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Update (22 June 2019)  — More technical details and proof-of-concept for the OutLook for Android vulnerability has been released that we have covered in a separate article here. Microsoft today released an updated version of its "Outlook for Android" that patches an important security vulnerability in the popular email app that is currently being used over 100 million users. According to an advisory , Outlook app with versions before 3.0.88 for Android contains a stored cross-site scripting vulnerability ( CVE-2019-1105 ) in the way the app parses incoming email messages. If exploited, remote attackers can execute malicious in-app client-side code on the targeted devices just by sending them emails with a specially crafted message. "The attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could then perform cross-site scripting attacks on the affected systems and run scripts in the security context of the current user." According to Microsoft, the fl...

At its developer conference held earlier this week in New York, the MongoDB team announced the latest version of its database management software that includes a variety of advanced features, including Field Level Encryption, Distributed Transactions, and Wildcard Indexes. The newly introduced Field Level Encryption (FLE), which will be available in the upcoming MongoDB 4.2 release, is an end-to-end encryption feature that encrypts and decrypts sensitive users' data on the client-side, preventing hackers from accessing plaintext data even if the database instance left exposed online or the server itself gets compromised. Almost every website, app, and service on the Internet today usually encrypt (particularly "hashing") only users' passwords before storing them into the databases, but unfortunately left other sensitive information unencrypted, including users' online activity data and their personal information. Moreover, even if there is an encryption...

Important Update (21 June 2019) ➤  The Tor Project on Friday released second update ( Tor Browser 8.5.3 ) for its privacy web-browser that patches the another Firefox zero-day vulnerability patched this week. Following the latest critical update for Firefox, the Tor Project today released an updated version of its anonymity and privacy browser to patch the same Firefox vulnerability in its bundle. Earlier this week, Mozilla released Firefox 67.0.3 and Firefox ESR 60.7.1 versions to patch a critical actively-exploited vulnerability ( CVE-2019-11707 ) that could allow attackers to remotely take full control over systems running the vulnerable browser versions. Besides updating Firefox, the latest Tor Browser 8.5.2 for desktops also includes updated NoScript version 10.6.3 that fixes a few known issues. According to the Tor Project Team, if you are already using Tor browser with "safer" and "safest" security levels, the flaw doesn't affect you. For som...

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...

In today's business environment, data is what matters most. It matters to organizations that monetize it into operational insights and optimisations, and it matters the threat actors that relentlessly seek to achieve similar monetisation by compromising it. In the very common scenario in which organisation A provides services to organization B, it's imperative for the latter to be absolutely sure that the former handles its data in the most secure way. While there's no one-size-fits-all in cybersecurity, there are various frameworks that provide robust guidelines for organizations to see if the security controls in place indeed address their needs. NIST cybersecurity framework is a good example of such guidelines. There are industry specific standards, such as HIPPA for healthcare and PCI-DSS for credit card processing. However, in recent years, SOC 2 is gaining momentum in the US as a general standard for all organizations that store or process data for consumers and busi...

Oracle has released an out-of-band emergency software update to patch a newly discovered critical vulnerability in the WebLogic Server. According to Oracle, the vulnerability—which can be identified as CVE-2019-2729 and has a CVSS score of 9.8 out of 10—is already being exploited in the wild by an unnamed group of attackers. Oracle WebLogic is a Java-based multi-tier enterprise application server that allows businesses to quickly deploy new products and services on the cloud, which is popular across both, cloud environment and conventional environments. The reported vulnerability is a deserialization issue via XMLDecoder in Oracle WebLogic Server Web Services that could allow unauthorized remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on the targeted servers and take control over them. "This remote code execution vulnerability is remotely exploitable without authentication, i.e., may be exploited over a network without the need for a username and password," the advisor...

Important Update [21 June 2019] — Mozilla on Thursday released another update Firefox version 67.0.4 to patch a second zero-day vulnerability. If you use the Firefox web browser, you need to update it right now. Mozilla earlier today released Firefox 67.0.3 and Firefox ESR 60.7.1 versions to patch a critical zero-day vulnerability in the browsing software that hackers have been found exploiting in the wild. Discovered and reported by Samuel Groß, a cybersecurity researcher at Google Project Zero, the vulnerability could allow attackers to remotely execute arbitrary code on machines running vulnerable Firefox versions and take full control of them. The vulnerability, identified as CVE-2019-11707 , affects anyone who uses Firefox on desktop (Windows, macOS, and Linux) — whereas, Firefox for Android, iOS, and Amazon Fire TV are not affected. According to an advisory , the flaw has been labeled as a type confusion vulnerability in Firefox that can result in an exploitable ...

Cybersecurity isn't easy. If there was a product or service you could buy that would just magically solve all of your cybersecurity problems, everyone would buy that thing, and we could all rest easy. However, that is not the way it works. Technology continues to evolve. Cyber attackers adapt and develop new malicious tools and techniques, and cybersecurity vendors design creative new ways to detect and block those threats. Rinse and repeat. Cybersecurity isn't easy, and there is no magic solution, but there are a handful of things you can do that will greatly reduce your exposure to risk and significantly improve your security posture. The right platform, intelligence, and expertise can help you avoid the vast majority of threats, and help you detect and respond more quickly to the attacks that get through. Challenges of Cybersecurity Effective cybersecurity is challenging for a variety of reasons, but the changing perimeter and the confusing variety of solution...

Cybersecurity researchers have released an updated version of GandCrab ransomware decryption tool that could allow millions of affected users to unlock their encrypted files for free without paying a ransom to the cybercriminals. GandCrab is one of the most prolific families of ransomware to date that has infected over 1.5 million computers since it first emerged in January 2018. Created by BitDefender, the new GandCrab decryption tool [ download ] can now unlock files encrypted by the latest versions of the ransomware, from 5.0 to 5.2, as well as for the older GandCrab ransomware versions. As part of the " No More Ransom " Project, BitDefender works in partnership with the FBI, Europol, London Police, and several other law enforcement agencies across the globe to help ransomware affected users. The cybersecurity company in recent months released ransomware removal tools for some older GandCrab versions that helped nearly 30,000 victims recover their data for free,...

Cybersecurity researchers discover a critical flaw in the popular Evernote Chrome extension that could have allowed hackers to hijack your browser and steal sensitive information from any website you accessed. Evernote is a popular service that helps people taking notes and organize their to-do task lists, and over 4,610,000 users have been using its Evernote Web Clipper Extension for Chrome browser. Discovered by Guardio, the vulnerability ( CVE-2019-12592 ) resided in the ways Evernote Web Clipper extension interacts with websites, iframes and inject scripts, eventually breaking the browser's same-origin policy (SOP) and domain-isolation mechanisms. According to researchers, the vulnerability could allow an attacker-controlled website to execute arbitrary code on the browser in the context of other domains on behalf of users, leading to a Universal Cross-site Scripting (UXSS or Universal XSS) issue. "A full exploit that would allow loading a remote hacker contr...

Telegram, one of the most popular encrypted messaging app, briefly went offline yesterday for hundreds of thousands of users worldwide after a powerful distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack hit its servers. Telegram founder Pavel Durov later revealed that the attack was mainly coming from the IP addresses located in China, suggesting the Chinese government could be behind it to sabotage Hong Kong protesters. Since last week, millions of people in Hong Kong are fighting their political leaders over the proposed amendments to an extradition law that would allow a person arrested in Hong Kong to face trial elsewhere, including in mainland China. Many people see it as a fundamental threat to the territory's civic freedoms and the rule of law. Many people in Hong Kong are currently using Telegram's encrypted messaging service to communicate without being spied on, organize the protest, and alert each other about activities on the ground. According to Telegram, th...

Real-time visibility into IT assets and activities introduces speed and efficiency to many critical productivity and security tasks organizations are struggling with—from conventional asset inventory reporting to proactive elimination of exposed attack surfaces. However, gaining such visibility is often highly resource consuming and entails manual integration of various feeds. Cynet is now offering end-users and service providers free access to its end-to-end visibility capabilities . The offering consists of 14 days access to the Cynet 360 platform, during which users can gain full visibility into their IT environment—host configurations, installed software, user account activities, password hygiene, and network traffic. "When we built the Cynet 360 platform we identified a critical need for a single-source-of-truth interface where you get all the knowledge regarding what exists in the environment and what activities take place there," said Eyal Gruner, Cynet fou...

In April this year, a software update from Google overnight turned all Android phones , running Android 7.0 Nougat and up, into a FIDO-certified hardware security key as part of a push to encourage two-step verification. The feature made it possible for users to confirm their identity when logging into a Google account more effortless and secure, without separately managing and plugging-in a Yubico's YubiKey or Google's Titan key . "FIDO security keys provide the strongest protection against automated bots, bulk phishing, and targeted attacks by leveraging public key cryptography to verify your identity and URL of the login page, so that an attacker can't access your account even if you are tricked into providing your username and password," Google said . Android's security key feature until now was only compatible with Bluetooth-enabled Chrome OS, macOS, or Windows 10 devices over the Chrome browser. However, the latest update from Google now allow...

A new threat has hit head the headlines ( Robinhood anyone?), and you need to know if you're protected right now. What do you do? Traditionally, you would have to go with one of the options below. Option 1 – Manually check that IoCs have been updated across your security controls. This would require checking that security controls such as your email gateway, web gateway, and endpoint security have all been updated with the latest threats' indicators of compromise (IoCs) usually published by AV companies who detect the malware binaries first. Option 2 – Create a 'carbon copy' of your network and run the threat's binary on that copy. While safe, IT and security teams may be unaware of certain variations from the real deal. So while the attack simulation is running against an 'ideal' copy, your real network may have undergone inadvertent changes, such as a firewall running in monitoring mode, a patch not being installed on time, and other unintent...

A team of cybersecurity researchers yesterday revealed details of a new side-channel attack on dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) that could allow malicious programs installed on a modern system to read sensitive memory data from other processes running on the same hardware. Dubbed RAMBleed and identified as CVE-2019-0174 , the new attack is based on a well-known class of DRAM side channel attack called Rowhammer , various variants [ GLitch , RAMpage , Throwhammer ,  Nethammer , Drammer ] of which have been demonstrated by researchers in recent years. Known since 2012, Rowhammer bug is a hardware reliability issue that was found in the new generation of DRAM chips. It turned out that repeatedly and rapidly accessing (hammering) a row of memory can cause bit flips in adjacent rows, i.e., changing their bit values from 0 to 1 or vice-versa. In the following years, researchers also demonstrated successful exploits to achieve privilege escalation on the vulnerable computers...

After Adobe , the technology giant Microsoft today—on June 2019 Patch Tuesday—also released its monthly batch of software security updates for various supported versions of Windows operating systems and other Microsoft products. This month's security updates include patches for a total of 88 vulnerabilities, 21 are rated Critical, 66 are Important, and one is rated Moderate in severity. The June 2019 updates include patches Windows OS, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge browser, Microsoft Office and Services, ChakraCore, Skype for Business, Microsoft Lync, Microsoft Exchange Server, and Azure. Four of the security vulnerabilities, all rated important and could allow attackers to escalate privileges, patched by the tech giant this month were disclosed publicly, of which none were found exploited in the wild. Unpatched Issue Reported by Google Researcher However, Microsoft failed to patch a minor flaw in SymCrypt , a core cryptographic function library currently used by ...

It's Patch Tuesday week! Adobe has just released the latest June 2019 software updates to address a total 11 security vulnerabilities in its three widely-used products Adobe ColdFusion, Flash Player, and Adobe Campaign. Out of these, three vulnerabilities affect Adobe ColdFusion, a commercial rapid web application development platform—all critical in severity—that could lead to arbitrary code execution attacks. Here below you can find brief information about all newly patched ColdFusion flaws : CVE-2019-7838 — This vulnerability has been categorized as "File extension blacklist bypass" and can be exploited if the file uploads directory is web accessible. CVE-2019-7839 — There's a command injection vulnerability in ColdFusion 2016 and 2018 editions, but it does not impact ColdFusion version 11. CVE-2019-7840 — This flaw originates from the deserialization of untrusted data and also leads to arbitrary code execution on the system. Besides ColdFusion...

Security researchers have been warning about a critical vulnerability they discovered in one of a popular WordPress Live Chat plugin, which, if exploited, could allow unauthorized remote attackers to steal chat logs or manipulate chat sessions. The vulnerability, identified as CVE-2019-12498, resides in the "WP Live Chat Support" that is currently being used by over 50,000 businesses to provide customer support and chat with visitors through their websites. Discovered by cybersecurity researchers at Alert Logic , the flaw originates because of an improper validation check for authentication that apparently could allow unauthenticated users to access restricted REST API endpoints. As described by researchers, a potential remote attacker can exploit exposed endpoints for malicious purposes, including: stealing the entire chat history for all chat sessions, modifying or deleting the chat history, injecting messages into an active chat session, posing as a custome...

Linux users, beware! If you haven't recently updated your Linux operating system, especially the command-line text editor utility, do not even try to view the content of a file using Vim or Neovim. Security researcher Armin Razmjou recently discovered a high-severity arbitrary OS command execution vulnerability (CVE-2019-12735) in Vim and Neovim —two most popular and powerful command-line text editing applications that come pre-installed with most Linux-based operating systems. On Linux systems, Vim editor allows users to create, view or edit any file, including text, programming scripts, and documents. Since Neovim is just an extended forked version of Vim, with better user experience, plugins and GUIs, the code execution vulnerability also resides in it. Code Execution Flaw in Vim and Neovim Razmjou discovered a flaw in the way Vim editor handles "modelines," a feature that's enabled-by-default to automatically find and apply a set of custom pref...

An anonymous security researcher going by the name of SandboxEscaper today publicly shared a second zero-day exploit that can be used to bypass a recently patched elevation of privilege vulnerability in the Microsoft Windows operating system. SandboxEscaper is known for publicly dropping zero-day exploits for unpatched Windows vulnerabilities. In the past year, the hacker has disclosed over half a dozen zero-day vulnerabilities in Windows OS without actually bothering to make Microsoft aware of the issues first. Just two weeks ago, the hacker disclosed four new Windows exploits , one of which was an exploit that could allow attackers to bypass a patched elevation of privilege vulnerability (CVE-2019-0841) in Windows that existed when Windows AppX Deployment Service (AppXSVC) improperly handles hard links. Now, the hacker claims to have found a new way to bypass Microsoft security patch for the same vulnerability, allowing a specially crafted malicious application to escalate its ...

Security researchers have discovered an ongoing sophisticated botnet campaign that is currently brute-forcing more than 1.5 million publicly accessible Windows RDP servers on the Internet. Dubbed GoldBrute , the botnet scheme has been designed in a way to escalate gradually by adding every new cracked system to its network, forcing them to further find new available RDP servers and then brute force them. To fly under the radar of security tools and malware analysts, attackers behind this campaign command each infected machine to target millions of servers with a unique set of username and password combination so that a targeted server receives brute force attempts from different IP addresses. The campaign, discovered  by Renato Marinho at Morphus Labs, works as shown in the illustrated image, and its modus operandi has been explained in the following steps: Step 1 — After successfully brute-forcing an RDP server, the attacker installs a JAVA-based GoldBrute botnet malw...