Over the past four months, many of the Western world’s largest banking institution websites have been under attack by a well-organized and funded cyber “brigade” that is allegedly part of the US-branded terrorist group “Izz ad-Din al-Qassam” – the military arm of Hamas. Aside from the publicly-stated political agenda motivating the attacks, little else was known about how the attacks were being carried out. Security analysts believed that rather than using large numbers of zombified consumer computers, this series of attacks were actually being powered by a smaller number of more-powerful webservers.
Security firm Incapsula confirmed this theory after recently discovering that a single UK webserver was behind a most recent attack on PNC, HSBC and Fifth Third banking websites. The server had been compromised with a simple backdoor program that allowed a remote operator to launch DDoS-style attacks using a simple, light-weight interface that may have been operating for months unbeknownst to the host or the server’s legitimate admin. Even though it was a single, relatively small server, it was capable of crippling websites of major financial institutions.
What this means for you:
The server in question wasn’t compromised using some sophisticated exploit, brute force attack or clever social engineering. According to Incapsula, the server was using an easily guessable admin password that resulted in an effortless and undetectable security breach. As consumer technology has become more accessible, so have server-class platforms that can be rented out by anyone with a credit card, and typically can be set up in minutes with only a rudimentary knowledge of server administration. This results in situations that look a lot like handing a powerful weapon to someone who has only been given very basic instructions on which end to hold and which end to point at the target. However, in the hands of a skilled hacker, a small “team” of compromised webservers is the equivalent of having a small special forces team operating behind enemy lines. Bottom line – if you have servers in your technology portfolio that aren’t being managed properly, your own technology might be waging an invisible war right under your nose.
Image courtesy of “renjith krishnan” / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
According to security firm Exodus, the patch to Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8 released on December 31 only fixed one of several ways to exploit a weakness in Microsoft’s browser. In their research on this exploit, Exodus continued to develop more aggressive ways to exploit the documented weakness and in doing so, uncovered a means that bypasses Microsoft’s fix, but are witholding details from the public until Microsoft has a chance to address their findings. A number of human rights and government sites have been compromised with malware agents that exploit this weakness and appears to be part of a larger campaign by the “Elderwood Gang” – a highly effective and well-backed group of hackers that have been targeting high-profile government sites since 2009, ostensibly with financial and espionage-based goals.
What this means for you:
Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8 are still considered vulnerable, though no one has documented any websites yet taking advantage of the exploits discovered by Exodus. The fact that there are still holes in IE browser security will not go unnoticed, and if Exodus can develop work-arounds for Microsoft’s patch, you can bet groups like “Elderwood” will be able to do the same, if they haven’t already. Your best short-term solution is to either use another browser like Chrome or Firefox until Microsoft can fully patch this weakness, or upgrade your Internet Explorer to version 9 or 10 as soon as possible. If you are working for an organization or using software that requires backward compatibility to IE 7 or 8, you should consider having a serious discussion with the IT department about their reasons for maintaining what is increasingly becoming an untenable stance. If you are required to use IE 6 for some unfathomable reason, you should stop what you are doing immediately and consult with an IT professional, as IE 6 is a magnet for security exploits.
It might be the last day of 2012, but there’s still time to issue yet another patch to fix a zero-day exploit in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8. Confirmed on Saturday by Microsoft, this patch fixes a vulnerability in all versions of IE prior to v9 that may allow hackers to gain control over a victim’s machine. This latest weakness is likely to be exploited when a computer using one of the versions of the aforementioned browser visits a malicious website, allowing it to run code that can corrupt the memory on the victim’s computer and from there execute malicious code as the logged in user, potentially resulting in backdoor installations, malware infections, and zombification.
What this means for you:
It’s conceivable you are still running IE 8 which was released in 2011, so you may be affected by this weakness. If you are running IE7 or, impossibly, IE6 (it was released in 2001 – over 10 years ago!), I’d say you are better off upgrading to the latest version of IE you can reasonably run on your computer, and then making sure it is patched appropriately.
Security researcher Bogdan Calin has reportedly devised a new cyberattack method that can compromise certain types of routers merely by a local user opening an email on their iPhone, iPod or Mac. This new vector takes advantage of two common security weaknesses: the default mail client settings on Apple devices that loads remote images automatically, as well as default or weak admin passwords on consumer-grade routers that are often found in residences and small businesses. In a nutshell, the attack works by taking advantage of your router’s ability to be managed via web-browser by opening dozens of hidden pages with login and setting changes, each firing off in turn until one of them affects the change.
All of this happens in the blink of an eye, and because the changes don’t have to be destructive immediately, the user would not know they had just compromised their own network. These settings could include changing your DNS settings to servers that a hacker controls, allowing them to misdirect anyone on that network to sites that can further hijack computers. For example, typing “Google.com” would no longer take you to the actual Google website, but could instead send you to a counterfeit site that, for all intents and purposes, looks very similar to Google’s own site, and from there, could lure unsuspecting users into further compromising decisions.
What this means for you:
As of now, this particular attack only works on specific types of routers, and relies on the fact that many people have never set their router password to something other than the default it shipped with from the factory. Despite Mr. Calin’s warning, Apple is not planning to address the settings exploit, and has instead suggested that users can turn off the automatic loading of remote images in emails (the default setting in Android mail clients) if they wish additional security, but with the downside that all images, legitimate or not, would be prevented from loading. The simplest solution, of course, is to set your router password to something other than the default, and preferably one that is hard to guess or brute-force.
Image courtesy of Victor Habbick / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Threatpost has reported on a new zero-day vulnerability that is affecting the Oracle Java plugin used in all popular web browsers, and this time, all operating systems, including Apple’s OS X which is typically excluded from most security exploits. So far, the white hats are ahead of the game on this one, having detected and then demonstrated the hack to Oracle in a “proof of concept” as opposed to discovering malware in the wild exploiting the security hole. In case you missed it, Oracle experienced a similar situation not less than a month ago with Java 7, so it’s likely there are more holes waiting to be discovered.
What this means for you:
This is a fairly significant vulnerability according to the folks that discovered it, as it affects multiple version of Java, including the most recent version 7 release, and multiple operating systems. However, it does not appear to be widely exploited yet, giving Oracle time to patch it up before malware writers can disperse malware to take advantage of this hole. According to Oracle, Java is in use on billions of devices, so if they were to ignore this vulnerability, there could be serious repercussions. If Oracle drags its feet on releasing a patch, you may want to consider disabling the Java plugin in your browser, or uninstalling it altogether. Before you do that, make sure you don’t rely on Java for any critical business applications – you may be surprised to find out just how often you use Java without knowing it!
![Internet_Explorer_7_Logo[1].png](https://c2techs.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Internet_Explorer_7_Logo[1]_0-460x260_c.png "Internet_Explorer_7_Logo[1].png")
In a rare, out-of-band release, Microsoft released an update on Sept 21 that patched the much bally-hooed vulnerability that affected all versions of its browser as far back as IE 6. This security flaw was significant enough to warrant the German government recommend to its citizens that they use another browser until MS could address the exploit, which it did on the 19th in a “fixit” tool downloadable via their website, and now in an MS Update that will be delivered automatically to all validated Windows OS systems.
What this means for you:
Microsoft normally releases its updates on Tuesday, so the more savvy among you might have already noticed the unusual appearance of an update request from your Windows machine as early as last Friday evening. Regardless of when you see it, you should allow update to download and patch your OS as soon as possible, especially if you use IE as your internet browser. If your computer is managed by a corporate IT department, the update may go through internal testing before being released to update your computer. Assuming you’ve not made any changes to how your OS stays up to date, you should be patched, or will be patched the next time you reboot your computer. To make sure you’ve received this update, you can visit your Control Panel, open Windows Update and check your update history for “Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (2744842)”. If this has been successfully installed, you been patched!
Ars Technica is reporting that there was a significant increase in exploitation attacks over the weekend on a previously unknown vulnerability in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, including the most recent version, IE9. What’s very unusual is that this vulnerability appears to occur in all major versions of Microsoft’s OS, including Windows XP, Vista and 7, and and uses the Adobe Flash Player plugin to gain a foothold on a user’s computer. This exploit has been able to circumvent most commercial anti-virus and anti-malware programs in use currently.
What this means to you:
On an Apple computer like an iMac or MacBook? Nothing you need to worry about – this exploit only affects Windows-based computers.
For all Windows users: Until Microsoft admits to, and then patches this vulnerability (so far they haven’t responded), and until the major anti-malware manufacturers like McAfee, Symantec, etc. can successfully detect and protect against this exploit, using any version of Internet Explorer will come with increased risk, especially if you surf to unknown or undocumented sites (ie. follow a link sent by a friend or co-worker, without knowing whether the link is legitimate). If it’s possible, I would recommend installing and using Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox, at least until MS can patch this vulnerability.
At minimum:
- Make sure your computer has a working anti-virus program installed, updated and running.
- Avoid browsing websites with which you are unfamiliar.
- Stay alert for unusual behavior on your computer, such as sluggish performance, unusual pop-up windows and inability to surf to websites, specifically anti-virus websites and the alternate browser sites that I linked above.
Keep in mind, if your computer is managed by an IT department, using a browser other than IE may not be allowed, or, if it is allowed, Chrome and/or Firefox may not work with some of your company’s web applications, as many are designed and tested to work with IE only.