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Microsoft's January 2024 Windows Update Patches 48 New Vulnerabilities

Microsoft's January 2024 Windows Update Patches 48 New Vulnerabilities

Jan 10, 2024 Vulnerability / Windows Security
Microsoft has addressed a total of  48 security flaws  spanning its software as part of its Patch Tuesday updates for January 2024. Of the 48 bugs, two are rated Critical and 46 are rated Important in severity. There is no evidence that any of the issues are publicly known or under active attack at the time of release, making it the second consecutive Patch Tuesday with no zero-days. The fixes are in addition to  nine security vulnerabilities  that have been resolved in the Chromium-based Edge browser since the release of  December 2023 Patch Tuesday  updates. This also includes a fix for a zero-day ( CVE-2023-7024 , CVSS score: 8.8) that Google said has been actively exploited in the wild. The most critical among the flaws patched this month are as follows - CVE-2024-20674  (CVSS score: 9.0) - Windows Kerberos Security Feature Bypass Vulnerability CVE-2024-20700  (CVSS score: 7.5) - Windows Hyper-V Remote Code Execution Vulnerability "The authentication feature could be bypas
New Variant of DLL Search Order Hijacking Bypasses Windows 10 and 11 Protections

New Variant of DLL Search Order Hijacking Bypasses Windows 10 and 11 Protections

Jan 01, 2024 Windows Security / Vulnerability
Security researchers have detailed a new variant of a dynamic link library ( DLL ) search order hijacking technique that could be used by threat actors to bypass security mechanisms and achieve execution of malicious code on systems running Microsoft Windows 10 and Windows 11. The approach "leverages executables commonly found in the trusted WinSxS folder and exploits them via the classic DLL search order hijacking technique," cybersecurity firm Security Joes  said  in a new report exclusively shared with The Hacker News. In doing so, it allows adversaries to eliminate the need for elevated privileges when attempting to run nefarious code on a compromised machine as well as introduce potentially vulnerable binaries into the attack chain, as  observed   in the   past . DLL search order hijacking , as the name implies, involves  gaming the search order  used to load DLLs in order to execute malicious payloads for purposes of defense evasion, persistence, and privilege escal
How to Find and Fix Risky Sharing in Google Drive

How to Find and Fix Risky Sharing in Google Drive

Mar 06, 2024Data Security / Cloud Security
Every Google Workspace administrator knows how quickly Google Drive becomes a messy sprawl of loosely shared confidential information. This isn't anyone's fault; it's inevitable as your productivity suite is purposefully designed to enable real-time collaboration – both internally and externally.  For Security & Risk Management teams, the untenable risk of any Google Drive footprint lies in the toxic combinations of sensitive data, excessive permissions, and improper sharing. However, it can be challenging to differentiate between typical business practices and potential risks without fully understanding the context and intent.  Material Security, a company renowned for its innovative method of protecting sensitive data within employee mailboxes, has recently launched  Data Protection for Google Drive  to safeguard the sprawl of confidential information scattered throughout Google Drive with a powerful discovery and remediation toolkit. How Material Security helps organ
Researchers Find 34 Windows Drivers Vulnerable to Full Device Takeover

Researchers Find 34 Windows Drivers Vulnerable to Full Device Takeover

Nov 02, 2023 Endpoint Security / Malware
As many as 34 unique vulnerable Windows Driver Model ( WDM ) and Windows Driver Frameworks ( WDF ) drivers could be exploited by non-privileged threat actors to gain full control of the devices and execute arbitrary code on the underlying systems. "By exploiting the drivers, an attacker without privilege may erase/alter firmware, and/or elevate [operating system] privileges," Takahiro Haruyama, a senior threat researcher at VMware Carbon Black,  said . The  research  expands on previous studies, such as  ScrewedDrivers  and  POPKORN  that utilized  symbolic execution  for automating the discovery of vulnerable drivers. It specifically focuses on drivers that contain firmware access through port I/O and memory-mapped I/O. The names of some of the vulnerable drivers include AODDriver.sys, ComputerZ.sys, dellbios.sys, GEDevDrv.sys, GtcKmdfBs.sys, IoAccess.sys, kerneld.amd64, ngiodriver.sys, nvoclock.sys, PDFWKRNL.sys ( CVE-2023-20598 ), RadHwMgr.sys, rtif.sys, rtport.sys, s
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Alert: New Kubernetes Vulnerabilities Enable Remote Attacks on Windows Endpoints

Alert: New Kubernetes Vulnerabilities Enable Remote Attacks on Windows Endpoints

Sep 13, 2023 Kubernetes / Cloud Security
Three interrelated high-severity security flaws discovered in Kubernetes could be exploited to achieve remote code execution with elevated privileges on Windows endpoints within a cluster. The  issues , tracked as CVE-2023-3676, CVE-2023-3893, and CVE-2023-3955, carry CVSS scores of 8.8 and impact all Kubernetes environments with Windows nodes. Fixes for the vulnerabilities were  released  on August 23, 2023, following responsible disclosure by Akamai on July 13, 2023. "The vulnerability allows remote code execution with SYSTEM privileges on all Windows endpoints within a Kubernetes cluster," Akamai security researcher Tomer Peled said in a technical write-up shared with The Hacker News. "To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker needs to apply a malicious YAML file on the cluster." Amazon Web Services  (AWS),  Google Cloud , and  Microsoft Azure  have all released advisories for the bugs, which affect the following versions of Kubelet - kubelet < v1.28
Cybercriminals Weaponizing Legitimate Advanced Installer Tool in Crypto-Mining Attacks

Cybercriminals Weaponizing Legitimate Advanced Installer Tool in Crypto-Mining Attacks

Sep 09, 2023 Malware / Hacking
A legitimate Windows tool used for creating software packages called Advanced Installer is being abused by threat actors to drop cryptocurrency-mining malware on infected machines since at least November 2021. "The attacker uses  Advanced Installer  to package other legitimate software installers, such as Adobe Illustrator, Autodesk 3ds Max, and SketchUp Pro, with malicious scripts and uses Advanced Installer's Custom Actions feature to make the software installers execute the malicious scripts," Cisco Talos researcher Chetan Raghuprasad  said  in a technical report. The nature of the applications trojanized indicates that the victims likely span architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, and entertainment sectors. The software installers predominantly use the French language, a sign that French-speaking users are being singled out. This  campaign  is strategic in that these industries rely on computers with high Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) power for t
This Malware Turned Thousands of Hacked Windows and macOS PCs into Proxy Servers

This Malware Turned Thousands of Hacked Windows and macOS PCs into Proxy Servers

Aug 21, 2023 Malware / Privacy
Threat actors are leveraging access to malware-infected Windows and macOS machines to deliver a proxy server application and use them as exit nodes to reroute proxy requests. According to AT&T Alien Labs, the unnamed company that offers the proxy service operates more than 400,000 proxy exit nodes, although it's not immediately clear how many of them were co-opted by malware installed on infected machines without user knowledge and interaction. "Although the proxy website claims that its exit nodes come only from users who have been informed and agreed to the use of their device," the cybersecurity company  said  it found evidence where "malware writers are installing the proxy silently in infected systems." Multiple malware families have been observed delivering the proxy to users searching for cracked software and games. The proxy software, written in the Go programming language, is capable of targeting both Windows and macOS, with the former capable o
NoFilter Attack: Sneaky Privilege Escalation Method Bypasses Windows Security

NoFilter Attack: Sneaky Privilege Escalation Method Bypasses Windows Security

Aug 17, 2023 Endpoint Security / Vulnerability
A previously undetected attack method called  NoFilter  has been found to abuse the Windows Filtering Platform ( WFP ) to achieve privilege escalation in the Windows operating system. "If an attacker has the ability to execute code with admin privilege and the target is to perform  LSASS Shtinkering , these privileges are not enough," Ron Ben Yizhak, a security researcher at Deep Instinct, told The Hacker News. "Running as "NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM" is required. The techniques described in this research can escalate from admin to SYSTEM." The  findings  were presented at the DEF CON security conference over the weekend. The starting point of the  research  is an in-house tool called RPC Mapper the cybersecurity company used to map remote procedure call ( RPC ) methods, specifically those that invoke  WinAPI , leading to the discovery of a method named "BfeRpcOpenToken," which is part of WFP. WFP is a  set of API and system services  that's
Experts Uncover Weaknesses in PowerShell Gallery Enabling Supply Chain Attacks

Experts Uncover Weaknesses in PowerShell Gallery Enabling Supply Chain Attacks

Aug 16, 2023 Windows Security / Supply Chain
Active flaws in the PowerShell Gallery could be weaponized by threat actors to pull off supply chain attacks against the registry's users. "These flaws make typosquatting attacks inevitable in this registry, while also making it extremely difficult for users to identify the true owner of a package," Aqua security researchers Mor Weinberger, Yakir Kadkoda, and Ilay Goldman said in a report shared with The Hacker News. Maintained by Microsoft,  PowerShell Gallery  is a  central repository  for sharing and acquiring PowerShell code, including PowerShell modules, scripts, and Desired State Configuration (DSC) resources. The registry boasts of 11,829 unique packages and 244,615 packages in total. The issues identified by the cloud security firm have to do with the service's lax policy surrounding package names, lacking protections against typosquatting attacks, as a result enabling attackers to upload malicious PowerShell modules that appear genuine to unsuspecting us
Iranian Hackers' Sophisticated Malware Targets Windows and macOS Users

Iranian Hackers' Sophisticated Malware Targets Windows and macOS Users

Jul 06, 2023 Endpoint Security / Malware
The Iranian nation-state actor known as TA453 has been linked to a new set of spear-phishing attacks that infect both Windows and macOS operating systems with malware. "TA453 eventually used a variety of cloud hosting providers to deliver a novel infection chain that deploys the newly identified PowerShell backdoor GorjolEcho," Proofpoint  said  in a new report. "When given the opportunity, TA453 ported its malware and attempted to launch an Apple flavored infection chain dubbed NokNok. TA453 also employed  multi-persona impersonation  in its unending espionage quest." TA453, also known by the names APT35, Charming Kitten, Mint Sandstorm, and Yellow Garuda, is a threat group linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that has been active since at least 2011. Most recently, Volexity highlighted the adversary's use of an updated version of a Powershell implant called  CharmPower  (aka GhostEcho or POWERSTAR). In the attack sequence discove
Microsoft Releases Updates to Patch Critical Flaws in Windows and Other Software

Microsoft Releases Updates to Patch Critical Flaws in Windows and Other Software

Jun 14, 2023 Patch Tuesday / Vulnerability
Microsoft has rolled out fixes for its Windows operating system and other software components to remediate major security shortcomings as part of  Patch Tuesday updates  for June 2023. Of the 73 flaws, six are rated Critical, 63 are rated Important, two are rated Moderate, and one is rated Low in severity. This also includes three issues the tech giant addressed in its Chromium-based Edge browser. It's worth noting that Microsoft also closed out  26 other flaws  in Edge – all of them rooted in Chromium itself – since the release of May Patch Tuesday updates. This comprises  CVE-2023-3079 , a zero-day bug that Google disclosed as being actively exploited in the wild last week. The June 2023 updates also mark the first time in several months that doesn't feature any zero-day flaw in Microsoft products that's publicly known or under active attack at the time of release. Topping the list of fixes is  CVE-2023-29357  (CVSS score: 9.8), a privilege escalation flaw in ShareP
3CX Supply Chain Attack — Here's What We Know So Far

3CX Supply Chain Attack — Here's What We Know So Far

Mar 31, 2023 Cyber Threat / Supply Chain Attack
Enterprise communications software maker 3CX on Thursday confirmed that multiple versions of its desktop app for Windows and macOS are affected by a  supply chain attack . The version numbers include  18.12.407 and 18.12.416  for Windows and  18.11.1213, 18.12.402, 18.12.407, and 18.12.416  for macOS. The issue has been assigned the CVE identifier CVE-2023-29059 . The company said it's engaging the services of Google-owned Mandiant to review the incident. In the interim, it's urging its customers of self-hosted and on-premise versions of the software to update to version 18.12.422. "3CX Hosted and StartUP users do not need to update their servers as we will be updating them over the night automatically," 3CX CEO Nick Galea  said  in a blog post. "Servers will be restarted and the new Electron App MSI/DMG will be installed on the server." Evidence available so far points to either a compromise of 3CX's software build pipeline to distribute Windows an
Microsoft Issues Patch for aCropalypse Privacy Flaw in Windows Screenshot Tools

Microsoft Issues Patch for aCropalypse Privacy Flaw in Windows Screenshot Tools

Mar 27, 2023 Privacy / Windows Security
Microsoft has released an out-of-band update to address a privacy-defeating flaw in its screenshot editing tool for Windows 10 and Windows 11. The  issue , dubbed  aCropalypse , could enable malicious actors to recover edited portions of screenshots, potentially revealing sensitive information that may have been cropped out. Tracked as  CVE-2023-28303 , the vulnerability is rated 3.3 on the CVSS scoring system. It affects both the Snip & Sketch app on Windows 10 and the Snipping Tool on Windows 11. "The severity of this vulnerability is Low because successful exploitation requires uncommon user interaction and several factors outside of an attacker's control," Microsoft  said  in an advisory released on March 24, 2023. Successful exploitation requires that the following two prerequisites are met - The user must take a screenshot, save it to a file, modify the file (for example, crop it), and then save the modified file to the same location. The user must open
Researchers Release PoC Exploit for Windows CryptoAPI Bug Discovered by NSA

Researchers Release PoC Exploit for Windows CryptoAPI Bug Discovered by NSA

Jan 26, 2023 Encryption / Windows Security
Proof-of-concept (Poc) code has been released for a now-patched high-severity security flaw in the Windows CryptoAPI that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and the U.K. National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) reported to Microsoft last year. Tracked as  CVE-2022-34689  (CVSS score: 7.5), the spoofing vulnerability was addressed by the tech giant as part of Patch Tuesday updates released in August 2022, but was only publicly disclosed two months later on October 11, 2022. "An attacker could manipulate an existing public  x.509 certificate  to spoof their identity and perform actions such as authentication or code signing as the targeted certificate," Microsoft  said  in an advisory released at the time. The  Windows CryptoAPI  offers an interface for developers to add cryptographic services such as encryption/decryption of data and authentication using digital certificates to their applications. Web security company Akamai, which  released  the PoC,  said  CVE-2022-
Microsoft Issues January 2023 Patch Tuesday Updates, Warns of Zero-Day Exploit

Microsoft Issues January 2023 Patch Tuesday Updates, Warns of Zero-Day Exploit

Jan 11, 2023 Patch Management / Endpoint Security
The first Patch Tuesday fixes shipped by Microsoft for 2023 have addressed a total of  98 security flaws , including one bug that the company said is being actively exploited in the wild. 11 of the 98 issues are rated Critical and 87 are rated Important in severity, with one of the vulnerabilities also listed as publicly known at the time of release. Separately, the Windows maker is expected to release updates for its Chromium-based Edge browser.  The vulnerability that's under attack relates to  CVE-2023-21674  (CVSS score: 8.8), a privilege escalation flaw in Windows Advanced Local Procedure Call ( ALPC ) that could be exploited by an attacker to gain SYSTEM permissions. "This vulnerability could lead to a browser sandbox escape," Microsoft noted in an advisory, crediting Avast researchers Jan Vojtěšek, Milánek, and Przemek Gmerek for reporting the bug. While details of the vulnerability are still under wraps, a successful exploit requires an attacker to have alrea
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