Vulnerabilities


Businesses Remain Scared of Spear-Phishing as Attackers Study Behavior

Scared is a strong word, but the reality, according to a Websense analysis by Patrik Runald, is that spear-phishers, like the ones that compromised a White House network last week, are implementing new evasion tactics, fundamentally changing their attack strategies, and revolutionizing the targeted threat model, giving business executives plenty of reason to worry.


Microsoft rolled out seven security updates today, including a fix for a critical remotely exploitable Word vulnerability. In all, 20 vulnerabilities were repaired by Microsoft, which also issued an advisory regarding poorly generated digital certificates that have to be replaced and the distribution of an automated mechanism that will check for certificate key lengths and revoke any shorter than 1024 bits.

Adobe earlier today issued a security update for its Flash Player to seal serious security vulnerabilities that could crash and possibly allow remote control of machines with the popular media software installed.Microsoft also issued a security advisory for similar vulnerabilities that could impact users of Internet Explorer 10 as well as all supported editions of Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012.

A flurry of fake, ad-laden Angry Birds lookalike games have flooded the Google Chrome Web store of late. The online marketplace where Google sells extensions and games for its Chrome browser has seen an influx of games mimicking “Bad Piggies,” a new game Rovio Entertainment recently released that puts a twist on its ubiquitous Angry Birds game.

By Fabio AssoliniThis is the description of an attack happening in Brazil since 2011 using 1 firmware vulnerability, 2 malicious scripts and 40 malicious DNS servers, which affected 6 hardware manufacturers, resulting in millions of Brazilian internet users falling victim to a sustained and silent mass attack on DSL modems.

The phrase “you’re doing it wrong” is a common refrain in the security community these days as people wander around in various states of disillusionment with the technology and processes that have led to what many perceive as a systemic failure. But that refrain usually is not followed by any useful discussion of what’s going wrong or what can be done about it. To researcher Claudio Guarnieri, one of the major problems is obvious: we’re completely backward in the way we prioritize protection.

Cisco has released nine security advisories for various products, including eight for its ubiquitous IOS operating system. Many of the vulnerabilities fixed in the patch release are denial-of-service flaws and none of them can give an attacker the ability to run code remotely on affected machines.