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Have a Couple Beers on the Lawnmower – PSW #721

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1. All Your Holiday Hack Challenge Belong To Us – Ed Skoudis – PSW #721

Let's talk about the 2021 SANS Holiday Hack Challenge. Lotsa great new stuff this year, with a focus on hardware hacking in a virtual world... plus TWO cons at the North Pole.

Segment Resources:
www.holidayhackchallenge.com www.counterhack.com www.sans.edu

Announcements

  • In an overabundance of caution, we have decided to flip this year’s SW Unlocked to a virtual format. The safety of our listeners and hosts is our number one priority. We will miss seeing you all in person, but we hope you can still join us at Security Weekly Unlocked Virtual! The event will now take place on Thursday, Dec 16 from 9am-6pm ET. You can still register for free at https://securityweekly.com/unlocked.

Guest

Faculty at IANS Research, President at SANS Technology Institute, and Founder of Counter Hack

Ed Skoudis is a Faculty member at IANS Research and the founder of Counter Hack, a company focused on conducting ultra high-quality penetration tests and red team engagements to help organizations better manage their cyber risks. Ed is a SANS Fellow, author, and instructor who has trained over 20,000 cyber security professionals in the art of penetration testing and incident response. Ed is an expert witness who is often called in to analyze large-scale breaches.

Hosts

Principal Security Researcher at Eclypsium
Executive Director at Guardedrisk
Product Security Research and Analysis Director at Finite State
Retired Senior Cyber Advisor at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

2. What to Expect in 2022 – PSW #721

Since it is Dec 15 - might make sense to have a discussion on what might be coming in 2022 in terms of security - topics could span Ransomware, and other threats as well as technology segments like Zero Trust and SASE, etc.

Segment Resources:
Barracuda research on Ransomware trends and remote code execution vulns: https://blog.barracuda.com/2021/08/12/threat-spotlight-ransomware-trends/ https://blog.barracuda.com/2021/10/13/threat-spotlight-remote-code-execution-vulnerabilities/

This segment is sponsored by Barracuda Networks.

Visit https://securityweekly.com/barracuda to learn more about them!

Sponsored By

Barracuda

Announcements

  • Throughout 2022, CRA's Business Intelligence Unit will be releasing research reports on the top topics across the security industry. Our first report will be on Third-Party Risk and the Supply Chain. To participate in the survey, please visit https://securityweekly.com/thirdpartyrisk. The results will be shared at our Third-Party Risk eSummit in January.

Guest

VP, Zero Trust at Barracuda Networks

Sinan is a veteran in the cybersecurity space and serves as VP of Zero Trust at Barracuda. Sinan is passionate about helping companies with an increasingly distributed workforce mitigate breach risk by enabling secure access to critical enterprise resources for their outsourcers, partners, contractors and telework employees.

Hosts

Principal Security Researcher at Eclypsium
Executive Director at Guardedrisk
Product Security Research and Analysis Director at Finite State
Retired Senior Cyber Advisor at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

3. Printing Shellz, Block Chain For C2, WordPress Theft, & Log4j Who? – PSW #721

This week in the Security News: Printing Shellz, the exploit is in the link, 42 CVEs, time to update all of your browsers again, Microsoft App spoofing vulnerability, stealing credit cards in Wordpress, using block chain for C2, MangeEngine 0day, oh and did you hear about the log4j vulnerability?

Announcements

  • Don't forget to check out our library of on-demand webcasts & technical trainings at securityweekly.com/ondemand.

  • We're always looking for great guests for all of the Security Weekly shows! Submit your suggestions by visiting https://securityweekly.com/guests and completing the form!

Hosts

Principal Security Researcher at Eclypsium
  1. 1. Actively Exploited Microsoft Zero-Day Allows App Spoofing, Malware Delivery
    "Kevin Breen, director of cyber-threat research at Immersive Labs, explained that the bug “allows an attacker to create a malicious package file and then modify it to look like a legitimate application, and has been used to deliver Emotet malware, which made a comeback this year."
  2. 2. WooCommerce Credit Card Stealer Found Implanted in Random Plugins
    "As elaborated, the malware didn’t precisely run as a script on the infected web page. Instead, the malware ran on the backend. Hence, upon inspecting logs, the researchers noticed that the malware mainly exploited a WordPress plugin running on the website." Original research: https://blog.sucuri.net/2021/12/woocommerce-credit-card-swiper-injected-into-random-plugin-files.html
  3. 3. Second Log4j Vulnerability (CVE-2021-45046) Discovered — New Patch Released
    "Dealing with CVE-2021-44228 has shown the JNDI has significant security issues," Ralph Goers of the ASF explained. "While we have mitigated what we are aware of it would be safer for users to completely disable it by default, especially since the large majority are unlikely to be using it."
  4. 4. A List of Vulnerable Products to the Log4j
  5. 5. How Cybercriminals Are Using Bitcoin’s Blockchain to Make Botnets Stronger Than Ever
    " instead of hard-coding web domains into the malware, they hard-coded three Bitcoin wallet addresses into it. With these addresses, Glupteba has managed to set up an infallible interface between its bot herds and its C2 infrastructure via a little-known function known as the “OP_Return.” The OP_Return is a controversial feature of Bitcoin wallets that allows for the entry of arbitrary text into transactions. It basically functions as the crypto equivalent of Venmo’s “memo” field. Glupteba has taken advantage of this feature by using it as a communication channel. "
  6. 6. CVE-2021-42287/CVE-2021-42278 Weaponisation
  7. 7. Log4Shell: RCE 0-day exploit found in log4j 2, a popular Java logging package
  8. 8. CVE-2021-44515: ZoHo Patches ManageEngine Zero-Day Exploited in the Wild
    Wow: "On December 3, ZoHo issued a security advisory and patches for CVE-2021-44515, an authentication bypass vulnerability in its ManageEngine Desktop Central product that has been exploited in the wild. In addition, a patch was released for CVE-2021-44526, another authentication bypass vulnerability in ServiceDesk Plus, a help desk and asset management application. This follows months of reports and alerts regarding active exploitation of two other vulnerabilities in ManageEngine products, CVE-2021-44077 and CVE-2021-40539. The attacks exploiting these vulnerabilities have been linked to advanced persistent threat (APT) groups."
  9. 9. Important Message: Security vulnerability in Java Edition
  10. 10. 1.6 Million WordPress Sites Hit With 13.7 Million Attacks In 36 Hours From 16,000 IPs
  11. 11. Google pushes emergency Chrome update to fix zero-day used in attacks
    Groundhog day: "The zero-day bug fixed today, tracked as CVE-2021-4102, was reported by an anonymous security researcher and is a use after free weakness in the Chrome V8 JavaScript engine."
Executive Director at Guardedrisk
Product Security Research and Analysis Director at Finite State
  1. 1. Printing Shellz
  2. 2. Windows 10 RCE: The exploit is in the link
  3. 3. A mysterious threat actor is running hundreds of malicious Tor relays
  4. 4. Russia issues threat to GPS satellites – GPS World
  5. 5. Google warns over 1M devices have been infected in ‘Russian hack’
  6. 6. ruDALL-E
  7. 7. Jaques Tits, the mathematician behind Tits buildings, the Tits alternative, the Tits group, and the Tits metric, has died at 91
  8. 8. Ragnar Locker ransomware group took screenshots of their targets Cybersecurity Incident Response
    Ragnar Locker ransomware group took screenshots of their targets Cybersecurity Incident Response meeting mid-breach. * Image censored to comply with Twitters
  9. 9. Hackers drain $31 million from cryptocurrency service MonoX Finance
Retired Senior Cyber Advisor at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
  1. 1. Statement from CISA Director Easterly on “Log4j” Vulnerability
    CISA director Jen Easterly said, “We have added this vulnerability to our catalog of known exploited vulnerabilities, which compels federal civilian agencies -- and signals to non-federal partners -- to urgently patch or remediate this vulnerability." CVE-2021-44228 or Log4Shell has us all busy.
  2. 2. Apple Releases Security Updates for Multiple OSs
    Apple has released updates for multiple operating systems, including macOS, iOS, watchOS, iPadOS, and tvOS. The new iOS and iPadOS updates address 42 CVEs and adding new features including Apple Music Voice Plan, “App Privacy Report” and new “communication safety” settings intended to notify parents when their children receive or send photos that contain nudity.
  3. 3. Mozilla Patches High-Severity Vulnerabilities in Firefox, Thunderbird
    Mozilla this week released security updates for the Firefox browser and Thunderbird mail client to address multiple vulnerabilities, including several bugs.
  4. 4. Google pushes emergency Chrome update to fix zero-day used in attacks
    As part of its Chrome 96.0.4664.110 release for Linux, Mac, and Windows, Google has issued a fix to address a high-severity use-after-free vulnerability (CVE-2021-4102) affecting the Google Chrome V8 JavaScript engine that has already been actively exploited in the wild.
  5. 5. ‘Karakurt’ Extortion Threat Emerges, But Says No to Ransomware
    Researchers say the financially motivated "Karakurt" threat group, which is focused on data exfiltration and follow-up extortion, has already targeted some 40 victims since September 2021 but has shown no interest in deploying ransomware on targeted systems or taking high-profile targets down. Rather than deploying Cobalt Strike, the group "persisted within the victim's network via the VPN IP pool or installed AnyDesk to allow external remote access to compromised devices. Threat group claims that it "… do[es] not try to harm your processes, delete your data, destroy your business, at least until you yourself give us a reason.”
  6. 6. China continues to exploit US universities to bolster military modernization: Report
    The Foundation for Defense of Democracies released a report asserting that China is exploiting its existing relationship with U.S. universities to steal sensitive data and technology that it will ultimately use to "achieve military dominance." China operates more than 200 talent recruitment plans, the most prominent of which is the Thousand Talents Plan (TTP) established in 2008.
  7. 7. University Targeted Credential Phishing Campaigns Use COVID-19, Omicron Themes
    Proofpoint observed COVID-19 themes impacting education institutions throughout the pandemic, but consistent, targeted credential theft campaigns using such lures targeting universities began in October 2021. Following the announcement of the new Omicron variant in late November, the threat actors began leveraging the new variant in credential theft campaigns.

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