Articles In Security

By Nancy Rand, Posted in Security

April 10, Softpedia – (International) OS X 10.9.x and older vulnerable to hidden backdoor API. A Swedish security researcher discovered a hidden backdoor application programming interface (API) present in the Admin framework of Apple OS X versions prior to 10.10.2 that could grant attackers root access to users with both admin and regular user accounts. Apple patched the issue in its release of OS X 10.10.3 Source April 10, Softpedia – (International) United States, South Africa most affected by Changeup... read more.

• April 13, 2015

By Nancy Rand, Posted in Security

April 9, Softpedia – (International) Over 100 forum websites foist poorly detected malware. Security researchers at Cyphort discovered a supposed click-fraud campaign that exploits Web forums running outdated versions of vBulletin or IP Board software to use malicious code to direct visitors to a landing page hosting the Fiesta exploit kit (EK) to deliver Gamarue and FleerCivet malware that steals information and injects backdoor trojans. The malware ensures persistence by avoiding virtual environments and... read more.

• April 10, 2015

By Nancy Rand, Posted in Security

April 8, Softpedia – (International) Stored XSS glitch in WP-Super-Cache may affect over 1 million WordPress sites. Security researchers from Sucuri discovered a cross-site-scripting (XSS) vulnerability in WP-Super-Cache plug-in versions prior to 1.4.4 for WordPress sites that could allow attackers to add new administrator accounts to the Web sites or inject backdoors due to improper sanitization of information originating from users. The plugin currently has over 1 million active installations, and develop... read more.

• April 10, 2015

By Nancy Rand, Posted in Security

April 7, Help Net Security – (International) New crypto-ransomware “quarantines” files, downloads info-stealer. Security researchers at Trend Micro discovered a new piece of crypto-ransomware dubbed CryptVault that uses open-source GnuPG to create RSA-1024 public and private key pairs that encrypt files to make them resemble files quarantined by an anti-virus solution, before asking for ransom and downloading and executing Browser Password Dump to extract passwords stored by Web browsers. Attackers spread t... read more.

• April 08, 2015

By Nancy Rand, Posted in Security

April 6, Softpedia – (International) Google certificate expires, email clients return security warnings. An expired intermediate certificate signed by Google Internet Authority G2 for simple mail transport protocol (SMTP) in Google’s Gmail resulted in users receiving error messages on outgoing email activity for over 2 hours April 4. The company renewed the certificate through December 2015. Source April 6, Securityweek – (International) Flaw in Schneider Electric vamp software allows arbitrary code exec... read more.

• April 07, 2015

By Nancy Rand, Posted in Security

April 3, Help Net Security – (International) Mozilla revokes trust for CNNIC certificates. A spokesperson at Mozilla announced that the company will no longer allow its products to recognize digital certificates issued by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), following an incident during the week of March 23 in which an intermediate certificate authority (CA) operating under CNNIC issued a number of unauthorized digital certificates for Google domains. The company will ask CNNIC to provide... read more.

• April 06, 2015

By Nancy Rand, Posted in Security

April 1, Help Net Security – (International) WordPress sites compromised to redirect to Pirate Bay clone, exploit kit. Security researchers at Malwarebytes identified a malware campaign that uses an unknown number of compromised WordPress Web sites containing iframes that direct users to a site hosting the Nuclear exploit kit, which leverages an Adobe Flash Player vulnerability in versions before 16.0.0.287 to download a banking trojan. Source April 1, Softpedia – (International) Firefox 37 fixes critica... read more.

• April 06, 2015

By Nancy Rand, Posted in Security

March 30, nj.com – (International) FBI investigates cyber attack that crippled Rutgers internet service. Federal law enforcement is helping to find the source of the weekend cyber attack that crippled Rutgers University internet service, a university spokesman confirmed Monday. "Rutgers is working with the FBI to investigate the incident," spokesman E.J. Miranda said in an email to NJ Advance Media. Miranda added that the university's Office of Information Technology continues to work to fully restore inter... read more.

• April 01, 2015

By Nancy Rand, Posted in Security

March 31, Softpedia – (International) Anonymous proxies used for “Shotgun DDoS” attacks. Security researchers at Incapsula released findings from a one-month study revealing that 20 percent of all application layer (Layer 7) distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks from January – February were “Shotgun DDoS” attacks carried out through anonymous proxies to bypass mitigation systems by spreading across multiple internet protocols (IPs) and multiple geo-locations. Approximately 45 percent of the incidents... read more.

• April 01, 2015

By Nancy Rand, Posted in Security

March 30, Help Net Security – (International) Massive DDoS against GitHub continues. Systems engineers at GitHub reported that complex, large-scale distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against the company’s servers that started March 26 are ongoing but that all of the Web site’s services are available to users. Security researchers from Insight Labs traced the start of the attack to advertising and visitor tracking provided by the Chinese search engine Baidu. Source   ... read more.

• March 31, 2015