Security News
Google last week announced the release of proof-of-concept code designed to exploit the notorious Spectre vulnerability and leak information from web browsers. In 2019, the Google team responsible for Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine said that the attack can't be mitigated at the software level, arguing that security boundaries in browsers should be aligned with low-level primitives, such as process-based isolation.
While there is no concrete explanation for the widespread exploitation by so many different groups, speculations are that the adversaries shared or sold exploit code, resulting in other groups being able to abuse these vulnerabilities, or that the groups obtained the exploit from a common seller. For its part, the Dutch Institute for Vulnerability Disclosure reported Tuesday that it found 46,000 servers out of 260,000 globally that were unpatched against the heavily exploited ProxyLogon vulnerabilities.
Google on Friday released proof-of-concept code for conducting a Spectre-based attack against its Chrome browser to show how web developers can take steps to mitigate browser-based side-channel attacks. The code, posted to GitHub, demonstrates how an attacker can pull data from device memory at speed of 1kB/s when running on Chrome 88 on an Intel Skylake CPU. According to Google, the attack should work on other browsers, even those running on Arm-based Apple M1 chips.
Software giant Microsoft Corp. has launched an investigation to determine whether one of its flagship information-sharing programs sprung a leak that led to the widespread exploitation of Exchange server deployments around the world. According to a bombshell report in the Wall Street Journal, Redmond is looking closely at its Microsoft Active Protections Program to figure out if an anti-malware partner in China leaked proof-of-concept code ahead of the availability of security updates.
The operators of Lemon Duck, a cryptomining botnet that targets enterprise networks, are now using Microsoft Exchange ProxyLogon exploits in attacks against unpatched servers. Lemon Duck's ongoing attacks on vulnerable Exchange servers have already reached a massive scale, according to Costin Raiu, director of Kaspersky's Global Research and Analysis Team.
Cybercriminals are now using compromised Microsoft Exchange servers as a foothold to deploy a new ransomware family called DearCry, Microsoft has warned. The ransomware is the latest threat to beleaguer vulnerable Exchange servers, emerging shortly after Microsoft issued emergency patches in early March for four Microsoft Exchange flaws.
Threat actors are now installing a new ransomware called 'DEARCRY' after hacking into Microsoft Exchange servers using the recently disclosed ProxyLogon vulnerabilities. Since Microsoft revealed earlier this month that threat actors were compromising Microsoft Exchange servers using new zero-day ProxyLogon vulnerabilities, a significant concern has been when threat actors would use it to deploy ransomware.
On Wednesday, shortly after security researcher Nguyen Jang posted a proof-of-concept exploit on GitHub that abuses a Microsoft Exchange vulnerability revealed earlier this month, GitHub, which is owned by Microsoft, removed code, to the alarm of security researchers. The bug, referred to as ProxyLogon, was one of four Microsoft Exchange zero-days that Microsoft patched in an out-of-band release on March 3, 2021.
Enterprise cloud security firm Qualys has become the latest victim to join a long list of entities to have suffered a data breach after zero-day vulnerabilities in its Accellion File Transfer Appliance server were exploited to steal sensitive business documents. As proof of access to the data, the cybercriminals behind the recent hacks targeting Accellion FTA servers have shared screenshots of files belonging to the company's customers on a publicly accessible data leak website operated by the CLOP ransomware gang.
Hacker groups linked to Russian intelligence conducted cyber-attacks against top Lithuanian officials and decision-makers last year and used the Baltic nation's technology infrastructure as a base to hit targets elsewhere, a report by Lithuania's intelligence service said Thursday. The annual national security threat assessment report claimed that, among others, the Russian cyber-espionage group APT29 with alleged links to Russia's intelligence services "Exploited" Lithuania's information technology infrastructure "To carry out attacks by APT29 against foreign entities developing a COVID-19 vaccine."