooted my phone and also wiped my phone yet the app xhelper came back."
"Xhelper came pre-installed on the phone from China."
"don't buy cheap brand phones."
From Where Xhelper Android Malware Comes?
Though the Symantec researchers did not find the exact source from where the malicious app packed with the Xhelper malware comes in the first place, the security firm did suspect that a malicious system app pre-installed on Android devices from certain brands actually downloaded the malware.
"None of the samples we analysed were available on the Google Play Store, and while it is possible that the Xhelper malware is downloaded by users from unknown sources, we believe that may not be the only channel of distribution," Symantec researchers write in its report.
"From our telemetry, we have seen these apps installed more frequently on certain phone brands, which leads us to believe that the attackers may be focusing on specific brands."
In a separate report published two months ago by Malwarebytes, researchers believed that the Xhelper malware is being spread by "web redirects" or "other shady websites" that prompt users to download apps from untrusted third-party sources.
How Does the Xhelper Malware Work?
Once installed, Xhelper doesn't provide a regular user interface; instead, it gets installed as an application component that doesn't show up on the device's application launcher in an attempt to remain hidden from the users.
In order to launch itself, Xhelper relies on some external events triggered by users, like connecting or disconnecting the infected device from a power supply, rebooting a device, or installing or uninstalling an app.
Once launched, the malware connects to its remote command-and-control server over an encrypted channel and downloads additional payloads such as droppers, clickers, and rootkits on the compromised Android devices.
"We believe the pool of malware stored on the C&C server to be vast and varied in functionality, giving the attacker multiple options, including data theft or even complete takeover of the device," the researchers say.
The researchers believe that the source code of Xhelper is still a work in progress, as some of its "older variants included empty classes that were not implemented at the time, but the functionality is now fully enabled."
The Xhelper malware has been seen targeting Android smartphone users primarily in India, the United States, and Russia.
Though many antivirus products for Android detect the Xhelper malware, they are yet not able to permanently remove or block it from getting itself reinstalled on the infected devices.
Since the source of the malware is still unclear, Android users are recommended to take simple but effective precautions like:
keep devices and apps up-to-date,
avoid app downloads from unfamiliar sources,
always pay close attention to the permissions requested by apps,
frequently back up data, and
install a good antivirus app that protects against this malware and similar threats.
| Malware |
Android Hackers will demonstrate Fully loaded Spying Applications & Mobile Botnet | https://thehackernews.com/2012/07/android-hackers-will-demonstrate-fully.html | This Sunday, The Capital , New Delhi plays host to an International The Hackers Conference where blackhat hackers will discuss the challenges of cyber safety with security agencies.
Your Smartphone is an always-on and always-connected digital extension of your life which will be used by attackers to covertly steal your sensitive data and spy on you. Mahesh, An Independent Security Researcher and Android Developer/Hacker will demonstrate "Android Spy Agent".
This application allows us to remotely access the entire victim's personal information and even though the confidential data available in the android cell phone. The type of personal information includes the victim's contacts, call logs, messages, browser's history, GPS location and much more information directly available on the victim's cell phone.
Many-a-times we think that is there any way by which we can read the private sms of anyone. So here is the solution Mr. Mahesh will present in The Hackers Conference 2012 platform with Hundreds of advance features.
This application can also allow the attacker to remotely delete the data available on the victim's phone. In order to perfectly work this application you have to gain access to the victim's android cell phone for at least 20 seconds. You have to install the application and then restart the cell phone. After restart your application gets automatically started on the victim's cell phone. Now you can access the victim's cells information for any normal cell phone and get the response on it. The android spy agent will be hidden in the victim's cell phone and not allows the victim to easily uninstall or delete it from the cell.
In Another Talk Android Hacker Aditya Gupta and Subho Halder will talk about "All your Droids belong to me : A look into Mobile Security in 2012". Researchers have developed and will Demonstrate malware for Android phones that can be used as a spam botnet.
"The talk is about Android Malwares, Botnets and all the crazy stuff you have been hearing in the past. We will give an inside view on how the black hat underground uses this, to earn 5-6 digit income per month . For this, We will start off by creating an Android Malware, and then will gradually move on to the Botnet Part.", Aditya Gupta said.
Maintaining that a wide variety of services are being offered on the mobile platforms without proper security implementation, Anurag Kumar Jain and Devendra Shanbhag from Tata Consultancy Services will deliberate on the topic, "Mobile Application Security Risk and Remediation". They will highlight the need for application security in mobile applications, the threats in a mobile environment, key security issues that can creep in mobile applications, and suggests a secure development approach which can possibly safeguard mobile applications from becoming "sitting ducks" for attackers and mobile malware.
Experts from countries like Iran and Argentina will share space with Indian speakers in the day-long discussion at the India Habitat Centre. Yet another important issue The Hackers Conference 2012 will deliberate on is the Internet censorship in India.
For more details, go to www.thehackersconference.com
| Malware |
Adobe Releases Critical Patches for Flash, Acrobat Reader, and Media Encoder | https://thehackernews.com/2019/05/adobe-software-updates.html | Adobe today released its monthly software updates to patch a total of 87 security vulnerabilities in its Adobe Acrobat and Reader, Flash Player and Media Encoder, most of which could lead to arbitrary code execution attacks or worse.
None of the flaws patched this month in Adobe products has been found exploited in the wild.
Out of 87 total flaws, a whopping number of vulnerabilities (i.e., 84 in total) affect Adobe Acrobat and Reader applications alone, where 42 of them are critical and rest 42 are important in severity.
Upon successful exploitation, all critical vulnerabilities in Adobe Acrobat and Reader software lead to arbitrary code execution, allowing attackers to take complete control over targeted systems.
Adobe has released updated versions of Acrobat and Reader software for Windows and macOS operating systems to address these security vulnerabilities.
The update for Adobe Flash Player, which will receive security patch updates until the end of 2020, comes this month with a patch for just one security vulnerability( CVE-2019-7837), which is critical in severity and affects Windows, macOS, Linux, and Chrome OS versions of the software.
The third Adobe product that received patches this month is Media Encoder, a powerful tool that allows users to compress audio and/or video files to be played back across browsers and devices.
Adobe has released Media Encoder version 13.1 that addresses two security vulnerabilities, one of which is critical (CVE-2019-7842) and leads to remote code execution while the second is an information disclosure flaw.
Users of affected Adobe software for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Chrome OS are urged to update their software packages to the latest versions as soon as possible.
If your system hasn't yet detected the availability of the new update automatically, you should manually install the update by choosing "Help → Check for Updates" in your Adobe Acrobat and Reader software.
| Vulnerability |
Warning — 5 New Trojanized Android Apps Spying On Users In Pakistan | https://thehackernews.com/2021/01/warning-5-new-trojanized-android-apps.html | Cybersecurity researchers took the wraps off a new spyware operation targeting users in Pakistan that leverages trojanized versions of legitimate Android apps to carry out covert surveillance and espionage.
Designed to masquerade apps such as the Pakistan Citizen Portal, a Muslim prayer-clock app called Pakistan Salat Time, Mobile Packages Pakistan, Registered SIMs Checker, and TPL Insurance, the malicious variants have been found to obfuscate their operations to stealthily download a payload in the form of an Android Dalvik executable (DEX) file.
"The DEX payload contains most of the malicious features, which include the ability to covertly exfiltrate sensitive data like the user's contact list and the full contents of SMS messages," Sophos threat researchers Pankaj Kohli and Andrew Brandt said.
"The app then sends this information to one of a small number of command-and-control websites hosted on servers located in eastern Europe."
Interestingly, the fake website of the Pakistan Citizen Portal was also prominently displayed in the form of a static image on the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) website, potentially in an attempt to lure unsuspecting users into downloading the malware-laced app.
Visiting the TCP website (tcp.gov.pk) now shows the message "Down for Maintenance."
Besides the aforementioned apps, Sophos researchers also discovered a separate app called Pakistan Chat that didn't have a benign analogue distributed via the Google Play Store. But the app was found to leverage the API of a legitimate chat service called ChatGum.
Once installed, the app requests intrusive permissions, including the ability to access contacts, file system, location, microphone, and read SMS messages, which allow it to gather a wide swathe of data on a victim's device.
All these apps have one singular purpose — to conduct covert surveillance and exfiltrate the data from a target device. In addition to sending the unique IMEI identifier, the DEX payload relays detailed profile information about the phone, location information, contact lists, the contents of text messages, call logs and the full directory listing of any internal or SD card storage on the device.
Troublingly, the malicious Pakistan Citizen Portal app also transmits sensitive information such as users' computerized national identity card (CNIC) numbers, their passport details, and the username and password for Facebook and other accounts.
"The spying and covert surveillance capability of these modified Android apps highlight the dangers of spyware to smartphone users everywhere," Pankaj Kohli said. "Cyber-adversaries target mobiles not just to get their hands on sensitive and personal information, but because they offer a real-time window into people's lives, their physical location, movements, and even live conversations taking place within listening range of the infected phone."
If anything, the development is yet another reason why users need to stick to trusted sources to download third-party apps, verify if an app is indeed built by a genuine developer, and carefully scrutinize app permissions before installation.
"In the current Android ecosystem, apps are cryptographically signed as a way to certify the code originates with a legitimate source, tying the app to its developer," the researchers concluded. "However, Android doesn't do a good job exposing to the end user when a signed app's certificate isn't legitimate or doesn't validate. As such, users have no easy way of knowing if an app was indeed published by its genuine developer."
"This allows threat actors to develop and publish fake versions of popular apps. The existence of a large number of app stores, and the freedom of users to install an app from practically anywhere makes it even harder to combat such threats."
| Malware |
Anonymous threatened Estonian government with a possible cyber attack | https://thehackernews.com/2012/10/anonymous-threatened-estonian.html | Anonymous Hackers AnonSwedenOp posted a video on YouTube on October 8 where it threatened the Estonian government with a possible cyber attack.
"Estonian government had sacrificed its own people instead of helping its own people, Estonian government has channelled money to helping Greece that is much better off."
"Estonia says that it doesn't have money but then they give 357 million to Greece," the statement declares.
Anonymous Group will most probably attack on Friday, October 12, according to video and this attack will go as Operation #OpEstonia.
The the end of the Video, Hacker with the promise: "This must end. Estonian people, we haven't forgotten you".
Anonymous Hacker last week took down the website of Swedish central bank also and this attack can also be on high rate, if they get possible massive number of attacks.
Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter via email - Be First to know about Security and Hackers. or Join our Huge Hackers Community on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.
| Cyber_Attack |
XSS attack on CIA (Central Itelligence Agency) Website by lionaneesh | https://thehackernews.com/2011/06/xss-attack-on-cia-central-itelligence.html | XSS attack on CIA (Central Itelligence Agency) Website by lionaneesh
After Ddos attack on CIA (Central Itelligence Agency) website by Lulzsec, lionaneesh, an Indian hacker have found XSS Vulnerability on same site as shown. The Vulnerabile link is here . You can join Loinaneesh on Twitter.
| Vulnerability |
Ethereum Classic (ETC) Hit by Double-Spend Attack Worth $1.1 Million | https://thehackernews.com/2019/01/ethereum-double-spend-attack.html | Popular cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has suspended all transactions of Ethereum Classic (ETC)—the original unforked version of the Ethereum network—on their trading platforms, other products and services after detecting a potential attack on the cryptocurrency network that let someone spend the same digital coins twice.
Why is this attack concerning? The heist resulted in the loss of $1.1 million worth of the Ethereum Classic digital currency. The digital currency immediately fell in price after the news came out.
Coinbase revealed Monday that it identified "a deep chain reorganization" of the Ethereum Classic blockchain (or 51 percent attack of the network), which means that someone controlling the majority of miners on the network (over 50%) had modified the transaction history.
After reorganizing the Ethereum blockchain, the attackers were able to what's called "double spend" about 219,500 ETC by recovering previously spent coins from the rightful recipients and transferring them to new entities chosen by attackers (typically a wallet in their control).
"We observed repeated deep reorganizations of the Ethereum Classic blockchain, most of which contained double spends," Coinbase security engineer Mark Nesbitt said in a blog post. "The total value of the double spends that we have observed thus far is 219,500 ETC (~$1.1M)."
Coinbase identified the deep chain reorganization of the Ethereum Classic blockchain on January 5, at which point the firm halted on-chain ETC payments in order to safeguard its customer funds and the cryptocurrency exchange itself.
An update on status.coinbase.com reads: "Due to unstable network conditions on the Ethereum Classic network, we have temporarily disabled all sends and receives for ETC. Buy and sell is not impacted. All other systems are operating normally."
It's worth noting that this incident was not a one-time event, as the attacks are apparently ongoing.
Initially, Coinbase identified nine reorganizations containing double spends, amounted to 88,500 ETC (about $460,000), but the latest update on its blog post suggests that at least 12 additional reorganizations included double spends, totaling 219,500 ETC (nearly $1.1Million).
At the time, it is not clear whom the attackers targeted, but Coinbase reassured its customers that the cryptocurrency exchange itself had not been the target of these attacks and that no customer funds were lost.
Initially, Ethereum Classic denied the Coinbase claims, saying that the ETC network appeared to be "operating normally," but hours later it confirmed the "successful 51% attack" on the Ethereum Classic network with "multiple" block reorganizations.
However, Ethereum Classic said that Coinbase did not contact ETC personnel regarding the attack and added that the investigation is an "ongoing process."
Since it is incredibly difficult or perhaps virtually impossible to mount such attacks against heavily-mined cryptocurrency networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum, attackers chose to target small-cap cryptocurrencies like Ethereum Classic, Litecoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold, ZenCash (now Horizen), and Verge.
Created in June 2016, Ethereum Classic is the 18th-largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of over half a billion dollars (around $539 million), which makes it an attractive target for attackers.
| Cyber_Attack |
Have a D-Link Wireless Router? You might have been Hacked | https://thehackernews.com/2015/02/hacking-dlink-wireless-router.html | The popular DSL wireless router model from D-Link are allegedly vulnerable to a software bug that could allow remote hackers to modify the DNS (Domain Name System) settings on affected routers and to hijack users' traffic.
The main goal of DNS hijacking is to secretly redirect user's traffic from a legitimate websites to a malicious one controlled by hackers. The vulnerability might also affects other devices because it is located in the same, widely-used wireless router firmware used by different manufacturers.
Bulgarian security researcher Todor Donev discovered the flaw which exists in a widely deployed ZynOS firmware from ZyXEL Communications Corporation, that is used in network hardware from TP-Link Technologies, ZTE and D-Link.
According to the security researcher, D-Link's popular DSL2740R wireless router and a number of other D-Link routers, particularly the DLS-320B, are vulnerable.
Late last year, similar router vulnerability was discovered in the web server "RomPager" from AllegroSoft, which is typically embedded into the firmware of routers, modems and other "gateway devices" from about every leading manufacturer.
The flaw put 12 million homes and offices routers from a variety of different manufacturers vulnerable to DNS hijacking attack, which also included kit from D-Link, along with Edimax, Huawei, TP-Link, ZTE, and ZyXEL.
The latest bug discovered in wireless routers running the vulnerable firmware could reveal their internal web servers to the open Internet, and according to an email from Donev, this could allow a remote attacker to configure the devices without authentication to access its administrative interface.
Donev claimed that once attackers succeeded in modifying systems' DNS settings, they could perform a handful of malicious tasks, including:
Redirecting unknown users to malicious sites – These sites could lead victim to a phishing page that could masquerade as a well-known site in order to trick users into handing out their personal and sensitive information.
Replacing advertisements on legitimate sites – Hackers could manipulate ads that users see, replacing legitimate ads with malicious ones on the sites they visit.
Controlling and redirecting network traffic – Hackers could also prevent users of infected systems from receiving important operating system updates and other software and security updates.
Pushing additional malware – Attackers could directly push malware onto the infected systems.
In order to exploit the router vulnerability, a malicious hacker would have to either be on the router's network or the wireless router would have to be publicly accessible. Now that administrative interface is exposed to the Internet, the risk of exploitation is higher.
But even if the wireless router is accessible within the local area network, hackers can still use Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF), a technique which involves gaining access to local networks by sending specific HTTP requests to a LAN IP address that usually associates with the wireless router.
Donev released the details of the D-Link wireless router vulnerability publicly without notifying the affected vendors. He has also published a proof-of-concept exploit for the D-Link DSL-2740R, a dual-function ADSL modem/wireless router device. As of now, this particular device has been discontinued from sale but is still supported.
| Vulnerability |
Google engineers Warn Of Serious Unpatched Adobe Reader Flaws | https://thehackernews.com/2012/08/google-engineers-warn-of-serious.html | Adobe has missed dozens of vulnerabilities in Reader in this week's Patch Tuesday run according to Google engineers who reported the flaws. Sixteen vulnerabilities still affected the Windows and Mac OS X versions, while 31 critical and "trivially exploitable" bugs were found in the Linux application.
Of particular concern to Google's Mateusz Jurczyk and Gynvael Coldwind are bugs in Reader for Linux, although other issues affect versions for Windows and OS X. For the Linux version, which went completely unpatched, Adobe and Google have been working together to counter 14 "new unique crashes" and nine "test-cases" that were potentially exploitable for remote code execution.
When Adobe released a new version of Reader for Windows and Mac OS X earlier this week, it patched 12 vulnerabilities, but another 16 remained unpatched. Jurczyk and Coldwind decided to come forward with information on those flaws in the interest of user safety, as Adobe has no plans to issue additional out of band updates before 27 August.
"Considering that fixing the first twenty four crashes took twelve unique code fixes, it is expected that the remaining crashes might represent around eight more unique problems. Adobe plans to fix these remaining bugs and issue an update for the Linux version of Reader in an upcoming release," the Google researchers said.
Adobe released new versions of Adobe Acrobat, Reader, Shockwave, and Flash to patch security holes in those products as well.
Check out the details of the Microsoft and Adobe security bulletins to figure out which ones apply to you, and prioritize the patches that are most critical or have the greatest potential to impact your PCs.
| Vulnerability |
Why Protecting Your Magento Ecommerce Website Is So Damn Important | https://thehackernews.com/2015/04/Magento-website-security.html | The Market of E-commerce websites is at its peak, as today people love to shop online to save their time. However, E-commerce and financial sites stand first in the rundown of potential victims as they manage financial exchanges.
The traditional way to target victims of e-commerce sites is to use targeted "phishing" attacks via social media and emails. But…
…due to increased awareness among the people about the threat of phishing attacks, hackers have now discovered new way — by malvertising legitimate websites where people assume to be safe and secure.
We know:
Today, there are many ready-to-use e-commerce platforms available on the Internet that are very easy to install and manage and that too at no extra cost; 'Magento' is one of the most popular out of them.
The most popular, the most targeted:
Yes! Security researchers at Sucuri have found a malicious code inside the Magento e-commerce website that was intended to send all the data submitted by a customer amid checkout procedure to a third-party site, here "soulmagic .biz .fozzyhost .com/add."
Hackers have added 50 extra lines of code in the:
app/code/core/Mage/Payment/Model/Method/Cc.php file inside the prepareSave() function, which you can see below:
What actually happens behind the scene?
Like most Magento sites, the site scanned by the researchers had a checkout form that asks for customers' credit card details.
However, Magento encrypts this information and saves it, and sends it to the payment gateway in order to complete users' transaction.
But, at the moment between the checkout form submission and encryption of the user's payment details when Magento handles customer's sensitive information in a plain text, the code injected by hackers send this unencrypted data to third-party address.
Not only Magento sites are targeted:
Researchers also found a very similar code being injected by hackers into the Joomla Donation extension in Joomla websites in order to send customers' credit card information to the hackers using "java-e-shop .com/add."
Moreover, all e-commerce solutions, including CMS, plugin, and extension, are equally susceptible to this kind of cyber attack in the event they request customers' credit card details directly on a site, instead of redirecting them to a payment gateway.
Because:
It's so easy for a hacker to add a few lines of malicious code in the legitimate code of the website in an effort to dump customer's sensitive details to a noxious third-party.
However, customers of online store aren't the only target, either:
"When hackers manage to compromise an e-commerce site, the owners of the website can be robbed too," researchers at Sucuri wrote.
There are a known number of cases where hackers replace the PayPal account of website owner with their own account. As a result, every time a customer buys something, the site owner would "never receive the funds."
The bottom line:
Online Shoppers can protect themselves against this threat by following these steps:
Don't enter your payment details on the websites that offer their own page. Instead prefer the sites that redirect you to a payment gateway provided by PayPal, payment gateway or bank to complete the transaction.
Only use your Credit Cards with additional levels of authentication. Use payment cards that support additional security layers, like Visa 3-D Secure, or MasterCard SecureCode, or your bank's own 2FA service.
Check the website for any security issue. This can be done by either surfing the Internet or simply check Google's SafeBrowsing information for the website using this link: https://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=example.com, where example.com is the domain name of the site you want to check.
Owners of E-commerce website can protect themselves against this threat by following these steps:
Don't allow customers to process payment details on your site. Outsource the payments to trusted third-party service such as PayPal, Stripe or Google Wallet, so that if hackers compromise your site they cannot be able to steal your customers' credit card details.
Use best practices with your website security, including strong and unique passwords for every element of your site, actively maintain and update your website firewall, and monitor your website for security issues.
Be Proactive. If your website is hacked, get help immediately as you cannot put both your customers' money as well as your reputation at risk.
| Malware |
Unpatched DoS Flaw Could Help Anyone Take Down WordPress Websites | https://thehackernews.com/2018/02/wordpress-dos-exploit.html | A simple yet serious application-level denial of service (DoS) vulnerability has been discovered in WordPress CMS platform that could allow anyone to take down most WordPress websites even with a single machine—without hitting with a massive amount of bandwidth, as required in network-level DDoS attacks to achieve the same.
Since the company has denied patching the issue, the vulnerability (CVE-2018-6389) remains unpatched and affects almost all versions of WordPress released in last nine years, including the latest stable release of WordPress (Version 4.9.2).
Discovered by Israeli security researcher Barak Tawily, the vulnerability resides in the way "load-scripts.php," a built-in script in WordPress CMS, processes user-defined requests.
For those unaware, load-scripts.php file has only been designed for admin users to help a website improve performance and load page faster by combining (on the server end) multiple JavaScript files into a single request.
However, to make "load-scripts.php" work on the admin login page (wp-login.php) before login, WordPress authors did not keep any authentication in place, eventually making the feature accessible to anyone.
Depending upon the plugins and modules you have installed, the load-scripts.php file selectively calls required JavaScript files by passing their names into the "load" parameter, separated by a comma, like in the following URL:
https://your-wordpress-site.com/wp-admin/load-scripts.php?c=1&load=editor,common,user-profile,media-widgets,media-gallery
While loading the website, the 'load-scripts.php' (mentioned in the head of the page) tries to find each JavaScript file name given in the URL, append their content into a single file and then send back it to the user's web browser.
How WordPress DoS Attack Works
According to the researcher, one can simply force load-scripts.php to call all possible JavaScript files (i.e., 181 scripts) in one go by passing their names into the above URL, making the targeted website slightly slow by consuming high CPU and server memory.
"There is a well-defined list ($wp_scripts), that can be requested by users as part of the load[] parameter. If the requested value exists, the server will perform an I/O read action for a well-defined path associated with the supplied value from the user," Tawily says.
Although a single request would not be enough to take down the whole website for its visitors, Tawily used a proof-of-concept (PoC) python script, doser.py, which makes large numbers of concurrent requests to the same URL in an attempt to use up as much of the target servers CPU resources as possible and bring it down.
The Hacker News has verified the authenticity of the DoS exploit that successfully took down one of our demo WordPress websites running on a medium-sized VPS server.
"It is time to mention again that load-scripts.php does not require any authentication, an anonymous user can do so. After ~500 requests, the server didn't respond at all any more, or returned 502/503/504 status code errors," Tawily says.
However, attack from a single machine, with some 40 Mbps connection, was not enough to take down another demo website running on a dedicated server with high processing power and memory.
But that doesn't mean the flaw is not effective against WordPress websites running over a heavy-server, as application-level attack generally requires a lot fewer packets and bandwidth to achieve the same goal—to take down a site.
So attackers with more bandwidth or a few bots can exploit this flaw to target big and popular WordPress websites as well.
No Patch Available – Mitigation Guide
Along with the full disclosure, Tawily has also provided a video demonstration for the WordPress Denial of Service attack. You can watch the video to see the attack in action.
Knowing that DoS vulnerabilities are out-of-scope from the WordPress bug bounty program, Tawily responsibly reported this DoS vulnerability to the WordPress team through HackerOne platform.
However, the company refused to acknowledge the issue, saying that this kind of bug "should really get mitigated at the server end or network level rather than the application level," which is outside of WordPress's control.
The vulnerability seems to be serious because WordPress powers nearly 29 percent of the Web, placing millions of websites vulnerable to hackers and making them unavailable for their legitimate users.
For websites that can't afford services offering DDoS protection against application-layer attacks, the researcher has provided a forked version of WordPress, which includes mitigation against this vulnerability.
However, I personally wouldn't recommend users to install modified CMS, even if it is from a trusted source other than the original author.
Besides this, the researcher has also released a simple bash script that fixes the issue, in case you have already installed WordPress.
| Vulnerability |
iScanner - Tool to detect and remove malicious codes and web page | https://thehackernews.com/2011/09/iscanner-tool-to-detect-and-remove.html | iScanner - Tool to detect and remove malicious codes and web page
iScanner is a free open source tool lets you detect and remove malicious codes and web page malwares from your website easily and automatically. iScanner will not only show you the infected files in your server but it's also able to clean these files by removing the malware code ONLY from the infected files.
Current Features:
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Detect and remove website malwares and malicious code in web pages. This include hidden iframe tags, javascript, vbscript, activex objects, suspicious PHP codes and some known malwares.
Extensive log shows the infected files and the malicious code.
Support for sending email reports.
Ability to clean the infected web pages automatically.
Easy backup and restore system for the infected files.
Simple and editable signature based database.
You can easily send malicious file to iScanner developers for analyzes.
Ability to update the database and the program easily from iScanner's server.
Very flexible options and easy to use.
Fast scanner with great performance.
Yes, it's FREE!!
Download iScanner
| Malware |
Gazer: A New Backdoor Targets Ministries and Embassies Worldwide | https://thehackernews.com/2017/08/gazer-backdoor-malware.html | Security researchers at ESET have discovered a new malware campaign targeting consulates, ministries and embassies worldwide to spy on governments and diplomats.
Active since 2016, the malware campaign is leveraging a new backdoor, dubbed Gazer, and is believed to be carried out by Turla advanced persistent threat (APT) hacking group that's been previously linked to Russian intelligence.
Gazer, written in C++, the backdoor delivers via spear phishing emails and hijacks targeted computers in two steps—first, the malware drops Skipper backdoor, which has previously been linked to Turla and then installs Gazer components.
In previous cyber espionage campaigns, the Turla hacking group used Carbon and Kazuar backdoors as its second-stage malware, which also has many similarities with Gazer, according to research [PDF] published by ESET.
Gazer receives encrypted commands from a remote command-and-control server and evades detection by using compromised, legitimate websites (that mostly use the WordPress CMS) as a proxy.
Instead of using Windows Crypto API, Gazer uses custom 3DES and RSA encryption libraries to encrypt the data before sending it to the C&C server—a common tactic employed by the Turla APT group.
Gazer uses code-injection technique to take control of a machine and hide itself for a long period of time in an attempt to steal information.
Gazer backdoor also has the ability to forward commands received by one infected endpoint to the other infected machines on the same network.
So far ESET researchers have identified four different variants of the Gazer malware in the wild, primarily spying on Southeast European and former Soviet bloc political targets.
Interestingly, earlier versions of Gazer were signed with a valid certificate issued by Comodo for "Solid Loop Ltd," while the latest version is signed with an SSL certificate issued to "Ultimate Computer Support Ltd."
According to researchers, Gazer has already managed to infect a number of targets worldwide, with the most victims being located in Europe.
Meanwhile, Kaspersky lab has also published almost similar details about Gazer backdoor, but they called it 'Whitebear' APT campaign.
| Cyber_Attack |
Android Adware abusing permissions, Collecting more than they need | https://thehackernews.com/2012/10/android-adware-abusing-permissions.html | So you just bought a new Android-based smartphone, what comes next? What else but the most exciting part downloading the right apps to boost its functionality. Android gives you the freedom to personalize your device, which has made it attractive to those who want their smartphones to be as unique as possible
"Many apps will ask you to grant them network access so they can download updates. Others seek permission to read your phone's state and identity so calls won't disrupt them from doing what they're doing. Unfortunately, these permissions can be abused for criminal intentions." Trendmicro said in report.
Before android applications was abusing permissions to access user's personal data, but now new generations of adware targeting Android smartphones are increasingly violating user privacy by grabbing personal information and using it without permission.
Adware is software that is used to gather information about the users. This information is sent to advertising agencies who are the people who planted the adware in the first place. Adware displays an advertisement in the form of pop ups or text messages. When you click on the advertisement, you will be redirected to a browser that will open the link to the advertisers' site. When you visit the site, your data will be logged into the advertisers' server. We have no way of ensuring that adware is within its legal limitations while collecting data about you. The procedure is very simple.
Although most adware is designed to collect some user information, the line between legitimate data gathering and violating privacy is starting to blur. The process becomes a privacy issue when app developers take more information than they originally asked for and then sell it to ad networks.
Here is a list of the data leaked from the Android device and sent to the servers of the company behind this module:
The device's IP address on all interfaces (i.e., both WiFi and mobile network)
The device's ANDROID_ID (unique 64-bit identifier for the device)
The Android OS version
The user's location, as determined by GPS
The user's mobile network and their country code
The user's phone number
The device's unique ID (their IMEI, MEID, or ESN)
The device's manufacturer and version
Based on information from MARS and Google Play, at least 7,000 free apps use this particular advertising module. 80% of them are still available, and at least 10% of them have been downloaded more than one million times.
In addition to taking the user's personal information, these ads also display advertising in particularly annoying ways. Either notifications or an icon on the device's home screen are used to serve ads to users. Users should be careful about all mobile apps they download, wherever they come from.
| Malware |
ISPs Caught Injecting Cryptocurrency Miners and Spyware In Some Countries | https://thehackernews.com/2018/03/cryptocurrency-spyware-malware.html | Governments in Turkey and Syria have been caught hijacking local internet users' connections to secretly inject surveillance malware, while the same mass interception technology has been found secretly injecting browser-based cryptocurrency mining scripts into users' web traffic in Egypt.
Governments, or agencies linked to it, and ISPs in the three countries are using Deep Packet Inspection technology from Sandvine (which merged with Procera Networks last year), to intercept and alter Internet users' web traffic.
Deep packet inspection technology allows ISPs to prioritize, degrade, block, inject, and log various types of Internet traffic, in other words, they can analyze each packet in order to see what you are doing online.
According to a new report by Citizen Lab, Turkey's Telecom network was using Sandvine PacketLogic devices to redirect hundreds of targeted users (journalists, lawyers, and human rights defenders) to malicious versions of legitimate programs bundled with FinFisher and StrongPity spyware, when they tried to download them from official sources.
"This redirection was possible because official websites for these programs, even though they might have supported HTTPS, directed users to non-HTTPS downloads by default," the report reads.
A similar campaign has been spotted in Syria, where Internet users were silently redirected to malicious versions of the various popular application, including Avast Antivirus, CCleaner, Opera, and 7-Zip applications bundled with government spyware.
In Turkey, Sandvine PacketLogic devices were being used to block websites like Wikipedia, the sites of the Dutch Broadcast Foundation (NOS) and Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
ISPs Injected Cryptocurrency Mining Scripts Into Users' Web Browsers
However, in Egypt, Sandvine PacketLogic devices were being used by a Telecom operator for making money by:
Secretly injecting a cryptocurrency mining script into every HTTP web page users visited in order to mine the Monero cryptocurrency,
Redirecting Egyptian users to web pages with affiliate ads.
In Egypt, these devices were also being used to block access to human rights, political, and news outlets like Al Jazeera, HuffPost Arabic, Reporters Without Borders, and Mada Masr, as well as NGOs like Human Rights Watch.
Citizen Lab researchers reported Sandvine of their findings, but the company called their report "false, misleading, and wrong," and also demanded them to return the second-hand PacketLogic device they used to confirm attribution of their fingerprint.
Citizen Lab started this investigation in September last year after ESET researchers published a report revealing that the downloads of several popular apps were reportedly compromised at the ISP level in two (unnamed) countries to distribute the FinFisher spyware.
| Cyber_Attack |
Microsoft to Issue 16 Security Patches and 60 Other Updates | https://thehackernews.com/2014/11/microsoft-to-issue-16-security-patches_9.html | Microsoft has this time quite a big pile of security patches in its November 2014 Patch Tuesday, which will address almost 60 non-security updates for its Windows OS along with 16 security updates.
The software giant released Advance Notification for 16 security bulletins, the most in more than three years, which will be addressed as of tomorrow, 11 November, 2014. Five of the bulletins have been marked as "critical", nine are "important" in severity, while two were labeled "moderate."
The updates will patch vulnerabilities in Microsoft's various software including Internet Explorer (IE), Windows, Office, Exchange Server, SharePoint Server and the .NET framework as well.
Five critical vulnerabilities affect specific versions of Microsoft Windows, including Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows RT, and Windows Server. One of them also affects Internet Explorer versions 7 through 11 as well.
Four of the five critical bugs are said to allow remote code execution, meaning that successful hackers could hijack a system and install malicious softwares on the victim's machine, while the last could allow an attacker to gain administrative privilege on a vulnerable machine.
"A vulnerability whose exploitation could allow code execution without user interaction. These scenarios include self-propagating malware (e.g. network worms), or unavoidable common use scenarios where code execution occurs without warnings or prompts. This could mean browsing to a web page or opening email," is how Microsoft describes a critical patch.
Another nine patches are rated as "important", which are not as severe as the critical ones but should still be installed in order to keep your systems safe. These affect Microsoft Windows, Office and Microsoft Exchange.
Five of the nine important updates will patch "elevation of privilege" vulnerabilities, two others fix the OS security features bypass vulnerabilities, one addresses Remote Code Execution bug, while the other one plugs an information leak.
Last two patches are rated as "moderate", which indicates a much lower risk, but should still be installed by the users. One of them addresses a denial of service flaw in Microsoft Windows, while the other patches an Elevation of Privilege bug.
If you have Automatic Updates enabled on your machine, these fixes will all be made available via Windows Update and will be applied automatically for most users. But in case users have not enabled it, Microsoft is encouraging them to apply the updates promptly. Some patches applied may require restarting the servers as well.
| Vulnerability |
Hackers breach Twitter and 250,000 accounts compromised | https://thehackernews.com/2013/02/hackers-breach-twitter-and-250000.html | In recent The Hacker News updates, we have reported about some major hacking events and critical vulnerabilities i.e Cyber attack and spying on The New York Times and Wall Street Journal by Chinese Hackers, Security Flaws in UPnP protocol, Botnet attack hack 16,000 Facebook accounts, 700,000 accounts hacked in Africa and new android malware that infect more that 620,000 users.
Today Twitter also announced that they have recorded some unusual access patterns that is identified as unauthorized access attempts to Twitter user data. Unknown hackers breach Twitter this week and may have gained access to passwords and other information for as many as 250,000 user accounts
"the attackers may have had access to limited user information – usernames, email addresses, session tokens and encrypted/salted versions of passwords" said Bob Lord ,Director of Information Security, at Twitter.
For security reasons twitter have reset passwords and revoked session tokens for these suspected compromised accounts. "This attack was not the work of amateurs and we do not believe it was an isolated incident," he added.
"The attackers were extremely sophisticated and we believe other companies and organisations have also been recently similarly attacked."
Twitter have not mention that how hackers were able to infiltrate Twitter's systems, but Twitter's blog post alluded that hackers had broken in through a zero day vulnerability in Oracle's Java software.
Some media portals also relate this attack to Hacktivist Anonymous Group incorrectly, because twitter itself no where mention anything about who is attacker! If you are not using good password hygiene, take a moment now to change your Twitter passwords.
| Cyber_Attack |
Critical Print Spooler Bug allows Attackers to Hack any version of Microsoft Windows | https://thehackernews.com/2016/07/printer-security-update.html | Microsoft's July Patch Tuesday offers 11 security bulletins with six rated critical resolving almost 50 security holes in its software.
The company has patched a security flaw in the Windows Print Spooler service that affects all supported versions of Windows ever released, which if exploited could allow an attacker to take over a device via a simple mechanism.
The "critical" flaw (CVE-2016-3238) actually resides in the way Windows handles printer driver installations as well as the way end users connect to printers.
The flaw could allow an attacker to install malware remotely on victim machine that can be used to view, modify or delete data, or create new accounts with full user rights; Microsoft said in MS16-087 bulletin posted Tuesday.
Users who are logged in with fewer user rights on the system are less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights, such as some home accounts and server users.
Microsoft said the critical flaw could be exploited to allow remote code execution if an attacker can conduct a man-in-the-middle (MiTM) attack on a system or print server or set up a rogue print server on a target network.
The critical flaw was discovered and reported by the researchers at security firm Vectra Networks, who disclosed some details on the vulnerability, but didn't publish their proof-of-concept (POC) code.
You can watch the video that shows the hack in action:
In corporate networks, by default network administrators allow printers to deliver the necessary drivers to workstations or systems connected to the network. These drivers are silently installed without user interaction and run with full privileges under the SYSTEM user.
According to researchers, attackers can replace these drivers on the printer with malicious files that could allow them to execute code of their choice.
More worrisome: If the printer is behind a firewall, attackers can even hack other device or computer on that particular network, and then use it to host their malicious files.
Watering Hole Attacks via Printers
Like servers, multiple computers are also connected to printers in an effort to print documents as well as download drivers. So, this flaw allows a hacker to execute watering hole attacks technically using printers.
Watering hole attacks, or drive-by downloads, are used to target businesses and organizations by infecting them with malware to gain access to the network.
"Rather than infecting users individually, an attacker can effectively turn one printer into a watering hole that will infect every Windows device that touches it," said Vectra chief security officer Gunter Ollmann.
"Anyone connecting to the printer share will download the malicious driver. This moves the attack vector from physical devices to any device on the network capable of hosting a virtual printer image."
This flaw (CVE-2016-3238) is by far the most dangerous vulnerability of the year, which is easy to execute, provides different ways of launch attacks, and affects a huge number of users.
A second related vulnerability, CVE-2016-3239, in MS16-087 bulletin is a privilege escalation flaw that could allow attackers to write to the file system.
A security bulletin for Microsoft Office, MS16-088, includes patches for seven remote code execution (RCE) vulnerabilities, 6 of them are memory corruption flaws, which affects Microsoft Office, SharePoint Server as well as Office Web Apps.
The flaws can be exploited by specially crafted Office files, allowing attackers to run arbitrary code with same privileges as the logged in user.
Bulletin MS16-084 addresses flaws in Internet Explorer and MS16-085 in Microsoft Edge. The IE flaws include RCE, privilege escalation, information disclosure and security bypass bugs.
Edge flaws include a handful of RCE and memory corruption flaws in the Chakra JavaScript engine, as well as an ASLR bypass, information disclosure, browser memory corruption, and spoofing bugs.
Bulletin MS16-086 addresses a vulnerability in the JScript and VBScript engines in Windows, which could allow an attacker to execute remote code execution flaw, affecting VBScript 5.7 and JScript 5.8.
Rest five bulletins rated as important address flaws in Windows Secure Kernel Mode, Windows Kernel-Mode Drivers, the .NET framework, the Windows Kernel, and Secure Boot process.
Users are advised to patch their system and software as soon as possible.
| Vulnerability |
Another Master Key vulnerability discovered in Android 4.3 | https://thehackernews.com/2013/11/another-master-key-vulnerability.html | Earlier this year, in the month of July it was first discovered that 99% of Android devices are vulnerable to a flaw called "Android Master Key vulnerability" that allow hackers to modify any legitimate and digitally signed application in order to transform it into a Trojan program that can be used to steal data or take control of the device.
The vulnerability was also responsibly disclosed to Google back in February by Bluebox and but the company did not fix the issue even with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. Later, Google has also modified its Play Store's app entry process so that apps that have been modified using such exploit are blocked and can no longer be distributed via Play.
Then after a few days, in the last week of July this year, Android Security Squad, the China-based group also uncovered a second Android master key vulnerability similar to the first one.
Security researcher Jay Freeman has discovered yet another Master Key vulnerability in Android 4.3, which is very similar to the flaw reported by Android Security Squad in July.
Jay Freeman, perhaps better known as Saurik for Cydia Software, an application for iOS that enables a user to find and install software packages on jailbroken iOS Apple devices such as the iPhone.
He demonstrated the flaw with a proof of concept exploit, written in Python language.
On Android, all applications are signed by their developers using private cryptographic keys; it is by comparing the certificates used to verify these signatures that Android's package manager determines whether applications are allowed to share information, or what permissions they are able to obtain.
Even the system software itself is signed by the manufacturer of the device and the applications signed by that same key are thereby able to do anything that the system software can.
Like the previous master key bugs, Saurik's exploit allows a hacker to gain complete access to your Android device via a modified system APK, with its original cryptographic key being untouched.
This way the malware can obtain full access to Android system and all applications (and their data) with dangerous system permissions.
Users are advised to download apps or app updates only from trusted sources, preferably from official sources or app stores. Saurik has also updated his Cydia Impactor for Android to include a patch for this bug.
Recently, the source code for Android 4.4 was released in Android Open Source Project, which included a patch for all previously known Android Master Key vulnerabilities.
Update: We have updated the story, and made some correction after Saurik comment, 'the bug I am describing is a bug in Android 4.3, not Android 4.4. The fix for it was included in the code release for Android 4.4, and since it is now disclosed there is no harm to the open device community to describe the bug in public; devices that currently have no exploit are there by now exploitable.'
Thank you!
| Vulnerability |
GitHub Updates Policy to Remove Exploit Code When Used in Active Attacks | https://thehackernews.com/2021/06/github-updates-policy-to-remove-exploit.html | Code-hosting platform GitHub Friday officially announced a series of updates to the site's policies that delve into how the company deals with malware and exploit code uploaded to its service.
"We explicitly permit dual-use security technologies and content related to research into vulnerabilities, malware, and exploits," the Microsoft-owned company said. "We understand that many security research projects on GitHub are dual-use and broadly beneficial to the security community. We assume positive intention and use of these projects to promote and drive improvements across the ecosystem."
Stating that it will not allow the use of GitHub in direct support of unlawful attacks or malware campaigns that cause technical harm, the company said it may take steps to disrupt ongoing attacks that leverage the platform as an exploit or a malware content delivery network (CDN).
To that end, users are refrained from uploading, posting, hosting, or transmitting any content that could be used to deliver malicious executables or abuse GitHub as an attack infrastructure, say, by organizing denial-of-service (DoS) attacks or managing command-and-control (C2) servers.
"Technical harms means overconsumption of resources, physical damage, downtime, denial of service, or data loss, with no implicit or explicit dual-use purpose prior to the abuse occurring," GitHub said.
In scenarios where there is an active, widespread abuse of dual-use content, the company said it might restrict access to such content by putting it behind authentication barriers, and as a "last resort," disable access or remove it altogether when other restriction measures are not feasible. GitHub also noted that it would contact relevant project owners about the controls put in place where possible.
The changes come into effect after the company, in late April, began soliciting feedback on its policy around security research, malware, and exploits on the platform with the goal of operating under a clearer set of terms that would remove the ambiguity surrounding "actively harmful content" and "at-rest code" in support of security research.
By not taking down exploits unless the repository or code in question is incorporated directly into an active campaign, the revision to GitHub's policies is also a direct result of widespread criticism that followed in the aftermath of a proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit code that was removed from the platform in March 2021.
The code, uploaded by a security researcher, concerned a set of security flaws known as ProxyLogon that Microsoft disclosed were being abused by Chinese state-sponsored hacking groups to breach Exchange servers worldwide. GitHub at the time said it removed the PoC in accordance with its acceptable use policies, citing it included code "for a recently disclosed vulnerability that is being actively exploited."
| Malware |
WhatsApp-based wormable Android malware spotted on the Google Play Store | https://thehackernews.com/2021/04/whatsapp-based-wormable-android-malware.html | Cybersecurity researchers have discovered yet another piece of wormable Android malware—but this time downloadable directly from the official Google Play Store—that's capable of propagating via WhatsApp messages.
Disguised as a rogue Netflix app under the name of "FlixOnline," the malware comes with features that allow it to automatically reply to a victim's incoming WhatsApp messages with a payload received from a command-and-control (C&C) server.
"The application is actually designed to monitor the user's WhatsApp notifications, and to send automatic replies to the user's incoming messages using content that it receives from a remote C&C server," Check Point researchers said in an analysis published today.
Besides masquerading as a Netflix app, the malicious "FlixOnline" app also requests intrusive permissions that allow it to create fake Login screens for other apps, with the goal of stealing credentials and gain access to all notifications received on the device, using it to hide WhatsApp notifications from the user and automatically reply with a specially-crafted payload received from the C&C server.
"The malware's technique is fairly new and innovative," said Aviran Hazum, manager of mobile intelligence at Check Point. "The technique here is to hijack the connection to WhatsApp by capturing notifications, along with the ability to take predefined actions, like 'dismiss' or 'reply' via the Notification Manager."
A successful infection could allow the malware to spread further via malicious links, steal data from users' WhatsApp accounts, propagate malicious messages to users' WhatsApp contacts and groups, and even extort users by threatening to leak sensitive WhatsApp data or conversations.
The app has since been purged from the Play Store, but not before attracting a total of 500 downloads over the course of two months.
FlixOnline also marks the second time a malicious app has been caught using WhatsApp to spread the malware. In January 2021, ESET researcher Lukas Stefanko disclosed a fake Huawei Mobile app that employed the same modus operandi to perform the wormable attack.
What's more, the message displayed to users upon opening the apps is the same — "We need your permission to access the application. It will help app (sic) to provide better functionality" — suggesting the two apps could either be the work of the same attacker or that the authors of FlixOnline drew inspiration from the Huawei Mobile app.
"The fact that the malware was able to be disguised so easily and ultimately bypass Play Store's protections raises some serious red flags," Hazum said. "Although we stopped one campaign of the malware, the malware family is likely here to stay. The malware may return hidden in a different app."
"Users should be wary of download links or attachments that they receive via WhatsApp or other messaging apps, even when they appear to come from trusted contacts or messaging groups," Hazum added.
| Malware |
New Ransomware Malware takes Advantage of Windows PowerShell | https://thehackernews.com/2014/06/new-ransomware-malware-takes-advantage.html | Ransomware is one of the most blatant and obvious money making schemes for cybercriminals and it was most likely to be known when last year Cryptolocker ransomware targeted millions of computers worldwide.
Recently, security researchers at the Antivirus firm TrendLabs have unearthed another sophisticated variant of the ransomware malware which is employing Windows PowerShell in an effort to encrypt files on the victims' computer. The firm detected the variant as TROJ_POSHCODER.A.
Windows PowerShell is a task automation and configuration management framework from Microsoft, consisting of a command-line shell and associated scripting language. It provides full access to COM and WMI, enabling administrators to perform administrative tasks on both local and remote Windows systems as well as WS-Management and CIM enabling management of remote Linux systems and network devices.
It is believed that cybercriminals have used this feature of Windows just in order to make the detection and analysis of the malware harder on an affected system. However, they failed at this point as using Windows PowerShell feature made it much easier for the researchers to detect the malware.
"In this case, using PowerShell made it easier to detect as this malware is also hard-coded," reads the blog post. "Decrypting and analyzing this malware was not too difficult, particularly compared to other ransomware variants."
TROJ_POSHCODER.A is a script-based malware as it is using the Windows PowerShell feature. The malware makes use of the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) to encrypt the files, and RSA-4096 public key cryptography to exchange the AES key with the victims in order to decrypt the files.
Once the ransomware is installed and executed on the victim's Windows System, it encrypts the existing files on the infected system and then renames them to {filename}.POSHCODER. In Addition, it also drops UNLOCKYOURFILES.html into every folder.
As soon as all the files on the infected system are encrypted, it displays a message to victims saying "Your files were encrypted and locked with a RSA4096 key" and ask them to follow some given instructions in order to decrypt their files as shown in the screenshot:
The instructions in the Ransom note takes users to another page as shown below, asking victims to download the Multibit application to have their own Bitcoin-wallet account for 1 Bitcoin.
After victims purchase the application, they are instructed to fill and submit the form that contains information such as victims' email address, BTC address and ID, as a result to get decryption keys from the threat actors. This new variant have primarily affected English speaking targets in the United States.
In our previous articles, we highlighted many variants of Cryptolocker and other similar threats that has ability to perform additional tasks such as using different languages in their warning and stealing virtual currency from cryptocurrency wallets.
CryptoLocker is especially dangerous because of its infection rate and it is the most damaging Windows virus in a series of recent ransomware Trojans.
We also reported last month that cybercriminals have now begun targeting Smartphones with a special piece of malicious software that locks up the devices until the victims pay a ransom to get the keys to unlock the phone, which highlights how money motivated criminals are continuously improving these threats over time.
What Steps can you take to reduce the risk of your equipment becoming infected? Users are advised to never open email attachments from unknown sources and make backup of your important data to an external device or on the cloud storage. If you believe you have been infected, act quickly. Stay Safe!
| Malware |
North Korean Hackers Used 'Torisma' Spyware in Job Offers-based Attacks | https://thehackernews.com/2020/11/north-korean-hackers-used-torisma.html | A cyberespionage campaign aimed at aerospace and defense sectors in order to install data gathering implants on victims' machines for purposes of surveillance and data exfiltration may have been more sophisticated than previously thought.
The attacks, which targeted IP-addresses belonging to internet service providers (ISPs) in Australia, Israel, Russia, and defense contractors based in Russia and India, involved a previously undiscovered spyware tool called Torisma to stealthily monitor its victims for continued exploitation.
Tracked under the codename of "Operation North Star" by McAfee researchers, initial findings into the campaign in July revealed the use of social media sites, spear-phishing, and weaponized documents with fake job offers to trick employees working in the defense sector to gain a foothold on their organizations' networks.
The attacks have been attributed to infrastructure and TTPs (Techniques, Tactics, and Procedures) previously associated with Hidden Cobra — an umbrella term used by the US government to describe all North Korean state-sponsored hacking groups.
The development continues the trend of North Korea, a heavily sanctioned country, leveraging its arsenal of threat actors to support and fund its nuclear weapons program by perpetrating malicious attacks on US defense and aerospace contractors.
While the initial analysis suggested the implants were intended to gather basic victim information so as to assess their value, the latest investigation into Operation North Star exhibits a "degree of technical innovation" designed to remain hidden on compromised systems.
Not only did the campaign use legitimate job recruitment content from popular US defense contractor websites to lure targeted victims into opening malicious spear-phishing email attachments, the attackers compromised and used genuine websites in the US and Italy — an auction house, a printing company, and an IT training firm — to host their command-and-control (C2) capabilities.
"Using these domains to conduct C2 operations likely allowed them to bypass some organizations' security measures because most organizations do not block trusted websites," McAfee researchers Christiaan Beek and Ryan Sherstibitoff said.
What's more, the first-stage implant embedded in the Word documents would go on to evaluate the victim system data (date, IP Address, User-Agent, etc.) by cross-checking with a predetermined list of target IP addresses to install a second implant called Torisma, all the while minimizing the risk of detection and discovery.
This specialized monitoring implant is used to execute custom shellcode, in addition to actively monitoring for new drives added to the system as well as remote desktop connections.
"This campaign was interesting in that there was a particular list of targets of interest, and that list was verified before the decision was made to send a second implant, either 32 or 64 bits, for further and in-depth monitoring," the researchers said.
"Progress of the implants sent by the C2 was monitored and written in a log file that gave the adversary an overview of which victims were successfully infiltrated and could be monitored further."
| Malware |
3 Zero-Day Exploits Hit SonicWall Enterprise Email Security Appliances | https://thehackernews.com/2021/04/3-zero-day-exploits-hit-sonicwall.html | SonicWall has addressed three critical security vulnerabilities in its hosted and on-premises email security (ES) product that are being actively exploited in the wild.
Tracked as CVE-2021-20021 and CVE-2021-20022, the flaws were discovered and reported to the company by FireEye's Mandiant subsidiary on March 26, 2021, after the cybersecurity firm detected post-exploitation web shell activity on an internet-accessible system within a customer's environment that had SonicWall's ES application running on a Windows Server 2012 installation. A third flaw (CVE-2021-20023) identified by FireEye was disclosed to SonicWall on April 6, 2021.
FireEye is tracking the malicious activity under the moniker UNC2682.
"These vulnerabilities were executed in conjunction to obtain administrative access and code execution on a SonicWall ES device," researchers Josh Fleischer, Chris DiGiamo, and Alex Pennino said.
The adversary leveraged these vulnerabilities, with intimate knowledge of the SonicWall application, to install a backdoor, access files, and emails, and move laterally into the victim organization's network."
A brief summary of the three flaws are below -
CVE-2021-20021 (CVSS score: 9.4) - Allows an attacker to create an administrative account by sending a crafted HTTP request to the remote host
CVE-2021-20022 (CVSS score: 6.7) - Allows a post-authenticated attacker to upload an arbitrary file to the remote host, and
CVE-2021-20023 (CVSS score: 6.7) - A directory traversal flaw that allows a post-authenticated attacker to read an arbitrary file on the remote host.
The administrative access not only enabled the attacker to exploit CVE-2021-20023 to read configuration files, counting those containing information about existing accounts as well as Active Directory credentials but also abuse CVE-2021-20022 to upload a ZIP archive containing a JSP-based web shell called BEHINDER that's capable of accepting encrypted command-and-control (C2) communications.
"With the addition of a web shell to the server, the adversary had unrestricted access to the command prompt, with the inherited permissions of the NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM account," FireEye said, adding the attacker then used "living off the land" (LotL) techniques to harvest credentials, move laterally across the network, and even "compress a subdirectory [that] contains daily archives of emails processed by SonicWall ES."
In the incident observed by the firm, the threat actor is said to have escalated their attack by conducting an internal reconnaissance activity, albeit briefly, prior to being isolated and removed from the environment, thus foiling their mission. The true motive behind the intrusion remains unclear.
SonicWall users are recommended to upgrade to 10.0.9.6173 Hotfix for Windows and 10.0.9.6177 Hotfix for hardware and ESXi virtual appliances. The SonicWall Hosted Email Security product was automatically patched on April 19 and hence no additional action is required.
UPDATE
The Milpitas-headquartered network security firm labeled the findings as an outcome of routine collaboration with third-party researchers and forensic analysis firms to ensure its products adhere to the security best practices.
"Through the course of this process, SonicWall was made aware of and verified certain zero-day vulnerabilities — in at least one known case, being exploited in the wild — to its hosted and on-premises email security products," the company said in a statement to The Hacker News. "SonicWall designed, tested and published patches to correct the issues and communicated these mitigations to customers and partners."
| Vulnerability |
Google Discloses Unpatched 'High-Severity' Flaw in Apple macOS Kernel | https://thehackernews.com/2019/03/cybersecurity-macos-hacking.html | Cybersecurity researcher at Google's Project Zero division has publicly disclosed details and proof-of-concept exploit of a high-severity security vulnerability in macOS operating system after Apple failed to release a patch within 90 days of being notified.
Discovered by Project Zero researcher Jann Horn and demonstrated by Ian Beer, the vulnerability resides in the way macOS XNU kernel allows an attacker to manipulate filesystem images without informing the operating system.
The flaw could eventually allow an attacker or a malicious program to bypass the copy-on-write (COW) functionality to cause unexpected changes in the memory shared between processes, leading to memory corruption attacks.
Copy-On-Write, also referred to as COW, is a resource-management optimization strategy used in computer programming.
In general, if any process (destination) requires a file or data that is already in the memory but created by another process (source), both processes can share the same resource rather than creating a new copy of it, significantly reducing the resource consumption of unmodified copies.
However, if the source process needs to make some changes in the data, the copy-on-write (COW) function comes into play and creates a copy of it in the memory so that the destination process can still have access to the data.
According to the Project Zero researcher, on Apple's macOS operating system, this copy-on-write behavior works not only with the anonymous memory, but also efficiently handles the page tables and memory mappings.
"This means that, after the destination process has started reading from the transferred memory area, memory pressure can cause the pages holding the transferred memory to be evicted from the page cache," reads the advisory detailing the vulnerability.
"Later, when the evicted pages are needed again, they can be reloaded from the backing filesystem."
Google researcher finds that when a mounted filesystem image is mutated directly (for example, by calling pwrite() on the filesystem image), this information is not propagated into the mounted filesystem.
Thus, malicious program or an attacker can simply make changes to evicted pages stored on the disk without informing the virtual management subsystem, tricking the destination processes into loading manipulated malicious content into the memory.
"It is important that the copied memory is protected against later modifications by the source process; otherwise, the source process might be able to exploit double-reads in the destination process," the resaercher says.
In addition to this vulnerability, the Project Zero researcher also found a similar copy-on-write behavior bypass (CVE-2019-6208) by abusing another function on macOS operating system.
The researcher notified Apple of both the vulnerabilities back in November 2018 and the company privately acknowledged the existence of the flaws. While Apple patched the latter flaw in January 2019 update, the former flaw remains unaddressed even after the 90-day deadline Project Zero provides the affected companies.
So, the researchers made the vulnerability public with a "high severity" label and also released the proof-of-concept code that demonstrates the bug, which remains unpatched at the time of writing.
Apple is currently working with the Project Zero team on a fix for the vulnerability, which is intended to be included in a future macOS release.
| Malware |
Cybercriminals Hijack Router DNS to Distribute Android Banking Trojan | https://thehackernews.com/2018/04/android-dns-hijack-malware.html | Security researchers have been warning about an ongoing malware campaign hijacking Internet routers to distribute Android banking malware that steals users' sensitive information, login credentials and the secret code for two-factor authentication.
In order to trick victims into installing the Android malware, dubbed Roaming Mantis, hackers have been hijacking DNS settings on vulnerable and poorly secured routers.
DNS hijacking attack allows hackers to intercept traffic, inject rogue ads on web-pages and redirect users to phishing pages designed to trick them into sharing their sensitive information like login credentials, bank account details, and more.
Hijacking routers' DNS for a malicious purpose is not new. Previously we reported about widespread DNSChanger and Switcher—both the malware worked by changing the DNS settings of the wireless routers to redirect traffic to malicious websites controlled by attackers.
Discovered by security researchers at Kaspersky Lab, the new malware campaign has primarily been targeting users in Asian countries, including South Korea, China Bangladesh, and Japan, since February this year.
Once modified, the rogue DNS settings configured by hackers redirect victims to fake versions of legitimate websites they try to visit and displays a pop-up warning message, which says—"To better experience the browsing, update to the latest chrome version."
It then downloads the Roaming Mantis malware app masquerading as Chrome browser app for Android, which takes permission to collect device' account information, manage SMS/MMS and making calls, record audio, control external storage, check packages, work with file systems, draw overlay windows and so on.
"The redirection led to the installation of Trojanized applications named facebook.apk and chrome.apk that contained Android Trojan-Banker."
If installed, the malicious app overlays all other windows immediately to show a fake warning message (in broken English), which reads, "Account No.exists risks, use after certification."
Roaming Mantis then starts a local web server on the device and launches the web browser to open a fake version of Google website, asking users to fill up their names and date of births.
To convince users into believing that they are handing over this information to Google itself, the fake page displays users' Gmail email ID configured on their infected Android device, as shown in the screenshots.
"After the user enters their name and date of birth, the browser is redirected to a blank page at https://127.0.0.1:${random_port}/submit," researchers said. "Just like the distribution page, the malware supports four locales: Korean, Traditional Chinese, Japanese and English."
Since Roaming Mantis malware app has already gained permission to read and write SMS on the device, it allows attackers to steal the secret verification code for the two-factor authentication for victims' accounts.
While analysing the malware code, Researchers found reference to popular South Korean mobile banking and gaming applications, as well as a function that tries to detect if the infected device is rooted.
"For attackers, this may indicate that a device is owned by an advanced Android user (a signal to stop messing with the device) or, alternatively, a chance to leverage root access to gain access to the whole system," the researchers said.
What's interesting about this malware is that it uses one of the leading Chinese social media websites (my.tv.sohu.com) as its command-and-control server and sends commands to infected devices just via updating the attacker-controlled user profiles.
According to Kaspersky's Telemetry data, the Roaming Mantis malware was detected more than 6,000 times, though the reports came from just 150 unique users.
You are advised to ensure your router is running the latest version of the firmware and protected with a strong password.
You should also disable router's remote administration feature and hardcode a trusted DNS server into the operating system network settings.
| Cyber_Attack |
Apple left iOS 10 Kernel Code Unencrypted, Intentionally! | https://thehackernews.com/2016/06/apple-ios-kernel.html | Apple's new iOS 10 recently made headlines after MIT Technology Review revealed that the company had left the kernel of the mobile operating system unencrypted.
Yes, the first developer preview of iOS 10 released at WWDC has an unencrypted kernel.
When the headline broke, some of the users were surprised enough that they assumed Apple had made a mistake by leaving unencrypted kernel in iOS 10, and therefore, would get reverted in the next beta version of the operating system.
However, Apple managed to confirm everyone that the company left the iOS 10 kernel unencrypted intentionally, as the kernel cache does not contain any critical or private information of users.
On iOS, the kernel is responsible for things like security and how applications are capable of accessing the parts of an iPhone or an iPad.
But, Why Apple had left the iOS wide open when other features like iMessage offer end-to-end encryption?
Apple did this on purpose, because by leaving the iOS 10 kernel unencrypted, the company was "able to optimize the operating system's performance without compromising security," an Apple spokesperson told TechCrunch.
The kernel is the heart of any operating system. Apple has always kept the kernel under several layers of protection in previous versions of iOS, leaving developers as well as researchers in the dark.
So, the unencrypted kernel could help developers and security researchers look more closely at its code and find security flaws. After all, if more eyes are looking for flaws, it would be easier to discover and patch the issues more quickly than before.
MIT Technology Review also pointed out that this could prevent government and law enforcement agencies from exploiting vulnerabilities to crack locked iOS devices, like what the FBI did to hack into the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone.
| Vulnerability |
New Botnet Hunts for Linux — Launching 20 DDoS Attacks/Day at 150Gbps | https://thehackernews.com/2015/09/xor-ddos-attack.html | A network of compromised Linux servers has grown so powerful that it can blow large websites off the Internet by launching crippling Distributed Denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks of over 150 gigabits per second (Gbps).
The distributed denial-of-service network, dubbed XOR DDoS Botnet, targets over 20 websites per day, according to an advisory published by content delivery firm Akamai Technologies.
Over 90 percent of the XOR DDoS targets are located in Asia, and the most frequent targets are the gaming sector and educational institutions.
XOR creator is supposed to be from China, citing the fact that the IP addresses of all Command and Control (C&C) servers of XOR are located in Asia, where most of the infected Linux machines also reside.
How XOR DDoS Botnet infects Linux System?
Unlike other DDoS botnets, the XOR DDoS botnet infects Linux machines via embedded devices such as network routers and then brute forces a machine's SSH service to gain root access to targeted machines.
Once the attackers have acquired Secure Shell credentials and logged in, they use root privileges to run a simple shell script that secretly downloads and installs the malicious XOR botnet software.
However, there is no such evidence that XOR DDoS infects computers by exploiting flaws in the Linux operating system itself.
A High-Bandwidth DDoS Attack
Akamai's Security Intelligence Response Team (SIRT) has seen DDoS attacks – SYN and DNS floods as the observed attack vectors – with the bandwidth ranging from a few gigabits per second (Gbps) to nearly 179 Gbps.
The upper figure is a massive DDoS attack volume that even most multinational corporate networks can not handle. However, the biggest recorded DDoS attacks have hit 400 Gbps.
"Over the past year, the XOR DDoS botnet has grown and is now capable of being used to launch [massive] DDoS attacks," Stuart Scholly, senior vice president of Akamai's Security Business Unit, said in a statement.
Scholly further added that attackers are switching their focus from Windows botnets and building Linux botnets to launch massive DDoS attacks. However in the past, Windows machines were their primary targets for DDoS malware.
How to Detect and Mitigate XOR DDoS Botnet?
Akamai's advisory outlines two different methods for detecting the recent version of the XOR malware.
To Detect XOR DDoS Botnet in your Network, look for the communications between a bot and its C&C server, using the Snort rule given in the advisory.
To Detect XOR DDoS Botnet infection on your Hosts, use the YARA rule also shown in the advisory.
Moreover, Akamai also provides a four-step process for removing the XOR DDoS Trojan from your machine, as given below:
First, identify the malicious files in two directories (/boot and /etc/init.d)
Identify the supporting processes responsible for the persistence of the main process
Kill the malicious processes
Delete the malicious files (in /boot and /etc/init.d)
Additionally, disabling system root login from SSH (Secure Shell), or using a strong password will also defeat this issue.
| Cyber_Attack |
Europol Now Going After People Who Bought DDoS-for-Hire Services | https://thehackernews.com/2019/01/ddos-for-hire-services.html | If you were a buyer of any online DDoS-for-hire service, you might be in trouble.
After taking down and arresting the operators of the world's biggest DDoS-for-hire service last year, the authorities are now in hunt for customers who bought the service that helped cyber criminals launch millions of attacks against several banks, government institutions, and gaming industry.
Europol has announced that British police are conducting a number of live operations worldwide to track down the users of the infamous Webstresser.org service that the authorities dismantled in April 2018.
Launched in 2015, Webstresser let its customers rent the service for about £10 to launch Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against their targets with little to no technical knowledge, which resulted in more than 4 million DDoS attacks.
According to the Europol announcement published on Monday, the agency gained access to the accounts of over 151,000 registered Webstresser users last year when it shut down the service and have now uncovered a "trove of information" against some users that could help the agency track them down.
Europol said more than 250 users of Webstresser and other DDoS-for-hire services will soon face potential prosecution for the damage they have caused.
"Size does not matter — all levels of users are under the radar of law enforcement, be it a gamer booting out the competition out of a game, or a high-level hacker carrying out DDoS attacks against commercial targets for financial gain," Europol said.
In the United Kingdom, several webstresser.org users have recently been visited by the police. In the Netherlands, the police are trying to link user profiles to the identities of Dutch people, while "a Dutch user of webstresser.org has already received this alternative sanction."
Other countries, including the United States, Belgium, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Romania, Estonia, Hungary, Ireland, Switzerland, Norway, Lithuania, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden, Australia, Colombia, Serbia, have also joined the fight against DDoS attacks.
While some of these countries are focusing their actions specifically against the Webstresser users, some have intensified their activities against the users of any DDoS booter or stresser service.
"To this effect, the FBI seized last December 15 other DDoS-for-hire websites, including the relatively well known Downthem and Quantum Stresser," Europol said. "Similarly, the Romanian police has taken measures against the administrators of 2 smaller-scale DDoS platforms and has seized digital evidence, including information about the users."
So, users of all DDoS-for-Hire services are in danger of being prosecuted.
| Cyber_Attack |
FinFisher spyware found running on computers all over the world | https://thehackernews.com/2012/08/finfisher-spyware-found-running-on.html | FinFisher, a software application used by law enforcement agencies for surveillance, appears to be far more widespred than originally thought.Sold by British company Gamma Internationl Gmbh, FinFisher secretly monitors computers by turning on webcams, recording everything the user types with a keylogger, and monitoring Skype calls.
It can also bypass popular antivirus products, communicate covertly with remote servers, record emails, chats, and VOIP calls, and harvesting data from the hard drive.
On Wednesday, computer security company Rapid7 researcher Claudio Guarnieri shared new details of the workings of FinFisher, a piece of malware sold by UK contractor Gamma Group to government agencies. He found FinFisher servers at work in Australia, Czech Republic, United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Estonia, Indonesia, Latvia, Mongolia, Qatar, and the United States.
Rapid7 has published the IP addresses and communication "fingerprint" of the command and control servers it has discovered. The information can be used in intrusion detection systems. "If you can identify those networks actually communicating with those IPs, it most likely means some of the people on those networks are being spied on in some way," Guarnieri said.
Muench, who is based in Munich, has said his company didn't sell FinFisher spyware to Bahrain. He said he's investigating whether the samples used against Bahraini activists were stolen demonstration copies or were sold via a third party.
| Malware |
Adobe Issues Critical Patches for ColdFusion, Flash Player, Campaign | https://thehackernews.com/2019/06/adobe-patch-june.html | It's Patch Tuesday week!
Adobe has just released the latest June 2019 software updates to address a total 11 security vulnerabilities in its three widely-used products Adobe ColdFusion, Flash Player, and Adobe Campaign.
Out of these, three vulnerabilities affect Adobe ColdFusion, a commercial rapid web application development platform—all critical in severity—that could lead to arbitrary code execution attacks.
Here below you can find brief information about all newly patched ColdFusion flaws:
CVE-2019-7838 — This vulnerability has been categorized as "File extension blacklist bypass" and can be exploited if the file uploads directory is web accessible.
CVE-2019-7839 — There's a command injection vulnerability in ColdFusion 2016 and 2018 editions, but it does not impact ColdFusion version 11.
CVE-2019-7840 — This flaw originates from the deserialization of untrusted data and also leads to arbitrary code execution on the system.
Besides ColdFusion, Adobe has patched just one vulnerability (CVE-2019-7845) in the infamous Flash Player software this month, which is also critical in severity and leads to arbitrary code execution on the affected Windows, macOS, Linux or Chrome OS-based system.
This flaw was reported by an anonymous cybersecurity researcher to the Adobe and can now be patched by installing the latest Flash player version 32.0.0.207.
The rest 7 flaws that Adobe patched this month resides in Adobe Campaign Classic (ACC), an advanced cross-channel marketing and campaign management platform, one of which is critical in severity, three have been rated important and other 3 poses little threat to users.
The only critical flaw (CVE-2019-7843) in Adobe Campaign could allow attackers to execute commands on the affected systems (Windows and Linux) through arbitrary code execution flaw.
At the time of writing, the company is not aware of any in-the-wild exploit for the vulnerabilities it addressed today.
Adobe has released updated versions of all three vulnerable software for each impacted platform that users should install immediately to protect their systems and businesses from cyber attacks.
| Vulnerability |
New Adobe Flash Zero-Day Exploit Found Hidden Inside MS Office Docs | https://thehackernews.com/2018/12/flash-player-vulnerability.html | Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new zero-day vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player that hackers are actively exploiting in the wild as part of a targeted campaign appears to be attacking a Russian state health care institution.
The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2018-15982, is a use-after-free flaw resides in Flash Player that, if exploited successfully, allows an attacker to execute arbitrary code on the targeted computer and eventually gain full control over the system.
The newly discovered Flash Player zero-day exploit was spotted last week by researchers inside malicious Microsoft Office documents, which were submitted to online multi-engine malware scanning service VirusTotal from a Ukrainian IP address.
The maliciously crafted Microsoft Office documents contain an embedded Flash Active X control in its header that renders when the targeted user opens it, causing exploitation of the reported Flash player vulnerability.
According to cybersecurity researchers, neither the Microsoft Office file (22.docx) nor the Flash exploit (inside it) itself contain the final payload to take control over the system.
Instead, the final payload is hiding inside an image file (scan042.jpg), which is itself an archive file, that has been packed along with the Microsoft Office file inside a parent WinRAR archive which is then distributed through spear-phishing emails, as shown in the video below:
Upon opening the document, the Flash exploit executes a command on the system to unarchive the image file and run the final payload (i.e., backup.exe) which has been protected with VMProtect and programmed to install a backdoor that is capable of:
monitoring user activities (keyboard or moves the mouse)
collecting system information and sending it to a remote command-and-control (C&C) server,
executing shellcode,
loading PE in memory,
downloading files
execute code, and
performing self-destruction.
Researchers from Gigamon Applied Threat Research and Chinese cyber-security firm Qihoo 360 Core Security, who spotted and named the malware campaign as "Operation Poison Needles," have not attributed the attack to any state-sponsored hacking group.
However, since the maliciously crafted documents in question purport to be an employment application for a Russian state healthcare clinic that is affiliated to the Presidential Administration of Russia and was uploaded on VirusTotal from a Ukrainian IP, researchers believe the attackers could be from Ukraine, considering the political tension between the two countries.
The vulnerability impacts Adobe Flash Player versions 31.0.0.153 and earlier for products including Flash Player Desktop Runtime, Flash Player for Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer 11. Adobe Flash Player Installer versions 31.0.0.108 and earlier is also affected.
Researchers reported the Flash zero-day exploit to Adobe on November 29, after which the company acknowledged the issue and released updated Adobe Flash Player version 32.0.0.101 for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Chrome OS; and Adobe Flash Player Installer version 31.0.0.122.
The security updates include a patch for the reported zero-day flaw, along with a fix for an "important" DLL hijacking vulnerability (CVE-2018-15983), which could allow attackers to gain privilege escalation via Flash Player and load a malicious DLL.
| Malware |
Linux Botnet Adding BlueKeep-Flawed Windows RDP Servers to Its Target List | https://thehackernews.com/2019/07/linux-malware-windows-bluekeep.html | Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new variant of WatchBog, a Linux-based cryptocurrency mining malware botnet, which now also includes a module to scan the Internet for Windows RDP servers vulnerable to the Bluekeep flaw.
BlueKeep is a highly-critical, wormable, remote code execution vulnerability in the Windows Remote Desktop Services that could allow an unauthenticated remote attacker to take full control over vulnerable systems just by sending specially crafted requests over RDP protocol.
Though the patches for the BlueKeep vulnerability (CVE–2019-0708) was already released by Microsoft in May this year, more than 800,000 Windows machines accessible over the Internet are still vulnerable to the critical flaw.
Fortunately, even after many individuals in the security community developed working remote code exploits for BlueKeep, there is no public proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit available till the date, potentially preventing opportunistic hackers from wreaking havoc.
However, cybersecurity firm Immunity just yesterday released an updated version of its commercial automated vulnerability assessment and penetration testing (VAPT) tool, CANVAS 7.23, which includes a new module for the BlueKeep RDP exploit.
It appears the attackers behind WatchBog are using their botnet network to prepare "a list of vulnerable systems to target in the future or to sell to third party vendors for profit," warned the researchers from Intezer Lab, who discovered the new WatchBog variant.
"The incorporation of the BlueKeep scanner by a Linux botnet may indicate WatchBog is beginning to explore financial opportunities on a different platform," the researchers said.
The BlueKeep scanner included in WatchBog scans the Internet and then submits the list of newly discovered RDP hosts, as a hexadecimal data string encrypted using RC4, to the attacker-controlled servers.
According to the researcher, the new WatchBog variant has already compromised more than 4,500 Linux machines in the last two months.
Although WatchBog is operating since late last year, attackers are distributing its new variant in an ongoing campaign active since early June this year.
The newly-discovered WatchBog variant includes a new spreading module along with exploits for some recently patched vulnerabilities in Linux applications, allowing attackers to find and compromise more Linux systems rapidly.
The WatchBog Linux botnet malware contains several modules, as structurally briefed below, which leverages recently patched vulnerabilities in Exim, Jira, Solr, Jenkins, ThinkPHP and Nexus applications to compromise Linux machines.
Pwn Module
CVE-2019-11581 (Jira)
CVE-2019-10149 (Exim)
CVE-2019-0192 (Solr)
CVE-2018-1000861 (Jenkins)
CVE-2019-7238 (Nexus Repository Manager 3)
Scanning Module
BlueKeep Scanner
Jira Scanner
Solr Scanner
Brute-forcing Module
CouchDB instances
Redis instances
Spreading Module
Apache ActiveMQ (CVE-2016-3088)
Solr (CVE-2019-0192)
Code Execution over Redis
After scanning and brute-forcing modules discover a Linux machine running the vulnerable application, WatchBog deploys a script on the targeted machine to download Monero miner modules from Pastebin website.
The malicious script then also gains persistence on the infected system via crontab and further downloads a new spreader module, which comes in the form of a dynamically linked Cython-compiled ELF executable.
Researchers have recommended Linux and Windows administrators to keep their software and operating systems up-to-date against known vulnerabilities in order to prevent themselves from being a victim of such attack campaigns.
You can find if WatchBog has infected your Linux machine by checking the existence of the "/tmp/.tmplassstgggzzzqpppppp12233333" file or the "/tmp/.gooobb" file on your system.
| Malware |
Bitcoin Talk forum hacked; Database for Sale by Hacker; Website currently down | https://thehackernews.com/2013/10/bitcoin-talk-forum-hacked-database-for.html | Bitcoin Talk, the popular Bitcoin discussion forum, has been hacked and as it stands the site is currently unreachable.
Bitcointalk has been down for nearly 6 hours. The forums have been allegedly hacked and Defaced by "The Hole Seekers" and selling 150,000 emails and hashed passwords stolen from Bitcointalk.org for 25 Bitcoins, where the passwords are hashed with sha256crypt.
Hacker embedded the "1812 Overture" song in the background with a dazzling animated picture show.
According to Bitcointalk admin Theymos, it's possible that the hackers gained access to the database. He says the website will not be restored until he figures out precisely what vulnerability the hackers leveraged. He's offering 50 Bitcoin to the first individual who can pinpoint the security hole.
See the video below for the Hack-in-Action:
"Hello friend, Bitcoin has been seized by the FBI for being illegal. Thanks, bye" reads one the message in the video.
To be safe, it is recommended that all Bitcoin Forum users consider any password used on the Bitcoin Forum in 2013 to be insecure.
There is no further information available currently, but on a Reddit thread the source code of Bitcointalk and JavaScript payload have been made available online for anyone to download.
| Vulnerability |
Malware infected International Atomic Energy Agency Computers | https://thehackernews.com/2013/10/malware-infected-international-atomic.html | Hackers and malware are everywhere, waiting for you around every corner of the Internet. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which holds highly sensitive information and plays a key role in global efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, said on Tuesday that some of its computers were infected by malicious software, during the past several months.
Malware can typically be used by cyber-attackers to gain remote access to systems, or to steal data, however spokesman Serge Gas said. "No data from the IAEA network has been affected."
The computers were located in common areas of the agency's Vienna headquarters, known as the Vienna International Centre (VIC).
A third-party technician or visitor with the USB-drive infected with crimeware can be used to infect the system. "The (IAEA) secretariat does not believe that the USB devices themselves were infected or that they could spread the malware further" he said.
Last November, the IAEA revealed that Iranian hackers had accessed one of its former computer servers and posted the contact details of some of the watchdog's experts online.
"Protecting information is vital to the IAEA's work. The agency continuously endeavours to achieve the highest possible level of protection of information," Gas said.
The authority did not go into explicit details regarding the malware itself, but did stress that the use of removable media had to be reviewed and tightened.
| Malware |
Mirage Anti-Bot 2.0 : Protection against ZeuS, SpyEye Malwares | https://thehackernews.com/2012/02/mirage-anti-bot-20-protection-against.html | Mirage Anti-Bot 2.0 : Protection against ZeuS, SpyEye Malwares
Jean-Pierre aka DarkCoderSc and Fred De Vries Develop and Release the second version of Another great security tool named "Mirage Anti-Bot 2.0". Zeus and SpyEye were the two main families of botnet software. These types of malware are spread mainly through drive-by downloads and phishing schemes.
They are so-called Trojan horses which are designed to steal credentials from various online services like social networks (such as Facebook, Hi5, Yahoo, Netlog), online banking accounts (phising), ftp-accounts, email-accounts and other. They are part of botnets that are estimated to include millions of compromized computers.
Because your antivirus program is not always giving you enough protection against these types of malware, so Experts at https://unremote.org/ create this program for you, that can be used as an extra layer of security. Mirage Anti-Bot will be downloading and installing one or more blocklists from www.abuse.ch, a reputable Swiss-based anti-malware website. This effectively stops your computer from reaching infected sites, thus minimizing the risk to be infected with this extremely dangerous type of malware.
Changelog :
[+] Installer
[+] New GUI, More pro
[+] Start with Windows
[+] Protect you against Palevo, TDL3, Rogues, C&C etc..
[+] Protect you against spyeye botnet
[+] Confirm on quit
[+] Limit exceed bug fixed, now it grabs data locally using SSL
[+] Proxy authentification added
Download Mirage Anti-Bot 2.0
| Malware |
LuckyMouse Hackers Target Banks, Companies and Governments in 2020 | https://thehackernews.com/2021/04/luckymouse-hackers-target-banks.html | An adversary known for its watering hole attacks against government entities has been linked to a slew of newly detected intrusions targeting various organizations in Central Asia and the Middle East.
The malicious activity, collectively named "EmissarySoldier," has been attributed to a threat actor called LuckyMouse, and is said to have happened in 2020 with the goal of obtaining geopolitical insights in the region. The attacks involved deploying a toolkit dubbed SysUpdate (aka Soldier) in a number of breached organizations, including government and diplomatic agencies, telecom providers, a TV media company, and a commercial bank.
LuckyMouse, also referred to as APT27 and Emissary Panda, is a sophisticated cyberespionage group that has a history of breaching multiple government networks in Central Asia and the Middle East. The actor has also been linked to cyberattacks aimed at transnational organizations such as the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in 2019 and recently attracted attention for exploiting ProxyLogon flaws to compromise the email server of a governmental entity in the Middle East.
EmissarySoldier is only the latest in a series of surveillance efforts aimed at the targets.
"In order to compromise victims, LuckyMouse typically uses watering holes, compromising websites likely to be visited by its intended targets, ESET malware researcher Matthieu Faou said in a report published today. "LuckyMouse operators also perform network scans to find vulnerable internet-facing servers run by their intended victims."
What's more, ESET also observed LuckyMouse infections on an unspecified number of internet-facing systems running Microsoft SharePoint, which the researchers suspect occurred by taking advantage of remote code execution vulnerabilities in the application.
Regardless of the method used to gain an initial foothold, the attack chain culminates in the deployment of custom post-compromise implants, SysUpdate or HyperBro, both of which leverage DLL search order hijacking to load malicious payloads and thwart detection. "The trident model features a legitimate application vulnerable to DLL hijacking, a custom DLL that loads the payload, and a raw Shikata Ga Nai-encoded binary payload," Faou noted.
For its part, SysUpdate functions as a modular tool, with each component devoted to a particular operational purpose. It involves abusing a benign application as a loader for a malicious DLL, which in turn loads the first-stage payload that ultimately decodes and deploys the memory implant on the compromised system. Since its discovery in 2018, the toolkit has undergone numerous revisions devoted to adding new functionalities, indicating that the operators are actively working to revamp their malware arsenal.
"LuckyMouse was increasingly active throughout 2020, seemingly going through a retooling process in which various features were being incrementally integrated into the SysUpdate toolkit," Faou said. "This may be an indicator that the threat actors behind LuckyMouse are gradually shifting from using HyperBro to SysUpdate."
| Malware |
New 'unc0ver' Tool Can Jailbreak All iPhone Models Running iOS 11.0 - 14.3 | https://thehackernews.com/2021/03/new-unc0ver-tool-can-jailbreak-all.html | A popular jailbreaking tool called "unc0ver" has been updated to support iOS 14.3 and earlier releases, thereby making it possible to unlock almost every single iPhone model using a vulnerability that Apple in January disclosed was actively exploited in the wild.
The latest release, dubbed unc0ver v6.0.0, was released on Sunday, according to its lead developer Pwn20wnd, expanding its compatibility to jailbreak any device running iOS 11.0 through iOS 14.3 using a kernel vulnerability, including iOS 12.4.9-12.5.1, 13.5.1-13.7, and 14.0-14.3.
Tracked as CVE-2021-1782, the flaw is a privilege escalation vulnerability in the kernel stemming from a race condition that could cause a malicious application to elevate its privileges.
"We wrote our own exploit based on CVE-2021-1782 for #unc0ver to achieve optimal exploit speed and stability," Pwn20wnd said in a separate tweet.
The vulnerability has since been addressed by Apple as part of its iOS and iPadOS 14.4 updates released on January 26, 2021, but not before admitting that the issue may have been under active attack by bad actors.
The iPhone maker, however, did not disclose how widespread the attack was or reveal the identities of the attackers actively exploiting them.
Jailbreaking, similar to rooting on Google's Android, involves a privilege escalation that works by exploiting flaws in iOS to grant users root access and full control over their devices. In doing so, it allows iOS users to remove software restrictions imposed by Apple, thereby allowing access to additional customization and otherwise prohibited apps.
For its part, Apple has steadily made it difficult to jailbreak devices by locking down its hardware and software for security reasons, which it says helps counter malware attacks.
ZecOps CEO Zuk Avraham said the jailbreak is "yet another example that attackers have an edge on iOS vs. defenders," adding "[Apple] needs to stop the need to jailbreak the device in the first place and should just enable users to have full access without a need to run an exploit."
Last May, the unc0ver team released a similar jailbreak for iPhones running iOS 11 to iOS 13.5 by exploiting a memory consumption issue in the kernel (CVE-2020-9859). But it was patched by Apple in a matter of days with the release of iOS 13.5.1 to prevent the vulnerability from being exploited maliciously.
| Vulnerability |
TrickBot Malware Gets UEFI/BIOS Bootkit Feature to Remain Undetected | https://thehackernews.com/2020/12/trickbot-malware-gets-uefibios-bootkit.html | TrickBot, one of the most notorious and adaptable malware botnets in the world, is expanding its toolset to set its sights on firmware vulnerabilities to potentially deploy bootkits and take complete control of an infected system.
The new functionality, dubbed "TrickBoot" by Advanced Intelligence (AdvIntel) and Eclypsium, makes use of readily available tools to check devices for well-known vulnerabilities that can allow attackers to inject malicious code in the UEFI/BIOS firmware of a device, granting the attackers an effective mechanism of persistent malware storage.
"This marks a significant step in the evolution of TrickBot as UEFI level implants are the deepest, most powerful, and stealthy form of bootkits," the researchers said.
"By adding the ability to canvas victim devices for specific UEFI/BIOS firmware vulnerabilities, TrickBot actors are able to target specific victims with firmware-level persistence that survives re-imaging or even device bricking capability."
UEFI is a firmware interface and a replacement for BIOS that improves security, ensuring that no malware has tampered with the boot process. Because UEFI facilitates the loading of the operating system itself, such infections are resistant to OS reinstallation or replacement of the hard drive.
TrickBot emerged in 2016 as a banking trojan but has since evolved into a multi-purpose malware-as-a-service (MaaS) that infects systems with other malicious payloads designed to steal credentials, email, financial data, and spread file-encrypting ransomware such as Conti and Ryuk.
Its modularity and versatility have made it an ideal tool for a diverse set of threat actors despite attempts by cyber vendors to take the infrastructure down. It has also been observed in conjunction with Emotet campaigns to deploy Ryuk ransomware.
"Their most common attack chain largely begins via Emotet malspam campaigns, which then loads TrickBot and/or other loaders, and moves to attack tools like PowerShell Empire or Cobalt Strike to accomplish objectives relative to the victim organization under attack," the researchers said. "Often, at the end of the kill-chain, either Conti or Ryuk ransomware is deployed."
To date, the botnet has infected more than a million computers, according to Microsoft and its partners at Symantec, ESET, FS-ISAC, and Lumen.
From a Reconnaissance Module to an Attack Function
The newest addition to their arsenal suggests that TrickBot can not only be used to target systems en masse with ransomware and UEFI attacks but also provide criminal actors even more leverage during ransom negotiation by leaving a covert UEFI bootkit on the system for later use.
The development is also yet another sign that adversaries are extending their focus beyond the operating system of the device to lower layers to avoid detection and carry out destructive or espionage-focused campaigns.
TrickBot's reconnaissance component, observed for the first time in October 2020 right after the take-down attempts orchestrated by the US Cyber Command and Microsoft, targets Intel-based systems from Skylake through Comet Lake chipsets to probe for vulnerabilities in the UEFI firmware of the infected machines.
Specifically, the researchers found that TrickBoot takes aim at the SPI flash chip that houses the UEFI/BIOS firmware, using an obfuscated copy of RWEverything tool's RwDrv.sys driver to check if the BIOS control register is unlocked and the contents of the BIOS region can be modified.
Although the activity is limited to reconnaissance so far, it wouldn't be a stretch if this capability is extended to write malicious code to the system firmware, thereby ensuring that attacker code executes before the operating system and paving the way for the installation of backdoors, or even the destruction of a targeted device.
What's more, given the size and scope of the TrickBot, an attack of this kind can have severe consequences.
"TrickBoot is only one line of code away from being able to brick any device it finds to be vulnerable," the researchers noted. "The national security implications arising from a widespread malware campaign capable of bricking devices is enormous."
With UEFI persistence, "TrickBot operators can disable any OS level security controls they want, which then allows them to re-surface to a modified OS with neutered endpoint protections and carry out objectives with unhurried time on their side."
To mitigate such threats, it's recommended that the firmware is kept up-to-date, BIOS write protections are enabled, and firmware integrity is verified to safeguard against unauthorized modifications.
| Cyber_Attack |
#Security Alert : Facebook Two-Factor Authentication fail ! | https://thehackernews.com/2012/03/security-alert-facebook-two-factor.html | #Security Alert : Facebook Two-Factor Authentication fail !
Last year Facebook has launched a security feature called Login Approvals or two-factor authentication. This is a follow-up security update regarding Facebook Login from Facebook. They have already integrated Facebook login email alerts to get notification emails or SMS messages whenever a suspicious person uses your Facebook account from a different location.
Christopher Lowson, on his blog explains the Facebook Two-Factor Authentication, which is really another biggest fail of Facebook Security.
But that feature is not enough to ensure your account's security and that is why Facebook has launched "Login Approvals". This feature is very similar with Google 2-step verification which associates a mobile device with your Facebook account and authenticates the login by sending a verification code at your mobile phone device.
According to this feature, When user will logging into your Facebook account from a new device, a code will be sent to his phone which he will have to enter before he is granted access to your Facebook Account.
What Lowson did, He click the option "I can't get my code" and noticed "Skip this and stop asking me to enter codes" and After clicking this he got asked "Log in without entering codes from now on?" by Facebook. Finally Lowson is able to login without Codes and 2 step authentication Security feature Turned off and Bypassed simply by options.
Conclusion is that, Why Facebook is trying to use such security features which can be easily exploited at user end ? Even a very less percentage of facebook users are aware about this feature which is actually implemented last year and still have such bugs.
Submitted By: Christopher Lowson
| Vulnerability |
Security researchers will disclose vulnerabilities in Embedded, ARM, x86 & NFC | https://thehackernews.com/2012/07/security-researchers-will-disclose.html | Security researchers are expected to disclose new vulnerabilities in near field communication (NFC), mobile baseband firmware, HTML5 and Web application firewalls next week at the Black Hat USA 2012 security conference.
The Black Hat session aim to expose sometimes shocking vulnerabilities in widely used products. They also typically show countermeasures to plug the holes.
Two independent security consultants will give a class called "Advanced ARM exploitation," part of a broader five-day private class the duo developed. In a sold-out session, they will detail hardware hacks of multiple ARM platforms running Linux, some described on a separate blog posting.
The purpose of the talk is to reach a broader audience and share the more interesting bits of the research that went into developing the Practical ARM Exploitation and presenters Stephen Ridley and Stephen Lawler demonstrate how to defeat XN, ASLR, stack cookies, etc. using nuances of the ARM architecture on Linux.
In addition to mobile and Web security, Black Hat presentations will also cover security issues and attack techniques affecting industrial control systems, smart meters and embedded devices.
| Malware |
Internet Explorer zero-day exploit used watering hole attacks to target Japanese users | https://thehackernews.com/2013/09/internet-explorer-zero-day-exploit-used.html | Attackers exploiting a zero-day vulnerability CVE-2013-3893 in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser and served them on compromised popular Japanese news websites.
According to FireEye, at least three major Japanese media websites were compromised in watering hole attacks, dubbed Operation DeputyDog, appears to target manufacturers, government entities and media organizations in Japan.
The compromised sites recorded more than 75,000 page views before the exploits were discovered. The zero-day vulnerability in IE 8 and 9 allows the stealthy installation of software in the users' computers which then can be remotely accessed by the hackers.
The hackers typically use Trojans designed specifically for a pay-to-order attack to steal intellectual property. Researchers saw a payload executable file used against a Japanese target posing as an image file hosted on a Hong Kong server.
The attack in Japan was discovered two days after Microsoft disclosed the flaw ,"The exploit was attacking a Use After Free vulnerability in IE's HTML rendering engine (mshtml.dll) and was implemented entirely in Javascript (no dependencies on Java, Flash etc.), but did depend on a Microsoft Office DLL which was not compiled with ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization) enabled," Microsoft Security Advisory.
FireEye also claimed the group responsible for DeputyDog is the same one that compromised security firm Bit9 back in February 2013. FireEye did not disclose which sites were infected, but said that Japanese computer security authorities were working with the media outlets to remediate the issue.
Microsoft released a FixIt tool and urged IE users to install that as a mitigation until a patch was ready.
| Vulnerability |
Microsoft Tuesday Update to Patch Critical Windows and Internet Explorer Vulnerabilities | https://thehackernews.com/2014/08/microsoft-tuesday-update-to-patch_8.html | Today Microsoft has released its Advance Notification for the month of August 2014 Patch Tuesday Updates releasing a total of nine security Bulletins, which will address several vulnerabilities in its products, out of which two are marked critical and rest are important in severity.
The latest updates, which is set to arrive on August 12, will address two critical bugs affect Internet Explorer and Windows with seven other issues rated as important. The vulnerabilities in the company's products range from remote code execution to protection bypasses.
Both of the critical fixes will address remote-code execution flaws. The critical Windows update affects only business and professional editions of Windows 7 and Windows 8. Whereas, the Internet Explorer update affects all versions of Windows on all supported platforms.
The remaining seven updates affect its various products, including Windows, Office, SQL Server, the .NET Framework and SharePoint Server 2013.
There will be no critical bulletins for Windows Server this month, also the IE patch is considered a moderate risk for servers. However, several bulletins are rated 'important' and should be updated with the patch.
The Tuesday Update will also addresses a remote-code execution vulnerability in Microsoft Office, rated as 'important', and an elevation of privilege vulnerability in SQL Server. The company will also fix Microsoft Server Software for another elevation of privilege vulnerability.
Rest three bulletins will address a pair of elevation of privilege vulnerabilities and a security bypass vulnerability in Windows.
Earlier this week, Microsoft also announced that the company will release a change to its Internet Explorer on Update Tuesday that will block old and out-of-date ActiveX controls. It will warn users when the browser attempts to load an out-dated ActiveX controls. Initially, the list will contain only old Java versions.
The out-of-date ActiveX control blocking feature works on:
Windows 7 SP1, Internet Explorer 8 through Internet Explorer 11
Windows 8 and up, Internet Explorer for the desktop
All Security Zones—such as the Internet Zone—but not the Local Intranet Zone and the Trusted Sites Zone
Note: Microsoft will not release any security update for its older version of Windows XP, as it stopped supporting Windows XP Operating System. So, if you are still running this older version of operating system on your PCs, we again advise you to move on to other operating system in order to receive updates and secure yourself from upcoming threats.
| Vulnerability |
What is Threat Intelligence and How It Helps to Identify Security Threats | https://thehackernews.com/2015/11/what-is-cyber-threat-intelligence.html | Simply put, threat intelligence is knowledge that helps you identify security threats and make informed decisions. Threat intelligence can help you solve the following problems:
How do I keep up to date on the overwhelming amount of information on security threats…including bad actors, methods, vulnerabilities, targets, etc.?
How do I get more proactive about future security threats?
How do I inform my leaders about the dangers and repercussions of specific security threats?
Threat Intelligence: What is it?
Threat intelligence has received a lot of attention lately. While there are many different definitions, here are a few that get quoted often:
Threat intelligence is evidence-based knowledge, including context, mechanisms, indicators, implications and actionable advice, about an existing or emerging menace or hazard to assets that can be used to inform decisions regarding the subject's response to that menace or hazard. – Gartner
The set of data collected, assessed and applied regarding security threats, threat actors, exploits, malware, vulnerabilities and compromise indicators – SANS Institute
Why is everyone talking about it?
Verizon's 2015 DBIR estimated a financial loss of $400 million from 700 million compromised records, which resulted from 79,790 security incidents!
As long as security threats and breaches occur, every business will look for ways to protect their data. The threat landscape is always changing and the business risk is increasing because of our dependence on IT systems.
Threats come from internal as well as external sources. Bottom line is, organizations are under tremendous pressure to manage threats. Though information in the form of raw data is available abundantly, it is hard and time-consuming to get meaningful information based on which proactive measures can be set.
This naturally pulls more and more users towards threat intelligence as it helps to prioritize threats within the deluge of data, alerts, and attacks and provides actionable information.
The table below presents several common indicators of compromise that can be identified with threat intelligence feeds:
Category Indicators of Compromise Examples
Network
IP addresses
URLs
Domain names
Malware infections targeting internal hosts that are communicating with known bad actors
Email
Sender's email address and email subject
Attachments
Links
Phishing attempts where internal hosts click on an unsuspecting email and "phone home" to a malicious command and control server
Host-Based
Filenames and file hashes (e.g. MD5)
Registry keys
Dynamic link libraries (DLLs)
Mutex names
External attacks from hosts that might be infected themselves or are already known for nefarious activity
Threat Intelligence capabilities
Attacks can be broadly categorized as user based, application based and infrastructure based threats. Some of the most common threats are SQL injections, DDoS, web application attacks and phishing.
It is important to have an IT security solution that provides threat intelligence capabilities to manage these attacks by being both proactive and responsive.
Attackers are constantly changing their methods to challenge security systems. Therefore, it becomes inevitable for organizations to get threat intelligence from a variety of sources.
One of the proven methods to stay on top of attacks is to detect and respond to threats with a SIEM (Security Information & Event Management system).
A SIEM can be used to track everything that happens in your environment and identify anomalous activities. Isolated incidents might look unrelated, but with event correlation and threat intelligence, you can see what is actually happening in your environment.
Nowadays, IT security professionals must operate under the assumed breach mentality. Comparing monitored traffic against known bad actors sourced from threat intelligence would help in identifying malicious activities.
However, this could be manual and time-consuming. Integrating indicator based threat intelligence to a SEIM security solution would help in identifying compromised system and possibly even prevent some attacks.
Best Practices
Integrating threat intelligence and responding to attacks is not enough to combat the ever-changing threat landscape. You need to analyze the situation and determine threats you are likely to face, based on which you can come up with precautionary measures.
Here is a list of several best practices:
Have an application whitelist and blacklist. This helps in preventing execution of malicious or unapproved programs including, .DLL files, scripts and installers.
Check your logs carefully to see if an attempted attack was an isolated event, or if the vulnerability had been exploited before.
Determine what was changed in the attempted attack.
Audit logs and identify why this incident happened – reasons could range from system vulnerability to an out-of-date driver.
What will threat intelligence enabled SIEM solve
A SIEM, like SolarWinds Log & Event Manager, collects and normalizes log data from monitored traffic and automatically tags suspicious events.
With integrated threat intelligence mechanism and built-in rules, the monitored events can be compared against the list of constantly updated known bad actors.
You can quickly search & monitor for hits from the bad actors against the log data in real time and identify common indicators of compromise.
You can automatically respond with actions like blocking known bad IP addresses, in case of malicious attack attempts.
Watch how threat intelligence works in a SIEM and download your free trial of a leading SIEM from SolarWinds.
| Vulnerability |
New Drammer Android Hack lets Apps take Full control (root) of your Phone | https://thehackernews.com/2016/10/root-android-phone-exploit.html | Earlier last year, security researchers from Google's Project Zero outlined a way to hijack the computers running Linux by abusing a design flaw in the memory and gaining higher kernel privileges on the system.
Now, the same previously found designing weakness has been exploited to gain unfettered "root" access to millions of Android smartphones, allowing potentially anyone to take control of affected devices.
Researchers in the VUSec Lab at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam have discovered a vulnerability that targets a device's dynamic random access memory (DRAM) using an attack called Rowhammer.
Although we are already aware of the Rowhammer attack, this is the very first time when researchers have successfully used this attack to target mobile devices.
What is DRAM Rowhammer Attack?
The Rowhammer attack against mobile devices is equally dangerous because it potentially puts all critical data on millions of Android phones at risk, at least until a security patch is available.
The Rowhammer attack involves executing a malicious application that repeatedly accesses the same "row" of transistors on a memory chip in a tiny fraction of a second in a process called "Hammering."
As a result, hammering a memory region can disturb neighboring row, causing the row to leak electricity into the next row which eventually causes a bit to flip. And since bits encode data, this small change modifies that data, creating a way to gain control over the device.
In short, Rowhammer is an issue with new generation DRAM chips in which repeatedly accessing a row of memory can cause "bit flipping" in an adjacent row that could allow anyone to change the value of contents stored in the memory.
Is Your Android Phone Vulnerable?
To test the Rowhammer attack on mobile phones, the researchers created a new proof-of-concept exploit, dubbed DRAMMER, and found their exploit successfully altered crucial bits of data in a way that completely roots big brand Android devices from Samsung, OnePlus, LG, Motorola, and possibly other manufacturers.
The researchers successfully rooted Android handsets including Google's Nexus 4 and Nexus 5; LG's G4; Samsung Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S5, Motorola's Moto G models from 2013 and 2014; and OnePlus One.
"Not only does our [DRAMMER] attack show that practical, deterministic Rowhammer attacks are a real threat to billions of mobile users, but it is also the first effort to show that Rowhammer is...(reliably exploitable) on any platform other than x86 and with a much more limited software feature set than existing solutions," the researchers wrote in their paper [PDF] titled, "Drammer: Deterministic Rowhammer Attacks on Mobile Platforms."
How does the DRAMMER Attack Work? (Exploit Source Code)
The researchers created an app — containing their rooting exploit — that requires no special user permissions in order to avoid raising suspicion. The DRAMMER attack would then need a victim to download the app laced with malware (researchers' exploit code) to execute the hack.
The researchers took advantage of an Android mechanism called the ION memory allocator to gain direct access to the dynamic random access memory (DRAM).
Besides giving every app direct access to the DRAM, the ION memory allocator also allows identifying adjacent rows on the DRAM, which is an important factor for generating targeted bit flips.
Knowing this, the researchers then had to figure out how to use the bit flipping to achieve root access on the victim's device, giving them full control of the target phone and the ability to do anything from accessing data to taking photos.
"On a high level, our technique works by exhausting available memory chunks of different sizes to drive the physical memory allocator into a state in which it has to start serving memory from regions that we can reliably predict," the paper reads.
"We then force the allocator to place the target security-sensitive data, i.e., a page table, at a position in physical memory which is vulnerable to bit flips and which we can hammer from adjacent parts of memory under our control."
Once you download this malicious app, the DRAMMER exploit takes over your phone within minutes – or even seconds – and runs without your interaction. The attack continues to run even if you interact with the app or put your phone in "sleep" mode.
The researchers expect to soon publish an app [source code available here] that will let you test your Android smartphone yourself and anonymously include your results in a running tally, which will help researchers track the list of vulnerable devices.
DRAMMER Has No Quick Fix
The group of researchers privately disclosed its findings to Google in July, and the company designated the flaw as "critical," awarding the researchers $4,000 under its bug bounty program.
Google says the company has informed its manufacturing partners of the issue earlier this month and has developed a mitigation which it will include in its upcoming November security bulletin to make the DRAMMER attack much harder to execute.
However, the researchers warned that one could not replace the memory chip in Android smartphones that have already been shipped.
And even some software features that DRAMMER exploits are so fundamental and essential to any OS that they are difficult to remove or modify without impacting the user experience.
In short, the attack is not easy to patch in the next generation of Android phones.
Video Demonstration of DRUMMER Attack on Android 6.0.1
The researchers have also published two proof-of-concept videos that demonstrate DRAMMER attack in action against an unrooted LG Nexus 5.
In the first video, the phone is running Android 6.0.1 with security patches Google released on October 5.
In the second video, the researchers show how the DRAMMER attack can be combined with Stagefright bug that remains unpatched in many older Android handsets.
The Stagefright exploit gives the researchers an advanced shell, and by running the DRAMMER exploit, the shell gains root access.
The researcher's exploit can target the majority of the world's Android phones.
"Our research shows that practical large-scale Rowhammer attacks are a serious threat and while the response to the Rowhammer has been relatively slow from vendors, we hope our work will accelerate mitigation efforts both in industry and academia," the researchers concluded.
The group research focuses on Android rather than iOS because the researchers are intimately familiar with the Google's mobile OS which is based on Linux. But the group says it would theoretically be possible to replicate the same attack in an iPhone with additional research.
A team of researchers from VUSec at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the University of California at Santa Barbara, and the Graz University of Technology has conducted the research, and they'll be presenting their findings later this week at the 23rd ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security in Vienna, Austria.
For more detailed information, you can head on to this informational page about DRAMMER and this paper published early this morning.
| Malware |
Linux worm targeting Routers, Set-top boxes and Security Cameras with PHP-CGI Vulnerability | https://thehackernews.com/2013/11/Linux-ELF-malware-php-cgi-vulnerability.html | A Symantec researcher has discovered a new Linux worm, targeting machine-to-machine devices, and exploits a PHP vulnerability (CVE-2012-1823) to propagate that has been patched as far back as May 2012.
Linux worm, which has been dubbed Linux.Darlloz, poses a threat to devices such as home routers and set-top boxes, Security Cameras, and even industrial control systems. It is based on proof-of-concept code released in late October and it helps spread malware by exploiting a vulnerability in php-cgi.
"Upon execution, the worm generates IP addresses randomly, accesses a specific path on the machine with well-known ID and passwords, and sends HTTP POST requests, which exploit the vulnerability. If the target is unpatched, it downloads the worm from a malicious server and starts searching for its next target." the Symantec researchers explained.
The malware does not appear to perform any malicious activity other than silently spreading itself and wiping a load of system files.
So far the malware variant targets x86 systems, because the malicious binary downloaded from the attacker's server is in ELF (Executable and Linkable Format) format for Intel architectures.
However, the Symantec researchers claim the attacker also hosts variants of the worm for other architectures including ARM, PPC, MIPS and MIPSEL.
No attacks have been reported in the wild, but warned that most users would not realize they were at risk as they would be unaware that their own devices ran on Linux.
To protect their devices from the worm, users are advised to update their software to the latest version, make device passwords stronger and block incoming HTTP POST requests to the -/cgi-bin/php* paths.
| Malware |
23-Year-old Russian Hacker confessed to be original author of BlackPOS Malware | https://thehackernews.com/2014/01/23-year-old-russian-hacker-confessed-to.html | In the previous reports of Cyber Intelligence firm 'IntelCrawler' named Sergey Tarasov, a 17-year-old teenager behind the nickname "ree[4]", as the developer of BlackPOS malware.
BlackPOS also known as "reedum" or 'Kaptoxa' is an effective crimeware kit, used in the massive heist of possibly 110 million consumers' Credit-Debit cards, and personal information from the TARGET.
Later Researchers's investigation revealed that the original coder of BlackPOS Malware was actually a 23-year-old young hacker named Rinat Shabayev and the teen, Sergey Taraspov is the incharge for the technical support department.
In an interview with Russian channel 'LifeNews', Rinat Shabayev admitted that he had developed the BlackPOS crimeware kit. He clarified that the program developed by him was not meant for any kind of data theft, instead the program was written for the security testing.
He developed the malware with the help of another programmer with anonymous identity, whom he had met online. His original plan was just to sell the exploit, not to use it for malicious intent by himself.
His friend took the readymate codes from him and added more features to it. In addition to this information, he also confessed that the exploit can be used for malicious purposes too.
Researchers at IntelCrawler say that the same malware may have also been involved in the Neiman Marcus attack too.
Whatever be the intention of the programmer, but now more than 110 million people are suffering credit card theft because of his software. Even after knowing that the malware has ability to compile a massive financial theft, his justifications are not enough to be innocent.
| Malware |
Researcher Found TextSecure Messenger App Vulnerable to Unknown Key-Share Attack | https://thehackernews.com/2014/11/textsecure-private-messenger-vulnerable_2.html | Do you use TextSecure Private Messenger for your private conversations? If yes, then Are you sure you are actually using a Secure messaging app?
TextSecure, an Android app developed by Open WhisperSystems, is completely open-source and claims to support end-to-end encryption of text messages. The app is free and designed by keeping privacy in mind.
However, while conducting the first audit of the software, security researchers from Ruhr University Bochum found that the most popular mobile messaging app is open to an Unknown Key-Share attack.
After Edward Snowden revealed state surveillance programs conducted by the National Security Agency, and meanwhile when Facebook acquired WhatsApp, TextSecure came into limelight and became one of the best alternatives for users who want a secure communication.
"Since Facebook bought WhatsApp, instant messaging apps with security guarantees became more and more popular," the team wrote in the paper titled, "How Secure is TextSecure?".
The messaging app attracted a lot of attention lately and was downloaded by half a million users from the Google's Play Store. The research team explained a complete and precise document and analyze of TextSecure's secure push messaging protocol.
"We are the first to completely and precisely document and analyses TextSecure's secure push messaging protocol," the team wrote.
"We show that if long-term public keys are authentic, so are the message keys, and that the encryption block of TextSecure is actually one-time stateful authenticated encryption [and] prove TextSecure's push messaging can indeed achieve the goals of authenticity and confidentiality."
According to the research team, TextSecure works on a complex cryptographic protocol which is the part of the CyanogenMod Android operating system — a popular open source aftermarket Android firmware that has been installed on about 10 million Android devices. But researchers discovered an Unknown Key-Share Attack (UKS) against the protocol.
The research was conducted by Tilman Frosch, Christian Mainka, Christoph Bader, Florian Bergsma, Jorg Schwenk and Thorsten Holz. For better understanding the UKS against the protocol, the team explained it via an example as follows:
"Bart wants to trick his friend Milhouse. Bart knows that Milhouse will invite him to his birthday party using TextSecure. He starts the attack by replacing his own public key with Nelson's public key and lets Milhouse verify the fingerprint of his new public key. This can be justified, for instance, by claiming to have a new device and having simply re-registered ... if Milhouse invites Bart to his birthday party, then Bart may just forward this message to Nelson who will believe that this message was actually sent from Milhouse. Thus, Milhouse believes that he invited Bart to his birthday party, where in fact, he invited Nelson."
The researchers also provided a mitigation strategy, which has already been acknowledged by TextSecure's developers, that prevents the UKS attack. The proposed method actually resolves the issue, making TextSecure's push messaging secure and achieves one-time stateful authenticated encryption.
| 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.
| Malware |
Heartbleed - OpenSSL Zero-day Bug leaves Millions of websites Vulnerable | https://thehackernews.com/2014/04/heartbleed-openssl-zero-day-bug-leaves.html | It is advised to those who are running their web server with OpenSSL 1.0.1 through 1.0, then it is significantly important that you update to OpenSSL 1.0.1g immediately or as soon as possible.
As this afternoon, an extremely critical programming flaw in the OpenSSL has been discovered that apparently exposed the cryptographic keys and private data from some of the most important sites and services on the Internet.
The bug was independently discovered by security firm Codenomicon along with a Google Security engineer. The flaw is in the popular OpenSSL cryptographic software library and its weakness allows cyber criminals to steal the information protected, under normal conditions, by the SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) or TLS (Transport Security Layer) encryption used to secure the Internet.
OpenSSL is an open-source implementation of the SSL and TLS protocols. The core library implements the basic cryptographic functions that enable SSL and TLS encryption. Mostly every websites use either SSL or TLS, even the Apache web server that powers almost half of the websites over internet utilizes OpenSSL.
HEARTBLEED BUG
The discoverer of the vulnerability dubbed the bug as 'Heartbleed bug', as the exploit rests on a bug in the implementation of OpenSSL's TLS/DTLS (transport layer security protocols) heartbeat extension (RFC6520).
This critical bug with code ID CVE-2014-0160, could allows an attacker to expose up to 64kB of memory from the server or a connected client computer running a vulnerable version of OpenSSL software. Specifically, this means that an attacker can steal keys, passwords and other private information remotely.
"We have tested some of our own services from attacker's perspective. We attacked ourselves from outside, without leaving a trace. Without using any privileged information or credentials we were able steal from ourselves the secret keys used for our X.509 certificates, usernames and passwords, instant messages, emails and business critical documents and communication."
The vulnerability in the OpenSSL's transport layer security (TSL) protocols' heartbeat section has been in the wild since March 2012 and is supposed to be even more dangerous than Apple's recent SSL bug, which outcropped the possibility for man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks.
As the Heartbleed bug reveals encryption keys that could lead to other compromises, affects past traffic and may affect as much as 66 percent of Internet websites over the internet. 10 out of top 1000 sites are vulnerable to this flaw, including Yahoo Mail, Lastpass and the FBI site. There also is a proof-of-concept exploit for the flaw posted on Github. On this website, you can check if your web server is vulnerable or not.
"Bugs in single software or library come and go and are fixed by new versions," the researchers who discovered the vulnerability wrote in a blog post published Monday. "However this bug has left a large amount of private keys and other secrets exposed to the Internet. Considering the long exposure, ease of exploitations and attacks leaving no trace this exposure should be taken seriously."
Fixes for the bug have been released by the researchers. So, who are running the OpenSSL 1.0.1f version may update to OpenSSL 1.0.1g. The users running older version of OpenSSL are safe.
Related Important Articles:
German Developer responsible for HeartBleed Bug in OpenSSL
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 |
Leading Web Domain Name Registrars Disclose Data Breach | https://thehackernews.com/2019/10/domain-name-registrars-hacked.html | Another day, another massive data breach—this time affecting a leading web technology company, as well as both of its subsidiaries, from where millions of customers around the world have purchased domain names for their websites.
The world's top domain registrars Web.com, Network Solutions, and Register.com disclosed a security breach that may have resulted in the theft of customers' account information.
Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, Web.com is a leading web technology company that owns both Network Solutions and Register.com. The companies offer web services like web hosting, website design, and online marketing to help people build their own websites.
What happened? — In late August 2019, a third-party gained unauthorized access to a "limited number" of the company's computer systems and reportedly accessed millions of records for accounts of current and former customers with Web.com, Network Solutions, and Register.com.
The company said it became aware of the security intrusion only on October 16, 2019, but did not disclose any details on how the incident happened.
What type of information was compromised? — According to the affected domain registrars, the stolen information includes contact details of their customers, such as:
Names
Addresses
Phone numbers
Email addresses
Information about the services offered to a customer.
What type of information was not compromised? — The companies also confirmed that no credit card information was compromised as a result of the security breach incident since they claim to encrypt their customers' credit card numbers before storing them on their databases.
"We store credit card numbers in a PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliant encryption standard and do not believe your credit card information is vulnerable as a specific result of this incident," reads a breach notice published on websites of Web.com, Network Solutions, and Register.com.
To be noted, the passwords for account logins of affected customers were also not compromised, which otherwise could have allowed attackers to permanently hijack domain names by transferring them to an account owned by attackers with a separate service.
What are the affected companies now doing? — The companies took necessary steps to stop the security intrusion upon discovery and immediately launched an investigation by engaging a leading independent cybersecurity firm to determine the scope of the incident.
The companies have also notified all the relevant authorities and already started working with federal law enforcement.
All three affected domain registrars are also in the process of contacting affected customers through email and via their websites.
What affected customers should do now? — As a precaution, affected customers are encouraged to change passwords for their Web.com, Network Solutions, and Register.com accounts and for any other online account where you use the same credentials.
Do it even if you are not affected—just to be on the safer side.
"We have already taken additional steps to secure your account, and there is nothing you need to do at this time. The next time you log in to your account, you will be required to reset your password," the domain registrars recommend.
Since the exposed data includes personal identifying information (PII), affected customers should mainly be suspicious of phishing emails, which are usually the next step of cybercriminals in an attempt to trick users into giving away their passwords and credit card information.
Although the data breach did not expose any financial information, it is always a good idea to be vigilant and keep a close eye on your bank and payment card statements for any unusual activity and report to the bank if you find any.
This is not the first time Web.com has disclosed a security incident. In August 2015, the company suffered a major data breach that had compromised personal and credit card information belonging to nearly 93,000 customers.
| Data_Breaches |
DUQU – Another Stuxnet in the Making ? | https://thehackernews.com/2011/11/duqu-another-stuxnet-in-making.html | DUQU – Another Stuxnet in the Making ?
Article by : Nidhi Rastogi is a Cyber security professional based in New York. Article shared from THE HACKER NEWS magazine - November Edition. You can download Complete Magazine here.
Barely a year into discovering Stuxnet, the world recently saw its powerful variant in the form of Duqu. It is believed that a Hungarian blogger was the first to have a tryst with the virus in early September at an ISP hosting service.
Why it is important: Duqu has gained a lot of attention because of striking similarities with its famous predecessor, Stuxnet. Several Security researchers have concluded that 99 percent of Duqu software rules are same as Stuxnet including source code and keys for encryption. There is reasonable evidence by now that the damage caused by Stuxnet was real. Hence, Duqu is of concern to every security professional at the moment.
How it functions: Duqu camouflages its own data behind normal web traffic to avoid suspicion from network administrators. This information is then sent over to a remote command and control server (CC server) using http request. The server responds with a blank JPG image, in response to which, Duqu sends back an image appended with encrypted stolen information. The IP address of the CC server used for these initial operations was 206.183.111.97 and was tracked to India. The CC server has been deactivated since then.
The Trojan horse, unlike Stuxnet, is able to record keystrokes, collect various details of system which is then encrypted and appended to an image file. The data may simply be configuration and design data from the systems, presumably to allow someone get competitive advantage. The Trojan has been configured to run on the host machine for 36-days, after which the threat vector will automatically destroy itself from the system. However, additional components sent from the CC server can extend the life beyond this time period.
Purpose: Duqu appears to be focusing on data mining right now, scouting host machine to gain information or features about the environment. The real purpose of spreading the Trojan has been obscure and the data collection may just be an initial stage of a larger setup.
Complexity: There is nothing novel about the attack vector and it can be safely assumed that the creator at least had access to Stuxnet code. Once a certain piece is in circulation, others build upon it. And this may be the case with Duqu. Duqu too, like Stuxnet, uses a stolen digital certificate from a Taiwanese company to prove its authenticity. Also, Duqu couldn't have been around for too long since the driver sign date has been recorded to be July 2011. There is also a likelihood of the same team being employed to create the Stuxnet variant. Like the Stuxnet, Duqu too is a State sponsored attack, since no other party would engage in an activity that requires ample technical caliber but brings no obvious monetary benefit.
Other Theories: Various theories are floating around about the motive and origin of Duqu. One of the interesting one is by @reversemode on twitter. According to him, one of the galaxy pictures comes from 66.49.141.227, which suggests Hebrew connection with Duqu. In the past 1 week, a few more variants have been discovered, but not much can be said about them as it too early.
Analysis: Duqu gives the impression of something much bigger coming up than what meets the eye. It is also interesting to note that the techniques used to deploy these attacks are not state of the art. The depth of information that can be extracted using Duqu is no different from what Stuxnet could do. Neither is it any more sophisticated from what we have seen with Aurora. They were intriguing because of the coming together of a possibly destructive operation of their stature. But it's not the same with Duqu. Apart from the complexities it shares with its predecessor, Duqu creators have also used age-old techniques – bad password policy, use of USB drive outside of work and the likes to aid spread the virus. So what is it about this trojan-virus that is catching every eye-ball?
Duqu bears testimony to the beginning of an era where cyber war will grow bigger than nuclear and the likes. It is not that we were caught unaware of nation states espionage programs this time. It is the frequency with which they were discovered corroborates the theory that future will see a steep rise in cybercrime. Dealing with this is going to be a major focus for a majority of us security professionals.
DUQU in news :
Duqu malware was created to spy on Iran's nuclear program
Duqu Trojan found in Indian Server
Duqu Analysis and Detection Tool by NSS Labs
Stuxnet's Son "Duqu" Removal Tool released by Bitdefender
Windows Kernel Zero Day Vulnerability Found in Duqu Installer
| Malware |
Searching for Best Encryption Tools? Hackers are Spreading Malware Through Fake Software | https://thehackernews.com/2016/10/best-encryption-tools.html | Over the past few years, Internet users globally have grown increasingly aware of online privacy and security issues due to mass monitoring and surveillance by government agencies, making them adopt encryption software and services.
But it turns out that hackers are taking advantage of this opportunity by creating and distributing fake versions of encryption tools in order to infect as many victims as possible.
Kaspersky Lab has revealed an advanced persistent threat (APT) group, nicknamed StrongPity, which has put a lot of efforts in targeting users of software designed for encrypting data and communications.
The StrongPity APT group has been using watering-hole attacks, infected installers, and malware for many years to target users of encryption software by compromising legitimate sites or setting up their own malicious copycat sites.
Watering hole attacks are designed to lure specific groups of users to their interest-based sites that typically house malicious files or redirect them to attacker-controlled downloads.
The StrongPity APT group has managed to infect users in Europe, Northern Africa, and the Middle East and targeted two free encryption utilities in different attacks: WinRAR and TrueCrypt.
WinRAR and TrueCrypt are long popular within security and privacy conscious users. WinRAR is best known for its archiving capabilities that encrypting files with AES-256 crypto, while TrueCrypt is a full-disk encryption utility that locks all files on a hard drive.
By setting up fake distribution sites that closely mimic legitimate download sites, StrongPity is able to trick users into downloading malicious versions of these encryption apps in hopes that users encrypt their data using a trojanized version of WinRAR or TrueCrypt apps, allowing attackers to spy on encrypted data before encryption occurred.
"The problem with people depending on tools like this isn't the strength of the crypto, but more about how it's distributed," says Kurt Baumgartner, principal security researcher at Kaspersky Lab. "This is that problem that StrongPity is taking advantage of."
Booby-Trapped WinRAR and TrueCrypt Downloads
The APT group previously set up TrueCrypt-themed watering holes in late 2015, but their malicious activity surged in end of summer 2016.
Between July and September, dozens of visitors have redirected from tamindir[.]com to true-crypt[.]com with unsurprisingly almost all of the focus on computer systems in Turkey, with some victims in the Netherlands.
However, in WinRAR case, instead of redirecting victims to a website controlled by StrongPity, the group hijacked the legitimate winrar.it website to host a malicious version of the file themselves.
The winrar.it website infected users mostly in Italy, with some victims in countries like Belgium, Algeria, Tunisia, France, Morocco and Cote D'Ivoire, while the attackers controlled site, winrar.be, infected users in Belgium, Algeria, Morocco, the Netherlands, and Canada.
Top Countries infected with StrongPity APT malware
According to Kaspersky, more than 1,000 systems infected with StrongPity malware this year. The top five countries affected by the group are Italy, Turkey, Belgium, Algeria and France.
The StrongPity APT's dropper malware was signed with "unusual digital certificates," but the group didn't re-use its fake digital certificates. It downloaded components include a backdoor, keyloggers, data stealers and other crypto-related software programs, including the putty SSH client, the filezilla FTP client, the Winscp secure file transfer program and remote desktop clients.
The dropper malware not only provides the hackers control of the system, but also allows them to steal disk contents and download other malware that would steal communication and contact information.
Therefore, users visiting sites and downloading encryption-enabled software are advised to verify both the validity of the distribution website as well as the integrity of the downloaded file itself.
Download sites that not use PGP or any strong digital code signing certificate are required to re-examine the necessity of doing so for the benefits of them as well as their own customers, explained Baumgartner.
| Malware |
Windows Kernel Zero Day Vulnerability Found in Duqu Installer | https://thehackernews.com/2011/11/windows-kernel-zero-day-vulnerability.html | Windows Kernel Zero Day Vulnerability Found in Duqu Installer
Duqu malware attack exploited a zero-day vulnerability in the Windows kernel, according to security researchers tracking the Stuxnet-like cyber-surveillance Trojan. The vulnerability has since been reported to Microsoft and Microsoft is working on a fix for the kernel vulnerability right now.
Researchers at the Laboratory of Cryptography and System Security (CrySyS) in Hungary confirmed the existence of the zero-day vulnerability and exploit in a brief note posted to its web site.
Our lab, the Laboratory of Cryptography and System Security (CrySyS) pursued the analysis of the Duqu malware and as a result of our investigation, we identified a dropper file with an MS 0-day kernel exploit inside. We immediately provided competent organizations with the necessary information such that they can take appropriate steps for the protection of the users.
The installer file is a Microsoft Word document (.doc) that exploits a previously unknown kernel vulnerability that allows code execution. We contacted Microsoft regarding the vulnerability and they're working diligently towards issuing a patch and advisory. When the file is opened, malicious code executes and installs the main Duqu binaries. The chart below explains how the exploit in the Word document file eventually leads to the installation of Duqu.
Other security vendors have reported infections in the following countries: • Austria • Hungary • Indonesia • United Kingdom • Iran - infections different from those observed by Symantec.
"Microsoft is collaborating with our partners to provide protections for a vulnerability used in targeted attempts to infect computers with the Duqu malware. We are working diligently to address this issue and will release a security update for customers through our security bulletin process," Jerry Bryant, group manager of response communications in Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing group said in a statement.
You can find Symantec updated whitepaper (version 1.3) here. Key updates in the Symantec whitepaper include:
• An unpatched zero-day vulnerability is exploited through a Microsoft Word document and installs Duqu
• Attackers can spread Duqu to computers in secure zones and control them through a peer-to-peer C&C protocol
• Six possible organizations in eight countries have confirmed infections
• A new C&C server (77.241.93.160) hosted in Belgium was discovered and has been shut down.
[Source]
| Malware |
Android "Fake ID" Vulnerability Allows Malware to Impersonate Trusted Apps | https://thehackernews.com/2014/07/android-fake-id-vulnerability-allows_29.html | Due to the majority in the mobile platform, Google's Android operating system has been a prior target for cybercriminals and a recently exposed weakness in the way the operating system handles certificate validation, left millions of Android devices open to attack.
Researchers at BlueBox security, who identified the vulnerability, dubbed the flaw as Fake ID, which affects all versions of Android operating system from 2.1 (released in 2010) up to Android 4.4, also known as KitKat.
ALL VERSIONS ARE VULNERABLE UPTO KITKAT
Researchers marked the vulnerability as critical because it could allow a fake and malicious app to masquerade as a legitimate and trusted application, enabling an attacker to perform various actions such as inserting malicious code into a legitimate app, infiltrating your personal information or even take complete control of an affected device. Specifically, devices running the 3LM administration extension are at risk for a complete compromise, which includes devices from HTC to Pantech, Sharp, Sony Ericsson, and Motorola.
"Every Android application has its own unique identity, typically inherited from the corporate developer's identity," Bluebox CTO Jeff Forristal wrote in a blog post published Wednesday. The bug, however, will copy the identifies and use them "for nefarious purposes."
WHAT IS "FAKE ID" ANDROID VULNERABILITY
Researchers named the flaw "Fake ID" because it allows malicious applications to pass fake credentials to Android OS, which fails to properly verify the application's cryptographic signature. Instead, the operating system grants all the access permissions to the rogue application that it grants to the legitimate app.
Actually, in order to establish the identity of the app developer, Android applications are signed using digital certificates. But due to the claimed Fake ID vulnerability, the Android app installer doesn't try to authenticate the certificate chain of a given app, which means an attacker can built an app with a fake identity and impersonate it with extensive privileges such as an Adobe plug-in or Google Wallet.
IMPACT AND EXAMPLES
In the case of Adobe, the malware app would look like Adobe-trusted code and have the ability to escape the sandbox and run malicious code inside another app, the researchers said.
"For example, an attacker can create a new digital identity certificate, forge a claim that the identity certificate was issued by Adobe Systems, and sign an application with a certificate chain that contains a malicious identity certificate and the Adobe Systems certificate," the Bluebox researchers said in a post explaining their discovery.
"Upon installation, the Android package installer will not verify the claim of the malicious identity certificate, and create a package signature that contains the both certificates. This, in turn, tricks the certificate-checking code in the webview plugin manager (who explicitly checks the chain for the Adobe certificate) and allows the application to be granted the special webview plugin privilege given to Adobe Systems – leading to a sandbox escape and insertion of malicious code, in the form of a webview plugin, into other applications."
TARGETING GOOGLE WALLET PAYMENT SYSTEM
Researchers also pointed out one more target of an attacker exploiting the Fake ID vulnerability i.e. Google's own Wallet payment system. A malicious app with signature of Google Wallet would allow an attacker to access the NFC (Near Field Communications) chip in the device.
The NFC chip in the device is responsible for the storage of payment information used in NFC payments via Google Wallet. This NFC is used in various electronic payment applications and a malicious code can harvest credit card numbers as well.
According to Jeff Forristal, the attackers have more ways to exploit Fake ID vulnerability, a bug that he will discuss in a presentation at Black Hat in Las Vegas next week.
PATCH RELEASED, BUT YOU CAN'T GET IT IMMEDIATELY
Google already released a patch to its partners in April. However, it still leaves a millions of handsets out there that are still vulnerable, as it's up to the carriers themselves to push the updates to users.
The vulnerability resides in the Android operating system therefore the new update would be available for the users in the coming period, may be today, a month after or could take a year.
As the researchers say, Effectively addressing a vulnerability requires a three step process:
Google produces a generic code fix, which it provides to the Android phone manufacturers
Then phone manufacturers must then incorporate that fix into a firmware update suitable to specific phones, which they provide to carriers
The carrier then distributes the final update, which ensures your phone is safe from the vulnerability As regards Fake ID, Google has provided the generic code fix to the phone manufacturers.
Bluebox Security has also built a Scanner to test for the vulnerability and has a couple of ideas for those who still haven't got the patch.
Bluebox Security is the same company that uncovered the so-called Android "Master Key" vulnerability that allowed an attacker to modify any legitimate and digitally signed application in order to transform it into a Trojan program that could then be used to steal device' information or take control of the device.
| Malware |
Hackers Exploiting Three Microsoft Office Flaws to Spread Zyklon Malware | https://thehackernews.com/2018/01/microsoft-office-malware.html | Security researchers have spotted a new malware campaign in the wild that spreads an advanced botnet malware by leveraging at least three recently disclosed vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office.
Dubbed Zyklon, the fully-featured malware has resurfaced after almost two years and primarily found targeting telecommunications, insurance and financial services.
Active since early 2016, Zyklon is an HTTP botnet malware that communicates with its command-and-control servers over Tor anonymising network and allows attackers to remotely steal keylogs, sensitive data, like passwords stored in web browsers and email clients.
Zyklon malware is also capable of executing additional plugins, including secretly using infected systems for DDoS attacks and cryptocurrency mining.
Different versions of the Zyklon malware has previously been found being advertised on a popular underground marketplace for $75 (normal build) and $125 ( Tor-enabled build).
According to a recently published report by FireEye, the attackers behind the campaign are leveraging three following vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office that execute a PowerShell script on the targeted computers to download the final payload from its C&C server.
1) .NET Framework RCE Vulnerability (CVE-2017-8759)—this remote code execution vulnerability exists when Microsoft .NET Framework processes untrusted input, allowing an attacker to take control of an affected system by tricking victims into opening a specially crafted malicious document file sent over an email. Microsoft already released a security patch for this flaw in September updates.
2) Microsoft Office RCE Vulnerability (CVE-2017-11882)—it's a 17-year-old memory corruption flaw that Microsoft patched in November patch update allows a remote attacker to execute malicious code on the targeted systems without requiring any user interaction after opening a malicious document.
3) Dynamic Data Exchange Protocol (DDE Exploit)—this technique allows attackers to leverage a built-in feature of Microsoft Office, called DDE, to perform code execution on the targeted device without requiring Macros to be enabled or memory corruption.
As explained by the researchers, attackers are actively exploiting these three vulnerabilities to deliver Zyklon malware using spear phishing emails, which typically arrives with an attached ZIP file containing a malicious Office doc file.
Once opened, the malicious doc file equipped with one of these vulnerabilities immediately runs a PowerShell script, which eventually downloads the final payload, i.e., Zyklon HTTP malware, onto the infected computer.
"In all these techniques, the same domain is used to download the next level payload (Pause.ps1), which is another PowerShell script that is Base64 encoded," the FireEye researchers said.
"The Pause.ps1 script is responsible for resolving the APIs required for code injection. It also contains the injectable shellcode."
"The injected code is responsible for downloading the final payload from the server. The final stage payload is a PE executable compiled with .Net framework."
Interestingly, the PowerShell script connects to a dotless IP address (example: https://3627732942) to download the final payload.
What is Dotless IP Address? If you are unaware, dotless IP addresses, sometimes referred as 'Decimal Address,' are decimal values of IPv4 addresses (represented as dotted-quad notation). Almost all modern web browsers resolve decimal IP address to its equivalent IPV4 address when opened with "https://" following the decimal value.
For example, Google's IP address 216.58.207.206 can also be represented as https://3627732942 in decimal values (Try this online converter).
The best way to protect yourself and your organisation from such malware attacks are always to be suspicious of any uninvited document sent via an email and never click on links inside those documents unless adequately verifying the source.
Most importantly, always keep your software and systems up-to-date, as threat actors incorporate recently discovered, but patched, vulnerabilities in popular software—Microsoft Office, in this case—to increase the potential for successful infections.
| Malware |
Google Discloses Another Unpatched Windows 8.1 Vulnerability | https://thehackernews.com/2015/01/windows-8-hacking-exploit.html | Google has once again released the details of a new privilege escalation bug in Microsoft's Windows 8.1 operating system before Microsoft planned to patch the bug, triggering a new quarrel between the two tech giants.
This is second time in less than a month when the Google's security research team known as Project Zero released details of the vulnerability in Microsoft's operating system, following its 90-day public disclosure deadline policy.
Google Project Zero team routinely finds vulnerabilities in different products from different companies. The vulnerabilities then get reported to the affected software vendors and if they do not patch the flaws in 90 days, Google automatically makes the vulnerability along with its details public.
DISCLOSURE OF TWO SECURITY HOLES IN LESS THAN A MONTH
Two weeks back, Google Project Zero team disclosed details of an elevation of privilege (EoP) vulnerability affecting Windows 8.1 that may have allowed hackers to modify contents or even to take over victims' computers completely, leaving millions of users vulnerable.
At the time, Microsoft criticized Google for disclosing the Windows 8.1 security flaw out in the public just before it was planing to fix it. According to Microsoft, the Windows 8.1 vulnerability disclosed by Google may have potentially exposed the users of the operating system to hackers.
However, releasing details with the proof of concept for the second security hole in Microsoft's Windows 8.1 just two days before Microsoft planned to patch the bug indicates that Google project zero is determined to stick to its 90-day deadline for fixing software flaws.
MICROSOFT vs GOOGLE
Though, Microsoft is very upset with 90-day disclosure deadline enforced by Google's Project Zero team. The team notified the new elevation of privilege flaw to Microsoft on 13 October.
In November, Microsoft asked Google for an extension of the deadline till February 2015, when it plans to address the issue. However, the search engine giant refused. But later when Microsoft promised to address the vulnerability in January Patch Tuesday, Google still refused to extend its deadline even by two days.
"We asked Google to work with us to protect customers by withholding details until Tuesday, January 13, when we will be releasing a fix," said Chris Betz, senior director with Microsoft's Security Response Center, in a blog post Sunday. "Although following through keeps to Google's announced timeline for disclosure, the decision feels less like principles and more like a 'gotcha', with customers the ones who may suffer as a result."
TECHNICAL DETAILS OF THE NEW EoP FLAW
According to Google's security team, User Profile Service is used to create certain directories and mount the user hives as soon as a user logs into a computer. Other than loading the hives, the base profile directory is created under a privileged account, which is secure because normal user requires administrator privileges to do so.
"However there seems to be a bug in the way it handles impersonation, the first few resources in the profile get created under the user's token, but this changes to impersonating Local System part of the way through," Google said. "Any resources created while impersonating Local System might be exploitable to elevate privilege. Note that this occurs every time the user logs in to their account, it isn't something that only happens during the initial provisioning of the local profile."
A proof-of-concept (PoC) demonstrating the attack on Microsoft's Windows 8.1 operating system has been published, but experts have confirmed that the vulnerability also affects Windows 7.
| Vulnerability |
Authentication Bypass Vulnerability Found in Auth0 Identity Platform | https://thehackernews.com/2018/04/auth0-authentication-bypass.html | A critical authentication bypass vulnerability has been discovered in one of the biggest identity-as-a-service platform Auth0 that could have allowed a malicious attacker to access any portal or application, which are using Auth0 service for authentication.
Auth0 offers token-based authentication solutions for a number of platforms including the ability to integrate social media authentication into an application.
With over 2000 enterprise customers and managing 42 million logins every day and billions of login per month, Auth0 is one of the biggest identity platforms.
While pentesting an application back in September 2017, researchers from security firm Cinta Infinita discovered a flaw (CVE-2018-6873) in Auth0's Legacy Lock API, which resides due to improper validation of the JSON Web Tokens (JWT) audience parameter.
Researchers successfully exploited this issue to bypass login authentication using a simple cross-site request forgery (CSRF/XSRF) attack against the applications running over Auth0 authentication.
Auth0's CSRF vulnerability (CVE-2018-6874) allows an attacker to reuse a valid signed JWT generated for a separate account to access the targeted victim's account.
For this, all an attacker needs is the victim's user ID or email address, which can be obtained using simple social engineering tricks.
Video Demonstration of the Attack
According to the researchers, the attack is reproducible against many organisations, "as long as we know the expected fields and values for the JWT. There is no need of social engineering in most of the cases we saw. Authentication for applications that use an email address or an incremental integer for user identification would be trivially bypassed."
The security firm reported the vulnerability to the Auth0 Security Team in October 2017. The company acted very fast and addressed the weakness in less than 4 hours.
However, since the vulnerable SDK and supported libraries of Auth0 have been implemented on the client side, Auth0 took almost six months to contact each of their customers and help them fix this vulnerability, before publicly disclosing this issue.
"Unlike the fix for the special case discovered by Cinta Infinita, this issue could not be solved without forcing our customers to upgrade the libraries/SDKs on their end, a much more significant undertaking," the Auth0 team said in its advisory.
The company has mitigated the vulnerabilities by extensively rewriting the affected libraries and releasing new versions of its SDKs (auth0.js 9 and Lock 11).
Cinta Infinita also waited six months before publicly disclosing the vulnerability, giving the Auth0 team enough time to update all their Private SaaS Appliances (on-premises) as well.
The security firm has now released a proof-of-concept (PoC) video, demonstrating how they obtained the victim's user id and bypass password authentication when logging into Auth0's Management Dashboard by forging an authentication token.
| Vulnerability |
Zeus malware targeting BlackBerry and Android devices | https://thehackernews.com/2012/08/zeus-malware-targeting-blackberry-and.html | Security researchers at Kaspersky Lab have discovered five new samples of the ZeuS-in-the-Mobile (ZitMo) malware package, targeting Android and BlackBerry devices.
Zitmo (Zeus in the mobile) is the name given to the mobile versions of Zeus, and it's been around for a couple of years already, mostly infecting Android phones. The Zitmo variant has reportedly been operating for at least two years targeting Android phones by masquerading as banking security application or security add-on.
ZitMo gets hold of banking information by intercepting all text messages and passing them on to attackers' own devices. It gets onto devices inside malicious applications, which users are duped into downloading. In this case, the malicious app was posing as security software called 'Zertifikat'.
Once installed, the packages forward all incoming SMS messages to one of two command and control numbers located in Sweden, with the aim of snaring secure codes and other data. Kaspersky found mobile users in Spain, Italy and Germany were targeted by these fresh variants, with two command and control (C&C) numbers found on Sweden's Tele2 operator.
"The analysis of new Blackberry ZitMo files showed that there are no major changes. Virus writers finally fixed grammar mistake in the 'App Instaled OK' phrase, which is sent via SMS to C&C cell phone number when smartphone has been infected. Instead of 'BLOCK ON' or 'BLOCK OFF' commands (blocking or unblocking all incoming and outgoing calls) now there are 'BLOCK' and 'UNBLOCK' commands. Other commands which are received via SMS remain the same." Denis Maslennikov, a researcher at Kaspersky Lab.
The tactic is designed to help the criminals circumvent the out-of-band authentication systems used by many European banks, by hijacking the one-time password authentication password sent via SMS.
Earlier this year, Kaspersky warned of a set of malicious Android applications posing as security software. Zeus was sitting behind those apps, ready to siphon off text messages.
| Vulnerability |
Critical Flaw Reported In phpMyAdmin Lets Attackers Damage Databases | https://thehackernews.com/2018/01/phpmyadmin-hack.html | A critical security vulnerability has been reported in phpMyAdmin—one of the most popular applications for managing the MySQL database—which could allow remote attackers to perform dangerous database operations just by tricking administrators into clicking a link.
Discovered by an Indian security researcher, Ashutosh Barot, the vulnerability is a cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attack and affects phpMyAdmin versions 4.7.x (prior to 4.7.7).
Cross-site request forgery vulnerability, also known as XSRF, is an attack wherein an attacker tricks an authenticated user into executing an unwanted action.
According to an advisory released by phpMyAdmin, "by deceiving a user to click on a crafted URL, it is possible to perform harmful database operations such as deleting records, dropping/truncating tables, etc."
phpMyAdmin is a free and open source administration tool for MySQL and MariaDB and is widely used to manage the database for websites created with WordPress, Joomla, and many other content management platforms.
Moreover, a lot of hosting providers use phpMyAdmin to offer their customers a convenient way to organize their databases.
Barot has also released a video, as shown above, demonstrating how a remote attacker can make database admins unknowingly delete (DROP) an entire table from the database just by tricking them into clicking a specially crafted link.
"A feature of phpMyAdmin was using a GET request and after that POST request for Database operations such as DROP TABLE table_name; GET requests must be protected against CSRF attacks. In this case, POST requests were used which were sent through URL (for bookmarking purpose may be); it was possible for an attacker to trick a database admin into clicking a button and perform a drop table database query of the attacker's choice." Barot explains in a blog post.
However, performing this attack is not simple as it may sound. To prepare a CSRF attack URL, the attacker should be aware of the name of targeted database and table.
"If a user executes a query on the database by clicking insert, DROP, etc. buttons, the URL will contain database name and table name," Barot says. "This vulnerability can result in the disclosure of sensitive information as the URL is stored at various places such as browser history, SIEM logs, Firewall Logs, ISP Logs, etc."
Barot reported the vulnerability to phpMyAdmin developers, who confirmed his finding and released phpMyAdmin 4.7.7 to address this issue. So administrators are highly recommended to update their installations as soon as possible.
| Vulnerability |
Internet Traffic Hijacking Linux Flaw Affects 80% of Android Devices | https://thehackernews.com/2016/08/hack-linux-android.html | An estimated 80 percent of Android smartphones and tablets running Android 4.4 KitKat and higher are vulnerable to a recently disclosed Linux kernel flaw that allows hackers to terminate connections, spy on unencrypted traffic or inject malware into the parties' communications.
Even the latest Android Nougat Preview is considered to be vulnerable.
The security flaw was first appeared in the implementation of the TCP protocol in all Linux systems deployed since 2012 (version 3.6 and above of the Linux OS kernel) and the Linux Foundation has already patched the Linux kernel on July 11, 2016.
However, the vulnerability (CVE-2016-5696) is now affecting a large portion of the Android ecosystem.
According to a blog post published Monday by mobile security firm Lookout, the Linux flaw is present in Android version 4.4 KitKat and all future releases, including the latest developer preview of Android Nougat.
Around 1.4 BILLLLLION Android Devices Affected
This means that 80% of all Android devices in use today, which is nearly 1.4 Billion devices, are vulnerable to attacks, enabling hackers to spy on your communications without even compromising your network via man-in-the-middle-attack.
However, the good news is that the Linux vulnerability is complicated and difficult to exploit, but the risk is there especially for targeted attacks.
"While a man-in-the-middle attack is not required here, the attacker still needs to know a source and destination IP address to successfully execute the attack," Lookout stated in the blog post.
Windows and Macs are not affected by the vulnerability.
According to Google, engineers are already aware of the vulnerability and are "taking the appropriate actions" to fix the issue, a Google representative told Ars Technica. So, it is likely that a patch for Android will arrive soon.
Temporary Mitigation:
Make sure your Internet traffic is encrypted: Apps you use and Websites you visit should employ HTTPS.
Use a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
To know more about the Linux kernel flaw and its mitigation, you can head on to our post, titled "Linux TCP Flaw allows Hackers to Hijack Internet Traffic and Inject Malware Remotely."
| Vulnerability |
Vulnerability in Whatsapp messenger media server | https://thehackernews.com/2013/06/Hacking-whatsapp-android-application.html | If you own an iPhone or an Android device, then the chances are high that you're familiar with the extremely popular cross-platform messaging app, WhatsApp.
According to a whitehat hacker Mohammed Saeed, Whatsapp media server (media.whatsapp.com) interface was vulnerable to Traversal local file inclusion. This vulnerability occurs when a page include is not properly sanitized, and allows directory traversal characters to be injected.
Flaw allowed hacker to gather usernames via an "/etc/passwd" file and also another sensitive files like log files i.e "/apache/logs/error.log" or "/apache/logs/access.log".
Flaw was reported by Mohammed with proof of conpect to Whatsapp security team on 27th May and was addressed this week.
If you are also penetration tester and have something buggy that can help Whatsapp team to make there service more secure, feel free to contact them at [email protected].
| Vulnerability |
Microsoft Won't Patch a Severe Skype Vulnerability Anytime Soon | https://thehackernews.com/2018/02/hacking-skype.html | A serious vulnerability has been discovered in Microsoft-owned most popular free web messaging and voice calling service Skype that could potentially allow attackers to gain full control of the host machine by granting system-level privileges to a local, unprivileged user.
The worst part is that this vulnerability will not be patched by Microsoft anytime soon.
It's not because the flaw is unpatchable, but because fixing the vulnerability requires a significant software rewrite, which indicates that the company will need to issue an all-new version of Skype rather than just a patch.
The vulnerability has been discovered and reported to Microsoft by security researcher Stefan Kanthak and resides in Skype's update installer, which is susceptible to Dynamic Link Libraries (DLL) hijacking.
According to the researcher, a potential attacker could exploit the "functionality of the Windows DLL loader where the process loading the DLL searches for the DLL to be loaded first in the same directory in which the process binary resides and then in other directories."
The exploitation of this preferential search order would allow the attacker to hijack the update process by downloading and placing a malicious version of a DLL file into a temporary folder of a Windows PC and renaming it to match a legitimate DLL that can be modified by an unprivileged user without having any special account privileges.
When Skype's update installer tries to find the relevant DLL file, it will find the malicious DLL first, and thereby will install the malicious code.
Although Kanthak demonstrated the attack using the Windows version of Skype, he believes the same DLL hijacking method could also work against other operating systems, including Skype versions for macOS and Linux.
Kanthak informed Microsoft of the Skype vulnerability back in September, but the company told him that the patch would require the Skype update installer go through "a large code revision," Kanthak told ZDNet.
So rather than releasing a security update, Microsoft decided to build an altogether new version of the Skype client that would address the vulnerability.
It should be noted that this vulnerability only affects the Skype for the desktop app, which uses its update installer which is vulnerable to the DLL hijacking technique. The Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app version available from the Microsoft Store for Windows 10 PCs is not affected.
The vulnerability has been rated as "medium" in severity, but Kanthak said, "the attack could be easily weaponized." He gave two examples, which have not been released yet.
Until the company issues an all-new version of Skype client, users are advised to exercise caution and avoid clicking on attachments provided in an email. Also, make sure you run appropriate and updated anti-virus software that offers some defence against such attacks.
This is not the first time Skype has been dealing with a severe security flaw. In June 2017, a critical flaw in Skype was revealed before Microsoft released a fix for the issue that allowed hackers to crash systems and execute malicious code in them.
Last month, among several messaging applications, Skype was also dealing with a critical remote code execution vulnerability in Electron—a popular web application framework widely-used in desktop applications.
| Vulnerability |
Plugx RAT targeting government organizations in Japan using spear phishing | https://thehackernews.com/2012/09/plugx-rat-targeting-government.html | Roland Dela Paz (Threat Researcher) at TrendMirco reported that last year a Malware Campaign to target specific users in Japan, China, and Taiwan once again on rise using new breed of Remote Access Tool (RAT) called Plugx (also known as Korplug). This new custom made version comes for less recognition and more elusiveness from security researchers.
He also mention that last year campaign used the Poison Ivy RAT, but now its Plugx take its place. "Similar to previous Poison Ivy campaigns, it also arrives as an attachment to spear-phished emails either as an archived, bundled file or specially crafted document that exploits a vulnerability in Adobe Acrobat Reader or Microsoft Office. We've also encountered an instance of Plugx aimed at a South Korean Internet company and a U.S. engineering firm." Roland mentioned.
The attached pdf exploits CVE-2010-2883 (with Plugx (RAT) payload connects to a command and control (C&C) server named {BLOCKED}eo.flower-show.org.
CVE-2010-2883: Stack-based buffer overflow in CoolType.dll in Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.x before 9.4, and 8.x before 8.2.5 on Windows and Mac OS X, allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (application crash) via a PDF document with a long field in a Smart INdependent Glyphlets (SING) table in a TTF font, as exploited in the wild in September 2010)
This C&C server appeared to be have been used by Poison Ivy and PlugX variants. According to Roland this rat drop a file at %System Root%\Documents and Settings\All Users\SxS\bug.log which contain it own errors and then possibly it uploads back to attacker server for Auditing. This shows that , this variant is still in beta stage. Trend Micro monitoring PlugX's development and We at THE HACKER NEWS, will update you with new info when published.
| Vulnerability |
ProxyLogon PoC Exploit Released; Likely to Fuel More Disruptive Cyber Attacks | https://thehackernews.com/2021/03/proxylogon-exchange-poc-exploit.html | The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Wednesday issued a joint advisory warning of active exploitation of vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange on-premises products by nation-state actors and cybercriminals.
"CISA and FBI assess that adversaries could exploit these vulnerabilities to compromise networks, steal information, encrypt data for ransom, or even execute a destructive attack," the agencies said. "Adversaries may also sell access to compromised networks on the dark web."
The attacks have primarily targeted local governments, academic institutions, non-governmental organizations, and business entities in various industry sectors, including agriculture, biotechnology, aerospace, defense, legal services, power utilities, and pharmaceutical, which the agencies say are in line with previous activity conducted by Chinese cyber actors.
Tens of thousands of entities, including the European Banking Authority and the Norwegian Parliament, are believed to have been breached to install a web-based backdoor called the China Chopper web shell that grants the attackers the ability to plunder email inboxes and remotely access the target systems.
The development comes in light of the rapid expansion of attacks aimed at vulnerable Exchange Servers, with multiple threat actors exploiting the vulnerabilities as early as February 27 before they were eventually patched by Microsoft last week, swiftly turning what was labeled as "limited and targeted" into an indiscriminate mass exploitation campaign.
While there is no concrete explanation for the widespread exploitation by so many different groups, speculations are that the adversaries shared or sold exploit code, resulting in other groups being able to abuse these vulnerabilities, or that the groups obtained the exploit from a common seller.
From RCE to Web Shells to Implants
On March 2, 2021, Volexity publicly disclosed the detection of multiple zero-day exploits used to target flaws in on-premises versions of Microsoft Exchange Servers, while pegging the earliest in-the-wild exploitation activity on January 3, 2021.
Successful weaponization of these flaws, called ProxyLogon, allows an attacker to access victims' Exchange Servers, enabling them to gain persistent system access and control of an enterprise network.
Although Microsoft initially pinned the intrusions on Hafnium, a threat group that's assessed to be state-sponsored and operating out of China, Slovakian cybersecurity firm ESET on Wednesday said it identified no fewer than 10 different threat actors that likely took advantage of the remote code execution flaws to install malicious implants on victims' email servers.
Apart from Hafnium, the five groups detected as exploiting the vulnerabilities prior to the patch release are Tick, LuckyMouse, Calypso, Websiic, and Winnti (aka APT41 or Barium), with five others (Tonto Team, ShadowPad, "Opera" Cobalt Strike, Mikroceen, and DLTMiner) scanning and compromising Exchange servers in the days immediately following the release of the fixes.
No conclusive evidence has emerged so far connecting the campaign to China, but DomainTools' Senior Security Researcher Joe Slowik noted that several of the aforementioned groups have been formerly linked to China-sponsored activity, including Tick, LuckyMouse, Calypso, Tonto Team, Mikroceen, and the Winnti Group, indicating that Chinese entities other than Hafnium are tied to the Exchange exploitation activity.
"It seems clear that there are numerous clusters of groups leveraging these vulnerabilities, the groups are using mass scanning or services that allow them to independently target the same systems, and finally there are multiple variations of the code being dropped, which may be indicative of iterations to the attack," Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 threat intelligence team said.
In one cluster tracked as "Sapphire Pigeon" by researchers from U.S.-based Red Canary, attackers dropped multiple web shells on some victims at different times, some of which were deployed days before they conducted follow-on activity.
According to ESET's telemetry analysis, more than 5,000 email servers belonging to businesses and governments from over 115 countries are said to have been affected by malicious activity related to the incident. For its part, the Dutch Institute for Vulnerability Disclosure (DIVD) reported Tuesday that it found 46,000 servers out of 260,000 globally that were unpatched against the heavily exploited ProxyLogon vulnerabilities.
Troublingly, evidence points to the fact that the deployment of the web shells ramped up following the availability of the patch on March 2, raising the possibility that additional entities have opportunistically jumped in to create exploits by reverse engineering Microsoft updates as part of multiple, independent campaigns.
"The day after the release of the patches, we started to observe many more threat actors scanning and compromising Exchange servers en masse," said ESET researcher Matthieu Faou. "Interestingly, all of them are APT groups focused on espionage, except one outlier that seems related to a known coin-mining campaign (DLTminer). It is still unclear how the distribution of the exploit happened, but it is inevitable that more and more threat actors, including ransomware operators, will have access to it sooner or later."
Aside from installing the web shell, other behaviors related to or inspired by Hafnium activity include conducting reconnaissance in victim environments by deploying batch scripts that automate several functions such as account enumeration, credential-harvesting, and network discovery.
Public Proof-of-Concept Available
Complicating the situation further is the availability of what appears to be the first functional public proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit for the ProxyLogon flaws despite Microsoft's attempts to take down exploits published on GitHub over the past few days.
"I've confirmed there is a public PoC floating around for the full RCE exploit chain," security researcher Marcus Hutchins said. "It has a couple bugs but with some fixes I was able to get shell on my test box."
Also accompanying the PoC's release is a detailed technical write-up by Praetorian researchers, who reverse-engineered CVE-2021-26855 to build a fully functioning end-to-end exploit by identifying differences between the vulnerable and patched versions.
While the researchers deliberately decided to omit critical PoC components, the development has also raised concerns that the technical information could further accelerate the development of a working exploit, in turn triggering even more threat actors to launch their own attacks.
As the sprawling hack's timeline slowly crystallizes, what's clear is that the surge of breaches against Exchange Server appears to have happened in two phases, with Hafnium using the chain of vulnerabilities to stealthily attack targets in a limited fashion, before other hackers began driving the frenzied scanning activity starting February 27.
Cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs attributed this to the prospect that "different cybercriminal groups somehow learned of Microsoft's plans to ship fixes for the Exchange flaws a week earlier than they'd hoped."
"The best advice to mitigate the vulnerabilities disclosed by Microsoft is to apply the relevant patches," Slowik said. "However, given the speed in which adversaries weaponized these vulnerabilities and the extensive period of time pre-disclosure when these were actively exploited, many organizations will likely need to shift into response and remediation activities to counter existing intrusions."
| Vulnerability |
Warning – 3 Popular VPN Services Are Leaking Your IP Address | https://thehackernews.com/2018/03/vpn-leak-ip-address.html | Researchers found critical vulnerabilities in three popular VPN services that could leak users' real IP addresses and other sensitive data.
VPN, or Virtual Private Network, is a great way to protect your daily online activities that work by encrypting your data and boosting security, as well as useful to obscure your actual IP address.
While some choose VPN services for online anonymity and data security, one major reason many people use VPN is to hide their real IP addresses to bypass online censorship and access websites that are blocked by their ISPs.
But what if when the VPN you thought is protecting your privacy is actually leaking your sensitive data and real location?
A team of three ethical hackers hired by privacy advocate firm VPN Mentor revealed that three popular VPN service providers—HotSpot Shield, PureVPN, and Zenmate—with millions of customers worldwide were found vulnerable to flaws that could compromise user's privacy.
The team includes application security researcher Paulos Yibelo, an ethical hacker known by his alias 'File Descriptor' and works for Cure53, and whereas, the identity of third one has not been revealed on demand.
PureVPN is the same company who lied to have a 'no log' policy, but a few months ago helped the FBI with logs that lead to the arrest of a Massachusetts man in a cyberstalking case.
After a series of privacy tests on the three VPN services, the team found that all three VPN services are leaking their users' real IP addresses, which can be used to identify individual users and their actual location.
Concerning consequences for end users, VPN Mentor explains that the vulnerabilities could "allow governments, hostile organizations [sic], or individuals to identify the actual IP address of a user, even with the use of the VPNs."
The issues in ZenMate and PureVPN have not been disclosed since they haven't yet patched, while VPN Mentor says the issues discovered in ZenMate VPN were less severe than HotSpot Shield and PureVPN.
The team found three separate vulnerabilities in AnchorFree's HotSpot Shield, which have been fixed by the company. Here's the list:
Hijack all traffic (CVE-2018-7879) — This vulnerability resided in Hotspot Shield's Chrome extension and could have allowed remote hackers to hijack and redirect victim's web traffic to a malicious site.
DNS leak (CVE-2018-7878) — DNS leak flaw in Hotspot Shield exposed users' original IP address to the DNS server, allowing ISPs to monitor and record their online activities.
Real IP Address leak (CVE-2018-7880) — This flaw poses a privacy threat to users since hackers can track user's real location and the ISP. the issue occurred because the extension had a loose whitelist for "direct connection." Researchers found that any domain with localhost, e.g., localhost.foo.bar.com, and 'type=a1fproxyspeedtest' in the URL bypass the proxy and leaks real IP address.
Here it must be noted that all the three vulnerabilities were in the HotSpot Shield's free Chrome plug-in, not in the desktop or smartphone apps.
The researchers also reported similar vulnerabilities in the Chrome plugins of Zenmate and PureVPN, but for now, the details of the bugs are being kept under wraps since both the manufacturers have not yet fixed them.
Researchers believe that most other VPN services also suffer from similar issues.
| Vulnerability |
Microsoft Says Russia Tried to Hack Three 2018 Midterm Election Candidates | https://thehackernews.com/2018/07/russia-election-hacking.html | Microsoft said it detected and helped the US government to block Russian hacking attempts against at least three congressional candidates this year, a Microsoft executive revealed speaking at the Aspen Security Forum today.
Although the company refused to name the targets but said, the three candidates were "people who, because of their positions, might have been interesting targets from an espionage standpoint as well as an election disruption standpoint."
According to the company, the Russian hackers targeted the candidates' staffers with phishing attacks, redirecting them to a fake Microsoft website, in an attempt to steal their credentials.
"Earlier this year, we did discover that a fake Microsoft domain had been established as the landing page for phishing attacks," said Tom Burt, Microsoft's vice president for customer security.
"And we saw metadata that suggested those phishing attacks were being directed at three candidates who are all standing for election in the midterm elections."
Immediately after learning of this incident, Microsoft took down the fake domain and worked with the government to "avoid anybody being infected by that particular attack."
The company also ensured that none of the targeted campaign staffers were infected by the attack.
Burt specified that the hacking attempts were conducted by a Russian hacking group, though so far the group has been less active compared to 2016, during the U.S. presidential election.
Microsoft "discovered that these [fake domains] were being registered by an activity group that at Microsoft we call Strontium...that's known as Fancy Bear or APT 28," Burt said.
"The consensus of the threat intelligence community right now is [that] we do not see the same level of activity by the Russian activity groups leading into the mid-year elections that we could see when we look back at them at that 2016 elections," he added.
For instance, Burt said the hackers are not infiltrating think tanks and targeting academia experts that they did during the 2016 presidential election.
However, Burt warned that "That does not mean we're not going to see it, there is a lot of time left before the election."
| Cyber_Attack |
U.S Charges Two Iranian Hackers for SamSam Ransomware Attacks | https://thehackernews.com/2018/11/samsam-ransomware-iranian-hackers.html | The Department of Justice announced Wednesday charges against two Iranian nationals for their involvement in creating and deploying the notorious SamSam ransomware.
The alleged hackers, Faramarz Shahi Savandi, 34, and Mohammad Mehdi Shah, 27, have been charged on several counts of computer hacking and fraud charges, the indictment unsealed today at New Jersey court revealed.
The duo used SamSam ransomware to extort over $6 million in ransom payments since 2015, and also caused more than $30 million in damages to over 200 victims, including hospitals, municipalities, and public institutions.
According to the indictment, Savandi and Mansouri have been charged with a total of six counts, including one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit fraud and related activity in connection with computers, two counts of intentional damage to a protected computer, and two counts of transmitting a demand in relation to damaging a protected computer.
Since both hackers live in and operated from Iran, they have not yet been arrested by the United States authorities and the FBI has added them on their list of wanted hackers.
According to the indictment, Savandi and Mansouri created the first version of the SamSam Ransomware in December 2015 and created further refined versions of the threat in June and October 2017.
"Defendants authored various versions of the SamSam Ransomware, which was designed to encrypt data on Victim computers. SamSam Ransomware was designed to maximize the damage caused to the Victim by, for instance, also encrypting backups of the targeted computers," the indictment says.
"Defendants used a variety of methods to gain access to Victim computer networks, including exploiting known security vulnerabilities in common server software and utilizing virtual private servers such as European VPS #1 and European VPS #2 to mask their identities."
Unlike most ransomware infections, SamSam was not distributed in an unplanned way via spam email campaigns. Instead, the attackers chose potential targets and infected systems manually.
Attackers first compromised the RDP on a targeted system—either by conducting brute force attacks or using stolen credentials—and then attempted to strategically deploy SamSam throughout the network by exploiting vulnerabilities in other systems.
Once on the entire network, SamSam encrypts the system's data and demands a huge ransom payment (usually more than $50,000 which is much higher than normal) in Bitcoin in exchange for the decryption keys.
Since December 2015, SamSam has significantly targeted some large organizations, including the Atlanta city government, the Colorado Department of Transportation, several hospitals and educational institutions like the Mississippi Valley State University.
"According to the indictment, [affected victims includes] the City of Atlanta, the City of Newark, the Port of San Diego, the Colorado Department of Transportation, the University of Calgary, Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Centers, Kansas Heart Hospital, MedStar Health, Nebraska Orthopedic Hospital, and Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc."
The Atlanta city's officials refused to pay the ransomware, and the recovery effort cost them estimated $17 million.
Leaving behind other well-known ransomware viruses like WannaCry and NotPetya, SamSam became the largest paid ransomware of its kind with one individual victim paid $64,000.
Since Iran has no extradition policy with the United States, the indictment may not guarantee the extraditions or convictions of the two alleged hackers. But being on the wanted list of the FBI make it difficult for the duo to travel outside their country's boundary freely.
| Cyber_Attack |
Joomscan Security Scanner - Detect more than 550 Joomla vulnerabilities | https://thehackernews.com/2011/11/joomscan-security-scanner-detect-more.html | Joomscan Security Scanner - Detect more than 550 Joomla vulnerabilities
Joomscan Security Scanner updated recently with new database have 550 vulnerabilities. Detects file inclusion, sql injection, command execution vulnerabilities of a target Joomla web site. Last update for this tool was in August, 2009 with 466 vulnerabilities.
How to Use Joomscan, read here.
In joomscan you can check for new updates with command: ./joomscan.pl check or ./joomscan.pl update.
Download for Windows (141 KB)
Download for Linux (150 KB)
More Info
| Vulnerability |
Samsung Launches Bug Bounty Program — Offering up to $200,000 in Rewards | https://thehackernews.com/2017/09/samsung-bug-bounty-program.html | With the growing number of cyber attacks and data breaches, a number of tech companies and organisations have started Bug Bounty programs for encouraging hackers, bug hunters and researchers to find and responsibly report bugs in their services and get rewarded.
Samsung is the latest in the list of tech companies to launch a bug bounty program, announcing that the South Korean electronics giant will offer rewards of up to $200,000 to anyone who discovers vulnerabilities in its mobile devices and associated software.
Dubbed Mobile Security Rewards Program, the newly-launched bug bounty program will cover 38 Samsung mobile devices released from 2016 onwards which currently receive monthly or quarterly security updates from the company.
So, if you want to take part in the Samsung Mobile Security Rewards Program, you have these devices as your target—the Galaxy S, Galaxy Note, Galaxy A, Galaxy J, and the Galaxy Tab series, as well as Samsung's flagship devices, the S8, S8+, and Note 8.
"We take security and privacy issues very seriously; and as an appreciation for helping Samsung Mobile improve the security of our products and minimizing risk to our end-consumers, we are offering a rewards program for eligible security vulnerability reports," the company explains on its bug bounty website.
"We look forward to your continued interests and participations in our Samsung Mobile Security Rewards Program. Through this rewards program, we hope to build and maintain valuable relationships with researchers who coordinate disclosure of security issues with Samsung Mobile."
Not just mobile devices, the tech giant's Mobile Services suite is also part of its bug bounty program, which will also cover apps and services such as Bixby, Samsung Account, Samsung Pay, Samsung Pass, among others.
For the eligibility of a reward, researchers and bug hunters need to provide a valid proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit that can compromise a Samsung handset without requiring any physical connection or third-party application.
The company will evaluate the reward depending on the severity level of the vulnerability (Critical, High, Moderate, and Low) and its impact on devices. The least reward is $200, which is for low-severity flaws, while the highest reward is $200,000, which is for critical bugs.
The Higher reward will be offered for bugs that lead to trusted execution environment (TEE) or Bootloader compromise. The level of severity will be determined by Samsung.
Samsung's bounty of $200,000 is equal to the bounty reward offered under Apple's bug bounty program but is slightly lower than Microsoft's newly launched bounty program that offers $250,000 for Windows 10 security bugs.
Following the path of major tech companies, the non-profit group behind Tor Project recently joined hands with HackerOne to launch its own bug bounty program, with the highest payout for the flaws has been kept $4,000.
So, what you are waiting for? Hunt for bugs in Samsung products and submit your findings to the company via the Security Reporting page.
| Vulnerability |
More than 100 Pakistani Government Sites Under Malware attack | https://thehackernews.com/2011/11/more-than-100-pakistani-government.html | More than 100 Pakistani Government Sites Under Malware attack
Website Malware : A newer form of malware is what can be found attacking websites today. In the old days malware was mostly in the form of computer viruses. In today's age of globalization, malware starts to target websites and mobile devices.
Almost 100's of Pakistan Government sites are under attack by Godzilla Malware, Which is Created and implemented by an Indian Hacker. Hacker named "Godzilla" publish a list of all Freezed sites list here ,including Peshawar Electric Supply Company website (www.pesco.gov.pk), Ministry of Information and Broadcasting - Government of Pakistan website (www.infopak.gov.pk), Pakistan Navy website (www.paknavy.gov.pk) and Many more.
Hacker said,"The malware is freezing the sever and if the server is changed then banner of malware hits the live ip.."
Today malware is much more sinister. It is backed up by an industry which some estimate at $2 billion a year. It is all about making money. Get More Malware News on The Hacker News.
| Malware |
Chinese Hackers Steal Info from top secret U.S military data | https://thehackernews.com/2013/05/chinese-hackers-steal-info-from-top.html | QinetiQ, a UK-based defense contractor suffers humiliation as intelligence officials confirmed that China was able to steal the U.S. classified documents and pertinent technological information all this because of QinetiQ's faulty decision-making.
QinetiQ North America (QQ) a world leading defense technology and security company providing satellites, drones and software services to the U.S. Special Forces deployed in Afghanistan and Middle East.
The hacking was so extensive that external consultants ended up more or less working permanently inside the firm to root out malicious software and compromises on an ongoing basis. In one of the attacks, that took place in 2009, the hackers raided at least 151 machines of the firm's Technology Solutions Group (TSG) over a 251-day period, stealing 20 gigabytes of data before being blocked.
As the White House moves to confront China over its theft of U.S. technology through hacking, policy makers are faced with the question of how much damage has already been done. 1.3 million pages of documents, including ones containing highly sensitive military information, were stolen at the time.
The agent had stumbled upon the breach as part of a separate investigation but apparently left out many key details including the fact that other contractors were being hit. Through 2008, is said to have treated the continuing pattern of hacks traced to its buildings as isolated incidents, including the compromise of 13,000 server passwords that attackers were used to help steal huge amounts of classified military engineering data.
QinetiQ committed the first mistake as it restricts its investigation on the first discovery of the spying. Even when NASA warned the firm that it was being attacked by hackers from one of QinetiQ's computers the firm apparently continued to treat incidents in isolation.
The hackers were able to exploit unpatched security flaws and other vulnerabilities across QNA to infiltrate multiple divisions of the company including Cyveillance, the company's cybersecurity unit. In 2010, HBGary, the security firm hacked in 2011 by Anonymous, was hired by QinetiQ along with Terremark to investigate the attacks. HBGary almost immediately identified malicious software on most of QinetiQ's computers.
The spying on QinetiQ and other defense contractors appears aimed at helping China leapfrog the U.S.'s technologically advanced military, foregoing years of research and development that would have cost billions of dollars
| Vulnerability |
Art of twitter account hacking, now or never ! | https://thehackernews.com/2012/11/art-of-twitter-account-hacking-now-or.html | Phishing is most commonly perpetrated through the mass distribution of e-mail messages directing users to a fraud web site or services. These professional criminals daily find new ways to commit old crimes, treating cyber crime like a business and forming global criminal communities. Another latest scam has been notified by GFI that, where cyber criminals are offering the art of hacking Twitter accounts with a web-based exploit.
Phishers are sending scam emails and offering fake twitter account hacking service, which in actual will hack their own twitter accounts.
Email from phishers have text, "Do you want to learn how to hack twitter? Are you looking for a way to hack your friends twitter account without them finding out? Interested in finding out ways to hack someone's profile? Maybe you want to take a quick peek at their direct message inbox, steal their username or find a glitch to use a hacking script,".
Hackers try to convince readers by showing a exploit code, and explain that how exactly the hack will be performed. Here phisher actually trying to trick user by asking values of parameters used in exploit, such as Victim username, your twitter username and your twitter password (in order to show authenticity).
Once reader will agree with the service in order to use it, they ask the end-user to email the above information to the site owner, along with fake code waffle as the subject line so "the database knows how to read it in programming language."
Users have to be very careful and protect themselves from these threats by using appropriate security software and being aware of the tricks used by cyber criminals. In actual there is no such exploit or way which can hack twitter account of anyone by just one click, if it can then our... @TheHackersNews is open for you !
| Malware |
Subsets and Splits