Vulnerability | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

A dangerous backdoor has been discovered in the MediaTek processor that could be exploited to hack Android devices remotely. MediaTek is a Taiwan-based hardware company that manufacture hardware chips and processor used in the smartphones and tablets. The backdoor was discovered by security researcher Justin Case , who already informed MediaTek about the security issue via Twitter, as the chipset manufacturer had no proper vulnerability reporting mechanism in place. The vulnerability is apparently due to a debug tool that was opened up for carriers to test the device on their networks, but unfortunately, it was left open in the shipped devices, thus leaving the serious backdoor open to hackers. If exploited, the debug feature could allow hackers to compromise personal data of an Android device, including user's private contacts, messages, photos, videos and other private data. MediaTek acknowledged the issue, saying "We are aware of this issue, and it has bee

Attention Tor Onion Hosters! A year old loophole in Apache Web Server, uncovered by an unknown Computer Science Student, could potentially unmask the real identity of .onion-domains and servers hidden behind the Tor-network. Although the loophole was reported on Reddit and to the Tor Project months back, it recently came to the limelight soon after a tweet by Alec Muffet , a well-known security enthusiast and current software engineer at Facebook. What is Tor Hidden (.onion) Service? Dark Web websites (generally known as 'onion services') with a special domain name that ends with .onion, are called Tor Hidden Service and reachable only via the Tor network. Tor Hidden Service is a widely popular anonymity network used by Whistleblowers, Underground Markets, Defense Networks and more in order to maintain secrecy over the Internet. An Onion Website can be hosted on the top of any web servers. But, if you are choosing Apache, then you need to rethink.

Identities now transcend human boundaries. Within each line of code and every API call lies a non-human identity. These entities act as programmatic access keys, enabling authentication and facilitating interactions among systems and services, which are essential for every API call, database query, or storage account access. As we depend on multi-factor authentication and passwords to safeguard human identities, a pressing question arises: How do we guarantee the security and integrity of these non-human counterparts? How do we authenticate, authorize, and regulate access for entities devoid of life but crucial for the functioning of critical systems? Let's break it down. The challenge Imagine a cloud-native application as a bustling metropolis of tiny neighborhoods known as microservices, all neatly packed into containers. These microservices function akin to diligent worker bees, each diligently performing its designated task, be it processing data, verifying credentials, or

The OpenSSL Foundation has released the promised patch for a high severity vulnerability in its cryptographic code library that let attackers obtain the key to decrypt HTTPS-based communications and other Transport layer security (TLS) channels. OpenSSL is an open-source library that is the most widely used in applications for secure data transfers. Most websites use it to enable Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption. However, after serious security vulnerabilities were discovered in OpenSSL over the last few years, the crypto library has been under much investigation by security researchers. The latest bugs affect OpenSSL versions 1.0.1 and 1.0.2, which has been patched in new releases of OpenSSL, versions 1.0.1r and 1.0.2f . The team has patched two separate vulnerabilities in OpenSSL. The " high severity " bug, identified as CVE-2016-0701 , addresses issues in the implementations of the Diffie-Hellman key exchang

The country which built a Digital Iron Dome , Israel had undergone one of the largest serious cyber attack this year. This time, the name of Israel is being popped up in the current headlines is for the massive cyber attack which triggered against the Nation's Electrical Power Grid Authority's Network. "Yesterday we identified one of the largest cyber attacks that we have experienced," Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz confirmed at the CyberTech 2016 Conference at the Tel Aviv Trade Fair and Convention Center on Tuesday, according to an article published by The Times of Israel. "The virus was already identified and the right software was already prepared to neutralize it," Steinitz added. "We'd to paralyze many of the computers of the Israeli Electricity Authority. We are handling the situation and I hope that soon, this very serious event will be over...but as of now, computer systems are still not working as they should." Sev

If you are using Magento to run your e-commerce website, it's time for you to update the CMS ( content management system ) now. Millions of online merchants are at risk of hijacking attacks due to a number of critical cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities in the Magento, the most popular e-commerce platform owned by eBay. Why the Bugs are So Serious? Virtually all versions of Magento Community Edition 1.9.2.2 and earlier as well as Enterprise Edition 1.14.2.2 and earlier, are vulnerable to the Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) flaws. The stored XSS flaws are awful as they allow attackers to: Effectively take over a Magento-based online store Escalate user privileges Siphon customers' data Steal credit card information Control the website via administrator accounts However, the good news is that the vulnerabilities are patched, and an update has been made available to the public after security firm Sucuri discovered and privately reported the v

Apple has patched a critical vulnerability in its iOS operating system that allowed criminal hackers to impersonate end users' identities by granting read/write access to website's unencrypted authentication cookies. The vulnerability was fixed with the release of iOS 9.2.1 on Tuesday, almost three years after it was first discovered and reported to Apple. The vulnerability, dubbed " Captive Portal " bug, was initially discovered by Adi Sharabani and Yair Amit from online security company Skycure and privately reported to Apple in June 2013. Here's How the Vulnerability Worked The vulnerability caused due to the way iOS handles Cookie Stores at Captive Portals , generally a login page that requires users to authenticate themselves before connecting to the free or paid public Wi-Fi hotspots when they are first joining. So, when a user with a vulnerable iPhone or iPad connects to a captive-enabled network ( sample page shown in the screensho

A new critical zero-day vulnerability has been discovered in the Linux kernel that could allow attackers to gain root level privileges by running a malicious Android or Linux application on an affected device. The critical Linux kernel flaw ( CVE-2016-0728 ) has been identified by a group of researchers at a startup named Perception Point. The vulnerability was present in the code since 2012, and affects any operating system with Linux kernel 3.8 and higher , so there are probably tens of millions of computers, both 32-bit and 64-bit, exposed to this flaw. However, the most bothersome part is that the problem affects Android versions KitKat and higher , which means about 66 percent of all Android devices are also exposed to the serious Linux kernel flaw. Impact of the Zero-Day Vulnerability An attacker would only require local access to exploit the flaw on a Linux server. If successfully exploited, the vulnerability can allow attackers to get root access

A 'Serious' security vulnerability has been discovered and fixed in OpenSSH – one of the most widely used open-source implementations of the Secure Shell (SSH) Protocol. The critical vulnerability could be exploited by hackers to force clients to leak their secret private cryptographic keys, potentially exposing users to Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attacks. What Causes the Flaw to occur? The serious bug was actually the result of a code that enables an experimental " roaming " feature in the OpenSSH versions 5.4 to 7.1 in order to let users resume connections. However, The roaming feature contains two different vulnerabilities: An information sharing flaw ( CVE-2016-0777 ) A less harmless buffer overflow flaw ( CVE-2016-0778 ) The vulnerability does not have any catchy name like some previous OpenSSH flaws. Impact of the Vulnerability This new feature can be exploited by hackers, who could use a malicious OpenSSH server to trick a

The buzz around The Internet of Things (IoT) is growing, and it is growing at a great pace. Every day the technology industry tries to connect another household object to the Internet. One such internet-connected household device is a Smart Doorbell. Gone are the days when we have regular doorbells and need to open the door every time the doorbell rings to see who is around. However, with these Internet-connected Smart Doorbells, you get an alert on your smartphone app every time a visitor presses your doorbell and, in fact, you can also view who's in front of your door. Moreover, you can even communicate with them without ever opening the door. Isn't this amazing? Pretty much. But what if your doorbell Reveals your home's WiFi password ? Use Smart Doorbell to Hack WiFi Password Until now, we have seen how hackers and researchers discovered security holes in Smart Cars , Smart refrigerators , Smart kettles and Internet-connected Toys , raising

Yes, from today, Microsoft is ending the support for versions 8, 9 and 10 of its home-built browser Internet Explorer, thereby encouraging Windows users to switch on to Internet Explorer version 11 or its newest Edge browser . Microsoft is going to release one last patch update for IE8, IE9 and IE10 today, but this time along with an " End of Life " notice, meaning Microsoft will no longer support the older versions. So, if you want to receive continuous updates for your web browser and avoid being exposed to potential security risks after 12 January, you are advised to upgrade your browser to Internet Explorer 11, or its new Edge browser. End of Life of Internet Explorer 8, 9 and 10  "Internet Explorer 11 is the last version of Internet Explorer, and will continue to receive security updates, compatibility fixes, and technical support on Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10," Microsoft says . This move could be part of Microsoft's bigger

A simple, yet effective flaw discovered on eBay's website exposed hundreds of millions of its customers to an advance  Phishing Attack . An Independent Security Researcher reported a critical vulnerability to eBay last month that had the capability to allow hackers to host a fake login page, i.e. phishing page, on eBay website in an effort to steal users' password and harvest credentials from millions of its users. The researchers, nicknamed MLT , said anyone could have exploited the vulnerability to target eBay users in order to take over their accounts or harvest thousands, or even millions, of eBay customers credentials by sending phishing emails to them. MLT published a blog post about the eBay flaw on Monday, demonstrating how easy it is to exploit the flaw like this and steal customers' passwords. Here's How ebay Hack Works The flaw actually resided in the URL parameter that allowed the hacker to inject his iFrame on the legitimate eBay

A well-known company popular for buying and selling zero-day vulnerabilities is now offering up to $100,000 for providing a working zero-day exploit for bypassing the Flash Player's Heap Isolation mitigation . Few months back, Adobe deployed Heap Isolation in Flash version 18.0.0209 with an aim at making the Use-After-Free (UAF) vulnerabilities more difficult for cybercriminals to exploit. Zerodium is a startup by the infamous French-based company Vupen that Buys and Sells zero-day exploits and vulnerabilities. Zerodium, which describes itself as " the premium zero-day acquisition platform ," recently paid $1 Million bounty to a hacker for submitting a remote browser-based iOS 9.1/9.2b Jailbreak (untethered) Exploit. What is "Isolated Heap" Mitigation Technique? The use-after-free vulnerability is a type of memory corruption flaw that can be exploited by Hackers to execute arbitrary code or even allows full remote code execution capab

The Adobe Flash Player just said goodbye to the year with another bunch of vulnerability patches. Adobe released an out-of-band security update on Monday to address Nineteen ( 19 ) vulnerabilities in its Flash Player, including one ( CVE-2015-8651 ) that is being exploited in the wild. All the programming loopholes could be abused to execute malicious code (here malicious Flash file on a web page) on victims' computers in order to hijack an unpatched PC or Mac entirely. So, if you are running the Flash Player plugin on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, or Chrome OS, it is time for you to upgrade your system as soon as possible before criminals start taking advantage of the bugs. Here're the details of the Flash's 19 security vulnerabilities patched in the emergency APSB16-01 update posted Monday afternoon: A Type Confusion Vulnerability that could lead to arbitrary code execution ( CVE-2015-8644 ) An Integer Overflow Vulnerability that also leads to code e

Juniper Networks has announced that it has discovered " unauthorized code " in ScreenOS , the operating system for its NetScreen firewalls, that could allow an attacker to decrypt traffic sent through Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). It's not clear what caused the code to get there or how long it has been there, but the release notes posted by Juniper suggest the earliest buggy versions of the software date back to at least 2012 and possibly earlier. The backdoor impacts NetScreen firewalls using ScreenOS 6.2.0r15 through 6.2.0r18 and 6.3.0r12 through 6.3.0r20, states the advisory published by the company. However, there's no evidence right now that whether the backdoor was present in other Juniper OSes or devices. The issue was uncovered during an internal code review of the software, according to Juniper chief information officer Bob Worrall , and requires immediate patching by upgrading to a new version of the software just released today. &quo

Ever wonder how to hack Instagram or how to hack a facebook account? Well, someone just did it! But, remember, even responsibly reporting a security vulnerability could end up in taking legal actions against you. An independent security researcher claims he was threatened by Facebook after he responsibly revealed a series of security vulnerabilities and configuration flaws that allowed him to successfully gained access to sensitive data stored on Instagram servers , including: Source Code of Instagram website SSL Certificates and Private Keys for Instagram Keys used to sign authentication cookies Personal details of Instagram Users and Employees Email server credentials Keys for over a half-dozen critical other functions However, instead of paying him a reward, Facebook has threatened to sue the researcher of intentionally withholding flaws and information from its team. Wesley Weinberg , a senior security researcher at Synack, participated in Facebook's b

So what would anyone need to bypass password protection on your computer? It just needs to hit the backspace key 28 times , for at least the computer running Linux operating system. Wait, what? A pair of security researchers from the University of Valencia have uncovered a bizarre bug in several distributions of Linux that could allow anyone to bypass any kind of authentication during boot-up just by pressing backspace key 28 times. This time, the issue is neither in a kernel nor in an operating system itself, but rather the vulnerability actually resides in Grub2 , the popular Grand Unified Bootloader , which is used by most Linux systems to boot the operating system when the PC starts. Also Read: GPU-based Linux Rootkit and Keylogger . The source of the vulnerability is nothing but an integer underflow fault that was introduced with single commit in Grub version 1.98 (December 2009) – b391bdb2f2c5ccf29da66cecdbfb7566656a704d – affecting the grub_password

MacKeeper anti-virus company is making headlines today for its lax security that exposed the database of 13 Million Mac users' records including names, email addresses, usernames, password hashes, IP addresses, phone numbers, and system information. MacKeeper is a suite of software that claims to make Apple Macs more secure and stable, but today the anti-virus itself need some extra protection after a data breach exposed the personal and sensitive information for Millions of its customers. The data breach was discovered by Chris Vickery , a white hat hacker who was able to download 13 Million customer records by simply entering a selection of IP addresses, with no username or password required to access the data. 21 GB Trove of MacKeeper Customer Data Leaked 31-year-old Vickery said he uncovered the 21 GB trove of MacKeeper customer data in a moment of boredom while searching for openly accessible databases on Shodan – a specialized search engine that looks fo