Security News
Open-source Tor browser has been updated to version 10.0.18 with fixes for multiple issues, including a privacy-defeating bug that could be used to uniquely fingerprint users across different browsers based on the apps installed on a computer. In addition to updating Tor to 0.4.5.9, the browser's Android version has been upgraded to Firefox to version 89.1.1, alongside incorporating patches rolled out by Mozilla for several security vulnerabilities addressed in Firefox 89.
A new version of the open-source Tor Browser was released this week with patches for multiple vulnerabilities, including one that could allow malicious websites to track users across browsers by identifying applications running on their devices. The bug, a protocol flooding attack also referred to as scheme flood, relies on custom protocol handlers for browsers to probe desktop computers for installed applications, profile users, and track them across browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Tor.
The Tor Project has released Tor Browser 10.0.18 to fix numerous bugs, including a vulnerability that allows sites to track users by fingerprinting the applications installed on their devices. In May, JavaScript fingerprinting firm FingerprintJS disclosed a 'scheme flooding' vulnerability that allows the tracking of users across different browsers based on the applications installed on their device.
WWDC Apple on Monday opened its 2021 Worldwide Developer Conference by promising a raft of operating system and privacy improvements - including a relay system to anonymize Safari connections, and randomized email addresses for online account signups. Apple pundits had anticipated an Arm-based MacBook Pro, yet no word of next-generation Apple Silicon machines surfaced.
FingerprintJS, maker of a browser-fingerprinting library for fraud prevention, on Thursday said it has identified a more dubious fingerprinting technique capable of generating a consistent identifier across different desktop browsers, including the Tor Browser. That means, for example, if you browse the web using Safari, Firefox, or Chrome for some websites, and use the Tor browser to anonymously view others, there is a possibility someone could link your browser histories across all those sessions using a unique identifier, potentially deanonymize you, and track you around the web.
The Tor Project is auctioning off the first Tor Onion domain ever created, duskgytldkxiuqc6. Onion, as an NFT. The non-profit Tor Project operates the Tor decentralized network running on top of the Internet that allows users to access websites anonymously and special Onion URLs only accessible over Tor.
An unknown threat actor managed to control more than 27% of the entire Tor network exit capacity in early February 2021, a new study on the dark web infrastructure revealed. "The entity attacking Tor users is actively exploiting tor users since over a year and expanded the scale of their attacks to a new record level," an independent security researcher who goes by the name nusenu said in a write-up published on Sunday.
Ransomware criminals have posted trophy pictures on their Tor blog after attacking the police force for US capital Washington DC. The Metropolitan Police Department said it was "Aware of unauthorised access on our server" and had engaged the FBI to investigate, according to BleepingComputer. Babuk, a relatively new ransomware gang, claimed credit for the attack and claimed to have stolen 250GB of files from the force.
A recently observed malware botnet targeting Linux systems is employing many of the emerging techniques among cyber-criminals, such as the use of Tor proxies, legitimate DevOps tools, and the removal of competing malware, according to new research from anti-malware vendor Trend Micro. The researchers say the malware is capable of downloading all of the files it needs from the Tor anonymity network, including post-infection scripts and legitimate, essential binaries that might be missing from the environment, such as ss, ps, and curl.
Researchers have discovered what they say is the first variant of the Gafgyt botnet family to cloak its activity using the Tor network. In order to evade detection, Gafgyt tor uses Tor to hide its command-and-control communications, and encrypts sensitive strings in the samples.