Security News

Conti ransomware operation is using the critical Log4Shell exploit to gain rapid access to internal VMware vCenter Server instances and encrypt virtual machines. Among the first to leverage the bug were cryptocurrency miners, botnets, and a new ransomware strain called Khonsari.

Microsoft urges admins of self-hosted Minecraft servers to upgrade to the latest release to defend against Khonsari ransomware attacks exploiting the critical Log4Shell security vulnerability. While there was no mention of attacks targeting Minecraft servers using Log4Shell exploits at the time, Redmond's security experts updated their CVE-2021-44228 guidance today to warn of ongoing exploitation to deliver ransomware on non-Microsoft hosted Minecraft servers.

If you'd like a powerful firewall for your Ubuntu Server, but one that offers a fairly straightforward configuration, Jack Wallen thinks CSF might be the right tool for the job. Although Uncomplicated Firewall is an outstanding security service on Ubuntu Server, there might be times when you need more.

Malicious actors are deploying a previously undiscovered binary, an Internet Information Services webserver module dubbed "Owowa," on Microsoft Exchange Outlook Web Access servers with the goal of stealing credentials and enabling remote command execution. "Owowa is a C#-developed.NET v4.0 assembly that is intended to be loaded as a module within an IIS web server that also exposes Exchange's Outlook Web Access," Kaspersky researchers Paul Rascagneres and Pierre Delcher said.

Researchers have uncovered a previously unknown malicious IIS module, dubbed Owowa, that steals credentials when users log into Microsoft Outlook Web Access."The particular danger with Owowa is that an attacker can use the module to passively steal credentials from users who are legitimately accessing web services," he explained.

Microsoft has addressed a known issue that plagued Windows Server customers for weeks, preventing the Defender for Endpoint enterprise security platform from launching on some systems. The issue only impacts devices where customers installed Windows Server 2019 and Windows Server 2022 security updates issued during last month's Patch Tuesday.

Here's a single command you can run to test and see if you have any vulnerable packages installed. Are you using it as part of a Java project, is it rolled into a container, did you install it with your distribution package manager, and which log4j packages did you install? Or did you install it from source? Because of this, you might not even know if your server is vulnerable.

A serious security vulnerability in a popular product from Apache has opened the floodgates for cybercriminals to try to attack susceptible servers. Hackers know that organizations are often slow to patch even critical security flaws, which is why attackers are frantically hunting for unpatched systems.

The bug, now officially denoted CVE-2021-44248, involves sending a request to a vulnerable server in which you include some data - for example, an HTTP header - that you expect the server will write to its logfile. Not just any old download: if the data that comes back is a valid Java program, then the server runs that file to "Help" it generate the logging data.

Need to lock down that Linux server so certain remote users can only access a specific directory and only for file upload and download purposes? Jack Wallen shows you how. When you have a server with SSH access, unless you've configured it otherwise, any user with an account on that system can log in and, if they have the permissions and skill, wreak havoc on your server.