If youre unfamiliar with the corporate file-sharing app MOVEit Transfer, its still worth studying how it was hacked – if only for its sheer scale: hundreds of organizations were affected, including, among many others, Shell, the New York State Education Department, the BBC, Boots, Aer Lingus, British Airways, show more ...
several large healthcare providers across the globe, the University of Georgia, and Heidelberger Druck. Both ironically and sadly, MOVEit Transfer is touted as Secure Managed File Transfer Software for the Enterprise by its creators, Ipswitch (now part of a company named Progress). Its a managed file transfer (MFT) system that helps employees share large files with contractors via SFTP, SCP and HTTP, offered as a cloud or on-premise solution. The series of incidents represents a cautionary tale for everyone in charge of information security at an organization. How MOVEit Transfer was hacked Without going into every twist and turn of MOVEit users turbulent one-and-a-half-months, well cover the key events. Reports about suspicious activity on the networks of many organizations that used MOVEit Transfer started surfacing on May 27, 2023. According to an investigation, malicious actors were taking advantage of an unknown vulnerability to steal data by running SQL queries. On May 31, Progress released their first security bulletin, which summarized the fixes that had been released up to that point and recommended remediation steps. The company originally believed the issue was limited to on-premise installations, but it was later found that the cloud version of MOVEit was affected as well. MOVEit Cloud was temporarily shut down for patching and investigations. Rapid7 researchers counted a total of 2500 vulnerable on-premise servers. On June 2, the vulnerability was assigned the identifier CVE-2023-34362 and a CVSS score of 9.8 (out of 10). Incident researchers attributed the threat to the cl0p ransomware group. Researchers at Kroll reported on June 9 that the MOVEit exploit likely had been in testing since 2021. Investigations made it apparent that the cyberattack chain did not necessarily end in an SQL injection and that it could include code execution. To their credit, Progress went beyond patching the software. The company initiated a code audit, making it possible for the Huntress company to both reproduce the entire exploit chain and discover another vulnerability, which would be fixed on June 9 as announced in the next bulletin and designated as CVE-2023-35036. Before many admins got the chance to install that patch, Progress itself discovered another issue – CVE-2023-35708 – and announced it in its June 15 bulletin. MOVEit Cloud was shut down again for ten hours for the fixes to be applied. June 15 was also notable for the hackers publishing the details of some of the victims and starting ransom negotiations. Two days later, the U.S. government promised up to $10 million for information about the group. On June 26, Progress announced that it would shut down MOVEit Cloud for three hours on July 2 to beef up server security. On July 6 developers published another update, which fixed three more vulnerabilities – one of them being critical (CVE-2023-36934, CVE-2023-36932 and CVE-2023-36933). File sharing services as a convenient attack vector Mays MOVEit Transfer attack is not the first of its kind. A similar series of attacks targeting Fortra GoAnywhere MFT was launched in January, and late 2020 saw massive exploitation of a vulnerability in Accellion FTA. Many attacks aim to get privileged access to servers or run arbitrary code, which happened in this case too, but hackers objective has often been to execute a quick, low-risk attack to gain access to the databases of a file-sharing service. This helps snatch files without penetrating deep into the system so as to remain under the radar. After all, downloading files that are meant to be downloaded isnt that suspicious. Meanwhile, file-sharing databases tend to collect lots of truly important information: thus, a MOVEit Transfer attack victim admitted that the leak contained the data of 45 000 college and school students. What this means for security teams is that apps like these and their configuration require special attention: steps to take here include limiting administrative access as well as taking additional security measures with regard to database management and network protection. Organizations should promote cyberhygiene among employees by teaching them to delete files from the file exchange system as soon as they cease to need them, and share with only a bare minimum of users. Focus on servers For cyberattackers looking to steal data, servers are an easy target since theyre not too closely monitored and contain a lot of data. Unsurprisingly, in addition to massively exploiting popular server-side apps with attacks like ProxyShell or ProxyNotShell, hackers take paths less traveled by mastering encryption of ESXi farms and Oracle databases, or trying services like MOVEit Transfer, which are popular in the corporate world but less known to the general public. This is why security teams need to put the focus on servers: prioritize server patching use an EDR solution limit privilege access secure containers, virtual machines and so on If an app seems to have few vulnerabilities, it means no ones looked for them The question of priorities always comes up when an organization starts discussing patches. Vulnerabilities number in the hundreds, and theyre impossible to fix everywhere and all at once, in all applications, and on all computers. So, system admins have to focus on the most dangerous vulnerabilities – or the ones that are the most widespread due to affecting popular software. The MOVEit story teaches us that this landscape is dynamic: if youve spent the last year fixing holes in Exchange or other Microsoft products, it doesnt mean you need to stay focused mostly on those. Its critical to follow Threat Intelligence trends, and not just eliminate specific new threats but also predict their possible impact on your organization.
Apple's emergency fix for a code-execution bug being actively exploited in the wild is reportedly buggy itself, and some indications point to the Cupertino giant halting patch rollouts.
As organizations struggle to keep up with new regulations and hiring challenges, chief information security officers share common challenges and experiences.
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A newly discovered ransomware strain dubbed Big Head is spreading through malvertising, which involves the promotion of fake Windows updates and Microsoft Word installers, warned Trend Micro. Designed as a .NET binary, the ransomware deploys three AES-encrypted files on the targeted system: one for spreading the malware, another for facilitating communication with a Telegram bot, and the third for encrypting files.
The popular fanfiction platform Archive of Our Own (AO3) is currently grappling with a wave of DDoS attacks. Since early Monday morning, the AO3 website has been experiencing intermittent periods of outage, leaving users frustrated.
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The Australian infrastructure services provider Ventia is dealing with a cyberattack that began this weekend. On Saturday, the company said it identified a cyber intrusion and took some “key systems” offline to contain the incident.
Cloud environments continue to be at the receiving end of an ongoing advanced attack campaign dubbed SCARLETEEL, with the threat actors now setting their sights on Amazon Web Services (AWS) Fargate.
The tools cost between $700-$1000 and are currently designed for Android-based devices. The authors behind both tools recommend using OnePlus devices to deploy mobile anti-detect or may ship ready-to-use devices with pre-configured packages.
Staff at one of the UK's largest hospital groups have spent a nervous week wondering if private data, stolen from their employer's IT systems by a ransomware gang, is going to be splurged online after a deadline to prevent publication passed.
The island nation of over 1.4 million people announced on Friday that its Ministry of Digital Transformation discovered a cyberattack targeting the country’s Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Legal Affairs (AGLA) in recent days.
In April 2023, Australian law firm HWL Ebsworth was hit by a cyberattack that possibly resulted in data of hundreds of its clients and dozens of government agencies being compromised. The attack was claimed by the Russian-linked Blackcat ransomware.
According to a Twitter post by threat intelligence platform FalconFeeds.io, a seller had advertised the sale of source codes, encryption keys, database and backend access logins for Razer and its products in a hackers’ forum on Saturday.
Security researchers uncovered a new campaign by Charming Kitten (APT42) targeting Windows and macOS systems using different malware payloads. A new type of malware called NokNok, is specifically used for targeting macOS systems. For Windows, adversaries leverage PowerShell code and an LNK file to drop the GorjolEcho backdoor from a cloud hosting provider.
Oxeye has uncovered two critical security vulnerabilities and recommends immediate action to mitigate risk. The vulnerabilities were discovered in Owncast (CVE-2023-3188) and EaseProbe (CVE-2023-33967), two open-source platforms written in Go.
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Ubuntu Security Notice 6215-1 - It was discovered that dwarves incorrectly handled certain memory operations under certain circumstances. An attacker could possibly use this issue to cause dwarves to crash, resulting in a denial of service, or possibly execute arbitrary code.
Red Hat Security Advisory 2023-4023-01 - The kpatch management tool provides a kernel patching infrastructure which allows you to patch a running kernel without rebooting or restarting any processes. Issues addressed include privilege escalation and use-after-free vulnerabilities.
Debian Linux Security Advisory 5451-1 - Multiple security issues were discovered in Thunderbird, which could result in denial of service or the execution of arbitrary code.
Red Hat Security Advisory 2023-4021-01 - The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux operating system. Issues addressed include double free and use-after-free vulnerabilities.
Ubuntu Security Notice 6214-1 - Multiple security issues were discovered in Thunderbird. If a user were tricked into opening a specially crafted website in a browsing context, an attacker could potentially exploit these to cause a denial of service, obtain sensitive information, bypass security restrictions, show more ...
cross-site tracing, or execute arbitrary code. P Umar Farooq discovered that Thunderbird did not properly provide warning when opening Diagcab files. If a user were tricked into opening a malicious Diagcab file, an attacker could execute arbitrary code.
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Red Hat Security Advisory 2023-4020-01 - The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux operating system. Issues addressed include double free and use-after-free vulnerabilities.
OATH Toolkit attempts to collect several tools that are useful when deploying technologies related to OATH, such as HOTP one-time passwords. It is a fork of the earlier HOTP Toolkit.
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Red Hat Security Advisory 2023-4022-01 - The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux operating system. Issues addressed include double free, privilege escalation, and use-after-free vulnerabilities.
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Red Hat Security Advisory 2023-4004-01 - Python is an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language, which includes modules, classes, exceptions, very high level dynamic data types and dynamic typing. Python supports interfaces to many system calls and libraries, as well as to various windowing systems. Issues addressed include a bypass vulnerability.
Ubuntu Security Notice 6212-1 - Hangyu Hua discovered that the Flower classifier implementation in the Linux kernel contained an out-of-bounds write vulnerability. An attacker could use this to cause a denial of service or possibly execute arbitrary code. It was discovered that for some Intel processors the INVLPG show more ...
instruction implementation did not properly flush global TLB entries when PCIDs are enabled. An attacker could use this to expose sensitive information or possibly cause undesired behaviors.
Investment will drive company-wide expansion across BloodHound Enterprise, BloodHound FOSS, consulting and training programs, and research and development.
Former employee of contractor allegedly unleashed computer attack on the town's critical infrastructure — the systems controlling its water treatment facility.
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A developing piece of ransomware called Big Head is being distributed as part of a malvertising campaign that takes the form of bogus Microsoft Windows updates and Word installers. Big Head was first documented by Fortinet FortiGuard Labs last month, when it discovered multiple variants of the ransomware that are designed to encrypt files on victims' machines in exchange for a cryptocurrency
Discover all the ways MITRE ATT&CK can help you defend your organization. Build your security strategy and policies by making the most of this important framework. What is the MITRE ATT&CK Framework? MITRE ATT&CK (Adversarial Tactics, Techniques, and Common Knowledge) is a widely adopted framework and knowledge base that outlines and categorizes the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs)
Cloud environments continue to be at the receiving end of an ongoing advanced attack campaign dubbed SCARLETEEL, with the threat actors now setting their sights on Amazon Web Services (AWS) Fargate. "Cloud environments are still their primary target, but the tools and techniques used have adapted to bypass new security measures, along with a more resilient and stealthy command and control
A Microsoft Windows policy loophole has been observed being exploited primarily by native Chinese-speaking threat actors to forge signatures on kernel-mode drivers. "Actors are leveraging multiple open-source tools that alter the signing date of kernel mode drivers to load malicious and unverified drivers signed with expired certificates," Cisco Talos said in an exhaustive two-part report shared