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No software is immune to being Hacked! Not even Linux. A security researcher has discovered a critical vulnerability in Ubuntu Linux operating system that would allow an attacker to remotely compromise a target computer using a malicious file. The vulnerability affects all default Ubuntu Linux installations versions 12.10 (Quantal) and later. Researcher Donncha O'Cearbhaill discovered the security bug which actually resides in the Apport crash reporting tool on Ubuntu. A successful exploit of this CrashDB code injection issue could allow an attacker to remotely execute arbitrary code on victim's machine. All an attacker needs is to trick the Ubuntu user into opening a maliciously booby-trapped crash file. This would inject malicious code in Ubuntu OS's crash file handler, which when parsed, executes arbitrary Python code. "The code first checks if the CrashDB field starts with { indicating the start of a Python dictionary," O'Cearbhaill explain

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

It comes as no surprise that today's cyber threats are orders of magnitude more complex than those of the past. And the ever-evolving tactics that attackers use demand the adoption of better, more holistic and consolidated ways to meet this non-stop challenge. Security teams constantly look for ways to reduce risk while improving security posture, but many approaches offer piecemeal solutions – zeroing in on one particular element of the evolving threat landscape challenge – missing the forest for the trees.  In the last few years, Exposure Management has become known as a comprehensive way of reigning in the chaos, giving organizations a true fighting chance to reduce risk and improve posture. In this article I'll cover what Exposure Management is, how it stacks up against some alternative approaches and why building an Exposure Management program should be on  your 2024 to-do list. What is Exposure Management?  Exposure Management is the systematic identification, evaluation,

North Korea's own homegrown computer operating system, that's supposed to be fully hacker proof and more secure than foreign OS, like Microsoft's Windows, can easily be hacked remotely. A group of hackers managed to break into Red Star OS — North Korea's government sanctioned Linux-based OS — using just a link. Red Star OS is North Korea's own homegrown OS that looks remarkably just like Apple's OS X and gives North Korean authorities more control over the computers, providing not only security but also spying tools that help track files in a way that if the government wants, every bit of user's data can be traced easily. According to the information security company Hacker House , Red Star OS contains a critical vulnerability that makes it possible for hackers to gain remote access to any PC running North Korea's OS just by tricking victims into opening a hyperlink. The latest version of Red Star OS ships with a Firefox-based web browser cal

Here's some bad news for Android users again. Nearly 3 Million Android devices worldwide are vulnerable to man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks that could allow attackers to remotely execute arbitrary code with root privileges, turning over full control of the devices to hackers. According to a new report from security rating firm BitSight, the issue is due to a vulnerability in the insecure implementation of the OTA (Over-the-Air) update mechanism used by certain low-cost Android devices, including BLU Studio G from US-based Best Buy. Backdoor/Rootkit Comes Pre-installed The vulnerable OTA mechanism, which is associated with Chinese mobile firm Ragentek Group, contains a hidden binary — resides as /system/bin/debugs — that runs with root privileges and communicates over unencrypted channels with three hosts. According to the researchers, this privileged binary not only exposes user-specific information to MITM attackers but also acts as a rootkit, potentially allowing

Hey Webmasters, are you using Memcached to boost the performance of your website? Beware! It might be vulnerable to remote hackers. Three critical Remote Code Execution vulnerabilities have been reported in Memcached by security researcher Aleksandar Nikolich at Cisco Talos Group that expose major websites, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, to hackers. Memcached is a fabulous piece of open-source distributed caching system that allows objects to be stored in memory. It has been designed to speed up dynamic web applications by reducing stress on the database that helps administrators to increase performance and scale web applications. Memcached is widely used by thousands upon thousands of websites, including popular social networking sites such as Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Reddit, YouTube, Github, and many more. Nikolich says that he discovered multiple integer overflow bugs in Memcached that could be exploited to remotely run arbitrary code on the targeted s

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

Cyber attacks get bigger, smarter, more damaging. P*rnHub launched its bug bounty program two months ago to encourage hackers and bug bounty hunters to find and responsibly report flaws in its services and get rewarded. Now, it turns out that the world's most popular p*rn*graphy site has paid its first bounty payout. But how much? US $20,000! Yes,  P*rnHub  has paid $20,000 bug bounty to a team of three researchers, who gained Remote Code Execution (RCE) capability on its servers using a zero-day vulnerability in PHP – the programming language that powers  P*rnHub 's website. The team of three researchers, Dario Weißer (@haxonaut), cutz and Ruslan Habalov (@evonide), discovered two use-after-free vulnerabilities ( CVE-2016-5771/CVE-2016-5773 ) in PHP's garbage collection algorithm when it interacts with other PHP objects. One of those is PHP's unserialize function on the website that handles data uploaded by users, like hot pictures, on multiple paths,

Just yesterday, I wrote a warning article announcing that Drupal – the popular open source content management system – will release patches for several highly critical Remote Code Execution (RCE) bugs that could allow attackers to fully take over any affected site. Below are the three separate Drupal modules that affect up to 10,000 websites: 1. RESTful Web Services – a popular module used for creating REST APIs, which is currently installed on at least 5,804 websites. The vulnerability in RESTWS alters the default page callbacks for entities to provide additional functionality, allowing attackers to "send specially crafted requests resulting in arbitrary PHP execution." Since anonymous users can exploit this vulnerability and there isn't any mitigating factor, users are advised to patch their websites as soon as possible. Admins using RESTful Web Services versions 7.x-2.x prior to 7.x-2.6 and versions 7.x-1.x prior to 7.x-1.7 for their Drupal websites are

How to Hack Facebook? That's the most commonly asked question during this decade. It's a hacker dream to hack Facebook website for earning bug bounty or for any malicious purpose. Facebook security team recently found that someone, probably a blackhat hacker with malicious intent, has breached into its server and installed a backdoor that was configured to steal Facebook employees' login credentials. Since the backdoor discovered in the Facebook's corporate server, not on its main server, Facebook user accounts are not affected by this incident. Though the company would have never known about the backdoor if a whitehat hacker had never spotted the backdoor script while hunting for vulnerabilities. Also Read: Ever Wondered How Facebook Decides, How much Bounty Should be Paid? Security researcher Orange Tsai of Taiwanese security vendor DEVCORE accidentally came across a backdoor script on one of Facebook's corporate servers while finding bugs to earn cash reward fr

Security researchers have discovered a remotely exploitable vulnerability in Called ID app " Truecaller " that could expose personal details of Millions of its users. Truecaller is a popular service that claims to "search and identify any phone number," as well as helps users block incoming calls or SMSes from phone numbers categorized as spammers and telemarketers. The service has mobile apps for Android, iOS, Windows, Symbian devices and BlackBerry phones. The vulnerability, discovered by Cheetah Mobile Security Research Lab , affects Truecaller Android version of the app that has been downloaded more than 100 Million times. The actual problem resides in the way Truecaller identify users in its systems. While installation, Truecaller Android app asks users to enter their phone number, email address, and other personal details, which is verified by phone call or SMS message. After this, whenever users open the app, no login screen is ever

A highly critical vulnerability has been uncovered in the GNU C Library (glibc) , a key component of most Linux distributions, that leaves nearly all Linux machines, thousands of apps and electronic devices vulnerable to hackers that can take full control over them. Just clicking on a link or connecting to a server can result in remote code execution (RCE), allowing hackers to steal credentials, spy on users, seize control of computers, and many more. The vulnerability is similar to the last year's  GHOST vulnerability (CVE-2015-0235) that left countless machines vulnerable to remote code execution (RCE) attacks , representing a major Internet threat. GNU C Library (glibc) is a collection of open source code that powers thousands of standalone apps and most Linux distributions, including those distributed to routers and other types of hardware. The recent flaw, which is indexed as CVE-2015-7547 , is a stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability in glibc's D

Microsoft has released 13 security bulletins, six of which are considered to be critical, resolving a total of 41 security vulnerabilities in its software this month. Every Windows version Affected: One of the critical vulnerabilities affects all supported version of Windows , including Microsoft's newest Windows 10 operating system, as well as Windows Server 2016 Tech Preview 4. The memory-corruption flaw ( MS16-013 ) could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code as the logged-in user by tricking a user into opening a specially crafted Journal file. This vulnerability would let the attacker run malicious programs on victim's machine, even delete data and create new accounts with full user rights. Administrator accounts are at the greatest risk than users with a fewer user rights account on the system. However, the good news is the vulnerability has not been spotted in the wild. List of All Critical Vulnerabilities Other Critical Secur

Netgear, one of the most popular router manufacturers, has been vulnerable to two different flaws that could allow hackers to compromise your corporate network and connected devices. Reported critical vulnerabilities reside in the Netgear's ProSafe NMS300 Model ( Network Management System ) – a centralized and comprehensive management application for network administrators that enables them to discover, monitor, configure, and report on SNMP-based enterprise-class network devices. SNMP ( Simple Network Management Protocol ) is a network management protocol which facilitates Netgear's ProSafe NMS300 application to gather data from various network devices such as servers, printers, hubs, switches, and routers. Remotely collected data includes CPU load, routing tables, and network traffic statistics. Serious Flaws in Network Management System A joint security dug conducted by Pedro Ribeiro ( Security Researcher of UK Based firm Agile Information ) along

Google has released the February Security Update for Android that patches multiple security vulnerabilities discovered in the latest version of Android operating system. In total, there were five "critical" security vulnerabilities fixed in the release along with four "high" severity and one merely "moderate" issues. Remote Code Execution Flaw in WiFi A set of two critical vulnerabilities has been found in the Broadcom WiFi driver that could be exploited by attackers to perform Remote Code Execution (RCE) on affected Android devices when connected to the same network as the attacker. The vulnerabilities (CVE-2016-0801 and CVE-2016-0802) can be exploited by sending specially crafted wireless control message packets that can corrupt kernel memory, potentially leading to remote code execution at the kernel level. "These vulnerabilities can be triggered when the attacker and the victim are associated with the same network," read

If you have installed Trend Micro's Antivirus on your Windows computer, then Beware. Your computer can be remotely hijacked, or infected with any malware by even through a website – Thanks to a critical vulnerability in Trend Micro Security Software. The Popular antivirus maker and security firm Trend Micro has released an emergency patch to fix critical flaws in its anti-virus product that allow hackers to execute arbitrary commands remotely as well as steal your saved password from Password Manager built into its AntiVirus program. The password management tool that comes bundled with its main antivirus is used to store passwords by users and works exactly like any other password manager application. Even Websites Can Hack Into Your Computer Google's Project Zero security researcher, Tavis Ormandy, discovered the remote code execution flaw in Trend Micro Antivirus Password Manager component, allowing hackers to steal users' passwords. In short, o

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