LAS VEGAS–An odd thing happened at Black Hat on Thursday: an Apple security official gave a talk. Seats began filling early, 20 minutes before the talk began, and expectations were high, with many people wondering how much the speaker would reveal about the inner workings of iOS security. And then the talk began and it was fairly clear that the answer to that question was, not much.
LAS VEGAS–Do not stand near Charlie Miller. Actually, you might not even want to let him walk past you. It’s not that Miller is a bad person, you understand. The problem is that Miller has figured out a couple of methods that enable him–or an attacker–to use the NFC chip in some phones to exploit vulnerabilities in the phones’ software and force users to visit a Web site or even gain complete control of the phone.
There is a new variant of the OpFake mobile malware making the rounds, and this version comes bundled with a version of the legitimate Opera Mini mobile browser. The malware targets Android phones and steals money from victims by sending SMS messages without the user’s knowledge to premium-rate numbers and also collects data about the device it infects.
Mobile security has become a major concern both for consumers and for enterprises worried about the integrity of their sensitive data. Part of that worry centers on the security of the apps on mobile devices, something that’s largely unknowable in a lot of cases right now. Duo Security today is releasing a new app called X-Ray that scans Android devices for known vulnerabilities and alerts users to which ones remain unpatched.
Microsoft researchers are warning about a new Trojan horse program for Android mobile devices that sends out premium SMS messages once installed.
DEFCON is inviting the kids back again this year for the second edition of DEFCON Kids, and this time, there’s zero-days involved.
Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android have been on opposite ends of the security continuum for the last few years, with iOS remaining resistant to malware and Android becoming a frequent target for attackers and malware authors. Google has been taking steps to change that in recent releases, and the latest version of its mobile operating system, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, includes several new exploit mitigations and a more extensive implementation of ASLR to help defeat many kinds of exploits.
It’s not every day that you get a security story that involves Yahoo, Google and Microsoft, but that’s what has happened with the claims from a Microsoft official that there was an Android-based botnet in existence sending spam from compromised devices. Now it seems that the spam emanating from Android phones may be the result of a bug the Yahoo Mail app that enables attackers to sniff traffic and compromise users’ accounts.
Instagram has patched a flaw in its photo sharing application that could have allowed anyone to add themselves as friends to accounts and view information and photos that were set to private.
An online forum for Android fans and developers was compromised and user account details stolen, according to a notice posted online on Tuesday.
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