Security News
Dubbed PwnKit, it's been sitting in a user policy module used in Linux distros for over a decade and can be used by anyone to gain root privileges. Heads up, Linux users: A newly discovered vulnerability in pretty much every major distro allows any unprivileged user to gain root access to their target, and it's been hiding in plain sight for 12 years.
Tracked as CVE-2022-22587, the vulnerability relates to a memory corruption issue in the IOMobileFrameBuffer component that could be abused by a malicious application to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges. The iPhone maker said it's "Aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited," adding it addressed the issue with improved input validation.
A memory corruption vulnerability in PolKit, a component used in major Linux distributions and some Unix-like operating systems, can be easily exploited by local unprivileged users to gain full root privileges. While the vulnerability is not exploitable remotely and doesn't, in itself, allow arbitrary code execution, it can be used by attackers that have already gained a foothold on a vulnerable host to escalate their privileges and achieve that capability.
After a year of unprecedented ransomware attacks on hospitals and healthcare systems - and with healthcare now the #1 target for cybercriminals - critical medical device risks in hospital environments continue to leave hospitals and their patients vulnerable to cyber attacks and data security issues.Data shows that 53% of connected medical devices and other IoT devices in hospitals have a known critical vulnerability.
Cisco Systems has rolled out fixes for a critical security flaw affecting Redundancy Configuration Manager for Cisco StarOS Software that could be weaponized by an unauthenticated, remote attacker to execute arbitrary code and take over vulnerable machines. "An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by connecting to the device and navigating to the service with debug mode enabled," Cisco said in an advisory.
The Microsoft RDP vulnerability is a serious problem, but with a few caveats: It's been patched, and experts say it may be less likely to happen than it seems at first glance. A recently discovered vulnerability in Microsoft's remote desktop protocol goes back to Windows Server 2012 R2 and lets anyone who can connect to an RDP session gain near total control over other RDP users, launching a man-in-the-middle attack.
Attackers looking to exploit recently discovered Log4j vulnerabilities are also trying to take advantage of a previously undisclosed vulnerability in the SolarWinds Serv-U software. It affects version 15.2.5 and previous versions of Serv-U, and has been patched by SolarWinds in version 15.3.
It's not my intention to be alarmist about the Log4j vulnerability, known as Log4Shell, but this one is pretty bad. First of all, Log4j is a ubiquitous logging library that is very widely used by millions of computers. Second, the director of the U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency says this is the most serious vulnerability.
Researchers have disclosed a security shortcoming affecting three different WordPress plugins that impact over 84,000 websites and could be abused by a malicious actor to take over vulnerable sites. "This flaw made it possible for an attacker to update arbitrary site options on a vulnerable site, provided they could trick a site's administrator into performing an action, such as clicking on a link," WordPress security company Wordfence said in a report published last week.
Microsoft on Tuesday kicked off its first set of updates for 2022 by plugging 96 security holes across its software ecosystem, while urging customers to prioritize patching for what it calls a critical "Wormable" vulnerability. The patches cover a swath of the computing giant's portfolio, including Microsoft Windows and Windows Components, Exchange Server, Microsoft Office and Office Components, SharePoint Server,.