Weekly InfoSec News Brief April 6-12

Critical Apple Mac OSX Update Released for Yosemite Only

Apple released an update last Wednesday for OSX (version 10.10.3) that fixes a number of serious security vulnerabilities. The most serious is CVE-2015-1130, which could allow any user to obtain root privileges to the system. The vulnerability is present in version of OSX since at least 2011, but Apple has not issued a patch for older versions prior to Yosemite. If you haven't upgraded your Macs to the latest OS version, you should strongly consider doing so now.
http://www.eweek.com/security/apple-patches-critical-backdoor-flaw-in-os-x-10.10.3.html
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204659


Major Malicious Advertising Campaign Hits Google Ad Network

A Google advertising partner, Engage Lab, was exploited last Tuesday, causing all of their advertisements to redirect users to a site running the "Nuclear" exploit kit. This exploit kit attempts to infect visitors' computers via Flash, Java, or Silverlight vulnerabilities. Malicious advertising is a growing problem as advertising is ubiquitous and widespread, and exploiting advertising is a method for attacker to hit visitors at reputable, trusted sites.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2907492/largescale-google-malvertising-campaign-hits-users-with-exploits.html
Technical details: http://blog.fox-it.com/2015/04/07/liveblog-malvertising-from-google-advertisements-via-possibly-compromised-reseller/


 "Drive-by Login" Attack Targets Specific Users When Visiting a Site

Web-based, browser-based attacks are increasingly a focus today, and the "drive-by login" attack is a new variation on this theme. Unlike "watering hole" attacks that hit all visitors to a site, "drive-by login" attacks monitor visitors waiting for a specfic user to log in to the site. In a targeted attack, the attackers would need to know (or discover) what sites a person frequents in order to compromise one of those and wait for the user to log in.
http://www.scmagazine.com/high-tech-bridge-identifies-new-attack-method-possibly-used-by-apts/article/407805/


*************
The last two items demonstrate the theme that "no one is safe" and "no website is safe" on the Internet today. One of the most critical defensive measures that organizations must have is to ensure that users DO NOT browse the web using accounts with administrative privileges. Even system administrators should not do so -- they should browse and read email using a non-privileged account and use their separate, privileged account only for those functions which require it.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Weekly Infosec News Brief: 14-20 March

Image
Major Media Websites Caught up inNew Malicious Advertising Attacks Last week multiple major advertising networks, including Google's DoubleClick, AppNexus, Rubicon, and AOL were abused by attackers to serve up malicious advertisements on major media sites. These malicious advertisements were redirecting to the "Angler" exploit kit, which uses multiple means to attempt to compromise a browser and install malware. While such malicious ads are common on smaller websites, they are not unheard-of on major media sites. This outbreak, however, was unusually large and long-lived, lasting at least the better part of two days. Given how common malicious web ads are, some security experts are recommending the use of ad blocking technology in web browsers. http://www.computerworld.com/article/3044565/security/advertising-based-cyberattacks-hit-bbc-new-york-times-msn.html Malicious Macros in Word Documents Used to Install Malware with No Files Needed Everything old is new a
Read more

Weekly Infosec News Brief 20-26 July

Image
FBI Sees Massive Increase in Espionage, Including Industrial Espionage, Against the US The FBI on Thursday issued a press release discussing what they believe is an increasing threat of economic espionage against US companies. They estimate that such espionage may cost the US as much as "hundreds of billions" of dollars a year. This espionage is not just directed against large industrial companies, but any place where trade secrets and innovations might be found, including third-party organizations (e.g. business partners, vendors, consultants, lawyers, etc.) affiliated with targeted companies. A key take-away is that the threat is more widespread than most people think, and that few organizations are immune. https://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/fbi-announces-economic-espionage-awareness-campaign http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/24/politics/fbi-economic-espionage/ Microsoft Releases Out-of-Cycle Patch for Critical Font Driver Bug A flaw uncovered in connecti
Read more

Weekly Infosec News Brief: 22-28 February

Image
Ransomware Observed to Jump from One Device to Another via the Cloud Researchers described last week an incident where they observed malicious "ransomware" propagating from one device to another via cloud-based file synchronization. When the ransomware encrypted files on one machine that synchronized files to a specific folder, it spread to other PCs that synchronized to that same folder. This type of phenomenon is simply another reason for organizations to serious consider limiting or eliminating the use of such file-synchronizing software within their networks. http://www.scmagazine.com/researchers-confirm-cases-of-ransomware-encryption-jumping-devices-via-cloud-apps/article/479572/ New OpenSSL Patches Soon to Come The OpenSSL project team announced last Thursday that they are working on patches to fix at least two "high" severity vulnerabilities in OpenSSL. This is the software that powers the cryptographic security layer of many web servers, browser
Read more