Tag: Technology News

New Wifi Standard WPA3 May Be Coming

Remember the KRACK WiFi (WPA2) vulnerability, discovered by Mathy Vanhoef? It turns out that his discovery was a catalyst for action. Recently, the WiFi Alliance, which is the industry’s standards organization, released details about its new WPA3 protocol.

Here’s a quick rundown of the changes you can expect to see in the months ahead:

  • Enhancements in encryption capabilities – The new protocol will enable encrypted connections between connected devices and the router/access point, and the cryptographic standard has been improved. According to the WiFi Alliance, it will be “a 192-bit security suite, aligned with the Commercial National Security Algorithm (CNSA) Suite from the Committee on National Security Systems, which will further protect Wi-Fi networks with higher security requirements such as government, defense, and industrial.”
  • The ability to configure one WiFi enabled device to configure other devices on the network – As an example, you’ll now be able to configure a network-connected smart device that doesn’t have a display screen from your smartphone or PC connected to the same network.
  • More protection – In addition to offering more robust encryption, the new standard will also offer enhanced protection against brute force attacks by halting the WiFi authentication process after some number of failed login attempts. This mirrors the functionality found on many web-based authentication systems.

All of these are welcome changes indeed, but despite relatively quick action on the part of the WiFi Alliance, it will still be several months before consumers are able to purchase devices that offer WPA3 support.

Mathy Vanhoef, the researcher who brought the KRACK attack to the world’s attention, had this to say about the recent announcement:

“The standards behind WPA3 already existed for a while, but now, devices are required to support them. Otherwise, they won’t receive the WPA3-Certified label. Linux’s open source Wi-Fi client and access point already support the improved handshake, it just isn’t used in practice. But hopefully, that will change now.”

This is good news indeed, and will help make wireless networks more secure. Kudos to Mathy Vanhoef for his discovery, and for spurring the industry into action.

Electronic Device Search Rules Better Defined By US Customs

There’s a constant tug of war playing out on the national stage. On one side, privacy advocates are pushing for greater autonomy for end users, and hard limits to the types of searches that law enforcement agencies are allowed to conduct.

On the other side are the government agencies themselves, which often cite national security concerns as the justification for more and easier access to the sensitive data contained on personal devices like laptops and smartphones.

Generally speaking, the privacy advocates lose those battles. This was the case recently, when the CBP (the US Customs and Border Protection agency) published their latest electronic search guidelines. The most significant change is that the new guidelines explicitly define the difference between basic and advanced searches.

CBP agents are authorized to choose any travel, with or without cause or suspicion, for basic searches. Under the clarified rules, a basic search is limited to an examination of data found on the device itself, which is accessible through already installed apps, or through the device’s OS.

Advanced searches may be conducted, but agents must demonstrate that there’s a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity, or that the person carrying the device represents a “national security concern.”

The individual singled out for an advanced search may be permitted to be present while the search is conducted, but are not permitted to view the actual search itself for fear of revealing law enforcement techniques. Of significance, even during the conduct of an advanced search, agents are not permitted to search cloud-based data. They are restricted to data stored on the device itself.

While none of this sounds especially heavy-handed, the biggest complaint privacy advocates have about the updated rules is the fact that border agents can, at their own discretion, still carry out warrantless searches without any judicial oversight whatsoever.

Although this may not impact you directly, it pays to be mindful of the recent changes.

Vulnerabilities Found In Some GPS Services

A duo of researchers stumbled across a series of vulnerabilities in literally hundreds of GPS services that leave sensitive GPS tracking data open to hackers. Dubbed “Trackmageddon” by the researchers, the vulnerabilities span a range of weaknesses that include default or easy-to-guess passwords, IDOR (Insecure Direct Object Reference) issues, insecure API endpoints, and data collection folders that are entirely unsecured.

The reason so many different tracking services are impacted is that most of them rely on the same online software to deliver their services, and that software (believed to be designed by ThinkRace, one of the largest vendors of GPS tracking devices) itself is flawed. As more and more companies license it, the issues spread, exposing the data of an increasing number of customers who are entirely in the dark about how vulnerable their location data is.

The researchers have made attempts to contact the vendors offering GPS tracking services with vulnerabilities, but so far, have met with only limited success. According to their report:

“We tried to give the vendors enough time to fix (also respond for that matter) while we weighed this against the current immediate risk of the users.

We understand that only a vendor fix can remove a user’s location history (and any other stored user data for that matter) from the still affected services, but we (and I personally because my data is also on one of those sites) judge the risk of these vulnerabilities being exploited against live location tracking devices, much higher than the risk of historic data being exposed.”

As to the types of data being exposed, it includes: GPS coordinates, phone numbers, IMEI numbers, device information, and depending on which online service is being used, a hacker could even gain access to audio, video, and photos uploaded by the device being used.

While extremely convenient, these services do carry significant risks. Use them at your own risk.

Backdoor In Certain Lenovo Switches Discovered

Does your company utilize either RackSwitch or BladeCenter networking switches? Are those switches running ENOS (the Enterprise Network Operating System)? If so, there’s a backdoor in your network you weren’t aware of. Even worse, it’s been there since 2004.

Engineers at Lenovo recently discovered the backdoor in the firmware when they conducted an internal security audit. These products were added to the company’s portfolio via acquisition from Nortel, and Lenovo only just became aware of their existence.

A spokesman for the company had this to say: “The existence of mechanisms that bypass authentication or authorization are unacceptable to Lenovo and do not follow Lenovo product security or industry practices. Lenovo has removed this mechanism from the ENOS source code and has released updated firmware for affected products.”

Updates are available on Lenovo’s website, and links to the updates are available inside the company’s security advisory on this topic.

It should be noted that this backdoor would be relatively difficult for a would-be hacker to exploit, because it’s not a hidden account whose password could be guessed at or cracked via brute force, but rather an authentication bypass mechanism that requires a strict set of conditions to trigger. Lenovo describes the various configurations of security settings that activate the backdoor in their security advisory.

In any case, the presence of a backdoor into your network (even one that’s hard to trigger and access) isn’t something to be taken lightly. If you’re able, grab the firmware updates from Lenovo at your next opportunity and seal the breach. If that is impractical for some reason, Lenovo has spelled out a few mitigation strategies your company can apply as a stop gap, until you can get the firmware updates in place.

Kudos to Lenovo from their swift, deft handling of the issue!

Do Not Use These Chrome Extensions

Do you use any of the following Chrome browser extensions?

  • Change HTTP Request Header
  • Nyoogle – (a custom logo for Google)
  • Stickies – (a Post-It note for Chrome)
  • Lite Bookmarks

If so, you’re not alone. These four extensions have a combined user base of more than half a million.

Recently, security researchers from ICEBRG (a US cyber-security company) have discovered malicious codes embedded in copies of these on the official Chrome Web Store. The code allows hackers to manipulate the users’ browser via JavaScript.

So far, the hackers have only contented themselves with relatively tame activities like loading and displaying ads, clicking on ads, and loading malicious web pages in the background. However, the potential exists to do much more than this.

Since ICEBRG informed Google, the company has removed three of the four plugins from the Web Store. As of this moment, only Nyoogle remains, though the expectation is that it will be removed in short order as well.

While all four extensions utilize the same basic techniques, and do many of the same things, it is not clear if all four were created by the same group, although this seems likely.

Since the extensions have now been (mostly) removed, the rate of infection will slow. Of course, if you’ve already downloaded and installed one of these four, then you are going to continue to be impacted.

The extensions are easy to uninstall, and if you’re using one of them, that is the recommended course of action.

In recent months, Google has taken steps to make their auditing process more robust to prevent malicious extensions and apps from finding their way onto the web properties they manage. As this latest incident proves, no matter how careful a company is, sooner or later something is going to slip through.

Inappropriate Ads Found In Some Game Apps for Kids

Normally, Google’s robust series of checks and audits are pretty good at catching malicious code and preventing it from making its way to the Play Store. Sometimes, however, something slips through anyway despite the company’s best efforts. This latest one is particularly bad.

Researchers from Check Point have identified a new strain of malware called “AdultSwine” lurking in more than sixty gaming apps on the Play Store. Each of these apps has been downloaded between 3 million and 7 million times, which gives us approximately 150 million infected devices.

As the name suggests, the malware primarily displays ads from the web that are of an adult nature, and often overtly pornographic. It also attempts to trick unsuspecting users into installing additional malware that masquerades as “security apps.”

An analysis of the code reveals it to be highly flexible, allowing the authors to easily begin collecting all kinds of information about the owner of any infected device. This makes identity theft a real possibility if the hackers were inclined to do so.

The most disturbing element of all this is that the malware seems heavily focused on apps and games designed for children. So if you’re a parent, it pays to check the apps that are installed on your child’s phone. What seems at first glance to be a harmless game could actually be displaying pornographic advertising while they’re playing.

The Check Point researchers had this to say about the discovery:

“Although for now this malicious app seems to be a nasty nuisance, and most certainly damaging on both an emotional and financial level, it nevertheless also has a potentially much wider range of malicious activities that it can pursue, all relying on the same common concept. Indeed, these plots continue to be effective even today, especially when they originate in apps downloaded from trusted sources such as Google Play.”

Just to be safe, double check the apps on your child’s phone!

Intel Chips Face Another Possible Vulnerability

Intel’s year isn’t getting off to a very good start. Just after the discovery of a pair of critical vulnerabilities that have been in their chipsets for more than a decade comes the discovery of yet another serious flaw that could impact millions of laptops around the world.

A Finnish data security firm called “F-Secure” just reported an issue with Intel’s Active Management Technology (AMT) that could allow a hacker to completely bypass the machine’s normal login procedure and take control of the target device in under a minute.

AMT is an admin-level feature that allows organizations to control and manage large numbers of PCs and workstations quickly and efficiently via remote. To take advantage of the flaw, a hacker would need physical access to the machine, which is its one saving grace. However, if they have that, they can take complete control even if a BIOS password has been set.

While other research teams have discovered AMT vulnerabilities in the past, this one deserves special attention for three reasons:

  • Once in control, the hacker could gain remote access to whatever network the machine is attached to at some later point.
  • It affects almost all intel laptops, and odds are that if you’re a business owner, there are a number of laptops with Intel chipsets connected to your network
  • It’s an incredibly easy flaw to exploit, requiring no code whatsoever.

F-Security Research Harry Sintonen had this to say about it:

“The attack is almost deceptively simple to enact, but it has incredible destructive potential. In practice, it can give a local attacker complete control over an individual’s work laptop, despite even the most extensive security measures.”

It should be noted that this flaw is in no way related to the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities that have been reported on earlier, giving Intel a trio of nasty problems to deal with right at the start of the new year.

Use Of Bots Has Increased Fake Account Creations

The ThreatMetrix Cybercrime Report 2017 is out, and is a troubling read for anyone who has anything to do with data security.  As a fraud prevention company protecting nearly a billion and a half users around the world, they’re uniquely positioned to know, and their insights on the threat landscape is invaluable.

Their main finding is that hackers, scammers and fraudsters are moving away from using stolen debit and credit cards, given that these things have such a short shelf life.  On the face of it, that sounds like it might be a good thing, until you understand what they’re doing instead.

They’re making use of stolen identity data to create bogus accounts, then applying for lines of credit on their own.  Even worse, they’re taking full advantage of automation to speed the process along.  According to the report, the volume of global fraud attacks is up a mind blowing 100 percent in just two years, with 700 million incidents reported in 2017 alone.

Bots are coming to play an increasingly important role in the activity of the fraudsters, too.  Once a new, fraudulent account has been created, it’s handed off to a bot to test it and make sure it’s valid, which increases its value on the Dark Web.

How big of a problem are bots on the web these days?

According to the report, ThreatMetrix blocked 1.5 billion bot attacks last year, with some retailers reporting that more than 90% of their daily traffic is comprised of bots.

At the root, what’s driving this behavior are the increasingly common, large-scale data breaches that put  up to hundreds of millions of data records into the hands of fraudsters.  Until and unless the flow of data can be stopped, we can expect this type of activity to continue to increase.

No matter how you slice it, 2018 is going to be a very interesting and very busy year.

Mac Computers Battling New Malware For Hijacking DNS

It’s official, the first macOS malware of 2018 is here. Discovered by an independent security researcher and dubbed “OSX/MaMi,” the code is functionally similar to DNSChanger malware.

The researcher posted his findings on the Malwarebytes forum and none other than Patrick Wardle (an ex-NSA hacker) analyzed it, having this to say:

“OSX/MaMi isn’t particularly advanced – but does alter infected systems in rather nasty and persistent ways. By installing a new root certificate and hijacking the DNS servers, the attackers can perform a variety of nefarious actions such as man-in-the-middle’ing traffic (perhaps to steal credentials, or inject ads) or to insert cryptocurrency mining scripts into web pages.”

In addition to that, hooks were found in the software that would eventually allow it to:

  • Upload and download files
  • Execute commands
  • Generate simulated mouse events
  • Take screenshots

And more, although at present, these features are not yet active, which points to the malware as being a piece of code still very much in development.

At present, there are no anti-malware or antivirus programs capable of detecting this new strain. That, of course, will change in short order. However, for the time being, the best way to verify whether or not your machine is infected is to go through “System Preferences” and into the terminal app to check your DNS settings.

Two values you don’t want to see there are: 82.163.143.135 or 82.163.142.137.

If you’d rather not check manually, Patrick Wardle has created a free, open-source firewall for macOS called “Lulu,” which you can download from GitHub. This program was designed to block suspicious traffic and will prevent OSX/MaMi from stealing anything from your system.

As threats go, this one is relatively minor, but it’s still early in the year, and whomever is behind this piece of code will no doubt be making improvements on it. Stay tuned.

2 Million Credit Cards Stolen From Popular Sandwich Shop

By now, we’ve seen enough large-scale Point of Sale (POS) credit card thefts that patterns are beginning to emerge. Some companies follow the general arc of the narrative better than others, and deserve credit for doing so, but in the end, the story is about the same.

That’s certainly the case with Jason’s Deli. Recently, they discovered RAM-scraping malware on a number of their POS terminals. This has happened at a total of 164 of their locations, scattered across 14 states.

During the seven-month period before the malware was discovered, the company estimates that the credit card payment information of some two million customers was stolen. The data included credit and debit card numbers, expiration dates, the cardholder’s service and verification codes, and the cardholder’s name.

As is the case with most of these incidents, the company immediately contacted law enforcement and hired a third-party firm to assist with the forensic investigation, which is still ongoing.

Jason’s Deli’s handling of the aftermath of the incident has been well above average. However, the bottom line is that unless companies start paying increasing attention to data security, issues like these are going to continue to occur.

As a general rule, hackers prefer to go after the low-hanging fruit. There’s simply more money in attacking soft targets than hard ones. Your company doesn’t need bullet proof security in order to be safe from most hackers, it’s just got to be better than average. Although obviously, the better and more robust your digital security is, the safer you will be.

Unfortunately, this painfully obvious lesson seems to be falling on too many deaf ears. Until and unless that changes, we’ll continue reading about incidents like these. It’s costing business billions every year. Make sure your company isn’t next on the hackers’ hit list.