API Security | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

A recently disclosed critical security flaw impacting the Aviatrix Controller cloud networking platform has come under active exploitation in the wild to deploy backdoors and cryptocurrency miners. Cloud security firm Wiz said it's currently responding to "multiple incidents" involving the weaponization of CVE-2024-50603 (CVSS score: 10.0), a maximum severity bug that could result in unauthenticated remote code execution. Put differently, a successful exploitation of the flaw could permit an attacker to inject malicious operating system commands owing to the fact that certain API endpoints do not adequately sanitize user-supplied input. The vulnerability has been addressed in versions 7.1.4191 and 7.2.4996. Jakub Korepta, a security researcher at Polish cybersecurity company Securing, has been credited with discovering and reporting the shortcoming. A proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit has since been made publicly available . Data gathered by the cybersecurity company...

Details have emerged about three now-patched security vulnerabilities in Dynamics 365 and Power Apps Web API that could result in data exposure. The flaws, discovered by Melbourne-based cybersecurity company Stratus Security, have been addressed as of May 2024. Two of the three shortcomings reside in Power Platform's OData Web API Filter , while the third vulnerability is rooted in the FetchXML API . The root cause of the first vulnerability is the lack of access control on the OData Web API Filter, thereby allowing access to the contacts table that holds sensitive information such as full names, phone numbers, addresses, financial data, and password hashes. A threat actor could then weaponize the flaw to perform a boolean-based search to extract the complete hash by guessing each character of the hash sequentially until the correct value is identified. "For example, we start by sending startswith(adx_identity_passwordhash, 'a') then startswith( adx_identity_p...

As the holiday season approaches, retail businesses are gearing up for their annual surge in online (and in-store) traffic. Unfortunately, this increase in activity also attracts cybercriminals looking to exploit vulnerabilities for their gain.  Imperva, a Thales company, recently published its annual holiday shopping cybersecurity guide . Data from the Imperva Threat Research team’s six-month analysis (April 2024 – September 2024) revealed that AI-driven threats need to be top of mind for retailers this year. As generative AI tools and large language models (LLMs) become more widespread and advanced, cybercriminals are increasingly leveraging these technologies to scale and refine their attacks on eCommerce platforms. Imperva Threat Research also found that retail sites collectively experience an average of 569,884 AI-driven attacks each day. Understanding what types of threats are accounting for these attacks, and how to protect against them, is critical for retail businesses ...

With so many SaaS applications, a range of configuration options, API capabilities, endless integrations, and app-to-app connections, the SaaS risk possibilities are endless. Critical organizational assets and data are at risk from malicious actors, data breaches, and insider threats, which pose many challenges for security teams. Misconfigurations are silent killers, leading to major vulnerabilities. So, how can CISOs reduce the noise? What misconfiguration should security teams focus on first? Here are five major SaaS configuration mistakes that can lead to security breaches. #1 Misconfiguration: HelpDesk Admins Have Excessive Privileges Risk: Help desk teams have access to sensitive account management functions making them prime targets for attackers. Attackers can exploit this by convincing help desk personnel to reset MFA for privileged users, gaining unauthorized access to critical systems. Impact: Compromised help desk accounts can lead to unauthorized changes to admin-...

Pentest Checklists Are More Important Than Ever Given the expanding attack surface coupled with the increasing sophistication of attacker tactics and techniques, penetration testing checklists have become essential for ensuring thorough assessments across an organization’s attack surface, both internal and external. By providing a structured approach, these checklists help testers systematically uncover vulnerabilities in various assets like networks, applications, APIs, and systems. They ensure no critical area is overlooked and guide the testing process, making it more efficient and effective at identifying security weaknesses that could be exploited by attackers. A pentest checklist essentially leaves no stone unturned and is a detailed and comprehensive list of every type of vulnerability in which to simulate an attack against. Each asset being tested, however, requires a different pentest checklist tailored to its specific characteristics and risks. For example, a checklist fo...

As technology adoption has shifted to be employee-led, just in time, and from any location or device, IT and security teams have found themselves contending with an ever-sprawling SaaS attack surface, much of which is often unknown or unmanaged. This greatly increases the risk of identity-based threats, and according to a recent report from CrowdStrike, 80% of breaches today use compromised identities, including cloud and SaaS credentials. Given this reality, IT security leaders need practical and effective  SaaS security solutions  designed to discover and manage their expanding SaaS footprint. Here are 5 key ways Nudge Security can help. Close the visibility gap Knowing the full scope of SaaS apps in use is the foundation of a modern IT governance program. Without an understanding of your entire SaaS footprint, you cannot say with confidence where your corporate IP is stored (Did someone sync their desktop to Dropbox?), you cannot make assumptions about your customer da...

Organizations are losing between $94 - $186 billion annually to vulnerable or insecure APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) and automated abuse by bots. That’s according to The Economic Impact of API and Bot Attacks report from Imperva, a Thales company. The report highlights that these security threats account for up to 11.8% of global cyber events and losses, emphasizing the escalating risks they pose to businesses worldwide. Drawing on a comprehensive study conducted by the Marsh McLennan Cyber Risk Intelligence Center, the report analyzes over 161,000 unique cybersecurity incidents. The findings demonstrate a concerning trend: the threats posed by vulnerable or insecure APIs and automated abuse by bots are increasingly interconnected and prevalent. Imperva warns that failing to address security risks associated with these threats could lead to substantial financial and reputational damage. API Adoption and the Expanding Attack Surface APIs have become indispensable to mod...

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a new cryptojacking campaign targeting the Docker Engine API with the goal of co-opting the instances to join a malicious Docker Swarm controlled by the threat actor. This enabled the attackers to "use Docker Swarm's orchestration features for command-and-control (C2) purposes," Datadog researchers Matt Muir and Andy Giron said in an analysis. The attacks leverage Docker for initial access to deploy a cryptocurrency miner on compromised containers, while also fetching and executing additional payloads that are responsible for conducting lateral movement to related hosts running Docker, Kubernetes, or SSH. Specifically, this involves identifying unauthenticated and exposed Docker API endpoints using Internet scanning tools, such as masscan and ZGrab . On vulnerable endpoints, the Docker API is used to spawn an Alpine container and then retrieve an initialization shell script (init.sh) from a remote server ("solscan[.]liv...

In the digital realm, secrets (API keys, private keys, username and password combos, etc.) are the keys to the kingdom. But what if those keys were accidentally left out in the open in the very tools we use to collaborate every day? A Single Secret Can Wreak Havoc Imagine this: It's a typical Tuesday in June 2024. Your dev team is knee-deep in sprints, Jira tickets are flying, and Slack is buzzing with the usual mix of cat memes and code snippets. Little do you know, buried in this digital chatter is a ticking time bomb – a plaintext credential that gives unfettered access to your company's crown jewels. Fast forward a few weeks, and you're in the middle of a CISO's worst nightmare. Terabytes of customer data, including millions of bank account details, have been exfiltrated. Your company is splashed across headlines, and new incidents are surfacing daily. The culprit? A secret inadvertently shared in a Jira comment. This isn't a far-fetched scenario. It happen...

What is Continuous Attack Surface Penetration Testing or CASPT? Continuous Penetration Testing or Continuous Attack Surface Penetration Testing (CASPT) is an advanced security practice that involves the continuous, automated, and ongoing penetration testing services of an organization's digital assets to identify and mitigate security vulnerabilities. CASPT is designed for enterprises with an evolving attack surface where periodic pentesting is no longer sufficient. Unlike traditional penetration testing, which is often performed annually or semi-annually, CASPT is an ongoing process that integrates directly into the software development lifecycle (SDLC), ensuring that vulnerabilities are discovered and addressed in real-time or near-real-time. CASPT is a proactive security measure designed to stay ahead of potential attackers by continuously evaluating the security posture of an organization. It enables security teams to identify critical entry points that could be exploited b...