For more than a month , at least ten groups of attackers have been compromising systems running applications built with Apache Struts and installing backdoors , DDoS bots , cryptocurrency miners , or ransomware , depending if the machine is running Linux or Windows . For their attacks , the groups are using a zero-day in Apache Struts , disclosed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability and immediately fixed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability last month by Apache . The vulnerability , CVE-2017-5638 , allows an attacker to execute commands on the server via content uploaded to the Jakarta Multipart parser component , deployed in some Struts installations . Attackers initially focused on Linux server . According to cyber-security firms F5 , attacks started as soon as Cisco Talos researchers revealed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the zero-day 's presence and several proof-of-concept exploits were published Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability online . Since early March , attacks have slowly evolved . F5 experts say that in the beginning , attackers targeted Struts instances running on Linux servers , where they would end up installing the PowerBot malware , an IRC-controlled DDoS bot also known as PerlBot or Shellbot . In later attacks , some groups switched to installing a cryptocurrency miner called `` minerd '' that mined for the Monero cryptocurrency . In other attacks reported by the SANS Technology Institute , some attackers installed Perl backdoors . Recent attacks also targeted Struts running on Windows Both SANS and F5 experts report that after March 20 , one of these groups switched to targeting Struts instances installed on Windows systems . Using a slightly modified exploit code , attackers executed various shell commands to run the BITSAdmin utility and then downloaded ( via Windows ' built-in FTP support ) the Cerber ransomware . From this point on , Cerber took over , encrypted files , and displayed its standard ransom note , leaving victims no choice but pay the ransom demand Attack.Ransom or recover data from backups . `` The attackers running this [ Cerber ] campaign are using the same Bitcoin ID for a number of campaigns , '' the F5 team said . `` This particular account has processed 84 bitcoins [ ~ $ 100,000 ] . '' F5 experts also noted that , on average , roughly 2.2 Bitcoin ( ~ $ 2,600 ) go in and out of this particular wallet on a daily basis . The most recent payments dates to today . It is worth mentioning that F5 published their findings last week , on March 29 . Today , SANS detailed similar findings , meaning the campaign spreading Cerber ransomware via Struts on Windows is still going strong . A patch for Apache Struts servers is available Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability on the Struts website . Struts is an open source MVC framework for creating modern Java web applications , and its widely used in enterprise environments , for both Intranets and public websites . Some of the initial attacks on Struts-based applications have been tracked by cyber-security firm AlienVault .

Microsoft 's patches for the Meltdown vulnerability have had a fatal flaw all these past months , according to Alex Ionescu , a security researcher with cyber-security firm Crowdstrike . Only patches for Windows 10 versions were affected Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability , the researcher wrote today in a tweet . Microsoft quietly fixed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the issue on Windows 10 Redstone 4 ( v1803 ) , also known as the April 2018 Update , released Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability on Monday . `` Welp , it turns out Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the Meltdown patches for Windows 10 had a fatal flaw : calling NtCallEnclave returned back to user space with the full kernel page table directory , completely undermining the mitigation , '' Ionescu wrote . Microsoft issued Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability today an security update , but it was n't to backport the `` fixed '' Meltdown patches for older Windows 10 versions . Instead , the emergency update fixed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability a vulnerability in the Windows Host Compute Service Shim ( hcsshim ) library ( CVE-2018-8115 ) that allows an attacker to remotely execute code on vulnerable systems . Microsoft classified Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability CVE-2018-8115 as a `` critical '' issues . A patched hcsshim file is available Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability for download from GitHub . `` We are aware and are working to provide Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability customers with an update , '' a Microsoft spokesperson told Bleeping Computer today in an email . It may be that if Microsoft does n't bundle these fixes in an out-of-band update , they will most likely arrive Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability in Microsoft 's May 2018 Patch Tuesday , but this is only our speculation . Microsoft released Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability its Meltdown and Spectre patches on January 4 , a day after security researchers disclosed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the two flaws , vulnerabilities that allow attackers to retrieve data from protected areas of modern CPUs . The Redmond-based OS maker has had a hard time patching Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the two flaws , and the company recently issued Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability additional security updates to fix Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the original Spectre mitigations , and also deliver Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability Intel CPU microcode updates , as a favor to Intel .

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 .

A new version of Git has been emitted to ward off attempts to exploit Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability a potential arbitrary code execution vulnerability – which can be triggered by merely cloning a malicious repository . The security hole , CVE-2018-11235 , reported Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability by Etienne Stalmans , stems from a flaw in Git whereby sub-module names supplied by the .gitmodules file are not properly validated when appended to $ GIT_DIR/modules . Including `` .. / '' in a name could result in directory hopping . Post-checkout hooks could then be executed , potentially causing all manner of mayhem to ensue on the victim 's system . Another vulnerability , CVE-2018-11233 , describes Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability a flaw in the processing of pathnames in Git on NTFS-based systems , allowing the reading of memory contents . In a change from normal programming , the vulnerability appears to be cross platform . Fear not , however , because a patch is available Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability . The Git team released Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the update in 2.13.7 of the popular coding , collaboration and control tool and forward-ported it to versions 2.14.4 , 2.15.2 , 2.16.4 and 2.13.7 . For its part , Microsoft has urged users to download 2.17.1 ( 2 ) of Git for Windows and has blocked the malicious repositories from being pushed to Visual Studio Team Services users . The software giant has also promised a hotfix will `` shortly '' be available Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability for its popular Visual Studio 2017 platform . Other vendors , such as Debian , have been updating Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability their Linux and software distributions to include the patched code and recommend that users upgrade Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability to thwart ne'er-do-wells seeking to exploit Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the vulnerability .

This week , Adobe released Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability its monthly scheduled update bundle addressing Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability vulnerabilities within its different products . The Adobe patch Tuesday November updates allegedly fixed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability numerous vulnerabilities leading to information disclosure . These vulnerabilities existed in Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability Adobe Acrobat/Reader , Flash Player , and Photoshop CC . The recently released Adobe Patch Tuesday November updates addressed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability three different vulnerabilities – all resulting in information disclosure . The first one existed in Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the Adobe Photoshop CC affecting Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability versions 19.1.6 and prior for both Windows and MacOS . As described in the security advisory , Adobe has fixed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability this important Out-of-bounds read vulnerability ( CVE-2018-15980 ) in the Photoshop CC versions 19.1.7 and 20.0 . The second information disclosure flaw affected Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability Adobe Reader and Acrobat for Windows . Explaining about the flaw in their advisory , Adobe stated , “ Successful exploitation could lead to an inadvertent leak of the user ’ s hashed NTLM password. ” The vulnerability initially received the CVE Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability number CVE-2018-4993 , when Check Point Research first reported Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the bug . However , as recently disclosed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability by the EdgeSpot , Adobe only patched Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability a single variant of this bug . Whereas , the EdgeSpot team discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability other variants that hinted towards a failed patching Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability of the bug instead of a new vulnerability . The patched vulnerability has now received CVE Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability number CVE-2018-15979 “ to reflect that the patch is available Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability ” . The third vulnerability addressed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability this month is an out-of-bounds Read vulnerability ( CVE-2018-15978 ) in the Adobe Flash Player . The affected versions include 31.0.0.122 and earlier for Windows , Linux , and MacOS . Unlike previous months , the Adobe Patch Tuesday November update bundle addressed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability fewer bugs . Moreover , none of the patched vulnerabilities had a critical severity impact . In October , Adobe patched Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability 86 different vulnerabilities including 47 critical ones . Whereas , in September , they addressed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability 6 critical flaws . Adobe has fixed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the bugs CVE-2018-15980 and CVE-2018-15978 in Adobe Photoshop CC versions 19.1.7 and 20.0 and Adobe Flash Player version 31.0.0.148 , respectively . Whereas , CVE-2018-15979 has received Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability a patch in Adobe Acrobat DC and Reader DC version 2019.008.20081 , Acrobat 2017 and Acrobat Reader DC 2017 version 2017.011.30106 , and Acrobat DC and Acrobat Reader DC ( Classic 2015 ) version 2015.006.30457 . For protection against the three important vulnerabilities addressed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability in November updates , users should make sure to upgrade Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability their software to the patched versions at the earliest convenience .

Microsoft and Google have been bitter rivals for at least a decade , and the pair have had several disagreements over security vulnerability disclosure Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability in recent years . Google is stoking those disagreements again this week by disclosing Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability a Microsoft Edge security flaw before a patch is available Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability . Neowin spotted that Google disclosed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the security flaw to Microsoft back in November , and the company provided 90 days for Microsoft to fix Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability it before going public Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability as it ’ s rated “ medium ” in terms of severity . Google also provided Microsoft with an additional 14-day grace period to have a fix available Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability for its monthly Patch Tuesday release in February , but Microsoft missed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability this goal because “ the fix is more complex than initially anticipated. ” It ’ s not clear when Microsoft will have a fix available Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability , and the Google engineer responsible for reporting Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the security flaw says because of the complexity of the fix Microsoft “ do not yet have a fixed date set as of yet. ” The public disclosure will likely anger Microsoft , once again . The software giant hit back at Google ’ s approach Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability to security patches last October , after discovering Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability a Chrome flaw and “responsibly” disclosed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability it to Google so the company had enough time to patch Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability . At the heart of the issue is whether Google ’ s policy to disclose after 90 days without a patch is reasonable . Google makes exceptions to this hard rule , with grace periods , and can even disclose Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability much sooner if the vulnerability is being actively exploited Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability . Google disclosed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability a major Windows bug back in 2016 just 10 days after reporting Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability it to Microsoft , and the company has revealed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability zero-day bugs in Windows in the past before patches are available Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability . Two big and obvious exceptions to Google ’ s security disclosure rules were the recent Meltdown and Spectre bugs . Google engineers discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the CPU flaws and Intel , AMD , and others had around six months to fix Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the problems before the flaws were publicly disclosed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability earlier this year . Chrome OS and Android devices were also affected Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability by the processor flaws , along with Windows , Linux , macOS , and iOS . Google wants the industry to adopt its aggressive disclosure policies , but Microsoft has so far resisted rather publicly . This latest episode isn ’ t as critical as some of the past disclosures , but it will likely reignite the debate over whether Google , a company with competitive commercial interests , should be leading the way security flaws in rival operating systems are disclosed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability in the public interest .

When it comes to fixing Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability security vulnerabilities , it should be clear by now that words only count when they ’ re swiftly followed by actions . Ask peripherals maker Logitech , which last week became the latest company to find itself on the receiving end of an embarrassing public flaw disclosure Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability by Google ’ s Project Zero team . In September , Project Zero researcher Tavis Ormandy installed Logitech ’ s Options application for Windows ( available separately for Mac ) , used to customise buttons on the company ’ s keyboards , mice , and touchpads . Pretty quickly , he noticed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability some problems with the application ’ s design , starting with the fact that it… opens a websocket server on port 10134 that any website can connect to , and has no origin checking at all . Websockets simplify the communication between a client and a server and , unlike HTTP , make it possible for servers to send data to clients without first being asked to , which creates additional security risks . The only “ authentication ” is that you have to provide a pid [ process ID ] of a process owned by your user , but you get unlimited guesses so you can bruteforce it in microseconds . Ormandy claimed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability this might offer attackers a way of executing keystroke injection to take control of a Windows PC running the software . Within days of contacting Logitech , Ormandy says he had a meeting to discuss Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the vulnerability with its engineers on 18 September , who assured him they understood the problem . A new version of Options appeared Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability on 1 October without a fix , although in fairness to Logitech that was probably too soon for any patch for Ormandy ’ s vulnerability to be included Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability . As anyone who ’ s followed Google ’ s Project Zero will know , it operates a strict 90-day deadline for a company to fix Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability vulnerabilities disclosed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability to it , after which they are made public Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability . I would recommend disabling Logitech Options until an update is available Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability . Clearly , the disclosure got things moving – on 13 December , Logitech suddenly updated Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability Options to version 7.00.564 ( 7.00.554 for Mac ) . The company also tweeted that the flaws had been fixed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability , confirmed by Ormandy on the same day . Logitech aren ’ t the first to feel Project Zero ’ s guillotine on their neck . Earlier in 2018 , Microsoft ran into a similar issue over a vulnerability found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability by Project Zero in the Edge browser . Times have changed – vendors have to move from learning about a bug to releasing Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability a fix much more rapidly than they used to .

A broad array of Android phones are vulnerable Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability to attacks that use booby-trapped Wi-Fi signals to achieve full device takeover , a researcher has demonstrated Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability . The vulnerability resides in Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability a widely used Wi-Fi chipset manufactured by Broadcom and used in both iOS and Android devices . Apple patched Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the vulnerability with Monday 's release Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability of iOS 10.3.1 . `` An attacker within range may be able to execute arbitrary code on the Wi-Fi chip , '' Apple 's accompanying advisory warned Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability . In a highly detailed blog post published Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability Tuesday , the Google Project Zero researcher who discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the flaw said Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability it allowed the execution of malicious code on a fully updated 6P `` by Wi-Fi proximity alone , requiring no user interaction . '' Google is in the process of releasing Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability an update in its April security bulletin . The fix is available Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability only to a select number of device models , and even then it can take two weeks or more to be available as an over-the-air update to those who are eligible . Company representatives did n't respond to an e-mail seeking comment for this post . The proof-of-concept exploit developed by Project Zero researcher Gal Beniamini uses Wi-Fi frames that contain irregular values . The values , in turn , cause the firmware running on Broadcom 's wireless system-on-chip to overflow its stack . By using the frames to target timers responsible for carrying out regularly occurring events such as performing scans for adjacent networks , Beniamini managed to overwrite specific regions of device memory with arbitrary shellcode . Beniamini 's code does nothing more than write a benign value to a specific memory address . Attackers could obviously exploit the same series of flaws to surreptitiously execute malicious code on vulnerable devices within range of a rogue access point . Besides the specific stack overflow bugs exploited Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability by the proof-of-concept attack , Beniamini said Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability a lack of security protections built into many software and hardware platforms made the Broadcom chipset a prime target . `` We ’ ve seen that while the firmware implementation on the Wi-Fi SoC is incredibly complex , it still lags behind in terms of security , '' he wrote . `` Specifically , it lacks all basic exploit mitigations—including stack cookies , safe unlinking and access permission protection ( by means of [ a memory protection unit . ] ) '' The Broadcom chipset contains an MPU , but the researcher found that it 's implemented in a way that effectively makes all memory readable , writeable , and executable . `` We can conveniently execute our code directly from the heap . '' He said that Broadcom has informed him that newer versions of the chipset implement the MPU more effectively and also add unspecified additional security mechanisms . Given the severity of the vulnerability , people with affected Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability devices should install Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability a patch as soon as it 's available . For those with vulnerable iPhones , that 's easy enough . As is all too often the case for Android users , there 's no easy way to get Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability a fix immediately , if at all . That 's because Google continues to stagger the release Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability of its monthly patch bundle for the minority of devices that are eligible to receive it . At the moment , it 's not clear if there are effective workarounds available for vulnerable devices . Turning off Wi-Fi is one possibility , but as revealed in recent research into an unrelated Wi-Fi-related weakness involving Android phones , devices often relay Wi-Fi frames even when Wi-Fi is turned off

The saga of CVE-2017-0199 , a recently patched zero-day vulnerability affecting Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability Microsoft Office and WordPad , just got a little stranger yesterday after cyber-security firm FireEye revealed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the vulnerability was used by both cyber-criminals pushing mundane malware , and also by state-sponsored cyber-espionage groups . This twisted tale starts in July 2016 , when security researcher Ryan Hanson discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability a flaw in RTF files that he could exploit to execute code on the underlying operating system . After finishing his research , Hanson submitted a write-up Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability on the three bugs he found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability to Microsoft in October 2016 , via the company 's bug bounty program . Uncharacteristic to Microsoft , the company took almost six months to fix Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the three bugs discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability by Hanson , delivering Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability patches for all three ( CVE-2017-0106 , CVE-2017-0199 , and CVE-2017-0204 ) in April 's Patch Tuesday . A few days before Microsoft patched Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the zero-day , news about it broke via blog posts from McAfee and FireEye , both companies revealing Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the zero-day was under active exploitation . Unfortunately , this long patching period gave others the time to discover Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the same flaw . While initially McAfee and FireEye restrained from revealing Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability any details about the zero-day , now that a patch is available Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability , several security firms are now sharing more behind-the-scenes details . According to FireEye , the zero-day first came on their radar on January 25 , 2017 , when they discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability a FinSpy module exploiting the flaw . While FireEye discovered only this campaign , the cyber-security firm believes Gamma Group made available this new Microsoft zero-day to all of its clients , meaning it was likely used in other countries where the company sold its `` lawful intercept '' spyware . Two months after this campaign , towards the end of March , FireEye says it detected Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the zero-day again , but this time used by a group of cyber-criminals spreading LatentBot , a sophisticated backdoor trojan , usually found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability in enterprise environments and used for economic espionage campaigns . This group apparently started a yard sale after McAfee and FireEye disclosed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the zero-day in public . Fearing that a patch was coming Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability , this group shared Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability ( most likely sold ) the zero-day exploit with other crimeware groups . While initially this zero-day was classified Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability as an Office vulnerability , Microsoft 's security advisory revealed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability this vulnerability also affected Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability WordPad , a free document viewer included by default with all Windows versions . This means that if users did n't have Office installed , they were at risk if they chose to open the booby-trapped files with WordPad . In this case , the exploit packed within the file would execute , download an HTA ( HTML application ) file disguised as an RTF , which in turn would run PowerShell commands that exploited the user 's computer .