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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.

8 New Spectre-Class Vulnerabilities (Spectre-NG) Found in Intel CPUs

8 New Spectre-Class Vulnerabilities (Spectre-NG) Found in Intel CPUs
May 05, 2018
A team of security researchers has reportedly discovered a total of eight new " Spectre-class " vulnerabilities in Intel CPUs, which also affect at least a small number of ARM processors and may impact AMD processor architecture as well. Dubbed Spectre-Next Generation , or Spectre-NG , the partial details of the vulnerabilities were first leaked to journalists at German computer magazine Heise, which claims that Intel has classified four of the new vulnerabilities as "high risk" and remaining four as "medium." The new CPU flaws reportedly originate from the same design issue that caused the original Spectre flaw , but the report claims one of the newly discovered flaws allows attackers with access to a virtual machine (VM) to easily target the host system, making it potentially more threatening than the original Spectre vulnerability. "Alternatively, it could attack the VMs of other customers running on the same server. Passwords and secret k

Making Sense of Operational Technology Attacks: The Past, Present, and Future

Making Sense of Operational Technology Attacks: The Past, Present, and Future
Mar 21, 2024Operational Technology / SCADA Security
When you read reports about cyber-attacks affecting operational technology (OT), it's easy to get caught up in the hype and assume every single one is sophisticated. But are OT environments all over the world really besieged by a constant barrage of complex cyber-attacks? Answering that would require breaking down the different types of OT cyber-attacks and then looking back on all the historical attacks to see how those types compare.  The Types of OT Cyber-Attacks Over the past few decades, there has been a growing awareness of the need for improved cybersecurity practices in IT's lesser-known counterpart, OT. In fact, the lines of what constitutes a cyber-attack on OT have never been well defined, and if anything, they have further blurred over time. Therefore, we'd like to begin this post with a discussion around the ways in which cyber-attacks can either target or just simply impact OT, and why it might be important for us to make the distinction going forward. Figure 1 The Pu

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

Automated remediation solutions are crucial for security

cyber 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.

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

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

Critical Unpatched RCE Flaw Disclosed in LG Network Storage Devices

Critical Unpatched RCE Flaw Disclosed in LG Network Storage Devices
Apr 18, 2018
If you have installed a network-attached storage device manufactured by LG Electronics, you should take it down immediately, read this article carefully and then take appropriate action to protect your sensitive data. A security researcher has revealed complete technical details of an unpatched critical remote command execution vulnerability in various LG NAS device models that could let attackers compromise vulnerable devices and steal data stored on them. LG's Network Attached Storage (NAS) device is a dedicated file storage unit connected to a network that allows users to store and share data with multiple computers. Authorized users can also access their data remotely over the Internet. The vulnerability has been discovered by the researcher at privacy advocate firm VPN Mentor, the same company that last month revealed severe flaws in three popular VPNs —HotSpot Shield, PureVPN, and ZenMate VPN. The LG NAS flaw is a pre-authenticated remote command injection vulnera

Warning: Your Windows PC Can Get Hacked by Just Visiting a Site

Warning: Your Windows PC Can Get Hacked by Just Visiting a Site
Apr 10, 2018
Can you get hacked just by clicking on a malicious link or opening a website? — YES . Microsoft has just released its April month's Patch Tuesday security updates, which addresses multiple critical vulnerabilities in its Windows operating systems and other products, five of which could allow an attacker to hack your computer by just tricking you visit a website. Microsoft has patched five critical vulnerabilities in Windows Graphics Component that reside due to improper handling of embedded fonts by the Windows font library and affects all versions of Windows operating systems to date, including Windows 10 / 8.1 / RT 8.1 / 7, Windows Server 2008 / 2012 / 2016. An attacker can exploit these issues by tricking an unsuspecting user to open a malicious file or a specially crafted website with the malicious font, which if open in a web browser, would hand over control of the affected system to the attacker. All these five vulnerabilities in Windows Microsoft Graphics were dis

Critical Code Execution Flaw Found in CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault

Critical Code Execution Flaw Found in CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault
Apr 09, 2018
A critical remote code execution vulnerability has been discovered in CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault application that could allow an attacker to gain unauthorized access to the system with the privileges of the web application. Enterprise password manager (EPV) solutions help organizations securely manage their sensitive passwords, controlling privileged accounts passwords across a wide range of client/server and mainframe operating systems, switches, databases, and keep them safe from external attackers, as well as malicious insiders. Discovered by German cybersecurity firm RedTeam Pentesting GmbH, the vulnerability affects one of such Enterprise Password Vault apps designed by CyberArk—a password management and security tool that manages sensitive passwords and controls privileged accounts. The vulnerability (CVE-2018-9843) resides in CyberArk Password Vault Web Access, a .NET web application created by the company to help its customers access their accounts remotely.

Critical flaw leaves thousands of Cisco Switches vulnerable to remote hacking

Critical flaw leaves thousands of Cisco Switches vulnerable to remote hacking
Apr 04, 2018
Security researchers at Embedi have disclosed a critical vulnerability in Cisco IOS Software and Cisco IOS XE Software that could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to execute arbitrary code, take full control over the vulnerable network equipment and intercept traffic. The stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability (CVE-2018-0171) resides due to improper validation of packet data in Smart Install Client, a plug-and-play configuration and image-management feature that helps administrators to deploy (client) network switches easily. Embedi has published technical details and Proof-of-Concept (PoC) code after Cisco today released patch updates to address this remote code execution vulnerability, which has been given a base Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) score of 9.8 (critical). Researchers found a total of 8.5 million devices with the vulnerable port open on the Internet, leaving approximately 250,000 unpatched devices open to hackers. To exploit this vulner

Hard-Coded Password in Cisco Software Lets Attackers Take Over Linux Servers

Hard-Coded Password in Cisco Software Lets Attackers Take Over Linux Servers
Mar 08, 2018
A medium yet critical vulnerability has been discovered in Cisco Prime Collaboration Provisioning software that could allow a local attacker to elevate privileges to root and take full control of a system. Cisco Prime Collaboration Provisioning (PCP) application allows administrators to remotely control the installation and management of Cisco communication devices (integrated IP telephony, video, voicemail) deployed in the company and services for its subscribers. The vulnerability (CVE-2018-0141) is due to a hard-coded password for Secure Shell (SSH), which could be exploited by a local attacker to connect to the PCP's Linux operating system and gain low-level privileges. Cisco PCP Hard-Coded Password Flaw According to an advisory released by Cisco, with low-level privileges, an attacker could then elevate its privileges to root and take full control of the affected devices. Although this vulnerability has been given a Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) bas

Hackers Exploiting 'Bitmessage' Zero-Day to Steal Bitcoin Wallet Keys

Hackers Exploiting 'Bitmessage' Zero-Day to Steal Bitcoin Wallet Keys
Feb 14, 2018
Bitmessage developers have warned of a critical 'remotely executable' zero-day vulnerability in the PyBitmessage application that was being exploited in the wild. Bitmessage is a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) communications protocol used to send encrypted messages to users. Since it is decentralized and trustless communications, one need-not inherently trust any entities like root certificate authorities. Those who unaware, PyBitmessage is the official client for Bitmessage messaging service. According to Bitmessage developers, a critical zero-day remote code execution vulnerability, described as a message encoding flaw, affects PyBitmessage version 0.6.2 for Linux, Mac, and Windows and has been exploited against some of their users. "The exploit is triggered by a malicious message if you are the recipient (including joined chans). The attacker ran an automated script but also opened, or tried to open, a remote reverse shell," Bitmessage core developer Peter Šurda ex

(Unpatched) Adobe Flash Player Zero-Day Exploit Spotted in the Wild

(Unpatched) Adobe Flash Player Zero-Day Exploit Spotted in the Wild
Feb 02, 2018
Another reason to uninstall Adobe Flash Player—a new zero-day Flash Player exploit has reportedly been spotted in the wild by North Korean hackers. South Korea's Computer Emergency Response Team (KR-CERT) issued an alert Wednesday for a new Flash Player zero-day vulnerability that's being actively exploited in the wild by North Korean hackers to target Windows users in South Korea. Simon Choi of South Korea-based cybersecurity firm Hauri first reported the campaign on Twitter, saying the North Korean hackers have been using the Flash zero-day against South Koreans since mid-November 2017. Although Choi did not share any malware sample or details about the vulnerability, the researcher said the attacks using the new Flash zero-day is aimed at South Korean individuals who focus on researching North Korea. Adobe also released an advisory on Wednesday, which said the zero-day is exploiting a critical 'use-after-free' vulnerability (CVE-2018-4878) in its Flash

Update Your Firefox Browser to Fix a Critical Remotely Exploitable Flaw

Update Your Firefox Browser to Fix a Critical Remotely Exploitable Flaw
Jan 31, 2018
Mozilla has released an important update for its Firefox web browser to patch a critical vulnerability that could allow remote attackers to execute malicious code on computers running an affected version of the browser. The update comes just a week after the company rolled out its new Firefox Quantum browser, a.k.a Firefox 58, with some new features like improved graphics engine and performance optimizations and patches for more than 30 vulnerabilities. According to a security advisory published by Cisco, Firefox 58.0.1 addresses an 'arbitrary code execution' flaw that originates due to 'insufficient sanitization' of HTML fragments in chrome-privileged documents (browser UI). Hackers could exploit this vulnerability (CVE-2018-5124) to run arbitrary code on the victim's computer just by tricking them into accessing a link or ' opening a file that submits malicious input to the affected software .' "A successful exploit could allow the attacker t

Critical Flaw Hits Popular Windows Apps Built With Electron JS Framework

Critical Flaw Hits Popular Windows Apps Built With Electron JS Framework
Jan 24, 2018
A critical remote code execution vulnerability has been reported in Electron —a popular web application framework that powers thousands of widely-used desktop applications including Skype, Signal, Wordpress and Slack—that allows for remote code execution. Electron is an open-source framework that is based on Node.js and Chromium Engine and allows app developers to build cross-platform native desktop applications for Windows, macOS and Linux, without knowledge of programming languages used for each platform. The vulnerability, assigned as the number CVE-2018-1000006, affects only those apps that run on Microsoft Windows and register themselves as the default handler for a protocol like myapp://. "Such apps can be affected regardless of how the protocol is registered, e.g. using native code, the Windows registry, or Electron's app.setAsDefaultProtocolClient API," Electron says in an advisory published Monday. The Electron team has also confirmed that applications

Two Critical 0-Day Remote Exploits for vBulletin Forum Disclosed Publicly

Two Critical 0-Day Remote Exploits for vBulletin Forum Disclosed Publicly
Dec 18, 2017
Security researchers have discovered and disclosed details of two unpatched critical vulnerabilities in a popular internet forum software—vBulletin—one of which could allow a remote attacker to execute malicious code on the latest version of vBulletin application server. vBulletin is a widely used proprietary Internet forum software package based on PHP and MySQL database server. It powers more than 100,000 websites on the Internet, including Fortune 500 and Alexa Top 1 million companies websites and forums. The vulnerabilities were discovered by a security researcher from Italy-based security firm TRUEL IT and an unknown independent security researcher, who disclosed the details of the vulnerabilities by Beyond Security's SecuriTeam Secure Disclosure program. The vulnerabilities affect version 5 of the vBulletin forum software and are currently unpatched. Beyond Security claims, it tried to contact vBulletin since November 21, 2017, but received no response from the compa

Microsoft Issues Emergency Windows Security Update For A Critical Vulnerability

Microsoft Issues Emergency Windows Security Update For A Critical Vulnerability
Dec 08, 2017
Microsoft has just released an emergency security patch to address a critical remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability in its Malware Protection Engine (MPE) that could allow an attacker to take full control of a victim's PC. Enabled by default, Microsoft Malware Protection Engine offers the core cybersecurity capabilities, like scanning, detection, and cleaning, for the company's antivirus and antimalware programs in all of its products. According to Microsoft, the vulnerability affects a large number of Microsoft security products, including Windows Defender and Microsoft Security Essentials along with Endpoint Protection, Forefront Endpoint Protection, and Exchange Server 2013 and 2016, impacting Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows RT 8.1, and Windows Server. Tracked as CVE-2017-11937 , the vulnerability is a memory corruption issue which is triggered when the Malware Protection Engine scans a specially crafted file to check for any potential threat.

Critical Flaw in Major Android Tools Targets Developers and Reverse Engineers

Critical Flaw in Major Android Tools Targets Developers and Reverse Engineers
Dec 06, 2017
Finally, here we have a vulnerability that targets Android developers and reverse engineers, instead of app users. Security researchers have discovered an easily-exploitable vulnerability in Android application developer tools, both downloadable and cloud-based, that could allow attackers to steal files and execute malicious code on vulnerable systems remotely. The issue was discovered by security researchers at the Check Point Research Team, who also released a proof of concept (PoC) attack, which they called ParseDroid . The vulnerability resides in a popular XML parsing library "DocumentBuilderFactory," used by the most common Android Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) like Google's Android Studio, JetBrains' IntelliJ IDEA and Eclipse as well as the major reverse engineering tools for Android apps such as APKTool, Cuckoo-Droid and more. The ParseDroid flaw, technically known as XML External Entity (XXE) vulnerability, is triggered when a vulner

Hackers Exploit Recently Disclosed Microsoft Office Bug to Backdoor PCs

Hackers Exploit Recently Disclosed Microsoft Office Bug to Backdoor PCs
Nov 29, 2017
A recently disclosed severe 17-year-old vulnerability in Microsoft Office that lets hackers install malware on targeted computers without user interaction is now being exploited in the wild to distribute a backdoor malware. First spotted by researchers at security firm Fortinet , the malware has been dubbed Cobalt because it uses a component from a powerful and legitimate penetration testing tool, called Cobalt Strike . Cobalt Strike is a form of software developed for Red Team Operations and Adversary Simulations for accessing covert channels of a system. The vulnerability (CVE-2017-11882) that Cobalt malware utilizes to deliver the backdoor is a memory-corruption issue that allows unauthenticated, remote attackers to execute malicious code on the targeted system when opened a malicious file and potentially take full control over it. This vulnerability impacts all versions of Microsoft Office and Windows operating system, though Microsoft has already released a patch upda

Exim Internet Mailer Found Vulnerable to RCE And DoS Bugs; Patch Now

Exim Internet Mailer Found Vulnerable to RCE And DoS Bugs; Patch Now
Nov 27, 2017
A security researcher has discovered and publicly disclosed two critical vulnerabilities in the popular Internet mail message transfer agent Exim , one of which could allow a remote attacker to execute malicious code on the targeted server. Exim is an open source mail transfer agent (MTA) developed for Unix-like operating systems such as Linux, Mac OSX or Solaris, which is responsible for routing, delivering and receiving email messages. The first vulnerability, identified as CVE-2017-16943 , is a use-after-free bug which could be exploited to remotely execute arbitrary code in the SMTP server by crafting a sequence of BDAT commands. "To trigger this bug, BDAT command is necessary to perform an allocation by raising an error," the researcher said. "Through our research, we confirm that this vulnerability can be exploited to remote code execution if the binary is not compiled with PIE." The researcher ( mehqq_ ) has also published a Proof-of-Concept (PoC)

Remotely Exploitable Flaw Found In HP Enterprise Printers—Patch Now

Remotely Exploitable Flaw Found In HP Enterprise Printers—Patch Now
Nov 23, 2017
Security researchers have discovered a potentially dangerous vulnerability in the firmware of various Hewlett Packard (HP) enterprise printer models that could be abused by attackers to run arbitrary code on affected printer models remotely. The vulnerability (CVE-2017-2750), rated as high in severity with 8.1 CVSS scale, is due to insufficiently validating parts of Dynamic Link Libraries (DLL) that allows for the potential execution of arbitrary code remotely on affected 54 printer models. The security flaw affects 54 printer models ranging from HP LaserJet Enterprise, LaserJet Managed, PageWide Enterprise and OfficeJet Enterprise printers. This remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability was discovered by researchers at FoxGlove Security when they were analyzing the security of HP's MFP-586 printer (currently sold for $2,000) and HP LaserJet Enterprise M553 printers (sold for $500). According to a technical write-up posted by FoxGlove on Monday, researchers were able to
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