browser security | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Compromising the browser is a high-return target for adversaries. Browser extensions, which are small software modules that are added to the browser and can enhance browsing experiences, have become a popular browser attack vector. This is because they are widely adopted among users and can easily turn malicious through developer actions or attacks on legitimate extensions. Recent incidents like  DataSpii  and the  Nigelthorn  malware attack have exposed the extent of damage that malicious extensions can inflict. In both cases, users innocently installed extensions that compromised their privacy and security. The underlying issue lies in the permissions granted to extensions. These permissions, often excessive and lacking granularity, allow attackers to exploit them. What can organizations do to protect themselves from the risks of browser extensions without barring them from use altogether (an act that would be nearly impossible to enforce)?  A new report by LayerX, "Unveiling the

The browser has become the main work interface in modern enterprises. It's where employees create and interact with data, and how they access organizational and external SaaS and web apps. As a result, the browser is extensively targeted by adversaries. They seek to steal the data it stores and use it for malicious access to organizational SaaS apps or the hosting machine. Additionally, unintentional data leakage via the browser has become a critical concern for organizations as well. However, traditional endpoint, network, and data protection solutions fail to protect this critical resource against advanced web-borne attacks that continuously rise in sophistication and volume. This gap leaves organizations exposed to phishing attacks, malicious browser extensions, data exposure, and data loss.  This is the challenge  LayerX  is attempting to solve. LayerX has developed a secure enterprise browser extension that can be mounted on any browser. The LayerX extension delivers comprehen

As work ebbs with the typical end-of-year slowdown, now is a good time to review user roles and privileges and remove anyone who shouldn't have access as well as trim unnecessary permissions. In addition to saving some unnecessary license fees, a clean user inventory significantly enhances the security of your SaaS applications. From reducing risk to protecting against data leakage, here is how you can start the new year with a clean user list.  How Offboarded Users  Still  Have Access to Your Apps When employees leave a company, they trigger a series of changes to backend systems in their wake. First, they are removed from the company's identity provider (IdP), which kicks off an automated workflow that deactivates their email and removes access to all internal systems. When enterprises use an SSO (single sign-on), these former employees lose access to any online properties – including SaaS applications – that require SSO for login.  However, that doesn't mean that former employee

The landscape of browser security has undergone significant changes over the past decade. While Browser Isolation was once considered the gold standard for protecting against browser exploits and malware downloads, it has become increasingly inadequate and insecure in today's SaaS-centric world. The limitations of Browser Isolation, such as degraded browser performance and inability to tackle modern web-borne threats like phishing and malicious extensions, necessitate a shift towards more advanced solutions. These are the findings of a new report, titled " The Dark Side of Browser Isolation and the Next Generation of Browser Security " ( Download here ). The Roots of Browser Isolation In the past, traditional signature-based antiviruses were commonly used to protect against on-device malware infections. However, they failed to block two main types of threats. The first, browser exploit, especially in Microsoft's Internet Explorer. The second, drive-by malware down

Google on Wednesday rolled out fixes to address a new actively exploited zero-day in the Chrome browser. Tracked as  CVE-2023-5217 , the high-severity vulnerability has been described as a  heap-based buffer overflow  in the VP8 compression format in  libvpx , a free software  video codec  library from Google and the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia). Exploitation of such buffer overflow flaws can result in program crashes or execution of arbitrary code, impacting its availability and integrity. Clément Lecigne of Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) has been credited with discovering and reporting the flaw on September 25, 2023, with fellow researcher Maddie Stone  noting  on X (formerly Twitter) that it has been abused by a commercial spyware vendor to target high-risk individuals. No additional details have been disclosed by the tech giant other than to acknowledge that it's "aware that an exploit for CVE-2023-5217 exists in the wild." The latest discovery b

As the adoption of generative AI tools, like ChatGPT, continues to surge, so does the risk of data exposure. According to Gartner's "Emerging Tech: Top 4 Security Risks of GenAI" report, privacy and data security is one of the four major emerging risks within generative AI.  A new webinar  featuring a multi-time Fortune 100 CISO and the CEO of LayerX, a browser extension solution, delves into this critical risk. Throughout the webinar, the speakers will explain why data security is a risk and explore the ability of DLP solutions to protect against them, or lack thereof. Then, they will delineate the capabilities required by DLP solutions to ensure businesses benefit from the productivity GenAI applications have to offer without compromising security.  The Business and Security Risks of Generative AI Applications GenAI security risks occur when employees insert sensitive texts into these applications. These actions warrant careful consideration, because the inserted data b

Google has announced plans to add a new feature in the upcoming version of its Chrome web browser to proactively alert users when an extension they have installed has been removed from the Chrome Web Store. The feature, set for release alongside Chrome 117, allows users to be notified when an add-on has been unpublished by a developer, taken down for violating Chrome Web Store policy, or marked as malware. The tech giant said it intends to highlight such extensions under a "Safety check" category in the "Privacy and security" section of the browser settings page. "When a user clicks 'Review,' they will be taken to their extensions and given the choice to either remove the extension or hide the warning if they wish to keep the extension installed," Oliver Dunk, a developer relations engineer for Chrome extensions,  said . "As in previous versions of Chrome, extensions marked as malware are automatically disabled." The development co

More and more organizations are choosing Google Workspace as their default employee toolset of choice. But despite the productivity advantages, this organizational action also incurs a new security debt. Security teams now have to find a way to adjust their security architecture to this new cloud workload. Some teams may rely on their existing network security solutions. According to a  new guide , this is a hit and a miss. Network solutions, the guide claims, just don't cover all SaaS and browsing requirements. Meanwhile, Google offers a wide range of native security functionalities built-in to Chrome. These functionalities enable the organization to leverage the browser for consolidating security, simplifying operations and reducing costs. If you're wary about trusting Chrome with your security, then the guide is recommended to read. In great detail, it explains which security features Chrome offers users. These include: Forcing users to sign into Chrome, to ensure the

Four security vulnerabilities in the ScrutisWeb ATM fleet monitoring software made by Iagona could be exploited to remotely break into ATMs, upload arbitrary files, and even reboot the terminals. The shortcomings were  discovered  by the Synack Red Team (SRT) following a client engagement. The issues have been addressed in ScrutisWeb version 2.1.38. "Successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities could allow an attacker to upload and execute arbitrary files," the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)  said  in an advisory published last month. ScrutisWeb  is a web browser-based solution for monitoring banking and retail ATM fleets, including gleaning information system status, detecting low paper alerts, shutting down or restarting a terminal, and remotely modifying data. Details of the four flaws are as follows - CVE-2023-33871  (CVSS score: 7.5) - A directory traversal vulnerability that could allow an unauthenticated user to directly access

Google has announced plans to add support for quantum-resistant encryption algorithms in its Chrome browser, starting with version 116. "Chrome will begin supporting  X25519Kyber768  for establishing symmetric secrets in  TLS , starting in Chrome 116, and available behind a flag in Chrome 115," Devon O'Brien  said  in a post published Thursday. Kyber was  chosen  by the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as the candidate for general encryption in a bid to tackle future cyber attacks posed by the advent of quantum computing.  Kyber-768  is roughly the security equivalent of  AES-192 . The encryption algorithm has already been adopted by  Cloudflare ,  Amazon Web Services , and IBM. X25519Kyber768 is a hybrid algorithm that combines the output of  X25519 , an elliptic curve algorithm widely used for key agreement in TLS, and Kyber-768 to create a strong session key to encrypt TLS connections. "Hybrid mechanism

Increasing cyber threats and attacks have made protecting organizational data a paramount concern for businesses of all sizes. A group of experts have recognized the pressing need for comprehensive browser security solutions and collaborated to develop "The Definitive  Browser Security RFP Template . " This resource helps streamline the process of evaluating and procuring browser security platforms. It provides organizations with a standardized approach to enhance their security posture by protecting the key employee workspace - the browser. The Importance of a Standardized RFP Template The RFP (Request for Proposal) template offers numerous advantages for organizations seeking robust browser security solutions. By promoting standardization, the RFP template ensures a consistent structure and format for proposals, saving time and effort for both the procurement team and vendors. Moreover, it facilitates clear and specific instructions to vendors, resulting in higher-qualit

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new version of malware called  Rilide  that targets Chromium-based web browsers to steal sensitive data and steal cryptocurrency. "It exhibits a higher level of sophistication through modular design, code obfuscation, adoption to the  Chrome Extension Manifest V3 , and additional features such as the ability to exfiltrate stolen data to a Telegram channel or interval-based screenshot captures," Trustwave security researcher Pawel Knapczyk  said  in a report shared with The Hacker News. Rilide was  first documented  by the cybersecurity company in April 2023, uncovering two different attack chains that made use of Ekipa RAT and Aurora Stealer to deploy rogue browser extensions capable of data and crypto theft. It's sold on dark web forums by an actor named "friezer" for $5,000. The malware is equipped with a wide range of features that allow it to disable other browser add-ons, harvest browsing history and cookies,

Mozilla has announced that some add-ons may be blocked from running on certain sites as part of a new feature called  Quarantined Domains . "We have introduced a new back-end feature to only allow some extensions monitored by Mozilla to run on specific websites for various reasons, including security concerns," the company  said  in its Release Notes for Firefox 115.0 shipped last week. The company said the openness afforded by the add-on ecosystem could be exploited by malicious actors to their advantage. "This feature allows us to prevent attacks by malicious actors targeting specific domains when we have reason to believe there may be malicious add-ons we have not yet discovered," Mozilla  said  in a separate support document. Users are expected to have more control over the setting for each add-on, starting with Firefox version 116. That said, it can be disabled by loading "about:config" in the address bar and setting "extensions.quarantined

The case for browser fingerprinting: personalizing user experience, improving fraud detection, and optimizing login security Have you ever heard of browser fingerprinting? You should! It's an online user identification technique that collects information about a visitor's web browser and its configuration preferences to associate individual browsing sessions with a single website visitor.  With browser fingerprinting, many pieces of data can be collected about a user's web browser and device, such as screen resolution, location, language, and operating system. When you stitch these pieces together, they reveal a unique combination of information that forms every user's visitor ID or "digital fingerprint." Websites can use the visitor ID in various ways, including personalizing the user's experience, improving fraud detection, and optimizing login security. This article discusses the case for browser fingerprinting and how to use it safely on your websi