Category Archives: Malware

Internet crime, Malware, Security, WordPress and other CMS

Compromised WordPress sites again used in malware campaign

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WordPress continues to be a victim of its own success. There are so many sites built using the WordPress software that it remains a tempting target for malicious activities. Many WordPress sites are managed by less technically-savvy people, which means that they may not be kept up to date with security patches, and may use plugins that are known to be vulnerable.

Most recently, an active malware campaign (designated “VisitorTracker” by researchers) is using thousands of compromised WordPress sites to direct site visitors to servers hosting attack code connected with the Nuclear exploit kit.

If you run a WordPress site, please make sure that it’s up to date, and that you only use plugins that are compatible with the latest version of WordPress, and that the plugins are themselves up to date. If you suspect that your site has been compromised, take it offline and rebuild it.

Adware, Android, Chrome, Firefox, Flash, Google, Hardware, Malware, Mobile, Patches and updates, Privacy, Security

Security roundup for August 2015

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Last month in security and privacy news…

A weakness was discovered in the open BitTorrent protocol, rendering torrent software vulnerable to being used to initiate DDoS attacks. The BitTorrent protocol flaw was quickly updated, and patches for affected software were developed and distributed.

Malvertising continued to spread, most recently affecting popular sites like weather.com, drudgereport.com, wunderground.com, and eBay. Anyone visiting those sites with an unpatched browser may have inadvertently caused their computer to be compromised. Needless to say, the malicious ads were built with Flash.

It was a bad month for Android, as one of the updates released by Google that were intended to fix the Stagefright flaw turned out to be faulty, leaving some devices still vulnerable, and forcing Google back to the drawing board. Security researchers also discovered a flaw in Android’s Admin program that allows apps to break out of the security ‘sandbox’ and access data that should be inaccessible. Two flaws in fingerprint handling were also found in many Android devices, leaving both stored fingerprints and the fingerprint scanner itself vulnerable. And finally, new research exposed the predictability of Android lock patterns, making this particular form of security much less effective.

Lenovo’s hapless blundering continued, with the discovery that many of their PCs were using a little-known BIOS technology to ensure that their flawed, insecure crapware gets installed even when the operating system is reinstalled from scratch. Will these bozos ever learn?

Jeff Atwood reported on a new danger: compromised routers. If an attacker gains control of your router, there’s almost no limit to the damage they can inflict. Worse, there are no tools for detecting infected routers. If your router is compromised, no amount of malware scanning on your network’s computers will help. You’re vulnerable until you realize that the router is the problem and replace it or re-flash its firmware.

Mozilla offered more details on planned changes to Firefox that are expected to improve the browser’s security, stability, and performance. These changes are likely to benefit Firefox users, but will come at a cost: many existing browser add-ons will become obsolete. Add-on developers will be forced to make big changes or retire their software. Certain types of add-ons may not even be possible with the changes Mozilla plans.

In privacy news, the Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) released version 1.0 of Privacy Badger, a Chrome and Firefox add-on that blocks tracking mechanisms used on the web. The add-on initially doesn’t block anything, but learns as you browse, detecting cookies that are used on more than one site and blocking them.

And in other EFF news, a new malware campaign uses spearphishing techniques to get targets to visit what is supposed to be an EFF web site but is in fact a source of virulent malware.

Google announced upcoming changes to Chrome that will prevent extension developers from using deceptive practices to trick users into installing their software. Specifically, the ‘inline installation’ process will no longer work for extensions that are associated with these deceptive techniques. This is a good example of a software maker (Google) backing away from a feature that improved usability at the cost of security.

Google also firmed up plans to prevent most Flash media from being displayed by default in Chrome. Flash media won’t be blocked, but users will be required to click on each embedded video before it will play. Google’s official reason for doing this is to improve Chrome’s performance, but the change should reduce the spread of malvertising as well. Of course, Google’s own advertising network still allows Flash-based ads, and those ads will still auto-play. Google’s advice to advertisers is to switch from Flash-based ads to HTML5-based ads, or move to Google’s ad network.

And finally, Ars Technica posted a useful overview and instructions for encrypting your desktop, laptop and mobile devices. Be warned, total device encryption is not for the faint-hearted and comes with certain risks. For example, if you forget to tell your IT person that your hard drive is encrypted and they try to recover your computer from a failure, you may lose everything, even if your data is backed up.

*nix, Adobe, Chrome, Flash, Internet, Internet Explorer, Malware, Mobile, Security, Spam and scams

July security roundup

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Flash improvements

Adobe is trying desperately to keep Flash viable. In July, they announced structural changes that are expected to strengthen Flash’s overall security. The changes are so far only available in the most recent versions of Chrome, but they are expected to find their way into the other major browsers in August.

Asprox botnet status

There’s an interesting (though technical) overview of recent changes in the behaviour of the Asprox botnet over on the SANS Handler’s Diary. Apparently the botnet is no longer sending malware attachments, and is instead sending pornography and diet-related spam. Comparing my inbox contents with the samples in the linked article, it looks like most of the spam I currently receive is thanks to Asprox. Hopefully Asprox will be targeted by the anti-botnet heavy hitters in the near future.

Flaw in BIND could cause widespread issues

BIND is one of the most common pieces of software on Internet-facing servers. It translates human-readable addresses like ‘boot13.com’ into IP addresses. A bug in version 9 of BIND causes it to crash when a specially-crafted packet is sent to it. Attackers could exploit this bug to execute an effective Denial of Service (DoS) attack against a server running BIND9. Patches have been created and distributed, but any remaining unpatched servers are likely to be identified and attacked in the coming months. Update 2015Aug05: As expected, this bug is now being actively exploited.

Mobile versions of IE are vulnerable

Current, patched versions of Internet Explorer running on mobile devices were recently reported to have four flaws that could allow attackers to run code remotely. Exploits were published, although none have yet been seen in the wild. The vulnerabilities were disclosed by the HP/TippingPoint researchers who discovered them, six months after they privately reported them to Microsoft. Microsoft has yet to patch these vulnerabilities; they apparently feel that vulnerabilities are too difficult to exploit for them to be dangerous.

Stagefright vulnerability on Android devices

A flaw in Stagefright, a core Android software library that processes certain types of media, makes almost all Android phones and tablets vulnerable. The flaw can be exploited as easily as sending a specially-crafted text (MMS) message to a phone, but also by tricking the user into visiting a specific web site. Successful attackers can then access user data and execute code remotely. Unfortunately for users, it’s up to individual manufacturers to develop and provide patches, and this process may take months in some cases. There’s not much users can do to mitigate this problem until patches arrive. Update 2015Aug05: Google is working with its partners to push updates to affected mobile devices.

Mediaserver vulnerability on Android devices

More bad news for Android users: the mediaserver service apparently has difficulty processing MKV media files, and can render a device unusable when it encounters one on a malicious web site. In most cases, the device can be brought back to life by powering it down and back up again.

Android spyware toolkit widely available

And the hits just keep on coming for Android devices. Among the information revealed in the recent Hacking Team breach was the source code for an advanced Android spyware toolkit called RCSAndroid. Like everything else taken from Hacking Team’s systems, this has now been published, and no doubt malicious persons are working on ways to use the toolkit. There’s no easy way to protect yourself from this toolkit, aside from keeping your device up to date with patches. From Trend Micro: “Mobile users are called on to be on top of this news and be on guard for signs of monitoring. Some indicators may come in the form of peculiar behavior such as unexpected rebooting, finding unfamiliar apps installed, or instant messaging apps suddenly freezing.”

*nix, Hardware, Internet, Internet crime, Linux, Malware, Mobile, Privacy, Security

Security roundup – May 2015

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Recent security breaches at mSpy and AdultFriendFinder are a gift for Internet extortionists. mSpy hasn’t helped matters by first denying the problem, and then trying to downplay its impact.

A serious vulnerability called Logjam has been discovered in the Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange software, which is used to secure communications on many web and email servers. Meanwhile, despite its many flaws, it’s still a good thing that the web is moving towards HTTPS encryption everywhere.

In the world of network-attached hardware, malware called Linux/Moose is exploiting vulnerabilities in routers and spreading across the Internet. A security flaw in NetUSB is making many consumer routers vulnerable.

A serious vulnerability in many virtual hardware platforms, including Oracle’s popular VirtualBox, is making life difficult for many service providers.

Those of you who monitor traffic arriving at your home or work network are no doubt aware that your network is being constantly scanned for vulnerabilities. Brian Krebs rightly points out that much of this scanning activity is not malicious.

And finally, before you exchange that Android device, you should know that even if you’ve performed a full reset, your personal data is not being completely erased.

Internet, Internet crime, Malware, Spam and scams

Test your skill: spot the phishing email

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A short quiz, provided by anti-malware software maker McAfee, allows you to test your skill at identifying phishing email.

In the quiz, you are presented with ten email samples, and asked to decide whether they are phishing email.

What is phishing? From Wikipedia: “Phishing is the illegal attempt to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details (and sometimes, indirectly, money), often for malicious reasons, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.”

Hint: look for links in each of the sample messages. Hover your mouse over each link, and compare the address with the supposed sender. If a link points to a site that’s unrelated to the supposed sender, the email is probably not legitimate.

Hat tip to reader tap tap.

Hardware, Internet crime, Malware, Security

Insecure routers home to vast botnets

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Huge networks of compromised network routers form the basis of several large botnets. These botnets – described as ‘self-sustaining’ by security researchers – are only possible because routers are shipped with common, known passwords, and because users fail to change those passwords, or leave remote administration features enabled. The compromised routers are mostly used in DDoS attacks.

Users should not depend on their ISP to secure their router. There are numerous guides for improving the security of routers, but this one at HowToGeek is particularly good.

Adware, Chrome, Google, Internet crime, Malware, Spam and scams

Google’s efforts to clean up ad injection on the web

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A recent post on the Chrome blog discusses Google’s recent efforts to clean up the growing problem of ad injection on the web.

From the post: “Ad injectors are programs that insert new ads, or replace existing ones, into the pages you visit while browsing the web.” If you’re seeing a lot of advertising on all the sites you visit, and much of it seems unrelated to the site, your computer may be running one or more ad injectors.

Ad injectors are unwanted software that is surreptitiously installed on victims’ computers through a variety of tricks, including “marketing, bundling applications with popular downloads, outright malware distribution, and large social advertising campaigns.”

The ad injection ‘ecosystem’ is complex, and at any given time there are thousands of injection campaigns affecting web surfers.

To combat this problem, Google has identified and removed 192 apps – identified as contributing to ad injection systems – from the Chrome Web Store. Improvements in the Chrome Web Store and Chrome itself help to protect against ad injection software. And Google is reaching out to advertising networks, to assist them in eliminating ad injection. Most importantly, Google’s AdWords network policies have been tweaked, to make it more difficult for the perpetrators of ad injection schemes to promote malicious software.

Internet, Internet crime, Malware, Security, Spam and scams, WordPress and other CMS

Recent surge in spam likely due to Mumblehard botnet

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If you noticed more spam than usual in your inbox in recent months, you’re not alone. You may also have noticed that using your email client to block the sender is typically ineffective. That’s because the spam is coming from thousands of different domains, each corresponding to a different compromised web server.

This is the work of the Mumblehard botnet, which was observed sending mass spam starting about seven months ago by ESet researchers. The Mumblehard code has existed on the web for at least five years, but seems to have started its spamming activities on a large scale only in the last year or so.

Computers infected with Mumblehard are typically Linux web servers. It remains unclear exactly how servers become infected, but researchers suspect that unpatched WordPress and Joomla vulnerabilities provide the key.

Adware, Flash, Google, Internet crime, Malware, Security

Malvertising shows no sign of slowing down

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Nasty malware, hidden inside a phony ad that appeared on the Huffington Post web site, was exposed to thousands of users earlier this week. The Flash-based ad was delivered via Google’s Doubleclick advertising network. And this wasn’t even the largest malvertising exposure this week.

Google had better get to work on fixing this, or it will start eating into their primary revenue source.