Security News
Two vulnerabilities in a crowdsourced location-tracking system that helps users find Apple devices even when they're offline could expose the identity of users, research claim. Offline Finding, a proprietary app introduced by Apple in 2019 for its iOS, macOS and watchOS platforms, enables the location of Apple devices even if they aren't connected to the internet.
Vulnerabilities identified in offline finding - Apple's proprietary crowd-sourced location tracking system - could be abused for user identification, researchers said in a report released this month. With "Hundreds of millions" of devices part of Apple's OF network, this represents the largest crowd-sourced location tracking system in the world, one that is expected to grow even further, as support for non-Apple devices is added to it.
Google on Wednesday pledged to steer clear of tracking individual online activity when it begins implementing a new system for targeting ads without the use of so-called "Cookies." The internet giant's widely used Chrome browser this month will begin testing an alternative to the tracking practice that it believes could improve online privacy while still enabling advertisers to serve up relevant messages.
Attackers are looking to exploit critical VMware vCenter Server RCE flaw, patch ASAP!The day after VMware released fixes for a critical RCE flaw found in a default vCenter Server plugin, opportunistic attackers began searching for publicly accessible vulnerable systems. Kali Linux 2021.1 released: Tweaked DEs and terminals, new tools, Kali ARM for Apple Silicon MacsOffensive Security has released Kali Linux 2021.1, the latest version of its popular open source penetration testing platform.
Through the app employed in the study researchers were able to identify which kind of personal information the app extracted and its privacy sensitivity according to users. "Users are largely unaware of the privacy implications of some permissions they grant to apps and services, in particular when it comes to location tracking information", explains Musolesi.
The Mozilla Foundation has released its latest version of the Firefox browser, which comes with new privacy protections to squash cross-site cookie tracking, as well as a slew of security vulnerability fixes. "Total Cookie Protection confines cookies to the site where they were created, which prevents tracking companies from using these cookies to track your browsing from site to site," said Tim Huang, Johann Hofmann and Arthur Edelstein with Mozilla on Tuesday.
As browser-makers move to defang third-party cookies, marketers are increasingly switching to alternative tracking techniques. In 2019, Firefox was equipped with Enhanced Tracking Protection by default, blocking known trackers, third-party tracking cookies and cryptomining scripts.
Boffins based in Belgium have found that a DNS-based technique for bypassing defenses against online tracking has become increasingly common and represents a growing threat to both privacy and security. In a research paper to be presented in July at the 21st Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium, KU Leuven-affiliated researchers Yana Dimova, Gunes Acar, Wouter Joosen, and Tom Van Goethem, and privacy consultant Lukasz Olejnik, delve into increasing adoption of CNAME-based tracking, which abuses DNS records to erase the distinction between first-party and third-party contexts.
Mozilla this week announced improved user privacy in Firefox 86, with the introduction of a new feature aimed at preventing the tracking of users from site to site. Called Total Cookie Protection and built into Enhanced Tracking Protection Strict Mode, the new feature was designed to confine cookies to the websites that created them, and complements the Supercookie Protections that Mozilla introduced in Firefox 85 last month.
Interesting research on persistent web tracking using favicons. In this paper we introduce a novel tracking mechanism that misuses a simple yet ubiquitous browser feature: favicons.