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Hold tight, this may blow your mind… A low-privileged user account on most Linux operating systems with UID value anything greater than 2147483647 can execute any systemctl command unauthorizedly—thanks to a newly discovered vulnerability. The reported vulnerability actually resides in PolicyKit (also known as polkit)—an application-level toolkit for Unix-like operating systems that defines policies, handles system-wide privileges and provides a way for non-privileged processes to communicate with privileged ones, such as "sudo," that does not grant root permission to an entire process. The issue, tracked as CVE-2018-19788 , impacts PolicyKit version 0.115 which comes pre-installed on most popular Linux distributions, including Red Hat , Debian ,  Ubuntu , and CentOS. The vulnerability exists due to PolicyKit's improper validation of permission requests for any low-privileged user with UID greater than INT_MAX. Where, INT_MAX is a constant in computer progra...

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new zero-day vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player that hackers are actively exploiting in the wild as part of a targeted campaign appears to be attacking a Russian state health care institution. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2018-15982 , is a use-after-free flaw resides in Flash Player that, if exploited successfully, allows an attacker to execute arbitrary code on the targeted computer and eventually gain full control over the system. The newly discovered Flash Player zero-day exploit was spotted last week by researchers inside malicious Microsoft Office documents, which were submitted to online multi-engine malware scanning service VirusTotal from a Ukrainian IP address. The maliciously crafted Microsoft Office documents contain an embedded Flash Active X control in its header that renders when the targeted user opens it, causing exploitation of the reported Flash player vulnerability. According to cybersecurity researchers, neit...

Developers around the world depend on open source components to build their software products. According to industry estimates, open source components account for 60-80% of the code base in modern applications. Collaboration on open source projects throughout the community produces stronger code, squashing the bugs and catching the vulnerabilities that impact the security of organizations who look to open source components as the key to their application building success. Thanks in part to the "thousand eyeballs" of the community, the number of reported vulnerabilities in open source projects is on the rise, spiking 51% in 2017 from the previous year. This is even more concerning since, as shown in the same study, most vulnerabilities are found in popular projects. Data shows that 32% of the top 100 open source projects have at least one vulnerability, meaning that developers have their work cut out for them, no matter which components they are using in their products....

SaaS Adoption is Skyrocketing, Resilience Hasn't Kept Pace SaaS platforms have revolutionized how businesses operate. They simplify collaboration, accelerate deployment, and reduce the overhead of managing infrastructure. But with their rise comes a subtle, dangerous assumption: that the convenience of SaaS extends to resilience. It doesn't. These platforms weren't built with full-scale data protection in mind . Most follow a shared responsibility model — wherein the provider ensures uptime and application security, but the data inside is your responsibility. In a world of hybrid architectures, global teams, and relentless cyber threats, that responsibility is harder than ever to manage. Modern organizations are being stretched across: Hybrid and multi-cloud environments with decentralized data sprawl Complex integration layers between IaaS, SaaS, and legacy systems Expanding regulatory pressure with steeper penalties for noncompliance Escalating ransomware threats and inside...

Looking for an automated malware analysis software? Something like a 1-click solution that doesn't require any installation or configuration…a platform that can scale up your research time… technology that can provide data-driven explanations… well, your search is over! Israeli cybersecurity and malware researchers today at Black Hat conference launch a revolutionary machine learning and artificial intelligence-powered malware researcher platform that aims to help users identify unknown malware samples before they strike. Dubbed SNDBOX , the free online automated malware analysis system allows anyone to upload a file and access its static, dynamic and network analysis in an easy-to-understand graphical interface. The loss due to malware attacks is reported to be more than $10 billion every year, and it's increasing. Despite the significant improvement of cyber security mechanisms, malware is still a powerful and effective tool used by hackers to compromise systems because of...

A new piece of ransomware is spreading rapidly across China that has already infected more than 100,000 computers in the last four days as a result of a supply-chain attack... and the number of infected users is continuously increasing every hour. What's Interesting? Unlike almost every ransomware malware, the new virus doesn't demand ransom payments in Bitcoin. Instead, the attacker is asking victims to pay 110 yuan (nearly USD 16) in ransom through WeChat Pay—the payment feature offered by China's most popular messaging app. Ransomware + Password Stealer — Unlike WannaCry and NotPetya ransomware outbreaks that caused worldwide chaos last year, the new Chinese ransomware has been targeting only Chinese users. It also includes an additional ability to steal users' account passwords for Alipay, NetEase 163 email service, Baidu Cloud Disk, Jingdong (JD.com), Taobao, Tmall , AliWangWang, and QQ websites. A Supply Chain Attack — According to Chinese cybers...

It is no secret how miserably Microsoft's 3-year-old Edge web browser has failed to compete against Google Chrome despite substantial investment and continuous improvements. According to the latest round of tech rumors, Microsoft has given up on Edge and reportedly building a new Chromium -based web browser, dubbed project codename " Anaheim " internally, that will replace Edge on Windows 10 operating system as its new default browser, a journalist at WindowsCentral learned. Though there is no mention of Project Anaheim on the Microsoft website as of now (except Anaheim Convention Center at California), many speculate that the new built-in browser could appear in the 19H1 development cycle of Microsoft's Insider Preview program. According to the report, the new browser will be powered by Blink rendering engine used by Chromium, one that also powers Google's Chrome browser, instead of Microsoft's own EdgeHTML engine. Chromium is an open-source Web b...

The World's most popular question-and-answer website Quora has suffered a massive data breach with unknown hackers gaining unauthorized access to potentially sensitive personal information of about 100 million of its users. Quora announced the incident late Monday after its team last Friday discovered that an unidentified malicious third-party managed to gain unauthorized access to one of its systems and stole data on approximately 100 million users—that's almost half of its entire user base. According to Adam D'Angelo, the chief executive officer and co-founder of Quora, the personal user information compromised in the breach includes: Account information , such as names, email addresses, encrypted (hashed) passwords, and data imported from linked social networks like Facebook and Twitter when authorized by users. Public content and actions , like questions, answers, comments, and upvotes. Non-public content and actions , including answer requests, downvotes, ...

It seems as though not a day goes by without news spreading over another major cyber attack. Hackers are becoming increasingly efficient at targeting everything from small startups to Fortune 500 companies and even entire government agencies, and as the world moves further away from traditional types of warfare and more toward engaging in all-out cyber warfare, these attacks are only going to grow in terms of scope and intensity. While it may sound a bit counterintuitive, the only person who can stop a hacker is another hacker. Known as ethical or "white hat" hackers, these cyber warfare professionals are called upon to anticipate, thwart, and retaliate against a wide range of sophisticated cyber attacks, and their services are in high-demand across virtually every industry. The Complete Online Ethical Hacking Training Course The Computer Hacker Professional Certification Package will help you earn the credentials you need to join the exciting and increasingly ...

This may sound crazy, but it's true! The war for "most-subscribed Youtube channel" crown between T-Series and PewDiePie just took an interesting turn after a hacker yesterday hijacked more than 50,000 internet-connected printers worldwide to print out flyers asking everyone to subscribe to PewDiePie YouTube channel. PewDiePie, whose real name is Felix Kjellberg, is a famous YouTuber from Sweden known for his game commentary and pranks and has had the most subscribers on YouTube since 2013. However, the channel owned by Bollywood record label T-Series has been catching up in recent months, and now both are hovering around 72.5 million YouTube subscribers. From this fear that PewDiePie won't remain the number one most-subscribed YouTuber in the world, an anonymous hacker (probably his die-hard fan) with the Twitter username " TheHackerGiraffe " came up with a hackish idea. TheHackerGiraffe scanned the Internet to find the list of vulnerable printers...

The world's biggest hotel chain Marriott International today disclosed that unknown hackers compromised guest reservation database its subsidiary Starwood hotels and walked away with personal details of about 500 million guests. Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide was acquired by Marriott International for $13 billion in 2016. The brand includes St. Regis, Sheraton Hotels & Resorts, W Hotels, Westin Hotels & Resorts, Aloft Hotels, Tribute Portfolio, Element Hotels, Le Méridien Hotels & Resorts, The Luxury Collection, Four Points by Sheraton and Design Hotels. The incident is believed to be one of the largest data breaches in history, behind 2016 Yahoo hacking in which nearly 3 billion user accounts were stolen. The breach of Starwood properties has been happening since 2014 after an "unauthorized party" managed to gain unauthorized access to the Starwood's guest reservation database, and had copied and encrypted the information. Marriott dis...

Multinational computer technology company Dell disclosed Wednesday that its online electronics marketplace experienced a "cybersecurity incident" earlier this month when an unknown group of hackers infiltrated its internal network. On November 9, Dell detected and disrupted unauthorized activity on its network attempting to steal customer information, including their names, email addresses and hashed passwords. According to the company, the initial investigation found no conclusive evidence that the hackers succeeded to extract any information, but as a countermeasure Dell has reset passwords for all accounts on Dell.com website whether the data had been stolen or not. Dell did not share any information on how hackers managed to infiltrate its network at the first place or how many user accounts were affected, but the company did confirm that payment information and Social Security numbers were not targeted. "Credit card and other sensitive customer information...

The Department of Justice announced Wednesday charges against two Iranian nationals for their involvement in creating and deploying the notorious SamSam ransomware. The alleged hackers, Faramarz Shahi Savandi, 34, and Mohammad Mehdi Shah, 27, have been charged on several counts of computer hacking and fraud charges, the indictment unsealed today at New Jersey court revealed. The duo used SamSam ransomware to extort over $6 million in ransom payments since 2015, and also caused more than $30 million in damages to over 200 victims, including hospitals , municipalities, and public institutions. According to the indictment, Savandi and Mansouri have been charged with a total of six counts, including one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit fraud and related activity in connection with computers, two counts of intentional damage to a protected computer, and two counts of transmitting a demand in relation to damaging a protected computer. Si...