Zero Day

November 23rd, 2009

Opera patches 'extremely severe' security hole

Posted by Ryan Naraine @ 12:24 pm

Categories: Arbitrary Code Execution, Browsers, Data theft, Denial of Service (DoS), Hackers, Malware, Passwords, Patch Watch, Responsible disclosure

Tags: Opera Software ASA, Patch Management, Error Message, Patches, Security, Ryan Naraine

Opera has shipped a new version of its browser to fix three security vulnerabilities, one rated “extremely severe.”

The most serious flaw could allow a malicious attacker to take complete control of a system, Opera said in an advisory. Read the rest of this entry »

November 23rd, 2009

Exploit published for critical IE 7 zero-day flaw

Posted by Ryan Naraine @ 8:32 am

Categories: Anti Virus, Arbitrary Code Execution, Browsers, Data theft, Denial of Service (DoS), Exploit code, Microsoft, Passwords, Patch Watch, Responsible disclosure

Tags: Microsoft Internet Explorer 7, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Corp., Zero-day Bug, VUPEN, VUPEN Security, Web Browsers, Internet, Ryan Naraine

Exploit code for a critical (remotely exploitable) vulnerability in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7 browser has been released on the Internet, prompting a new round “upgrade now!” warnings from computer security experts.

The vulnerability could be used in malware attacks to take complete control of a Windows machine running IE 6 or IE 7, according to an advisory issued over the  weekend. Read the rest of this entry »

November 19th, 2009

Inside the Google Chrome OS security model

Posted by Ryan Naraine @ 11:54 am

Categories: Apple, Arbitrary Code Execution, Browsers, Data theft, Denial of Service (DoS), Exploit code, Hackers, Microsoft, Open source, Passwords, Patch Watch, Responsible disclosure, Viruses and Worms, Vulnerability research, iPhone

Tags: Google Inc., Operating System, Web Browser, Google Chrome, Attack, End Goal, Web Browsers, Operating Systems, Security, Internet

Google plans to use a combination of system hardening, process isolation, verified boot, secure auto-update and encryption to thwart malicious hackers from planting malware on its new Google Chrome OS. Read the rest of this entry »

November 19th, 2009

Microsoft finds security hole in Google Chrome Frame

Posted by Ryan Naraine @ 9:49 am

Categories: Anti Virus, Arbitrary Code Execution, Browsers, Data theft, Denial of Service (DoS), Exploit code, Google, Google Chrome, Malware, Microsoft, Open source, Patch Watch

Tags: Google Inc., Microsoft Corp., Google Chrome, Web Browsers, Security, Viruses And Worms, Internet, Ryan Naraine

Back in September, when Google launched the Google Chrome Frame plug-in for Internet Explorer users, Microsoft immediately warned that the move would increase the attack surface and make IE users less secure.

Now comes word that a security researcher in the Microsoft Vulnerability Research (MSVR) has discovered a “high risk” security vulnerability that could allow an attacker to bypass cross-origin protections. Read the rest of this entry »

November 18th, 2009

Mozilla locks out rogue Firefox add-ons

Posted by Ryan Naraine @ 10:33 am

Categories: Anti Virus, Arbitrary Code Execution, Browsers, Denial of Service (DoS), Exploit code, Firefox, Malware, Microsoft, Mozilla, Open source, Patch Watch, Vulnerability research

Tags: Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Corp., Migration Document, Web Browsers, Internet, Ryan Naraine

Mozilla has made a significant tweak to this Firefox 3.6 code base to block rogue add-ons from loading in the browser’s application components directory.

This will most certainly block developers and software vendors from silently installing Firefox add-ons without explicit user permission.  It will also significantly reduce browser crashes linked to third-party add-ons, Mozilla said. Read the rest of this entry »

November 17th, 2009

Thousands of web sites compromised, redirect to scareware

Posted by Dancho Danchev @ 12:12 pm

Categories: Anti Virus, Botnets, Browsers, Hackers, Malware, Passwords, Web 2.0

Tags: Search Engine Optimization, Web Application, Web Site, Attack Vector, Google Search, Search, Security, Dancho Danchev

Updated: Thursday, November 19 - According to eSoft who contacted me, they’ve been monitoring the campaign since September, with another 720,000 affected sites back then.

There are now over a million affected sites serving scareware, with only a small percentage of them currently marked as harmful. Google has been notified. As always, NoScript and your decent situational awareness are your best friends.

Security researchers have detected a massive blackhat SEO (search engine optimization) campaign consisting of over 200,000 compromised web sites, all redirecting to fake security software (Inst_58s6.exe), commonly referred to as scareware.

More details on the campaign:

Read the rest of this entry »

November 16th, 2009

Microsoft confirms 'detailed' Windows 7 exploit

Posted by Ryan Naraine @ 10:25 am

Categories: Arbitrary Code Execution, Browsers, Denial of Service (DoS), Exploit code, Microsoft, Passwords, Patch Watch, Punditocracy, Vulnerability research, Windows Vista

Tags: Denial Of Service, Web, Attacker, Vulnerability, Microsoft Corp., Web Site, Small And Medium Business, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Smb/Sme

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.

Exploit code for the vulnerability was released by researcher Laurent Gaffié after failed attempts to get Microsoft’s security response center to acknowledge that this was an issue that needs to be patched (SEE UPDATE BELOW). Read the rest of this entry »

November 13th, 2009

Man-in-the-middle attacks demoed on 4 smartphones

Posted by Dancho Danchev @ 3:22 pm

Categories: Browsers, Complex Attacks, Hackers, Malware, Mobile (In)Security, Passwords, Privacy, Research, Wi-Fi security

Tags: Network, Wi-Fi Network, Smart Phone, SSL, Attack, Wireless LANs, Wi-Fi, Wireless And Mobility, Security, Dancho Danchev

Security researchers from SMobile Systems have released a paper detailing successful man-in-the-middle attacks against several smartphones.

The SSL enabled log in sessions on the tested, Nokia N95, HTC Tilt, Android G1 and iPhone 3GS devices was sniffed using the publicly available SSLstrip tool, with the attack taking place over insecure Wi-Fi network, now prevalent literally everywhere.

Here’s the scenario they used, and possible mitigation approaches:

Read the rest of this entry »

November 12th, 2009

Microsoft bracing for malware attacks from embedded fonts

Posted by Ryan Naraine @ 11:16 am

Categories: Arbitrary Code Execution, Botnets, Browsers, Denial of Service (DoS), Exploit code, Metasploit, Microsoft, Passwords, Patch Watch, Responsible disclosure, Spam and Phishing, Spyware and Adware

Tags: Malware, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Corp., Attack Vector, Font, Attack, Metasploit, Microsoft Windows, Security, Operating Systems

Heads up to all Microsoft Windows users: If you’re running Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, stop what you’re doing and immediately download and apply the MS09-065 update released earlier this week.

Security researchers say it’s only a matter of time — days not weeks — before malicious hackers start exploiting one of the vulnerabilities via booby-trapped Web pages or Office (Word or PowerPoint) documents.

Read the rest of this entry »

November 11th, 2009

Apple Safari exposes Windows to drive-by download attacks

Posted by Ryan Naraine @ 1:37 pm

Categories: Apple, Arbitrary Code Execution, Browsers, Data theft, Denial of Service (DoS), Exploit code, Malware, Microsoft, Passwords, Patch Watch, Pen testing, Responsible disclosure, Spyware and Adware, Vulnerability research

Tags: Apple Macintosh, Apple Safari, Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows Vista, Apple Inc., Attack, WebKit, Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X, Apple Mac OS

Apple today shipped Safari 4.0.4 to fix a total of seven security flaws that expose Windows and Mac users to a wide range of malicious hacker attacks.

The high-priority update patches vulnerabilities that allow remote code execution (drive-by downloads) if a user simply surfs to a maliciously rigged Web site.  Some of the issues affect Microsoft’s new Windows 7 operating system.
Read the rest of this entry »