The next major version of Adobe’s PDF Reader will feature new sandboxing technology aimed at curbing a surge in malicious hacker attacks against the widely deployed software.The security feature, called “Protected Mode,” is similar to the Google Chrome sandbox and Microsoft Office 2010 Protected Viewing Mode, according to Adobe’s security chief Brad Arkin.
The Stuxnet saga is continuing to take new and troubling turns. Researchers now have found a new binary file associated with the Stuxnet malware that is signed using the digital certificate of another Taiwanese hardware manufacturer, JMicron Technology Corp.
Millions of household routers are susceptible to a flaw that creates a
handy means for hackers to hijack surfing sessions or hack into home
networks. Read the full article. [The Register]
Bot herders and the crimeware gangs behind banker Trojans have had a lot of success in the last few years with using bulletproof hosting providers as their main base of operations. But more and more, they’re finding that social networks such as Twitter and Facebook are offering even more fertile and convenient grounds for controlling their malicious creations.
The digital certificate that belonging to Realtek Semiconductor that was used to sign a pair of drivers fro the new Stuxnet rootkit has been revoked by VeriSign. The certificate was revoked Friday, several days after news broke about the existence of the new malware and the troubling existence of the signed drivers.
A currently spamvertised malware campaign is brand-jacking Amazon.com,
in an attempt to trick end users into visiting a client-side exploits
serving URL. Read the full article. [ZDNet]
The old saying that there’s nothing new under the sun is just as true in the security industry as it is anywhere else. Many new attacks are variants or tweaks of existing ones, new software fails in exactly the same way as old software and new technologies crop up to solve problems that are 30 years old. You can add to that list the sad frequency with which interesting talks at security conferences are having to be canceled because someone doesn’t like the content. This week saw yet another talk pulled from Black Hat, a major cybersecurity meeting in Washington, a rootkit with digitally signed drivers and some new tactics by spammers. Read on for the full week in review.
Microsoft’s problems with Token Kidnapping [.pdf] on the Windows platform aren’t going away anytime soon.
More than a year after Microsoft issued a patch to cover privilege escalation issues that could lead to complete system takeover, a security researcher plans to use the Black Hat conference spotlight to expose new design mistakes and security issues that can be exploited to elevate privileges on all Windows versions including the brand new Windows 2008 R2 and Windows 7.
A well-known cryptographic attack could be used by hackers to log into
Web applications used by millions of users, according to two security
experts who plan to discuss the issue at Black Hat. Read the full article. [Computerworld]
Security researchers have identified a new suspicious program that is copying itself to PCs via USB mass storage devices and is digitally signed with the certificate of Realtek Semiconductor, a major manufacturer of computer products based in Taiwan.
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