February 9th, 2010

Patch Tuesday: Microsoft plugs critical Windows worm holes

Posted by Ryan Naraine @ 11:29 am

Categories: Arbitrary Code Execution, Botnets, Browsers, Complex Attacks, Data theft, Exploit code, Microsoft, Passwords, Patch Watch, Viruses and Worms, Vulnerability research, Web 2.0

Tags: Denial Of Service, Attacker, Vulnerability, Victim, Exploit Code, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Corp., Small And Medium Business, Attack, CVE-2010-0242

Microsoft today released 13 security bulletins with fixes for 26 vulnerabilities affecting Windows and Office users and warned customers to pay special attention to a slew of flaws that can be trivially exploited by malware miscreants.

The company urged customers to prioritize and deploy four updates because of the “critical” severity rating and the fact that “consistent exploit code” is likely within the next 30 days.

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February 9th, 2010

Adobe screw-up leaves Flash flaw unpatched for 16 months

Posted by Ryan Naraine @ 8:49 am

Categories: Adobe, Arbitrary Code Execution, Browsers, Exploit code, Firefox, Flash, Locally Running Web Servers, Malware, Mozilla, Patch Watch, Responsible disclosure, Viruses and Worms

Tags: Adobe Systems Inc., Flaw, Macromedia Flash Player, Web Browsers, Security, Internet, Ryan Naraine

Adobe has acknowledged that an internal screw-up caused potentially dangerous serious Flash Player flaw to remain unpatched for more than 16 months after it was first reported by an external security researcher.

“It slipped through the cracks,” said Emmy Huang, a product manager for Flash Player.  Adobe’s mea-culpa follows the public release of proof-of-concept code demonstrating a Flash Player browser plug-in crash.

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February 5th, 2010

Mozilla Firefox hit by malware add-ons

Posted by Ryan Naraine @ 8:20 am

Categories: Anti Virus, Browsers, Data theft, Exploit code, Firefox, Malware, Microsoft, Mozilla, Spam and Phishing, Spyware and Adware, Viruses and Worms, Vulnerability research

Tags: Mozilla Firefox, Trojan Horse, Malware, Mozilla Corp., Add-on, Spyware, Adware & Malware, Cyberthreats, Spyware, Viruses And Worms, Security

Mozilla says a pair of malicious Firefox add-ons slipped by its security checks and infected approximately 4,600 Windows computers over the last five months.

The browser add-ons, described my Mozilla as “experimental,”  contained a Trojan horse that executed when Firefox started and infected the host computer.

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January 27th, 2010

Report: 48% of 22 million scanned computers infected with malware

Posted by Dancho Danchev @ 2:42 pm

Categories: Anti Virus, Botnets, Browsers, Data theft, Hackers, Malware, Passwords, Rootkits, Spyware and Adware, Viruses and Worms

Tags: Bank, Fraudster, Malware, Authentication, Spyware, Adware & Malware, Cyberthreats, Security, Dancho Danchev

The recently released APWG Phishing Activity Trends Report for Q3 of 2009, details record highs in multiple phishing vectors, but also offers an interesting observation on desktop crimeware infections.

According to the report, the overall number of infected computers (page 10) used in the sample decreased compared to previous quarters, however, 48.35% of the 22,754,847 scanned computers remain infected with malware.

And despite that the crimeware/banking trojans infections slightly decreased from Q2, over a million and a half computers were infected.

More details:

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January 22nd, 2010

RealPlayer haunted by 11 critical vulnerabilities

Posted by Ryan Naraine @ 10:41 am

Categories: Arbitrary Code Execution, Browsers, Data theft, Denial of Service (DoS), Digital rights management, Exploit code, Hackers, Malware, Patch Watch, Spyware and Adware, Viruses and Worms

Tags: Critical Vulnerability, Code, Buffer-overflow, RealNetworks RealPlayer, Error, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), Digital Music, Digital Media, Viruses And Worms, Security

A quick heads-up to any computer users out with RealPlayer installed:  There are at least 11 critical vulnerabilities that expose Windows, Mac and Linux users to malicious hacker attacks.

RealNetworks released an advisory to warn of the vulnerabilities, which could be exploited via rigged image and media files to launch remote code execution attacks.

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January 20th, 2010

Researcher demos clickjacking attack on Facebook

Posted by Ryan Naraine @ 9:37 am

Categories: Adobe, Arbitrary Code Execution, Browsers, Data theft, Exploit code, Flash, Responsible disclosure, Viruses and Worms, Vulnerability research, Zero-day attacks

Tags: Facebook, Researcher, Attack, Security, Ryan Naraine

An Israeli security researcher has found a way to perpetrate so-called clickjacking attacks on Facebook, proving that it’s trivial to manipulate the social network’s security and privacy mechanisms.

A demo exploit released by Shlomi Narkolayev shows how easy it is to trick Facebook users into adding apps or other malicious content by hijacking clicks to what appears to be harmless links.

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January 20th, 2010

Critical flaws haunt Adobe Shockwave Player

Posted by Ryan Naraine @ 7:42 am

Categories: Adobe, Arbitrary Code Execution, Data theft, Exploit code, Malware, Patch Watch, Pen testing, Responsible disclosure, Viruses and Worms, Vulnerability research

Tags: Adobe Systems Inc., Shockwave, Flaw, Security, Viruses And Worms, Ryan Naraine

Adobe’s run on the patching treadmill continued this week with a “critical” update to fix a pair of code execution holes in its Shockwave Player.

The vulnerabilities affect Adobe Shockwave Player 11.5.2.602 and earlier versions, on the Windows and Mac operating systems.  Read the rest of this entry »

January 19th, 2010

Google-China cyber espionage saga - FAQ

Posted by Dancho Danchev @ 8:30 am

Categories: Adobe, Anti Virus, Arbitrary Code Execution, Botnets, Browsers, Complex Attacks, Data theft, Exploit code, Google, Governments, Hackers, Malware, Microsoft, Passwords, People's Republic of China, Phishing, Viruses and Worms, Zero-day attacks

Tags: China, Google Inc., Malware, Cyberattack, Spyware, Adware & Malware, Cyberthreats, Security, Dancho Danchev

With more details emerging on the inner workings of the targeted malware attack that hit Google and over 30 other companies (ZDNet News Special Coverage - Special Report: Google, China showdown), it’s time to summarize all the events that took place during the past week, and answer some of the most frequently asked questions such as - How did the attack take place? Did Google strike back at the attackers? Was the Chinese government behind the attacks, and if not who orchestrated them and for what reason?

Go through the FAQ and their answers.

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January 13th, 2010

Adobe plugs PDF zero-day flaw in latest security makeover

Posted by Ryan Naraine @ 8:06 am

Categories: Adobe, Arbitrary Code Execution, Browsers, Data theft, Denial of Service (DoS), Exploit code, Flash, Hackers, Locally Running Web Servers, Malware, Patch Watch, Reverse Engineering, Viruses and Worms, Zero-day attacks

Tags: Adobe Systems Inc., Adobe PDF, Adobe Acrobat, Vulnerability, Update, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Zero-day Bug, Enhanced Security, Security, Ryan Naraine

Adobe has released a mega-update for its Reader and Acrobat software products to fix a total of eight documented security vulnerabilities.

The update comes with significant security improvements, including the on-by-default addition “Enhanced Security,” a feature that provides a set of default restrictions and a method to define trusted locations that should not be subject to those restrictions.
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January 4th, 2010

Apple (Snow Leopard) malware blocker collecting cobwebs

Posted by Ryan Naraine @ 11:46 am

Categories: Anti Virus, Apple, Arbitrary Code Execution, Browsers, Data theft, Phishing, Social Networking Applications, Spam and Phishing, Viruses and Worms

Tags: Apple Macintosh, Malware, Apple Inc., Spyware, Adware & Malware, Desktops, Apple Mac OS X, Cyberthreats, Apple Mac OS, Viruses And Worms, Security

Nearly six months after Apple added a malware blocker to Mac OS X (Snow Leopard), the feature appears to be collecting cobwebs.

Apple has not added any anti-malware signature updates to the XProtect.plist file that launched with antidotes for OSX.RSPlug.A and OSX.Iservice, two known Trojan horse programs targeting Mac OS X users.

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