Security News

Researchers Warn of Linux Kernel ‘Dirty Pipe’ Arbitrary File Overwrite Vulnerability
2022-03-08 19:15

Linux distributions are in the process of issuing patches to address a newly disclosed security vulnerability in the kernel that could allow an attacker to overwrite arbitrary data into any read-only files and allow for a complete takeover of affected systems. The Linux kernel flaw is said to have existed since version 5.8, with the vulnerability sharing similarities to that of Dirty Cow, which came to light in October 2016.

Bug in the Linux Kernel Allows Privilege Escalation, Container Escape
2022-03-08 14:52

To go along with the "Dirty Pipe" Linux security bug coming to light, two researchers from Huawei - Yiqi Sun and Kevin Wang - have discovered a vulnerability in the "Control groups" feature of the Linux kernel which allows attackers to escape containers, escalate privileges and execute arbitrary commands on a host machine. The bug exists in the Linux kernel's "Cgroup release agent write" feature, which is found in the "Kernel/cgroup/cgroup-v1.c" function.

Easily exploitable Linux bug gives root access to attackers (CVE-2022-0847)
2022-03-08 09:40

An easily exploitable vulnerability in the Linux kernel can be used by local unprivileged users to gain root privileges on vulnerable systems by taking advantage of already public exploits. Affected Linux distributions are in the process of pushing out security updates with the patch.

Linux distros patch 'Dirty Pipe' make-me-root kernel bug
2022-03-08 04:26

A Linux local privilege escalation flaw dubbed Dirty Pipe has been discovered and disclosed along with proof-of-concept exploit code. Max Kellermann said he found the programming blunder and reported it to the kernel security team in February, which issued patches within a few days.

New Linux bug gives root on all major distros, exploit released
2022-03-07 21:22

A new Linux vulnerability known as 'Dirty Pipe' allows local users to gain root privileges through publicly available exploits. Security researcher Phith0n illustrated how they could use the exploit to modify the /etc/passwd file so that the root user does not have a password.

New Linux Kernel cgroups Vulnerability Could Let Attackers Escape Container
2022-03-05 22:46

Details have emerged about a now-patched high-severity vulnerability in the Linux kernel that could potentially be abused to escape a container in order to execute arbitrary commands on the container host. The shortcoming resides in a Linux kernel feature called control groups, also referred to as cgroups version 1, which allows processes to be organized into hierarchical groups, effectively making it possible to limit and monitor the usage of resources such as CPU, memory, disk I/O, and network.

The Linux Foundation’s Census of OSS app libraries helps prioritize security work
2022-03-03 04:30

The Linux Foundation announced the final release of "Census II of Free and Open Source Software - Application Libraries," which identifies more than one thousand of the most widely deployed open source application libraries. This study informs what open source packages, components and projects warrant proactive operations and security support.

Kali Linux 2022.1 is your one-stop-shop for penetration testing
2022-02-24 16:56

Kali Linux 2022.1 is your one-stop-shop for penetration testing. Offensive Security recently unleashed the first iteration of Kali Linux for 2022.

NSA-linked Bvp47 Linux backdoor widely undetected for 10 years
2022-02-24 00:21

Pangu Lab's incident analysis involved three servers, one being the target of an external attack and two other internal machines - an email server and a business server. According to the researchers, the threat actor pivoted established a connection between the external server and the email server via a TCP SYN packet with a 264-byte payload. "At almost the same time, the [email] server connects to the [business] server's SMB service and performs some sensitive operations, including logging in to the [business] server with an administrator account, trying to open terminal services, enumerating directories, and executing Powershell scripts through scheduled tasks" - Pangu Lab.

Week in review: Kali Linux 2022.1 released, attackers leveraging Microsoft Teams to spread malware
2022-02-20 09:00

Kali Linux 2022.1 released: New tools, kali-linux-everything, visual changesOffensive Security has released Kali Linux 2022.1, the latest version of its popular open source penetration testing platform. Attackers use Microsoft Teams as launchpad for malwareHackers are starting to realize that Microsoft Teams is a great means of spreading tentacles throughout an organization's systems; since the start of the year, Avanan has been seeing hackers increasingly dropping malware in Teams conversation.