Vendors are reacting Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability swiftly to a vulnerability that lets attackers eavesdrop on your network traffic . Monday morning was not a great time to be an IT admin , with the public release Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability of a bug that effectively broke WPA2 wireless security . As reported Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability previously by ZDNet , the bug , dubbed `` KRACK '' -- which stands for Key Reinstallation Attack -- is at heart a fundamental flaw in the way Wi-Fi Protected Access II ( WPA2 ) operates . The security protocol , an upgrade from WEP , is used to protect and secure communications between everything from our routers , mobile devices , and Internet of Things ( IoT ) devices , but there is an issue in the system 's four-way handshake that permits devices with a pre-shared password to join a network . According to security researcher and academic Mathy Vanhoef , who discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the flaw , threat actors can leverage the vulnerability to decrypt traffic , hijack connections , perform man-in-the-middle attacks , and eavesdrop on communication sent from a WPA2-enabled device . US-CERT has known Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability of the bug for some months and informed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability vendors ahead of the public disclosure Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability to give them time to prepare Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability patches and prevent Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the vulnerability from being exploited Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability in the wild -- of which there are no current reports Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability of this bug being harnessed by cyberattackers . The bug is present in Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability WPA2 's cryptographic nonce and can be utilized to dupe a connected party into reinstalling a key which is already in use . While the nonce is meant to prevent replay attacks , in this case , attackers are then given the opportunity to replay , decrypt , or forge packets . In general , Windows and newer versions of iOS are unaffected Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability , but the bug can have a serious impact on Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability Android 6.0 Marshmallow and newer . The attack could also be devastating for IoT devices , as vendors often fail to implement acceptable security standards or update systems in the supply chain , which has already led to millions of vulnerable and unpatched IoT devices being exposed for use by botnets . The vulnerability does not mean the world of WPA2 has come crumbling down , but it is up to vendors to mitigate Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the issues this may cause . In total , ten CVE numbers have been preserved to describe Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the vulnerability and its impact Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability , and according to the US Department of Homeland Security ( DHS ) , the main affected vendors are Aruba , Cisco , Espressif Systems , Fortinet , the FreeBSD Project , HostAP , Intel , Juniper Networks , Microchip Technology , Red Hat , Samsung , various units of Toshiba and Ubiquiti Networks .

SAN FRANCISCO — Hackers took advantage of an Equifax security vulnerability two months after an industry group discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the coding flaw and shared Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability a fix for it , raising questions about why Equifax did n't update Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability its software successfully when the danger became known . A week after Equifax revealed one of the largest breaches Attack.Databreach of consumers ' private financial data in history — 143 million consumers and access Attack.Databreach to the credit-card data of 209,000 — the industry group that manages the open source software in which the hack occurred blamed Equifax . `` The Equifax data compromise Attack.Databreach was due to ( Equifax 's ) failure to install the security updates provided Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability in a timely manner , '' The Apache Foundation , which oversees the widely-used open source software , said in a statement Thursday . Equifax told USA TODAY late Wednesday the criminals who gained access Attack.Databreach to its customer data exploited Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability a website application vulnerability known as Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability Apache Struts CVE-2017-5638 . The vulnerability was patched Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability on March 7 , the same day it was announced Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability , The Apache Foundation said . Cybersecurity professionals who lend their free services to the project of open-source software — code that 's shared by major corporations and that 's tested and modified by developers working at hundreds of firms — had shared their discovery with the industry group , making the risk and fix known to any company using the software . Modifications were made on March 10 , according to the National Vulnerability Database . But two months later , hackers took advantage of the vulnerability to enter the credit reporting agency 's systems : Equifax said the unauthorized access began in mid-May . Equifax did not respond to a question Wednesday about whether the patches were applied Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability , and if not , why not . `` We continue to work with law enforcement as part of our criminal investigation and have shared indicators of compromise with law enforcement , '' it said . It should have have acted faster to successfully deal with the problem , other cybersecurity professionals said . `` They should have patched Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability it as soon as possible , not to exceed a week . A typical bank would have patched Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability this critical vulnerability within a few days , ” said Pravin Kothari , CEO of CipherCloud , a cloud security company . Federal regulators are now investigating whether Equifax is at fault . The Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have said they 've opened probes into the hack . So far dozens of state attorneys general are investigating the breach , and on Tuesday Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey said she plans to sue the company for violating state consumer protection laws . More than 23 class-action lawsuits against the company have also been proposed . Proof that Equifax failed to protect customers , particularly when it had the tools and information to do so , is likely to further damage Equifax 's financial outlook . Shares fell 2.5 % Thursday after news of the FTC probe and are down 33 % since it revealed the link .

The bugs let hackers crash IoT devices , leak Attack.Databreach their information , and completely take them over . Researchers have found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability that a popular Internet of Things real-time operating system – FreeRTOS – is riddled with serious vulnerabilities . The bugs could allow hackers to crash connected devices in smart homes or critical infrastructure systems , leak Attack.Databreach information from the devices ’ memory , and take them over . And while patches have been issued Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability , researchers warn that it still may take time for smaller vendors to update Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability . Researcher Ori Karliner , with Zimperium ’ s zLabs team , recently analyzed some of the leading operating systems in the IoT market – including FreeRTOS , an open-source OS specifically designed for the microcontrollers that are within IoT devices . Within several versions of FreeRTOS , Karliner found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability 13 vulnerabilities enabling an array of attacks , including remote code execution , information leak and denial-of-service bugs . “ During our research , we discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability multiple vulnerabilities within FreeRTOS ’ s TCP/IP stack and in the AWS secure connectivity modules . The same vulnerabilities are present in Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability WHIS Connect TCP/IP component for OpenRTOS\SafeRTOS , ” according to a Thursday post by zLabs . The vulnerabilities specifically exist in Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability FreeRTOS ’ s TCP/IP stack and in the AWS secure connectivity modules ( in as well as in the WHIS Connect TCP/IP component for OpenRTOS\SafeRTOS ) . These vulnerabilities include four remote code execution bugs ( CVE-2018-16522 , CVE-2018-16525 , CVE-2018-16526 , and CVE-2018-16528 ) ; seven information leak vulnerabilities ( CVE-2018-16524 , CVE-2018-16527 , CVE-2018-16599 , CVE-2018-16600 , CVE-2018-16601 , CVE-2018-16602 , CVE-2018-16603 ) one denial of service flaw ( CVE-2018-16523 ) and a final ( CVE-2018-16598 ) that was unspecified . zLabs said Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability it has disclosed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the security issues to Amazon and collaborated with them to patch Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the vulnerabilities . Those fixes were deployed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability for AWS FreeRTOS versions 1.3.2 and onwards . The vulnerabilities in RTOS WHIS were also patched Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability . Amazon did not respond to a request for comment from Threatpost . Due to the amount of vendors impacted Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability by the bugs , the researchers said Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability that they would hold off on publishing Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability further details until all holes have been sealed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability .

Intel revealed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability that it will not be issuing Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability Spectre patches to a number of older Intel processor families , potentially leaving many customers vulnerable to the security exploit . Intel claims the processors affected are mostly implemented as closed systems , so they aren ’ t at risk from the Spectre exploit , and that the age of these processors means they have limited commercial availability . The processors which Intel won ’ t be patching Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability include four lines from 2007 , Penryn , Yorkfield , and Wolfdale , along with Bloomfield ( 2009 ) , Clarksfield ( 2009 ) , Jasper Forest ( 2010 ) and the Intel Atom SoFIA processors from 2015 . According to Tom ’ s Hardware , Intel ’ s decision not to patch Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability these products could stem from the relative difficulty of patching Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the Spectre exploit on older systems . “ After a comprehensive investigation of the microarchitectures and microcode capabilities for these products , Intel has determined to not release Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability microcode updates for these products , ” Intel said . Because of the nature of the Spectre exploit , patches for it need to be delivered Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability as an operating system or BIOS update , and if Microsoft and motherboard OEMs aren ’ t going to distribute Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the patches , developing Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability them isn ’ t much of a priority . “ However , the real reason Intel gave up on patching Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability these systems seems to be that neither motherboard makers nor Microsoft may be willing to update Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability systems sold a decade ago , ” Tom ’ s Hardware reports . It sounds bad , but as Intel pointed out , these are all relatively old processors — with the exception of the Intel Atom SoFIA processor , which came out in 2015 — and it ’ s unlikely they ’ re used in any high-security environments . The Spectre exploit is a serious security vulnerability to be sure , but as some commentators have pointed out in recent months , it ’ s not the kind of exploit the average user needs to worry about . “ We ’ ve now completed release Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability of microcode updates for Intel microprocessor products launched in the last 9+ years that required protection against the side-channel vulnerabilities discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability by Google Project Zero , ” said an Intel spokseperson . “ However , as indicated in our latest microcode revision guidance , we will not be providing Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability updated microcode for a select number of older platforms for several reasons , including limited ecosystem support and customer feedback. ” If you have an old Penryn processor toiling away in an office PC somewhere , you ’ re probably more at risk for a malware infection arising from a bad download than you are susceptible to something as technically sophisticated as the Spectre or Meltdown vulnerabilities .

Intel has issued Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability fresh `` microcode revision guidance '' that reveals it won ’ t address Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the Meltdown and Spectre design flaws in all of its vulnerable processors – in some cases because it 's too tricky to remove the Spectre v2 class of vulnerabilities . The new guidance , issued April 2 , adds a “ stopped ” status to Intel ’ s “ production status ” category in its array of available Meltdown and Spectre security updates . `` Stopped '' indicates there will be no microcode patch to kill off Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability Meltdown and Spectre . The guidance explains that a chipset earns “ stopped ” status because , “ after a comprehensive investigation of the microarchitectures and microcode capabilities for these products , Intel has determined to not release Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability microcode updates for these products for one or more reasons. ” Those reasons are given as : Micro-architectural characteristics that preclude a practical implementation of features mitigating Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability [ Spectre ] Variant 2 ( CVE-2017-5715 ) Limited Commercially Available System Software support Based on customer inputs , most of these products are implemented as “ closed systems ” and therefore are expected to have a lower likelihood of exposure to these vulnerabilities . Thus , if a chip family falls under one of those categories – such as Intel ca n't easily fix Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability Spectre v2 in the design , or customers do n't think the hardware will be exploited Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability – it gets a `` stopped '' sticker . To leverage the vulnerabilities , malware needs to be running on a system , so if the computer is totally closed off from the outside world , administrators may feel it 's not worth the hassle applying messy microcode , operating system , or application updates . `` Stopped '' CPUs that won ’ t therefore get Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability a fix are in the Bloomfield , Bloomfield Xeon , Clarksfield , Gulftown , Harpertown Xeon C0 and E0 , Jasper Forest , Penryn/QC , SoFIA 3GR , Wolfdale , Wolfdale Xeon , Yorkfield , and Yorkfield Xeon families . The new list includes various Xeons , Core CPUs , Pentiums , Celerons , and Atoms – just about everything Intel makes . Most the CPUs listed above are oldies that went on sale between 2007 and 2011 , so it is likely few remain in normal use . There ’ s some good news in the tweaked guidance : the Arrandale , Clarkdale , Lynnfield , Nehalem , and Westmere families that were previously un-patched Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability now have working fixes available Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability in production , apparently . “ We ’ ve now completed release Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability of microcode updates for Intel microprocessor products launched in the last 9+ years that required protection against the side-channel vulnerabilities discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability by Google Project Zero , '' an Intel spokesperson told The Reg . `` However , as indicated in our latest microcode revision guidance , we will not be providing Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability updated microcode for a select number of older platforms for several reasons , including limited ecosystem support and customer feedback. ” Now all Intel has to do is sort out a bunch of lawsuits , make sure future products don ’ t have similar problems , combat a revved-up-and-righteous AMD and Qualcomm in the data centre , find a way to get PC buyers interested in new kit again , and make sure it doesn ’ t flub emerging markets like IoT and 5G like it flubbed the billion-a-year mobile CPU market .

Microsoft today issued Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability an emergency security update to correct Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability a security update it issued Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability earlier this month to correct Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability a security update it issued Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability in January and February . In January and February , Redmond emitted Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability fixes for Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 machines to counter Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the Meltdown chip-level vulnerability in modern Intel x64 processors . Unfortunately , those patches blew Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability a gaping hole in the operating systems : normal applications and logged-in users could now access and modify any part of physical RAM , and gain complete control over a box , with the updates installed . Rather than stop programs and non-administrators from exploiting Meltdown to extract Attack.Databreach passwords and other secrets from protected kernel memory , the fixes on Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 instead granted full read-write privileges to system RAM . Roll on March , and Microsoft pushed out Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability fixes on Patch Tuesday to correct Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability those January and February updates to close Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the security vulnerability it accidentally opened . Except that March update did n't fully seal Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the deal : the bug remained in Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the kernel , and was exploitable by malicious software and users . Total Meltdown Now , if you 're using Windows 7 or Server 2008 R2 and have applied Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability Microsoft 's Meltdown patches , you 'll want to grab and install Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability today 's out-of-band update for CVE-2018-1038 . Swedish researcher Ulf Frisk discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the January and February Meltdown mitigations for Win7 and Server 2008 R2 were broken , and went public Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability with his findings once the March Patch Tuesday had kicked off . As it turns out , this month 's updates did not fully fix Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability things , and Microsoft has had to scramble to remedy Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability what was now a zero-day vulnerability in Windows 7 and Server 2008 . In other words , Microsoft has just had to put out Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability a patch for a patch for a patch . Hardly inspiring stuff , but we suppose the old Microsoft adage remains true – never trust a Redmond product until version three at the earliest . On the other hand , writing kernel-level memory management code is an absolute bastard at times , so you have to afford the devs some sympathy .

It was starting to feel like Intel was overdue for serious Management Engine ( ME ) vulnerabilities . But this week , researchers at Positive Technologies revealed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability a new security flaw in the subsystem that could let attackers compromise its MFS file system . Intel has released Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability updates to address Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the problem , though , so Intel CPU owners should make sure their firmware is up-to-date . ME has become a repeated source of problems for Intel and its customers . The utility is a chip-on-a-chip that allows IT managers to remotely access company PCs with tools like Intel 's Active Management Technology ( AMT ) . ME has its own network interface , memory , operating system and file system ( MFS ) that are kept separate from the main system in a bid to prevent it from allowing hackers to access ostensibly secure information . The problem is that researchers have discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability numerous vulnerabilities in ME over the last few years ; Positive Technologies revealed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability one in 2017 that allowed full takeover of ME via USB ( it 's since been fixed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability ) . Now , it 's revealed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability another one that allows someone with physical access to a system to compromise ME and `` manipulate the state of MFS and extract important secrets '' with the ability to `` add files , delete files and change their protection attributes . '' Positive Technologies said the attack can be used to learn four keys MFS uses to secure data -- the Intel Integrity Key , Non-Intel Integrity Key , Intel Confidentiality Key and Non-Intel Confidentiality Key -- that were supposed to be protected via a firmware update Intel released Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability in 2017 . Positive Technologies explained how someone with physical access to the system could bypass that patch to compromise those keys in its blog post : `` Positive Technologies expert Dmitry Sklyarov discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability vulnerability CVE-2018-3655 , described in advisory Intel-SA-00125 . He found that Non-Intel Keys are derived from two values : the SVN and the immutable non-Intel root secret , which is unique to each platform . By using an earlier vulnerability to enable the JTAG debugger , it was possible to obtain the latter value . Knowing the immutable root secret enables calculating the values of both Non-Intel Keys even in the newer firmware version . ... Attackers could calculate the Non-Intel Integrity Key and Non-Intel Confidentiality Key for firmware that has the updated SVN value and therefore compromise the MFS security mechanisms that rely on these keys . '' Intel released Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the Intel-SA-00125 firmware update to defend against this vulnerability on September 11 . But this is another point in favor of companies questioning -- or outright banning -- the use of ME in their systems . Purism avoids ME and the services it enables in its privacy-focused Librem notebooks , Google is working to remove ME from the Intel processors it uses and previous security flaws have raised concerns among consumers .

Mozilla released Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability nine fixes in its Wednesday launch of Firefox 62 for Windows , Mac and Android – including one for a critical glitch that could enable attackers to run arbitrary code . Overall , the latest version of the Firefox browser included Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability fixes for the critical issue , three high-severity flaws , two moderate problems and three low-severity vulnerabilities . Topping the list is a memory safety bug ( CVE-2018-12376 ) , discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability by a number of Mozilla developers and community members . A critical impact bug means the vulnerability can be used to run attacker code and install software , requiring no user interaction beyond normal browsing , according to Mozilla . The memory safety problem , which exists in Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability Firefox 61 and Firefox ESR 60 , meets these criteria , researchers said Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability . Mozilla didn ’ t release further details , but it did assign one CVE Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability to represent multiple similar issues . In addition to the memory safety bug ( s ) , Mozilla also fixed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability three high-severity vulnerabilities in its latest update . These include a use-after-free glitch in refresh driver timers ( CVE-2018-12377 ) , which power browser-page refreshes . Another high-severity bug ( CVE-2018-12378 ) is a use-after-free vulnerability that occurs Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability when an IndexedDB index ( a low-level API for client-side storage of significant amounts of structured data ) is deleted while still in use by JavaScript code providing payload values . “ This results in a potentially exploitable crash , ” the advisory said . Mozilla developers and community members also found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability a memory-safety bug ( CVE-2018-12375 ) in Firefox 61 , which showed evidence of memory corruption and could be exploited Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability to run arbitrary code , according to the advisory . The moderate and low-severity fixes that were deployed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability in Firefox 62 include patches for an out-of-bounds write flaw ( triggered when the Mozilla Updater opens a MAR format file that contains a very long item filename ) ; and a proxy bypass glitch in the browser ’ s proxy settings . Firefox 62 for desktop is available Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability for download on Mozilla ’ s website .

Tavis Ormandy , a Google Project Zero security researcher , has revealed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability details about a new major vulnerability discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability in Ghostscript , an interpreter for Adobe 's PostScript and PDF page description languages . Ghostscript is by far the most widely used solution of its kind . The Ghostscript interpreter is embedded in hundreds of software suites and coding libraries that allow desktop software and web servers to handle PostScript and PDF-based documents . Exploiting the bug Ormandy discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability requires that an attacker sends a malformed PostScript , PDF , EPS , or XPS file to a victim . Once the file reaches the Ghostscript interpreter , the malicious code contained within will execute an attacker 's desired on that machine . The vulnerability , which has not received a CVE Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability identifier just yet , allows an attacker to take over applications and servers that use vulnerable versions of Ghostscript . At the time of writing , there is no fix available Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability . By far , the most affected projects are the ImageMagick image processing library , but also many Linux distros where this library ships by default . RedHat and Ubuntu have already confirmed they are affected , according to a CERT/CC security advisory released today . `` I * strongly * suggest that [ Linux ] distributions start disabling PS , EPS , PDF and XPS coders in [ ImageMagick 's ] policy.xml by default , '' Ormandy said . Because of Ghostscript 's broad adoption in the web dev and software dev communities , Ormandy has had his eyes set on Ghostscript for the past few years . He discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability similar high severity issues affecting Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability Ghostscript in 2016 and again in 2017 . The vulnerability he found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability in 2017 —CVE-2017-8291— was adopted by North Korean hackers , who used it to break into South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges , steal funds , and later plant false flags in an attempt to pin the hacks on Chinese-speaking threat actors . Because of Ghostscript 's wide adoption , any bugs , and especially those that lead to remote code execution , are highly sought-after by any threat actor .

Tavis Ormandy , a Google Project Zero security researcher , has revealed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability details about a new major vulnerability discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability in Ghostscript , an interpreter for Adobe 's PostScript and PDF page description languages . Ghostscript is by far the most widely used solution of its kind . The Ghostscript interpreter is embedded in hundreds of software suites and coding libraries that allow desktop software and web servers to handle PostScript and PDF-based documents . Exploiting the bug Ormandy discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability requires that an attacker sends a malformed PostScript , PDF , EPS , or XPS file to a victim . Once the file reaches the Ghostscript interpreter , the malicious code contained within will execute an attacker 's desired on that machine . The vulnerability , which has not received a CVE Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability identifier just yet , allows an attacker to take over applications and servers that use vulnerable versions of Ghostscript . At the time of writing , there is no fix available Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability . By far , the most affected projects are the ImageMagick image processing library , but also many Linux distros where this library ships by default . RedHat and Ubuntu have already confirmed they are affected , according to a CERT/CC security advisory released today . `` I * strongly * suggest that [ Linux ] distributions start disabling PS , EPS , PDF and XPS coders in [ ImageMagick 's ] policy.xml by default , '' Ormandy said . Because of Ghostscript 's broad adoption in the web dev and software dev communities , Ormandy has had his eyes set on Ghostscript for the past few years . He discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability similar high severity issues affecting Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability Ghostscript in 2016 and again in 2017 . The vulnerability he found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability in 2017 —CVE-2017-8291— was adopted by North Korean hackers , who used it to break into South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges , steal funds , and later plant false flags in an attempt to pin the hacks on Chinese-speaking threat actors . Because of Ghostscript 's wide adoption , any bugs , and especially those that lead to remote code execution , are highly sought-after by any threat actor .

Tavis Ormandy , a Google Project Zero security researcher , has revealed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability details about a new major vulnerability discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability in Ghostscript , an interpreter for Adobe 's PostScript and PDF page description languages . Ghostscript is by far the most widely used solution of its kind . The Ghostscript interpreter is embedded in hundreds of software suites and coding libraries that allow desktop software and web servers to handle PostScript and PDF-based documents . Exploiting the bug Ormandy discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability requires that an attacker sends a malformed PostScript , PDF , EPS , or XPS file to a victim . Once the file reaches the Ghostscript interpreter , the malicious code contained within will execute an attacker 's desired on that machine . The vulnerability , which has not received a CVE Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability identifier just yet , allows an attacker to take over applications and servers that use vulnerable versions of Ghostscript . At the time of writing , there is no fix available Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability . By far , the most affected projects are the ImageMagick image processing library , but also many Linux distros where this library ships by default . RedHat and Ubuntu have already confirmed they are affected , according to a CERT/CC security advisory released today . `` I * strongly * suggest that [ Linux ] distributions start disabling PS , EPS , PDF and XPS coders in [ ImageMagick 's ] policy.xml by default , '' Ormandy said . Because of Ghostscript 's broad adoption in the web dev and software dev communities , Ormandy has had his eyes set on Ghostscript for the past few years . He discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability similar high severity issues affecting Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability Ghostscript in 2016 and again in 2017 . The vulnerability he found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability in 2017 —CVE-2017-8291— was adopted by North Korean hackers , who used it to break into South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges , steal funds , and later plant false flags in an attempt to pin the hacks on Chinese-speaking threat actors . Because of Ghostscript 's wide adoption , any bugs , and especially those that lead to remote code execution , are highly sought-after by any threat actor .

Microsoft has published Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability a patch for an Outlook vulnerability first reported Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability in late 2016 , but the patch has been deemed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability incomplete and additional workarounds are needed , according to the security researcher who discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability it . Yesterday 's April 2018 Patch Tuesday updates train included a fix for CVE-2018-0950 , a vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability by Will Dormann , a vulnerability analyst at the CERT Coordination Center ( CERT/CC ) . Outlook retrieves remote OLE content without prompting According to Dormann , the main problem with CVE-2018-0950 is that Microsoft Outlook will automatically render the content of remote OLE objects embedded inside rich formatted emails without prompting the user , something that Microsoft does in other Office apps such as Word , Excel , and PowerPoint . This leads to a slew of problems that come from automatically rendering OLE objects , a common attack vector for malware authors . Microsoft patches SMB attack vector only In a CERT/CC vulnerability note , Dormann says he notified Microsoft of Outlook 's propensity for loading OLE objects without alerting users in November 2016 . After almost 18 months , the company finally issued Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability a patch for the reported issue , but Dormann says the patch does not address Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the problem at the core of the issue . According to Microsoft , the CVE-2018-0950 patch delivered Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability yesterday only blocks Outlook from initiating SMB connections when previewing rich formatted emails . Dormann points out that Outlook still does not prompt user for permission to render OLE objects for email previews . Furthermore , the researcher also highlights that there are other ways of obtaining the NTLM hashes , such as embedding UNC links to SMB servers inside the email , links that Outlook will automatically make clickable . `` If a user clicks such a link , the impact will be the same as with this vulnerability , '' Dormann says . But even this incomplete patch is good news . This means that while Outlook will continue to render OLE objects inside email previews , at least these objects ca n't be used to steal NTLM hashes via SMB anymore . To avoid attackers from getting their hands on NTLM hashes via SMB altogether , the expert recommends that system administrators apply additional OS-level workarounds ,

Microsoft has published Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability a patch for an Outlook vulnerability first reported Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability in late 2016 , but the patch has been deemed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability incomplete and additional workarounds are needed , according to the security researcher who discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability it . Yesterday 's April 2018 Patch Tuesday updates train included a fix for CVE-2018-0950 , a vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability by Will Dormann , a vulnerability analyst at the CERT Coordination Center ( CERT/CC ) . Outlook retrieves remote OLE content without prompting According to Dormann , the main problem with CVE-2018-0950 is that Microsoft Outlook will automatically render the content of remote OLE objects embedded inside rich formatted emails without prompting the user , something that Microsoft does in other Office apps such as Word , Excel , and PowerPoint . This leads to a slew of problems that come from automatically rendering OLE objects , a common attack vector for malware authors . Microsoft patches SMB attack vector only In a CERT/CC vulnerability note , Dormann says he notified Microsoft of Outlook 's propensity for loading OLE objects without alerting users in November 2016 . After almost 18 months , the company finally issued Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability a patch for the reported issue , but Dormann says the patch does not address Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the problem at the core of the issue . According to Microsoft , the CVE-2018-0950 patch delivered Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability yesterday only blocks Outlook from initiating SMB connections when previewing rich formatted emails . Dormann points out that Outlook still does not prompt user for permission to render OLE objects for email previews . Furthermore , the researcher also highlights that there are other ways of obtaining the NTLM hashes , such as embedding UNC links to SMB servers inside the email , links that Outlook will automatically make clickable . `` If a user clicks such a link , the impact will be the same as with this vulnerability , '' Dormann says . But even this incomplete patch is good news . This means that while Outlook will continue to render OLE objects inside email previews , at least these objects ca n't be used to steal NTLM hashes via SMB anymore . To avoid attackers from getting their hands on NTLM hashes via SMB altogether , the expert recommends that system administrators apply additional OS-level workarounds ,

Microsoft has rolled-out Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability security updates to fix Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability a critical remote code execution flaw affecting Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability Windows Defender and other anti-malware products . Ahead of April 's Patch Tuesday , Microsoft has released Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability patches for the critical flaw , which affects Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability Microsoft Malware Protection Engine , or mpengine.dll , the core of Windows Defender in Windows 10 . `` An attacker who successfully exploited Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability this vulnerability could execute arbitrary code in the security context of the LocalSystem Account and take control of the system , '' warns Microsoft . `` An attacker could then install programs ; view , change , or delete data ; or create new accounts with full user rights . '' Google Project Zero researcher Thomas Dullien , aka Halvar Flake , discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability that attackers can trigger a memory-corruption issue in the engine if they can get Windows Defender and other affected Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability security products to scan a specially-crafted file . Microsoft warns there are many ways an attacker could achieve this , including placing the file on a website , in an email or instant message , on any site that hosts files , or in a shared directory . As with similar vulnerabilities reported Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability last year by the UK 's National Cyber Security Centre ( NCSC ) and Project Zero , an attack would be instant if the affected antivirus has real-time protection enabled . Although the patch is being released Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability before Microsoft 's monthly security update , the bug , CVE2018-0986 , is not an out-of-band patch as Microsoft updates Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the engine as needed . Microsoft also notes that the default configuration for Microsoft 's anti-malware products in the enterprise is to automatically receive Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability updates .

Jann Horn , the Google Project Zero researcher who discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the Meltdown and Spectre CPU flaws , has a few words for maintainers of Ubuntu and Debian : raise your game on merging kernel security fixes , you 're leaving users exposed for weeks . Horn earlier this week released an `` ugly exploit '' for Ubuntu 18.04 , which `` takes about an hour to run before popping a root shell '' . The kernel bug is a cache invalidation flaw in Linux memory management that has been tagged as Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability CVE-2018-17182 , reported Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability to Linux kernel maintainers on September 12 . Linux founder Linus Torvalds fixed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability it in his upstream kernel tree two weeks ago , an impressively fast single day after Horn reported Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the issue . And within days it was also fixed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability in the upstream stable kernel releases 4.18.9 , 4.14.71 , 4.9.128 , and 4.4.157 . There 's also a fix in release 3.16.58 . However , end users of Linux distributions are n't protected until each distribution merges the changes from upstream stable kernels , and then users install that updated release Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability . Between those two points , the issue also gets exposure on public Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability mailing lists , giving both Linux distributions and would-be attackers a chance to take action . `` The security issue was announced Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability on the oss-security mailing list on 2018-09-18 , with a CVE allocation on 2018-09-19 , making the need to ship new distribution kernels to users clearer , '' Horn wrote in a Project Zero post published Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability Wednesday . But as he noted , as of Wednesday , Debian stable and Ubuntu releases 16.04 and 18.04 had not fixed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the issue , with the latest kernel update occurring around a month earlier . This means there 's a gap of several weeks between the flaw being publicly disclosed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability and fixes reaching end users . However , the Fedora project was a little faster , pushing Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability a fix to users on 22 September . Canonical , the UK company that maintains Ubuntu , has since responded to Horn 's blog , and says fixes `` should be released Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability `` around Monday , October 1 . This is unlikely to be the last kernel bug Project Zero researchers find , and unless Ubuntu and other Linux distributions get their act together on upstream kernel fixes , they can expect to be named and shamed again .

It has not been a good week for PDF programs . We had an Adobe Acrobat & Reader update released Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability yesterday that fixed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability 86 vulnerabilities , including numerous critical ones . Not to be beaten , an update for Foxit PDF Reader and Foxit PhantomPDF was released Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability last Friday that fixes Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability a whopping 116 vulnerabilities , with 18 of them being discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability by the Cisco Talos group . All of the 18 vulnerabilities found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability by Cisco Talos , as well as many others fixed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability by this update , are labeled as critical because they could lead to code execution . This would allow attackers to create Attack.Phishing specially crafted web pages or PDFs that could exploit these vulnerabilities to execute commands or install malware on vulnerable computers . Of the 18 vulnerabilities disclosed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability by Cisco , 12 of them could be exploited Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability simply by visiting a web site when the Foxit PDF browser plugin is enabled . Foxit suggests that all users of Foxit PDF Reader and Foxit PhantomPDF upgrade Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability to version 9.3 to resolve Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability these vulnerabilities . Foxit PDF Reader 9.3 can be downloaded here and Foxit PhantomPDF can be downloaded here . It is strongly suggested that all users install this update . The full list of patched vulnerabilities is below and more information about who discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the vulnerabilities can be found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability in Foxit 's security bulletin .

IBM has discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability 17 zero-day vulnerabilities in smart city systems which could debilitate core services . At the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas on Monday , the cybersecurity firm 's X-Force Red team of penetration testers and hackers demonstrated how old-school threats are placing the cities of the future at risk in the present day . Smart city technology spending is predicted to hit $ 80 billion this year and become as high as $ 135 billion by 2021 . Water and filtration systems , smart lighting , traffic controllers , utilities , and more all become intertwined in smart cities , which aim to make urban living more energy efficient , eco-friendly , and manageable . However , connecting all of these critical elements can have devastating effects should something go wrong -- such as a successful cyberattack . We 've already seen the damage which can be caused when threat actors target core country systems , such as in the case of Ukraine 's power grid , and unless security is considered every step of the way , every future city will be placed at similar levels of risk . Together with researchers from Threatcare , IBM X-Force Red discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability that smart city systems developed by Libelium , Echelon and Battelle were vulnerable Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability to attack . Libelium is a wireless sensor network hardware manufacturer , while Echelon specializes in industrial IoT , and non-profit Battelle develops and commercializes related technologies . According to IBM X-Force Red researcher Daniel Crowley , out of the 17 previously-unknown vulnerabilities discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability in systems used in four smart cities , eight are deemed critical in severity . Unfortunately , many of the bugs were due to poor , lax security practices -- such as the use of default passwords , authentication bypass , and SQL injections . In total , the researchers uncovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability four instances of critical pre-authentication shell injection flaws in Libelium 's wireless sensor network , Meshlium .

IBM has discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability 17 zero-day vulnerabilities in smart city systems which could debilitate core services . At the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas on Monday , the cybersecurity firm 's X-Force Red team of penetration testers and hackers demonstrated how old-school threats are placing the cities of the future at risk in the present day . Smart city technology spending is predicted to hit $ 80 billion this year and become as high as $ 135 billion by 2021 . Water and filtration systems , smart lighting , traffic controllers , utilities , and more all become intertwined in smart cities , which aim to make urban living more energy efficient , eco-friendly , and manageable . However , connecting all of these critical elements can have devastating effects should something go wrong -- such as a successful cyberattack . We 've already seen the damage which can be caused when threat actors target core country systems , such as in the case of Ukraine 's power grid , and unless security is considered every step of the way , every future city will be placed at similar levels of risk . Together with researchers from Threatcare , IBM X-Force Red discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability that smart city systems developed by Libelium , Echelon and Battelle were vulnerable Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability to attack . Libelium is a wireless sensor network hardware manufacturer , while Echelon specializes in industrial IoT , and non-profit Battelle develops and commercializes related technologies . According to IBM X-Force Red researcher Daniel Crowley , out of the 17 previously-unknown vulnerabilities discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability in systems used in four smart cities , eight are deemed critical in severity . Unfortunately , many of the bugs were due to poor , lax security practices -- such as the use of default passwords , authentication bypass , and SQL injections . In total , the researchers uncovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability four instances of critical pre-authentication shell injection flaws in Libelium 's wireless sensor network , Meshlium .

Another critical security hole has been found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability in Apache Struts 2 , requiring an immediate update . The vulnerability – CVE-2018-11776 – affects Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability core code and allows miscreants to pull off remote code execution against vulnerable servers and websites . It affects Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability all versions of Struts 2 , the popular open-source framework for Java web apps . The Apache Software Foundation has `` urgently advised '' anyone using Struts to update Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability to the latest version immediately , noting that the last time a critical hole was found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability , the holes were being exploited Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability in the wild just a day later . In other words , if you delay in patching Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability , your organization will be compromised in short order via this bug , if you are running vulnerable systems . It was that earlier flaw that led to a nightmare data breach Attack.Databreach from credit company Equifax after it failed to patch Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability swiftly enough . The details of nearly 150 million people were exposed Attack.Databreach , costing the company more than $ 600m , so this is not something to be taken lightly . The company that discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the vulnerability – Semmle Security Research Team – warns that this latest one is actually worse that the one last year , which it also found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability . It has published a blog post with more information . Semmle found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the hole back in April and reported Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability it to Apache , which put out Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability a patch in June that it has now pulled Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability into formal updates ( 2.3.35 for those using version 2.3 and 2.5.17 for those on 2.5 ) . As mentioned , the vulnerability is in the core code and does n't require additional plugins to work . It is caused by insufficient validation of untrusted user data in the core of the Struts framework , and can be exploited in several different ways . Semmle says it has identified two different vectors but warns there may be others . Since it can be used remotely and due to the fact that Struts is typically used to create applications that are on the public internet , hackers are going to be especially focused on exploiting it so they can gain access to corporate networks . And there are some big targets out there : Apache Struts is extremely common with most large corporations using it somewhere in their systems for web apps . Semmle 's VP of engineering , Pavel Avgustinov , had this to say about the hole on Wednesday this week : `` Critical remote code execution vulnerabilities like the one that affected Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability Equifax and the one we announced today are incredibly dangerous for several reasons : Struts is used for publicly-accessible customer-facing websites , vulnerable systems are easily identified , and the flaw is easy to exploit Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability . A hacker can find their way in within minutes , and exfiltrate Attack.Databreach data or stage further attacks from the compromised system . It ’ s crucially important to update affected systems immediately ; to wait is to take an irresponsible risk . '' This is very far from the first time that big security holes have been found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability in Struts , leading some to recommend that people simply stop using it .