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Emergency Patch released for Latest Flash Zero-Day Vulnerability

Emergency Patch released for Latest Flash Zero-Day Vulnerability
Oct 17, 2015
Two days ago, The Hacker News (THN) reported about the Zero-day vulnerability in the freshly patched Adobe Flash Player . The vulnerability was exploited in the wild by a well-known group of Russian hackers, named " Pawn Storm ," to target several foreign affairs ministries worldwide. The zero-day flaw allowed hackers to have complete control of the users' machine, potentially putting all the Flash Player users at a potentially high risk. Since then, there was no patch available to make flawed utility safe. However, Adobe has now patched the zero-day vulnerability, along with some critical vulnerabilities whose details are yet to be disclosed. Yesterday, the company published a post on their official security bulletin ( APSB15-27 ) detailing the risks associated with the zero-day and how a user can get rid of them. The critical vulnerabilities are assigned following CVE numbers: CVE-2015-7645 CVE-2015-7647 CVE-2015-7648 Also, Adobe is kn

Lessons We Learned From Ashley Madison Data Breach

Lessons We Learned From Ashley Madison Data Breach
Jul 21, 2015
Do you use your Real Identity online and think about being private? If yes, then you are insane. Ashley Madison , the popular online dating website with tagline " Life is short. Have an affair ", recently got hacked , reportedly exposing a sample of its users' account information and other personal data online. The hacker group, called itself ' The Impact Team ', is also threatening to release the real names and all associated data of its 37 Million cheating customers. There are also rumors that the team could sell the stolen data for lots of money, instead of revealing it all for free. This isn't first time when the customers of online hooking site are scared of being exposed, two months ago the sex life of almost 4 Million users of Adult Friend Finder was made available on underground market for sale for 70 Bitcoins ($16,800). Lesson we Learned from These Hacks The Ashley Madison hack raises serious questions about what these compa

Making Sense of Operational Technology Attacks: The Past, Present, and Future

Making Sense of Operational Technology Attacks: The Past, Present, and Future
Mar 21, 2024Operational Technology / SCADA Security
When you read reports about cyber-attacks affecting operational technology (OT), it's easy to get caught up in the hype and assume every single one is sophisticated. But are OT environments all over the world really besieged by a constant barrage of complex cyber-attacks? Answering that would require breaking down the different types of OT cyber-attacks and then looking back on all the historical attacks to see how those types compare.  The Types of OT Cyber-Attacks Over the past few decades, there has been a growing awareness of the need for improved cybersecurity practices in IT's lesser-known counterpart, OT. In fact, the lines of what constitutes a cyber-attack on OT have never been well defined, and if anything, they have further blurred over time. Therefore, we'd like to begin this post with a discussion around the ways in which cyber-attacks can either target or just simply impact OT, and why it might be important for us to make the distinction going forward. Figure 1 The Pu

Hacking Team Flash Zero-Day Linked to Cyber Attacks on South Korea and Japan

Hacking Team Flash Zero-Day Linked to Cyber Attacks on South Korea and Japan
Jul 09, 2015
The corporate data leaked in the recent cyber attack on the infamous surveillance software firm Hacking Team has revealed that the Adobe Flash zero-day (CVE-2015-5119) exploit has already been added to several exploit kits. Security researchers at Trend Micro have discovered evidences of the Adobe Flash zero-day (CVE-2015-5119) exploit being used in a number of exploit kits before the vulnerability was publicly revealed in this week's data breach on the spyware company. The successful exploitation of the zero-day Flash vulnerability could cause a system crash, potentially allowing an attacker to take full control of the affected system. Adobe Flash Zero-Day Targeted Japan and Korea According to the researchers, the zero-day exploit, about which the rest of the world got access on Monday, was apparently used in limited cyber attacks on South Korea and Japan . "In late June, [Trend Micro] learned that a user in Korea was the attempted target of various

Automated remediation solutions are crucial for security

cyber security
websiteWing SecurityShadow IT / SaaS Security
Especially when it comes to securing employees' SaaS usage, don't settle for a longer to-do list. Auto-remediation is key to achieving SaaS security.

Zero-Day Flash Player Exploit Disclosed in 'Hacking Team' Data Dump

Zero-Day Flash Player Exploit Disclosed in 'Hacking Team' Data Dump
Jul 07, 2015
The Recent Cyber Attack that exposed 400GB of corporate data belonging to surveillance software firm Hacking Team has revealed that the spyware company have already discovered an exploit for an unpatched zero-day vulnerability in Flash Player. Security researchers at Trend Micro claim that the leaked data stolen from Hacking Team , an Italian company that sells surveillance software to government agencies, contains a number of unpatched and unreported Adobe flaws. Hacking Team has Unpatched Flash Bug  While analyzing the leaked data dump, researchers discovered at least three software exploits – two for Adobe Flash Player and one for Microsoft's Windows kernel. Out of two, one of the Flash Player vulnerabilities, known as Use-after-free vulnerability with CVE-2015-0349 , has already been patched. However, the Hacking Team described the other Flash Player exploit, which is a zero-day exploit with no CVE number yet, as "the most beautiful Flash bug for

Adobe Flash Player Update Patches 11 Critical Vulnerabilities

Adobe Flash Player Update Patches 11 Critical Vulnerabilities
Mar 13, 2015
After the latest Microsoft Patch Tuesday updates that came with important patches for Stuxnet and FREAK encryption-downgrade attack , now its time to update your Adobe Flash Player. Adobe has rolled-out an update for its popular Flash Player software that patches a set of 11 critical security vulnerabilities in its program, most of which potentially allow hackers to remotely execute arbitrary code on vulnerable systems. AFFECTED SOFTWARE All versions prior to the latest version 17.0.0.134 of the Flash Player are affected on Windows and Mac OS X machines. Therefore, Adobe Flash Player installed with Google Chrome, as well as Internet Explorer 10 and 11 on Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, should automatically update to the newest version 17.0.0.134. In addition, Adobe Flash Player 11.2.202.442 for Linux and Flash Player Extended Support Release 13.0.0.269 for Windows and Mac OS X are also affected by the vulnerabilities. So, users of Flash Player on Linux should update

Another Unpatched Adobe Flash Zero-Day vulnerability Exploited in the Wild

Another Unpatched Adobe Flash Zero-Day vulnerability Exploited in the Wild
Feb 02, 2015
Warning for Adobe users! Another zero-day vulnerability has been discovered in Adobe Flash Player   that is actively being exploited by cyber crooks in drive-by download attacks, security researchers warned today. This is for the third time in last few weeks when Adobe is dealing with a zero day vulnerability in Flash Player. The Adobe Flash Player Vulnerability identified as CVE-2015-0313 , exists in the latest version of Flash Player, i.e. version 16.0.0.296 and earlier. In late January, Adobe released an updated version of its Flash player software that patches zero-day vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2015-0311 , spotted by French security researcher Kafeine. This Adobe Flash Player Vulnerability was also being actively exploited via Malvertisement and drive-by-download attacks. In case of a "drive-by-download" attack, an attacker downloads a malicious software to a victim's computer without their knowledge or explicit consent. As a result, the flaw cou

Malware Poses as Flash Update Infects 110,000 Facebook Users within 2 Days

Malware Poses as Flash Update Infects 110,000 Facebook Users within 2 Days
Jan 31, 2015
Facebook users just Beware!! Don't click any porn links on Facebook. Foremost reason is that you have thousands of good porn sites out there, but there's an extra good reason right now. Rogue pornography links on the world's most popular social network have reportedly infected over 110,000 Facebook users with a malware Trojan in just two days and it is still on the rise, a security researcher warned Friday. The Facebook malware disguised as a Flash Player update and spreads itself by posting links to a pornographic video from the Facebook accounts of previously infected users. The malware generally tags as many as 20 friends of the infected user . "In the new technique, which we call it ' Magnet ,' the malware gets more visibility to potential victims by tagging the friends of the victim in the malicious post," said Mohammad Faghani, a senior consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers, in a mailing list post to the Full Disclosure infosec hangout.  "A tag may

Adobe patches 2nd Flash Player Zero-day Vulnerability

Adobe patches 2nd Flash Player Zero-day Vulnerability
Jan 25, 2015
Ready to patch your Adobe Flash software now. Adobe has patched one after one two zero-day vulnerabilities in its Adobe Flash that are being actively exploited by the cyber criminals. PATCH FOR FIRST ZERO-DAY On Thursday, the company released an emergency update for one of the critical vulnerabilities in Flash Player. However, the flaw was not the one that security researcher Kafeine reported. Adobe focused on another zero-day, identified as CVE-2015-0310 , that was also exploited by Angler malicious toolkit. PATCH FOR SECOND ZERO-DAY Today, Adobe released an updated version of its Flash player software that patches a zero-day vulnerability , tracked as CVE-2015-0311, spotted by French security researcher Kafeine at the beginning of the week. The vulnerability is " being actively exploited in the wild via drive-by-download attacks against systems running Internet Explorer and Firefox on Windows 8.1 and below, " Adobe said in a security advisory . The com

Adobe Releases Emergency Flash Player Update to Address Critical Vulnerability

Adobe Releases Emergency Flash Player Update to Address Critical Vulnerability
Nov 26, 2014
Adobe has rolled-out an urgent out-of-band update for a critical remote code-execution vulnerability in its popular Flash Player that is currently being exploited by hackers. The critical vulnerability ( CVE 2014-8439 ) in Flash Player for Windows, Mac and Linux was originally mitigated more than a month ago in October 14, 2014 patch release, but a French researcher Kafeine found its exploits in the Angler and Nuclear malware kits after Adobe released a patch, according to security vendor F-Secure. " The vulnerability is being exploited in blind mass attack. No doubt about it : the team behind Angler is really good at what it does ," Kafeine said in a blog post . The vulnerability allows an attacker to execute arbitrary code due to a weakness in the way a dereferenced pointer to memory is handled. An attacker could serve a specially crafted Flash file to trigger the vulnerability, which would lead to the execution of attacker's code in order to take control

Adobe Releases Critical Security Updates for Acrobat and Reader

Adobe Releases Critical Security Updates for Acrobat and Reader
Sep 18, 2014
After a week delay, Adobe has finally pushed out critical security updates for its frequently-attacked Reader and Acrobat PDF software packages to patch serious vulnerabilities that could lead to computers being compromised. The new versions of Adobe Reader and Acrobat released Tuesday for both Windows and Macintosh computers address eight vulnerabilities, five of which could allow for remote code execution . The remaining three vulnerabilities involve a sandbox bypass vulnerability that can be exploited to escalate an attacker's privileges on Windows, a denial-of-service (DoS) vulnerability related to memory corruption, and a cross-site scripting (XSS) flaw that only affects the programs on the Mac platform. According to Adobe's advisory , applying the patches will involve a system restart. The affected versions are: Adobe Reader XI (11.0.08) and earlier 11.x versions for Windows Adobe Reader XI (11.0.07) and earlier 11.x versions for Macintosh Adobe Reade

Malicious Advertisements Found on Java.com, Other High-Profile Sites

Malicious Advertisements Found on Java.com, Other High-Profile Sites
Aug 29, 2014
A New York-based online ad network company AppNexus, that provides a platform specializing in real-time online advertising, has again been spotted as the origin of a recent "malvertising" campaign that makes use of the Angler Exploit Kit to redirect visitors to malicious websites hosting the Asprox malware. AppNexus servers process 16 billion ad buys per day, making it the biggest reach on the open web after Google. Back in May, AppNexus was serving malicious ads targeting Microsoft's Silverlight platform. The world's largest Internet Video Subscription service Netflix runs on Silverlight, and because of its popularity, hackers have been loading exploit kits with Silverlight. As part of this campaign, users of several high-profile websites including Java.com, Deviantart.com, TMZ.com, Photobucket.com, IBTimes.com, eBay.ie, Kapaza.be and TVgids.nl , last week were redirected to websites serving malicious advertisements that infected visitors by installing botnet ma

Adobe Releases Critical Security Updates for Flash Player, Acrobat and Adobe Reader

Adobe Releases Critical Security Updates for Flash Player, Acrobat and Adobe Reader
Aug 13, 2014
Adobe has released security updates to fix seven vulnerabilities in its Flash and Air platforms and one in its Reader and Acrobat which, according to the company, is being exploited by attackers in wild " ...in limited, isolated attacks targeting Adobe Reader users on Windows. " The vulnerabilities could allow an attacker to " take control of affected systems " marked critical by the company. A new, out-of-band patch addresses a zero-day vulnerability (CVE-2014-0546) in Adobe Reader and Acrobat that offers an attacker the possibility to bypass sandbox protection and has been leveraged in "limited, isolated attacks" against Windows users. " These updates resolve a sandbox bypass vulnerability that could be exploited to run native code with escalated privileges on Windows, " Adobe warned. The lone vulnerability in Adobe Acrobat and Reader was reported by Kaspersky Lab Global Research and Analysis Team director Costin Raiu and V

Spam Tweets 'US Government Trying to Shut Down Bitcoin' Spreading Malware

Spam Tweets 'US Government Trying to Shut Down Bitcoin' Spreading Malware
May 25, 2014
The Security Software company Malwarebytes has discovered a malicious scam spreading through rogue tweets by a number of fake Twitter accounts with a link to a story that says the United States Government is trying to ban cryptocurrency Bitcoin. " The majority of the accounts pushing these things are clearly fake, using gathered Twitter handles to launch the barrage of malicious spam at the Twitterverse, " wrote Adam Kujawa of Malwarebytes in a blog post on Thursday. In most cases, cybercriminals use to spread the malicious software via an email, but distribution of malware through social media is relatively new tantrum of cyber criminals, as more people are fond of social media platforms now a days. Adam discovered the scam and according to him the worst part of this new Twitter scam is that even without realizing the impact of this fake news, other Twitter users are retweeting from their accounts, making the malware scam more worse. The tweets contain links lead

Adobe releases important Security Updates for Flash Player

Adobe releases important Security Updates for Flash Player
Mar 11, 2014
Adobe has released security updates to address important vulnerabilities in Adobe Flash Player 12.0.0.70 and earlier versions for Windows and Macintosh and Adobe Flash Player 11.2.202.341 and earlier versions for Linux. The new build intends to address following vulnerabilities in Adobe Flash Player: CVE-2014-0503 ,  reported by security researcher, ' Masato Kinugawa ', that lets   attackers bypass the same-origin policy. Attackers can exploit this issue to access resources from another origin in the context of another domain. This can facilitate cross-site request-forgery attacks. CVE-2014-0504 , reported by ' Jordan Milne ',   that could be used to read the contents of the clipboard(). The Clipboard can be used to store data, such as text and images, but flaw could allow hacker to stuff malware URLs onto your clipboard. Adobe Security Bulletin APSB14-08 tagged the updates with  Priority 2 , ' This update resolves vulnerabilities in a product that

Adobe releases another Emergency Security Patch for Flash Player

Adobe releases another Emergency Security Patch for Flash Player
Feb 22, 2014
Security Firm FireEye has uncovered yet another critical zero-day vulnerability in widely used Adobe Flash Software and Adobe has been forced to issue a second emergency patch update  in less than a month. All versions of Adobe Flash Player released before today's patch are vulnerable to the zero-day exploit and the patch addresses a critical vulnerability  CVE-2014-0502 , being used in a watering hole attack -dubbed " Operation Greedywonk",  that allows attackers to remotely take control of infected systems. The vulnerability affects the latest versions of Flash, is reported to be targeting the websites of three non-profit institutions, being redirected to an malicious server hosting the zero-day exploit. " Visitors to the Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics (www.piie[.]com) were redirected to an exploit server hosting this Flash zero-day through a hidden iframe ." FireEye said. Security updates tackle a number of flaws includi
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