Vulnerabilities


How The Flame Malware Stayed Hidden For So Long

The past week has brought to light more revelations about the mysterious Flame (or sKyWIper) worm that was first identified at the end of May. Among them: the eye-popping admission from Microsoft that the malware’s authors found a way to use that company’s Windows Update feature to distribute the malware.

Microsoft to Fix 28 Vulnerabilities in June Patch Tuesday

Microsoft has been busy of late, what with the scramble surrounding the Flame malware and the forged certificate that the attackers were able to use to spread the malware via a fake Windows Update service. Now, the company is planning to release seven bulletins next Tuesday covering 28 vulnerabilities in its June Patch Tuesday.


By Alexander GostevThe Flame malware uses several methods to replicate itself. The most interesting one is the use of the Microsoft Windows Update service. This is implemented in Flame’s “SNACK”, “MUNCH” and “GADGET” modules. Being parts of Flame, these modules are easily reconfigurable. The behavior of these modules is controlled by Flame’s global registry, the database that contains thousands of configuration options.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is warning IT administrators and operators of industry control systems about the danger posed by the Flame (aka sKyWIper) malware after Microsoft acknowledged that the malware is able to spoof its Windows Update service to push malicious code onto vulnerable systems.

Making good on its promise to offer free updates for older versions of some of its most popular products, Adobe pushed out patches for its Photoshop and Illustrator products yesterday, fixing nine vulnerabilities, several which could allow remote code execution.

Security researcher and Google employee Michal Zalewski is warning of a potentially serious security hole that affects the three major Web browsers, Internet Explorer, Firefox and Google’s Chrome browser and that could make it easy for attackers to push malicious downloads from domains other than that being visited by unsuspecting Web users.