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Apple on Thursday released security updates to fix multiple security vulnerabilities in older versions of  iOS  and  macOS  that it says have been detected in exploits in the wild, in addition to expanding patches for a previously plugged security weakness abused by NSO Group's Pegasus surveillance tool to target iPhone users. Chief among them is CVE-2021-30869, a type confusion flaw that resides in the kernel component  XNU  developed by Apple that could cause a malicious application to execute arbitrary code with the highest privileges. The Cupertino-based tech giant said it addressed the bug with improved state handling. Google's Threat Analysis Group, which is credited with reporting the flaw, said it detected the vulnerability being "used in conjunction with a N-day remote code execution targeting WebKit." Two other flaws include  CVE-2021-30858 and CVE-2021-30860 , both of which were resolved by the company earlier this month following disclosure from the

Apple on Monday rolled out an urgent security update for  iOS, iPadOS , and  macOS  to address a zero-day flaw that it said may have been actively exploited, making it the thirteenth such vulnerability Apple has patched since the start of this year. The updates, which arrive less than a week after the company released iOS 14.7, iPadOS 14.7, and macOS Big Sur 11.5 to the public, fixes a memory corruption issue ( CVE-2021-30807 ) in the IOMobileFrameBuffer component, a kernel extension for managing the screen  framebuffer , that could be abused to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges. The company said it addressed the issue with improved memory handling, noting it's "aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited." As is typically the case, additional details about the flaw have not been disclosed to prevent the weaponization of the vulnerability for additional attacks. Apple credited an anonymous researcher for discovering and reporting the

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

The Wi-Fi network name bug that was found to completely disable an iPhone's networking functionality had remote code execution capabilities and was silently fixed by Apple earlier this year, according to new research. The denial-of-service vulnerability,  which came to light last month , stemmed from the way iOS handled string formats associated with the SSID input, triggering a crash on any up-to-date iPhone that connected to wireless access points with percent symbols in their names such as "%p%s%s%s%s%n." While the issue is remediable by resetting the network settings (Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings), Apple is  expected to push a patch  for the bug in its iOS 14.7 update, which is currently available to developers and public beta testers. But in what could have had far-reaching consequences, researchers from mobile security automation firm ZecOps found that the same bug could be exploited to achieve remote code execution (RCE) on targ

Apple on Monday shipped out-of-band security patches to address two zero-day vulnerabilities in iOS 12.5.3 that it says are being actively exploited in the wild. The latest update, iOS 12.5.4 , comes with fixes for three security bugs, including a memory corruption issue in ASN.1 decoder (CVE-2021-30737) and two flaws concerning its WebKit browser engine that could be abused to achieve remote code execution — CVE-2021-30761  - A memory corruption issue that could be exploited to gain arbitrary code execution when processing maliciously crafted web content. The flaw was addressed with improved state management. CVE-2021-30762  - A use-after-free issue that could be exploited to gain arbitrary code execution when processing maliciously crafted web content. The flaw was resolved with improved memory management. Both CVE-2021-30761 and CVE-2021-30762 were reported to Apple anonymously, with the Cupertino-based company stating in its advisory that it's aware of reports that th

Apple may be changing the way it delivers security patches to its devices running iOS and iPadOS mobile operating systems. According to code spotted in iOS 14.5, the iPhone maker is reportedly working on a method for delivering security fixes independently of other OS updates. The changes were first reported by  the 9to5Mac  website. While Google's Android has had monthly security patches rolled out that are completely divorced from the OS-related updates, iOS has traditionally bundled security updates along with an upgrade to the latest version of the OS. For instance, Apple rolled out iOS 14.4.1 earlier this month just to address one security vulnerability in WebKit that could have allowed adversaries to run arbitrary code on devices via malicious web content. But with this new setting called "Install Security Updates" added to the software update menu, it's expected that Apple will let users choose between either installing the entire iOS update or just the

Apple has released out-of-band patches for iOS, macOS, watchOS, and Safari web browser to address a security flaw that could allow attackers to run arbitrary code on devices via malicious web content. Tracked as CVE-2021-1844 , the vulnerability was discovered and reported to the company by Clément Lecigne of Google's Threat Analysis Group and Alison Huffman of Microsoft Browser Vulnerability Research. According to the update notes posted by Apple, the flaw stems from a memory corruption issue that could lead to arbitrary code execution when processing specially crafted web content. The company said the problem was addressed with "improved validation." The update is available for devices running  iOS 14.4, iPadOS 14.4 ,  macOS Big Sur , and  watchOS 7.3.1  (Apple Watch Series 3 and later), and as an  update to Safari  for MacBooks running macOS Catalina and macOS Mojave. The latest development comes on the heels of a patch for  three zero-day vulnerabilities  (CVE-

Cybersecurity researchers on Thursday disclosed two distinct design and implementation flaws in Apple's crowdsourced Bluetooth location tracking system that can lead to a location correlation attack and unauthorized access to the location history of the past seven days, thereby deanonymizing users. The  findings  are a consequence of an exhaustive review undertaken by the Open Wireless Link (OWL) project, a team of researchers from the Secure Mobile Networking Lab at the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany, who have historically taken apart Apple's wireless ecosystem with the goal of identifying security and privacy issues. In response to the disclosures on July 2, 2020, Apple is said to have partially addressed the issues, stated the researchers, who used their own data for the study citing privacy implications of the analysis. How Find My Works? Apple devices come with a feature called  Find My  that makes it easy for users to locate other Apple devices, including

Apple's upcoming iOS 14.5 update will come with a new feature that will redirect all fraudulent website checks through its own proxy servers as a workaround to preserve user privacy and prevent leaking IP addresses to Google. A built-in security-focused feature in the Safari browser, " Fraudulent Website Warning ," alerts users about dangerous websites that have been reported as deceptive, malicious, or harmful. To achieve this, Apple relies on  Google Safe Browsing  — or Tencent Safe Browsing for users in Mainland China — a blocklist service that provides a list of URLs for web resources that contain malware or phishing content, to compare a hash prefix calculated from the website address and check if the website is fraudulent. Any match against the database will prompt Safari to request Google or Tencent for the full list of URLs that correspond to the hashed prefix and subsequently block a user's access to the site with a warning. While the approach ensures t

Are you also one of those 18 Million users using SARAHAH? You should beware of this app because the anonymous feedback application may not be as private as it really sounds. Sarahah is a newly launched app that has become one of the hottest iPhone and Android apps in the past couple of weeks, allowing its users to sign up to receive anonymised, candid messages from other Sarahah users. However, it turns out that the app silently uploads users' phone contacts to the company's servers for no good reason, spotted by security analyst Zachary Julian. When an Android or iOS user downloads and installs the app for the first time, the app immediately harvests and uploads all phone numbers and email addresses from the user's address book, according to The Intercept . While an app requesting access to the user's phonebook is quite common if the app provides any feature that works with contacts, no such functionality in Sarahah is available right now. "The pri

Apple has released iOS 9.3.5 update for iPhones and iPads to patch three zero-day vulnerabilities after a piece of spyware found targeting the iPhone used by a renowned UAE human rights defender, Ahmed Mansoor. One of the world's most invasive software weapon distributors, called the NSO Group, has been exploiting three zero-day security vulnerabilities in order to spy on dissidents and journalists. The NSO Group is an Israeli firm that sells spying and surveillance software that secretly tracks a target's mobile phone. The zero-day exploits have allowed the company to develop sophisticated spyware tools that can access the device location, contacts, texts, calls logs, emails and even microphone. Apple fixed these three vulnerabilities within ten days after being informed by two security firms, Citizen Lab and Lookout, who conducted a joint investigation. Background Story: Malware Discovery Mansoor, 46, ' Martin Ennals Award ' winner from the United Arab Emirate

Last month, it was reported that the European Commission is planning to impose a record antitrust fine of about 3 BILLION euros ( US$3.4 Billion ) on Google for violating antitrust laws. Not just Europe, Google also lost an anti-monopoly appeal in Russia two months back against ruling for violating its dominant position with the help of its Android mobile OS by forcing its own apps and services like Google Map, Youtube, and others, on users — reducing competition. Now to put an end to the monopoly of major mobile Operating System, Russians are developing their own mobile operating system to compete with Android, iOS, and Windows mobile OS. The Minister of Russian Communication Ministry, Nikolai Nikiforov tweeted last month about the initiative to develop a new Russian mobile operating system, for which the Russian company Open Mobile Platform (Открытая Мобильная Платформа) is hiring developers, testers and security engineers. Open Mobile Platform is developing a Linux-ba

A security researcher could have stolen as much as $25 Billion from one of the India's biggest banks ‒ Thanks to the bank's vulnerable mobile application. Late last year, security researcher Sathya Prakash discovered a number of critical vulnerabilities in the mobile banking application of an undisclosed bank that allowed him to steal money from any or all bank customers with the help of just a few lines of code. Being a white hat hacker, Prakash immediately reached out to the bank and alerted it about the critical issues in its mobile app and helped the bank fix them, instead of taking advantage of the security holes to steal money from the bank that has about 25 Billion USD in Deposits. While analyzing the mobile banking app, Prakash discovered that the app lacks Certificate Pinning , allowing any man-in-the-middle attacker to downgrade SSL connection and capture requests in plain text using fraudulently issued certificates. Also Read:  Best Password Manager — For

Jailbreakers Beware! Some shady tweaks that you installed on their jailbroken devices are looking to steal your iCloud login credentials, a report said. The iCloud account details, including email addresses and passwords, of nearly 220,000 jailbreak users have been breached , an online Chinese vulnerability-reporting platform WooYun reported . WooYun is an information security platform where researchers report vulnerabilities and vendors give their feedbacks. Backdoor Privacy Attack The security breach, according to the website, was a result of ' backdoor privacy attack ' caused by the installation of a malicious jailbreak tweak. It appears that Hackers are using a variety of " built-in backdoors " that could be numerous of malicious jailbreak tweaks in an effort to acquire victim's iCloud account information. Once installed, these malicious tweaks transferred the iCloud login details of the jailbreak users to an unknown remote se

Earlier this year, Microsoft had announced to bring its Office 2016 soon to the world. Also, Office 2016 software version for Mac was released in July 2015. Now speculations gearing up are hinting towards a final release date of Office 2016 for Windows as 22nd September 2015. Though, for Window users it may not be quite a change, because in the new Office suite as compared to its predecessor Office 2013 no such major improvements are visible. Office 2016 for Windows is supposedly debuting in less than a month away and will be available for home and professional users initially. Improvements in Office 2016 Office 2016 is going to be more colorful, with bright and dark colored theme options. Also, this time Microsoft has made it pretty clear that people are required to have Office 365 subscriptions because this time Microsoft is going to send new updates of Office along with the updates of Office 365. Mostly, modifications are done in the Outlook applicat

" Change is the only constant thing ," as it is known could be now modified as " Change is the only constant thing* ," where the * means Terms and conditions apply ! A change ( Mobile Device Management solutions-MDM , Bring Your Own Device-BYOD ) was brought to the organizations, (which later became necessities) for smooth workflow and management of an organization; where resides mobile and other computing devices in masses. The devices, as well as the MDM solutions, are at risk , as reported. Security researchers at Appthority Mobile Threat Team, have found a vulnerability in the sandbox app within the Apple's iOS versions prior to 8.4.1, which makes the configuration settings of managed applications to be openly accessed by anyone. QuickSand – Loophole in Sandbox The vulnerability is assigned CVE-2015-5749 and is named as ' QuickSand ' because of the loophole being present in the Sandbox. Mobile Device Management (MDM) refe

As you may be aware, you need an Android smartphone to use an Android Wear smartwatch , but if you carry an Apple iPhone or iPad, you'll soon be able to use the same Android Wear smartwatch, without relying on unofficial third-party app support. Google is reportedly going to release its a new iOS app over to the App Store that will allow iPhone and iPad users to pair Android Wear devices such as Moto 360 and LG G Watch with their Apple products, French outlet 01net claimed . OFFICIAL ANDROID WEAR APP FOR iOS Google's new move to go cross-platform with an iOS app would expand support for the wearable platform beyond Android devices and target the potential market of tens of Millions of Apple users that may not be interested in purchasing an Apple Watch. As well as, with lower prices and strong design, a fair amount of Android Wear smartwatch demand would likely be there. The search engine giant is possibly planning to launch the Android Wear app for iOS at Google's annual develop

Security researchers have discovered a new type of "Man-in-the-Middle" (MitM) attack in the wild targeting smartphone and tablets users on devices running either iOS or Android around the world. The MitM attack, dubbed DoubleDirect , enables an attacker to redirect a victim's traffic of major websites such as Google, Facebook and Twitter to a device controlled by the attacker. Once done, cyber crooks can steal victims' valuable personal data, such as email IDs, login credentials and banking information as well as can deliver malware to the targeted mobile device. San Francisco-based mobile security firm Zimperium detailed the threat in a Thursday blog post , revealing that the DoubleDirect technique is being used by attackers in the wild in attacks against the users of web giants including Google, Facebook, Hotmail, Live.com and Twitter, across 31 countries, including the U.S., the U.K. and Canada. DoubleDirect makes use of ICMP (Internet Control Message P

Google is offering its users a completely new and better experience of its mailing service. And in an effort to do this, the company has launched a new email service, an alternative to Gmail, called " Inbox " on Wednesday that aims to make email more useful and preview next-generation capabilities. Inbox will not replace Gmail, the company's popular 10-year-old email product, instead it will sit next to its Gmail service and will provide users' better organize their emails with live alerts for appointments, flight bookings and package deliveries in a more user-friendly way. "Years in the making, Inbox is by the same people who brought you Gmail, but it's not Gmail: it's a completely different type of inbox, designed to focus on what really matters," wrote Sundar Pichai, Google's senior vice president of Android , Chrome and apps, in a blog post . According to the company, the Inbox service was designed to deal with the problem of ge

The allegations from a data forensic expert and security researcher that iOS contains a " backdoor " permitting third parties to potentially gain access to large amount of users' personal data instigated Apple to give a strong response. The company has completely denied to the claims published over the weekend by Jonathan Zdziarski, a forensic scientist and iOS security expert. The researcher, better identified as the hacker moniker " NerveGas ", detailed a number of undocumented features in a paper presentation titled, " Identifying Backdoors, Attack Points, and Surveillance Mechanisms in iOS Devices " showing his findings, from his talk at the Hackers On Planet Earth (HOPE X) conference held in New York on Friday. ALLEGATIONS ON APPLE The issue, what he explained in his finding, arises from the way Apple encrypts or fails to encrypt data from the iPhone's native apps, leaving over 600 million personal iOS devices vulnerable to third parties. &q

A well known iPhone hacker and forensic scientist has unearthed a range of undocumented and hidden functions in Apple iOS mobile operating system that make it possible for a hacker to completely bypass the backup encryption on iOS devices and can steal large amounts of users' personal data without entering passwords or personal identification numbers. Data forensics expert named Jonathan Zdziarski has posted the slides ( PDF ) titled " Identifying Backdoors, Attack Points, and Surveillance Mechanisms in iOS Devices " showing his findings, from his talk at the Hackers On Planet Earth (HOPE X) conference held in New York on Friday. Jonathan Zdziarski, better identified as the hacker " NerveGas " in the iPhone development community, worked as dev-team member on many of the early iOS jailbreaks and is also the author of five iOS-related O'Reilly books including " Hacking and Securing iOS Applications ." The results of his overall research on the iOS