Zero-Day Vulnerability | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

As promised to release more zero-days exploits and hacking tools for various platforms starting from June 2017, the infamous hacking group Shadow Brokers is back with more information on how to subscribe and become a private member for receiving exclusive access to the future leaks. The Shadow Brokers is the same hacking group who leaked NSA's built Windows hacking tools and zero-day exploits in public that led to the WannaCry menace . When the Shadow Brokers promised its June 2017 release two weeks ago, the group announced that it would sell new zero-day exploits and hacking tools only to the private members with paid monthly subscription, instead of making them public for everyone. How to Become Member of the 'Wine of Month' Club? Now, just a few minutes ago, the hacking collective has released details about how to participate in the monthly subscription model – or the "Wine of Month Club," as the group called it – to get exclusive access to the

Update —  After reading this article, if you want to know, what has happened so far in past 4 days and how to protect your computers from WannaCry, read our latest article " WannaCry Ransomware: Everything You Need To Know Immediately . "  In the wake of the largest ransomware attack in the history that had already infected over 114,000 Windows systems worldwide since last 24 hours, Microsoft just took an unusual step to protect its customers with out-of-date computers. Also Read —   Google Researcher Finds Link Between WannaCry Attacks and North Korea . Microsoft has just released an emergency security patch update for all its unsupported version of Windows, including Windows XP, Vista, Windows 8, Server 2003 and 2008 Editions. So, if your organization, for some reason, is still running on Windows XP or Vista, you are strongly advised to download and APPLY PATCH NOW ! WannaCrypt , or also known as WannaCry, is a new ransomware that wreaked havoc across the wo

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

As part of this month's Patch Tuesday, Microsoft has released security patches for a total of 55 vulnerabilities across its products, including fixes for four zero-day vulnerabilities being exploited in the wild. Just yesterday, Microsoft released an emergency out-of-band update separately to patch a remote execution bug ( CVE-2017-0290 ) in Microsoft's Antivirus Engine that comes enabled by default on Windows 7, 8.1, RT, 10 and Server 2016 operating systems. The vulnerability, reported by Google Project Zero researchers, could allow an attacker to take over your Windows PC with just an email, which you haven't even opened yet. May 2017 Patch Tuesday — Out of 55 vulnerabilities, 17 have been rated as critical and affect the company's main operating systems, along with other products like Office, Edge, Internet Explorer, and the malware protection engine used in most of the Microsoft's anti-malware products. Sysadmins all over the world should prioriti

It's 2017, and opening a simple MS Word file could compromise your system. Security researchers are warning of a new in-the-wild attack that silently installs malware on fully-patched computers by exploiting a serious — and yet unpatched — zero-day vulnerability in all current versions of Microsoft Office. The Microsoft Office zero-day attack, uncovered by researchers from security firms McAfee and FireEye, starts simply with an email that attaches a malicious Word file containing a booby-trapped OLE2link object. When opened, the exploit code gets executed and makes a connection to a remote server controlled by the attacker, from where it downloads a malicious HTML application file (HTA) that's disguised as a document created in Microsoft's RTF (Rich Text Format). The HTA file then gets executed automatically with attackers gaining full code execution on the victim's machine, downloading additional payloads from "different well-known malware families"

An Android version of one of the most sophisticated mobile spyware has been discovered that remained undetected for at least three years due to its smart self-destruction capabilities. Dubbed Chrysaor , the Android spyware has been used in targeted attacks against activists and journalists mostly in Israel, but also in Georgia, Turkey, Mexico, the UAE and other countries. Chrysaor espionage malware, uncovered by researchers at Lookout and Google, is believed to be created by the same Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group Technologies, who was behind the Pegasus iOS spyware initially detected in targeted attacks against human rights activists in the United Arab Emirates last year. NSO Group Technologies is believed to produce the most advanced mobile spyware on the planet and sold them to governments, law enforcement agencies worldwide, as well as dictatorial regimes. The newly discovered Chrysaor spyware has been found installed on fewer than three-dozen Android devices, al

As part of its " Vault 7 " series, Wikileaks — the popular whistle-blowing platform — has just released another batch of classified documents focused on exploits and hacking techniques the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) designed to target Apple MacOS and iOS devices. Dubbed " Dark Matter ," the leak uncovers macOS vulnerabilities and attack vectors developed by a special division of the CIA called Embedded Development Branch (EDB) – the same branch that created ' Weeping Angel ' attack – and focused specifically on hacking Mac and iOS firmware. CIA Infects Apple Devices With Unremovable Malware The newly released documents revealed that CIA had also been targeting the iPhone since 2008. The Agency has created a malware that is specially designed to infect Apple firmware in a way that the infection remains active on MacOS and iOS devices even if the operating system has been re-installed. According to Wikileaks, the released documents also gives a c

A team of security researchers from Cybellum, an Israeli zero-day prevention firm, has discovered a new Windows vulnerability that could allow hackers to take full control of your computer. Dubbed DoubleAgent , the new injecting code technique works on all versions of Microsoft Windows operating systems, starting from Windows XP to the latest release of Windows 10. What's worse? DoubleAgent exploits a 15-years-old undocumented legitimate feature of Windows called " Application Verifier ," which cannot be patched. Application Verifier is a runtime verification tool that loads DLLs (dynamic link library) into processes for testing purpose, allowing developers quickly detect and fix programming errors in their applications. Unpatchable Microsoft Application Verifier Exploit The vulnerability resides in how this Application Verifier tool handles DLLs. According to the researchers, as part of the process, DLLs are bound to the target processes in a Windows Regist

Cisco is warning of a new critical zero-day IOS / IOS XE vulnerability that affects more than 300 of its switch models. The company identified this highest level of vulnerability in its product while analyzing " Vault 7 " — a roughly 8,761 documents and files leaked by Wikileaks last week, claiming to detail hacking tools and tactics of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The vulnerability resides in the Cluster Management Protocol (CMP) processing code in Cisco IOS and Cisco IOS XE Software. If exploited, the flaw ( CVE-2017-3881 ) could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a reboot of an affected device or remotely execute malicious code on the device with elevated privileges to take full control of the device, Cisco says in its  advisory . The CMP protocol has been designed to pass around information about switch clusters between cluster members using Telnet or SSH. The vulnerability is in the default configuration of affected Cisco devices,

It's been over a week since Wikileaks promised to hand over more information on hacking tools and tactics of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to the affected tech companies, following a leak of a roughly 8,761 documents that Wikileaks claimed belonged to CIA hacking units. "We have decided to work with them, to give them some exclusive access to some of the technical details we have, so that fixes can be pushed out," WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange said during a Facebook Live press conference last week. However, it looks like the things aren't that easier for tech companies as they look. After days of waiting, Assange made its first contact with Apple, Microsoft, and Google this week and finally made his intentions clear – no sharing of bugs and vulnerabilities the CIA is or was allegedly taking advantage of until certain demands are met. Multiple anonymous sources familiar with the matter told Motherboard that Assange sent an email to Apple,

Microsoft on Tuesday released security update (KB 4010250) to patch flaws in Adobe Flash Player for its customers using Internet Explorer on Windows 8.1 and later, as well as Edge for Windows 10, but two already disclosed flaws remain unpatched. Just last week, Microsoft announced that its February patches would be delayed until March due to a last minute issue, a move that led to Google publishing details of an unpatched Windows bug . However, the software giant emailed a handful of big business to alert them to the incoming patches on Monday, advising them to update their systems as soon as possible. The security patches are now available to all Windows customers over Windows Update, and " No other security updates are scheduled for release until the next scheduled monthly update release on March 14, 2017 ," Microsoft says. Bulletin MS17-005 for Adobe Flash Player addresses remote code execution (RCE) vulnerabilities for some currently supported Windows systems.

For the last Patch Tuesday for this year, Microsoft has released 12 security bulletins, half of which are rated 'critical' as they give attackers remote code execution capabilities on the affected computers. The security bulletins address vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Windows, Office, Internet Explorer and Edge. The first critical security bulletin, MS16-144 , patches a total of 8 security vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer, 3 of which had publicly been disclosed before Microsoft issued patches for them, though the company said they're not being exploited in the wild. The 3 publicly disclosed vulnerabilities include a Microsoft browser information disclosure vulnerability (CVE-2016-7282), a Microsoft browser security feature bypass bug (CVE-2016-7281) and a scripting engine memory corruption vulnerability (CVE-2016-7202) that allow remote code execution on the affected computer. The remaining 5 security flaws include a scripting engine memory corruption b

Google's Threat Analysis Group publically disclosed on Monday a critical zero-day vulnerability in most versions of Windows just 10 days after privately disclosed both zero days to Microsoft and Adobe. While Adobe rushed an emergency patch for its Flash Player software on October 26, Microsoft had yet to release a fix. Microsoft criticized Google's move, saying that the public disclosure of the vulnerability — which is being exploited in the wild — before the company had time to prepare a fix, puts Windows users at "potential risk." The result? Windows Vista through current versions of Windows 10 is still vulnerable , and now everybody knows about the critical vulnerability. Now, Microsoft said that the company would be releasing a patch for the zero-day flaw on 8th November, as part of its regular round of monthly security updates. Russian Hackers are actively exploiting critical Windows kernel bug Microsoft acknowledged the vulnerability in a blog

Google has once again publicly disclosed a zero-day vulnerability in current versions of Windows operating system before Microsoft has a patch ready. Yes, the critical zero-day is unpatched and is being used by attackers in the wild. Google made the public disclosure of the vulnerability just 10 days after privately reporting the issue to Microsoft, giving the chocolate factory little time to patch issues and deploy a fix. According to a blog post by Google's Threat Analysis Group, the reason behind going public is that it has seen exploits for the vulnerability in the wild and according to its internal policy , companies should patch or publicly report such bugs after seven days. Windows Zero-Day is Actively being Exploited in the Wild The zero-day is a local privilege escalation vulnerability that exists in the Windows operating system kernel. If exploited, the flaw can be used to escape the sandbox protection and execute malicious code on the compromised system.

Microsoft has released its monthly Patch Tuesday update including a total of 10 security bulletin, and you are required to apply the whole package of patches altogether, whether you like it or not. That's because the company is kicking off a controversial new all-or-nothing patch model this month by packaging all security updates into a single payload, removing your ability to pick and choose which individual patches to install. October's patch bundle includes fixes for at least 5 separate dangerous zero-day vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer, Edge, Windows and Office products that attackers were already exploiting in the wild before the patch release. The patches for these zero-day flaws are included in MS16-118, MS16-119, MS16-120, MS16-121 and MS16-126. All the zero-days are being exploited in the wild, allowing attackers to execute a remote command on victim's system. Although none of the zero-day flaws were publicly disclosed prior to Tuesday, the company wa

Researchers have disclosed a critical zero-day vulnerability in the JPEG 2000 image file format parser implemented in OpenJPEG library , which could allow an attacker to remotely execute arbitrary code on the affected systems. Discovered by security researchers at Cisco Talos group, the zero-day flaw, assigned as TALOS-2016-0193/ CVE-2016-8332 , could allow an out-of-bound heap write to occur that triggers the heap corruption and leads to arbitrary code execution. OpenJPEG is an open-source JPEG 2000 codec. Written in C language, the software was developed for coding and encoding JPEG2000 images, a format that is often used for tasks like embedding image files within PDF documents through popular software including PdFium, Poppler, and MuPDF. Hackers can exploit the security vulnerability by tricking the victim into opening a specially crafted, malicious JPEG2000 image or a PDF document containing that malicious file in an email. The hacker could even upload the malicious JP

Network equipment vendor Cisco is finally warning its customers of another zero-day vulnerability the company discovered in the trove of NSA's hacking exploits and implants leaked by the group calling itself " The Shadow Brokers ." Last month, the Shadow Brokers published firewall exploits, implants, and hacking tools allegedly stolen from the NSA's Equation Group, which was designed to target major vendors including, Cisco, Juniper, and Fortinet. A hacking exploit, dubbed ExtraBacon , leveraged a zero-day vulnerability (CVE-2016-6366) resided in the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) code of Cisco ASA software that could allow remote attackers to cause a reload of the affected system or execute malicious code. Now Cisco has found another zero-day exploit , dubbed "Benigncertain," which targets PIX firewalls. Cisco analyzed the exploit and noted that it had not identified any new flaws related to this exploit in its current products. But,

If you own a Mac laptop or desktop, you need to update your system right now. It turns out that the critical zero-day security vulnerabilities disclosed last week, which targeted iPhone and iPad users, affect Mac users as well. Late last week, Apple rolled out iOS 9.3.5 update to patch a total of three zero-day vulnerabilities that hackers could have used to remotely gain control of an iPhone by simply making the victim click a link. Dubbed "Trident," the security holes were used to create spyware (surveillance malware) called ' Pegasus ' that was apparently used to target human rights activist Ahmed Mansoor in the United Arab Emirates. Pegasus could allow an attacker to access an incredible amount of data on a target victim, including text messages, calendar entries, emails, WhatsApp messages, user's location, microphone. Pegasus Spyware could even allow an attacker to fully download victim's passwords and steal the stored list of WiFi networks,

Last week, Apple finally announced a bug bounty program for researchers and white hat hackers to find and get paid for reporting details of zero-day vulnerabilities in its software and devices. The company offers the biggest payout of $200,000, which is 10 times the maximum reward that Google offers and double the highest bounty paid by Microsoft. But now Apple is going to face competition from a blackhat company named, Exodus Intelligence. Exodus Intelligence is offering more than double Apple's maximum payout for zero-day vulnerabilities affecting the newest versions of iOS. The company is willing to pay more than $500,000 for zero-day vulnerabilities and exploits affecting iOS 9.3 and above. Although Exodus labeled itself as ' Research Sponsorship Program ,' the company actually makes money by buying and selling zero-day vulnerabilities and exploits. On Wednesday, Exodus launched its new bonus structure for the acquisition of details and exploits for zero-day vu