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Under the hood of recent DDoS Attack on U.S. Banks

Under the hood of recent DDoS Attack on U.S. Banks

Jan 10, 2013
Incapsula security study reveals how a simple neglect in managing the administrative password of a small UK site was quickly exploited by Botnet shepherds operating obscurely out of Turkey to hurl large amounts of traffic at American banks. If you've been following the news, you are probably aware of a wave of DDoS attacks that recently hit several major U.S. banks. Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, a hacker group that claimed responsibility for these attacks, declared them to be a retaliation for an anti-Islam video that mocked the Prophet Muhammad and a part of the on-going "Operation Ababil." As the reports of the attack started to roll in, Incapsula security team was able to uncover one of the secret foot-soldiers behind the assault: a compromised general-interest UK-based website that was trying to hurl large chunks of junk traffic at three of the world's largest financial institutions (PNC, HSBC and Fifth Third Bank). At On the eve of the attack, this website sud
5 Checks You Must Run To Ensure Your Network Is Secure

5 Checks You Must Run To Ensure Your Network Is Secure

Jan 10, 2013
Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days each year – it's happening. Whether you are awake or asleep, in a meeting or on vacation, they are out there probing your network, looking for a way in. A way to exploit you; a way to steal your data, a place to store illegal content, a website they can deface, or any of a hundred other ways to mess with you for the simple joy of it all. And they can do this with relative ease, even in an automated fashion, with simple tools that are readily available to all. I'm talking about network scanners. The bad guys use them all day every day to assess networks around the world because a network scanner is one of the easiest and most efficient ways to find the cracks in your armor. If you want to see your network the same way an attacker would, then you want to use a network scanner. Network scanners perform automated tests of systems over the network. They don't require agents or any other software to be installed on the "target"
GenAI: A New Headache for SaaS Security Teams

GenAI: A New Headache for SaaS Security Teams

Apr 17, 2024SaaS Security / AI Governance
The introduction of Open AI's ChatGPT was a defining moment for the software industry, touching off a GenAI race with its November 2022 release. SaaS vendors are now rushing to upgrade tools with enhanced productivity capabilities that are driven by generative AI. Among a wide range of uses, GenAI tools make it easier for developers to build software, assist sales teams in mundane email writing, help marketers produce unique content at low cost, and enable teams and creatives to brainstorm new ideas.  Recent significant GenAI product launches include Microsoft 365 Copilot, GitHub Copilot, and Salesforce Einstein GPT. Notably, these GenAI tools from leading SaaS providers are paid enhancements, a clear sign that no SaaS provider will want to miss out on cashing in on the GenAI transformation. Google will soon launch its SGE "Search Generative Experience" platform for premium AI-generated summaries rather than a list of websites.  At this pace, it's just a matter of a short time befo
Outdated version of WordPress leads to MasterCard Hack

Outdated version of WordPress leads to MasterCard Hack

Jan 09, 2013
On tip of a readers, yesterday we came across a new MasterCard hack, performed by  Syrian Electronic Army . Hackers was able to breach MasterCard Blog ( https://insights.mastercard.com ) and make a new blog post on the website with title " Hacked By Syrian Electronic Army " on January 5, 2013. For now MasterCard deleted that post, but readers can check Google cache . Today we tried to contact the hacker, but may be they are busy in Hacking Next Target , I started my investigation that how they can hack such a big economic website's blog. Starting from very first step, Information gathering about your target. Simple by reviewing the source code we found that MasterCard blog is using Wordpress. We all know, WordPress is particular a popular attack vector for cyber criminals. To know this, I just tried to access the readme.html file of CMS , that's it - MasterCard #fail ! They are using an old  Wordpress 3.3.2  version, instead of the current version 3.
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Today's Top 4 Identity Threat Exposures: Where To Find Them and How To Stop Them

websiteSilverfortIdentity Protection / Attack Surface
Explore the first ever threat report 100% focused on the prevalence of identity security gaps you may not be aware of.
Official Debian and Python Wiki Servers Compromised

Official Debian and Python Wiki Servers Compromised

Jan 09, 2013
Administration from Debian and Python project official websites confirmed that their WIKI servers were compromised by some unknown hackers recently. Hackers was able to hack because of several vulnerabilities in " moin " package. According to  Brian Curtin at Python Project , Hacker user some unknown remote code exploit on Python Wiki server (https://wiki.python.org/) and was able to get shell access. The shell was restricted to "moin" user permissions, where but no other services were affected. Attacker deleted all files owned by the "moin" user, including all instance data for both the Python and Jython wikis. Python Software Foundation encourages all wiki users to change their password on other sites if the same one is in use elsewhere. For now, Python Wiki is down and team is investigating more about breach. Where as in Debian Wiki (https://wiki.debian.org/) security breach, user use some known vulnerabilities Directory traversal ( CVE-20
Warm up your keyboard for Facebook Hacker Cup 2013

Warm up your keyboard for Facebook Hacker Cup 2013

Jan 09, 2013
Dear Hackers, Warm up your keyboards! Because Facebook open Registration for third Hacker Cup 2013, an annual worldwide programming competition where hackers compete against each other for fame, fortune, glory and a shot at the title of world champion, with $5,000 top prize. The qualification round begins on January 25th. So Participate and enhance your programming competency. The dates have been set for Facebook Hacker Cup 2013 Jan 7 — Jan 27 — Registration Jan 25 — Jan 27 — Online Qualification Round Feb 2 — Online Elimination Round 1 Feb 9 — Online Elimination Round 2 Feb 16 — Online Elimination Round 3 March 22 -23 — Onsite Finals at Facebook Registrations Page -  https://www.facebook.com/hackercup/register This is your chance to compete against the world's best programmers for awesome prizes and the title of World Champion.
Running Desktop Apps on Windows RT, The Hackers Way!

Running Desktop Apps on Windows RT, The Hackers Way!

Jan 08, 2013
A hacker claims to have found a method in the code integrity mechanism in Windows RT, that allow one to bypass security mechanism preventing unauthorized software running on ARM-powered Windows RT tablets. Lets see, How to Run traditional desktop apps on Windows RT in a Hackers  Way! A hacker called ' C. L. Rokr ' explain about the Windows RT exploit on his blog , which requires manipulating a part of Windows RT's system memory that governs whether unsigned apps can run. Windows RT is a special version of Microsoft Windows designed for lightweight PCs and tablets that are based on the ARM architecture, including Microsoft's Surface tablet.  Clrokr said Windows RT inherited a flaw from Windows 8 that makes the workaround possible. " Ironically, a vulnerability in the Windows kernel that has existed for some time and got ported to ARM just like the rest of Windows made this possible, ". Specifically, one needs to inject a blob of ARM code into a safe
Hacking Facebook Passwords like changing your own Password

Hacking Facebook Passwords like changing your own Password

Jan 08, 2013
Hacker found a way to hack and change your password like, just he used to change his own password. Confused ? Recently Facebook fix a very critical vulnerability on the tip of ' Sow Ching Shiong ' , an independent vulnerability researcher. Flaw allows anyone to reset the password of any Facebook user without knowing his last password. At Facebook, there is an option for compromised accounts at " https://www.facebook.com/hacked " , where Facebook ask one to change his password for further protection. This compromised account recovery page, will redirect you to another page at " https://www.facebook.com/checkpoint/checkpointme?f=[userid]&r=web_hacked " . Researcher notice that the URL of the page having a parameter called "f" which represents your user ID and replacing the user ID with victim's user ID allow him to get into next page where attacker can reset the password of victim without knowing his last password. The  Vulnera
NASA 'Space your Face' domain hacked

NASA 'Space your Face' domain hacked

Jan 07, 2013
Another basic security loop-hole in NASA website lead to a Hack. This time hacker going by name " p0ison-r00t " deface a sub domain of NASA ( https://spaceyourface.nasa.gov/ ). The hacked sub domain running a web application using flash, that allow visitors to create some funny videos of Space using Faces. Hacker able to upload his text on the website, as shown in screenshot taken by ' The Hacker News '. We contact hacker to know more about the hack, on asking How ? Hacker said," I found a form on website, accepting file upload but without validating the extension, that allow me to upload a php shell on server ". Hacker also said that because of low privileges he was not able to modify any file, but was able to upload some text on the website, Check here . Mirror of hack also available on Zone-h .
SkypeHide to Send secret messages into silence of Skype Calls

SkypeHide to Send secret messages into silence of Skype Calls

Jan 07, 2013
Polish Researchers have discovered a clever way to send secret messages during a phone call on Skype. We know that, by default skype calls use 256-bit advanced encryption, but researchers find that is not enough. So they find out this new way to communicate messages more secretly by using silence. Mazurczyk, Maciej Karaś and Krzysztof Szczypiorski analysed Skype data traffic during calls and discovered that there is a way in Skype silence, where rather than sending no data between spoken words, Skype sends 70-bit-long data packets instead of the 130-bit ones that carry speech. So by taking advantage of this they hijacks these silence packets and then inject encrypted message data into some of them. The Skype receiver on other end will always simply ignores the secret-message data, but it can be decoded back to receive that secret message. Team decide to present this at Steganography conference  by creating a POC tool called SkypeHide that will be able to hijacks some of the silenc
FBI wanted Algerian Hacker Arrested in Thailand

FBI wanted Algerian Hacker Arrested in Thailand

Jan 07, 2013
Thai police arrested an Algerian Hacker, wanted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation for allegedly making millions from cybercrime.  Hamza Bendelladj , 24, was arrested late Sunday while attempting to transit through Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport from Malaysia. Police confiscated from Bendelladj two laptops, one tablet computer, a satellite phone and a number of external hard drives, where satellite phone and notebook computer were his main tools, the commissioner said. Bendelladj graduated in computer sciences from Algeria in 2008, has allegedly hacked private accounts in 217 banks and financial companies worldwide. " With just one transaction he could earn 10 to 20 million dollars ," Lt Gen Phanu said. " He's been travelling the world flying first class and living a life of luxury. " Bendelladj will be extradited to the U.S. state of Georgia, where a district court has issued an arrest warrant. " I'm not in the top 10, maybe just
Password reset Vulnerability in Facebook Employees Secure Files Transfer service

Password reset Vulnerability in Facebook Employees Secure Files Transfer service

Jan 07, 2013
Many be many of you are not aware about this, but Facebook having a Secure Files Transfer service for their Employees at https://files.fb.com  and Hacker reported a very critical password reset vulnerability. Nir Goldshlager , a researcher told ' The Hacker News ' that how he defeat Facebook 's Secure Files Transfer service and help Facebook by reporting them about this issue in a responsible non-disclosure way till patch. After analyzing the site, he found that the script Facebook is using is actually " Accellion Secure File Sharing Service " script and so next he download the demo version of service from Accellion website and explore the source codes and file locations. He found that, there is a user registration page also available in source, that was also on files.fb.com. Unfortunately Facebook had removed the Sign up option (link) from homepage, but forget to remove the registration page from its actual location i.e (/courier/web/1000@/wmReg.html)
Latest Internet Explorer zero-day linked to Elderwood Project

Latest Internet Explorer zero-day linked to Elderwood Project

Jan 06, 2013
Last week we have seen ongoing attacks was exploiting a vulnerability in Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7, and Internet Explorer 8 that came to light after the Council on Foreign Relations website was hacked and was hosting the code. Symantec has linked exploits to the group responsible for a spate of recent espionage attacks Dubbed the " Elderwood Project ". In May 2012, Amnesty International's Hong Kong website was compromised & used to serve up a malicious SWF file that exploited CVE-2012-1875, a vulnerability affecting Internet Explorer. A few months later in Sep 2012, the same group behind that attack was responsible for using another IE zero-day CVE-2012-4969. Microsoft issued a temporary Fix-it patch for the vulnerability but now researchers are claiming that they have bypassed the patch and were able to compromise a fully patched system. Name comes from a source code variable used by the attackers. In the past, the group has used a mix of sp
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