SSH password cracking | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Here's excellent news for sysadmins. You can now use a physical security key as hardware-based two-factor authentication to securely log into a remote system via SSH protocol. OpenSSH, one of the most widely used open-source implementations of the Secure Shell (SSH) Protocol, yesterday announced the 8.2 version of the software that primarily includes two new significant security enhancements. First, OpenSSH 8.2 added support for FIDO/U2F hardware authenticators , and the second, it has deprecated SSH-RSA public key signature algorithm and planned to disable it by default in the future versions of the software. FIDO (Fast Identity Online) protocol based hardware security devices are stronger and fool-proof mechanisms for authentication because it enables public-key cryptography to protect against advanced malware, phishing, and man-in-the-middle attacks. "In OpenSSH, FIDO devices are supported by new public key types' ecdsa-sk' and 'ed25519-sk', along

WikiLeaks has today published the 15th batch of its ongoing Vault 7 leak , this time detailing two alleged CIA implants that allowed the agency to intercept and exfiltrate SSH (Secure Shell) credentials from targeted Windows and Linux operating systems using different attack vectors. Secure Shell or SSH is a cryptographic network protocol used for remote login to machines and servers securely over an unsecured network. Dubbed BothanSpy — implant for Microsoft Windows Xshell client, and Gyrfalcon — targets the OpenSSH client on various distributions of Linux OS, including CentOS, Debian, RHEL (Red Hat), openSUSE and Ubuntu. Both implants steal user credentials for all active SSH sessions and then sends them to a CIA-controlled server. BothanSpy — Implant for Windows OS BothanSpy is installed as a Shellterm 3.x extension on the target machine and only works if Xshell is running on it with active sessions. Xshell is a powerful terminal emulator that supports SSH, SFTP,

Account takeover attacks have emerged as one of the most persistent and damaging threats to cloud-based SaaS environments. Yet despite significant investments in traditional security measures, many organizations continue to struggle with preventing these attacks. A new report, " Why Account Takeover Attacks Still Succeed, and Why the Browser is Your Secret Weapon in Stopping Them " argues that the browser is the primary battleground where account takeover attacks unfold and, thus, where they should be neutralized. The report also provides effective guidance for mitigating the account takeover risk.  Below are some of the key points raised in the report: The Role of the Browser in Account Takeovers According to the report, the SaaS kill chain takes advantage of the fundamental components that are contained within the browser. For account takeover, these include: Executed Web Pages - Attackers can create phishing login pages or use MiTM over legitimate web pages to harve

With providing easy accessibility, the battle is not won! Server-side Vulnerabilities have been reported by a security researcher in the popular Pocket add-on that comes attached with the Firefox browser. The security flaws could have allowed hackers to exfiltrate data from the company's servers as well as populate reading lists with malicious links. The Pocket button in the Firefox browser allows you to save links, videos, web pages, or articles to your Pocket account with just a click, making it easier for you to read them later, usually offline. However, the vulnerabilities discovered by security researcher Clint Ruoho was such that it could allow hackers to get an unrestricted root access to the server hosting the application, the researcher wrote in his blog post . For this to be done, a hacker only needs: A browser The Pocket Mobile app Access to an Amazon EC2 Server which costs 2 cents an hour The researcher, with the goal of exploiting the service's main functionality

A simple but highly critical vulnerability recently disclosed in the most widely used OpenSSH software allows attackers to try thousands of password login attempts per connection in a short period. OpenSSH is the most popular software widely used for secure remote access to Linux-based systems. Generally, the software allows 3 to 6 Password login attempts before closing a connection, but a new vulnerability lets attackers perform thousands of authentication requests remotely . OpenSSH servers with keyboard-interactive authentication enabled , including FreeBSD Linux, can be exploited to carry out the brute force attack on OpenSSH protocol, a security researcher with online alias KingCope explained in a blog post . Exploit for the Vulnerability RELEASED  Hackers could widely exploit the vulnerability because the keyboard-interactive authentication is by default enabled on most of the systems. Researcher has also released a proof-of-concept exploit code, which i