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Organizations today must give attention to their cybersecurity posture, including policies, procedures, and technical solutions for cybersecurity challenges.  This often results in a greater burden on the IT service desk staff as end-users encounter issues related to security software, policies, and password restrictions.  One of the most common areas where security may cause challenges for end-users is password policies and password changes. What are these issues? How can organizations reduce end-user password change frustration? First, let's consider the standard password policy, its role, and general settings affecting end-users. What are password policies? Most organizations today have a password policy in place. So, what is a password policy? Password policies define the types and content of passwords allowed or required of end-users in an identity and access management system. Various aspects of the password that businesses control may include the password's require...

Oracle on Tuesday released its quarterly  Critical Patch Update for July 2021  with 342 fixes spanning across multiple products, some of which could be exploited by a remote attacker to take control of an affected system. Chief among them is  CVE-2019-2729 , a critical deserialization vulnerability via XMLDecoder in Oracle WebLogic Server Web Services that's remotely exploitable without authentication. It's worth noting that the weakness was originally addressed as part of an  out-of-band security update  in June 2019. Oracle WebLogic Server is an application server that functions as a platform for developing, deploying, and running enterprise Java-based applications. The flaw, which is rated 9.8 out of a maximum of 10 on the CVSS severity scale, affects WebLogic Server versions 11.1.2.4 and 11.2.5.0 and exists within the Oracle Hyperion Infrastructure Technology. Also fixed in WebLogic Server are six other flaws, three of which have been assigned a CVSS s...

A U.K. citizen has been arrested in the Spanish town of Estepona over his alleged involvement in the July 2020 hack of Twitter, resulting in the compromise of 130 high-profile accounts. Joseph O'Connor , 22, has been  charged  with intentionally accessing a computer without authorization and obtaining information from a protected computer, as well as for making extortive communications. The Spanish National Police made the arrest pursuant to a U.S. warrant. Besides his role in the Twitter hack, O'Connor is also charged with computer intrusions related to takeovers of TikTok and Snapchat user accounts and cyberstalking an unnamed juvenile victim. The  great Twitter hack  of July 15, 2020, emerged as one of the biggest security lapses in the social media platform's history after O'Connor, along with  Mason Sheppard, Nima Fazeli, and Graham Ivan Clark , managed to gain access to Twitter's internal tools, abusing it to breach the accounts of politicians, celebr...

A software package available from the official NPM repository has been revealed to be actually a front for a tool that's designed to steal saved passwords from the Chrome web browser. The package in question, named " nodejs_net_server " and downloaded over 1,283 times since February 2019, was last updated seven months ago (version 1.1.2), with its corresponding repository leading to non-existent locations hosted on GitHub.  "It isn't malicious by itself, but it can be when put into the malicious use context," ReversingLabs researcher Karlo Zanki  said  in an analysis shared with The Hacker News. "For instance, this package uses it to perform malicious password stealing and credential exfiltration. Even though this off-the-shelf password recovery tool comes with a graphical user interface, malware authors like to use it as it can also be run from the command line." While the first version of the package was put out just to test the process of p...

A popular malware known for stealing sensitive information from Windows machines has evolved into a new strain capable of also targeting Apple's macOS operating system. The upgraded malware, dubbed "XLoader," is a successor to another well-known Windows-based info stealer called Formbook that's known to vacuum credentials from various web browsers, capture screenshots, record keystrokes, and download and execute files from attacker-controlled domains. "For as low as $49 on the Darknet, hackers can buy licenses for the new malware, enabling capabilities to harvest log-in credentials, collect screenshots, log keystrokes, and execute malicious files," cybersecurity firm Check Point said in a report shared with The Hacker News. Distributed via spoofed emails containing malicious Microsoft Office documents, XLoader is estimated to infected victims spanning across 69 countries between December 1, 2020, and June 1, 2021, with 53% of the infections reported in...

Cybersecurity researchers on Wednesday disclosed multiple security vulnerabilities impacting CODESYS automation software and the WAGO programmable logic controller (PLC) platform that could be remotely exploited to take control of a company's cloud operational technology (OT) infrastructure. The flaws can be turned "into innovative attacks that could put threat actors in position to remotely control a company's cloud OT implementation, and threaten any industrial process managed from the cloud," the New York-headquartered industrial security company Claroty said in a report shared with The Hacker News, adding they "can be used to target a cloud-based management console from a compromised field device, or take over a company's cloud and attack PLCs and other devices to disrupt operations." CODESYS is a development environment for programming controller applications, enabling easy configuration of PLCs in industrial control systems. WAGO PFC100/200 is...

Today's cybersecurity landscape is enough to make any security team concerned. The rapid evolution and increased danger of attack tactics have put even the largest corporations and governments at heightened risk. If the most elite security teams can't prevent these attacks from happening, what can lean security teams look forward to?  Surprisingly, leaner teams have a much greater chance than they think. It might seem counterintuitive, but recent history has shown that large numbers and huge budgets aren't the difference-makers they once were. Indeed, having the right strategy in place is a clear indicator of an organization's success today. A new guide by XDR provider Cynet ( download it here ) looks to dispel the myth that bigger is always better and shows a smarter way forward for lean IT security teams. The new guide focuses on helping lean IT security teams plan strategies that can protect their organizations while reducing the level of stress they face. Due to the rise of...

Microsoft's Windows 10 and the upcoming Windows 11 versions have been found vulnerable to a new local privilege escalation vulnerability that permits users with low-level permissions access Windows system files, in turn, enabling them to unmask the operating system installation password and even decrypt private keys. The vulnerability has been nicknamed "SeriousSAM." "Starting with Windows 10 build 1809, non-administrative users are granted access to SAM, SYSTEM, and SECURITY registry hive files," CERT Coordination Center (CERT/CC) said in a  vulnerability note  published Monday. "This can allow for local privilege escalation (LPE)." The operating system configuration files in question are as follows - c:\Windows\System32\config\sam c:\Windows\System32\config\system c:\Windows\System32\config\security Microsoft, which is tracking the vulnerability under the identifier  CVE-2021-36934 , acknowledged the issue, but has yet to roll out a patch, o...

Details have emerged about a high severity security vulnerability affecting a software driver used in HP, Xerox, and Samsung printers that has remained undetected since 2005. Tracked as  CVE-2021-3438  (CVSS score: 8.8), the issue concerns a buffer overflow in a print driver installer package named "SSPORT.SYS" that can enable remote privilege and arbitrary code execution. Hundreds of millions of printers have been released worldwide to date with the vulnerable driver in question. However, there is no evidence that the flaw was abused in real-world attacks. "A potential buffer overflow in the software drivers for certain HP LaserJet products and Samsung product printers could lead to an escalation of privilege," according to an advisory published in May. The issue was reported to HP by threat intelligence researchers from SentinelLabs on February 18, 2021, following which  remedies  have been  published  for the affected printers as of May 19, 2021. ...

Cybersecurity researchers on Tuesday lifted the lid on a previously undocumented malware strain dubbed " MosaicLoader " that singles out individuals searching for cracked software as part of a global campaign. "The attackers behind MosaicLoader created a piece of malware that can deliver any payload on the system, making it potentially profitable as a delivery service," Bitdefender researchers said in a  report  shared with The Hacker News. "The malware arrives on target systems by posing as cracked installers. It downloads a malware sprayer that obtains a list of URLs from the C2 server and downloads the payloads from the received links." The malware has been so named because of its sophisticated internal structure that's orchestrated to prevent reverse-engineering and evade analysis. Attacks involving MosaicLoader rely on a well-established tactic for malware delivery called search engine optimization (SEO) poisoning, wherein cybercriminals purc...

The U.S. government and its key allies, including the European Union, the U.K., and NATO, formally attributed the massive cyberattack against Microsoft Exchange email servers to state-sponsored hacking crews working affiliated with the People's Republic of China's Ministry of State Security (MSS). In a  statement  issued by the White House on Monday, the administration said, "with a high degree of confidence that malicious cyber actors affiliated with PRC's MSS conducted cyber-espionage operations utilizing the zero-day vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server disclosed in early March 2021. The U.K. government  accused  Beijing of a "pervasive pattern of hacking" and "systemic cyber sabotage." The  sweeping espionage campaign  exploited four previously undiscovered vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange software and is believed to have hit at least 30,000 organizations in the U.S. and hundreds of thousands more worldwide. Microsoft identified...

A threat group likely based in Romania and active since at least 2020 has been behind an active cryptojacking campaign targeting Linux-based machines with a previously undocumented SSH brute-forcer written in Golang. Dubbed " Diicot brute ," the password cracking tool is alleged to be distributed via a software-as-a-service model, with each threat actor furnishing their own unique API keys to facilitate the intrusions, Bitdefender researchers said in a report published last week. While the goal of the campaign is to deploy Monero mining malware by remotely compromising the devices via brute-force attacks, the researchers connected the gang to at least two  DDoS  botnets, including a  Demonbot  variant called chernobyl and a Perl  IRC bot , with the XMRig mining payload hosted on a domain named mexalz[.]us since February 2021. The Romanian cybersecurity technology company said it began its investigation into the group's hostile online activities in May 2021...

The Wi-Fi network name bug that was found to completely disable an iPhone's networking functionality had remote code execution capabilities and was silently fixed by Apple earlier this year, according to new research. The denial-of-service vulnerability,  which came to light last month , stemmed from the way iOS handled string formats associated with the SSID input, triggering a crash on any up-to-date iPhone that connected to wireless access points with percent symbols in their names such as "%p%s%s%s%s%n." While the issue is remediable by resetting the network settings (Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings), Apple is  expected to push a patch  for the bug in its iOS 14.7 update, which is currently available to developers and public beta testers. But in what could have had far-reaching consequences, researchers from mobile security automation firm ZecOps found that the same bug could be exploited to achieve remote code execution (RCE) on...

According to Keeper Security's Workplace Password Malpractice Report, many remote workers aren't following best practices for password security. Password security was a problem even before the advent of widespread remote work. So, what happened post-pandemic?  Keeper Security's Workplace Password Malpractice Report  sought to find out. In February 2021, Keeper surveyed 1,000 employees in the U.S. about their work-related password habits -- and discovered that a lot of remote workers are letting password security go by the wayside. Here are 5 critical password security rules they're ignoring. 1 — Always use strong passwords Strong passwords are at least eight characters long (preferably more) and consist of random strings of letters, numerals, and special characters. Passwords should never include dictionary words, which are easy to guess, or personal details, which cybercriminals can scrape off social media channels. 37% of respondents to Keeper's survey sai...

Merely days after Microsoft sounded the alarm on an unpatched security vulnerability in the Windows Print Spooler service, possibly yet another zero-day flaw in the same component has come to light, making it the fourth printer-related shortcoming to be discovered in recent weeks. "Microsoft Windows allows for non-admin users to be able to install printer drivers via Point and Print," CERT Coordination Center's Will Dormann  said  in an advisory published Sunday. "Printers installed via this technique also install queue-specific files, which can be arbitrary libraries to be loaded by the privileged Windows Print Spooler process." An exploit for the vulnerability was disclosed by security researcher and  Mimikatz creator   Benjamin Delpy . #printnightmare - Episode 4 You know what is better than a Legit Kiwi Printer ? 🥝Another Legit Kiwi Printer...👍 No prerequiste at all, you even don't need to sign drivers/package🤪 pic.twitter.com/oInb5jm3tE — 🥝 B...

A sweeping probe into a data leak of more than 50,000 phone numbers has revealed an extensive misuse of Israeli company NSO Group's Pegasus "military-grade spyware" to facilitate human rights violations by surveilling heads of state, activists, journalists, and lawyers around the world. Dubbed the " Pegasus Project ," the  investigation  is a collaboration by more than 80 journalists from a consortium of 17 media organizations in 10 countries coordinated by Forbidden Stories, a Paris-based media non-profit, along with the technical support of Amnesty International. "The Pegasus Project lays bare how NSO's spyware is a weapon of choice for repressive governments seeking to silence journalists, attack activists and crush dissent, placing countless lives in peril," Amnesty International's Secretary-General, Agnès Callamard,  said . "These revelations blow apart any claims by NSO that such attacks are rare and down to rogue use of their te...

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) has issued new stricter vulnerability disclosure regulations that mandate software and networking vendors affected with critical flaws to mandatorily disclose them first-hand to the government authorities within two days of filing a report. The " Regulations on the Management of Network Product Security Vulnerability " are expected to go into effect starting September 1, 2021, and aim to standardize the discovery, reporting, repair, and release of security vulnerabilities and prevent security risks. "No organization or individual may take advantage of network product security vulnerabilities to engage in activities that endanger network security, and shall not illegally collect, sell or publish information on network product security vulnerabilities," Article 4 of the regulation states. In addition to banning sales of previously unknown security weaknesses, the new rules also forbid vulnerabilities from being disclos...