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Category — patch update
DHS Orders Federal Agencies to Patch Critical Flaws Within 15 Days

DHS Orders Federal Agencies to Patch Critical Flaws Within 15 Days

May 01, 2019
In recent years, we have seen how hackers prey on those too lazy or ignorant to install security patches, which, if applied on time, would have prevented some devastating cyber attacks and data breaches that happened in major organisations. The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has ordered government agencies to more swiftly plug the critical security vulnerabilities found on their networks within 15 calendar days since the initial detection, a reduction from 30 days. DHS's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) this week issued a new Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 19-02 instructing federal agencies and departments to address "critical" rated vulnerabilities within 15 days and "high" severity flaws within 30 days of initial detection. The countdown to patch a security vulnerability will start when it was initially detected during CISA's weekly Cyber Hygiene vulnerability scanning, rather than it was the firs...
Adobe Releases Patches for Critical Flaws in Photoshop CC and Digital Edition

Adobe Releases Patches for Critical Flaws in Photoshop CC and Digital Edition

Mar 12, 2019
Adobe users would feel lighter this month, as Adobe has released patches for just two security vulnerability in its March Security Update. The company today released its monthly security updates to address two critical arbitrary code execution vulnerabilities—one in Adobe Photoshop CC and another in Adobe Digital Editions. Upon successful exploitation, both critical vulnerabilities could allow an attacker to achieve arbitrary code execution in the context of the current user and take control of an affected system. However, the good news is that the company found no evidence of any exploits in the wild for these security issues, Adobe said. The vulnerability in Adobe Photoshop CC , discovered by Trend Micro Zero Day Initiative and assigned CVE-2019-7094, is a heap corruption issue which affects Photoshop CC 19.1.7 and earlier 19.x versions as well as Photoshop CC 20.0.2 and earlier 20.x versions for Microsoft Windows and Apple macOS operating systems. Users are recommended ...
Want to Grow Vulnerability Management into Exposure Management? Start Here!

Want to Grow Vulnerability Management into Exposure Management? Start Here!

Dec 05, 2024Attack Surface / Exposure Management
Vulnerability Management (VM) has long been a cornerstone of organizational cybersecurity. Nearly as old as the discipline of cybersecurity itself, it aims to help organizations identify and address potential security issues before they become serious problems. Yet, in recent years, the limitations of this approach have become increasingly evident.  At its core, Vulnerability Management processes remain essential for identifying and addressing weaknesses. But as time marches on and attack avenues evolve, this approach is beginning to show its age. In a recent report, How to Grow Vulnerability Management into Exposure Management (Gartner, How to Grow Vulnerability Management Into Exposure Management, 8 November 2024, Mitchell Schneider Et Al.), we believe Gartner® addresses this point precisely and demonstrates how organizations can – and must – shift from a vulnerability-centric strategy to a broader Exposure Management (EM) framework. We feel it's more than a worthwhile read an...
Adobe Issues Emergency Patches for Two Critical Flaws in Acrobat and Reader

Adobe Issues Emergency Patches for Two Critical Flaws in Acrobat and Reader

Jan 04, 2019
I hope you had biggest, happiest and craziest New Year celebration, but now it's time to come back at work and immediately update your systems to patch new security flaws that could exploit your computer just by opening a PDF file. Adobe has issued an out-of-band security update to patch two critical vulnerabilities in the company's Acrobat and Reader for both the Windows and macOS operating systems. Though the San Jose, California-based software company did not give details about the vulnerabilities, it did classify the security flaws as critical since they allow privilege escalation and arbitrary code execution in the context of the current user. Both the vulnerabilities were reported to Adobe by security researchers--Abdul-Aziz Hariri and Sebastian Apelt—from Trend Micro's Zero Day Initiative (ZDI). Critical Adobe Acrobat and Reader Vulnerabilities The first vulnerability, reported by Apelt and identified as CVE-2018-16011, is a use-after-free bug that can lead...
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Adobe's Year-End Update Patches 87 Flaws in Acrobat Software

Adobe's Year-End Update Patches 87 Flaws in Acrobat Software

Dec 12, 2018
Adobe is closing out this year with its December Patch Tuesday update to address a massive number of security vulnerabilities for just its two PDF apps—more than double the number of what Microsoft patched this month for its several products. Adobe today released patches for 87 vulnerabilities affecting its Acrobat and Reader software products for both macOS and Windows operating systems, of which 39 are rated as critical and 48 important in severity. The security update comes less than a week after Adobe released patches for a critical zero-day vulnerability (CVE-2018-15982) in Flash Player that was actively being exploited in a targeted attack targeting a Russian state health care institution. The critical vulnerabilities addressed today in Acrobat and Reader include three heap-overflow bugs, five out-of-bounds write flaws, two untrusted pointer dereference issues, two buffer errors, and 24 use-after-free bugs. Upon successful exploitation, all of the above critical vulner...
Microsoft Releases Patch Updates for 53 Vulnerabilities In Its Software

Microsoft Releases Patch Updates for 53 Vulnerabilities In Its Software

Jul 10, 2018
It's time to gear up your systems and software for the latest July 2018 Microsoft security patch updates. Microsoft today released security patch updates for 53 vulnerabilities, affecting Windows, Internet Explorer (IE), Edge, ChakraCore, .NET Framework, ASP.NET, PowerShell, Visual Studio, and Microsoft Office and Office Services, and Adobe Flash Player. Out of 53 vulnerabilities, 17 are rated critical, 34 important, one moderate and one as low in severity. This month there is no critical vulnerability patched in Microsoft Windows operating system and surprisingly, none of the flaw patched by the tech giant this month is listed as publicly known or under active attack. Critical Flaws Patched In Microsoft Products Most of the critical issues are memory corruption flaws in IE, Edge browser and Chakra scripting engine, which if successfully exploited, could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on a targeted system in the context of the cur...
Adobe Releases Security Patch Updates For 112 Vulnerabilities

Adobe Releases Security Patch Updates For 112 Vulnerabilities

Jul 10, 2018
Adobe has released security patches for a total 112 vulnerabilities in its products, most of which have a higher risk of being exploited. The vulnerabilities addressed in this month's patch Tuesday affect Adobe Flash Player, Adobe Experience Manager, Adobe Connect, Adobe Acrobat, and Reader. None of the security vulnerabilities patched this month were either publicly disclosed or found being actively exploited in the wild. Adobe Flash Player (For Desktops and Browsers) Security updates include patches for two vulnerabilities in Adobe Flash Player for various platforms and application, as listed below. One of which has been rated critical (CVE-2018-5007), and successful exploitation of this "type confusion" flaw could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code on the targeted system in the context of the current user. This flaw was discovered and reported to Adobe by willJ of Tencent PC Manager working with Trend Micro's Zero Day Initiative. Withou...
Adobe Releases Critical Security Updates for Acrobat, Reader and Photoshop CC

Adobe Releases Critical Security Updates for Acrobat, Reader and Photoshop CC

May 14, 2018
Adobe has just released new versions of its Acrobat DC, Reader and Photoshop CC for Windows and macOS users that patch 48 vulnerabilities in its software. A total of 47 vulnerabilities affect Adobe Acrobat and Reader applications, and one critical remote code execution flaw has been patched in Adobe Photoshop CC. Out of 47, Adobe Acrobat and Reader affect with 24 critical vulnerabilities —categorized as Double Free, Heap Overflow, Use-after-free, Out-of-bounds write, Type Confusion, and Untrusted pointer dereference—which if exploited, could allow arbitrary code execution in the context of the targeted user. Rest of the 23 flaws, including Security Bypass, Out-of-bounds read, Memory Corruption, NTLM SSO hash theft, and HTTP POST newline injection via XFA submission, are marked as important and can lead to information disclosure or security bypass. The above-listed vulnerabilities impact the Windows and macOS versions of Acrobat DC (Consumer and Classic 2015), Acrobat Rea...
A Simple Tool Released to Protect Dasan GPON Routers from Remote Hacking

A Simple Tool Released to Protect Dasan GPON Routers from Remote Hacking

May 08, 2018
Since hackers have started exploiting two recently disclosed unpatched critical vulnerabilities found in GPON home routers, security researchers have now released an unofficial patch to help millions of affected users left vulnerable by their device manufacturer. Last week, researchers at vpnMentor disclosed details of—an authentication bypass (CVE-2018-10561) and a root-remote code execution vulnerability (CVE-2018-10562)—in many models of Gigabit-capable Passive Optical Network (GPON) routers manufacturer by South Korea-based DASAN Zhone Solutions. If exploited, the first vulnerability lets an attacker easily bypass the login authentication page just by appending ?images/ to the URL in the browser's address bar. However, when coupled with the second flaw that allows command injection, unauthenticated attackers can remotely execute malicious commands on the affected device and modified DNS settings, eventually allowing them to take full control of the device remotely. ...
Microsoft Issues Emergency Patch For Critical Flaw In Windows Containers

Microsoft Issues Emergency Patch For Critical Flaw In Windows Containers

May 03, 2018
Just a few days prior to its monthly patch release, Microsoft released an emergency patch for a critical vulnerability in the Windows Host Compute Service Shim (hcsshim) library that could allow remote attackers to run malicious code on Windows computers. Windows Host Compute Service Shim (hcsshim) is an open source library that helps "Docker for Windows" execute Windows Server containers using a low-level container management API in Hyper-V. Discovered by Swiss developer and security researcher Michael Hanselmann , the critical vulnerability (tracked as CVE-2018-8115) is the result of the failure of the hcsshim library to properly validate input when importing a Docker container image. This, in turn, allows an attacker to remotely execute arbitrary code on the Windows host operating system, eventually letting the attacker create, remove, and replace files on the target host. As Hanselmann explained  in his personal blog, "Importing a Docker container image or...
Faulty Patch for Oracle WebLogic Flaw Opens Updated Servers to Hackers Again

Faulty Patch for Oracle WebLogic Flaw Opens Updated Servers to Hackers Again

Apr 30, 2018
Earlier this month, Oracle patched a highly critical Java deserialization remote code execution vulnerability in its WebLogic Server component of Fusion Middleware that could allow attackers to easily gain complete control of a vulnerable server. However, a security researcher, who operates through the Twitter handle @pyn3rd and claims to be part of the Alibaba security team, has now found a way using which attackers can bypass the security patch and exploit the WebLogic vulnerability once again. WebLogic Server acts as a middle layer between the front end user interface and the backend database of a multi-tier enterprise application. It provides a complete set of services for all components and handles details of the application behavior automatically. Initially discovered in November last year by Liao Xinxi of NSFOCUS security team, the Oracle WebLogic Server flaw (CVE-2018-2628) can be exploited with network access over TCP port 7001. If exploited successfully, the fl...
Release of PoC Exploit for New Drupal Flaw Once Again Puts Sites Under Attack

Release of PoC Exploit for New Drupal Flaw Once Again Puts Sites Under Attack

Apr 26, 2018
Only a few hours after the Drupal team releases latest updates to fix a new remote code execution flaw in its content management system software, hackers have already started exploiting the vulnerability in the wild. Announced yesterday, the newly discovered vulnerability ( CVE-2018-7602 ) affects Drupal 7 and 8 core and allows remote attackers to achieve exactly same what previously discovered Drupalgeddon2 (CVE-2018-7600) flaw allowed—complete take over of affected websites. Although Drupal team has not released any technical details of the vulnerability to prevent immediate exploitation, two individual hackers have revealed some details, along with a proof-of-concept exploit just a few hours after the patch release. If you have been actively reading every latest story on The Hacker News, you must be aware of how the release of Drupalgeddon2 PoC exploit derived much attention, which eventually allowed attackers actively hijack websites and spread cryptocurrency miners , b...
Third Critical Drupal Flaw Discovered—Patch Your Sites Immediately

Third Critical Drupal Flaw Discovered—Patch Your Sites Immediately

Apr 25, 2018
Damn! You have to update your Drupal websites. Yes, of course once again—literally it's the third time in last 30 days. As notified in advance two days back, Drupal has now released new versions of its software to patch yet another critical remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability, affecting its Drupal 7 and 8 core. Drupal is a popular open-source content management system software that powers millions of websites, and unfortunately, the CMS has been under active attacks since after the disclosure of a highly critical remote code execution vulnerability. The new vulnerability was discovered while exploring the previously disclosed RCE vulnerability, dubbed Drupalgeddon2 (CVE-2018-7600) that was patched on March 28, forcing the Drupal team to release this follow-up patch update. According to a new advisory released by the team, the new remote code execution vulnerability (CVE-2018-7602) could also allow attackers to take over vulnerable websites completely. How to Pa...
Microsoft Issues Security Patch Update for 14 New Critical Vulnerabilities

Microsoft Issues Security Patch Update for 14 New Critical Vulnerabilities

Feb 14, 2018
Microsoft's Patch Tuesday for this month falls the day before the most romantic day of the year. Yes, it's Valentine's, and the tech giant has released its monthly security update for February 2018, addressing a total of 50 CVE-listed vulnerabilities in its Windows operating system, Microsoft Office, web browsers and other products. Fourteen of the security updates are listed as critical, 34 are rated as important, and 2 of them are rated as moderate in severity. The critical update patches serious security flaws in Edge browser and Outlook client, an RCE in Windows' StructuredQuery component, and several memory corruption bugs in the scripting engines used by Edge and Internet Explorer. Critical Microsoft Outlook Vulnerability One of the most severe bugs includes a memory corruption vulnerability ( CVE-2018-0852 ) in Microsoft Outlook, which can be exploited to achieve remote code execution on the targeted machines. In order to trigger the vulnerability...
WordPress Update Breaks Automatic Update Feature—Apply Manual Update

WordPress Update Breaks Automatic Update Feature—Apply Manual Update

Feb 09, 2018
WordPress administrators are once again in trouble. WordPress version 4.9.3 was released earlier this week with patches for a total 34 vulnerabilities, but unfortunately, the new version broke the automatic update mechanism for millions of WordPress websites. WordPress team has now issued a new maintenance update, WordPress 4.9.4 , to patch this severe bug, which WordPress admins have to install manually. According to security site WordFence , when WordPress CMS tries to determine whether the site needs to install an updated version, if available, a PHP error interrupts the auto-update process. If not updated manually to the latest 4.9.4 version, the bug would leave your website on WordPress 4.9.3 forever, leaving it vulnerable to future security issues. Here's what WordPress lead developer Dion Hulse explained about the bug: "#43103-core aimed to reduce the number of API calls which get made when the auto-update cron task is run. Unfortunately, due to human e...
Intel Releases New Spectre Patch Update for Skylake Processors

Intel Releases New Spectre Patch Update for Skylake Processors

Feb 08, 2018
After leaving million of devices at risk of hacking and then rolling out broken patches, Intel has now released a new batch of security patches only for its Skylake processors to address one of the Spectre vulnerabilities (Variant 2). For those unaware, Spectre ( Variant 1, Variant 2 ) and Meltdown ( Variant 3 ) are security flaws disclosed by researchers earlier last month in processors from Intel, ARM, and AMD, leaving nearly every PC, server, and mobile phone on the planet vulnerable to data theft. Shortly after the researchers disclosed the Spectre and Meltdown exploits , Intel started releasing microcode patches for its systems running Broadwell, Haswell, Skylake, Kaby Lake, and Coffee Lake processors. However, later the chip maker rollbacked the firmware updates and had to tell users to stop using an earlier update due to users complaining of frequent reboots and other unpredictable system behavior after installing patches. Although it should be a bit quicker, Intel i...
Immediately Patch Windows 0-Day Flaw That's Being Used to Spread Spyware

Immediately Patch Windows 0-Day Flaw That's Being Used to Spread Spyware

Sep 13, 2017
Get ready to install a fairly large batch of security patches onto your Windows computers. As part of its September Patch Tuesday , Microsoft has released a large batch of security updates to patch a total of 81 CVE-listed vulnerabilities, on all supported versions of Windows and other MS products. The latest security update addresses 27 critical and 54 important vulnerabilities in severity, of which 38 vulnerabilities are impacting Windows, 39 could lead to Remote Code Execution (RCE). Affected Microsoft products include: Internet Explorer Microsoft Edge Microsoft Windows .NET Framework Skype for Business and Lync Microsoft Exchange Server Microsoft Office, Services and Web Apps Adobe Flash Player .NET 0-Day Flaw Under Active Attack According to the company, four of the patched vulnerabilities are publicly known, one of which has already been actively exploited by the attackers in the wild. Here's the list of publically known flaws and their impact: W...
Adobe Patches Two Critical RCE Vulnerabilities in Flash Player

Adobe Patches Two Critical RCE Vulnerabilities in Flash Player

Sep 13, 2017
Adobe may kill Flash Player by the end of 2020, but until then, the company would not stop providing security updates to the buggy software . As part of its monthly security updates, Adobe has released patches for eight security vulnerabilities in its three products, including two vulnerabilities in Flash Player, four in ColdFusion, and two in RoboHelp—five of these are rated as critical. Both of the Adobe Flash Player vulnerabilities can be exploited for remote code execution on the affected device, and both have been classified as critical. None of the patched vulnerabilities has reportedly been exploited in the wild, according to the company. The critical Flash Player flaws are tracked as CVE-2017-11281 and CVE-2017-11282 and were discovered by Mateusz Jurczyk and Natalie Silvanovich of Google Project Zero, respectively. Both the security vulnerabilities are memory corruption issues that could lead to remote code execution and affect all major operating system, includi...
Over 70,000 Memcached Servers Still Vulnerable to Remote Hacking

Over 70,000 Memcached Servers Still Vulnerable to Remote Hacking

Jul 18, 2017
Nothing in this world is fully secure, from our borders to cyberspace. I know vulnerabilities are bad, but the worst part comes in when people just don't care to apply patches on time. Late last year, Cisco's Talos intelligence and research group discovered three critical remote code execution (RCE) vulnerabilities in Memcached that exposed major websites including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, to hackers. Memcached is a popular open-source and easily deployable distributed caching system that allows objects to be stored in memory. The Memcached application has been designed to speed up dynamic web applications ( for example php-based websites) by reducing stress on the database that helps administrators to increase performance and scale web applications. It's been almost eight months since the Memcached developers have released patches for three critical RCE vulnerabilities (CVE-2016-8704, CVE-2016-8705 and CVE-2016-8706) but tens of thousands of servers...
Cisco Finally Patches 0-Day Exploit Disclosed In Wikileaks-CIA Leak

Cisco Finally Patches 0-Day Exploit Disclosed In Wikileaks-CIA Leak

May 10, 2017
Cisco Systems has finally released an update for its IOS and IOS XE software to address a critical vulnerability, disclosed nearly two months back in the CIA Vault 7 leak , that affects more than 300 of its switch models. The company identified the vulnerability in its product while analyzing "Vault 7" dump — thousands of documents and files leaked by Wikileaks, claiming to detail hacking tools and tactics of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). As previously reported , the vulnerability (CVE-2017-3881) resides in the Cluster Management Protocol (CMP) — which uses Telnet or SSH to deliver signals and commands on internal networks — in Cisco IOS and Cisco IOS XE Software. The vulnerability can be exploited remotely by sending "malformed CMP-specific Telnet options while establishing a Telnet session with an affected Cisco device configured to accept Telnet connections," researchers say. The company warned users on April 10 that an exploit targeting...
Microsoft Issues Emergency Patch For Critical RCE in Windows Malware Scanner

Microsoft Issues Emergency Patch For Critical RCE in Windows Malware Scanner

May 09, 2017
Microsoft's own antivirus software made Windows 7, 8.1, RT and 10 computers, as well as Windows Server 2016 more vulnerable. Microsoft has just released an out-of-band security update to patch the crazy bad bug discovered by a pair of Google Project Zero researchers over the weekend. Security researchers Tavis Ormandy announced on Twitter during the weekend that he and another Project Zero researcher Natalie Silvanovich discovered "the worst Windows remote code [execution vulnerability] in recent memory." Natalie Silvanovich also published a  proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit code that fits in a single tweet. The reported RCE vulnerability , according to the duo, could work against default installations with "wormable" ability – capability to replicate itself on an infected computer and then spread to other PCs automatically. According to an advisory released by Microsoft, the remotely exploitable security flaw (CVE-2017-0290) exists in Microsoft ...
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