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Mobile Bootloaders From Top Manufacturers Found Vulnerable to Persistent Threats

Mobile Bootloaders From Top Manufacturers Found Vulnerable to Persistent Threats

Sep 06, 2017
Security researchers have discovered several severe zero-day vulnerabilities in the mobile bootloaders from at least four popular device manufacturers that could allow an attacker to gain persistent root access on the device. A team of nine security researchers from the University of California Santa Barbara created a special static binary tool called BootStomp that automatically detects security vulnerabilities in bootloaders. Since bootloaders are usually closed source and hard to reverse-engineer, performing analysis on them is difficult, especially because hardware dependencies hinder dynamic analysis. Therefore, the researchers created BootStomp, which "uses a novel combination of static analysis techniques and underconstrained symbolic execution to build a multi-tag taint analysis capable of identifying bootloader vulnerabilities." The tool helped the researchers discover six previously-unknown critical security bugs across bootloaders from HiSilicon (Huawe
Researcher Claims Samsung's Tizen OS is Poorly Programmed; Contains 27,000 Bugs!

Researcher Claims Samsung's Tizen OS is Poorly Programmed; Contains 27,000 Bugs!

Jul 13, 2017
A researcher has claimed that Samsung's Tizen operating system that runs on millions of Samsung products is so poorly programmed that it could contain nearly 27,000 programming errors, which could also lead to thousands of vulnerabilities. Tizen is a Linux-based open-source operating system backed by Intel and Samsung Electronics, which has been in development since early 2012 and designed for smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, smart watches, cameras and PCs. According to Andrey Karpov — founder of Russia-based company Program Verification Systems that made PVS-Studio, a static code analyzer tool that helps programmers to find and fix bugs in their source codes — his team has discovered hundreds of errors in Tizen project using PVS-Studio. Samsung's Tizen operating system, written in C/C++ programming language, currently has 72.5 million lines of source code, out of which Karpov's team has analysed some randomly chosen modules i.e. 3.3% of the entire Project and fou
How to Accelerate Vendor Risk Assessments in the Age of SaaS Sprawl

How to Accelerate Vendor Risk Assessments in the Age of SaaS Sprawl

Mar 21, 2024SaaS Security / Endpoint Security
In today's digital-first business environment dominated by SaaS applications, organizations increasingly depend on third-party vendors for essential cloud services and software solutions. As more vendors and services are added to the mix, the complexity and potential vulnerabilities within the  SaaS supply chain  snowball quickly. That's why effective vendor risk management (VRM) is a critical strategy in identifying, assessing, and mitigating risks to protect organizational assets and data integrity. Meanwhile, common approaches to vendor risk assessments are too slow and static for the modern world of SaaS. Most organizations have simply adapted their legacy evaluation techniques for on-premise software to apply to SaaS providers. This not only creates massive bottlenecks, but also causes organizations to inadvertently accept far too much risk. To effectively adapt to the realities of modern work, two major aspects need to change: the timeline of initial assessment must shorte
Google Silently Adds 'Panic Detection Mode" to Android 7.1 – How It's Useful

Google Silently Adds 'Panic Detection Mode" to Android 7.1 – How It's Useful

Jul 11, 2017
How often do you click the 'back' or the 'Home' button on your mobile device to exit an application immediately? I believe, several times in a single day because a large number of apps do not have an exit button to directly force-close them instead of going back and back and back until they exit. Sometimes Android users expect the back button to take them back to the back page, but sometimes they really want to exit the app immediately. Often this has severe usability implications when a majority of users are already dealing with their low-performance mobile devices and believe that clicking back button multiple times would kill the app and save memory, but it doesn't. Google has now addressed this issue and silently included a feature within Android 7.1 Nougat that allows users to exit from apps by pressing the 'back' key successively within 0.3 seconds for over four times. Dubbed " Panic Detection Mode ," the feature runs in the background o
cyber security

Automated remediation solutions are crucial for security

websiteWing SecurityShadow IT / SaaS Security
Especially when it comes to securing employees' SaaS usage, don't settle for a longer to-do list. Auto-remediation is key to achieving SaaS security.
Viber adds End-to-End Encryption and PIN protected Hidden Chats features

Viber adds End-to-End Encryption and PIN protected Hidden Chats features

Apr 19, 2016
In Brief Viber, the popular mobile messaging app announced Tuesday that it has added full end-to-end encryption for video, voice and text message services for its millions of users. Here, the end-to-end encryption means only you and the person you are communicating with can read the content, and nobody in between, not even the company and if court orders company to provide user data, they will get only the heaps of encrypted data. Viber is the latest messaging platform to join WhatsApp , Telegram , and Apple iMessage , who strengthened their default privacy features in recent times. Founded in 2010 and acquired by Japanese e-commerce titan Rakuten for $900 Million in 2014, Viber is currently being used by more than 700 Million users globally across Android, iOS, Windows Phone, and desktop, the company claimed in a blog post published today. The move comes just a couple of weeks after Facebook-owned Whatsapp messaging app implemented full end-to-end encryption by default
Hacking Smartphones Running on MediaTek Processors

Hacking Smartphones Running on MediaTek Processors

Feb 01, 2016
A dangerous backdoor has been discovered in the MediaTek processor that could be exploited to hack Android devices remotely. MediaTek is a Taiwan-based hardware company that manufacture hardware chips and processor used in the smartphones and tablets. The backdoor was discovered by security researcher Justin Case , who already informed MediaTek about the security issue via Twitter, as the chipset manufacturer had no proper vulnerability reporting mechanism in place. The vulnerability is apparently due to a debug tool that was opened up for carriers to test the device on their networks, but unfortunately, it was left open in the shipped devices, thus leaving the serious backdoor open to hackers. If exploited, the debug feature could allow hackers to compromise personal data of an Android device, including user's private contacts, messages, photos, videos and other private data. MediaTek acknowledged the issue, saying "We are aware of this issue, and it has bee
Samsung Get Sued for Failing to Update its Smartphones

Samsung Get Sued for Failing to Update its Smartphones

Jan 22, 2016
One of the world's largest smartphone makers is being sued by the Dutch Consumers' Association (DCA) for its lack in providing timely software updates to its Android smartphones. This doesn't surprise me, though. The majority of manufacturers fail to deliver software updates for old devices for years. However, the consumer protection watchdog in The Netherlands, The Dutch Consumentenbond, filed a lawsuit against Samsung, due to the manufacturer's grip over the local market compared to other manufacturers. Last year, the discovery of the scary Stagefright Security Bug , which affected over 1 Billion Android devices worldwide, forced Samsung to implement a security update process that " fast tracks the security patches over the air when security vulnerabilities are uncovered a security update process that " fast tracks the security patches over the air when security vulnerabilities are uncovered, " and that the security updates will
Serious, Yet Patched Flaw Exposes 6.1 Million IoT, Mobile Devices to Remote Code Execution

Serious, Yet Patched Flaw Exposes 6.1 Million IoT, Mobile Devices to Remote Code Execution

Dec 05, 2015
As much as you protect your electronics from being hacked, hackers are clever enough at finding new ways to get into your devices. But, you would hope that once a flaw discovered it would at least be fixed in few days or weeks, but that's not always the case. A three-year-old security vulnerability within a software component used by more than 6.1 Million smart devices still remains unpatched by many vendors, thereby placing Smart TVs, Routers, Smartphones, and other Internet of Things (IoT) products at risk of exploit. Security researchers at Trend Micro have brought the flaw to light that has been known since 2012 but has not been patched yet. Remote Code Execution Vulnerabilities  Researchers discovered a collection of Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerabilities in the Portable SDK for UPnP , or libupnp component – a software library used by mobile devices, routers, smart TVs, and other IoT devices to stream media files over a network. The flaws occur du
This Malware Can Secretly Auto-Install any Android App to Your Phone

This Malware Can Secretly Auto-Install any Android App to Your Phone

Nov 20, 2015
Own an Android Smartphone? Hackers can install any malicious third-party app on your smartphone remotely even if you have clearly tapped a reject button of the app. Security researchers have uncovered a trojanized adware family that has the capability to automatically install any app on an Android device by abusing the operating system's accessibility features. Michael Bentley , head of response at mobile security firm Lookout, warned in a blog post published Thursday that the team has found three adware families: Shedun (GhostPush) Kemoge (ShiftyBug) Shuanet Also Read:  Android Malware Can Spy On You Even When Your Mobile Is Off All the three adware families root-infect Android devices in order to prevent their removal and give attackers unrestricted access to the devices. But, it seems that the Shedun adware family has capabilities that go beyond the reach of other adware families. The Malware Doesn't Exploit Any Vulnerability It is
1-Click Way to Check If your Android Device is Vulnerable to Hacking

1-Click Way to Check If your Android Device is Vulnerable to Hacking

Nov 09, 2015
Vulnerabilities are common these days and when we talk about mobile security, this year has been somewhat of a trouble for Android users. Almost every week we come across a new hack affecting Android devices. One of the serious vulnerabilities is the  Stagefright Security Bug , where all it needed to install malicious code on the Android devices was a simple text message. Although Google patched these security holes in its latest Android update, manufacturers can take a long time to release their own updates, and it's even possible that older devices may not get the updates at all. So, even after the release of patches for these critical vulnerabilities, it is difficult to say which Android devices are at risk of what bugs. There is a one-click solution to this problem. One Android app can help educate you and help you know whether your devices is at risk. One-Click Solution to Check Your Device for All Critical Bugs Android Vulnerability Test Suite ( VT
Using AppLock for Android to Hide Apps and Photos? — It's Useless

Using AppLock for Android to Hide Apps and Photos? — It's Useless

Sep 03, 2015
Widely popular AppLock for Android by DoMobile Ltd. is claimed to be vulnerable to hackers. Having an applock for iPhone or Android device is useful. It is suitable for security and keeping people out of your business. But when it comes to how to password protect apps on Android? How to put passwords on apps? — the one app that comes to mind is AppLock. What is AppLock? AppLock is a lightweight Android app that enables users to apply a lock on almost any type of file or app on their devices, preventing access to your locked apps and private data without a password. The most basic functionality of the security feature is to lock your Android apps so that nobody can access or uninstall them, but applock can hide pictures and videos, and even contacts and individual messages. For example, if you have an app lock on WhatsApp, one of your friends borrow your phone to play games cannot get into your WhatsApp app without a password you have set for the locked app. App Lock si
Incomplete 'Stagefright' Security Patch Leaves Android Vulnerable to Text Hack

Incomplete 'Stagefright' Security Patch Leaves Android Vulnerable to Text Hack

Aug 14, 2015
Wanna hack someone's Android smartphone by sending just an MMS message? Yes, you can, because Google's patch for the Stagefright vulnerability in hundreds of Millions of Android devices is BUGGY. Last week, Google issued an official patch for Stagefright vulnerability that affects 95 percent of Android devices running version 2.2 to version 5.1 of the operating system, an estimated 950 Million Android devices in use worldwide. But, the patch is so flawed that hackers can still exploit the Stagefright vulnerability (CVE-2015-3824) anyways. "The [original] patch is four lines of code and was (presumably) reviewed by Google engineers prior to shipping," researchers at Exodus Intelligence wrote in a blog post published Thursday. "The public at large believes the current patch protects them when it, in fact, does not." Buggy Patch Issued by Google The patch doesn't fix the vulnerability, allowing booby-trapped MP4 videos that supplied
Samsung Flaw Lets Hacker Easily Take Control of Your Galaxy Mobile Remotely

Samsung Flaw Lets Hacker Easily Take Control of Your Galaxy Mobile Remotely

Jun 19, 2015
More than 600 Million users of Samsung Galaxy smartphones, including the newly released Galaxy S6, are potentially vulnerable to a software bug that allows hackers to secretly monitor the phone's camera and microphone, read text messages and install malicious apps. The vulnerability is due to a problem with the Samsung built-in keyboard app that enables easier predictive text. One of the keyboard app version, SwiftKey IME , that comes prepackaged with Samsung's latest Galaxy smartphones could allow a malicious hacker to remotely execute code on user's phone even when if they are not using the keyboard app. Users cannot get rid of this Flaw The app cannot be uninstalled or disabled by the users of the Samsung smartphone devices, so it is up to Samsung to fix the critical bug. The vulnerability was discovered by NowSecure mobile security researcher Ryan Welton, who notified Samsung about the bug in December last year. The keyboard app periodic
Google Now Manually Reviews Play Store Android App Submissions

Google Now Manually Reviews Play Store Android App Submissions

Mar 18, 2015
Google has changed the way it managed apps on the Google Play Store . After years of depending on the automated app check process, the company just made some changes to its Play Store policies  that will successfully weed out malicious and undesirable apps from Google Play store. Google has introduced an update for developers and users that's sure to make some parents happy and some developers sad. The new features are — Better App Review Process Age-Based Rating System BETTER APP REVIEW PROCESS The search engine giant announced on Tuesday that it has started employing humans to review apps before they go live on the Google Play Store , a move intended to " better protect the community " and " improve the app catalog ." The new approach would definitely affect app developers, as they'll have to wait for their apps to be approved by Google after they submit them to the Play Store. But, it would keep users safe from harmful malware or offensive content.
Researchers Get Trolled by Chinese, Pre-Malwartized Xiaomi Mi4 was Duplicate

Researchers Get Trolled by Chinese, Pre-Malwartized Xiaomi Mi4 was Duplicate

Mar 09, 2015
Recently a mobile-security firm Bluebox claimed that the brand new Xiaomi Mi4 LTE comes pre-installed with spyware /adware and a " forked " vulnerable version of Android operating system on top of it, however, the company denies the claim. Xiaomi , which is also known as Apple of China, provides an affordable and in-budget smartphones with almost all features that an excellent smartphone provides. On 5th March, when Bluebox researchers claimed to have discovered some critical flaws in Mi4 LTE smartphone, Xiaomi issued a statement to The Hacker News claiming that " There are glaring inaccuracies in the Bluebox blog post " and that they are investigating the matter. RESEARCHERS GET TROLLED BY CHINESE SELLERS Now, Xiaomi responded to Bluebox Labs by preparing a lengthy denial to their claims and said the new Mi4 smartphone purchased by Bluebox team in China (known as the birthplace of fake smartphones) was not an original Xiaomi smartphone but a coun
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