Security News
Google has updated Chrome for Linux, Mac, and Windows to address three security vulnerabilities - and exploit code for one of them is already public, so get patching. Interestingly enough, at the time, this public source-code tweak was spotted and studied by Exodus Intelligence researchers István Kurucsai and Vignesh Rao, who hoped to see whether it's still practical to identify security bug fixes among code changes in the Chromium source tree and develop an exploit before the patch sees an official release, a practice known as patch-gapping.
Researchers are urging users of a vulnerable WordPress plugin, ThemeGrill Demo Importer, to update as soon as possible after discovering attackers are actively exploiting a flaw in the plugin. This WordPress plugin helps users import and manage ThemeGrill templates on their sites.
Only a week after the mobile app meltdown in Iowa's Democratic Caucus, computer scientists at MIT have revealed their analysis of the Voatz app used in West Virginia's 2018 midterm election. They claim the Android app is vulnerable to attacks that could undermine election integrity in the US state.
The latest example of the latter are fake emails purportedly coming from the World Health Organisation, which is, ironically, engeaged in fighting an "Infodemic" of fake coronavirs-themed news online. It also shows a simple pop-up asking the potential victim to "Verify" their email by entering their email address and password.
Two researchers have created a solution that could help security researchers and IoT manufacturers with detecting zero-day exploits targeting internet-connected devices more speedily than ever before. It's called honware, and it's a virtual honeypot framework that can emulate Linux-based Customer Premise Equipment and IoT devices by using devices' firmware image.
Researchers at Check Point have demonstrated how to infect a network with malware via a simple IoT device, a Philips Hue smart lightbulb. One is CVE-2020-6007 which is a buffer overflow in the Philips Hue Bridge controller firmware, in the part of the software that adds new devices to the controller.
Though the fourth quarter of 2019 saw a decrease in malicious activity, threats such as the Emotet malware continued to thrive, says Nuspire. Organizations received a type of holiday gift during the fourth quarter of 2019 as the volume of malware and other security threats declined.
Organizations are not making progress in reducing their endpoint security risk, especially against new and unknown threats, a Ponemon Institute study reveals. 68% IT security professionals say their company experienced one or more endpoint attacks that compromised data assets or IT infrastructure in 2019, an increase from 54% of respondents in 2017.
Proof-of-concept exploits have been released for two recently patched Remote Desktop Gateway vulnerabilities that can be exploited for remote code execution. Remote Desktop Gateway is a Windows Server component previously known as Terminal Services Gateway.
Last week, Threatpost conducted a reader poll and almost 60 percent of 230 security pundits thought it was a "Good idea" to publish PoC code for zero days. Joseph Carson, chief security scientist at Thycotic, told Threatpost that while he thinks PoC exploits can have a positive impact, "It is also important to include what defenders can do to reduce the risks such a methods to harden systems or best practices."