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 .

If you ’ re a BMW owner , prepare to patch ! Chinese researchers have found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability 14 security vulnerabilities affecting Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability many models . The ranges affected Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability ( some as far back as 2012 ) are the BMW i Series , X Series , 3 Series , 5 Series and 7 Series , with a total of seven rated serious enough to be assigned CVE Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability numbers . The vulnerabilities are in in the Telematics Control Unit ( TCU ) , the Central Gateway Module , and Head Unit , across a range of interfaces including via GSM , BMW Remote Service , BMW ConnectedDrive , Remote Diagnosis , NGTP , Bluetooth , and the USB/OBD-II interfaces . Some require local access ( e.g . via USB ) to exploit but six including the Bluetooth flaw were accessible remotely , making them the most serious . Should owners worry that the flaws could be exploited Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability , endangering drivers and vehicles ? On the basis of the technical description , that seems unlikely , although Keen Lab won ’ t release the full proof-of-concept code until 2019 . Keen Lab described the effect of its hacking as allowing it to carry out : The execution of arbitrary , unauthorized diagnostic requests of BMW in-car systems remotely . To which BMW responded : BMW Group has already implemented security measures , which are currently being rolled out via over-the-air configuration updates . Additional security enhancements for the affected infotainment systems are being developed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability and will be available Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability as software updates for customers . In other words , some fixes have already been made Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability , while others will be made Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability between now and early 2019 , potentially requiring a trip to a service centre . Full marks to BMW for promptly responding to the research but the press release issued Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability in its wake reads like PR spin . To most outsiders , this is a case of Chinese white hats finding Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability vulnerabilities in BMW ’ s in-car systems . To BMW , judging by the triumphant language of its press release , it ’ s as if this was the plan all along , right down to awarding Keen Lab the “ first-ever BMW Group Digitalization and IT Research Award. ” More likely , car makers are being caught out by the attention their in-car systems are getting from researchers , with Volkswagen Audi Group experiencing some of the same discomfort a couple of weeks ago at the hands of Dutch researchers . BMW has experienced this before too – three years ago it suffered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability an embarrassing security flaw in its car ConnectedDrive software door-locking systems . Let ’ s not feel too sorry for the car makers because it ’ s the owners who face the biggest adjustment to their expectations – software flaws and patching Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability are no longer just for computers .

It appears popular cryptocurrency Monero , often praised for its privacy functions , was riddled with security vulnerabilities – one of which allowed hackers to steal coins directly from the wallets of exchange desks . Utilizing old-fashioned social engineering , inventive hackers could forge Attack.Phishing transaction data and use it to trick Attack.Phishing support staff into crediting their account manually with extra XMR . By simply copying a line of code from Monero ’ s wallet – which is open-sourced and accessible to everyone – the attackers could manipulate the amounts shown by the wallet when facilitating transactions between addresses . The good thing is that the flaw has since been patched Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability ( in Monero at least , it is not entirely clear if this is the case for other Monero-based coins ) . The more concerning part is that it is only one out of six vulnerabilities disclosed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability by Monero in the last 24 hours alone , according to information from its HackerOne bug bounty program . Other bugs included a Denial of Service attack vector that could ’ ve been abused to clog the Monero blockchain and a Python script exploit that made it possible to take down active nodes on the network . Just like the wallet flaw , all of these vulnerabilities have already been fixed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability . This is not the first time researchers have found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability kinks in the anonymous cryptocurrency ’ s code – but to Monero ’ s credit , its dev team has always made sure to address Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability such concerns appropriately . It ’ s no surprise that bug bounties are really becoming an industry standard , considering considering how much damage they can prevent . Recently $ 24,000 was claimed in one week across four different blockchain projects . Apparently , probing EOS is even more profitable : one hacker got paid $ 80,000 in one day for identifying critical bugs in its code . Update August 3 , 09:15 AM UTC : Monero project lead Riccardo Spagni , better known under the pseudonym ‘ fluffypony , ’ has since addressed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the vulnerability disclosures Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability in an email to Hard Fork . Spagni highlighted Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability that although the bugs were made public Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability yesterday , they were discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability – separately – over the span of several months . “ The [ wallet ] vulnerability was introduced Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability by the sub-address functionality , so it ’ s relatively new , ” Spagni told Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability Hard Fork .

Microsoft ’ s security team had a busy weekend . On Friday night , security researcher Tavis Ormandy of Google ’ s Project Zero announced Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability on Twitter that he had found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability a Windows bug . Well , not just any bug . It was “ crazy bad , ” Ormandy wrote . “ The worst Windows remote code exec in recent memory. ” By Monday night , Microsoft had released Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability an emergency patch , along with details of what the vulnerability entailed . And yes , it was every bit as scary as advertised . That ’ s not only because of the extent of the damage hackers could have done , or the range of devices the bug affected Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability . It ’ s because the bug 's fundamental nature underscores the vulnerabilities inherent in the very features meant to keep our devices safe . What made this particular bug so insidious was that it would have allowed hackers to target Windows Defender , an antivirus system that Microsoft builds directly into its operating system . That means two things : First , that it impacted the billion-plus devices that have Windows Defender installed . ( Specifically , it took advantage of the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine that underpins several of the company ’ s software security products . ) Second , that it leveraged that program ’ s expansive permissions to enable general havoc , without physical access to the device or the user taking any action at all . “ This was , in fact , crazy bad , ” says Core Security systems engineer Bobby Kuzma , echoing Ormandy ’ s original assessment . As Google engineers note Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability in a report on the bug , to pull off the attack a hacker would have only had to send Attack.Phishing a specialized email or trick Attack.Phishing a user into visiting a malicious website , or otherwise sneak an illicit file onto a device . This also isn ’ t just a case of clicking the wrong link ; because Microsoft ’ s antivirus protection automatically inspects every incoming file , including unopened email attachments , all it takes to fall victim is an inbox . “ The moment [ the file ] hits the system , the Microsoft malware protection intercepts it and scans it to make sure it ’ s ‘ safe , ’ ” says Kuzma . That scan triggers the exploit , which in turn enables remote code execution that enables a total machine takeover . “ As soon as it ’ s there , the malware protection will take it up and give it root access. ” It ’ s scary stuff , though tempered by Microsoft ’ s quick action and the fact that Ormandy appears to have found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the bug before bad actors did . And because Microsoft issues Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability automatic updates for its malware protection , most users should be fully protected soon , if not already . It should still serve as an object lesson , though , in the risks that come with antivirus software that has tendrils in every part of your system . It ’ s a scary world out there , and antivirus generally helps make it less so . To do its job correctly , though , it needs unprecedented access to your computer—meaning that if it falters , it can take your entire system down with it . “ There is a raging debate about antivirus in some circles , stating that it can be used as a springboard to infect users , ” says Jérôme Segura , lead malware intelligence analyst with Malwarebytes . “ The fact of the matter is that security software is not immune to flaws , just like any other program , but there is no denying the irony when an antivirus could be leveraged to infect users instead of protecting them. ” Irony and , well , damage . A year ago , Google ’ s Ormandy found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability critical vulnerabilities that affected Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability no fewer than 17 Symantec antivirus products . He ’ s found similar in offerings from security vendors like FireEye , McAfee , and more . And more recently , researchers discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability an attack called “ DoubleAgent , ” which turned Microsoft ’ s Application Verifier tool into a malware entry point . “ Because of what they do , AV products are really complex and have to touch a lot of things that are untrusted , ” says Kuzma . “ This is the kind of vulnerability we ’ ve seen time and again. ” There ’ s also no real solution ; it ’ s not easy to weigh the protections versus the risks . The best you can hope for , really , is what Ormandy and Microsoft demonstrated during the last few days : That someone catches the mistakes before the bad guys do , and that the fixes come fast and easy .

Home routers are the first and sometimes last line of defense for a network . Despite this fact , many manufacturers of home routers fail to properly audit their devices for security issues before releasing them to the market . As security researchers , we are often disappointed to rediscover that this is not always the case , and that sometimes these vulnerabilities simply fall into our hands during our day-to-day lives . Such is the story of the two NETGEAR vulnerabilities I want to share Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability with you today : It was a cold and rainy winter night , almost a year ago , when my lovely NETGEAR VEGN2610 modem/router lost connection to the Internet . I was tucked in bed , cozy and warm , there was no way I was going downstairs to reset the modem , `` I will just reboot it through the web panel '' I thought to myself . Unfortunately I could n't remember the password and it was too late at night to check whether my roommates had it . I considered my options : Needless to say , I chose the latter . I thought to myself , `` Well , it has a web interface and I need to bypass the authentication somehow , so the web server is a good start . '' I started manually fuzzing the web server with different parameters , I tried `` .. / .. '' classic directory traversal and such , and after about 1 minute of fuzzing , I tried `` … '' and I got this response : Fig 1 : unauth.cgi `` Hmm , what is that unauth.cgi thingy ? Luckily for me the Internet connection had come back on its own , but I was now a man on a mission , so I started to look around to see if there were any known vulnerabilities for my VEGN2610 . I started looking up what that `` unauth.cgi '' page could be , and I found 2 publicly disclosed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability exploits from 2014 , for different models that manage to do unauthenticated password disclosure . Those two guys found out Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability that the number we get from unauth.cgi can be used with passwordrecovered.cgi to retrieve the credentials . I tested the method described in both , and voila - I have my password , now I can go to sleep happy and satisfied . I woke up the next morning excited by the discovery , I thought to myself : `` 3 routers with same issue… Coincidence ? Luckily , I had another , older NETGEAR router laying around ; I tested it and bam ! I started asking people I knew if they have NETGEAR equipment so I could test further to see the scope of the issue . In order to make life easier for non-technical people I wrote a python script called netgore , similar to wnroast , to test for this issue . I am aware of that and that is why I do n't work as a full time programmer . As it turned out , I had an error in my code where it did n't correctly take the number from unauth.cgi and passed gibberish to passwordrecovered.cgi instead , but somehow it still managed to get the credentials ! After few trials and errors trying to reproduce the issue , I found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability that the very first call to passwordrecovered.cgi will give out the credentials no matter what the parameter you send . This is totally new bug that I have n't seen anywhere else . When I tested both bugs on different NETGEAR models , I found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability that my second bug works on a much wider range of models . A full description of both of these findings as well as the python script used for testing can be found here . The vulnerabilities have been assigned Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability CVE-2017-5521 and TWSL2017-003 . The Responsible Disclosure Process This is where the story of discovery ends and the story of disclosure begins . Following our Responsible Disclosure policy we sent both findings Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability to NETGEAR in the beginning of April 2016 . In our initial contact , the first advisory had 18 models listed as vulnerable Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability , although six of them did n't have the vulnerability in the latest firmware . Perhaps it was fixed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability as part of a different patch cycle . The second advisory included 25 models , all of which were vulnerable Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability in their latest firmware version . In June NETGEAR published a notice that provided Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability a fix for a small subset of vulnerable routers and a workaround for the rest . They also made the commitment to working toward 100 % coverage for all affected routers . The notice has been updated several time since then and currently contains 31 vulnerable models , 18 of which are patched Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability now , and 2 models that they previously listed as vulnerable Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability , but are now listed as not vulnerable Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability . In fact , our tests show that one of the models listed as not vulnerable Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability ( DGN2200v4 ) is , in fact , vulnerable and this can easily be reproduced with the POC provided in our advisory . Over the past nine months we attempted to contact NETGEAR multiple times for clarification and to allow them time to patch Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability more models . Over that time we have found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability more vulnerable models that were not listed in the initial notice , although they were added later . We also discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability that the Lenovo R3220 router is powered by NETGEAR firmware and it was vulnerable Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability as well . Luckily NETGEAR did eventually get back to us right before we were set to disclose Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability these vulnerabilities publicly . We were a little skeptical since our experience to date matched that of other third-party vulnerability researchers that have tried to responsibly disclose Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability to NETGEAR only to be met with frustration . The first was that NETGEAR committed to pushing out firmware to the currently unpatched models on an aggressive timeline . The second change made us more confident that NETGEAR was not just serious about patching Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability these vulnerabilities , but serious about changing how they handle third-party disclosure in general . We fully expect this move will not only smooth the relationship between third-party researchers and NETGEAR , but , in the end , will result in a more secure line of products and services . For starters , it affects a large number of models . We have found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability more than ten thousand vulnerable devices that are remotely accessible . The real number of affected devices is probably in the hundreds of thousands , if not over a million . The vulnerability can be used by a remote attacker if remote administration is set to be Internet facing .

Home routers are the first and sometimes last line of defense for a network . Despite this fact , many manufacturers of home routers fail to properly audit their devices for security issues before releasing them to the market . As security researchers , we are often disappointed to rediscover that this is not always the case , and that sometimes these vulnerabilities simply fall into our hands during our day-to-day lives . Such is the story of the two NETGEAR vulnerabilities I want to share Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability with you today : It was a cold and rainy winter night , almost a year ago , when my lovely NETGEAR VEGN2610 modem/router lost connection to the Internet . I was tucked in bed , cozy and warm , there was no way I was going downstairs to reset the modem , `` I will just reboot it through the web panel '' I thought to myself . Unfortunately I could n't remember the password and it was too late at night to check whether my roommates had it . I considered my options : Needless to say , I chose the latter . I thought to myself , `` Well , it has a web interface and I need to bypass the authentication somehow , so the web server is a good start . '' I started manually fuzzing the web server with different parameters , I tried `` .. / .. '' classic directory traversal and such , and after about 1 minute of fuzzing , I tried `` … '' and I got this response : Fig 1 : unauth.cgi `` Hmm , what is that unauth.cgi thingy ? Luckily for me the Internet connection had come back on its own , but I was now a man on a mission , so I started to look around to see if there were any known vulnerabilities for my VEGN2610 . I started looking up what that `` unauth.cgi '' page could be , and I found 2 publicly disclosed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability exploits from 2014 , for different models that manage to do unauthenticated password disclosure . Those two guys found out Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability that the number we get from unauth.cgi can be used with passwordrecovered.cgi to retrieve the credentials . I tested the method described in both , and voila - I have my password , now I can go to sleep happy and satisfied . I woke up the next morning excited by the discovery , I thought to myself : `` 3 routers with same issue… Coincidence ? Luckily , I had another , older NETGEAR router laying around ; I tested it and bam ! I started asking people I knew if they have NETGEAR equipment so I could test further to see the scope of the issue . In order to make life easier for non-technical people I wrote a python script called netgore , similar to wnroast , to test for this issue . I am aware of that and that is why I do n't work as a full time programmer . As it turned out , I had an error in my code where it did n't correctly take the number from unauth.cgi and passed gibberish to passwordrecovered.cgi instead , but somehow it still managed to get the credentials ! After few trials and errors trying to reproduce the issue , I found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability that the very first call to passwordrecovered.cgi will give out the credentials no matter what the parameter you send . This is totally new bug that I have n't seen anywhere else . When I tested both bugs on different NETGEAR models , I found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability that my second bug works on a much wider range of models . A full description of both of these findings as well as the python script used for testing can be found here . The vulnerabilities have been assigned Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability CVE-2017-5521 and TWSL2017-003 . The Responsible Disclosure Process This is where the story of discovery ends and the story of disclosure begins . Following our Responsible Disclosure policy we sent both findings Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability to NETGEAR in the beginning of April 2016 . In our initial contact , the first advisory had 18 models listed as vulnerable Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability , although six of them did n't have the vulnerability in the latest firmware . Perhaps it was fixed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability as part of a different patch cycle . The second advisory included 25 models , all of which were vulnerable Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability in their latest firmware version . In June NETGEAR published a notice that provided Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability a fix for a small subset of vulnerable routers and a workaround for the rest . They also made the commitment to working toward 100 % coverage for all affected routers . The notice has been updated several time since then and currently contains 31 vulnerable models , 18 of which are patched Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability now , and 2 models that they previously listed as vulnerable Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability , but are now listed as not vulnerable Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability . In fact , our tests show that one of the models listed as not vulnerable Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability ( DGN2200v4 ) is , in fact , vulnerable and this can easily be reproduced with the POC provided in our advisory . Over the past nine months we attempted to contact NETGEAR multiple times for clarification and to allow them time to patch Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability more models . Over that time we have found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability more vulnerable models that were not listed in the initial notice , although they were added later . We also discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability that the Lenovo R3220 router is powered by NETGEAR firmware and it was vulnerable Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability as well . Luckily NETGEAR did eventually get back to us right before we were set to disclose Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability these vulnerabilities publicly . We were a little skeptical since our experience to date matched that of other third-party vulnerability researchers that have tried to responsibly disclose Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability to NETGEAR only to be met with frustration . The first was that NETGEAR committed to pushing out firmware to the currently unpatched models on an aggressive timeline . The second change made us more confident that NETGEAR was not just serious about patching Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability these vulnerabilities , but serious about changing how they handle third-party disclosure in general . We fully expect this move will not only smooth the relationship between third-party researchers and NETGEAR , but , in the end , will result in a more secure line of products and services . For starters , it affects a large number of models . We have found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability more than ten thousand vulnerable devices that are remotely accessible . The real number of affected devices is probably in the hundreds of thousands , if not over a million . The vulnerability can be used by a remote attacker if remote administration is set to be Internet facing .