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Fortinet has rolled out updates to address a critical security vulnerability impacting its FortiNAC network access control solution that could lead to the execution of arbitrary code. Tracked as  CVE-2023-33299 , the flaw is rated 9.6 out of 10 for severity on the CVSS scoring system. It has been described as a case of Java untrusted object deserialization. "A  deserialization  of untrusted data vulnerability [ CWE-502 ] in FortiNAC may allow an unauthenticated user to execute unauthorized code or commands via specifically crafted requests to the tcp/1050 service," Fortinet  said  in an advisory published last week. The shortcoming impacts the following products, with patches available in FortiNAC versions 7.2.2, 9.1.10, 9.2.8, and 9.4.3 or later - FortiNAC version 9.4.0 through 9.4.2 FortiNAC version 9.2.0 through 9.2.7 FortiNAC version 9.1.0 through 9.1.9 FortiNAC version 7.2.0 through 7.2.1 FortiNAC 8.8 all versions FortiNAC 8.7 all versions Fort...

In what's an ingenious  side-channel attack , a group of academics has found that it's possible to recover secret keys from a device by analyzing video footage of its power LED. "Cryptographic computations performed by the CPU change the power consumption of the device which affects the brightness of the device's power LED," researchers from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Cornell University  said  in a study. By taking advantage of this observation, it's possible for threat actors to leverage video camera devices such as an iPhone 13 or an internet-connected surveillance camera to extract the cryptographic keys from a smart card reader­. Specifically, video-based cryptanalysis is accomplished by obtaining video footage of rapid changes in an LED's brightness and exploiting the video camera's  rolling shutter  effect to capture the physical emanations. "This is caused by the fact that the power LED is connected directly to the pow...

An unknown cryptocurrency exchange located in Japan was the target of a new attack earlier this month to deploy an Apple macOS backdoor called JokerSpy. Elastic Security Labs, which is monitoring the intrusion set under the name  REF9134 ,  said  the attack led to the installation of Swiftbelt , a Swift-based enumeration tool inspired by an open-source utility called  SeatBelt . JokerSky was  first documented  by Bitdefender last week, describing it as a sophisticated toolkit designed to breach macOS machines. Very little is known about the threat actor behind the operation other than the fact that the attacks leverage a set of programs written in Python and Swift that come with capabilities to gather data and execute arbitrary commands on compromised hosts. A primary component of the toolkit is a self-signed multi-architecture binary known as xcc that's engineered to check for FullDiskAccess and ScreenRecording permissions. The file is signed as XPr...

Security and IT teams are routinely forced to adopt software before fully understanding the security risks. And AI tools are no exception. Employees and business leaders alike are flocking to generative AI software and similar programs, often unaware of the major SaaS security vulnerabilities they're introducing into the enterprise. A February 2023  generative AI survey of 1,000 executives  revealed that 49% of respondents use ChatGPT now, and 30% plan to tap into the ubiquitous generative AI tool soon. Ninety-nine percent of those using ChatGPT claimed some form of cost-savings, and 25% attested to reducing expenses by $75,000 or more. As the researchers conducted this survey a mere three months after ChatGPT's general availability, today's ChatGPT and AI tool usage is undoubtedly higher.  Security and risk teams are already overwhelmed protecting their SaaS estate (which has now become the operating system of business) from common vulnerabilities such as misconfigura...

Microsoft has disclosed that it's detected a spike in credential-stealing attacks conducted by the Russian state-affiliated hacker group known as Midnight Blizzard. The intrusions, which make use of residential proxy services to obfuscate the source IP address of the attacks, target governments, IT service providers, NGOs, defense, and critical manufacturing sectors, the tech giant's threat intelligence team said. Midnight Blizzard, formerly known as Nobelium , is also tracked under the monikers APT29, Cozy Bear, Iron Hemlock, and The Dukes. The  group , which drew worldwide attention for the SolarWinds supply chain compromise in December 2020, has  continued  to rely on  unseen tooling  in its targeted attacks aimed at foreign ministries and diplomatic entities. It's a sign of how determined they are to keep their operations up and running despite being exposed, which makes them a particularly formidable actor in the espionage area. "These credentia...

The newly discovered Chinese nation-state actor known as Volt Typhoon has been observed to be active in the wild since at least mid-2020, with the hacking crew linked to never-before-seen tradecraft to retain remote access to targets of interest. The findings come from CrowdStrike, which is tracking the adversary under the name  Vanguard Panda . "The adversary consistently employed ManageEngine Self-service Plus exploits to gain initial access, followed by custom web shells for persistent access, and living-off-the-land (LotL) techniques for lateral movement," the cybersecurity company  said . Volt Typhoon, as known as Bronze Silhouette, is a  cyber espionage group  from China that's been linked to network intrusion operations against the U.S government, defense, and other critical infrastructure organizations. "This adversary has been known to leverage credentials and living-off-the-land techniques to remain hidden and move quickly through targeted environments...

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has  added  a batch of six flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities ( KEV ) catalog, citing evidence of active exploitation. This comprises three vulnerabilities that Apple patched this week ( CVE-2023-32434, CVE-2023-32435, and CVE-2023-32439 ), two flaws in VMware ( CVE-2023-20867  and  CVE-2023-20887 ), and one shortcoming impacting Zyxel devices ( CVE-2023-27992 ). CVE-2023-32434 and CVE-2023-32435, both of which allow code execution, are said to have been exploited as zero-days to deploy spyware as part of a years-long cyber espionage campaign that commenced in 2019. Dubbed Operation Triangulation, the activity culminates in the deployment of  TriangleDB  that's designed to harvest a wide range of information from compromised devices, such as creating, modifying, removing, and stealing files, listing and terminating processes, gathering credentials from iCloud Keychain, and tracking a u...

A U.K. citizen who took part in the massive July 2020 hack of Twitter has been sentenced to five years in prison in the U.S. Joseph James O'Connor (aka PlugwalkJoe), 24, was awarded the sentence on Friday in the Southern District of New York, a little over a month  after  he  pleaded guilty  to the criminal schemes. He was  arrested  in Spain in July 2021. The infamous Twitter breach allowed the defendant and his co-conspirators to obtain unauthorized access to backend tools used by Twitter, abusing them to hijack 130 popular accounts to perpetrate a crypto scam that netted them about $120,000 in illegal profits. "In other instances, the co-conspirators sold access to Twitter accounts to others," the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ)  said . "O'Connor communicated with others regarding purchasing unauthorized access to a variety of Twitter accounts, including accounts associated with public figures around the world." The defendant has also been acc...

A threat actor known as  Muddled Libra  is targeting the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry with persistent attacks that leverage advanced social engineering ploys to gain initial access. "The attack style defining Muddled Libra appeared on the cybersecurity radar in late 2022 with the release of the 0ktapus phishing kit, which offered a prebuilt hosting framework and bundled templates," Palo Alto Networks Unit 42  said  in a technical report. Libra is the constellation-themed  designation  given by the cybersecurity company for cybercrime groups. The "muddled" moniker for the threat actor stems from the prevailing ambiguity with regards to the use of the 0ktapus framework. 0ktapus , also known as Scatter Swine, refers to an intrusion set that first came to light in August 2022 in connection with smishing attacks against over 100 organizations, including Twilio and Cloudflare. Then in late 2022, CrowdStrike  detailed  a string of cy...