WARNING! Your Flash Player may be out of date.

Adobe Flash Malware driven by infected "Router" The Moon Malware

Few days ago, I started to receive a pop-message "WARNING! Your Flash Player may be out of date". Please update to Continue., when I was trying to access websites like Facebook, YouTube, Google, etc.

If you're receiving a similar message then continue to read but make sure you don't click on anything nor try to update the flash player from the pop-window. You may check your current version of the "Adobe Flash Player" by visiting "Adobe" official website. If you're using Google Chrome browser, it already includes Adobe Flash Player built-in. Google Chrome will automatically update when new versions of Flash Player are available.

You will also notice that the same message is poping-up on all the devices which are connected to the same router (mobile phones, laptops etc.).

Now even the dumbest person should know it is not coming from computer but from the network which means your router is infected. It's commonly happening with Linksys, Asus and few other manufacturers.

How to fix this?

• Reset your router (by holding down the reset button under the router for 6 seconds). Note after restart all your ISP settings will be lost.
• Configure your router again with the ISP settings (username and password also required).
• Clear your browsers cache and pop-up message will not appear again.

Refer here for some basic tips on hardening your router to avoid such things happening again.

Four "Basic" Ways To Protect Company Data

Breach at Target appears to have started with a malware-infected email!

Target Corp. and other large retailers have made the news due to data breaches, but businesses of all sizes need to make sure they have up-to-date policies and procedures to protect private data.

The breaches at Target highlight how important it is for organizations to know how secure their networks are?

Here are four measures businesses should take to ensure their data stays private.

• One obvious way is to make sure your business' security software is up to date and working "to make sure you don't leave holes in your technology.

• Do you have policies and procedures in place for how employees interact with the business' server and network? Such measures include making sure employees have strong passwords for their computers and other devices, keeping their machines updated with the latest anti-virus protection and providing them with general awareness on things to watch out for, such as phishing messages (scams that ask people to give out personal information or prompt a person to click on a link that will infect their computer with malware).

• Make sure that employees have safeguards on the personal devices they use to connect to the company's network.

• Don't forget security measures for paper records.

XSS For Managers

What is Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)?

Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) is a type of vulnerability which is very widespread and allows an attacker to insert malicious code (JavaScript) into your web browser via the use of a vulnerable web application. The attacker can deliver their malicious code in a number of different ways.

They can trick you into clicking on a link (Reflected XSS), or wait for you to visit a page which already has the malicious code embedded into it (Stored or Persistent XSS).

That annoying pop-up box with the number 1 in it? That's just a way that some people visually prove that their JavaScript (XSS) has been run. But don't let that lousy pop-up box fool you, there is a lot more to XSS than that!

What can hackers do with XSS?

• A hacker may be able to steal your 'cookies' and login to the application as if they were you!
• They may be able to redirect you to a malicious web site without you knowing in an attempt to trick you into giving away sensitive information such as your bank details.
• They could add fake login pages to the vulnerable application to trick you into giving them your username and password.
• They could even use XSS to bypass other security measures which are built into the application and your web browser to protect you.
• The possibilities are almost limitless. Take over your webcam? Yep! Listen in on your computer's microphone?

For advanced attacks see the The Browser Exploitation Framework (BeEF) tool.

Who's been hacked using XSS?

• The Apache Foundation, the creators and maintainers of one of the most popular web server software on the Internet had their servers compromised by an initial XSS attack.
• An XSS attack on the official forum of the popular Linux Operating System, Ubuntu, allowed the attackers to download the usernames, email addresses and passwords for 1.82 million of their users.
• XSS attacks typically target the application's users and their local networks; however, as seen in the examples above, when those users are administrative users the application's web servers are also at risk.
• XSS vulnerabilities are discovered within Facebook, Yahoo, Google, Twitter and other high profile websites on a daily basis by independent security researchers participating in bug bounties.

Here is a list of other hacks using XSS -https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?snapid=S1158702BBoV

What can I do to protect myself against XSS?

• Make sure that your web browser is kept up to date and that it has all of its security features enabled, such as Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) filtering. If your particular browser does not have an XSS filter, like Firefox, then you can download an XSS filter add-on called NoScript.
• Be careful about what links you click on. A link may look harmless enough, but may contain malicious XSS payloads.
• Log out of web sites when you are finished with them, this makes it harder for hackers to steal your 'cookies'.

The technical bit! What can I do to protect my web application against XSS?

• Cross-Site Scripting occurs when untrusted input is output to a page without first being sanitised and/or properly encoded. For example, if a user supplies their username to login and then you display that username without sanitising and/or encoding it, what happens if the username contains HTML characters?
  
  The web browser will not be able to tell the difference between the user's username and what is the page's valid HTML. Data (the username) is being mixed with code (the HTML)! This could allow a user to login with a username that contains malicious JavaScript and have it execute in the browser within the context of your web application.
  
• Make sure that you sanitise the username before using it, for example, if users should only have alpha numeric characters in their usernames then enforce this with input sanitisation. Use a whitelist! Compare the username against known goods instead of known bads.
  
• Use the right encoding! If the username is going to be used within HTML, then HTML encode all of the username's characters.
  
  This way the browser will know what is meant to be rendered as HTML and what is not. It's not all about HTML encoding though! You must encode for the right output 'context'. See the links below for further information.
  
• Scan your applications for XSS issues. There are many automated web application security scanners which can detect XSS issues in web applications. You could try giving the Open Source OWASP ZAP a go.
  
• Set your session cookies with the HttpOnly flag. This tells the browser that the cookie should not be accessed by JavaScript, helping protect your users from having their sessions stolen.
  
• A HTTP header called Content Security Policy (CSP) can be set by the web server to tell the web browser what and where JavaScript is allowed to be executed from. It uses a whitelist!
  
• Finally, why not install a Web Application Firewall (WAF) such as the Open Source mod_security! A WAF will give your application that extra layer of defence to defend against those attackers but should be used in a defense in depth scenario and not as the only solution as bypasses are found often.

Where can I find further information?

The two types of XSS mentioned on this page (Reflected and Stored) are not the only two! We have only touched upon the subject here. Want to find out more?

The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) is a great resource for all things related to the security of web applications. Check out their wiki article on XSS or their XSS Prevention Cheat Sheet. For information on other types of web application vulnerabilities take a look at the OWASP Top 10.

NIST Updates Malware & Patch Management Guideines

First Revisions to Both Publications in Eight Years

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has published new guidance on malware incident prevention and handling for desktops and laptops as well as enterprise patch management technologies.

NIST Special Publication 800-83 Revision 1, "Guide to Malware Incident Prevention and Handling for Desktops and Laptops," provides recommendations for improving an organization's malware incident prevention measures. The publication also gives extensive recommendations for enhancing an organization's existing incident response capability so that it is better prepared to handle malware incidents, particularly widespread ones. Malware is the most common external threat to most hosts, causing widespread damage and disruption and necessitating extensive recovery efforts.

SP 800-40 Revision 3, "Guide to Enterprise Patch Management Technologies," provides an overview of enterprise patch management technologies. It also briefly discusses metrics for assessing the technologies' effectiveness. The publication is designed to assist organizations in understanding the basics of enterprise patch management technologies. Patch management is the process of identifying, acquiring, installing and verifying patches for products and systems.

NIST also issued SP 800-165, "2012 Computer Security Division Annual Report," which highlights the activities of NIST's Computer Security Division during fiscal year 2012, which ended Sept. 30.

Why Security Teams Fail PCI Audits?

5 Key Challenges in the way of successful auditing!

For any business accepting credit or debit card payments from its customers, Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) compliance - which offers comprehensive standards to enhance payment card data security - is an absolute must.

But for most, ensuring continuous compliance (the ongoing monitoring of rules rather than waiting for audits to show non-compliance) with the vast and ever changing set of rules can be a real drain on resources. 

The 5 'C's

Undoubtedly one or all of the following challenges are getting in the way of successful auditing…the five 'C's:

Complexity- enterprises have hundreds of firewalls, routers and switches, all with their own complex configurations and thousands of access rules. All have to be tracked and catalogued which makes it almost impossible to comply with all the PCI DSS rules.

• Change - hundreds of changes every week amounts to thousands of changes to track from one audit to the next. The combination of rapid change and time pressures mean mistakes happen which can leave businesses wide open.
  
• Connectivity - configuration errors very easily lead to compliance issues and service downtime. A high number of rule changes can compromise cardholder data, which can leave businesses compromised until their next audit.
  
• Compliance - audits are time intensive and usually changes are unchecked between audits making the process even more laborious. Yet businesses cannot afford to fail an audit.
  
• Communication - poor communication and a siloed culture of app owners and IT security can mean a comprehensive compliance check between audits is extremely complicated and difficult to manage.

PCI DSS auditing doesn't always need to be a costly and thankless task. While compliance will always be essential for most enterprises, automation solutions can make it a much more efficient process - by slashing time spent on repetitive, manual work so that security teams can focus on strategic tasks such as security architecture, research and education.

How Facebook Got Hacked?

Zero-Day Exploit Bypassed Java Protections to Install Malware

Even the most savvy information technologists aren't immune from cyber-attacks. Just ask Facebook. The social-media titan says it fell victim to a sophisticated attack discovered in January in which an exploit allowed malware to be installed on employees' laptops.

In a blog posted by Facebook Security on Feb. 15, the company said it found no evidence that Facebook user data was compromised.

Here's what happened at Facebook, according to its blog:

Several Facebook employees visited a mobile developer website that was compromised.

The compromised website hosted an exploit that then allowed malware to be installed on these employees' laptops. "The laptops were fully-patched and running up-to-date anti-virus software," the blog says.

"As soon as we discovered the presence of the malware, we remediated all infected machines, informed law enforcement and began a significant investigation that continues to this day." Facebook Security flagged a suspicious domain in its corporate DNS (Domain Name Servers) logs and tracked it back to an employee laptop.

The security team conducted a forensic examination of that laptop and identified a malicious file, and then searched company-wide and flagged several other compromised employee laptops.

The social-media company says it is working with law enforcement and the other organizations affected by this attack. "It is in everyone's interests for our industry to work together to prevent attacks such as these in the future," Facebook says.

The Facebook attack is reminiscent of the 2011 breach at security provider RSA, when a well-crafted e-mail tricked an RSA employee to retrieve from a junk-mail folder and open a message containing a virus that led to a sophisticated attack on the company's information systems

10 Supply Chain Risk Management Best Practices

NIST Interagency Report Aims to Mitigate Vulnerabilities

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has issued a new report to help organizations mitigate supply chain risks. NIST says the 10 supply chain risk management practices can be applied simultaneously to an information system or the elements of an information system.

The practices are:

1) Uniquely identify supply chain elements, processes and actors. Knowing who and what is in an enterprise's supply chain is critical to gain visibility into what is happening within it, as well as monitoring and identifying high-risk events and activities. Without reasonable visibility and traceability into the supply chain, it is impossible to understand and therefore manage risk and to reduce the likelihood of an adverse event.

2) Limit access and exposure within the supply chain. Elements that traverse the supply chain are subject to access by a variety of actors. It is critical to limit such access to only as much as necessary for those actors to perform their roles and to monitor that access for supply chain impact.

3) Establish and maintain the provenance of elements, processes, tools and data. All system elements originate somewhere and may be changed throughout their existence. The record of element origin along with the history of, the changes to and the record of who made those changes is called "provenance."

Acquirers, integrators and suppliers should maintain the provenance of elements under their control to understand where the elements have been, the change history and who might have had an opportunity to change them.

4) Share information within strict limits. Acquirers, integrators and suppliers need to share data and information. Content to be shared among acquirers, integrators and suppliers may include information about the use of elements, users, acquirer, integrator or supplier organizations as well as information regarding issues that have been identified or raised regarding specific elements. Information should be protected according to mutually agreed-upon practices. 

5) Perform supply chain risk management awareness and training. A strong supply chain risk mitigation strategy cannot be put in place without significant attention given to training personnel on supply chain policy, procedures and applicable management, operational and technical controls and practices. NIST SP 800-50, Building an Information Technology Security Awareness and Training Program, provides guidelines for establishing and maintaining a comprehensive awareness and training program.

6) Use defensive design for systems, elements and processes. The use of design concepts is a common approach to delivering robustness in security, quality, safety, diversity and many other disciplines that can aid in achieving supply chain risk management. Design techniques apply to supply chain elements, element processes, information, systems and organizational processes throughout the system.

Element processes include creation, testing, manufacturing, delivery and sustainment of the element throughout its life. Organizational and business processes include issuing requirements for acquiring, supplying and using supply chain elements.

7) Perform continuous integrator review. Continuous integrator review is an essential practice used to determine that defensive measures have been deployed. Its purpose is to validate compliance with requirements, establish that the system behaves in a predictable manner under stress and detect and classify weaknesses and vulnerabilities of elements, processes, systems and any associated metadata.

8) Strengthen delivery mechanisms. Delivery, including inventory management, is an essential function within the supply chain, which has a great potential for being compromised. In today's environment, delivery can be physical such as hardware or logical such as software modules and patches. 

9) Assure sustainment activities and processes. The sustainment process begins when a system becomes operational and ends when it enters the disposal process. This includes system maintenance, upgrade, patching, parts replacement and other activities that keep the system operational. Any change to the system or process can introduce opportunities for subversion throughout the supply chain.

10) Manage disposal and final disposition activities throughout the system or element life cycle. Elements, information and data can be disposed of at any time across the system and element life cycle. For example, disposal can occur during research and development, design, prototyping or operations/maintenance and include methods such as disk cleaning, removal of cryptographic keys and partial reuse of components.

NIST says the recommendations in the interagency report are for information systems categorized at the FIPS 199 high-impact level. But NIST says agencies and other agencies can choose to apply the recommended practices to specific systems with a lower impact level, based on the tailoring guidance provided in the draft of NIST Special Publication 800-53 Revision 4: Security and Privacy Controls for Federal Information Systems and Organizations.

Refer here to download the report.

New malware "Mirage" targeting energy firms

Malware targets individuals via "spear-phishing" e-mails bearing tainted PDF files

Researchers have uncovered a new cyberespionage campaign being waged on a large Philippine oil company, a Taiwanese military organization and a Canadian energy firm, as well as targets in Brazil, Israel, Egypt and Nigeria. 

The malware being used is called "Mirage" and it leaves a backdoor on the computer that waits for instructions from the attacker, said Silas Cutler, a security researcher at Dell SecureWorks' Counter Threat Unit (CTU). Victims are carefully targeted with so-called "spear-phishing" e-mails with attachments that are "droppers" designed to look and behave like PDF documents.

However, they are actually standalone executable files that open an embedded PDF file and execute the Mirage trojan. The malware disguises its "phone home" communications to resemble Google searches by using Secure Socket Layers (SSL) in order to avoid detection, Cutler wrote in a report this week.

Researchers were able to take over domains being used in the campaign that were no longer registered or had expired and they used them to set up a "sinkhole" designed to receive any communications from infected computers. By pretending to be a command-and-control server they learned that there were about 80 unique IP addresses that appeared to be infected, involving as many as 120 individual computers.

"Deeper analysis of the phone-home requests and correlation with social networking sites allowed CTU researchers to identify a specific individual infected with Mirage. It was an executive-level finance manager of the Phillipine-based oil company," the report says.

Researchers couldn't say what data the attackers were aiming for, but it's not difficult to speculate given that countries are vying for oil and gas exploration rights in the South China Sea. It's unclear who is behind the campaign, but whoever sponsored it is "well funded and very active," said Joe Stewart, director of malware research at Dell SecureWorks.

While he declined to speculate who sponsored the campaign, the report said proxy software used on some of the command-and-control servers was created by a member of a Chinese hacker group called the "Honker Union of China." 

"We interrupted their command chain, so we don't know what documents they're looking for," he said. "Typically it's competitive information." The researchers believe that whoever is responsible also played a part an espionage campaign earlier in the year that targeted Vietnamese oil companies and government ministries, an embassy, a nuclear safety agency and others in various countries.

The command-and-control IP addresses used in the Mirage campaign belong to the China Beijing Province Network, as did three of the IP addresses used in the earlier "Sin Digoo" malware campaign, according to the researchers. This is the latest in a number of reports of international cyberespionage that have cropped up in recent years, with energy, defense and critical infrastructure firms increasingly being targeted.

Managing Operational Risks and Vulnerabilities Created by Increased Connectivity

Industrial Controls System Security White Paper

Connectivity from the Top floor to the Shop floor – it's a common and growing trend with significant benefits and challenges. Watershed cyber security events like Stuxnet, Flame, and Duqu have focused attention on the operational risks and vulnerabilities created by increased connectivity.

Enterprises are striving to meet connectivity needs while minimizing information security risks. Enterprises need cost-effective solutions to address the network management and security challenges that arise from adding connectivity to automation systems and integrating them with Corporate business systems.

The purpose of this paper is to explain where vulnerabilities within a HMI/SCADA system may lie, describe how the inherent security of system designs minimize some risks, outline some proactive steps businesses can take, and highlight several software capabilities that companies can leverage to further enhance their security.

Pls refer here to download the whitepaper (registration maybe required).

Free Framework for Vulnerability Reporting

Breach Info Sharing Tool Enhanced


The Industry Consortium for Advancement of Security on the Internet has introduced an enhanced version of its free security vulnerability reporting framework designed to ease the sharing of breach information.


The framework enables stakeholders across different organizations to share vulnerability information in an open and common machine-readable format. ICASI, a non-profit association of eight major information technology companies, says Version 1.1 of the Common Vulnerability Reporting Framework offers users a more comprehensive and flexible format, while reducing duplication and the possibility of errors.


"CVRF replaces the many nonstandard reporting formats previously in use, thus speeding up information exchange and processing," the association says. Russell Smoak, ICASI's president, in an earlier interview with Information Security Media Group, explained that the framework allows for consistency among vendors, researchers and customers in exchanging vulnerability information. "It speeds the response in the event of a breach," he said.


For example, by using the framework, an organization that's a customer of three companies that have all been affected by a data breach could receive consistent reports and then more promptly take appropriate action, Smoak explained. The framework is available for free at the consortium's website, which also includes information about a May 30 webcast on the framework.

Top 20 Critical Security Controls

Twenty Critical Security Controls for Effective Cyber Defense

The Twenty Critical Security Controls have already begun to transform security in government agencies and other large enterprises by focusing their spending on the key controls that block known attacks and find the ones that get through.

With the change in FISMA reporting implemented on June 1, the 20 Critical Controls become the centerpiece of effective security programs across government These controls allow those responsible for compliance and those responsible for security to agree, for the first time, on what needs to be done to make systems safer. No development in security is having a more profound and far reaching impact.

These Top 20 Controls were agreed upon by a powerful consortium brought together by John Gilligan (previously CIO of the US Department of Energy and the US Air Force) under the auspices of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Members of the Consortium include NSA, US Cert, DoD JTF-GNO, the Department of Energy Nuclear Laboratories, Department of State, DoD Cyber Crime Center plus the top commercial forensics experts and pen testers that serve the banking and critical infrastructure communities.

The automation of these Top 20 Controls will radically lower the cost of security while improving its effectiveness. The US State Department, under CISO John Streufert, has already demonstrated more than 94% reduction in “measured” security risk through the rigorous automation and measurement of the Top 20 Controls.

20 Critical Security Controls – Version 3.1Critical Control

1. Inventory of Authorized and Unauthorized DevicesCritical Control
   
2. Inventory of Authorized and Unauthorized SoftwareCritical Control
   
3. Secure Configurations for Hardware and Software on Laptops, Workstations, and ServersCritical Control
   
4. Continuous Vulnerability Assessment and RemediationCritical Control
   
5. Malware DefensesCritical Control
   
6. Application Software SecurityCritical Control
   
7. Wireless Device ControlCritical Control
   
8. Data Recovery CapabilityCritical Control
   
9. Security Skills Assessment and Appropriate Training to Fill GapsCritical Control
   
10. Secure Configurations for Network Devices such as Firewalls, Routers, and SwitchesCritical Control
    
11. Limitation and Control of Network Ports, Protocols, and ServicesCritical Control
    
12. Controlled Use of Administrative PrivilegesCritical Control
    
13. Boundary DefenseCritical Control
    
14. Maintenance, Monitoring, and Analysis of Security Audit LogsCritical Control
    
15. Controlled Access Based on the Need to KnowCritical Control
    
16. Account Monitoring and ControlCritical Control
    
17. Data Loss PreventionCritical Control
    
18. Incident Response CapabilityCritical Control
    
19. Secure Network EngineeringCritical Control
    
20. Penetration Tests and Red Team Exercises

by http://www.sans.org

New Study Shows Internet Vulnerabilities Drop, Yet Risks Rise

Symantec 2011 Security Trends: Beware Insider Threats


There's some good news on the cybersecurity front, for a change: The number of Internet vulnerabilities identified by Symantec dropped 20 percent last year, according to the security technology company's just-released annual Internet Security Threat Report.


The tone of the rest of the report, however, isn't so optimistic. In fact, it's downright gloomy, as the company cautioned the IT security community about an 81 percent uptick in malicious attacks and the expectation of more to come in 2012.


IT managers jittery about defending their organizations' information systems should look over their shoulders from time to time. The insider, as we've been told time and time again, remains - and is likely to continue to be - one of the biggest threats.

"While external threats will continue to multiply, the insider threat will also create headlines, as employees act intentionally - and unintentionally - to leak or steal valuable data," Symantec notes.

Why? Because we're not doing enough to educate employees and customers about security and risk. Symantec's Global Intelligence Network monitors hacking and Internet attacks in more than 200 countries and territories. It also maintains a database that holds almost 48,000 recorded vulnerabilities from nearly 16,000 global vendors.


So, Symantec's analysis is one of the best available, at least where Internet security threats and trends are concerned. The actual number of Internet vulnerabilities identified by Symantec dropped 20 percent from 2010, and Symantec, for its part, blocked more than 5.5 billion malicious attacks in 2011 -- 81 percent more than it blocked the previous year.


Hacking exposed more than 187.2 million identities last year, Symantec found. But the root of most data breaches is not linked to hacks; it's linked to old-fashioned theft and/or sloppy security, such as through the loss of a laptop.


Symantec does offer advice, such as keeping antivirus software up-to-date and enforcing effective password policies. All important, but without the education piece, we won't have a fighting chance.


Refer here to download the report.

Top 10 Reports for Managing Vulnerabilities

Free Security eBook

I would like to recommend a free security eBook "Top 10 Reports for Managing Vulnerabilities". I think it is worth to share with all of you.

This free guide covers the key aspects of the vulnerability management lifecycle and shows you what reports today's best-in-class organizations are using to reduce risks on their network infrastructure.

New network vulnerabilities appear constantly and the ability for IT security professionals to handle new flaws, fix misconfigurations and protect against threats requires constant attention. However, with shrinking budgets and growing responsibilities, time and resources are at constrained.

Therefore, sifting through pages of raw vulnerability information yields few results and makes it impossible to accurately measure your security posture.

This guide cuts through the data overload generated by some vulnerability detection solutions and introduces The Top 10 Reports for Managing Vulnerabilities.

It's limited time offer, PDF Version: http://tinyurl.com/3hx2e3e

Trojan rounds up and steals Word and Excel docs

Malware Uses Sendspace to Store Stolen Documents

Beware of bogus FedEx emails asking you to review a shipment notification - the attached Fedex_Invoice.exe is actually a downloader Trojan that opens you computer to other pieces of malware.

In this particular case spotted by Trend Micro researchers, it downloads and executes a Trojan that searches for and snatches MS Word and Excel documents from the infected machine.

"The collected documents are then archived and password-protected using a random-generated password in the user’s temporary folder," they share. And after creating the archive, it sends it to sendspace.com, a file hosting service that allows its users to send, receive, track and share files.

Once the archive is uploaded, the malware retrieves the Sendspace download link, and then sends it to the C&C server operated by the crooks along with the password needed to open it.

This is not the first time that Sendspace has been used by cyber thieves to store stolen data, and the same can be said for other free online hosting services.

Unfortunately, the criminals have realized that these legitimate services allow them to forgo the need of operating their own drop zones.

What does it really take to exploit a printer?

Printer Hack: Researchers Can Set Media’s Pants on Fire

In the past couple of weeks, there has been quite a bit of press and blogging about a security vulnerability in HP printers that was discovered by researchers in the Intrusion Detection Lab at Columbia University.

In a nutshell, the researchers found a way to replace the operating firmware on an HP printer with firmware of their own design that can do bad things, and they also found a way to do it to a printer that is on a private network behind a firewall.

MSNBC ran an “exclusive” story about it calling it a “devastating attack” to which “millions of printers” could be subjected. Its lede suggested that hackers could cause the printer to catch fire, or be used for identity theft, or be used to take control of entire networks.

In practice, this isn’t an easy vulnerability to exploit on a large scale.

Let me explain:

First, you need to target a printer that supports PJL and its largely undocumented remote firmware update (RFU) function. Many printers support PJL, but RFU is less commonly supported. Many printers don’t have any mechanism for remote updates, and many others use something other than PJL’s RFU function for remote updates.

Once you've found a printer that supports PJL and its RFU function, you'll need to make sure that it will apply a firmware update without checking its authenticity. I can’t speak for other manufacturers, but my employer’s products have been using digital signature verification for firmware updates for at least the seven plus years that I have worked for them.

Next, you need to be able to create new firmware to do your bidding. To do that, you need to know what is the manufacturer and model of your target. The researchers demonstrated exploitation of a victim’s printer that was on a private, firewalled network, but didn’t mention how they determined which make and model of printer would be used by a particular victim. They would need to know that in order to send the correct firmware image to the victim.

And then there is the matter of reverse-engineering printer firmware. It is certainly possible, but not very practical when you consider that there are thousands of different printer models to contend with.

The researchers say that “rewriting the printer’s firmware takes only about 30 seconds”, but they are referring to the time it takes for the printer to update its flash memory and not how long it takes for someone to reverse-engineer a printer to do something malevolently useful.

Next, you need to get the victim to print a document that contains the firmware update code, and of course they need to print it on the printer that you targeted. I don’t know if it is possible to embed an RFU in a printable document in such a way that isn’t obvious when the document is viewed, as most people do before they print something. Perhaps they will disclose that detail at the Chaos conference.

Now, finally, you own the victim’s printer.

Norway hit by major data-theft attack

Industrial secrets from companies were stolen and "sent out digitally from the country

Data from Norway's oil and defense industries may have been stolen in what is feared to be one of the most extensive data espionage cases in the country's history.

Industrial secrets from companies were stolen and "sent out digitally from the country," the Norwegian National Security Authority said, though it did not name any companies or institutions that were targeted.

At least 10 different attacks, mostly aimed at the oil, gas, energy and defense industries, were discovered in the past year, but the agency said it has to assume the number is much higher because many victims have yet to realize that their computers have been hacked.

"This is the first time Norway has unveiled such an extensive and widespread espionage attack," it said. Spokesman Kjetil Berg Veire added it is likely that more than one person is behind the attacks.

The methods varied, but in some cases individually crafted e-mails that, armed with viruses, would sweep recipients' entire hard-drives for data and steal passwords, documents and confidential documents.

The agency said in a statement that this type of data-theft was "cost-efficient" for foreign intelligence services and that "espionage over the Internet is cheap, provides good results and is low-risk." Veire would not elaborate, but said it was not clear who was behind the attacks.

The attacks often occurred when companies were negotiating large contracts, the agency said. Important Norwegian institutions have been targeted by hackers before.

In 2010, some two weeks after Chinese dissident and democracy activist Liu Xiaobo was named that year's Nobel Peace Prize winner, Norway's Nobel Institute website came under attack, with a Trojan Horse, a particularly potent computer virus, being installed on it.

Other attacks on the institute in that same period came via email, containing virus-infected attachments.

Refer here to read further details.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Cyber Security Audit FAIL

The DHS US-CERT office is currently plagued by at least 600 vulnerabilities

A new report warns that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is falling short on some cybersecurity protocols.

The news of cybersecurity shortcomings at the agency are more than slightly concerning, as DHS has been tapped to lead information security efforts nationally for both the public and private sectors.

The report, titled DHS Needs to Improve the Security Posture of Its Cybersecurity Program Systems, indicates that the DHS has failed a security audit conducted by the agency's own Inspector General:

The objective of our audit was to determine whether adequate physical and logical access controls are in place to secure the cybersecurity program systems utilized by US-CERT and safeguard the data collected and disseminated by US-CERT. Specifically, we:

• Determined what and how cybersecurity data is collected and maintained by US-CERT
  
  
• Evaluated the adequacy of physical security controls implemented to protect NCSD’s cybersecurity program systems
  
  
• Determined whether US-CERT has implemented effective system security controls to safeguard the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of cybersecurity data.
  
  
• Determined whether the system documentation for DHS’ cybersecurity program systems has been completed in compliance with DHS and FISMA requirements

"Adequate security controls have not been implemented on the [Mission Operating Environment] to protect the data processed from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction," the IG concluded.
The report indicates the DHS US-CERT is grappling with more than six hundred network vulnerabilities, with more two-hundred of them having been identified as critical.

"The results of our vulnerability assessments revealed that [National Cyber Security Division] is not applying timely security and software patches on the [Mission Operating Environment]," the report continued.

DHS indicated that the agency has implemented "a software management tool [to] automatically deploy operating-system and application-security patches and updates to mitigate current and future vulnerabilities," according to a statement by DHS spokeswoman Amy Kudwa.

Now you can DDOS SSL?

SSL DDOS tool released in to the wild with download

THC-SSL-DOS is a tool to verify the performance of SSL.Establishing a secure SSL connection requires 15x more processing power on the server than on the client. THC-SSL-DOS exploits this asymmetric property by overloading the server and knocking it off the Internet. This problem affects all SSL implementations today.

The vendors are aware of this problem since 2003 and the topic has been widely discussed. This attack further exploits the SSL secure Renegotiation feature Comparing flood DDoS vs. SSL-Exhaustion attack. A traditional flood DDoS attack cannot be mounted from a single DSL connection.

This is because:

• The bandwidth of a server is far superior to the bandwidth of a DSL connection
• A DSL connection is not an equal opponent to challenge the bandwidth of a server
• This is turned upside down for THC-SSL-DOS
• The processing capacity for SSL handshakes is far superior at the client side
• A laptop on a DSL connection can challenge a server on a 30Gbit link

Traditional DDoS attacks based on flooding are sub optimal. Servers are prepared to handle large amount of traffic and clients are constantly sending requests to the server even when not under attack. The SSL-handshake is only done at the beginning of a secure session and only if security is required. Servers are not prepared to handle large amount of SSL Handshakes. The worst attack scenario is an SSL-Exhaustion attack mounted from thousands of clients (SSL-DDoS).

Tips & Tricks for whitehats

1. The average server can do 300 handshakes per second. This would require 10-25% of your laptops CPU.
2. Use multiple hosts (SSL-DOS) if an SSL Accelerator is used.
3. Be smart in target acquisition: The HTTPS Port (443) is not always the best choice. Other SSL enabled ports are more unlikely to use an SSL Accelerator (like the POP3S, SMTPS, ... or the secure database port).

Counter measurements: No real solutions exists. The following steps can mitigate (but not solve) the problem:

1. Disable SSL-Renegotiation
2. Invest into SSL Accelerator Either of these countermeasures can be circumventing by modifying THC-SSL-DOS. A better solution is desireable. Somebody should fix this.

Download SSL DDOS Tool:

Windows binary: thc-ssl-dos-1.4-win-bin.zip
Unix Source : thc-ssl-dos-1.4.tar.gz
Source:http://www.thc.org/thc-ssl-dos/

WebCast: Hacking Web Servers and Countermeasures

Learn how to secure webserver!

In this on-demand IT security webcast, EC-Council Master Certified Instructor Eric Reed will address the subject of Hacking Webservers. The webcast will cover topics such as webserver architecture, webserver attack methodologies, footprinting tools, and many more critical concepts. The webcast also includes demonstrations on performing a directory traversal attack, fingerprinting a webserver with HTTPRecon, and web-based password cracking with Brutus.

This webcast is available on-demand at http://www.careeracademy.com/ceh-m12-infosec.aspx

Please feel free to forward to others in your organization who may be interested this type of training.

Details:

This free module is a part of CareerAcademy.com’s EC-Council Endorsed CEH Certification course, which gives each student in-depth knowledge and practical experience with current essential security systems.

When a student completes the course they will have hands on understanding and experience in Ethical Hacking and be fully prepared to pass EC-Council Certified Ethical Hacker Exam 312-50.

You can attend this complimentary webcast right now at:

http://www.careeracademy.com/ceh-m12-infosec.aspx

New free version of Metasploit tool released

New version of free Metasploit tool aimed at newbie penetration testers

Two years after Rapid7 acquired the Metasploit Project, the company has rolled out a free and more user-friendly version of the open-source tool that is aimed at less technical users.

The new Metasploit Community Edition is a combination of the popular open-source Metasploit Framework and a basic version of the user interface of Rapid7's Metasploit Pro commercial product.

HD Moore, Rapid7's CSO and chief architect for Metasploit, says the free pen-testing tool features a new user interface and automation of tasks to make penetration testing more approachable for organizations and users not necessarily versed in penetration testing. There's a growing number of organizations that want to get started with pen testing, either for compliance reasons or just to test it out, he says.

"There's a huge number who want to dip their toe into security and don't want a complex learning curve. They just want to test it, and some are scared to test it," says Moore, who is also the creator of Metasploit. "[Now] they can get familiar with Metasploit ... and make sure they can prioritize vulnerabilities" and other security issues, he says.

It was two years ago today that Rapid7 announced it had purchased Moore's open-source Metasploit pen-testing tool project, and that Moore had joined the company and was remaining in charge of the project.

Metasploit Community is available for download here.