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Cisco has released patches to address a critical security flaw impacting Unified Communications and Contact Center Solutions products that could permit an unauthenticated, remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on an affected device. Tracked as  CVE-2024-20253  (CVSS score: 9.9), the issue stems from improper processing of user-provided data that a threat actor could abuse to send a specially crafted message to a listening port of a susceptible appliance. "A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying operating system with the privileges of the web services user," Cisco  said  in an advisory. "With access to the underlying operating system, the attacker could also establish root access on the affected device." Synacktiv security researcher Julien Egloff has been credited with discovering and reporting CVE-2024-20253. The following products are impacted by the flaw - Unified Communications Manager (versions 11

Cybersecurity researchers have shed light on the command-and-control (C2) server workings of a known malware family called  SystemBC . "SystemBC can be purchased on underground marketplaces and is supplied in an archive containing the implant, a command-and-control (C2) server, and a web administration portal written in PHP," Kroll  said  in an analysis published last week. The risk and financial advisory solutions provider said it has witnessed an increase in the use of malware throughout Q2 and Q3 2023. SystemBC,  first observed  in the wild in 2018, allows threat actors to remote control a compromised host and deliver additional payloads, including trojans, Cobalt Strike, and ransomware. It also features support for launching ancillary modules on the fly to expand on its core functionality. A standout aspect of the malware revolves around its use of SOCKS5 proxies to mask network traffic to and from C2 infrastructure, acting as a persistent access mechanism for post-

As a vCISO, you are responsible for your client's cybersecurity strategy and risk governance. This incorporates multiple disciplines, from research to execution to reporting. Recently, we published a comprehensive playbook for vCISOs, "Your First 100 Days as a vCISO – 5 Steps to Success" , which covers all the phases entailed in launching a successful vCISO engagement, along with recommended actions to take, and step-by-step examples.  Following the success of the playbook and the requests that have come in from the MSP/MSSP community, we decided to drill down into specific parts of vCISO reporting and provide more color and examples. In this article, we focus on how to create compelling narratives within a report, which has a significant impact on the overall MSP/MSSP value proposition.  This article brings the highlights of a recent guided workshop we held, covering what makes a successful report and how it can be used to enhance engagement with your cyber security clients.

The maintainers of the open-source continuous integration/continuous delivery and deployment (CI/CD) automation software Jenkins have resolved nine security flaws, including a critical bug that, if successfully exploited, could result in remote code execution (RCE). The issue, assigned the CVE identifier  CVE-2024-23897 , has been described as an arbitrary file read vulnerability through the built-in command line interface ( CLI ) "Jenkins uses the args4j library to parse command arguments and options on the Jenkins controller when processing CLI commands," the maintainers  said  in a Wednesday advisory. "This command parser has a feature that replaces an @ character followed by a file path in an argument with the file's contents (expandAtFiles). This feature is enabled by default and Jenkins 2.441 and earlier, LTS 2.426.2 and earlier does not disable it." A threat actor could exploit this quirk to read arbitrary files on the Jenkins controller file system

In a world where more & more organizations are adopting open-source components as foundational blocks in their application's infrastructure, it's difficult to consider traditional SCAs as complete protection mechanisms against open-source threats. Using open-source libraries saves tons of coding and debugging time, and by that - shortens the time to deliver our applications. But, as codebases become increasingly composed of open-source software, it's time to respect the entire attack surface - including attacks on the supply chain itself - when choosing an  SCA platform  to depend upon. The Impact of One Dependency When a company adds an open-source library, they are probably adding not just the library they intended to, but also many other libraries as well. This is due to the way open-source libraries are built: just like every other application on the planet, they aim for a speed of delivery and development and, as such, rely on code other people built - i.e., ot

A critical security flaw has been disclosed in Fortra's GoAnywhere Managed File Transfer (MFT) software that could be abused to create a new administrator user. Tracked as  CVE-2024-0204 , the issue carries a CVSS score of 9.8 out of 10. "Authentication bypass in Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT prior to 7.4.1 allows an unauthorized user to create an admin user via the administration portal," Fortra  said  in an advisory released on January 22, 2024. Users who cannot upgrade to version 7.4.1 can apply temporary workarounds in non-container deployments by deleting the InitialAccountSetup.xhtml file in the install directory and restarting the services. For container-deployed instances, it's recommended to replace the file with an empty file and restart. Mohammed Eldeeb and Islam Elrfai of Cairo-based Spark Engineering Consultants have been credited with discovering and reporting the flaw in December 2023. Cybersecurity firm Horizon3.ai, which published a  proof-of-co

Malicious actors have begun to actively exploit a recently disclosed critical security flaw impacting Atlassian Confluence Data Center and Confluence Server, within three days of public disclosure. Tracked as CVE-2023-22527 (CVSS score: 10.0), the vulnerability impacts out-of-date versions of the software, allowing unauthenticated attackers to achieve remote code execution on susceptible installations. The shortcoming affects Confluence Data Center and Server 8 versions released before December 5, 2023, as well as 8.4.5. But merely days after the flaw became public knowledge, nearly 40,000 exploitation attempts targeting CVE-2023-22527 have been recorded in the wild as early as January 19 from more than 600 unique IP addresses, according to both the Shadowserver Foundation and the DFIR Report . The activity is currently limited "testing callback attempts and 'whoami' execution," suggesting that threat actors are opportunistically scanning for vulnerable servers

Several public and popular libraries abandoned but still used in Java and Android applications have been found susceptible to a new software supply chain attack method called MavenGate. "Access to projects can be hijacked through domain name purchases and since most default build configurations are vulnerable, it would be difficult or even impossible to know whether an attack was being performed," Oversecured  said  in an analysis published last week. Successful exploitation of these shortcomings could allow nefarious actors to hijack artifacts in dependencies and inject malicious code into the application, and worse, even compromise the build process through a malicious plugin. The mobile security firm added that all Maven-based technologies, including Gradle, are vulnerable to the attack, and that it sent reports to more than 200 companies, including Google, Facebook, Signal, Amazon, and others. Apache Maven is  chiefly used  for building and managing Java-based projec

We analyzed 2,5 million vulnerabilities we discovered in our customer's assets. This is what we found. Digging into the data The dataset we analyze here is representative of a subset of clients that subscribe to our vulnerability scanning services. Assets scanned include those reachable across the Internet, as well as those present on internal networks. The data includes findings for network equipment, desktops, web servers, database servers, and even the odd document printer or scanning device. The number of organizations in this dataset is smaller (3 less) than the previous dataset used in last year's Security Navigator 2023 and some organizations were replaced by new additions. With the change of organizations comes a different mix of assets, which leaves comparing the previous results akin to comparing apples to oranges (we might be biased), but it's still worth noting similar patterns where possible. This year, we revisit the menacing vulnerability theme with an eye on

Multiple security vulnerabilities have been disclosed in the TCP/IP network protocol stack of an open-source reference implementation of the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface ( UEFI ) specification used widely in modern computers. Collectively dubbed  PixieFail  by Quarkslab, the  nine issues  reside in the TianoCore EFI Development Kit II ( EDK II ) and could be exploited to achieve remote code execution, denial-of-service (DoS), DNS cache poisoning, and leakage of sensitive information. UEFI firmware – which is responsible for  booting the operating system  – from AMI, Intel, Insyde, and Phoenix Technologies are impacted by the shortcomings. EDK II incorporates its own TCP/IP stack called  NetworkPkg  to enable network functionalities available during the initial Preboot eXecution Environment ( PXE , pronounced "pixie") stage, which allows for management tasks in the absence of a running operating system. In other words, it is a client-server interface to  boot a

GitHub has revealed that it has rotated some keys in response to a security vulnerability that could be potentially exploited to gain access to credentials within a production container. The Microsoft-owned subsidiary said it was made aware of the problem on December 26, 2023, and that it addressed the issue the same day, in addition to rotating all potentially exposed credentials out of an abundance of caution. The rotated keys include the GitHub commit signing key as well as GitHub Actions, GitHub Codespaces, and Dependabot customer encryption keys, necessitating users who rely on these keys to import the new ones. There is no evidence that the high-severity vulnerability, tracked as  CVE-2024-0200  (CVSS score: 7.2), has been previously found and exploited in the wild. "This vulnerability is also present on GitHub Enterprise Server (GHES)," GitHub's Jacob DePriest  said . "However, exploitation requires an authenticated user with an  organization owner role

Citrix is warning of two zero-day security vulnerabilities in NetScaler ADC (formerly Citrix ADC) and NetScaler Gateway (formerly Citrix Gateway) that are being actively exploited in the wild. The flaws are listed below - CVE-2023-6548 (CVSS score: 5.5) - Authenticated (low privileged) remote code execution on Management Interface (requires access to NSIP, CLIP, or SNIP with management interface access) CVE-2023-6549 (CVSS score: 8.2) - Denial-of-service (requires that the appliance be configured as a Gateway or authorization and accounting, or AAA, virtual server) The following customer-managed versions of NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway are impacted by the shortcomings - NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway 14.1 before 14.1-12.35 NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway 13.1 before 13.1-51.15 NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway 13.0 before 13.0-92.21 NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway version 12.1 (currently end-of-life) NetScaler ADC 13.1-FIPS before 13.1-37.176 NetS

Google on Tuesday released updates to fix four security issues in its Chrome browser, including an actively exploited zero-day flaw. The issue, tracked as CVE-2024-0519 , concerns an out-of-bounds memory access in the V8 JavaScript and WebAssembly engine, which can be weaponized by threat actors to trigger a crash. "By reading out-of-bounds memory, an attacker might be able to get secret values, such as memory addresses, which can be bypass protection mechanisms such as ASLR in order to improve the reliability and likelihood of exploiting a separate weakness to achieve code execution instead of just denial of service," according to MITRE's Common Weakness Enumeration ( CWE ). Additional details about the nature of the attacks and the threat actors that may be exploiting it have been withheld in an attempt to prevent further exploitation. The issue was reported anonymously on January 11, 2024. "Out-of-bounds memory access in V8 in Google Chrome prior to 120.

Over 178,000 SonicWall firewalls exposed over the internet are exploitable to at least one of the two security flaws that could be potentially exploited to cause a denial-of-service (DoS) condition and remote code execution (RCE). "The two issues are fundamentally the same but exploitable at different HTTP URI paths due to reuse of a vulnerable code pattern," Jon Williams, a senior security engineer at Bishop Fox,  said  in a technical analysis shared with The Hacker News. The vulnerabilities in question are listed below - CVE-2022-22274  (CVSS score: 9.4) - A stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability in the SonicOS via HTTP request allows a remote, unauthenticated attacker to cause DoS or potentially result in code execution in the firewall. CVE-2023-0656  (CVSS score: 7.5) - A stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability in the SonicOS allows a remote, unauthenticated attacker to cause DoS, which could result in a crash. While there are no reports of exploitation of the flaws

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed a now-patched security flaw in the Opera web browser for Microsoft Windows and Apple macOS that could be exploited to execute any file on the underlying operating system. The remote code execution vulnerability has been codenamed MyFlaw by the Guardio Labs research team owing to the fact that it takes advantage of a feature called  My Flow  that makes it possible to sync messages and files between mobile and desktop devices. "This is achieved through a controlled browser extension, effectively bypassing the browser's sandbox and the entire browser process," the company  said  in a statement shared with The Hacker News. The issue impacts both the Opera browser and Opera GX. Following responsible disclosure on November 17, 2023, it was addressed as part of  updates  shipped on November 22, 2023. My Flow features a chat-like interface to exchange notes and files, the latter of which can be opened via a web interface, meaning a f

Multiple security vulnerabilities have been disclosed in Bosch BCC100 thermostats and Rexroth NXA015S-36V-B smart nutrunners that, if successfully exploited, could allow attackers to execute arbitrary code on affected systems. Romanian cybersecurity firm Bitdefender, which  discovered  the flaw in Bosch BCC100 thermostats last August, said the issue could be weaponized by an attacker to alter the device firmware and implant a rogue version. Tracked as  CVE-2023-49722  (CVSS score: 8.3), the high-severity vulnerability was addressed by Bosch in November 2023. "A network port 8899 is always open in BCC101/BCC102/BCC50 thermostat products, which allows an unauthenticated connection from a local WiFi network," the company  said  in an advisory. The issue, at its core, impacts the WiFi microcontroller that acts as a network gateway for the thermostat's logic microcontroller. By exploiting the flaw, an attacker could send commands to the thermostat, including writing a malicious updat

Thousands of WordPress sites using a vulnerable version of the Popup Builder plugin have been compromised with a malware called  Balada Injector . First  documented  by Doctor Web in January 2023, the campaign takes place in a series of periodic attack waves, weaponizing security flaws in WordPress plugins to inject backdoor designed to redirect visitors of infected sites to bogus tech support pages, fraudulent lottery wins, and push notification scams. Subsequent  findings  unearthed by Sucuri have revealed the  massive scale of the operation , which is said to have been active since 2017 and infiltrated no less than 1 million sites since then. The GoDaddy-owned website security company, which  detected  the latest Balada Injector activity on December 13, 2023, said it identified the injections on  over 7,100 sites . These attacks take advantage of a high-severity flaw in Popup Builder ( CVE-2023-6000 , CVSS score: 8.8) – a plugin with  more than 200,000 active installs  – that

The cyber attacks targeting the energy sector in Denmark last year may not have had the involvement of the Russia-linked Sandworm hacking group,  new findings  from Forescout show. The intrusions, which  targeted around 22 Danish energy organizations  in May 2023, occurred in two distinct waves, one which exploited a security flaw in Zyxel firewall (CVE-2023-28771) and a follow-on activity cluster that saw the attackers deploy Mirai botnet variants on infected hosts via an as-yet-unknown initial access vector. The first wave took place on May 11, while the second wave lasted from May 22 to 31, 2023. In one such attack detected on May 24, it was observed that the compromised system was communicating with IP addresses (217.57.80[.]18 and 70.62.153[.]174) that were previously used as command-and-control (C2) for the now-dismantled  Cyclops Blink  botnet. Forescout's closer examination of the attack campaign, however, has revealed that not only were the two waves unrelated, but also

Juniper Networks has released updates to fix a critical remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability in its SRX Series firewalls and EX Series switches. The issue, tracked as  CVE-2024-21591 , is rated 9.8 on the CVSS scoring system. "An out-of-bounds write vulnerability in J-Web of Juniper Networks Junos OS SRX Series and EX Series allows an unauthenticated, network-based attacker to cause a Denial-of-Service (DoS) or Remote Code Execution (RCE) and obtain root privileges on the device," the company  said  in an advisory. The networking equipment major, which is set to be  acquired by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)  for $14 billion, said the issue is caused by use of an insecure function allowing a bad actor to overwrite arbitrary memory. The flaw impacts the following versions, and has been fixed in versions 20.4R3-S9, 21.2R3-S7, 21.3R3-S5, 21.4R3-S5, 22.1R3-S4, 22.2R3-S3, 22.3R3-S2, 22.4R2-S2, 22.4R3, 23.2R1-S1, 23.2R2, 23.4R1, and later - Junos OS versions earlier than 20.4R