ZDNet Must Read:
Microsoft confirms 'detailed' Windows 7 exploit
Microsoft has issued a security advisory to acknowledge a crippling denial-of-service flaw affecting its newest operating systems -- Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.... Continued »
Category: Uncategorized
October 29th, 2009
Spooky Halloween - scareware or crimeware?
With all the “spooky” cybercrime trends taking place on a monthly basis, such as the death of CAPTCHA, the suspicious idleness of the Conficker botnet, the clear presence of government-tolerated and upcoming government-sponsored botnets, the inevitable migration from using malicious infrastructure to entirely relying on legitimate one, followed by the cyber terrorism myopia that cyber terrorists still need years to build advanced cyber warfare capabilities, totally excluding outsourcing as a factor for gaining competitive advantage from the big picture, I’m literally having hard time deciding which one deserves most attention.
Whatever the cybercrime tactics, the main objective for the key ‘market players’ remains the same - monetization. Which prompts this year’s Halloween question - scareware (trick) or crimeware (treat)?
October 28th, 2009
US-CERT warns about BlackBerry spyware app
The United States Computer Emergency Response Team (US-CERT) has flagged the release of a free BlackBerry spyware application that allows an attacker to call a user’s BlackBerry and listen to personal conversations.
The application, called PhoneSnoop, was publicly released as a proof-of-concept. It was first discussed at the Hack-in-the-Box security conference this year. Read the rest of this entry »
October 19th, 2009
Mozilla blocks (then unblocks) dangerous MS .NET Firefox add-on
FINAL UPDATE: In the Threatpost podcast above, Mozilla’s Mike Shaver explains what happened (.mp3)
[ UPDATE: Mozilla has now removed the extension from the blocklist after Microsoft clarified some information in its bulletin on how Firefox users were affected. I'll attempt to get to the bottom of what appears to be a case of miscommunication ]
Mozilla has added the Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant add-on to its blacklist, a move that effectively disables the dangerous extension and plug-in for all Firefox users.
The move comes in the wake of an admission from Microsoft that the add-on was exposing users to drive-by malware downloads via a remote code execution vulnerability. Read the rest of this entry »
September 17th, 2009
Remote exploit released for Windows Vista SMB2 worm hole
Security researchers at penetration testing firm Immunity have created a reliable remote exploit capable of spawning a worm through an unpatched security hole in Microsoft’s dominant Windows operating system.
A team of exploit writers led by Kostya Kortchinsky attacked the known SMB v2 vulnerability and created a remote exploit that’s been fitted into Immunity’s Canvas pen-testing platform. The exploit hits all versions of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 SP2, according to Immunity’s Dave Aitel.
August 28th, 2009
Apache.org hit by SSH key compromise
The open-source Apache Software Foundation pulled its Apache.org Web site offline for about three hours today because of server hack caused by a compromised SSH key.
A brief message posted on the site (see image below) made it clear the compromise was “not due to any software exploits in Apache itself”, but was actually caused by a compromised SSH key.
August 27th, 2009
The most dangerous celebrities to search for in 2009
Searching for which celebrity has the highest probability of tricking you into visiting a malware-friendly web site?
Last year it was Brad Pitt, but according to this year’s McAfee report “Riskiest Celebrities to Search on the Web“, it’s Jessica Biel related searches that have “one in five chance of landing at a Web site that’s tested positive for online threats, such as spyware, adware, spam, phishing, viruses and other malware“.
August 12th, 2009
Apple drops (another) Mac OS X security patch
Less than a week after fixing 19 Mac OS X security vulnerabilities, Apple is on the patch treadmill again.
The company released Security Update 2009-004 to fix a solitary BIND vulnerability that could lead to denial of service attacks. Apple warns:
August 11th, 2009
Campaign Monitor hacked, accounts used for spamming
E-mail marketing software developer Campaign Monitor warned users today of a server compromise that took place during the weekend.
The compromise allowed the attackers to gain access to customer accounts, which they abused by importing their own lists of harvested emails in order to launch spam campaigns using the clean IP reputation of their servers. No credit card details have leaked, according to the company.
More info on the attack:
August 7th, 2009
Microsoft's Bing invaded by pharmaceutical scammers
Rogue online pharmacies have found a way to exploit Bing’s advertising program.
According to a recently released report by KnujOn and LegitScript, 90% of the Bing sponsored pharmacy ads were rogue ones, shipping counterfeit prescription drugs, with the bogus companies participating part of larger affiliate networks like this one analyzed last year.
The report also details a brand-jacking scheme allowing bogus advertisers the option to choose their own “Display URL” and a separate “Destination URL” for displaying their ads.
More findings:
August 4th, 2009
Plugins compromised in SquirrelMail's web server hack
According to a recently posted update by SquirrelMail’s Jonathan Angliss, the source code of three plugins was backdoored during the web server compromise of the popular web-based email application which took place last month.
The compromised plugins were embedded with code that was forwarding accounting data to a server maintained by the people behind the hack, something SquirrelMail didn’t acknowledge prior to announcing the web server compromise.
Dancho Danchev is an independent security consultant and cyber threats analyst, with extensive experience in open source intelligence gathering, malware and cybercrime incident response. He's been an active security blogger since 2007, and maintains a popular security blog. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
Subscribe to Zero Day via Email alerts or RSS.
SponsoredWhite Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads
- Three Steps You Need to Know to Stop Data Loss Varonis Sensitive data exposed to misuse or loss... it is the stuff of nightmares ... Download Now
- Can your business work smarter? IBM Today, productivity is at a premium and IT budgets are at a minimum. Work ... Download Now
- Why Isn't Server Virtualization Saving Us More? A Few Small Changes May Dramatically Increase Your Efficiency VMware Companies have rapidly adopted server virtualization over the past few ... Download Now
Recent Entries
- Opera patches ‘extremely severe’ security hole
- Exploit published for critical IE 7 zero-day flaw
- Inside the Google Chrome OS security model
- Microsoft finds security hole in Google Chrome Frame
- Mozilla locks out rogue Firefox add-ons
Blogs From Our Sponsors
Most Popular Posts
- Microsoft confirms 'detailed' Windows 7 exploit
- Thousands of web sites compromised, redirect to scareware
- Windows 7's default UAC bypassed by 8 out of 10 malware samples
- Mac OS X mega patch covers 58 security vulnerabilities
- Which antivirus is best at removing malware?
- Microsoft patches Windows worm holes, drive-by download flaws
Top Rated
- Facebook password-reset spam is Bredolab botnet attack+46 votes
- Microsoft confirms 'detailed' Windows 7 exploit+43 votes
- Thousands of web sites compromised, redirect to scareware+43 votes
- Firefox hit by multiple drive-by download flaws+41 votes
- Which antivirus is best at removing malware?+40 votes
- iHacked: jailbroken iPhones compromised, $5 ransom demanded+32 votes
- New LoroBot ransomware encrypts files, demands $100 for decryption+28 votes
- Mac OS X mega patch covers 58 security vulnerabilities+26 votes
Premier Vendor Content Whitepapers, webcasts & resources from our Power Center Sponsors
- New Online Dashboard for IT Leaders
-
Read about top issues IT decision-makers face every day, plus get cost-effective solutions to real-life IT problems.
- Learn more >>
- Keep Up With The Latest In Document Management with The DocuMentor.
-
Doc delivers the scoop on today's enterprise content management, printer maintenance, and all other issues related to document management. It's the DocuMentor Blog.
- Learn more >>
- Reduce risk. Reduce complexity. Increase reliability.
-
A simplified IT environment isn't just less complex. It's also more reliable. Standardize on a single Linux platform with SUSE Linux Enterprise from Novell, and get the world's most interoperable Linux
- Learn more >>
- Reduce risk. Reduce complexity. Increase reliability.
-
A simplified IT environment isn't just less complex. It's also more reliable. Standardize on a single Linux platform with SUSE Linux Enterprise from Novell, and get the world's most interoperable Linux
- Learn more >>
Archives
Favorite Links
ZDNet Blogs
- All About Microsoft
- The Apple Core
- Between the Lines
- BriefingsDirect
- Collaboration 2.0
- Dev Connection
- Digital Cameras & Camcorders
- Ed Bott's Microsoft Report
- Emerging Tech
- Enterprise Web 2.0
- Forrester Research
- Googling Google
- GreenTech Pastures
- Hardware 2.0
- Home Theater
- iGeneration
- Irregular Enterprise
- IT Project Failures
- Laptops & Desktops
- Lawgarithms
- Linux and Open Source
- Managing L'unix
- The Mobile Gadgeteer
- On Sustainability
- Rational Rants
- The Semantic Web
- Service Oriented
- Smartphones and Cell Phones
- Social Business
- Social CRM: The Conversation
- Software & Services Safari
- Software as Services
- Storage Bits
- Team Think
- Tech Broiler
- Technology and the Global Supply Chain
- Tom Foremski: IMHO
- The ToyBox
- Virtually Speaking
- The Web Life
- ZDNet Education
- ZDNet Government
- ZDNet Healthcare
- Zero Day
White Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads
- Three Steps You Need to Know to Stop Data Loss Varonis Sensitive data exposed to misuse or loss... it is the stuff of nightmares ... Download Now
- The Impact of Virtualization Software on Operating Environments VMware Today's use of virtualization technology allows IT professionals to ... Download Now
- VMware Infrastructure: A Guide to Bottom-Line Benefits VMware Frustrated by the costs of maintain ever larger data centers?or building ... Download Now
SmartPlanet
- Thought-provoking progressive ideas on diverse topics that intersect with technology, business, and life, and matter to the world at large. Visit SmartPlanet
- More from IBM
-
- Can your business work smarter? Learn more about Lotus Symphony
- Learn how to work smarter and optimize cost using the IBM Smart SOA approach Download the eBook
- Smarter ways to make smarter products Read the brief from IBM
