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The notorious information-stealer known as  Vidar  is continuing to leverage popular social media services such as TikTok, Telegram, Steam, and Mastodon as an intermediate command-and-control (C2) server. "When a user creates an account on an online platform, a unique account page that can be accessed by anyone is generated," AhnLab Security Emergency Response Center (ASEC) disclosed in a technical analysis  published  late last month. "Threat actors write identifying characters and the C2 address in parts of this page." In other words, the technique relies on actor-controlled throwaway accounts created on social media to retrieve the C2 address. An advantage to this approach is that should the C2 server be taken down or blocked, the adversary can trivially get around the restrictions by setting up a new server and editing the account pages to allow the previously distributed malware to communicate with the server. Vidar, first identified in 2018, is a  co...

Fortinet has warned of a high-severity flaw affecting multiple versions of FortiADC application delivery controller that could lead to the execution of arbitrary code. "An improper neutralization of special elements used in an OS command vulnerability in FortiADC may allow an authenticated attacker with access to the web GUI to execute unauthorized code or commands via specifically crafted HTTP requests," the company  said  in an advisory. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2022-39947 (CVSS score: 8.6) and internally discovered by its product security team, impacts the following versions - FortiADC version 7.0.0 through 7.0.2 FortiADC version 6.2.0 through 6.2.3 FortiADC version 6.1.0 through 6.1.6 FortiADC version 6.0.0 through 6.0.4 FortiADC version 5.4.0 through 5.4.5 Users are recommended to upgrade to FortiADC versions 6.2.4 and 7.0.2 as and when they become available. The  January 2023 patches  also address a number of command injection vulnerabilit...

The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) has  fined  Meta Platforms €390 million (roughly $414 million) over its handling of user data for serving personalized ads in what could be a major blow to its ad-fueled business model. To that end, the privacy regulator has ordered Meta Ireland to pay two fines – a €210 million ($222.5 million) fine over violations of the E.U. General Data Protection Regulation ( GDPR ) related to Facebook, and a €180 million ($191 million) for similar violations in Instagram. The latest enforcement comes in the wake of concerns that the social media company used its Terms of Service to gain users' forced consent to allow targeted advertising based on their online activity. The complaints were filed on May 25, 2018, the date when GDPR came into effect in the region. It also arrives a month after the European Data Protection Board (EDPB), an independent body that oversees the consistent application of GDPR in the E.U.,  announced  that i...

Qualcomm on Tuesday  released patches  to address multiple security flaws in its chipsets, some of which could be exploited to cause information disclosure and memory corruption. The five vulnerabilities -- tracked from CVE-2022-40516 through CVE-2022-40520 -- also impact Lenovo ThinkPad X13s laptops, prompting the Chinese PC maker to issue BIOS updates to plug the security holes. The list of flaws is as follows - CVE-2022-40516, CVE-2022-40517 & CVE-2022-40520  (CVSS scores: 8.4) - Memory corruption in Core due to  stack-based buffer overflow CVE-2022-40518 & CVE-2022-40519  (CVSS scores: 6.8) - Information disclosure due to  buffer over-read  in Core Stack-based buffer overflow vulnerabilities can result in severe impacts, such as data corruption, system crashes, and arbitrary code execution. Buffer over-reads, on the other hand, can be weaponized to read out-of-bounds memory, leading to the exposure of secret data. Successful explo...

Ransomware: contemporary threats, how to prevent them and how the FBI can help In April 2021, Dutch supermarkets faced a food shortage. The cause wasn't a drought or a sudden surge in the demand for avocados. Rather, the reason was a ransomware attack. In the past years, companies, universities, schools, medical facilities and other organizations have been targeted by ransomware threat actors, turning ransomware into the internet's most severe security crisis. The Ransomware Landscape Ransomware has existed for more than 30 years, but it became a lucrative source of income for cyber actors and gangs in the past decade. Since 2015, ransomware gangs have been targeting organizations instead of individuals. Consequently, ransom sums have increased significantly, reaching millions of dollars. Ransomware is effective because it pressures victims in two, complementary ways. First, by threatening victims to destroy their data. Second, by threatening to publicize the attack. The s...

A new Linux malware developed using the shell script compiler ( shc ) has been observed deploying a cryptocurrency miner on compromised systems. "It is presumed that after successful authentication through a dictionary attack on inadequately managed Linux SSH servers, various malware were installed on the target system," AhnLab Security Emergency Response Center (ASEC)  said  in a report published today. shc allows shell scripts to be converted directly into binaries, offering protections against unauthorized source code modifications. It's analogous to the  BAT2EXE utility  in Windows that's used to convert any batch file to an executable. By using shc to generate ELF files, the idea is to protect the malicious shell commands from being inspected and potentially bypass detection by security software as the executables are encoded using the RC4 algorithm . In an attack chain detailed by the South Korean cybersecurity firm, a successful compromise of the SSH ser...

Synology has released security updates to address a critical flaw impacting VPN Plus Server that could be exploited to take over affected systems. Tracked as  CVE-2022-43931 , the vulnerability carries a maximum severity rating of 10 on the CVSS scale and has been described as an out-of-bounds write bug in the remote desktop functionality in Synology VPN Plus Server. Successful exploitation of the issue "allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands via unspecified vectors," the Taiwanese company  said , adding it was internally discovered by its Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT). Users of VPN Plus Server for Synology Router Manager (SRM) 1.2 and VPN Plus Server for SRM 1.3 are advised to update to versions 1.4.3-0534 and 1.4.4-0635, respectively. The network-attached storage appliance maker, in a second advisory, also  warned  of several flaws in SRM that could permit remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands, conduct denial-of-servi...