Security News

Pulse Secure has fixed a zero-day vulnerability in the Pulse Connect Secure SSL VPN appliance that is being actively exploited to compromise the internal networks of defense firms and govt agencies. A day later, US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued an emergency directive ordering federal agencies to mitigate the vulnerability within two days by disabling the Windows File Share Browser and Pulse Secure Collaboration features.

Now that you have your Pritunl VPN server up and running, Jack Wallen shows you how to connect the client. In a recent how-to, I walked you through the process of installing the Pritunl VPN server on Ubuntu 20.04.

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has disclosed details of a new advanced persistent threat that's leveraging the Supernova backdoor to compromise SolarWinds Orion installations after gaining access to the network through a connection to a Pulse Secure VPN device. "The threat actor connected to the entity's network via a Pulse Secure virtual private network appliance, moved laterally to its SolarWinds Orion server, installed malware referred to by security researchers as SUPERNOVA, and collected credentials," the agency said on Thursday.

A VPN is a digital tool that improves your security and privacy online. An IP can reveal your location and your ISP. However, a VPN changes that.

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has issued a new emergency directive ordering federal agencies to mitigate an actively exploited vulnerability in Pulse Connect Secure VPN appliances on their networks by Friday. CISA issued the Emergency Directive 21-03 Tuesday after Pulse Secure confirmed a FireEye report saying that at least two state-backed threat groups exploited the bug to breach government and defense organizations in the US and across the globe.

Attackers have been exploiting several old and one zero-day vulnerability affecting Pulse Connect Secure VPN devices to breach a variety of defense, government, and financial organizations around the world, Mandiant/FireEye has warned on Tuesday. Phil Richards, the Chief Security Officer at Ivanti - the company that acquired Pulse Secure in late 2020 - said that the zero-day vulnerability "Impacted a very limited number of customers," and that the software updates plugging the flaw will be released in early May. In the meantime, they've offered some workarounds that can mitigate the risk of exploitation of that particular vulnerability, as well as a tool that can help defenders check if their systems have been affected.

Dozens of defense companies, government agencies, and financial organizations in America and abroad appear to have been compromised by China via vulnerabilities in their Pulse Connect Secure VPN appliances - including a zero-day flaw that won't be patched until next month. On Tuesday, IT software supplier Ivanti, the parent of Pulse Secure, issued a wake-up call to its customers by revealing it looks as though select clients were compromised via their encrypted gateways.

Pulse Secure has shared mitigation measures for a zero-day authentication bypass vulnerability in the Pulse Connect Secure SSL VPN appliance actively exploited in attacks against worldwide organizations and focused on US Defense Industrial base networks. To mitigate the vulnerability tracked as CVE-2021-22893, Pulse Secure advises customers with gateways running PCS 9.0R3 and higher to upgrade the server software to the 9.1R.11.

The ioXt Alliance announced that it is expanding its ioXt Compliance Program with a new mobile application profile with added requirements for VPN applications. Defined collaboratively by technology companies such as Google and Amazon, in partnership with security labs, NowSecure, NCC Group, DEKRA, Onward Security and 7layers, and aligned with the initiatives set forth by VPN Trust Initiative, these new security standards for the mobile app and VPN markets will bring transparency and visibility to consumer and enterprise buyers, to advance security in the IoT industry as a whole.

On Thursday the ioXt Alliance, an Internet of Things security trade group backed by some of the biggest names in the business, introduced a set of baseline standards for mobile apps, in the hope that IoT security may someday be a bit less of a dumpster fire. The announcement of the new Mobile Application Profile [PDF], a certification program covering best practices and requirements to keep mobile apps safer than the low bar of vendor discretion, comes from the collaboration of more than 20 ioXt member companies like Amazon, Comcast, Google, and others.