For the second time in roughly a year , D-Link has failed to act on warnings Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability from security researchers involving the company ’ s routers . The latest incident arose after Silesian University of Technology researcher Błazej Adamczyk contacted Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability D-Link last May about three vulnerabilities affecting Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability eight router models . Following the warning Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability , D-Link patched Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability two of the affected routers , but did not initially reveal Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability how it would proceed for the remaining six models . After further prompting Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability from Adamczyk , D-Link revealed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability that the remaining six routers would not get Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability a security patch because they were considered end-of-life models , leaving affected owners out in the cold . “ The D-Link models affected Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability are the DWR-116 , DWR-140L , DWR-512 , DWR-640L , DWR-712 , DWR-912 , DWR-921 , and DWR-111 , six of which date from 2013 , with the DIR-640L first appearing Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability in 2012 and the DWR-111 in 2014 , ” Naked Security reported . Though these are not current models in D-Link ’ s portfolio , many of the listed models are still likely to be in use . As a result of this impasse , Adamczyk released details Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability about the security flaws , following responsible security protocols after giving D-Link notice and the opportunity to address Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the issues . Of significance is that this is the second time in about a year that D-Link has failed to address Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability security vulnerabilities affecting Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability its products after being notified Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability by researchers . The security researcher noted Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability that the new flaw arose Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability after D-Link reported that it had fixed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability a prior security flaw . Also known as “ directory traversal ” or “ dot dot slash ” attacks , these flaws allow a malicious attacker to gain access to system files with a simple HTTP request . Despite D-Link ’ s spotty history with supporting older router models , the manufacturer is not alone in leaving routers unpatched Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability . The American Consumer Institute reported Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability that of the 186 routers it had tested , 155 contained Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability firmware vulnerabilities . In total , ACI discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability more than 32,000 known vulnerabilities in its study . “ Our analysis shows that , on average , routers contained Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability 12 critical vulnerabilities and 36 high-risk vulnerabilities , across the entire sample , ” ACI noted in its report . “ The most common vulnerabilities were medium-risk , with an average of 103 vulnerabilities per router. ” For shoppers who are in the market for a new router , it ’ s probably best to also check with the manufacturer to see what the supported lifespan of the router is . If the router is nearing its end of life , as in the case illustrated here , you may not get Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability patches , regardless of how serious a security vulnerability may be . If you have an older router , you may want to consider checking out our guide for the best router options before you decide to upgrade .

A privilege escalation flaw in McAfee 's True Key software remains open to exploitation despite multiple attempts to patch Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability it . This according to researchers with security shop Exodus Intel , who claim Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability that CVE-2018-6661 was not fully addressed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability with either of the two patches McAfee released Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability for it . The flaw is an elevation of privilege issue in McAfee 's TrueKey password manager . An exploit can be carried out on a guest account by side-loading a specially-crafted DLL into True Key that would then allow for commands and code to be executed with system-level privileges . McAfee 's summary of the flaw , published Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability on March 30 , lists it as a 'high ' severity issue that was patched Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability in version 4.20.110 - which was released Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability in April . Exodus says that the April release did n't fully fix Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the bug , however . The researchers explain that McAfee 's patch only addresses Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability one of the libraries ( SDKLibAdapter ) that would allow the attack to take place , with another DLL ( NLog logging library ) being left vulnerable Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability to the same side-loading tactic . `` The patch is incomplete because it overlooks this and hence the nlog.dll can be utilized to allow arbitrary code execution just as the McAfee.TrueKey.SDKLibAdapter.dll could be used in versions prior to the patch , '' Exodus researchers Omar El-Domeiri and Gaurav Baruah said . `` Furthermore , any other McAfee signed binary can be used to exploit the vulnerability as long as the binary depends on a DLL outside the list of known DLLs . '' Exodus said Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability that it notified Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability McAfee of the issue back in August , prompting Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability a second patch that , unfortunately , also failed to fully remedy Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the issue . `` However , we tested the latest version available ( 5.1.173.1 as of September 7th , 2018 ) and found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability that it remains vulnerable Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability requiring no changes to our exploit . '' To its credit , McAfee acknowledged Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the issue and said it is still working to fully resolve Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the flaw . `` McAfee has been working with the researchers to confirm Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability their findings , and has provided customers mitigation guidance to allow them to protect themselves until the company can address Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the reported issues via automatic product updates , '' McAfee told The Register . In the meantime , McAfee says customers can use the True Key browser extension ( which is not subject to the DLL vulnerability ) rather than the Windows application .

More cybercriminals used object linking and embedding , or OLE packages , to deliver malware content during the first quarter of 2017 , according to cybersecurity technology and services company PhishMe Intelligence . The cyberthreat trend first was observed in December 2016 , closely associated to the delivery of the Ursnif botnet malware , PhishMe said . The OLE technique abuses Attack.Phishing Microsoft Office documents by prompting Attack.Phishing a victim to double-click an embedded icon to access some type of content . These objects are used to write a script application to the disk that facilitates the download and execution of a malware payload , PhishMe said . This method adds another set of techniques cybercriminals can use to evade anti-analysis and sandbox settings and to successfully infect computer systems , the company said . The threatening documents employ a similar look and feel to Microsoft Office documents using macro elements for malware delivery , but they do not feature the distinctive “ enable macros ” banner , PhishMe said . As a result , these documents defy the expectations for the delivery of malware that have been prominent in recent years . For example , a macro element can display icons or text that instruct a victim to “ enable editing ” in order to interact with a document and view content , but a document using the threatening OLE packages will not feature the characteristic yellow “ enable macros ” banner . The technique allows cybercriminals to deploy malicious files to a victim ’ s machine . Real and fake documents look similar , and the fake ones can fool Attack.Phishing even computer users who know what a macro looks like . A screen shot of the OLE Malware There are several reasons why these recent phishing campaigns Attack.Phishing distributing infected Microsoft OLE packages are particularly tricky Attack.Phishing to deal with , said Rohyt Belani , co-founder and CEO of PhishMe . “ First , because the malware is disguised as Attack.Phishing an unassuming Office document , threat actors can often use this technique to bypass the IT department ’ s sandbox environments , detection software or analysis tools that help identify malicious documents , attachments and links , ” Belani said . “ Second , since so many healthcare organizations rely on Microsoft Office applications to run their day-to-day business operations , security professionals can ’ t completely block Office documents entirely from e-mail systems . When technology layers fail and let these types of threats land in the inbox , there ’ s really one last line of defense to ensure these attacks don ’ t succeed – the employees themselves , Belani said . “ Humans , the end-users , are the linchpin for securing against attacks delivering sneaky payloads that easily bypass existing technology stacks , ” Belani said . “ We recommend healthcare CISOs seriously consider building strong phishing defense programs that transform employees into human sensors at the heart of the phishing defense strategy. ” Through behavioral conditioning , employees will become contextually aware of the e-mail content that enters their inbox , increasing their ability to recognize and report suspicious communications that very well may be phishing threats like OLE payloads , Belani said . “ By empowering employees to report suspicious e-mails directly to a healthcare organization ’ s security operations center , ” Belani added , “ this will drastically speed incident response capabilities to neutralize these threats before any major damage is inflicted . ”