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Intel has released fixes to close out a high-severity flaw codenamed  Reptar  that impacts its desktop, mobile, and server CPUs. Tracked as  CVE-2023-23583  (CVSS score: 8.8), the  issue  has the potential to "allow escalation of privilege and/or information disclosure and/or denial of service via local access." Successful exploitation of the vulnerability could also permit a bypass of the CPU's security boundaries, according to Google Cloud, which described it as an issue stemming from how redundant prefixes are interpreted by the processor. "The impact of this vulnerability is demonstrated when exploited by an attacker in a multi-tenant virtualized environment, as the exploit on a guest machine causes the host machine to crash resulting in a Denial of Service to other guest machines running on the same host," Google Cloud's Phil Venables  said . "Additionally, the vulnerability could potentially lead to information disclosure or privilege escala

Over a dozen security flaws have been discovered in baseboard management controller ( BMC ) firmware from Lanner that could expose operational technology (OT) and internet of things (IoT) networks to remote attacks. BMC refers to a specialized service processor, a system-on-chip (SoC), that's found in server motherboards and is used for remote monitoring and management of a host system, including performing low-level system operations such as  firmware flashing  and power control. Nozomi Networks, which analyzed an Intelligent Platform Management Interface ( IPMC ) from Taiwanese vendor Lanner Electronics, said it uncovered 13 weaknesses affecting  IAC-AST2500 . All the issues affect version 1.10.0 of the standard firmware, with the exception of CVE-2021-4228, which impacts version 1.00.0. Four of the flaws (from CVE-2021-26727 to CVE-2021-26730) are rated 10 out of 10 on the CVSS scoring system. In particular, the industrial security company found that CVE-2021-44467, an ac

The introduction of Open AI's ChatGPT was a defining moment for the software industry, touching off a GenAI race with its November 2022 release. SaaS vendors are now rushing to upgrade tools with enhanced productivity capabilities that are driven by generative AI. Among a wide range of uses, GenAI tools make it easier for developers to build software, assist sales teams in mundane email writing, help marketers produce unique content at low cost, and enable teams and creatives to brainstorm new ideas.  Recent significant GenAI product launches include Microsoft 365 Copilot, GitHub Copilot, and Salesforce Einstein GPT. Notably, these GenAI tools from leading SaaS providers are paid enhancements, a clear sign that no SaaS provider will want to miss out on cashing in on the GenAI transformation. Google will soon launch its SGE "Search Generative Experience" platform for premium AI-generated summaries rather than a list of websites.  At this pace, it's just a matter of a short time befo

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of two medium-security flaws in Mitel 6800/6900 desk phones that, if successfully exploited, could allow an attacker to gain root privileges on the devices. Tracked as  CVE-2022-29854  and  CVE-2022-29855  (CVSS score: 6.8), the access control issues were discovered by German penetration testing firm SySS, following which patches were shipped in May 2022. "Due to this undocumented backdoor, an attacker with physical access to a vulnerable desk phone can gain root access by pressing specific keys on system boot, and then connect to a provided Telnet service as root user," SySS researcher Matthias Deeg said in a statement shared with The Hacker News. Specifically, the issue relates to a previously unknown functionality present in a shell script ("check_mft.sh") in the phones' firmware that's designed to be executed at system boot. "The shell script 'check_mft.sh,' which is located in the direc

ASUS routers have emerged as the target of a nascent botnet called Cyclops Blink , almost a month after it was revealed the malware abused WatchGuard firewall appliances as a stepping stone to gain remote access to breached networks. According to a  new report  published by Trend Micro, the botnet's "main purpose is to build an infrastructure for further attacks on high-value targets," given that none of the infected hosts "belong to critical organizations, or those that have an evident value on economic, political, or military espionage." Intelligence agencies from the U.K. and the U.S. have  characterized  Cyclops Blink as a replacement framework for  VPNFilter , another malware that has exploited network devices, primarily small office/home office (SOHO) routers, and network-attached storage (NAS) devices. Both VPNFilter and Cyclops Blink have been attributed to a Russian state-sponsored actor tracked as Sandworm (aka Voodoo Bear), which has also been li

More features, more problems! Today, we are living in a digital age that is creating a digital headache for people by connecting every other unnecessary home appliance to the Internet. Last week, nearly hundreds of Internet-connected locks became inoperable after a faulty software update hit some models. Users of remotely accessible smart locks made by Colorado-based company LockState have taken to social media platforms including Twitter to complain that their $469 Lockstate 6000i locks started to fail from last Monday, leaving the keypad entirely useless. LockState's RemoteLock 6i (6000i) is an Internet-connected smart lock that connects to your home Wi-Fi network for remote control and monitoring as well as firmware updates. LockState is even a partner with Airbnb, allowing Airbnb hosts' to give their guests entry code in order to get into hotel properties without having to share physical keys. However, last week many Airbnb customers were unable to use the bu

Once again USB has come up as a major threat to a vast number of users who use USB drives – including USB sticks and keyboards. Security researchers have released a bunch of hacking tools that can be used to convert USB drive into silent malware installer. This vulnerability has come about to be known as " BadUSB ", whose source code has been published by the researchers on the open source code hosting website Github , demanding manufacturers either to beef up protections for USB flash drive firmware and fix the problem or leave hundreds of millions of users vulnerable to the attack. The code released by researchers Adam Caudill and Brandon Wilson has capability to spread itself by hiding in the firmware meant to control the ways in which USB devices connect to computers. The hack utilizes the security flaw in the USB that allows an attacker to insert malicious code into their firmware. But Wait! What this means is that this critical vulnerability is now ava

In the last quarter of 2013, sale of a Smartphone with ANDROID operating system has increased and every second person you see is a DROID user. A Russian security firm ' Doctor Web' identified the first mass distributed Android bootkit malware called ' Android.Oldboot ', a piece of malware that's designed to re-infect devices after reboot, even if you delete all working components of it. The bootkit Android.Oldboot has infected more than 350,000 android users in China, Spain, Italy, Germany, Russia, Brazil, the USA and some Southeast Asian countries. China seems to a mass victim of this kind of malware having a 92 % share. A Bootkit is a rootkit malware variant which infects the device at start-up and may encrypt disk or steal data, remove the application, open connection for Command and controller. A very unique technique is being used to inject this Trojan into an Android system where an attacker places a component of it into the boot

More than 15.2% of the Algerian population use Internet service which is provided by around 30 Internet Service Providers and one of the largest shares is served by Algerie Telecom .  Algerie Telecom provides  TP-LINK TD-W8951ND  Router to most of their home customers who Opt-In for Internet services and each of which has ZYXEL embedded firmware installed in it. ABDELLI Nassereddine, penetration tester and Algerian Computer Science Student has reported highly critical unauthorized access and password disclosure vulnerabilities in the Routers provided by Algerie Telecom. He told ' The Hacker News ' that the vulnerabilities can be exploited by any remote hacker just by exploiting a very simple loophole in the firmware. First, he found that an unauthorized access is available to ' Firmware/Romfile Upgrade'  Section on the Router's panel that can be accessed without any login password i.e. https://IP//rpFWUpload.html This page actually allows a user to upgrade

How is it possible to exploit SD Card, USB stick and other mobile devices for hacking? Another interesting hack was presented at the Chaos Computer Congress (30C3), in Hamburg, Germany. The researchers demonstrated how it is possible to hack the microcontroller inside every SD and MicroSD flash cards that allow arbitrary code execution and can be used to perform a man in the middle attack . The Hardware Hackers  Andrew " bunnie " Huang and Sean "xobs"  described the exploitation method on their blog post ," it also enables the possibility for hardware enthusiasts to gain access to a very cheap and ubiquitous source of microcontrollers. " It seems that to reduce SD cards price and increase their storage capability, engineers have to consider a form of internal entropy that could affect data integrity on every Flash drive. Almost every NAND flash memory is affected by defects and presents problems like electron leakage between adjacent cells. " Flash memory is really

A number of D-Link routers reportedly have an issue that makes them susceptible to unauthorized backdoor access . The researcher Craig, specialized on the embedded device hacking - demonstrated the presence of a backdoor within some DLink routers that allows an attacker to access the administration web interface of network devices without any authentication and view/change its settings. He found the backdoor inside the firmware v1 . 13 for the DIR-100 revA . Craig found and extracted the SquashFS file system loading firmware's web server file system (/bin/webs) into IDA.  Giving a look at the string listing, the Craig's attention was captured by a modified version of thttpd , the thttpd - alphanetworks /2.23, implemented to provide the rights to the administrative interface for the router.  The library is written by Alphanetworks, a spin-off company of D-Link, analyzing it Craig found many custom functions characterized by a name starting with suffix "alpha"