Security News
Guardicore security researcher Amit Serper has discovered a severe design bug in MIcrosoft Exchange's autodiscover - a protocol that lets users easily configure applications such as Microsoft Outlook with just email addresses and passwords. The flaw has caused the Autodiscover service to leak nearly 100,000 unique login names and passwords for Windows domains worldwide, Serper said in a technical report released this week.
An unpatched design flaw in the implementation of Microsoft Exchange's Autodiscover protocol has resulted in the leak of approximately 100,000 login names and passwords for Windows domains worldwide. "This is a severe security issue, since if an attacker can control such domains or has the ability to 'sniff' traffic in the same network, they can capture domain credentials in plain text that are being transferred over the wire," Guardicore's Amit Serper said in a technical report.
As part of its continued hardline against ransomware attacks, the U.S. Department of Treasury has prohibited anyone in the United States from conducting business with SUEX OTC, a Russian-linked currency exchange. The feds analyzed SUEX's transactions and found that the exchange facilitated transactions of illicit proceeds from at least eight ransomware variants, according to the release.
A flaw in Microsoft's Autodiscover protocol, used to configure Exchange clients like Outlook, can cause user credentials to leak to miscreants in certain circumstances. If the client doesn't receive any response from these URLs - which would happen if Exchange was improperly configured or was somehow prevented from accessing the designated resources - the Autodiscover protocol tries a "Back-off" algorithm that uses Autodiscover with a TLD as a hostname.
Bugs in the implementation of Microsoft Exchange's Autodiscover feature have leaked approximately 100,000 login names and passwords for Windows domains worldwide.In a new report by Amit Serper, Guardicore's AVP of Security Research, the researcher reveals how the incorrect implementation of the Autodiscover protocol, rather than a bug in Microsoft Exchange, is causing Windows credentials to be sent to third-party untrusted websites.
The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday imposed sanctions on Russian cryptocurrency exchange Suex for helping facilitate and launder transactions from at least eight ransomware variants as part of the government's efforts to crack down on a surge in ransomware incidents and make it difficult for bad actors to profit from such attacks using digital currencies. "Virtual currency exchanges such as SUEX are critical to the profitability of ransomware attacks, which help fund additional cybercriminal activity," the department said in a press release.
The US Treasury on Tuesday sanctioned virtual cryptocurrency exchange Suex OTC for handling financial transactions for ransomware operators, an intervention that's part of a broad US government effort to disrupt online extortion and related cyber-crime. According to the US Treasury, more than 40 per cent of the firm's known transaction history involves illicit entities, and that it handled payments from at least eight ransomware variants.
The US Treasury Department announced the first-ever sanctions against a cryptocurrency exchange, the Russian-linked Suex, for facilitating ransom transactions for ransomware gangs and helping them evade sanctions. By sanctioning crypto exchanges providing ransomware groups with material support, the US hopes to drain their funding and disrupt their operations.
The Biden administration is expected to issue sanctions against crypto exchanges, wallets, and traders used by ransomware gangs to convert ransom payments into fiat money. With ransomware attacks against US interests and infrastructure escalating over the past two years, the White House has increased its efforts to disrupt ransomware operations.
In 2018, hackers famously compromised several cryptocurrency exchanges by compromising a popular software library used by most exchanges on the internet. Cryptocurrency exchanges are convenient, which means people will almost certainly continue to use them.