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Dennis Fisher is a journalist with more than 13 years of experience covering information security.
Microsoft is warning its users about a dangerous flaw in the way that Windows handles certain MHTML operations, which could allow an attacker to run code on vulnerable machines. The bug affects all of the current versions of Windows, from XP up through Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008.
The recent rash of attacks against free and open source software projects continued this week with an attack that targeted SourceForge, the popular repository for open source projects. The attack compromised a number of separate systems, including the site’s CVS system.
The last year has seen a string of takedowns of botnet command-and-control servers, malware drop zones, spam operations and other pieces of the crimeware infrastructure, each of which made a dent in one way or another. But the question of whether the takedowns have had any lasting effect on the overall level of crime and fraud online is a more complicated one.
Opera has released a new version of its flagship browser, which, among other things, fixes a remotely exploitable critical vulnerability that was disclosed late last week. Opera 11.01 also includes some other stability upgrades.
VolgaHost, a hosting provider notorious in the security community for hosting botnet command-and-control servers and other services related to online crime has been taken offline, and a number of servers involved in the Zeus crimeware operation are offline, as a result.
The infrastructure of the Fedora Project was compromised over the weekend and an account belonging to a Fedora contributor was taken over by an attacker. However, Fedora officials said they don’t believe that the attacker was able to push any changes to the Fedora package system or make any actual changes to the infrastructure.
Google has delivered a new tool that enables Chrome users to permanently opt out of ad-tracking cookies in the company’s browser. The new extension gives users the ability to make their choices about not being tracked by online advertisers permanent, at least in Google Chrome.
Apple has hired a software security expert to head up its growing internal security group. The company has hired David Rice, a former National Security Agency analyst and consultant on security issues, according to reports.
There is a critical vulnerability in the Opera browser that could be used by an attacker to execute arbitrary code on vulnerable machines. The bug affects the latest version of Opera running on Windows 7, as well as Windows XP SP3.
Whatever else is said about malware authors, it’s becoming clearer and clearer of late that they are learning from their mistakes and adapting to new defensive tactics at an increasingly rapid rate. The latest example of this is a recently discovered version of the Carberp malware, which now includes a new encryption scheme and improved administrative capabilities.
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