Adobe today released a patch to fix several serious security flaws in its Shockwave Player software.
The update, which is rated “critical,” addresses a total of five
documented vulnerabilities. The most serious flaw could allow remote
code execution attacks against Windows and Mac users.
Windows Vista is dramatically more secure than Windows XP, according Microsoft’s latest Security Intelligence Report. The infection rate of Windows Vista SP1 was 61.9 percent less than Windows XP SP3, the company said.The report covers the first half of 2009 and is the seventh such twice-yearly report the company has issued. The study found that for all Microsoft operating systems that the most current service pack is always the least infected, based on infections per 1,000 computers running each OS. Windows 7 was not included in the report. Read the full report [Network World]
Researchers at Symantec have discovered a trojan that uses Facebook to communicate with a control and command server. Dubbed “whitewell” this malware spreads via email, contacts the mobile version of Facebook and uses its Notes section to perform actions based on the Notes titles. Andrea Lelli wrote on the Symantec Security Response blog that Web server urls can be embedded in the Notes and be controlled. Other commands recognized in the title have executable links or can have the trojan wait. The trojan is not using flaws or exploits, but “standard Facebook functionality” in a targeted attack. Read the full article. [eWEEK]
A new ransomware variant encrypts files on a computer but uses a novel twist on monetizing the extortion threat.
Instead of demanding money directly for decryption keys, as has been the case in other instances, it presumes that the owner of an infected computer will search for information to help unlock the files. The search typically leads to a fraudulent company offering a fix but requiring a payment to obtain it. Read the full story [SC Magazine]
More than half of the attacks against Microsoft Office applications during the first six months of 2009 were against applications that had not been patched in more than five years.
Amid all the malware on Facebook, Twitter, Bit.ly and other social networks and microblogs, there are some new tips and strategies on how to avoid being hijacked. The article describes a number of methods including the hijacking of Twitter trending topics and hijacking legitimate Twitter accounts for total control and then spreading malware links. Advice points to being skeptical of links, even from friends, and eing careful with shortened urls (a great place to hide malicious links). Even though Twitter and Bit.ly are using Google’s Safe Browsing API, some malware continues to work. Read the full article. [ReadWriteWeb]
Microsoft Corp. pours more money into software security than any other
major vendor both because it has to and because it can. Yet for all the
investments in security, the number of vulnerabilities discovered in
the company’s products has increased over the years, prompting
questions over whether the company has reached the limits of its
ability to debug software.
Microsoft has released
a free tool for retroactively hardening applications against known
attacks, without recompiling the program with a special compiler flag.
The Enhanced Mitigation Evaluation Toolkit
(EMET) allows developers and administrators to activate specific
protection mechanisms in compiled binaries without requiring access to
the source code. The tool is currently able to prevent or impede four
attack techniques. Read the full story [The H Online] See Microsoft blog post on EMET [technet.com]
After releasing its largest-ever group of security patches two weeks ago, Microsoft has done a little cleaning up.Over the past few days, the company has re-released two security updates and issued a workaround for a Windows CryptoAPI patch that caused Microsoft’s own instant-messaging server to crash. Read the full story [IDG News Service/Robert McMillan]
Amazon said today that it has taken steps to mitigate a security issue in its cloud computing infrastructure that was identified recently by researchers from MIT and the University of California at San Diego. The report described how attackers could search for, locate and attack specific targets in Amazon’s Elastic Computer Cloud (EC2) because of certain underlying vulnerabilities in the infrastructure. Read the full story [Computerworld].
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